‘Well, I’ve been officially informed that there is now a complete ban on the supply and movement of these fragments until further notice.’
‘What?’ exclaimed Malloy. ‘But I was just about to request the fragments carrying the DNA upstream from the region we’ve been working on. We suspect the control region we were looking for had been cut through during the fragmentation.’
Hutton shrugged and said, ‘I’m sorry, it’s a joint WHO/UN recommendation that the government has endorsed with immediate effect.’
‘Shit, but why?’
‘No explanation but they also want us to audit and declare all the fragments we’re holding. Sounds like someone has been doing something they shouldn’t.’
‘Joining up the fragments, you mean? God, you’d have to be a pork pie short of a picnic to do that to any great extent. Mind you …’
‘Yes?’
‘In some ways I can sympathise with the people who’d like the complete virus to work on. The trouble we’ve been experiencing is largely down to working with fragments rather than the complete genome. They thought in the beginning it would be just as good but it’s not. Lots of important genes have been cut through when they cut the DNA into fragments. So anyone interested in finding out how the whole thing operates might be tempted to try a bit of reassembly. It may be stupid and against the rules but it’s understandable.’
‘It may not be being done for reasons of scientific curiosity,’ said Hutton.
Malloy looked at him questioningly then it dawned on him what Hutton meant. ‘God, you can’t be serious. Someone trying to reconstruct live smallpox virus? They’d have to be out of their tree.’
Hutton shrugged his agreement. ‘Be that as it may, can you let me have a list of the fragments you’re currently holding?’
‘Of course.’
‘I’ve also had a letter from Ali Hammadi’s parents.’
Malloy’s face clouded over. ‘Oh yes,’ he said quietly.
‘They’d like to endow a PhD studentship in his honour. Some kind of lasting memorial. Your thoughts?’
‘I still find it hard to believe Ali’s dead. He was a good student, easy going, easy to get on with. Everyone liked him. His work was going exceptionally well and then suddenly in the space of a few short weeks his whole demeanour changed. He turned into a morose recluse who wouldn’t speak to anyone and then he took his own life. I just don’t understand it.’
‘We’ll have to assume it was some kind of mental aberration. Clinical depression can strike at anyone at any time and for no discernible reason to the outsider.’
‘And bright people are more susceptible, yes I know all the get-outs. I’ve been using them for the past few weeks but I still feel guilty. I should have realised how serious his condition was. I just kept thinking it was something he would snap out of if we gave him time. Girl trouble or something like that.’
‘Not your fault. Graduate students are adults. We can’t baby-sit them. Now, about the studentship?’
‘Okay by me. I think it’s a nice idea.’
‘Good. I’ll tell them we’re delighted and have admin start the paperwork. The Ali Hammadi Research Fellowship in Molecular Science. Has a nice ring to it.’
Malloy returned to his lab and told the others what had been said, starting with the government ban on smallpox fragments.
‘But that’s crazy,’ protested Le Grice. ‘If we can’t try out the upstream region we can’t find out what’s wrong with our system. It’s going to put a complete stop to our research.’
‘Well, shit happens and it’s been that kind of a month really,’ sighed Malloy, sounding both tired and world-weary.’
‘But why?’ persisted Le Grice. ‘Why are they doing this?’
Malloy shrugged his shoulders. ‘Hutton hasn’t been told but you know how careful the powers that be are about smallpox. There must have been some kind of scare somewhere.’
‘Probably some kid got a bad dose of chickenpox in Outer Mongolia and the WHO got diarrhoea. Don’t these people realise what they’re doing when they suddenly come out with crazy bans like this?’ retorted Le Grice angrily.
‘Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and suppose that they do in this case and that they might have good reasons for introducing the ban,’ said Malloy.
‘Look, if we can’t get the fragments we need from the official sources any more why don’t I phone around. Maybe the Beatson in Glasgow has them or the guys in Manchester.’
Malloy shook his head. ‘The ban is on all fragment movement, not just from official sources.’
‘Sure but if they don’t know …’
Malloy’s look was enough to make Le Grice change his mind about what he was going to say.
‘I know it’s tough on all of us but we’re going to play by the rules on this one. Apart from anything else there are certain factions within this institute that would not be adverse to seeing us get into really deep shit and deliberately flouting a WHO/UN ruling is as deep as it comes.
‘Any idea how long the ban is going to last?’ asked Sandra Macandrew.
‘None.’
‘This could screw up our PhD work,’ said Sandra looking at Peter.
‘You don’t have to achieve success to get your degrees. You just have to show that you’ve carried out your research programme in a controlled and methodical scientific manner. Demonstrate that you thought things through and acted accordingly. The work you did on the first vaccine will probably be enough.’
‘But it’s not the same, is it?’
‘No. A successful vaccine would be have been nicer,’ conceded Malloy.
Le Grice gave a snort at the understatement.
‘So what do we do in the meantime?’
‘We get the smallpox DNA sequence out from the database again and study it. See if we can figure out what’s going on in the region we’re interested in without actually working with it.’
‘Not for the first time,’ said Le Grice.
‘I know we’ve done it before,’ said Malloy, coldness creeping into his voice as his patience wore thin. ‘But we’re going to do it again. All right’
‘Sure.’
‘In the meantime, George, we have to submit an audit of what smallpox fragments we hold at the moment. Maybe you could run a check on that?
‘Will do.’
‘There’s one other thing. Ali’s parents want to set up some kind of memorial thing for him. They’re thinking of endowing a studentship.’
‘That’s nice,’ said Sandra. The others smiled and nodded, unsure of what to say.
‘It’s nice to know they don’t blame us,’ said Malloy quietly.
‘It’s about time you stopped blaming yourself,’ said Sandra. ‘All of us are to blame and none of us are to blame. We’ll probably never know why he did it because he didn’t tell us what was wrong and it wasn’t for the want of asking. We all liked him. We all cared about him. He just wouldn’t open up to us.’
‘Not even after a couple of pints,’ said Peter.
‘Ali drank beer?’ asked Malloy.
‘George introduced him to McEwans 80 shilling ale.’
‘He was a willing student,’ said Ferguson. ‘He enjoyed it. Ali was a bright bloke. He figured out that Allah probably wouldn’t hold it against him.’
‘How often did you two go drinking?’ asked Malloy.
‘Don’t read too much into it,’ laughed Ferguson. ‘Ali wasn’t an alcoholic and he didn’t get depressed. That isn’t why he topped himself. We had an occasional couple of pints at the union on a Friday night, that’s all.’
‘But he never loosened up enough to tell you what was wrong?’
‘Fraid not.’
FOUR
The Sci-Med Inspectorate
The Home Office
London.
‘Jean has prepared a file for you,’ said the director, John Macmillan to Adam Dewar as he showed him to the door. I think the WHO are erring on the side of caution in banning the movement of these fragments but it certainly seems the side to err on as far as this bug’s concerned. I’ve taken the liberty of arranging a meeting for you with a leading virus consultant at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine this afternoon, a man called Hector Wright. He’ll give you a crash course on the disease; he’s expecting you at three.’