I talk.' There was a groan behind me and I turned to see Cregar stirring. I said, 'Tell your men guarding the laboratories it's just as important that no one comes out. In fact, it's more important. This place being what it is there's probably some guns somewhere. In emergency use them.' Archie looked grave. 'Is it so fearsome a thing?' 'I don't know,' I said wearily. 'I'm just taking prophylactic measures. Get busy, will you?' I went back to Cregar, helped him to get up, and sat him in a chair where he slumped flaccidly. He was dazed and in shock; too old to cope with the rough stuff any more. I said, 'Cregar, can you hear me?' He muttered something indistinguishable, and I slapped his cheek. 'Can you hear me?' 'Yes,' he whispered. 'Don't try to leave. There's a man outside with orders to shoot. Do you understand?' He looked at me with glazed eyes, and nodded. 'Doesn't matter,' he muttered. 'I'm dead anyway. So are you.' 'We'll all be dead in a hundred years,' I said, and went to look again at the cultures in the broken petri dishes. The stuff looked harmless enough but I was careful not to touch it. Penny had described the elaborate precautions which were taken to prevent the escape of dangerous organisms from laboratories and, according to her, the lab I was now in wasn't up to snuff for what Carter had been doing. The cultures could have been ordinary E. coli and, as such, perfectly harmless. But if they were cultures of E. coli which Carter had diddled around with then they could be dangerous in totally unpredictable ways. Cregar wasn't a scientist but he knew what Carter was up to, and the broken dishes had been enough to scare him half to death. From now on no chances would be taken and I hoped there had not been an escape already when Archie had opened the door. I didn't think so-the laboratory had low air pressure and I'd got him out fast.
Twenty minutes later I had Ogilvie on the phone. I wasted no time on politeness and answered none of the questions he shot at me. I said, 'This is a matter for urgency, so get it right the first time. Have you something to write with?' 'I'll record.' I heard a click.
'Cregar's laboratory on Cladach Duillich has run wild. There's one serious case of infection and two suspected. The organism causing it is new to medicine and probably man-made; it's also highly infectious.
I don't know if it's a killer but it's highly likely. You'll have to set the alarm ringing and probably Lumsden, Penny's boss, is the best man to do it. Tell him hospitalisation for three is needed in P4-repeat-P4 conditions. He'll know what that means. Tell him I suggest Porton Down, but he might have a better idea.' 'I'll get on to it immediately,' said Ogilvie. 'Who are the three?' 'The serious case is Penny Ashton.' There was a sharp withdrawal of breath. 'Oh, Christ!
I'm sorry, Malcolm.' I went on, 'The suspected cases are Cregar and myself.' 'For the love of God!' said Ogilvie. 'What's been going on up there?' I ignored him. 'There's a helicopter pad on Cladach Duillich so Lumsden had better use a chopper. Tell him the man to see here is a Dr. Carter. He's the chap who cooked up whatever hellbrew has got loose.' 'I've got that.' 'Then make it quick. I think Penny is dying,'
I said bleakly.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT Cregar and I were in an odd position.
Loathing each other beyond all belief, we were condemned to each other's company for an unspecified period. The next few hours were to be extremely uncomfortable, but I tried to make them as comfortable as possible. Archie Ferguson came back as soon as I had spoken to Ogilvie and the expression on his face was terrifying. He looked like one of the Old Testament prophets might look after inciting one of the more dire chapters of the Bible. 'May their souls rot forever in hell!' he burst out. 'Take it easy,' I said. 'There are practical things to do.'
I thought of Ogilvie recording my telephone conversation and it gave me an idea. 'See if you can find a tape recorder. I'll need it.'
Archie simmered down. 'Aye, I'll see what I can do.' 'And we'll need food in here, but you can give us food once and once only. What you do is this. You open the outer door of the laboratory and put the food on the floor just inside. Tell me when you've closed the door and I'll come out and get it. It can be done once only because I can't risk contamination through the airlock, so you'd better give us enough for three meals. If you can find vacuum flasks for coffee that would be a help.' Ferguson looked past me. 'Is yon man the Cregar you spoke of?'
'Yes.' 'Then he gets nothing from me.' 'You'll do as I say,' I said sharply. 'We both eat or neither of us eats.' He took a deep breath, nodded curtly, then laid down the microphone and went away. Half an hour later he came back. 'Your food's there. I did better than flasks; there's a coffee percolator to make your own.' 'Thanks.' I had another idea. 'Archie, this laboratory is maintained at a lower air pressure than the outside. That means pumps, and pumps mean electricity. Put someone to watch the generator; I don't want it stopping, either by breakdown or lack of fuel. Will you see to that?' 'Aye. It won't stop.' I went into the air lock and got the food-a pile of sandwiches-and also found a small battery-powered cassette tape recorder. I put everything on the table next to the telephone. Cregar was apathetic and looked at the sandwiches without interest. I filled the percolator from a tap on one of the benches and got the coffee going. Cregar accepted coffee but he wouldn't eat. Unobtrusively I switched on the recorder; I wanted Cregar condemned out of his own mouth. I said, 'We've a lot to talk about.' 'Have we?' he said without interest. 'Nothing matters anymore.' 'You're not dead yet, and you may not be if Ogilvie does his stuff. When did Benson learn of Ashton's interest in genetics?' He was silent for a moment, then said, 'Must have been 1971. He saw that Ashton was keeping up with the girl's studies, and then starting to do a lot of work on his own, usually at the weekends-a lot of calculating. He tried to get a look at it, but Ashton kept it locked away.' Cregar brooded. 'Ashton never did like me. I've often wondered if he knew what I was doing.' He waved his hand at the laboratory. 'This, I mean. It's supposed to be secret, but a man with money can usually find out what he wants to know.' He shrugged. 'Anyway, he made damned certain that Benson didn't lay an eye on his work.' 'That empty vault must have come as a shock.' He nodded. 'Benson knew about the vault but never managed to get inside.
And when Ogilvie told me it was empty I didn't believe him. It was only when he offered to let one of my forensic chaps look at the vault that I accepted the fact.' He looked up. 'You're a clever man. I never thought of the railway. I ought to have done. Ashton wasn't the man to fool about with toy trains.' Now Cregar had started to talk he positively flowed. I suppose he thought there was no reason to keep his silence. It was a sort of deathbed confession. I said, 'What I can't understand was how you engineered Mayberry's acid attack-and why. That's the bit that seems senseless.' 'It was senseless,' said Cregar. 'I had nothing to do with it. I didn't even know Mayberry existed until the police tracked him down. Do you remember when you appeared before the interdepartmental committee, Ogilvie said something about you 'exploding Ashton out of Stockholm'? Well, I exploded him out of England.' 'How?' He shrugged. 'Opportunism combined with planning. I'd been wanting to have a dig at Ashton for a long time. I wanted to get him out of that house so I could get into that vault. I thought whatever he had would be ripe. I'd already made preparations-rented the flat and opened the bank account in Stockholm, got the Israeli passport, and so on. All I needed was a trigger. Then along came that maniac, Mayberry-most opportunely. I got Benson to panic Ashton, talking of threats to the other girl, and so on. Benson told him my department couldn't cope with that sort of thing unless Ashton got out, that we were prepared to help, and that we had a safe hideaway for him, which of course we had. And after all that the damned vault was empty.' 'But why did Benson kill Ashton?' 'Standing orders from thirty years ago,' said Cregar simply. 'Ashton wasn't to be allowed to go back to the Russians. If there was a chance of him falling into Russian hands Benson was to kill him. Benson had every reason to think you were Russians.' 'Jesus!' I said. 'What sort of man was Benson to kill Ashton after being with him thirty years?' Cregar gave me a lopsided smile. 'He had gratitude, I suppose; and personal loyalty-too' I remembered my musings in the dark room and, out of curiosity, said, 'Cregar, why did you do all this?' He looked at me in surprise. 'A man must leave his mark on the world.' I felt chilled.
There wasn't much I wanted to know after that, but, the dam now broken, Cregar rambled on interminably, and I was glad when the telephone rang. It was Ogilvie. 'There'll be an RAF helicopter on its way with a medical team. Lumsden thinks you're right about Porton and he's made the arrangements.' He paused. 'He also wants me to pass on his apologies-I don't know why.' 'I do. Thank him for me. When will the chopper get here?' 'They're assembling the team now. I'd say six hours. How's Miss Ashton?' 'I don't know,' I said bitterly. 'I can't get to her. She's in a coma. You can tell that to Lumsden, too.'
Ogilvie was inclined to talk but I cut him off. I wasn't in the mood for that. Half an hour later the phone rang again and I found Archie Ferguson on the line. 'There's someone called Starkie wants to talk to the man Carter. Shall I let him?' 'Let me talk to Starkie.' The earphone crackled and a deep voice said, 'Richard Starkie here-is that Dr. Carter?' 'Malcolm Jaggard here. Who are you?' 'I'm a doctor speaking from Porton Down. Are you one of the infected men?' 'Yes.'
'Any symptoms starting to show?' 'Not yet.' 'If Carter manufactured this bug he'll know more about it than anyone. I need the information.' 'Right,' I said. 'If you don't get satisfaction from him let me know. Are you on the line, Archie?' 'Aye.' 'Let them talk. If Carter wants persuading I'm sure you know what to do.' They came for us seven hours later, dressed like spacemen in plastic clothing with self-contained breathing apparatus. They put us in
