scratch each other’s backs. You review my grant application favourably and I’ll do the same for you. Yugh!’
‘This is outrageous! I don’t know why I don’t just …’
‘Three papers in
Hutton looked away to the side, deliberately taking time to compose himself. He seemed to be biting his tongue. When he finally looked back at Malloy he said in controlled fashion, ‘I appreciate you have been under a lot of strain recently, Steven. Ali’s suicide must have been a great shock and now the trial results on your vaccine suggesting it might be less effective than we’d hoped …’
‘The word you’re searching for is, useless.’
‘Be that as it may, we sometimes have to accept set-backs. Learn from our mistakes. Pick ourselves up.’
Malloy had to consciously stop himself turning the interview into a musical. “And start all over again”. He kept quiet.
‘I suggest we forget our little altercation, put our differences behind us and start afresh. I would be the last one to insist on robotic behaviour among the staff but we must have some standards or we’d have anarchy.’
‘I appreciate that,’ said Malloy quietly.
‘Good. Perhaps you could take a look at some of your paperwork backload, especially the staff appraisals. They’re long overdue.’
‘They used to say that life was what happened to you while you were planning for the future, now it’s what happens to you while you’re filling in forms.’
I can sympathise to a certain extent but the institute insists that every member of staff be interviewed by his immediate superior at least once a year and an accurate record kept of performance to date, achievements, plans for the future etc. It’s modern practice.’
‘Modern doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good,’ grumbled Malloy. ‘What happens to these appraisals anyway. Where do you send them?’
Hutton moved in his chair. ‘Actually, we don’t.’
‘You don’t send them anywhere?’
‘They remain here on file.’
‘You file them?’
‘It’s useful to have accurate progress records of everyone on the staff.’
Malloy wanted to scream out, But is it necessary?’ but he didn’t. In the interests of harmony, even pretend harmony, he kept his mouth shut.
‘I’d also like you to have a word with that technician of yours, Ferguson. He’s not been attending mandatory safety courses on the handling of infectious material.’
‘George Ferguson has been handling infectious material for thirty years,’ pointed out Malloy. ‘He was handling typhoid and tuberculosis in an open lab while I was still playing with my train set.’
‘That’s beside the point.’
Malloy bit his tongue again but Hutton caught the look on his face. ‘The rules don’t differentiate. All technical staff are required to attend refresher courses. Frankly I don’t understand why you took him on in the first place. he’s a constant thorn in the side of the admin staff.’
‘I took him on because he’s been moved around from pillar to post ever since his hospital closed; I needed a good technician. The trust turned down the technical post on the grant application I put in but funded the rest of it. It was like giving me a car but saying I could only have three wheels on it.’
‘I’m sure they had their reasons.’
‘It’s just that they’re not obvious to anyone but themselves. Anyway, George has had a lot of experience. He may not be the most diplomatic of people but I don’t need a diplomat. I need someone who can handle viruses.’
Let’s agree to disagree on the merits of Mr Ferguson,’ said Hutton. ‘What I really wanted to talk to you about this morning was the use of fragments of the smallpox virus. You use them I understand.’
‘Sure, we’ve been trying to understand some of the tricks that virus performs to get round the human immune system. It’s a pretty fascinating bug.’
‘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?’
