‘Really?’
‘There was a computer disk and a note saying that she’d explain when she came to the lab — I think she’d arranged to see Tom the week after she died. I heard Tom tell Dan that he’d had a look but couldn’t make head nor tail of it; it was gobbledegook. To be honest neither of them seemed that fussed. I remember it was in an envelope marked Vaccination schedules.
Steven’s pulse rate rose dramatically. ‘Do you know what happened to the disk?’ he asked.
Liam shook his head slowly. ‘I think Dan was the last to take a look at it. Maybe he still has it. If he gave it back to Tom, it will probably have been cleared out with the rest of his stuff. Why? Is it important?’
‘It wasn’t gobbledegook. It was encrypted. She sent a memory card to me. I think it’s probably the key.’
‘Jesus, but why would anyone go to the trouble of encrypting vaccination schedules?’
‘Who knows?’ said Steven.
‘I could have a look around for the disk if you like,’ said Liam. ‘I mean neither Tom nor Dan seemed to think anything of it so it’s probably not under lock and key.’
‘Don’t take any risks, but if it does happen to be lying around… Look, I’ve kept you long enough,’ said Steven, signalling to the waitress for the bill. ‘Give me your mobile number and I’ll be in touch when I’ve come up with a plan. If I suggest a meeting, assume it’s here or just outside if it’s not during opening hours. Here’s my mobile number: let me know if you have any luck with the disk or if there’s anything you think I should be aware of.’
TWENTY ONE
Steven left Liam and headed off to walk by the river. He was glad that he now had help on the inside, and the revelation about the disk was exciting. If Simone had thought it necessary to keep the disk and its key separate, she might have suspected there was more to it than vaccination schedules. Alternatively, she might simply have assumed that the disk and the card were copies of the same information — proof of faulty vaccination practices — and she’d kept them separate because she’d been unsure about whom among her colleagues she could trust.
Despite making good progress he started to feel very uneasy about what he was planning next. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d crossed the line of what was strictly legal in the course of an investigation — sometimes it was unavoidable — but this time it was different. It was just… downright stupid. That was the depressing conclusion he reached as he leaned on the embankment wall to take in the view.
Below him, about thirty metres away, a man in a knitted hat was sweeping the exposed low-tide mud with a metal detector, wholly captivated by the prospect of unearthing buried treasure. Steven couldn’t help but see the parallel. He’d been planning an unauthorised entry to a university lab to search for the answer to a puzzle but there was something that he’d been failing to properly acknowledge. He was seeking to uncover a secret that the governments of the UK and the US and their intelligence services didn’t want him to know. Was he out of his mind? He had to be if he really believed he was going to find it lying around. The guy with the metal detector had more chance of coming up with the Koh-i-Noor.
Steven was tempted to abandon all thoughts of a break-in, either assisted or unassisted, but steeled himself to go on thinking things through from every angle as he’d done so often in the past. At last he thought he might have found a loophole. The work that Hausman was doing might be top secret but it wasn’t being carried out in a top security lab like those you’d find at Fort Detrick or Porton Down. Why not? Because… the North lab was a more suitable place for the work… but this had to be for scientific not security reasons. That was the compromise that must have been made. The North lab must have expertise that was relevant to the work. There was a connection with polio.
Steven felt a little better. His conclusion fitted well with what Liam had told him about Tom North's being in on what was going on — something he’d been unsure about. It also made sense because he would have had to agree at some point to taking Hausman into his lab, although perhaps he’d been under some government pressure to do so.
Unfortunately, according to Liam North’s office had been cleared out so any carelessness an academic might have shown in record keeping or file storage couldn’t be exploited. Hausman was a different kettle of fish. He was CIA; it would be second nature for him to cover his tracks.
Steven cursed under his breath as he seemed to be back where he started… but he wasn’t. Hausman might be rock solid but the lab and its resources weren’t. Hausman would have had to use — and still be using — the university computer system, its servers and IT provisions. Could this be the Achilles heel he was looking for?
Next day Steven talked things through with John Macmillan. ‘With a bit of luck we might still be able to access some of Tom North’s stuff on the university computer system as well as have a go at accessing stuff from Hausman.’
‘You mean on their servers and back-up systems?’
‘Precisely.’
Macmillan nodded. ‘So how do we go about doing it? It’ll require a high degree of computer expertise… which gives us a bit of a dilemma. Under normal circumstances we’d just call in expert assistance from one or more of our consultants…’
‘But in this case we can’t because we’d be soliciting their help in committing an illegal act,’ Steven completed.
‘An illegal act against our own government. Difficult.’
Both men sat in silence with the distant sounds of London traffic appearing to become louder because of the quiet in the room. Eventually, Macmillan posed a question. ‘We’ve been assuming that all the authorities are in on this secret. Can you think of one that isn’t?’
Steven thought back to the meeting they’d had with the Foreign Secretary and heads of the security services. Who was present… and who wasn’t. ‘The police?’ he ventured.
‘The police,’ Macmillan repeated with a smile. ‘It’s my guess that someone decided that London’s boys in blue didn’t need to know what was going on.’
‘Maybe time for a lunch with Charlie?’ Steven suggested. He was referring to Chief Superintendent Charles Malloy, a friend of Macmillan’s who had been helpful to Sci-Med in the past. Steven knew and liked him too. He was his own man and didn’t always go by the book — maybe something that had denied him access to the very top of the career pole.
Macmillan nodded. ‘We’ll have to be very clear about what we’re asking of him. It could be his head on the block as well as ours.'
Steven agreed.
‘So what are we asking?’
‘Supposing the police had some reason to enter City College and confiscate computer equipment… lots of it,’ suggested Steven.
‘What reason did you have in mind?’
‘Porn,’
Macmillan raised his eyebrows.
‘As bad as it gets. We find a way to plant the stuff on their system and tip off the police. Once we have the gear, Charlie lets our experts examine everything only it won’t be porn we’ll be looking for.’
‘The “planting” bit makes me nervous,’ said Macmillan. ‘Charlie would have to agree to it from the outset.’
‘Of course,’ Steven said. ‘In fact, I was thinking, maybe he might come up with the material we need. You know, stuff confiscated by the police? I mean, I don’t think I could convince Tally I was working at home without sustaining grievous bodily harm.’
‘Lady Macmillan might not be too amused either,’ said Macmillan. ‘I’ll ask Jean.’
‘For porn?’
‘To set up lunch as soon as possible.’
Steven decided to say nothing to Liam about the proposal until Macmillan had approached Charlie: he now knew that would be on Thursday. It promised to be a big day for more than one reason, as Tally would be interviewed for the Great Ormond Street job then. She was taking two days' leave and would travel to London on Wednesday, staying overnight at with him at Marlborough Court before returning to Leicester after the interview to be on duty first thing on Friday morning.