Ken McClure - Crisis

Bannerman took a closer look and saw the rash of buff coloured nodules over the rabbit’s lungs. ‘I see what you mean.’

‘How can I help you, Doctor?’

‘Lawrence Gill inoculated some mice before he disappeared. I just wondered how they were getting on. They were up here if I remember rightly,’ said Bannerman, moving to where the relevant mice boxes were on his last visit. He brought down the first one and looked inside. In contrast to the last time when he had seen nothing but healthy animals the two mice inside had lost condition and had little sense of balance or coordination. It was the same story in the other two boxes.

‘How are they?’ asked Lorna Cullen, continuing with her post-mortem. The words were muffled by her protective mask.

‘Sick.’

‘What do you want done with them?’

‘Nothing. I’m going to check with the Neuro-biology Unit first to make sure they are prepared to receive samples, then either myself or Morag Napier will kill the animals and remove their brains.’

‘Something nasty?’ asked Lorna Cullen, using Bannerman’s own expression.

‘Very,’ replied Bannerman.

Bannerman phoned Morag Napier from upstairs. She sounded very subdued when she answered, saying, ‘I didn’t realize you were back.’

‘Last night,’ said Bannerman. ‘I’m sorry about Gill.’

‘He was a nice man,’ said Morag.

‘I’ve just been down to the animal lab,’ said Bannerman. The mice that Gill inoculated are looking very sick. I think they should be killed soon and brain samples sent to Hector Munro’s lab.’

‘Did you find out anything about the deaths while you were up north?’ asked Morag.

‘Very little, but I think the mice results will tell us for sure. I’m going to kill them tomorrow.’

‘Would you like me to do it?’ asked Morag.

‘Are you coming back soon?’ asked Bannerman.

‘I’ll be in tomorrow,’ said Morag.

‘Why don’t we both do it. We’ll be able to get the samples to Munro’s lab, by lunch-time and I thought we could make a few microscope preps for ourselves? If we see evidence of degenerative disease we’ll virtually have the answer. Munro’s people can fill in the technical details about incubation times and infectivity titres later.’

‘Very good,’ said Morag. ‘See you tomorrow.’

Bannerman called Milne at the Medical Research Council to say that he was back in Edinburgh and to give a progress report.

After initial pleasantries Milne asked Bannerman how the investigation was going.

‘Before he died Lawrence Gill inoculated some experimental mice with brain material taken from the three men who died. I’m going to kill them tomorrow, if they’re not already dead, and give the brains to Hector Munro for full Scrapie testing. That should prove beyond all doubt whether or not the men died of Scrapie and we can get started on characterizing the agent fully. The circumstantial evidence that Scrapie was involved is already overwhelming.’

‘Is there anything we can do at our end?’

‘You can arrange for radioactivity monitoring along the foreshore of Inverladdie Farm. I tried to do it myself but I ran into some opposition.’

‘Opposition?’

‘I was seen as a threat to jobs in the area.’

‘No violence I hope?’

‘A little,’ said Bannerman. ‘My car was vandalized and somebody took pot shots at me on the beach.’

‘Good God, Bannerman. You’ve had an exciting time.’

‘I managed to monitor the boundary ground between Inverladdie and the nuclear station and it was clear, but there is a chance that contamination came in from the sea further along the shore. If so, that might have caused the sheep virus to mutate.’

There has been no further incidence of brain disease in the area I take it?’

‘None,’ agreed Bannerman.

‘So there’s a chance that this may have been a single isolated incident which may never happen again,’ said Milne.

‘It’s possible,’ agreed Bannerman, thinking that it was also possible that the new virus had already been spread to every corner of the country and was waiting to infect new flocks before slipping through the food chain to the Sunday lunch tables of the land. He had a mental picture of a crow on the wing, its beak dripping with blood from the sheep carcass it had just gorged itself on.

‘I’ll ask Allison to brief the Health and Safety Executive. They’ll carry out a full inspection,’ said Milne.

‘What about Gill’s death?’ asked Bannerman.

‘Not much to report I’m afraid. I understand from Allison that the only lead they have is a description of the man who called at the post office in Cairnish pretending he was Gill, and it wasn’t particularly helpful.’

‘Not a one-legged Chinaman with a scar?’ said Bannerman.

‘Afraid not. Quite tall, medium build, fairish, good-looking, and the post mistress thought he had some kind of an accent but she couldn’t place it.’

‘As you say, not much to go on,’ agreed Bannerman.

‘What are your plans after tomorrow?’ asked Milne.

‘Once I’ve got the brain samples off to Munro and done the microscopy I’ll return to London and get back to work at the hospital while we wait for the results.’

‘We’re very grateful to you Doctor,’ said Milne.

‘What is Mr Allison saying to all this?’ asked Bannerman.

‘I think the official line is to treat this whole affair as an isolated incident.’

‘It’s a bit early to conclude that,’ said Bannerman. ‘And if it should turn out that the men died of Scrapie, we will have to face up to the fact that the disease can pass to man.’

‘Mr Allison and his colleagues are taking the view that if a mutated Scrapie virus is to blame then it is no longer a Scrapie virus.’

That is outrageous!’ said Bannerman.

‘I think we must be positive Doctor, not alarmist. You said yourself that Scrapie has been around for a long time. If it had caused trouble before we would have been aware of it.’

‘Not necessarily,’ argued Bannerman. The reason you were carrying out the brain disease survey in the first place was because we have no real idea of its incidence in the population. A few deaths here and there don’t get noticed. It’s only when you know what you are looking for that things become clear.’

‘I don’t think we can realistically destroy our farming industry on the basis of a few unclassified deaths here and there which may or may not have been due to infected animals. Do you?’ asked Milne.

‘I don’t think we should cover it up either,’ said Bannerman.

Milne said, ‘Mr Allison has assured me that generous government funds will be made immediately available to investigate brain disease in the population.’

‘Right after you tell them what they want to hear,’ mumbled Bannerman under his breath.

‘Pardon? I didn’t quite catch that,’ said Milne.

‘It wasn’t important,’ said Bannerman with resignation.

‘Perhaps you would like to apply for an MRC project grant for your own department to carry out some of the work?’ said Milne.

Bannerman closed his eyes and kept rein on his tongue. ‘Perhaps,’ he said and put down the phone.

Bannerman was still in a bad mood when Shona arrived back at the apartment early evening.

‘Bad day?’ she asked, noticing Bannerman’s preoccupation.

‘You could say that,’ he smiled. ‘How about you?’

‘Oh, so-so,’ said Shona. ‘I seem to have spent most of my day listening to former friends speak of nothing but babies and mortgages and what Roger or Harry likes for his tea. They used to be interesting people!’ complained Shona. ‘Whatever happened to them?’,