Neef took the virus suspension from the junior nurse and charged the syringe. He said to Pereira, “I calculated the volume on the same basis as last time, using the same formula. It worked out at 6.5 millilitres.”
“Sounds about right.” said Pereira. “Are you really sure you want to go through with this?”
“I’m sure.”
“Then you may want the nurses to leave?”
Neef looked at him then realisation dawned on his face. “Of course,” he said, “I wasn’t thinking.”
Kate Morse who had been looking thoroughly confused turned to her junior nurse and said, “Thank you, Nurse. I don’t think we’ll be needing you any more.” The young girl left the room. Kate said, “Would someone mind telling me what’s going on?”
Neef looked as if he was struggling for words. Pereira beat him to it. “Against my advice, your boss here is about to inject one of my virus vectors into this child, knowing that permission to use it has been revoked. If you stay in the room, Sister, you may be held responsible too should there be any come-back. That’s why I suggested the nurses leave.”
“Is this true?” Kate asked Neef.
“It is.”
“Then you must have good reason to do this. I’ll stay if you don’t mind.”
Pereira raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Don’t you guys know what you’re doing to a cynicism that’s taken me a lifetime to build?” he asked.
“Let’s get on with it,” said Neef.
After the injection, Neil was taken back to his own bed and Neef and Pereira returned to Neef’s office. Neef asked Kate Morse to join them.
“I feel as if we’ve just robbed a bank,” said Kate.
“It’s probably worse,” said Pereira.
“It was my decision, my responsibility,” said Neef. “I’m going to have Ann draw up a document stating that this was the case and that you assisted out of loyalty to me, Kate and that I did what I did against all your advice, Max. I’ll sign it.”
Any response from Pereira or Kate was cut short by a knock at the door. Ann Miles said, “Miss Sayers is here, Doctor.”
The three of them exchanged looks of total disbelief.
Pereira shook his head and said, “She’s got neck, I’ll give her that.”
“I don’t believe it,” said Kate.
“I don’t think I do either,” said Neef.
Kate and Pereira got up to go. Kate led Pereira out through the door that led into the unit rather than have them meet Eve in Ann Miles’ office. “We’ll be in the duty room,” she said.
A few moments later, Eve stood in the doorway. “Can I come in?” she asked.
“I’m not sure we have anything to say to each other,” said Neef. His features would have made the sphinx seem animated.
“So little faith, Neef?” asked Eve.
Neef saw that her gaze was level and unyielding. “What do you mean?”
“I didn’t write the story.”
Neef’s face was a picture of disbelief. “Sure,” he said.
“I did not write the story,” repeated Eve slowly in an unvarying monotone.
Neef said, “Only three people knew about the Langholm address connection.”
“Someone else must have,” said Eve.
“Did you get the job?” asked Neef.
“I didn’t take it.”
“Why not?”
“They showed me the story they were going to do about Menogen and asked if I would do the follow-ups. I refused.”
“You refused?”
“I told them I thought the Menogen story was irresponsible journalism. They were going to destroy a company’s reputation without having any evidence against them at all. They showed me the door.”
“Why didn’t you call last night?”
Eve said, “It was late when I got back and my damned phone was out of order. I was feeling so low I didn’t have the heart to go out to a call box. I took a sleeping pill and went to bed.”
“Christ! What a day,” said Neef slumping back in his chair and putting his hands behind his head.
“Can I go and see Neil now?” asked Eve.
“No, I’d rather you didn’t,” said Neef.
Eve looked suddenly vulnerable, as if he’d struck her. “You’re not going to stop me seeing him?”
“Nothing like that,” said Neef. “He’s just been injected with Menogen virus.”
“You got permission?” asked Eve, her whole expression changing.
“Yes... and, no,” replied Neef. He told Eve what he’d done.
“You injected him without a license?” exclaimed Eve, “but you said you’d never do that.”
“I said I couldn’t do it without the proposal being screened by experts. It was screened by them and approved. That was good enough for me. The ban was invoked by politicians in response to your... the story in the papers. That wasn’t good enough for me, or Neil.”
“Thank God,” said Eve.
“Max Pereira is out in the duty room with Kate Morse. They both think you wrote the story. This morning Kate thought Pereira had killed her husband. I think Max believes he’ll never work again.”
Eve closed her eyes. “What can I say,” she said.
“Nothing,” said Neef. “If you didn’t write the story.”
Sixteen
Neef made Eve wait while he summoned Pereira back into the room. Kate Morse had gone off to deal with some problem in the unit.
Pereira looked at Eve as if she was a curious, alien life form.
“She didn’t write the story,” said Neef.
“And I’m playing quarterback for the Giants next season,” said Pereira softly.
“I’m serious,” said Neef.
“I didn’t write it,” said Eve. “I knew it was going in; they asked me to do the follow-up but I did not write the story that appeared in the paper this morning.”
“Then who did? How many closet journalists do you have on the staff in this goddam hospital?” asked Pereira.
“They didn’t get the story from a journalist,” said Eve. “Or they wouldn’t have asked me to carry on with it. An insider gave them the information and an Express staffer wrote it up.”
“So, who on the staff would want to put out a story like that?” said Neef, thinking out loud.
“And why?” added Pereira.
“Tim Heaton is always looking for press attention,” said Neef. “But this wouldn’t make sense. The story isn’t going to do St George’s any good at all. The Louradis article on gene therapy has already associated St George’s with Menogen in the public mind. This is going to be as damaging to us as it is to Menogen.”
“But maybe not so costly,” said Pereira. “You don’t think it could have been Louradis himself do you?”
“But why?” asked Neef.
“He called me up to ask a few things when he was writing his ‘plain man’s guide to gene therapy’ article. The man obviously craves press attention. He struck me as the kind who’d say anything to stay in the limelight.”
“I don’t think he knew about Melanie living next to Menogen,” said Neef. “Apart from that it’s hard to see how this story would help Louradis in his quest for stardom.”
“So we’re still looking for a motive,” said Eve. “Maybe someone wanted to seriously damage Menogen. Did you upset anyone that much, Max?”
Pereira shrugged.
“Or maybe it was some kind of deliberate diversion,” said Neef. He was thinking of Heaton’s tactics in the past of using a good news story to counteract the damage caused by bad publicity.
“But a diversion from what?” said Eve.
“That’s what we have to work out,” said Neef. “Let’s take it one step at a time. If someone wants Menogen blamed for the cancer outbreak it might just be that that same someone knows the real reason behind it and wants it covered up.”