Ken McClure - Pandora's Helix

There was a pause before Clelland took his cue from Neef’s disappointment. “Leave it with me; I’ll see what I can do.”

‘Thanks Mark. I’ll owe you one.”

Neef’s thoughts strayed back to Neil Benson; he was losing his battle for life and the prospect of his death filled him with dismay. In spite of his constant professional denials, Neil was as special to him as he was to Eve. He was only a little boy but he was a symbol of courage in the human spirit. He deserved to win his battle not lose it. But he was going to die and it seemed so unfair, the sort of injustice that came dangerously close to making him lose heart for the struggle. Neef saw the danger in this line of thought and broadened his horizon. Neil wasn’t the only one on the danger list who needed consideration; the four kids on the Menogen trial who hadn’t responded to Gene Therapy were also fading.

This last thought made him wonder why? It seemed strange that Thomas Downy had done so well on the new treatment when the others had done so badly. It was almost as if four of the five had received no therapy at all... Neef felt a thin film of cold sweat break out on his brow as an awful thought crossed his mind. There had been a difference in their treatments! Thomas Downy had been treated with a back-up supply of vector because of the accident in theatre with the original vial. All the other children had received the original preparations... the ones taken away and tested by David Farro-Jones!

Neef tried putting his suspicions down to paranoia brought on by stress but they persisted. If Farro-Jones had really wanted to discredit Menogen he could easily have done so by making sure their vectors wouldn’t work. He could have inactivated them while ostensibly he had been screening them for safety... “At my request!” though Neef, putting his head in his hands. If the nurse hadn’t dropped Thomas Downy’s vial in theatre there would have been no need to use the back-up vial from Pharmacy and there would have been five failures out of five!

Neef hesitated about what to do. Should he think about this a bit longer, maybe discuss it with someone? Or should he jump right in and act on instinct? His earlier conversation with Max Pereira swung things in favour of the latter. He called in Lawrence Fielding.

“I’m putting our four failures back on the Gene Therapy trial,” he said.

“You’re what?” exclaimed Fielding.

“I want you to fix up theatre bookings as soon as possible. We’re going to start all over again using the back-up vials from Pharmacy.”

“But why?” asked a bemused Fielding. “What’s going to be different this time?”

“I think there was something wrong with the vials the first time,” said Neef.

“What exactly?” asked Fielding.

“I’m not sure but we had to use a back-up vial on Thomas and it worked.”

Fielding looked doubtful. “I hope you know what you are doing,” he said. “Any results obtained will be invalid because of the digression from agreed protocol. You won’t be able to publish the results.”

“I don’t give a damn about publication,” said Neef. “I want the kids to have a chance.”

“Yes sir.”

“What a perfectly bloody awful day,” sighed Neef as he rested his head on Eve’s shoulder as they sat together on the couch in her flat. “I talked to Max about your Farro-Jones idea.”

“And?”

“He wasn’t in the least surprised. He seemed to think it would be typical of the man.”

“So?”

“How could I have been so wrong about him?” said Neef.

“It can happen to the best of us,” said Eve.

“I keep thinking about the damage he could have done.”

“To Menogen?”

“Not just that. I keep wondering just how far he was prepared to go to discredit Menogen.” Neef told Eve about his suspicions over the vials for the trial.

“Do you really think he would do that?” exclaimed Eve, her voice betraying disbelief.

“I don’t know what to believe,” confessed Neef. “Having been so wrong about him once it’s difficult for me to judge.”

“We don’t know that you were wrong,” Eve reminded him. “It was just an idea.”

“It’s one that I feel obliged to follow up after talking to Max,” said Neef. “And I don’t like where it’s taking me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I keep wondering whether or not he would be prepared to interfere with the Public Health investigation to stop them finding out the real truth about the cancer outbreak.”

“How so?”

“He was the one I told about Eddie Miller’s assertion that there had been an earlier case than Melanie.”

“So?”

“The next morning Eddie had an accident and was dead before I could ask him any questions.”

“Surely you are not suggesting that...”

Neef held up his hands. “I don’t know,” he said. “I just know that it happened that way and then it was David who checked Eddie’s records and said there was nothing to worry about.”

“I can see him leaking a simple story to the papers to show Menogen in a bad light but to go to these lengths just doesn’t seem real somehow,” said Eve.

“Agreed,” said Neef. “If it’s true, it suggests that he wasn’t just out to damage Menogen. There was a completely different reason for his behaviour, something we haven’t even considered.”

The two of them sat in silence for a while until Eve broke it. “Are you absolutely sure Eddie Miller didn’t mention this first patient’s name at any time?” she asked.

“Not absolutely sure,” conceded Neef. “He was very drunk and his speech was slurred. His whole assertion took me so much by surprise that it threw me at the time. I know I asked him a number of times for a name but he always seemed to wander off at a tangent.”

“What else did you ask him?”

“Lots of things,” said Neef. “I asked him when he’d seen the ‘real’ first patient. He claimed it was a few weeks before Melanie. I kept pressing him for details but all I got out of him was that she was a girl about the same age as Melanie.”

“Nothing else?” asked Eve.

Neef shook his head as he tried hard to remember. “I asked him why he didn’t report it at the time.”

“And?”

“He gave me a lecture about telling people what they wanted to hear. He said this was the way to a quiet life. He said that someone didn’t want the tumours reported so he didn’t report them.”

“As simple as that?”

“He made it sound that way. He said the little kid was dead anyway. What did it matter? Making out a report wasn’t going to bring her back.”

“The little kid,” repeated Eve. “Were these his exact words?”

“As far as I remember. Why?”

“We are talking about a girl of thirteen or fourteen. Right?”

“Yes, I suppose so. What are you getting at?”

“Not so ‘little’ wouldn’t you say?”

Neef thought about this in silence then sat up with a start. “You’re right!” he exclaimed. “Eddie didn’t say the little kid, he said the Little kid. Little was her surname!”

“Well, what d’you know,” said Eve.

“If it’s true,” said Neef.

“Let’s be positive,” urged Eve. “Where do we go from here?”

“We’ll have to think about that,” said Neef. “Knowing the girl’s name would enable us to make enquiries but it’s odds on that her file has been removed. It would just alert people to what we were up to. We need another way.”

“But not tonight,” said Eve. “It’s late.”

Neef looked up at her and pulled her mouth down gently on his.

“No, not tonight,” he agreed.

“First, call the hospital. Find out how Neil is.”

Neef made the call.