“Time to batten you down, old son,” said Farro-Jones. “They’ll be here any moment now.”
Neef saw the crack of light disappear as Farro-Jones removed the screwdriver from the crack and started screwing the lid down. His voice was further away now. Suddenly there were other voices.
Neef’s terror soared to almost unbearable heights as he imagined that the undertakers had arrived. If they were here this soon, he was going to be conscious throughout. His brain was screaming instructions to his limbs but they refused to respond. He had no way at all of alerting the people outside.
Neef felt the coffin rock slightly on its trestle. Someone had touched it. He waited for it to be lifted, his eyes wide with fear in the darkness. There was an agonising silent pause when nothing at all happened then Neef realised that the lid screws were being undone. As the lid was slid away, he blinked against the light and looked up into the face of a policeman.
Neef was helped up into a sitting position. He saw Farro-Jones being held between two uniformed policemen while another in plain clothes cautioned him.
“How on earth?” he gasped as his gag was removed.
“I told them,” said Eve appearing at his side and putting her arm around his shoulders.
“But how did you know I was here?”
“When I looked out the window earlier to wave good bye to the firemen who’d been to visit Neil I saw your car parked outside Pathology. David’s car was parked beside it. That worried me. Ann Miles told me that you had gone out so I thought it odd that your car was back but you weren’t. I was about to phone the police when they arrived; they were looking for you in connection with a fire?”
“It’s a long story,” said Neef, rubbing his forehead weakly at the thought of it. He suddenly felt awfully tired and couldn’t fight the feeling. The effects of the injection Farro-Jones had given him and thoughts of what had so nearly happened to him conspired to make him lose consciousness.
Within minutes of waking up in a small side ward in the hospital, Neef was having an argument. He had declared himself fit and wanted to leave but this apparently was not an option open to him. The nurse present when he woke up had no wish to enter into any real argument with a consultant physician so she called the doctor who had dealt with Neef’s admission.
“A few nasty bumps on the head and probably a hang-over from what was injected into you but apart from that, no damage.”
“Good,” said Neef. “Now I’d like to go. I’ve got lots to do.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible yet sir. The police and some Ministry people are insisting that you stay where you are until you are, debriefed, I think the word was.”
“How long is that going to take?”
“They’ve been informed that you’ve come round, sir. It shouldn’t be long.”
“Look I have to at least phone someone,” said Neef, making for the door and opening it. There were two policemen standing outside. Neef closed the door again.
“Sorry,” shrugged the doctor. “They’ll probably be here soon.”
The young doctor was right. Four men wearing civilian clothes but showing warrant cards arrived within ten minutes and spent the next four hours questioning Neef. He was both exhausted and exasperated by the time they were through.
“Can I please go now?” he asked.
“I’m afraid not sir, not just yet,” replied one of he policemen.
“Why the hell not?”
“We’d like you to wait here until we’ve found Dr Pereira.”
“Pereira? Where the hell does he come into this?”
“We’ve had an APB out on him for some time sir. It shouldn’t be long before we find him and then we can sort this whole thing out.”
Neef saw that further argument was useless. He watched as the four men left and resigned himself to more waiting.
It was almost midnight before a commotion outside the door said that something was happening at last. When the door finally did open, Neef got up to welcome Max Pereira.
“What the hell’s going on Mike?”
“I’m not sure myself,” replied Neef. He told him about the fire and Farro-Jones’ subsequent arrest.
“Jesus!” exclaimed Pereira. “You’ve had quite a day.”
“Farro-Jones had been experimenting with an unlicensed virus,” said Neef. “He was using one of the cystic fibrosis kids as a guinea pig.”
“I know about the virus,” replied Pereira but he didn’t elaborate.
One of the policemen who had interviewed Neef earlier came in to say that a meeting had been convened down in the pathology lecture theatre. The two of them were ‘requested’ to attend.
Neef and Pereira accompanied the policeman in silence, their footsteps echoing through the deserted corridors at that time of night. When they got to the lecture theatre they found that chairs had been brought in and positioned round the long table that normally sat in front of the blackboard for student demonstrations. Klein sat at the head with Waters to his right. The other ten places or so were taken by ministry and police officials. Neef and Pereira were placed together at the foot of the table facing Klein.
Klein welcomed them and said, “Gentlemen, I’m sure we all regret the happenings of the last twenty four hours. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we must do all in our power to minimise the resulting damage.”
Neef and Pereira exchanged glances.
“But however awful the experiences have been — particularly for Dr Neef, I understand, we must keep a sense of proportion and priority, so first I have some good news. We appear to have contained the cancer outbreak. There have been no new cases reported among the contacts we have been keeping in isolation. One more week and I think we can confidently raise the restrictions and consider this outbreak over.”
“Good,” said one of the ministry people.
“I’m sure everyone will be glad to get back to normal so it’s just a question of how we can put all this behind us as quickly and as painlessly as possible and with minimum lasting damage to all parties.”
Neef and Pereira exchanged another glance.
“I’m talking about a damage limitation exercise, gentlemen,” said Klein. “I’m sure you will all agree with me that it serves no real purpose to prolong this unfortunate business with lengthy enquiries, the preparation of reports and the encouragement of prurient press interest which will only serve to promote fear and alarm in the general public.”
“Perish the thought,” thought Neef. It’s keep your mouth shut time again. He saw Pereira had reached the same conclusion.
“Frankly, I am asking for your cooperation in putting an end to this business,” said Klein, looking at Neef and Pereira.
“What exactly are you proposing, Dr Klein?” asked Neef.
“In return for your cooperation and silence, we in turn, will take no further action in bringing a prosecution against Menogen.”
“What?” exploded Pereira. “You know damn well that Menogen had nothing whatever to do with it!”
“Absolutely!” agreed Neef, equally angry. “It was all down to Farro-Jones and his damned ambition.”
“Unfortunately Dr Farro-Jones cannot be here to defend himself,” said Klein.
“Only because he’s in police custody!” stormed Neef.
“I understand that Dr Farro-Jones has undergone some kind of mental breakdown. He has been transferred to hospital. It may be some time before we can question him but of course, we accept your assertion that he has been engaged in illegal experimentation on Susan Little,” said Klein. “Most reprehensible and most regrettable but there is no actual evidence that links these experiments to the cancer deaths.”
“Jesus!” said Pereira.