Wright closed his eyes and gave silent thanks. Everyone else bustled into action. Dewar phoned Inspector Grant and told him what had been decided.
‘Did I hear you right? You’re going to seal off Muirhouse?’ said an astonished Grant.
‘It’s our only chance of containing it,’ said Dewar.
‘And Cameron Tulloch agreed to this?’
‘He said it would be difficult but he could do it. Chances are, the military will be called in to maintain the perimeter if the going gets tough.’
‘I hope it’s 2 para and the Foreign Legion,’ said Grant. ‘They might have a chance.’
Dewar ignored Grant’s pessimism. He had expected nothing better. It wasn’t in Grant’s nature to see the bright side of anything, not that there was much of a bright side to isolating a whole community. ‘Right now I need a computer check on a Thomas Hannan,’ he said.
‘Tommy Hannan? Known associate of Michael Patrick Kelly. What d’you want to know?’
‘His past form. I take it you know him?’
‘I’ve done him a couple of times, breaking and entering, the usual stuff, videos, hi fis, cameras. Sells them down the pub to feed his habit. Him and the rest.’
‘Nothing more ambitious?’
‘Still working on a university break-in eh? Hannan’s not your man. Kelly pulls the strings in that pair. How did you meet up with Hannan anyway? ’
‘I was looking for contacts of Michael Kelly. Somebody put me on to Hannan. The bottom line is that Hannan was admitted to the Western General with smallpox.’
‘So both of them have gone down then,’ sighed Grant. ‘Did one give it to the other?’
‘That would be the obvious explanation,’ said Dewar. ‘But I’m not sure it’s the right one. It all depends on when Hannan last saw Kelly. If the incubation period is wrong for that sort of transfer it would mean that Kelly and Hannan were infected independently but around the same time.’
‘While on a job together, you mean?’
‘That’s the line I was working on,’ said Dewar.
‘They’re just a couple of prats,’ said Grant. ‘I think you’re barking up the wrong tree with the university break-in idea. They wouldn’t know where to begin fencing anything more complicated than a telly or a video recorder.’
‘Trouble is, it’s the only tree I’ve got,’ confessed Dewar. ‘But thanks for the local knowledge.’
‘Any time. When are you pulling the plug on Muirhouse?’
‘Day after tomorrow.’
DAY FIVE
Twenty-four new cases were admitted by the end of the morning. The total reached forty by four in the afternoon and forty seven by the end of the office day when it was decided not to go ahead with the containment plan until the following morning. The Scottish Office officials who had been working feverishly for the past two days, had failed to achieve some of their objectives in correlating press and media announcements with police movement and social service response. It was important that things should happen in an orderly sequence otherwise the whole operation would be compromised and could turn into a shambles. It had simply turned out to be more difficult than they had anticipated; they had been forced to ask for more time.
In the circumstances, the police were more than happy with this, pointing out that it would be much easier to put everything in place in the early hours of the morning than in the evening. The operation was rescheduled to commence at four the following morning.
EIGHTEEN
The team took advantage of the postponement to meet at seven in the evening and assess the overall situation. It was bad; no one pretended otherwise but there were still some positive aspects to take heart from, as Finlay pointed out. The heads of newspapers, both local and national and of radio and television stations had had to be informed of the true situation prior to the containment operation and yet there had been no leak.
Radio and television did report the outbreak in their evening programmes but obviously without information from above. They labelled it a ‘mystery virus currently affecting an Edinburgh housing estate’. The cause was currently said to be under laboratory investigation. Local newspapers, adding ‘width’ to the story, had obligingly contributed neighbourhood red herrings citing variously, an old gas works, a nearby sewage treatment plant and a local chemical waste disposal firm as being possible candidates for blame.
‘First things first,’ said Finlay. ‘From tomorrow we’re going to need more space. I’m going to open up the second ward at the Western.’
‘Have you thought beyond that?’ asked Hector Wright.
‘I have,’ replied Finlay. ‘I’ve asked Mr Rankin to look into the prospects of using the currently unoccupied Wester Drylaw Primary School should it prove necessary. I feel this would be preferable to using hospitals outside the immediate area.’
Wright nodded his agreement.
‘The school will be available if you need it,’ said Rankin. ‘There were no objections. I’ve asked that furniture be moved out tomorrow just in case and I’ve warned central supplies about an imminent request for fifty beds.’
‘Good,’ said Finlay. ‘What’s the position with contacts, Mary?’
‘Better than we feared. Most are staying put as requested, in fact, they’re rather enjoying being run after by social services. We’ve had one or two awkward customers who are adamant that no one is going to tell them what they can and cannot do but generally, it’s been fine. It can’t last of course. Social services will be stretched to the very limit by the end of tomorrow — maybe the next day if we’re lucky.’
‘By which time, the vaccine will be here,’ said Finlay. He held up crossed fingers on both hands. ‘Vaccination clinics will provide a diversion for everyone.’
‘But will the vaccine help people who’ve already been exposed to the disease?’ asked Cameron Tulloch.
‘Yes,’ replied Hector Wright. ‘Vaccinating people during the incubation period can help a lot although it itself takes about seven days to become fully effective. The bottom line is, the sooner after exposure it’s given, the better.’
‘I’ve been asked to point out that the lab feels it’s being stretched to the limit,’ said Mary Martin. ‘The technicians have been working flat out and things can only get worse. Maybe we could enlist the assistance of other labs or maybe bring in extra staff from somewhere?’
‘I suggest we stop the lab work entirely,’ countered Wright bluntly. ‘There’s no need to send specimens to the lab from every patient and contact we come across. To all intents and purposes, we’re in the middle of an epidemic; we know what’s wrong with people. It isn’t necessary any more to have the lab confirm it.’
‘Or even desirable,’ added Dewar, thinking that the less infected material there was moving around the city the better.
Finlay looked tentatively around the table. ‘I think we might really consider that option,’ he said cautiously.
‘We have a duty of care to these people,’ insisted Mary Martin ‘They are entitled to be treated just like any other patients with regard to a full range of lab tests and status monitoring.’ Her cheeks were flushed with annoyance at what Wright had said, or more correctly at the way he’d said it.
Wright didn’t relent. ‘For God’s sake woman, it’s smallpox we’re dealing with. Once it’s broken out, it’s not exactly difficult to diagnose. A blind man on a foggy night could do it. We don’t need lab confirmation and believe me, confirmation is the only thing a lab can give us. There’s nothing medical science can do for these people once they’ve succumbed to the disease. No monitoring or strain typing or drug sensitivity testing. Nothing. The disease will run it’s course and that’s all there is to it. Medical staff are largely redundant too. Nursing care is the thing that matters to the patients; it’s the only thing that can make a difference. Old fashioned TLC, tender loving care is the one thing that can swing a borderline case. Forget about modern medicine; it has no role to play. If they were brought in today, Florence Nightingale’s nurses from the Crimean war could do the job just as well. If we’re asking for the whole gamut of modern lab tests on these people, we’re giving our minds a treat. All we’re really doing is creating more work for lab technicians, so much so that we’re thinking of spreading it out to other labs. If we’re honest with ourselves, it doesn’t make sense.’