Ken McClure: White death

‘Possible I suppose but from what you’ve told me the symptoms exhibited by the victims are nothing like TB. Tuberculosis is primarily a disease of the lungs, a chest infection.’

‘You’re right,’ sighed Steven.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Steven offered to get Tally more coffee.

‘I’d rather not,’ she said. ‘Have you made any progress with the codes Linda Haldane found?’

Steven shook his head. ‘Not yet.’ He brought out a copy and handed it to Tally.

‘I see what you mean,’ she said. ‘Not exactly obvious… By the way, there was one thing I meant to mention to you. On the two occasions you’ve been attacked your assailants picked you up at my place.’

‘I was aware of that.’

‘On both occasions you had just paid a visit to St Clair Genomics.’

Steven gave this some thought. ‘The first time I was driving the Porsche. I signed in at Reception and entered my registration number in the visitor book… The second time was on a Saturday morning when St Clair was the only person there. He was expecting me: I’d called the day before. I didn’t sign in but the Honda was the only car in the car park apart from St Clair’s. Someone could have bugged it while I was inside talking to him…’

‘Just a thought,’ said Tally.

‘And a good one. So why would St Clair Genomics want me dead?’ mused Steven. ‘I only know what they and the government told me.’

‘Maybe they thought you might find out what you’ve just told me about the infectious nature of the agent,’ suggested Tally. ‘That they were lying about problems on the production line and that there really is an issue with the vaccine itself. It has the capacity to kill people?’

‘And they of course would stand to lose millions from cancelled government contracts,’ completed Steven. ‘That makes sense but why did they think I would find out?’

Steven slapped his palm against his forehead as the answer came to him. ‘Because of my interest in Scott Haldane,’ he exclaimed. ‘I asked St Clair twice if the name Scott Haldane meant anything to him and he said no. He was lying. Rumours of what Haldane was saying must have got back to the company.’

‘St Clair must have thought you were getting too close to finding out what Haldane knew,’ said Tally.

Steven nodded. ‘That’s why they killed him. A GP, working in an ordinary practice in Edinburgh, figured out there was a major problem with the vaccine the kids had been given and maybe even what it was. He’d been told the kids had been given BCG but somehow he suspected different…’

‘I guess it’ll become clear when we crack the code,’ said Tally.

‘If Scott Haldane worked out what was wrong with the green sticker children then it’s odds on that Alan Nichol, the designer of the vaccine, must have worked it out too. He must have wanted to blow the whistle but his employer didn’t agree.’

‘So they came up with the toxin story to hide the real truth and murdered him when he wouldn’t go along with it.’

‘It’s just a question now of how many snouts are in the trough,’ said Steven thoughtfully.

‘You can’t think the government people knew about this?’ exclaimed Tally. ‘Now we know that it’s all about money.’

‘I’d like to think not,’ agreed Steven. ‘But we know there are individuals who at the very least collaborated in giving an untested vaccine to schoolchildren and finished up giving them an infectious disease which is now spreading to their families. That’s quite a skeleton to have in your cupboard.’

‘I’m certainly glad it isn’t in mine,’ said Tally. ‘I don’t know how they’re going to live with themselves.’

Steven took a moment to reflect and then said, ‘Of course, if they really still believe the toxin story that St Clair came up with and don’t know about the infectious nature of the vaccine, they won’t think they’ve done anything wrong. They’ll believe that their far-sightedness has led to the development of a new vaccine against TB which will shortly be going into production to protect the people. They’ll be expecting knighthoods and rounds of applause from a grateful nation.’

‘But the vaccine is infectious and dangerous,’ Tally protested.

‘We know that but we can’t prove it,’ said Steven. ‘The vaccine has been tested by umpteen labs and no infectious agent has ever been found in it. We know that Scott Haldane and Alan Nichol were murdered and we know why but we haven’t got the slightest shred of evidence.’

‘But the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming,’ said Tally.

‘People won’t hear what they don’t want to hear.’

‘But surely no one in their right mind could let vaccination go ahead when you tell them what you know,’ said Tally.

‘St Clair will stick to their story of a rogue toxin and those with reputations on the line will want to believe them.’

‘But you must stop them,’ exclaimed Tally. ‘Sci-Med must stop them. You have to make them believe what you say is true. John Macmillan will believe you surely?’

‘I think he will,’ agreed Steven. ‘But he’ll need conclusive proof too before he can do anything. No one on the government side is going to want to listen even if they think it might be true. They’ll play for time so that they can melt away into the background and become the anonymous faces of yesterday’s government machine, men spending more time with their families or growing grapes in France or writing biographies of past politicians in the autumn sunshine of Umbria. New faces will be left to deal with new emergencies. It’s always the way. One man starts a war, another has to finish it.’

‘My God, do you really believe that?’ asked Tally.

The look on Steven’s face gave her the answer.

‘Then you’ll have to crack Scott Haldane’s code and give them proof they can’t ignore.’

Steven’s response was to hurl himself across the table and topple Tally off her chair to bring both of them crashing to the ground.

Tally let out a scream but the sound was drowned out by the windows beside them shattering in a hail of automatic gunfire. Steven’s arm held her pinned to the floor, keeping them both huddled behind the brickwork along the base of the windows which stretched the entire length of the wall. The air was full of flying glass and splintered woodwork as bullets ripped into the serving areas. Trolleys jerked and bounced and overturned, display cases exploded and people cowered everywhere, seeking what cover they could, horror etched in their faces. Some screamed constantly, seeming only to pause for breath, others were struck dumb, their faces white as snow.

Everyone in the restaurant assumed that the service area was under terrorist attack but Steven knew differently. He had noticed two men enter the restaurant a few minutes before and look around casually as if seeking a missing colleague. The fact that one had examined only the right side of the restaurant while the other covered the left suggested to him that this had been agreed previously and that they just might be professionals looking for a target. The fact that Steven noticed one give the other an almost imperceptible nudge after making momentary eye contact with him confirmed it. He had carried on his conversation with Tally but had watched them leave and walk over to their car some fifty metres away to open the boot. When they both started to head back to the restaurant carrying overcoats over their arms he knew at once what they were concealing and that he and Tally were in big trouble. As soon as the first man dropped his raincoat to the ground to reveal the muzzle of an automatic assault weapon, Steven had dived across the table to bring both himself and Tally into the lee of the brick wall supporting the windows as the glass above them shattered.