‘Have they caught him?’ asked Malloy as soon as he saw Dewar.
‘In a manner of speaking.’
‘Something’s happened,’ said Malloy, reading Dewar’s expression.
‘Pierre Le Grice is dead. He took his own life when he saw there was no way out.’
‘My God,’ whispered Malloy. Ferguson and Peter Moore exchanged shocked glances.
Dewar gave them a moment to come to terms with the news then Malloy asked, ‘Did you get a chance to speak to him before he did it?’
Dewar nodded. ‘He wouldn’t tell me anything. He didn’t deny trying to kill Sandra but he wouldn’t admit to anything else.’
‘I still can’t believe he did it,’ said Malloy. ‘Christ! What’s happened to us all. A few short weeks ago we were on the verge of making the biggest breakthrough in years and suddenly all this happens. Ali dead, Pierre dead. Sandra lying at death’s door.’
‘I’m afraid there’s more,’ said Dewar.
Malloy looked unwilling to believe that there could possibly be any more bad news.
‘I’m going to have to seal off this lab. A special team will be brought in to remove everything from it.’
‘Pierre’s stuff, yes, we’re getting it together now.’
‘Everyone’s stuff,’ said Dewar.
Malloy’s face registered disbelief but he saw that Dewar was serious. He sank down on a stool and stared down at the floor, shaking his head.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Dewar. ‘But it’s the only way to be sure that there’s no possibility of live smallpox virus being left around.’
‘This is crazy,’ said Malloy. ‘I just don’t believe for a moment that Pierre Le Grice tried to reconstruct live smallpox virus in the open lab. That would have been just plain crazy.’
‘I agree. But you wouldn’t have believed he would have tried to kill Sandra Macandrew either.’
Malloy couldn’t argue.
‘This means my PhD goes down the tubes,’ said Peter Moore, suddenly seeing the implications for himself. ‘Sandra’s too.’
‘I’m sorry, there’s no other way.’
‘Christ,’ muttered Peter Moore. ‘Talk about shit happening!’
‘It means the end of the lab, doesn’t it?’ said George Ferguson. ‘No grant-funding body is going to come up with money to support a line of research that no longer exists.’
‘It means starting over again,’ agreed Dewar. ‘But you’ll have all your experimental notes to work from.’
‘Forget it,’ said Malloy. By the time we got back up to speed, the opposition would be out of sight.’ ‘It’s not feasible. It’s all over. When d’you want us out?’
‘I’d like you to leave the lab now. The sooner I seal it off the better.’
Malloy smiled without humour. ‘Don’t trust us eh?’
‘Nothing like that,’ said Dewar. ‘Just procedure.’
‘And these Iraqi fuckers, the ones behind it all, the movers and shakers, they’ll get away I take it?’
‘There’s no evidence against them as yet.’
‘Christ! Half my group are dead or dying. My entire research programme is going down the swannee and there’s no evidence against them as yet,’ mimicked Malloy.
‘I can understand your bitterness,’ said Dewar.
‘Jesus! Dewar. You sound like a Californian, — “thank you for sharing your anger with me”.’ With that Malloy stormed out of the room.
‘Well, I suppose I’d better think about getting my arse down the job centre,’ said Peter Moore. ‘See if they need any double glazing salesmen. The Medical Research Council aren’t going to give me another grant to start over again.’ He too, left the room with a black look in Dewar’s direction.
‘Your turn,’ said Dewar to George Ferguson, the only one left. ‘I feel like the grim reaper.’
Ferguson gave a half-hearted smile. ‘You’re only doing your job,’ he said ‘But you must see how these guys feel.’
Dewar nodded. ‘Of course.’
‘This lab is Steve Malloy’s life. ‘His research is the only thing he cares about unlike half the wankers in this place who spend most of their time sitting on their arse talking about research rather than doing it. It takes more than knowledge to be a researcher,’ Ferguson continued. ‘You can know every fact in the damned world and still not know what to do next. Steve’s different. He’s a natural. He knows the questions, the experiments to do, the paths to follow. It’s a bloody shame.’
Dewar nodded sympathetically. ‘And you? What’ll you do now?’ he asked.’
Ferguson shrugged. ‘I’ll survive.’
‘You’re married?’
Ferguson nodded. ‘Yes, we’ve got one boy.’
‘Still living at home?’
‘A veil came over Ferguson’s eyes. ‘He’s not right,’ he said. ‘Brain damage when he was a kid.’
‘Bad luck. I’m sorry.’
Ferguson shrugged. ‘That’s the way it goes. Anyway, I think I’ll go find the others, leave you to your business.’
‘I really am sorry,’ said Dewar.
‘Yeah.’
Dewar called Macmillan at Sci-Med from Malloy’s office and told him what had happened.
‘Did this man, Le Grice admit it before he took his life?’ asked Macmillan.
‘He didn’t deny the attempt on Sandra Macandrew’s life and he mentioned extra smallpox fragments but he didn’t actually acknowledge any dealings with the Iraqis.’
‘Damn,’ said Macmillan. ‘But there seems little doubt?’
‘He had extra smallpox fragments and he tried to kill Sandra.’ replied Dewar. ‘It sounded to me like he’d tried to convince Sandra that the extra fragments would have helped with her research but she decided to blow the whistle on him anyway.’
‘That still leaves us with nothing against these damned people. ‘You don’t think he actually managed to supply them with the virus do you?’ asked Macmillan.
‘I don’t think so. I don’t think there was time and the Iraqis haven’t looked like they’re ready to leave according to the secret service.’
‘What are you doing about the lab where Le Grice worked?’
‘I’ve just told the research group leader that everything in his lab will have to be removed. I’d like a team from Porton Down called in to take it away. We can’t afford to take chances. They can analyse anything they think looks promising under conditions of maximum containment and destroy everything when they’re finished.’
‘You’re right, the last thing we need is someone contracting smallpox because it was left lying around and nobody knew about it.’
‘I’m going to lock and seal the lab. Would you arrange for the Porton team to be called in to do their stuff? I’ll tell the head of institute here to expect them.’
‘Are you planning to come back to London?’
‘I’ll hang on for a couple of days if that’s all right. I’ll brief the Porton team when they arrive and I’d also like to see the back of Siddiqui and his pal before I return. Presumably they’ll leave when word about Le Grice gets out.’
‘I’ve done what you requested about arranging to have them stopped and searched on the way out.’
‘Good, the more thorough and unpleasantly the better. Siddiqui can’t play the diplomatic card because he entered the country as an academic not a diplomat. God knows what Abbas’s status is but I’m sure a “misunderstanding” could arise.’
‘I think the immigration people have got the message,’ said Macmillan. ‘They’re still smarting from having let Siddiqui in unnoticed.’
‘Good.’
‘I’ll get on to Porton. I’ll give them your number to contact when they get there.’
‘Any idea how long?’
‘I’m going to make this top priority. They have a rapid response squad. With the help of the military I should think four to five hours.’
‘I’ll be waiting.’
Dewar found that Hutton, the head of institute already knew what was happening by the time he got to his office.
‘Dr Malloy told me,’ said Hutton. ‘He’s devastated. He sees it as the end of his career.’
‘He’s still a brilliant scientist,’ said Dewar. ‘Surely there will be a place for him somewhere.’