want a slowly escalating series running battles on the streets with police. We just want to contain the population within the confines of the area until they’re vaccinated.’
‘That may be
‘There’s always been tremendous resentment in the past when the army have been used in civilian situations,’ said Mary Martin. ‘Surely, if it became necessary, police could be drafted in from other areas so they can control the situation through sheer weight of numbers rather than involve the army?’
Tulloch shrugged in a negative way. ‘I don’t think it will come to that,’ he said. ‘I’m confident my men and I can maintain law and order.’
‘The truth is, we just don’t know what’s going to happen, either with the disease or with public reaction,’ said Dewar. ‘I suggest a compromise should it come to it. We agree to call the military in sooner rather than later but we use them solely to secure the perimeter allowing the superintendent and his men to carry out normal police duties within the estate.’
‘Oh God,’ said Finlay, sounding weary. ‘This is all beginning to sound nightmarish.’
Wright and Dewar were the only two at the table who were convinced of what was right in their own minds. The others were still trying to think of alternatives to sealing off the estate. There was silence for a full minute.
Wright broke it. ‘Doing nothing is not an option,’ he said. ‘Neither is waiting and seeing. We’re already running out of time.’
‘I’d feel happier about physical containment if we had vaccine to offer the people affected,’ said Finlay.
‘But we don’t and we can’t afford to wait until it arrives,’ said Dewar flatly. ‘As I see it, the majority of people living in Muirhouse will be ordinary, decent citizens. who’ll be stunned by the announcement. They’ll accept the situation, at least for the first day or two, by which time the vaccine will be here. It’s the junkies and yobs we have to worry about. They’ll probably put up resistance from the word go. They’ll see it as a licence to cause mayhem under the banner of fighting for individual civil liberty or some such high-sounding ideal.’
‘In my experience, fighting for individual civil liberty usually involves smashing Dixon’s window and walking off with a television set,’ said Tulloch sourly.
‘The shops will have to be closed, the schools too,’ said Wright. ‘Local businesses shut down, public transport suspended.’
Finlay, already suffering from the effects of lack of sleep, supported his head in his hands as the administrative nightmare unfolded. ‘What d’you think, Mr Rankin?’ he asked.
‘It’ll take a couple of days to set up but if that’s what the team wants sir, I’ll make arrangements.’ replied Rankin without a trace of personal opinion.
‘I don’t think Social Services will be able to cope,’ said Mary Martin. ‘And my people are going to be run off their feet.’
‘We can put out an appeal for volunteer help from the rest of the country,’ said Wright. ‘There should be enough vaccine floating around the various health authorities to offer them protection.
People lapsed into silence again for a short time before Dewar said, ‘I think we need a decision.’
All eyes fell on George Finlay who looked haunted. ‘Well, if there’s no other way,’ he said. ‘So be it. I’ll draft an announcement and the Scottish Office people can make the necessary arrangements.’
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
