Ken McClure - Resurrection

Dewar returned to the Scottish Office and called London. It was ten past nine. He drummed his fingertips on the desk while he waited for Macmillan to come on line.

‘Sorry about that. I’ve just been talking to Geneva on another line,’ said Macmillan. This was followed by a pause that made Dewar expect the worst. He wasn’t disappointed.

‘The vaccine’s not coming,’ said Macmillan.

Dewar felt as if time had suddenly stopped. He tried convincing himself he had misheard what Macmillan had said but it had been plain enough. ‘You’re can’t be serious,’ he said.

‘I’m afraid I am,’ confessed Macmillan quietly. ‘The WHO acted on your earlier report that the Iraqis were making serious attempts to get their hands on live smallpox virus. At a joint meeting with a UN advisory body, they acceded to an Israeli request for stocks of vaccine to be administered as a precaution. It’s all been used.’

‘Jesus Christ, where does that leave us?’

‘They’ve been frantically trying to locate other stocks; that’s why they’ve been playing hard to get.’

‘How’d they get on?’ asked Dewar sourly.

‘They’ve come up with some but it’s in the United States. It’s going to take three, maybe four days to reach you.’

‘We don’t have that; there were seven new cases last night. We can expect many times that today.’

‘I’m sorry. Everyone’s doing their best. WHO have instructed the National Institute at Bilthoven in the Netherlands to recommence vaccine production. They hold the vaccinia seed virus. They’ll be up and running within two weeks.’

Dewar’s impulse was to say something rude but he stopped himself. It wouldn’t have done any good and his silence proved just as eloquent.

‘I know, Adam, it’s a bloody mess but we’ll just have to get on with it. Any luck with the source of the outbreak?’

‘None at all.’

‘Keep trying.’

People had arrived for the meeting when Dewar went downstairs. Mary Martin congratulated him on his success at The Bell. ‘We didn’t have any luck there at all.’

‘I just bumped into the right person,’ said Dewar. He still felt numb at the news from London.

Wright read the worried look on his face and came over. ‘Something wrong?’ he asked in a whisper.

‘There won’t be any vaccine for three, maybe four more days, maybe even longer the way our luck’s going,’ Dewar whispered.

‘Christ Almighty. What the fuck are they playing at?’ hissed Wright.

Dewar told him about the stocks being used. Wright rubbed his forehead as if completely bemused by the fickleness of fate.

‘I think we’re all here,’ announced Finlay, bringing the meeting to order. ‘I think everyone knows we now have nine cases in total and can expect more today; the fear is, many more. We’ll be admitting new cases to one of the unused wards at the Western and a second is being prepared. As Dr Wright pointed out earlier, they’re not ideal but needs must when the devil drives. The works department have done their best to partition them and install extra sinks and drainage and we’ve managed to find enough vaccinated nurses to staff them.

‘What about medical equipment?’ asked Cameron Tulloch.

‘Truth is, we don’t need much in the way of equipment for this disease. There’s very little we can do except keep the patients as comfortable as possible and hope for the best.’

‘What about the contacts? Are they staying there too?’

‘There are too many. Contacts will be traced as quickly as Mary and her people can find them and confined to their homes with Social Services support. I think we have to be realistic in recognising that not all of them are going to comply but if the majority do, that’s probably as much as we can hope for.’

‘As of this morning, the vaccine still hasn’t arrived,’ announced Mary Martin, her voice filled with exasperation. ‘I can’t get any sense out of London. We’re trying to fight the spread of this disease with our hands tied behind our backs.’

‘The WHO vaccine isn’t coming, Mary,’ said Dewar quietly and evenly.

The comment brought an instant silence to the room. People looked at each other and then to Dewar for an explanation.

‘The WHO have used up their stocks,’ he said. ‘They’ve been trying to find an alternative source for us; that’s what the hold-up’s been. They’ve found one in the States but it won’t be here for another three days at least. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the plain awful truth of the matter.’

Wright took advantage of the fact that most people were stunned by what Dewar had announced. He said, ‘That being the case, we now have only one chance of containing the disease and that is to physically isolate it. We must act now to close off Muirhouse from the rest of the city.’

‘I agree,’ said Dewar emphatically. ‘We can’t let smallpox go on the rampage in a largely unvaccinated community.’

‘But sealing off the area would be an enormous undertaking,’ protested Rankin, the Scottish Office man.

‘Do you know how many people live there? How many streets in and out there are?’ asked Mary Martin. ‘People living there already feel a sense of injustice. There would be a revolt.’

‘It’s either that or a full scale smallpox epidemic,’ said Wright. ‘And believe me, everything you’ve said is preferable to that. If it means calling in the army then do it. If it means putting down riots with guns, do it, but we must contain the outbreak.’

‘I don’t think it need come to that,’ said Cameron Tulloch. ‘If things are handled properly.’

‘What the hell did the WHO do with the vaccine?’ asked a stunned and angry Finlay.

‘They sent it to the Middle East. There was a scare,’ said Dewar, without volunteering any more information.

‘There must be another way of dealing with this,’ said Finlay.

‘There isn’t,’ said Wright.

‘But what would we tell the people concerned?’ said Finlay.

‘The truth,’ said Dewar, who’d been thinking about that very question. ‘We use the media to come clean and tell the citizens there’s been an outbreak of smallpox and that we’re trying to contain it. We ask for their help and co-operation.’

‘I agree with that,’ said Tulloch. ‘It would be lunacy to even contemplate sealing off the area without giving people a reason. They would start making up their own reasons and the rumours would be worse than the reality.

‘We’d be kidding ourselves on if we imagined that no one was going to try to leave but with a bit of luck we might persuade the majority to stay put,’ said Dewar.

‘You probably don’t have the manpower to supervise such an operation, Superintendent?’ said Finlay.

Tulloch bristled ‘I’ve been highly trained in civil unrest situations,’ he said. ‘I think my men and I will manage.

’In that case it might be a good idea to start off with a minimal police presence to get a feeling for the mood,’ said Wright.

Dewar nodded his agreement. ‘The police are accepted as part of the community, whether they’re liked or not, but when they appear in large numbers with helmets and shields it’s a different matter. They could be invaders from a different planet.’

‘I also think we should call in the military if there should be any sign of general unrest,’ said Wright. ‘We don’t want a slowly escalating series running battles on the streets with police. We just want to contain the population within the confines of the area until they’re vaccinated.’

‘That may be your priority,’ said Tulloch. ‘It’s our responsibility as a police force to maintain law and order within the area whatever the circumstances. I’ve no intention of sitting back and watching the yobs take over. We owe it to the law abiding citizens.’