Lapidus said: ‘It’s Sean’s show. He should tell you.’
The Japanese-American said: ‘This could be premature, a fluke. I’m not ringing any bells and don’t think we should for a long time yet. But I’ve prolonged the life of six SARS-infected mice, so far for seven days. Two weeks ago I had same-day mortality.’
‘Vaccination?’ asked Parnell, immediately.
Sato nodded. ‘There was no way – or proper reason – to imagine we could reduce the virulence. It was far too fierce. Because of that, I concentrated on killing the virus completely…’
‘The rest of us tried the Jenner approach to smallpox, infecting with something closely allied but not fatal,’ broke in Lapidus, predictably. ‘Nothing worked.’
‘I boiled a selection of samples of the SARS virus in variously concentrated acids,’ resumed Sato. ‘The mice I’ve got still alive this morning were vaccinated by the virus sample killed by an acid ratio of twenty per cent.’
‘What’s their condition?’ asked Parnell.
‘They’re sick,’ conceded Sato, at once. ‘They’re going to die. But I think we’re going in the right direction.’
‘How are you following it?’ It could lead to a vaccine, accepted Parnell. Why, he wondered, hadn’t Beverley told him of the progress? And immediately answered himself. She was part of a team – which he wasn’t, yet – and hadn’t allowed their personal involvement to influence her professionally. Which was the same rule that he and Rebecca had so briefly tried to follow, he reminded himself, uncomfortably.
‘Further minimal dilution,’ said Sato.
‘Which I think some of us should switch over to,’ said Lapidus.
‘I agree,’ decided Parnell, at once. ‘You tried DNA colour-tagging?’
‘Far too soon,’ frowned Sato. ‘This is the first time we’ve kept our mice alive for more than a day.’
‘Too impatient,’ apologized Parnell, at once. ‘As Ted said, it’s exciting. We’re taking blood samples, though, for DNA mutations? And matching, for eventual colouring?’
‘We will be, from now on, from our six survivors,’ said Lapidus.
‘We’re talking SARS,’ isolated Parnell. ‘What about avian flu?’
‘Bev and I have been trying the same route,’ said Deke Pulbrow. ‘The avian virus is a big bastard with muscles. We’re not getting anywhere.’
‘Edward Jenner virtually invented vaccination by preventing smallpox with the injection of the far less virulent cowpox, over two hundred and fifty years ago,’ said Parnell, speaking the thought aloud as it came to him. ‘We’ve been concentrating on the 1918 virus because the haemagglutinin has been discovered. There’s a lot of samples from the other two pandemics, in 1957 and 1968. Why don’t we spend a little time following Jenner, obviously reducing toxicity, but seeing what happens when we vaccinate with one of the previous outbreak viruses and then infecting with this latest one?’
‘We haven’t tried it so far,’ said Beverley. ‘So why not?’
‘We’re behind, on SARS, according to the published papers,’ reminded Lapidus.
‘I thought we’d decided we’re not in a race?’ said Parnell. ‘There’d be more than enough room in the marketplace for two products if we came in second. Third, even.’ He was thinking like a commercially orientated scientist, Parnell realized, surprised. Newton would be pleased. What he was being told was exciting, but it would be premature to talk about it to the research director this early.
‘At last we’ve got a focus, for each set of experiments,’ declared Lapidus.
‘We hope it’s a focus,’ qualified Parnell. ‘I think it’s good. Well done. Let’s see where it takes us.’
Parnell waited until mid-afternoon before approaching Newton’s office again. The secretary told him the vice president had called to say he was sick and wouldn’t be returning to the office that day. He wasn’t sure he would be in the following day, either.
Dingley and Benton separately compared the transcript of the automatically recorded conversation between the Metro DC control-room dispatcher and the arresting squad car with their previous interview statements from Harry Johnson, Helen Montgomery and Peter Bellamy.
Benton looked up first and said: ‘The dispatcher didn’t say anything about Rebecca’s car being forced over the edge of any gorge.’
‘Bellamy and the woman only said they thought it had been mentioned,’ reminded Dingley. ‘That they weren’t sure.’
‘Johnson was more definite,’ argued Benton.
‘It’s not a smoking gun,’ insisted Dingley.
‘Something that might unsettle them, along with Johnson’s thumb print and the internal investigation,’ said Benton.
‘We do them first or pay a visit to Edward C. Grant?’ wondered Dingley.
‘Them first,’ proposed Benton. ‘We might prompt another call from Johnson to New York. ‘I’d like a damned sight more than that first conversation.’
‘I’d like a damned sight more about anything,’ complained Dingley. ‘We’re not looking good on this, old buddy. In fact, we’re looking downright fucking bad, and I am no longer as glad as I was that we got a case this high-profile.’
‘Me neither,’ agreed Benton. ‘Our problem is what to do with it now that we’ve got it.’
‘I wish I knew,’ said Dingley. ‘I wish that very much indeed.’
Thirty-Three
It was David Benton’s idea to change the previous routine and arrange the interviews with Harry Johnson and the two Metro DC officers to a tightly controlled schedule preventing any intervening exchange between the three. The FBI agents ensured that each of the personal lawyers, as well as the attorneys for Dubette and Metro DC police, knew not just of the agenda but also its sequence, in the hope of unsettling the security chief and the two police officers more successfully than they had previously.
Johnson was first. He wore the same crisply pressed suit as before, but this time there was none of the bravado swagger. He sat in the field-office interview room between William Clarkson and Peter Baldwin, pointedly avoiding eye contact with either FBI agent, deferring to Clarkson to acknowledge the reminder that he had already been read his Miranda rights against self-incrimination, and also during the discussion about formal recording. Clarkson agreed to the tape procedure and waited until it started before stating that he was aware of the formal warning of a later court challenge from Peter Bellamy’s representative, and placing on record the possibility of his entering a matching inadmissibility objection in the event of any charges being proffered against his client.
‘I also wish recorded that my client has fully co-operated whenever called upon to do so,’ continued Clarkson.
‘A co-operation which is noted and which is appreciated,’ said Dingley.
‘Fact is,’ continued Benton. ‘We’ve come up with a few more things that puzzle us. That photograph, of you and Helen and Bellamy, for instance.’
‘I declined to allow my client to answer that question,’ said Clarkson. ‘I continue with that advice.’
‘Why is that?’ said Dingley.
‘It has no bearing on this enquiry whatsoever.’
‘It has a very direct bearing on whether Mr Johnson knew or did not know Officers Montgomery and Bellamy before they arrived at Dubette Inc. on the day they arrested Richard Parnell,’ said Benton.
‘Why?’ demanded the lawyer.
‘The inconsistency, between what Officers Montgomery and Bellamy have told us – that they knew your client – and his assertion that he didn’t know them.’
‘I forgot,’ burst in Johnson, shrugging off Clarkson’s restraining hand. ‘It’s as simple as that. I think that photograph was taken at my farewell party, a whole bunch of Metro DC police guys having a good time, having a few drinks. Now I’ve seen the pictures, of course I can remember them, but only as people I saw around. And I didn’t recognize them the day they arrived at McLean to ask about Rebecca Lang.’
‘Tell us about Edward Grant?’ suddenly asked Dingley.