‘How did they die?’
‘Ebola.’
‘I think that is your answer. They must have been in the early stages of the disease when they were given it, too late for the vaccine to be of any use.’
‘Mm, that’s what I thought, but she doesn’t think so. All things considered, I think you have to be right,’ Tally agreed.
‘I don’t think Monique likes us very much,’ said Weber, ‘it’s something we all have to get used to. We come to places of great danger to help, do the best we can and the people end up hating us.’
‘As if life wasn’t hard enough,’ sighed Tally. She drove back to her ‘area’ home, thinking about her day and feeling distinctly uneasy about what was happening to her life in general. She re-visited her feelings of guilt over having had such a comfortable, trouble-free life and remembered persuading herself that she needed exposure to some of the raw realities of life experienced by medical colleagues she would normally never meet. She had volunteered to join them to do what she could and she had, but now she felt the ground move beneath her feet. The anchors of stability she had taken so much for granted were disappearing and it wasn’t a comfortable feeling. At home, Steven was engaged in an investigation that had clearly put him into great danger — bad enough for him not to want to talk about it, although he had admitted violence had been involved — and she herself was in a country where no one knew exactly what was going to happen tomorrow.
According to some, Ebola was running riot across a large province in the north, a place infested by warlords and bandits. People were reportedly fleeing while the government, on the other hand were suggesting that things were coming under control and all would be well in a matter of months. Realists or cynics, according to your point of view, construed this as an attempt to stabilise economic interests by keeping mineral mining operational — possibly an unsuccessful gambit as there were stories of miners getting out fast, fearing an invasion of disease-carrying people from the north.
On a smaller scale, she was faced with keeping her promise to Monique Barbet about going back to her village to tell her anything she found out about the vaccine used for her family, if only to tell her that she must have been mistaken about her family’s state of health at the time. She suspected that Monique would dismiss her as ‘one of them’ and that would be an end to it.
The really troubling thing for Tally was that Monique was a very intelligent woman who had seen Ebola before and would be familiar with its stages of development... and, of course, she herself had recently learned that the man in charge of carrying out vaccination at the time in Monique’s village was one of the murdered people in Steven’s investigation. She couldn’t quite see why this could possibly have any connection to adverse effects of the vaccine on Monique’s family, but the information was there and it wasn’t going to go away. Rather than have this niggle away at her any more, Tally decided to drive straight on to Monique’s village and get it over with.
On the previous two occasions, Tally had found Monique teaching the village children outside the hut that served as the school. This time both the playground and school were empty when Tally parked the Land Rover and got out, but she had to concede that it was much later in the day than last time. She started walking around the village, hoping to meet someone to ask where Monique lived, but people tended to turn away when they caught sight of her, apparently remembering that there was something else that needed their immediate attention. It was an unpleasant feeling; Tally could see what Weber had meant about being hated. She was wondering what to do when she noticed two children playing outside one of the huts and walked towards them. To her relief they recognised her and smiled.
‘Monique?’ she asked.
They shook their heads slowly, but Tally tried again and this time one of them pointed to a large hut, standing on its own about fifty metres away. Tally smiled and thanked the children just as their mother appeared and shushed them inside without acknowledging Tally.
Tally tried telling herself that being totally rejected by society should be seen as a new experience and added to her list of new experiences, but it didn’t work. She felt awful. It took all her resolve to steel herself and approach the hut entrance, calling out, ‘Monique... Monique... it’s me, Tally.’
She was about to give up and turn away when Monique appeared in the entrance; her expression was neutral.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Tally, ‘I had hoped we could be friends, but it seems not. I promised I would come back and tell you what I could find out about the vaccination of your family and that’s why I’m here. ‘The official position is that no one suffered any serious side effect from the vaccine, which was experimental, but it’s the same one being used right now and it seems very safe and effective. Everyone is sorry about the deaths of your family and friends, but they say they must have been incubating the disease when they were vaccinated.’
‘That’s what you said last time,’ said Monique.
‘Yes, but I checked everything out thoroughly. It’s the only logical explanation. I’m sorry.’
‘It’s a lie.’
‘That’s what you said last time,’ said Tally, having difficulty keeping the anger she felt out of her voice. ‘Why do you keep saying that?’
‘They contracted Ebola three weeks after being vaccinated.’
Tally was shocked. Her face muscles struggled to find an appropriate expression. ‘There was something very wrong here. If the people had been incubating the disease at the time of vaccination, the vaccine wouldn’t have saved them and they would have gone on to develop the disease within a few days... not three weeks... definitely not three weeks.’
‘Yes,’ said Monique, ‘The aid team came back after three weeks to check that there had been no problem with the vaccine — they said they wanted to keep an eye on things. My friends and family all assured him that they felt fine and thanked the volunteers for protecting them.’ Monique snorted at the memory. ‘They all developed Ebola by the end of the week.’
‘This sounds crazy,’ said Tally, searching for an explanation. ‘Did the aid people give your family a second dose of vaccine when they came back?’
‘No,’ said Monique.
‘You’re sure?’
‘Absolutely, they just asked everyone if they were feeling all right, no side-effects, no pain, no sickness.’
‘And Voila they all got Ebola,’ Tally murmured.
‘I think you should go now,’ said Monique, beginning to look nervous. ‘My people won’t trust me if they see me talking to you all the time.’
‘Understood,’ said Tally. ‘but this isn’t over.’
Fifteen
The phone rang and Steven opened his eyes to see 2.57 a.m. on his bedside clock. The phone screen told him it was John Macmillan.
‘Big trouble, Steven, you’re not going to believe this, but we’ve got a case of Marburg disease on our hands.’
Steven was suddenly very awake.
‘A man has been admitted to the Royal Free Hospital with all the signs of Marburg; he works at Porton Down.’
‘My God, was he working with the virus?’
‘He’s not a scientist,’ Macmillan replied, ‘he’s an electrician on the maintenance staff; the last job he worked on was in the lab where they opened Petrov’s flask.’
‘But there can’t be a connection,’ Steven protested, ‘the contents were harmless.’
‘That’s what Porton say too.’
‘What was he doing there?’
‘There was a problem with the radio link between the lab and the viewing gallery.’
‘That’s right, it didn’t work.’