The Barrier

by Shankari Chandran

  *

  ‘What the fuck was that about, sir – if you don’t mind me asking?’ Crawford hollered from the back seat. Vijay inched the car through the opening carved by the soldiers. He locked their doors and picked up speed.

  ‘Chief?’

  ‘I heard you. I forgot how much I hate Sri Lanka. I don’t know. I’m sorry.’ He didn’t know what had come over him.

  ‘No need to apologise, sir. Next time we’ll help.’ Garner’s hand was still clenched around her weapon.

  Chapter 11

  They checked in to their hotel to the muttered complaints of Crawford. It was a small house, converted into a simple pensione. The manager was used to Western Alliance delegations and rewarded well for his discretion.

  After a thorough sweep of their rooms for devices and a quick shower, they were ready for the meeting.

  ‘Remember, only the president and his brother know we’re Bio. For the purposes of this meeting and all other contact, we are a WHO delegation. I won’t get Khan to trust me any other way.’

  ‘Understood, sir,’ Crawford replied. ‘My clipboard is armed but not dangerous. I still think we should have gone with the big pharma cover story – their people get unlimited expense accounts and the Cinnamon Grand instead of this dump.’

  ‘This dump is where the WHO usually stays. A team from a previous mission has wired a security system into the hotel boundary. Cameras and perimeter alarms. You can tap into that – it’s not the Cinnamon Grand but it’ll be safe.’ He looked into Garner’s eyes as he lied. He owed her that.

  Noah and the team made their way to Government House where they sat in the air-conditioned boardroom, waiting. An hour later, the door finally opened and people filed in: President Rajasuriya; his younger brother General Rajasuriya, the Chief Minister for Defence; his brother-in-law, the Minister for Health; and their various undersecretaries.

  The Rajasuriya brothers initially bore little resemblance to each other. The general was tall and broad-shouldered. Despite his age, he still did combat training every day. He was a clever, violent pragmatist for whom war was just an effective strategy. He didn’t enjoy it, but he had never shied away from it.

  On closer inspection, Noah realised the president had facial features in common with his brother, but they had blurred, through excess. He carried too much weight around the belly, which he tried to hide underneath a long white cotton shirt and a gold-trimmed silk sarong. Around his neck he wore a magenta scarf, woven in the region of Sri Lanka where he was born. It was supposed to represent his humble origins.

  The last man to enter the room was Dr Khan, who seemed to have come straight from his laboratory. His grey curls fell into his eyes. He kept pushing them back impatiently and adjusting the glasses that slipped down his nose every time he moved. He looked older than the last surveillance photographs. Thinner too, his lab coat flapping around him. He tucked his shirt into his trousers as the others assembled.

  ‘I’m sorry to trouble you so late,’ Noah began. ‘We need to start work early tomorrow.’

  ‘Nonsense, we must apologise. This is obviously a matter of urgency. I’m sorry we kept you waiting.’ The president held on to Noah’s hand, his voice devoid of contrition.

  ‘General Rajasuriya,’ President Rajasuriya addressed his brother formally. ‘Perhaps you’d like to talk us through what you’ve done to contain the outbreak. I’m sure our WHO colleagues here have read our daily briefings, but an overview would be helpful.’

  ‘Thank you, Mr President,’ Noah nodded.

  ‘Yes, thank you, Mr President.’ The general cleared his throat and straightened his heavy uniform as he spoke.

  ‘Eight dead: five babies and three grandparents who hadn’t done their boosters on time. We believe that the babies are our Patients Zero. Fortunately, because of their vulnerable condition they were isolated from people other than their families and hospital staff.’

  Noah looked up from his notes. ‘The perimeter, sir? I see that you’ve implemented a Lockdown Protocol Level 1. You achieved that within thirty-three minutes of the first detection.’

  ‘Of course, Dr Williams,’ the general replied. ‘We locked down the hospital four minutes after detection and the country in thirty-three minutes. Only WHO personnel are currently allowed to enter Sri Lanka and no one is allowed to leave. The national border is easier to patrol than the city border, but you would have noticed the heightened military presence on the roads.’

  ‘Yes, we saw that. And the victims?’

  ‘The victims were quarantined in a special ward and their bodies cremated at an off-site facility.’

  The government had many off-site facilities.

  ‘Thank you, General. What have you told the public about the lockdown?’ Noah asked.

  ‘We said we’ve had an outbreak of cholera – it worries people but it doesn’t create widespread panic.’

  ‘After Ebola, cholera seems like a bad case of the runs,’ Noah replied.

  ‘That’s right. We can’t afford to have people storming the city boundaries until we are one hundred percent positive we’ve traced all contact. We’ve assumed a radius of at least three levels. So we’ve extracted the parents, their families and the families of the hospital employees. They’ve been cleared by the scanners but we are still watching them.’

  ‘They don’t have the virus.’ Khan finally spoke, squinting directly at Noah. He rubbed his left temple and then self-consciously dropped his hand.

  ‘How can you be so sure, Dr Khan?’ Noah asked.

  ‘Amir, call me Amir.’ He took his glasses off and wiped them with a handkerchief from his pocket. He put them back on and his eyes relaxed. ‘Much better. You’re a handsome man for a scientist.’

  Noah laughed.

  ‘He gets that a lot,’ Crawford said.

  ‘Thank you, Amir. Again, how can you be so sure the contact radius isn’t infected?’

  ‘Because the scanners never lie, Noah, you know that.’ He looked at him closely. ‘And the virus is too deadly. It killed all its hosts before it had a chance to spread. There is always a trade-off between virulence and infectivity. You know that too.’

  ‘So you’re saying we were lucky?’ Noah asked.

  ‘There’s nothing lucky about haemorrhagic fever, although I suppose it was merciful that it was so virulent. It was over quickly. We barely had time to administer supportive care and in the end opted for intensive palliative care.’

  Noah knew about futile supportive care and intensive palliative care.

  ‘What I’m saying, Noah, is that we were able to avoid a larger outbreak, partly because General Rajasuriya is outstanding at his job, and partly because the virus is outstanding at its job.’

  ‘Ebola doesn’t have a job, Dr Khan,’ Noah replied sharply.

  ‘Of course it does, all disease does. The virus was so successful it was self-devouring; a little like us really.’

  ‘Ebola and us – similar, sir?’ Noah repeated.

  ‘We have more in common with the virus than we care to admit.’ Khan rubbed his temple again.

  Noah didn’t know how to respond.

  ‘Thank you, Dr Khan – I think,’ replied General Rajasuriya. ‘The real question is, of course, how did those babies get infected in the first place? The autopsy revealed that they contracted it at the same time as each other. Transfer had to have taken place through the medical staff – fluid contact. Fortunately it’s not airborne.’ He looked at Khan for confirmation.

  The old man nodded. ‘Correct, but it still spreads easily. This Ebola strain was infectious before the symptoms appeared.’

  ‘Like the strains that moved into North Africa during the Great Pandemic . . .’ Noah said.

  ‘That’s right – when the West African Ebola and a local bat flu combined in 2021 the new virus was far superior to the original because it became infectious before its symptoms appeared and before patients could be isolated. It was incredible . . .’

  ‘Like your
hospital outbreak,’ Noah pulled Khan back to the present.

  ‘Yes, yes – staff only realised what we were dealing with at 9.30 am when the oldest baby in the ICU ward, Karthik, had his pre-immunisation scan. By that time it had spread but the babies were still completely asymptomatic.

  ‘Four hours later, all babies presented with a fever at the same time, followed by vomiting. We couldn’t save them, although we tried a number of aggressive treatments. It was also too late to contain the virus. The babies had already come into fluid contact with their parents, grandparents and medical staff.’

  President Rajasuriya cleared his throat and spoke, his accent and diction almost identical to his brother’s. ‘Our military, led by the general, locked the hospital, city and country down, as soon as we knew. The information cascade worked efficiently, even though we haven’t used it since . . . since it was established fifteen years ago.’

  ‘No, but we do drills every month. One can’t be over-prepared for an outbreak,’ the general responded.

  ‘True, and you were highly prepared, General. The WHO commends your efforts at successfully containing this outbreak and minimising the loss of life.’

  ‘Thank you, Dr Williams. We appreciate the WHO’s continued support and ongoing public education efforts.’

  ‘Of course.’ Khan looked directly at Noah, all traces of his squint and headache gone. ‘That still doesn’t answer the question that was posed at the beginning before we all started congratulating ourselves. How did the outbreak begin in one of the most sterile wards in the hospital; in one of the most hygienic places in the country?’

  ‘You are quite right, Dr – Amir. Have you any thoughts on the initial contamination?’ Noah asked.

  ‘No.’ Khan shook his head. ‘There’s a lot of scientific literature about the cyclical nature of Ebola. According to the prevailing guesswork, Ebola may mutate and emerge from time to time in a life cycle that we can’t understand or predict yet. Hence we are urged to dutifully and pre-emptively vaccinate our children and take our boosters. I’m not convinced about that theory but here we are, with an outbreak of Ebola. It mystifies me, which doesn’t happen often. I took a sample of the live virus –’

  ‘You did what?’ Noah interrupted. All eyes in the room suddenly turned to Khan.

  ‘I’m sure what the doctor means is . . .’ the general tried to assist Khan.

  ‘Don’t worry, General. I haven’t violated national and international law. I am well aware of the WHO framework on the handling of a suspected or actual Ebola virus,’ Khan replied. Too quickly, too calmly, Noah thought.

  ‘I harvested a sample of the live virus and transfected tissue culture with it. It consumed and killed the culture faster than I could study it, despite my best efforts.’ He sighed.

  ‘It closely resembled Ebola Strain 47 but it operated differently. It had improved itself. The virus was fulfilling its genetic potential.’

  ‘You seem impressed,’ Noah said.

  ‘I’m a virologist.’

  ‘Yes, you are – an exceptional one. You must have a theory. Surely the most likely suspect is one of the nurses who was on duty and had access to all four children.’

  ‘Indeed, Dr Williams,’ the general replied. ‘We are exploring that line of investigation at the moment.’

  ‘Five children . . .’ Khan mumbled.

  ‘Sir?’ Noah said.

  ‘Five children were infected and five children – babies – died.’ Khan spoke louder. ‘Of course we considered that the babies weren’t the Patients Zero. We traced all hospital staff and family members who had been in contact with the children since birth. The staff were predictably and reassuringly clean – as health professionals they undergo regular Haema Scans and take the booster at shorter intervals than others. The family members – the grandparents – all presented with the virus at an earlier stage of incubation. That is to say, they were infected later.’

  ‘I know what you mean,’ Noah said.

  ‘Of course, you are a virologist too. And yet we all struggle to explain how such a virus came to exist in Colombo General Hospital. We struggle to identify how, but I think for the families of the dead, the real question will be why. Why were their children – and not someone else’s – chosen to die?’

  ‘There is no why, Dr Khan. It was utterly random,’ Noah replied. These things happen, his mother said when his father died. It is God’s will, she said, when his daughter died.

  God’s fucking will.

  ‘I’m sorry to hear you say that, Noah. You are a man of science and for us men – and women – of science,’ Khan nodded politely at Garner, ‘there is always a why. Or there is always a search for the why, in here.’ Khan clenched his hand into a fist. It hovered in front of his chest and then relaxed and tapped the side of his head. His left temple where Noah suspected his headache had been.

  ‘Thank you, Dr Khan,’ President Rajasuriya intervened. ‘Perhaps you can discuss the philosophical underpinnings of science with Dr Williams later. He’s here to supervise the lockdown and ensure that we have traced contact properly.’

  ‘Hardly, Mr President. I think you and the general have that all in hand. If Dr Khan doesn’t mind, I’d like to join his team and help investigate where this virus might have come from in the first place. Now that the immediate threat of contamination has been removed, our priority is to locate the genesis of the virus and ensure it doesn’t happen again – here or anywhere else.’

  ‘I’m sure I speak for Dr Khan and all of us when I say that we are very happy to have you here and welcome the WHO’s expertise. Dr Khan?’ The president looked at Khan.

  ‘Agreed. Excellent, Noah. My laboratory is your laboratory, as we say.’ Khan smiled. ‘We can start first thing in the morning. I get to the lab by 7 am after a quick swim.’

  ‘Thank you, Doctor, I’ll see you then.’

  The meeting ended with more handshakes and formalities. It was only much later, in the middle of the night after Noah had tried to sleep and failed, that he replayed the meeting in his mind several times. He realised that Khan had addressed him comfortably by his first name; as though he was waiting for him.

  *

  The next morning Noah gave the others their instructions. ‘Garner, I want you at base for now – analysing anything Crawford and I find. Put together the narrative behind our suspect – what is he doing and why?’ Garner nodded, her relief just discernible.

  ‘Crawford, I want you to inspect Ground Zero at the hospital with the WHO team. Make sure you’re comfortable the Sri Lankans can’t work out how the virus got in.’

  ‘Will do, Chief.’

  ‘Let’s take the opportunity to look around while we’re here. I want to know how good their intel and surveillance is.’

  ‘You saw the cameras, right, when we were driving in?’ Garner asked.

  ‘I did – they were located in a standard grid and 270-degree angle arrangement in public places. And those are just the ones we could see. Which reminds me – our rooms need to be swept every time we enter and every time we wake up.’

  ‘Every time we wake up? That’s a little paranoid, isn’t it?’ Crawford asked.

  ‘He’s a spy,’ Garner replied.

  ‘It’s called not underestimating the enemy,’ Noah said.

  ‘I thought Sri Lanka was an ally?’ Crawford said.

  ‘They’re an ally, not a friend.’

  ‘Do we have any friends?’

  ‘No – only allies and enemies, all of whom are suspects.’

  ‘Do you have any friends?’ Crawford asked.

  ‘No, just a mother and you guys.’ He laughed. ‘Get your protection equipment ready just in case there are samples you need to look at.’

  ‘Got it,’ Crawford replied.

  ‘And what are you going to do, sir?’ Garner asked.

  Noah tapped the case given to him by Bio’s Technical Surveillance Division – his new contact lenses. They fit perfectly.

  ‘I’m
going to Khan’s laboratory.’

  Chapter 12

  The Department of Immunology at Colombo General Hospital was surprisingly modern compared to the rest of the building, like a shiny new prosthetic limb on an ailing and ageing body. A young lab technician greeted Noah with a swipe card for him. It was already personalised with his biodata.

  ‘Dr Khan says you are to be given full access. The rest of your team will have the usual access that’s given to WHO personnel. I hope that’s acceptable?’ The man led him through various sealed doors.

  ‘That is acceptable, thank you,’ Noah replied.

  ‘You can thank Dr Khan. Here we are.’ The man cleared three levels of security at the door.

  Khan’s laboratory was not what Noah was expecting. It was large and filled with microscopes, secure refrigerators and other pieces of equipment. Scientists were engrossed in their work, only a few raising their eyes for a moment to acknowledge him before returning to their scopes.

  ‘This way, Dr Williams. This is the main laboratory. Dr Khan’s personal laboratory is here.’

  Noah followed the man through the lab towards another door, where he stopped and pressed on an intercom panel.

  ‘We’re here, sir.’ He waited for the door to open and ushered Noah through alone.

  ‘Dr Khan,’ Noah extended his hand. ‘Thank you for having me.’

  ‘Welcome, welcome Noah. Thank you for joining me.’ Khan rushed forward to shake his hand. ‘Come, this is where I do most of my work. Through there is the isolation lab for live viruses.’ He pointed to a room on the right.

  ‘As you know, we are only permitted to study and store Bio Hazard Grade 6 and below, as per the Five Virus Eradication Policy.’

  Noah stopped at the sight of a large, familiar machine.

  ‘Aah yes, that is my integrated microscope – the Artificially Intelligent Laboratory Assistant, or AILA. Look at her robotic extensions. She has two kinds of scopes so I can switch between approaches. She’s exquisite, isn’t she?’ Khan stepped back to admire the microscope. ‘I call her Devi. She is all-powerful and all-seeing.’