‘Did you notice where the duct came out in the store?’ I asked.
‘According to Shane, just over the main checkout.’
‘Exactly where the staff who went sick first were working.’
Shortly after that, they left.
I looked in on Gibb – he was on the phone to one of his patrols, so I left him to it and went back to the main hall. I thought I might as well make myself useful, so I made tea for the vaccinators. Gratefully received.
A car drew up. Marty.
‘Want some tea?’ I asked as he came in.
‘Coffee. Don’t care if it’s instant, just want caffeine and sugar.’
I made him one, strong, sweet and milky. He gulped it down and held out the mug for another.
‘Problems?’ I asked.
‘Some of them didn’t believe me at first, one got hysterical and another got bolshie – with poor old Struthers, who didn’t know how to handle it.’
‘Nasty?’
‘Could have been if I hadn’t been there. I soon put him right.’
This was said quietly but firmly, and I believed him. I found him a tin of biscuits.
‘Have a breather, but then I’m going to have to ask you to go out again. I’ll try and find you some help.’
He nodded. ‘It’d be appreciated.’ He looked at me. ‘Struthers did all right in the end, considering what he was like at first.’
‘Some people are like that,’ I said.
I left him to it and went to stand in for Clare, so that she could have a quick break, then did the same for the others. Marty went off at 6.45. I asked whereabouts he’d be and told him I’d try and send someone along to help.
Anne and Brendon came back shortly after that.
‘All done?’ I asked.
Anne nodded. ‘For now. I’m sure there’ll be more...’
I told them both to have a coffee, then sent Brendon to Marty, while Anne helped out in the vaccination line. I went to see Gibb, who told me that no one else had tried to break out.
‘Daresay we’ll get one or two idiots tonight, though,’ he said.
‘Can you have someone watch the stores? It’s not the thieving I’m worried about, it’s the risk of infection.’
‘I’ll do that.’
I phoned Fenella to bring her up to date.
Marty and Brendon finished and came back at 8.15. There were three houses Marty hadn’t been able to get a reply from, he assumed because the residents were away.
‘I’ll check tomorrow, just in case,’ he said.
The last vaccination was done a little after nine. Brendon volunteered to stay the night in case anyone else came in, or if there was an emergency.
I made a final call to Fenella while the others cleared up, had a word with Gibb, thanked everyone, then we drove back to Exeter. I dropped the others off at the hospital, then went to Ward Eight to see Roland, Sarah and Grace.
Pat was holding her own, Roland told me. Sarah seemed fine and Grace was sleeping. I stayed an hour with Sarah, then went home.
I couldn’t remember when I last felt so utterly knackered: body, soul, brain, everything. I showered, then forced myself to eat something, since I’d had next to nothing all day. Had some wine, thought about tomorrow and other stuff, went to bed.
Sleep – ha ha – out of the question. Got up again and had more wine, hoping I wasn’t called… Eventually got to sleep somewhere between one and two.
A lousy sleep, riven with dreams I couldn’t remember. Got up again at eight feeling quite, quite rancid. It was a feeling curiously familiar, and in the shower, I realised what it was – like being a houseman again.
Brigg called me at just after nine.
‘We’re coming round,’ he said. ‘Stay where you are.’
He and Rebecca were with me twenty minutes later, not bad for a weekday morning. They refused coffee and made me sit down.
‘We’ve heard from John Amend-all,’ Brigg said, ‘or at least, the Home Office has. They’ve faxed me the letter, which I’ll show you in a minute.’
He looked at me grimly for a moment. ‘The thing is, he – they – have demanded a ransom they want in exchange for not starting any more outbreaks.’ He went on with some difficulty, ‘The really bad news is that they’ve also named you as the person they demand delivers it, the courier…’
Chapter 35
His face seemed to hang disembodied in the air…
I said, ‘Why? Why me?’ My gaze transferred to Rebecca – ‘How do they know about me?’
Brigg said, ‘They also know about me. I don’t know how. You’d better read the demand yourself.’
He handed me the faxed copy:
Dear Home Secretary,
By now you will be aware of an outbreak of smallpox in Newton-on-Exe, Devon. This was brought about by us, firstly because of your blatant prevarication in accepting our terms, and secondly, because of the miserly and take-it-or-leave-it nature of your eventual response.
We will now try a different approach. If you wish to avoid another outbreak of smallpox, you will carry out the following:
1/ Prepare a package of large (one carat and above) cut diamonds to the value of ten million pounds. Place this in a Tupperware container, and put it in a yellow backpack.
2/ Have the backpack ready at Exeter police station by 7.00 pm this evening (Friday 8th March).
3/ At some time between 7.00 and 8.00pm you will receive a telephone call with the password : This is John Amend-all for Commander Brigg. This call will immediately be put through to Commander Brigg.
4/ Instructions will then be given on exactly how the backpack is to be delivered. These instructions must be followed in every respect.
5/ The courier is to be Dr Herry Smith. You have our word that he will be released once the transfer is complete.
6/ Any deviation from these instructions will result in very harsh treatment for the courier.
7/ If the diamonds are not delivered as stipulated above, or are subsequently found to be worth less than the specified amount, then a further outbreak of smallpox will occur.
You also have our word that the money realised will be used to give direct help to those in desperate need in Africa.
John Amend-all
I read it through twice more before handing it back. As he tucked it into his folder, I said,
‘I take it you’re giving in, then?’
He nodded. ‘We’ve got no choice, we’d never be forgiven if it got out that we could have prevented another outbreak.’
‘I also take it that I’ve got no choice?’
‘Oh, you have every choice – in fact, we’ve been wondering about sending one of our own despite the threat.’
‘What do they mean by harsh treatment?’
‘Exactly what it says, I imagine.’ He sighed. ‘Once they have the courier, there’s not much we can do about it.’
After a pause, I said, ‘We come back to the question of Why me?’
Rebecca spoke for the first time. ‘Maybe you answered that yourself just now when you asked how they know about us – to demonstrate just how much they know. Our impotence, if you like.’
‘There’s something else,’ Brigg said. ‘They probably regard you as less of threat than one of our own people.’
‘I’m sure they’re right,’ I said dryly. I went on, ‘I can’t imagine that you won’t want to fix me up with some kind of tracer.’
They glanced at each other, then Brigg said, ‘Does that mean you’re volunteering?’
‘I don’t think I do have any choice. If you send someone else, and they’re badly injured or worse, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.’
‘But what about SCRUB? If you were put out of action, wouldn’t that be compromised?’
‘We did most of it yesterday. To be honest, I’m sure it could function perfectly well without me now.’
Rebecca said, ‘If that’s so, it’s down to your organisation.’
‘Thanks,�
�� I said, surprised and curiously pleased.
Brigg said, ‘But what if there were another outbreak?’
‘Same thing, I think. Having done it once, they’ll all know what to do.’
‘So you’re expendable?’
I nodded bleakly. ‘That’s about right.’
After a slight pause, he said, ‘Then we gratefully accept your offer. I don’t think they’re joking, I think they would harm someone other than you.’
‘Might they not harm me anyway, just for the hell of it?’
He looked at me directly. ‘I’ll answer that truthfully. It won’t be comfortable, they’ll immobilise you, probably tie you up. But I can’t think of any reason for them to gratuitously harm you.’
‘Thank you.’ I went on, ‘But how do they know about me?’
Rebecca said, ‘We discussed this before, remember? They could find out about SCRUB from the internet, possibly even about you…’
‘But not about me,’ Brigg came in. ‘Either they’ve got someone close to the ground, or it’s one of the people we arrested earlier – which is quite possible. Anyway, to go back to what you were saying, I want to go over with you what we’ll be doing in the way of tracers –’
‘Excuse me, but mightn’t they construe that as deviating from their instructions?’
A wintry smile. ‘They didn’t actually say anything about tracers, if you remember, b –’
‘But still –’
‘Listen – firstly, they’ll be expecting it. Secondly, they won’t find them – they’re so sophisticated these days that no one could find them without a detector.’
‘Might they not have one?’
‘Unlikely. What they’ll do is assume that you’ve got one or more on you, that there’ll be another in the backpack, and maybe even one embedded in the container itself. And they’ll be right.
‘What I’m hoping they don’t think of is that one of the diamonds will in fact be a bug – so that when they ditch everything else –’
‘Including me?’
‘As I said, they’ll almost certainly tie you up and leave you. Then they’ll transfer the diamonds to another container and leave everything else.’
I thought about this for a moment, then tentatively asked what they’d be doing about getting me back. Alive, preferably.
Another Brigg smile. ‘That’s partly what the bugs are for. What they’ll do is give you the run-around for a while –’
‘How d’you mean?’
‘Make you go from place to place to make sure you’re not being followed.’
‘Will I be? Followed?’
He shook his head. ‘Not so that they’ll know. Anyway, somewhere along the line, they’ll intercept you, relieve you of the backpack, tie you up, transfer the diamonds and go. We’ll be tracking each of the bugs. What we’ll hope to see is just one of them, the false diamond, leave the others behind. Then we come and collect you. Once we’ve got you, we go after them.’
It sounded very easy. I said as much. Brigg detected the great big but… in my voice.
‘Yes, well maybe it won’t go exactly like that. However, the point I’m trying to make is that we won’t go after them until we’ve secured you.’
Good to know. I said that much as well, then had a thought: ‘But what if they take the bug off me – make me take off my coat – then take me with them?’
‘They’d have to strip you naked to do that – besides we won’t go after them until we’ve physically got you.’
‘Naked or otherwise,’ I observed.
‘I do hope not, for Bex’s sake,’ he said deadpan. ‘It’ll likely be her coming for you.’ It was the first time I’d heard him shorten her name.
I asked if they’d be able to follow exactly where I was.
‘We’ll follow the bugs actually moving on a map.’
I nodded thoughtfully, then asked them what they wanted me to do in the meantime.
‘Exactly as you would have done – oh, you’d better not go too far away. And keep in touch.’
‘When do I report for duty?’
‘Let’s say 5.00 at the station. Unless we tell you otherwise.’
We talked a bit longer. I asked if they thought the writer was the same one, and he said it was being analysed in London.
Rebecca said, ‘I think it’s different. Different language, different tone. Certainly more ruthless.’
I said, ‘I suppose he - they – would be, given the murder of the others.’
‘I can’t argue with that,’ Brigg said soberly.
He’d started making time-to-go movements when I had another thought.
‘What about an alarm?’ I said. ‘Something I can press in an emergency, like a rape alarm.’
‘I’d think one of those going off would be more likely to make them harm you.’
‘I mean, an emergency – ’ I began, but Rebecca cut me off –
‘What about something Herry could press that would alert just us?’ she said. ‘In a life threatening situation…’
‘If he’s tied up, how could he press it?’
‘I don’t know – something in his cuff, maybe even his shoe…’
Brigg said he’d think about it, then they left.
It was probably that conversation that saved my life.
A headache was beginning to menace me, so I washed down some paracetamol with coffee, then drove to the hospital. Roland first.
He waved my apologies aside and brought me up to date... Five more cases during the night and this morning, all awaiting lab confirmation – ‘Although I don’t think there can be any doubt,’ he said. ‘That makes twenty four I’m sure of.’
‘Any more room in Seven?’
‘Another six beds, although we’ll stretch that if we have to. The close contacts are more of a problem, Eight’s full and Six half full. Do we have a fall-back?’
I told him I’d warn Nine. ‘How’s Pat?’
‘Still holding her own. And Sarah and Grace seemed fine when I saw them this morning.’
‘I’ll go and see them now, if you don’t mind.’
‘Of course.’ He patted my shoulder.
Sarah was feeding Grace. She had a bit of a headache, she said. ‘I expect it’s this place. I can’t stand hospitals. I want to go home, Herry.’
I thought quickly… It was too early for symptoms if she’d caught it off Pat… and a bit late if from the County Stores… I could see her looking at me, so I told her that.
She smiled and out of nowhere, said, ‘Love you, Herry.’
I said, ‘If you weren’t already married, I’d ask you to marry me.’
She laughed. ‘And I’d accept.’
Grace burped. I stayed awhile longer and then left. I didn’t tell her about my errand.
Walked over to the lab. Tim was waiting for a batch of EM slides. I told him that when they were done, we’d go and fumigate the County Stores.
I rang Anne. She, Clare and Brendon had been joined by others from outside and were all busy ring vaccinating the new contacts, and also extending the rings.
Tim confirmed the five cases, we got the bombing equipment ready and left for Newton.
I drove. My headache was getting worse and we didn’t say much. Brigg had given me back the keys so we went straight to the County Stores. The soldier on duty peered at me and let us pass.
My head throbbed. I said, ‘Tim, I’m sorry, but I’m not feeling so good. I’d like to leave you to it if you don’t mind.’
‘No probs,’ he said, ‘I’ve got all the stuff.’ He opened the door. ‘What
about the air conditioning – do I do all the ducts or just the infected one?’
‘Do the lot,’ I said. I helped him unload, told him I’d arrange transport for him and went to see Gibb.
‘You don’t look so hot,’ he said cheerily.
‘I don’t feel it. How’s it going?’
‘Can’t complain. A couple of silly bastards tried to get into the shop last nig
ht, and another pronk tried to break the blockade. Wanted to see his girlfriend apparently, although what she’d have said if he’d given her the pox, I don’t know.’
I smiled despite myself. ‘Well, you can stop worrying about the shop – no one’s going to be going in there for a while.’ I told him about the bombing.
He laughed. ‘I wish we could put a perimeter of it around the whole place. Shouldn’t be for too much longer, should it?’
I shook my head.
‘Most people seem to have accepted it with good grace, mind,’ he said.
We exchanged a few more words, then I left for Exeter. For home, in fact. I felt a bit guilty about sloping off, but I wouldn’t have been in any condition for the evening the way I was. I took some more paracetamol, set my alarm for four and tried to sleep.
And succeeded … to be woken three hours later feeling much better.
Drove to the hospital to be met by Roland. A worried looking Roland.
‘Herry,’ he said, ‘Sarah’s got a temperature, a hundred and three. I’m sorry, but I don’t like the look of it.’
I tried to take it in… ‘Rash?’ I said at last.
‘Not yet.’
‘But… But why so late? I mean, the others from the store went down days ago…’
‘It happens, Herry – you know that better than me.’
I swallowed… ‘Is there anything…?’
‘Control the temperature, keep her hydrated… She’s young, healthy – she’s got every chance.’
‘Have you moved her?’
He nodded. ‘She’s in Seven.’
‘Grace?’
‘She’s fine. I’ve left her where she is at the moment, but we’re having to bottle feed her.’
‘Is Sarah conscious? Can I see her?’
‘Sure.’ He led the way.
She opened her eyes. ‘‘Lo, Herry. Another fine mess, eh?’ She’d always liked Laurel and Hardy.
I held her hand. ‘Hello, love.’ I studied her… she was obviously ill, but there was no sign of any rash… a good omen maybe… ‘You’ll be all right,’ I said.
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