Trauma

Seventeen

Lafferty closed Tyndall’s eyes with his forefinger and thumb before picking up Sarah’s belongings. Sarah herself seemed to be in a trance; she couldn’t take her eyes off the body. Lafferty put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently.

“It’s all my fault,” said Sarah quietly. “If I hadn’t been so stupid none of this would ever have happened.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Sarah,” said Lafferty. “Fate was holding the reins.”

Sarah shook her head and refused to listen, but Lafferty persisted. He made her look at him. “This is not your doing,” he insisted. “It just happened, that’s all. His death was an accident.”

Sarah looked back at Tyndall’s lifeless body. “He was a gifted man,” she said. “Whatever he tried to do to me.”

“Maybe,” said Lafferty coldly.

Sarah looked at him questioningly.

“Do you know how long he’s been living here?” asked Lafferty.

“He told me that he and his brother were brought up here. This was the family house. Why?”

“Because this is North Berwick. An intelligent man who’s lived here all his life must have known about the past connection with witchcraft and the Hand of Glory.”

“You think that Cyril was involved?” gasped an incredulous Sarah. “But he was a brilliant scientist! Why on earth would he get involved in anything criminal?”

Lafferty shook his head and said, “I don’t know, but you didn’t reckon on him being a rapist either.”

Sarah conceded the point in silence.

“Oh Ryan,” she whispered, her voice reflecting the hopelessness she felt. “This is all just too...”

Lafferty drew Sarah to him and held her for a moment before leading her slowly up the stairs.

“What do we do now?”

“We should call the police,” replied Lafferty.

Sarah considered this for a moment before saying slowly, “I managed to get the key to the Institute...”

Lafferty looked at her as if he found it hard to believe what she was suggesting. “You can’t be serious — after all you’ve been through,” he said softly.

“I want us to see it through together,” said Sarah firmly. “We’ve come this far.”

“If you’re absolutely sure...” said Lafferty, his voice betraying the doubts he felt.

“I’m sure,” said Sarah, but she sounded as if her confidence was balanced on a knife-edge. “If we call the police, these people might still get away with it. We owe it to John McKirrop, the O’Donnells, John Main and God knows how many others, to see that they don’t.”

Lafferty saw the determination in Sarah’s eyes and his heart went out to her. The feeling alarmed him but it was undeniable. “Come on then,” he said. “We’ll have to use your car. Mine has given up the ghost.”

Lafferty drove the Fiesta back at Sarah’s request. They didn’t speak until they had cleared the outskirts of North Berwick, when Sarah asked Lafferty how he had come to be there in the first place.

“I was worried about you,” he replied. He told her about the trick with the phone-pad.

“Ryan?”

“Yes?”

“Would you take your collar off, please?”

Lafferty glanced sideways then complied without question. He tossed it over his shoulder on to the back seat. Sarah rested her head against his arm. “That’s better,” she murmured. “And Ryan?”

“Yes?”

“Right now you are wondering what you should say. The answer is nothing. Just don’t say anything.”

Lafferty remained silent.

Sarah remained with her head resting against his arm for the remainder of the journey. She wasn’t asleep, but she kept her eyes closed until she heard the engine note slow as they approached a roundabout. She sat up straight and looked out of the window.

“How are you feeling?” Lafferty asked.

Sarah thought for a moment before replying, “I don’t think I’ve ever been so afraid in my life.”

As they drove through the outskirts of the city Sarah asked, “Do you think we could stop off at the hospital? I’d like to change.” She fingered her torn skirt.

“Of course.”

Lafferty was glad it was still raining as he parked Sarah’s Fiesta in the car-park outside the residency. It gave him a feeling of security. He supposed it was psychological, but a dark, wet night suggested that most people would be indoors. There would be less chance of being seen by casual passers-by.

Eventually, Sarah emerged from the building wearing jeans and her suede jacket. She ran down the steps and got into the car, brushing the rain from her hair with her hand. “Sorry I was so long,” she said.

Lafferty ignored the apology and said, “Sarah, you really don’t have to do this. I can go alone to the Institute. Why don’t you wait here and I’ll get in touch with you later?”

Lafferty was puzzled when he saw a flash of anger cross Sarah’s face. It was still reflected in her eyes when she said, “Ryan, don’t ever treat me like the little woman. Understood?”

“Understood,” replied Lafferty, a little taken aback.

Sarah wasn’t finished yet. She said, “This is as much my problem as it is yours and I’m the doctor in this team; I’m in a much better position than you to find my way round a medical research laboratory and understand what’s going on. If anyone stays behind, it should be you. You may be a man but you are a priest and in my book that makes you...” Sarah paused as she felt her mouth begin to run ahead of her brain.

“As much use as a chocolate spanner?” ventured Lafferty.

Sarah saw the humour in Lafferty’s eyes and her temper evaporated at once to be replaced by guilt. She let her body sag and she looked up to the heavens, saying, “What am I doing? What am I saying to the man who drove through the night to save me from a fate worse than death, the man who laid out the villain with a punch that would have made John Wayne look limp-wristed. He does all this and I start playing the aggrieved feminist!” Sarah shook her head.

“It wasn’t entirely unjustified,” said Lafferty. “You actually made a very good point.”

“Why do you have to be so bloody reasonable?” exploded Sarah.

Lafferty looked puzzled and Sarah burst into laughter. “What am I going to do with you?” she exclaimed.

When Lafferty still looked puzzled, Sarah said quietly, “Let’s both go to the Institute, shall we?” As the smiles faded, they both knew the time for laughter was over.

“Got a torch?” asked Lafferty.

“In the glove compartment,” Sarah replied. Lafferty started the car and they set off for the medical school.

A church clock struck one as Lafferty and Sarah made their way to the Institute. There was no security to speak of at the medical school, more a caretaker service to deal with late phone enquiries and keep a general eye on things. Despite the lateness of the hour, there were still a number of lights on in the main buildings. “Emergency lab services,” explained Sarah.

When they reached the Institute, Lafferty suggested that they wait in the shadows for a few minutes to make sure that there were no signs of activity inside the building. Being modern, a lot of glass had been used in its construction. Even a light on in a room at the back would have been visible from where they stood.

Sarah rubbed her arms as she became cold with the wait. Lafferty nodded and said, “All right, let’s go.” They flitted across to the door of the institute, and Sarah inserted the card in the electronic lock. There was a barely audible click and the door was released. Sarah ushered Lafferty inside, then closed the door again quietly. Both of them dropped to their knees to make sure they were not visible from outside; they waited a few moments until their nerves had calmed down.

Sarah pointed to the stairs at the back of the reception area and Lafferty nodded. But when they got to them they found that the stairs only went up. There were none leading down to the basement. Lafferty looked to his left and saw a door with a small glass panel in it. He went to have a look while Sarah checked the other side of the hall. Lafferty looked through the panel and saw steps leading down. “Over here!” he whispered.

Sarah joined him and he opened the door to let her pass through first. With a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure that all was still quiet outside, Lafferty joined her and they descended to the basement corridor. There was a light on in the corridor — just a single bulkhead lamp, covered in a wire mesh, but it made Lafferty and Sarah look at each other apprehensively. They stood still for a few moments, listening, but there was no sound to indicate that they might not be alone.

“Maybe it’s a safety thing,” whispered Lafferty. Sarah shrugged. They walked along the corridor, slowly examining the rooms on either side as they looked for the Sigma Lab. Sarah found it. The door had a white plastic sign on it with green lettering saying, SIGMA LABORATORY, AUTHORIZED STAFF ONLY. She tried the door but it was locked. Glancing at Lafferty she smiled wryly as if embarrassed that they had not reckoned on that possibility.

Lafferty placed his palms against the door to get an idea of how solid it was. He moved his head from side to side to indicate that it did nor seem all that secure to him and looked around for something he might use as a jemmy, but he found nothing.

“Well,” he sighed, taking a pace backwards. “In for a penny...”

Lafferty threw his shoulder hard against the door and had the satisfaction of hearing splintering sounds. He did it twice more and the door swung back quietly on its hinges. “Can we risk the light?” asked Sarah. “There aren’t any windows.”

“Better not,” replied Lafferty. “These ventilation grilles may lead straight through to the outside.” He briefly highlighted two wire-covered squares on the wall with the torch, then pointed it at the floor again.

The room was bigger than either of them had thought from the outside. It was actually a double room, with two doors leading out to the corridor. One half was obviously used for working on the bodies when they arrived. It had an operating table mounted on a central pedestal with a surgical lamp mounted above it. Instruments were arranged on metal trays on a side bench. There were two stainless steel sinks, one equipped with elbow taps so that they could be turned on and off without the operator having to use his hands.

“Could organs he removed here,” Lafferty asked Sarah.

“No,” replied Sarah firmly. “The facilities are not nearly good enough. This set up is just what you would need for removal of the Sigma probes.”

“Nothing out of the ordinary?” asked Lafferty.

Sarah shook her head and they moved through a central partition into the other half of the room. On the left was a small refrigerated body vault capable of accommodating two bodies. Lafferty swallowed as the torch beam picked out a coffin sitting opposite on the side bench. Sarah gripped his arm as they approached and looked at the lid. There was a brass plate fixed to it. On it was the inscription, MARTIN KEEGAN, RIP. The lid was loose and Lafferty pushed it aside. It was empty.

“The body’s missing,” he said.

“Try the fridge,” said Sarah.

Lafferty pulled the clasp and released the fridge door. There was no light inside so Sarah held the torch while he examined the contents. There was one white-shrouded body inside; the label attached to the big toe of the left foot said, Martin Keegan. Lafferty stood up straight and felt thoroughly dejected. “Well, that’s that,” he said, berating himself. “All wrong... we got it all wrong.”

“Not necessarily,” said Sarah softly. “With Logan being away, they may have decided not to use Martin Keegan’s body. It doesn’t mean to say they didn’t steal the others.”

“I suppose not,” agreed Lafferty. “But this was our last chance to prove it.” He was about to shut the fridge door when Sarah suddenly said, “Wait!”

“What is it?” asked Lafferty, alarmed at the note in her voice. He could see by reflected torch light that Sarah was staring at something in the fridge, but he couldn’t understand what. Her hand was shaking slightly and the movement was amplified in the torch beam.

“His foot,” said Sarah.

“What about it?”

“His left foot is undamaged. Martin Keegan’s left foot was badly injured in his accident.”

Lafferty gripped the end of the tray that the sheet-covered corpse was lying on and slid it out of the fridge.

The sheet was cold and damp as he unwound it from the head. He heard Sarah gasp as it came away. “Oh my God,” she exclaimed, taking a step backwards. “It’s Derek Logan!”

Lafferty saw that she was right. He remembered Logan from the night he had caught the three of them together in HTU. “The much maligned Dr Logan,” he said thoughtfully.

Sarah looked utterly bemused. “I don’t understand,” she confessed. “What’s going on?”

“I think we may have done Dr Logan a disservice,” said Lafferty. “We let dislike colour our judgement.”

“You mean he wasn’t involved in the body theft?” asked Sarah in astonishment. “But he was always on about the lack of transplant organs and how Murdoch Tyndall didn’t press the relatives hard enough for them!”

“We didn’t know about his son,” said Lafferty. “We should have listened more carefully to what Logan was complaining about. I think Murdoch Tyndall didn’t press the relatives for permission... because he didn’t want them to give permission!”

“What?” exclaimed Sarah.

“It makes sense now. John Main said that Tyndall asked him at precisely the wrong moment. You yourself suggested he did the same thing with the O’Donnells. He did that because he didn’t want the relatives to give transplant permission.”

“But why not?”

“Because he and his brother wanted to use the bodies for something else,” said Lafferty.

Sarah’s mouth fell open. “But what?” she asked in a voice that shock had reduced to a whisper.

“I don’t know, Sarah,” said Lafferty.

“But why kill Logan?” asked Sarah, desperate to seek out flaws in Lafferty’s argument.

“I think when Logan came to see you about telling tales to Tyndall he suddenly realised that there was something fishy about the whole thing. He realised while he was speaking to you that Tyndall must actually have wanted the relatives to say no. He must have gone to Tyndall to have it out with him — the row you heard them having. When he didn’t get any joy out of Tyndall he, like us, must have worked out that removal of the Sigma probes presented the best chance for ‘diverting’ the bodies. He must have come here to the Institute and this is the result.” They both looked down at Logan’s corpse.

“Good God,” said Sarah.

A sudden whirring noise startled them. “What is it,” asked Sarah, her voice betraying panic.

“A lift!” replied Lafferty, suddenly realising what the sound was. He caught a glimpse of light coming from a slight crack in one of the wall panels. Pulling Sarah out of the way, he indicated that she get under the bench. As soon as she was hidden, he joined her. A few seconds later they heard the lift come to a halt and the wall panel slide back.

Lafferty couldn’t see who got out, only that it was a man, and he was wearing white surgical trousers and short, white rubber boots. The man crossed the lab and let out an oath when he reached the door to the corridor and saw the burst lock. “Jesus H. Christ!” he exclaimed and then started running along the corridor.

“We’re trapped!” said Sarah.

“Come on!” said Lafferty.

“But where?”

Lafferty indicated the lift and pulled Sarah towards it.

“If he’s going to search the basement we can beat him to the front door!”

He slid open the door to the lift and they got in. The lift was long and narrow. Lafferty didn’t have to be a genius to work out why. He pressed the ‘up’ button and nothing happened. He pressed it again and then four times rapidly in succession. Still nothing. He looked around for some kind of brake switch or emergency button that might have been holding the car, but there was none. There was only one other button. It had a down arrow on it. In desperation, he pressed it and the lift door slid shut. He looked at Sarah with amazement on his face as they both realised that they were going down. They had got on in the basement but they were definitely going down!

Sarah let her head slump forward on to Lafferty’s chest and he shared her dejection.

Lafferty broke away from Sarah and bunched his fists in readiness. He had no idea what to expect when the lift doors opened, but he was going to go down fighting. The doors slid back to reveal nothing more sinister than a plain, green-painted wall. They stepped out into a narrow corridor leading to two swing doors. There was no point in going back up in the lift. It did not reach the upper floors. It simply connected the Sigma lab to this sub-basement. The long narrow car had been designed to carry coffins. The missing bodies did not go off to some fancy private clinic; they obviously came here.

Sarah looked first through the glass in the swing doors and let out her breath in a low whistle. Lafferty took a look and saw what seemed to him a unit very much like HTU. It was lit with low green lighting and each bed was surrounded with life-support machinery. The patients were enclosed by inflated plastic bubbles.

There did not seem to be any staff around, so Lafferty and Sarah went in through the doors and approached the nearest bubble. “Oh my God,” said Sarah, putting her hand to her mouth. “It’s John’s son! It’s Simon Main!”

“But he’s dead!” exclaimed Lafferty. “What’s he doing here?”

“They’re all dead,” said Sarah, looking up the line. “Brain dead. But their bodies are still being kept ventilated and nourished.”

They moved on to the next bubble and found Martin Keegan. Pumps and relays clicked and hissed perpetual life into him.

“I don’t understand,” said Lafferty. “What’s the point of it all? If they are all brain dead, why keep them on the machines?”

“I’m not sure,” whispered Sarah. “Maybe this will tell us something.” She had seen a plastic clip-board hanging on the wall between the two bays. She lifted it off its hook and read, “MAIN. CHALLENGE DOSE 5, VARICELLA ZOSTER, 10.7 PFU per ml.”

“Mean anything?” asked Lafferty.

Sarah nodded thoughtfully and turned the page. “KEEGAN, PROTECTION I, PRIMARY COMPLETE, SECONDARY +2, CHALLENGE 1 DUE +14. H. SIMPLEX.”

“Well?” prompted Lafferty.

“They are using these people as human cell cultures,” said Sarah, not hiding her distaste. “Their bodies are being used as laboratory animals.”

“What do you mean?”

“Viruses won’t grow outside living cells,” said Sarah. “To work with them in the lab you need some kind of cell culture system to keep them alive. This usually takes the form of a tissue culture system — usually animal cells growing artificially in glass bottles with some kind of liquid nutrient. It’s not as good as using human cells but the availability of human cells is, of course, limited — and they don’t survive well in artificial culture anyway. They tend to die off after a few days.”

“But if you use a whole person...” said Lafferty, looking down at Martin Keegan.

“Precisely,” said Sarah. “They’re using whole bodies as living tissue cultures for viruses.”

“But what for?” asked Lafferty.

“The record cards suggest that Simon Main’s body has been immunised with the Herpes vaccine and been challenged five times with the virus, the last time with Varicella zoster.”

“And Martin Keegan?”

“I think the code means that he has just been given his primary dose of vaccine. He still has to get a second injection in two days and then he will be challenged with Herpes simplex virus in fourteen days’ time.”

“My God,” said Lafferty, his voice betraying the revulsion he felt. “This is repulsive.”

“This must be how they developed and tested their vaccine so quickly,” said Sarah. “They were using a human model from the beginning, so there was no need for small animal tests followed by time-consuming, expensive tests on primates.”

“But surely the Department of Health must have asked questions?” asked Lafferty. “If they granted a licence for the vaccine they must have known how it was developed and tested?”

“You would think so,” said Sarah.

“There must have been paperwork, surely?”

Sarah said quietly, “The government put up half the money for the Head Trauma Unit.”

“Good God,” whispered Lafferty as he saw what she was suggesting. “They knew all along what was happening to these people.”

“Just another case of the end justifying the means.”

“It’s incredible!”

“I remember my father telling me of the anguish that ran through the medical profession after the full extent of the Nazi medical experiments became known after the war. All that pain and suffering with people in the camps being subjected to nightmarish experiments. And all in the cause of advancing medical science. But the worst thing, he said, was not the fact that people who called themselves doctors had carried out such atrocities, it was the awful fact that they had advanced medical knowledge. In doing the unspeakable they achieved what normal researchers would have taken ten times as long to accomplish. It seemed somehow like a...”

“Triumph of evil,” said Lafferty.

“Yes,” agreed Sarah.

“Evil does triumph sometimes,” said Lafferty. “The important thing is to continue recognising it as evil, and not to start crediting it as being anything else. And this,” he said looking around him, “is evil.”

The sound of raised voices coming from the far end of the room interrupted them and brought home the hopelessness of their position. Lafferty looked around then pointed to the bed on which Martin Keegan lay. “Get under!” he whispered.

Sarah slid under the bed and Lafferty followed with a great deal more awkwardness. He found his face pressed up against a glass tank that was receiving the waste products from Keegan’s body. The voices were getting louder and they could now hear what was being said.

Murdoch Tyndall’s voice said angrily, “This can’t go on, Sotillo. We’ll have to delay introduction of the vaccine.”

“Nonsense!” replied Sotillo. “It’s a chance in a million reaction. We can’t let just one isolated case ruin the whole project. There’s too much at stake.”

“But we don’t know that it’s just one case, Sotillo,” protested Tyndall. “We don’t have enough figures.”

The two men had stopped in front of Martin Keegan’s bed. Lafferty could see by their feet that they were facing each other.

“Look!” said Sotillo. “This is no time to get cold feet. There’s always a risk with any kind of vaccination. We’ve just had a bit of bad luck, that’s all.”

“And what happens if it isn’t just a bit of bad luck?” argued Tyndall. “I say we call a halt until we know for sure.”

“No!” said Sotillo. “We go ahead as planned.”

Lafferty saw one pair of feet turn and head for the lift corridor. The other pair followed, Tyndall continuing to argue.

“What was all that about?” whispered Lafferty to Sarah.

“Sounds like something has gone wrong with the vaccine,” replied Sarah. “Did you see where they came from?”

“Somewhere up the top end,” replied Lafferty, moving his head in the direction of the far end of the room.

“Maybe there’s a way out up there?” suggested Sarah.

“Let’s see.”

They slid out from under the bed and hurried up to the head of the room which was in deep shadow. They found a narrow passage to their left where they deduced Tyndall and Sotillo must have come from. Lafferty led the way cautiously along it, keeping his back against the wall and peering out slowly when they came to a right-angled turning. His heart sank when he saw the passage end in a door marked, ISOLATION SUITE. He straightened up and Sarah joined him at his side. “No way out,” he said.

“Try the door,” said Sarah.

Lafferty nodded, recognising that they had nothing to lose by going on. There was no way out behind them save for the lift. The thought made him realise that Tyndall and Sotillo must have been told of the break-in by now. He pushed the door in front of him and it clicked open. The room was in darkness, but he could hear the now familiar sound of a life-support machine and could see the coloured LEDs blinking on the control panels. He felt along the wall to his right with an open palm and found the light switch.

The room contained one life-support bay, similar to the ones outside, but before Lafferty or Sarah could take a look at the patient lying there, they heard the sound of loud voices and Lafferty turned out the light again.

“They must know we’re down here!” whispered Sarah urgently.

“Maybe not,” replied Lafferty. “Maybe they’re checking just in case. Get under the bed!”

Sarah got down on the floor in the darkness and crawled across to where she remembered the end of the bed was. Lafferty followed and urged her to hurry as the voices grew louder.

“I can’t!” said Sarah. “There are some boxes in the way! There’s no room!”

“Try going in from the side!” urged Lafferty.

Sarah slithered round to the side of the bed and managed to get underneath, but there was no room left for Lafferty.

“The boxes are too heavy. I can’t move them!” said Sarah.

Lafferty clapped his hand to his forehead in anguish. The shouting voices outside were getting very near and there was nowhere else to hide except perhaps...

He tugged at the side of the plastic bubble enclosing the patient and it came free. He crawled in, feeling his way in the dark, warm, humid atmosphere inside the plastic, and lay down beside the patient. If the searchers, as he hoped they might, just switched on the light and took a quick look into the room they wouldn’t see him.

Lafferty was very aware of the patient’s chest rising and falling in response to the ventilator as he lay as still as a corpse. He tried to breathe as little as possible, partly through fear, but also because of the sweet, sickly smell that now filled his nostrils inside the plastic bubble.

“They can’t possibly be down here,” he heard Tyndall say outside the door. “It was probably yobs who broke in. They’d be looking for drugs. And even if it was one of these nosy parkers, they wouldn’t have found anything up in the Sigma lab — and there’s nothing to suggest that they found the lift.”

“We have to be sure,” replied Sotillo.

Lafferty heard the door open and the room was suddenly filled with light. For the first time he saw his companion on the bed and it was a vision from hell. He could not stop himself gasping at the nightmarish face that was only a few centimetres from his own. For a moment he thought it was some kind of animal, but then he realised that the face was human. The skin was completely covered in suppurating pustules; they were the source of the sickly sweet smell. Even the eyes were affected with the sores and a sticky, yellow exudate oozed out from encrusted lids. The face jerked rhythmically as air was injected into the lungs by the ventilator.

Lafferty felt the urge to vomit become almost overpowering. He could taste it in his mouth as he kept his lips pursed and continued to fight the gagging in his throat. For some reason, he felt compelled to continue staring at the apparition in front of him, following the hideous contours of the face as guilt began to mingle with the revulsion he felt. This had been a human being, he told himself. He should be feeling compassion and pity, not fear and revulsion. He continued to stare at the horror until a new thought crept into the nightmare and exploded inside his head. This was not just a human being... there was something familiar about the outline of the forehead and cheek. His eyes widened as he realised the truth. The stinking, pustulated body lying beside him had belonged to Mary O’Donnell!

The realisation proved too much for Lafferty. He turned away violently to the left and threw up, fighting his way out of the plastic bubble as he did so. He ended up on the floor on his knees in front of Tyndall, Sotillo and two other men dressed in white. Sarah slid out from under the bed and put a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s Mary,” he gasped, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “It’s Mary O’Donnell.”

Sarah got to her feet and looked at the body inside the bubble. She recoiled before saying quietly, “Disseminated Herpes. The new vaccine did this to her, didn’t it?” She looked to Tyndall and Sotillo for an answer.

“A chance misfortune,” said Sotillo smoothly. “It happens sometimes with vaccines. You’re a doctor, you should know that.”

“But you don’t know what the chances are with this particular kind of vaccine. Right?” asked Sarah.

Tyndall and Sotillo looked at each other as they realised that Sarah must have heard their earlier conversation.

“How could you possibly get involved in something like this?” Sarah demanded of Tyndall.

“It’s not as if they were live patients we were using,” replied Tyndall. “Can’t you see the advantages to be gained by using such a culture system?”

“Culture system?” exploded Sarah. “They were people, for God’s sake, not culture systems!”

“Emotional claptrap!” snapped Sotillo. “They were dead at the outset. Can’t you rise above such pettiness? You’re a doctor.”

“It’s much to her credit that she can’t,” said Lafferty, getting to his feet and standing beside Sarah. “Maybe she recognises greed and avarice even when it’s disguised as a quest for medical advance. People like you don’t give a damn for anything other than their own glory and advancement. Money and prizes! That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”

“I don’t think we could expect anything else from an anachronism like yourself,” sneered Sotillo. “You and your kind are two thousand years out of date!”

Lafferty made a move towards Sotillo but the two white-clad attendants blocked his way. “Really, Father. Violence, and you a man of the cloth,” sneered Sotillo.

“I’m looking at the face of evil, Sotillo,” replied Lafferty. “I don’t think my church would have the slightest problem with me smashing it through the back of your head.”

Sotillo seemed discomfited with the look on Lafferty’s face. He said to one of the attendants. “Prepare two bays out there.”

Lafferty smiled ruefully and said, “And now there are to be two more murders in the cause of medical science. Right?”

Sotillo didn’t reply and Tyndall looked at his feet in silence.

“Well, Doctor?” said Sarah. “Are you going to murder us?”

Tyndall seemed embarrassed and lost for words.

“It shouldn’t be too difficult. After all, it’s not as if it’s the first time, is it?”

“What do you mean?” demanded Tyndall.

“John McKirrop,” said Sarah. “And John Main, and Derek Logan, you killed them all, didn’t you? You came back to the hospital that night after I phoned you and pushed McKirrop’s skull back into his brain. And later on, when Logan knew too much and Main found the lab, you disposed of them too.”

“McKirrop was a no-account tramp,” said Tyndall. “He’d probably have, drunk himself to death within a year anyway. As for Main and Logan, we couldn’t allow them to get away either. Don’t you understand? This work is far too important to let anything get in the way. The Herpes vaccine is only the beginning. We’re on the threshold of being able to fight viruses at molecular level! We’re talking about an end to disease!”

Sarah and Lafferty did not reply.

“We’re wasting time,” said Sotillo. “Lock them in here until the bays are ready for them.”