Sean Black - Lockdown

Stafford got back on the Tannoy. ‘Shouldn’t you use the syringe that’s already filled, Dr Hulme?’

Richard picked up the syringe intended for Lock and pressed the needle into the man’s arm. The man closed his eyes with a look of serenity worthy of a junkie. Maybe he was dreaming of all those virgins, Lock thought.

Richard pressed down on the plunger, emptied the contents of the barrel, withdrew the needle from the man’s arm and swabbed it down again.

The man’s eyes opened. A look of vague disappointment crossed his face.

‘Now Lock,’ Stafford ordered.

Richard opened the cooler again, broke out a fresh syringe from its pack and filled it with a batch of live vaccine.

A thin film of sweat settled on Lock’s palms. His mouth was dry and tasted of copper.

On the other side of the screen, Stafford’s face remained neutral. ‘Just think, Lock. You’re making history here.’

Lock flipped him the bird for a second time. This time he meant it.

Preparations complete, Lock stared stoically at the ceiling. The last thing he wanted to see of this world was Stafford’s smug features.

The jab of the needle barely registered against the background of pain his body was already experiencing on an ongoing basis. He felt a warm sensation spreading across his forearm. Too late now to do anything, except wait. He’d thought about sticking to the original plan and feigning a fit, but Stafford wouldn’t buy it, even if everyone else did. Plus, he didn’t rate his acting skills.

The next thing he knew Richard was dabbing at the puncture point, a tiny blush of blood spreading across the swab. Richard secured it with some surgical tape.

‘How do you feel?’ Richard asked him.

‘As bad as I did before.’

‘OK, contestant number three,’ Stafford said, with all the gaiety of a gameshow host.

‘What happens now?’ Lock asked Richard.

‘We give it twenty-four hours and then you’re exposed to the live agent.’

‘And then?’

‘We wait to see if the vaccine’s effective,’ said Richard.

‘And if it’s not?’

Richard broke eye contact. ‘You’ll die.’

The procession of trial subjects took over an hour to work through. Led in two by two, to save time, most of them proved compliant. Some less so. In one case, a lot less so: subject number eleven laid out one of the guards cold with a devastating head butt, the default method of attack for someone whose arms and legs are bound. Richard had to inject the man in the leg. None of the subjects showed any reaction to the vaccine.

When it was over, Richard joined Stafford in the observation room.

‘Good job.’

‘A charge nurse could have done that,’ said Richard, stepping out of his bio-safety suit.

‘They could have, but it’s important that you feel part of the team,’ Stafford said.

This hadn’t occurred to Richard until now. By making him perform the menial task of actually injecting the trial subjects, he was complicit. He’d breached their human rights as much as anyone else. He could claim duress, but what had Meditech done bar ‘rescue’ Josh from the animal rights people and then keep him safe? Any claims he made would now look like special pleading. Stafford had played his hand beautifully.

‘Don’t look so downcast, Richard,’ Stafford went on. ‘If this does work, think of the lives that could be saved.’

‘And the money you’ll make.’

‘The money we’ll make. This is a collaborative venture, which is why we all have share options.’

‘Am I done here?’ Richard asked. ‘For the time being.’

Richard walked back, unescorted, to see Josh. There was a tangible air of relief to the place now. A collective tension that had built in the lead-up to the initiation of the trial seemed to have dissipated. Even the guards, who’d been hyper-vigilant bordering on trigger-happy since the incident with Brand, appeared to have taken it down a notch. One of them even managed a mumbled acknowledgement as Richard passed.

Maybe it would all turn out OK, he told himself. If the vaccine worked, Stafford would be appeased. Richard could leave. Forget it ever happened.

Clinging to those thoughts, he opened the door into his room. Josh was snuggled under the duvet. He sat on the edge of the bed and reached out a hand to stroke his son’s head.

But his fingers found only pillow. Frantically, he pulled it out, tossing the duvet on to the floor at the same time.

The bed was empty.

A light above the bed spotlighted Mareta. Beyond that was semi-darkness. The guard detailed to look after her was gone. From what she’d noticed of his breath and the pallor of his skin she guessed that he’d stepped outside for a cigarette.

But she wasn’t alone. Next to the bed, Josh perched on a seat.

‘What happened to your leg?’ he asked. ‘I mean, what really happened?’

‘A man shot me.’

Josh didn’t react. ‘That’s what I thought. Why’d he shoot you?’

‘To save himself.’ She paused. ‘And perhaps to save me.’

Josh’s brow creased as he tried to follow the logic and came up blank. ‘Do you get bored lying here all the time?’

‘Very,’ Mareta said.

‘Me too.’

Mareta turned her head and smiled at him. ‘Maybe we could play a game.’

Richard rushed from the accommodation block, a guard at his side struggling to keep up.

‘Don’t worry, Dr Hulme, we’ll find him. He probably just wandered off.’

Richard spotted Stafford getting into his car. He raced over to him. The guard stepped between them.

‘What have you done with him?’ Richard demanded.

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘Josh has gone.’

‘This game sounds difficult,’ Josh said, counting off the things he had to do on the fingers of one hand.

‘I thought you were good at games?’

‘I am.’

‘OK, so prove it to me.’

Josh’s chin jutted out. ‘OK then, I will.’

‘So I’ll count to two hundred,’ Mareta said, and closed her eyes.

‘A thousand.’

‘OK, a thousand. One. Two. Three. .’

Josh turned and ran out of the room.

Having reassured Richard that he’d help with the search for Josh, Stafford ducked into his car and put in a call to his father. ‘It’s going like a dream,’ he told him.

‘Stage one’s complete?’

‘Vaccine’s eliciting no adverse reactions so far.’

‘It didn’t in the animals either,’ Nicholas Van Straten said coolly.

‘But it’s been tweaked since then.’

‘What about Brand?’

‘What about him?’

‘You think word wouldn’t reach me, Stafford?’

‘We had a security situation. It’s been resolved now.’

‘Let’s make sure we keep it that way. I’ve been catching a world of shit from the media over this footage.’

‘What footage?’

Josh had been on scavenger hunts before, but not ones where he’d had to try not to be seen. It was hard. Especially as there were so many people rushing around. The good thing was that he only really had to find one item, although how he was going to get to it he didn’t know. All he could do was try his best.

As he ducked into a recess in the corridor, one of the guards passed him. He had it, right there on his belt. That was no good. He had to find someone who didn’t have it on their belt. He knew where the guards slept when they weren’t on duty. Missy had shown him when he’d first arrived. Maybe he could try there.

The guard stubbed out his cigarette as the man in the white lab coat ran towards him. One of the science guys, a pretty senior one if he remembered rightly.