It just so happened that the capsules intercepted by Israeli Intelligence and triggered accidentally at Porton Down, had contained Marburg disease, obviously designed to trigger off an outbreak somewhere else in the world, but it could have been any killer disease that Petrov had brought with him to Beer Sheva University when he left CDC Atlanta, ostensibly to become an Israeli and work on vaccines. There was no indication of where these implants had been destined for. Uncovering that sort of information would depend very much on how many people were involved in promoting this nightmare... and, of course, why.
Despite all the progress he had been making, and at the rate he had been making it, Steven hit the buffers when it came to introducing money into the equation. When he considered the type of people involved — enormously wealthy Russians who had invested huge sums of money, the idea of creating worldwide mayhem could not be the motive. The sheer amount of money and the great risks involved dictated that they must be expecting huge returns on their investment. Where was that going to come from?
Steven looked at his watch and put an end to global thinking. Tally would be calling soon and he had to be careful. He wouldn’t be telling her any of this for the time being because she must be close to coming home and he mustn’t put her in any danger with a shock injection of frightening knowledge. There was no reason to believe that her regional manager, Marcus Altman, was a threat to her personally. She had found him pleasant and easy to get on with and that’s the way it should stay until she was safely out of the country.
There was one slight problem however, and it lay in Tally’s friendship with the teacher, Monique, and her claims that vaccination had been the cause of the deaths of her friends and family. Hopefully, Tally had accepted the coincidence theory they had spoken about and was also respecting Monique’s request that she stay away from her village. The last thing he wanted was Tally asking Altman lots of awkward questions about Ebola vaccination schedules.
He decided that he wouldn’t ask her about the type of vaccination Monique’s people had been given. He had intended to ask if it had been by upper arm intramuscular injection or had a small implant been used, but he was confident that he really didn’t need the confirmation and it would only make Tally want to know why he was asking. He had also planned to ask her why she had been reluctant to ask Altman for a second look at the WHO report on the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak: he wasn’t sure if he should still go there. If there was a chance that Tally had been alarmed by something else in that report and didn’t want Altman to know that she had, he needed to stop her taking it any further. He would ask.
Tally was an hour late in phoning, saying that she had been having a difficult conversation with fellow area managers. They were confused and frustrated over a lack of information about plans to wind down the operation in Equateur Province. This apparently was being caused by the time Marcus Altman was taking to travel round the region. ‘He was supposed to be away for three days, but it was now at least five,’ Tally complained.
Steven sympathised and told her she should have her bags packed, all ready to go when details were announced. ‘It can’t be long now,’ he encouraged.
‘I suppose not,’ Tally agreed, ‘but I think I might drive over to regional headquarters tomorrow, see if I can find out if anyone there knows what’s going on.’
‘Good idea,’ said Steven, ‘the logistics of volunteer repatriation can’t possibly all depend on one man, maybe the details are lying on his desk.’
‘That’s a thought,’ said Tally, sounding as if she had cheered up a little. ‘If it looks like they are, we should able to sort out permission from WHO directly to open them.’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ said Steven. ‘By the way, you never told me why you didn’t want to ask Altman for another look at the WHO report?’
‘Embarrassment,’ Tally replied, ‘When I read it the first time, I thought I’d spotted a big problem with the graph recording the progress of the outbreak in 2014. It looked as if there had been a sudden explosion in case numbers at one point. New cases were appearing all over the place. I pointed this out to Marcus...’
Steven swallowed, but stopped himself from saying anything.
‘... and he explained that this would be due to people using the rivers to escape the epidemic,’ Tally continued. ‘They were reaching their destinations and triggering off new waves of infection.’
‘Of course,’ said Steven, although there was now a very different explanation in his mind for the sudden leap in numbers and locations on that graph.
The call ended, leaving Steven feeling guilty about withholding so much from Tally, but knowing it was for her own good. If he had told her everything, Tally, being the open and honest person she was, would have been outraged and, he suspected, very bad at concealing what she knew, especially when Altman was around. To have her not know was the safest policy.
There were also unanswered questions surrounding who else among the volunteers out there were involved. For the time being, the nightmare would remain his and his alone.
Tally was not looking forward to the long drive over to regional headquarters, but the prospect of getting some new information sustained her over the lumps and bumps of Land Rover travel along jungle trails. There never seemed to be an appropriate speed to adopt. Too fast was unbearable and too slow was unbearable in slow motion. Either way, the safety belt chafed her shoulder through constantly restraining her and her teeth felt like they were being loosened in her gums. It was such a relief to bring the vehicle to a halt at regional headquarters that she sat with her head resting on folded arms on the steering wheel for a few moments, just to relish the quiet and the stillness.
Tally entered the building and immediately sensed that all was not well. People were standing around in small groups speaking in hushed tones. She caught the eye of another of the area managers from her region who detached herself from her group and came over. Helga Schmidt, a young trauma surgeon from Frankfurt, had had much the same idea as Tally and come over to see if she could get more information about a return to Germany.
‘It seems that new volunteers sent to Kivu Province have come under attack from the rebels and suffered heavy casualties,’ said Helga.
Tally shook her head and asked, ‘Who exactly are these rebels, what do they want?’
‘Originally, it was control of the mineral deposits they were after,’ replied Helga. ‘They thought foreigners were stealing what was rightfully theirs, ‘but the violence in Kivu has been going on for so long that I think killing has become a way of life for them. They have completely withdrawn from society and don’t seem to be too particular about who they attack and kill. Aid volunteers are seen as part of the conspiracy.’
Tally asked why everyone seemed to be waiting for something to happen.
‘The bodies of our people up in Kivu are being brought back here first before repatriation is arranged to their homelands.’
‘This puts a new perspective on things,’ said Tally. ‘I’m feeling guilty about coming here to ask about my repatriation.’
‘Me too,’ replied Helga. ‘They keep telling me that Marcus Altman is dealing with that, but he still hasn’t returned yet from his inspection tour.’
‘Does he have an office here?’
‘I’m not sure, but you would think so as a regional manager.’
Tally gave the reason for her question.
‘We could take a look,’ Helga suggested, ‘I don’t think I want to bring this up with the people who are waiting for the bodies.’