A family of drugs

He had spent most of his working life on the project. He knew it was niche, he knew he was the only one operating in the field but something told him there must be a relationship worth exploring. He was a scientist with head bent low, following a belief.

The relationship was key and, as fears grew about the ongoing effectiveness of the previous wonder drugs, his work became more important. He just had to find out if Unclebiotics would work. It would be a family of drugs.

This Was the Day

Written without correction or going back. Just as it tumbled from head to fingers. Doesn't make it good, just what it is

This was the day
This was the day I wanted
The longest day
With the woman I love
A day to treasure
A day to remember
A memory for the shelf
To be pulled down 
And lived again
When the days are short and dark
When the mind is clouded
And the light hidden 
By the fears and worries
That haunt the the night
I can stand facing remembered sun
Staring at the sky
Eyelids shut, bathed in warmth 
Holding the hand of my love
My shadow cast behind me
Unseen
This was the day  

23 hours - the twentieth hour

19.00. The email has now reached the media. Broadcasters and publishers all over the UK are transmitting the news. People are advised to go inside and stay where they are. Do not travel or move about on the streets if that can be avoided. Those already travelling should get out as soon as they can and seek shelter. A further announcement will be made in two hours. The journalist reads the statement and decides it’s time to talk to his Editor.

19.05. The Health Service is experiencing demand levels that are already beginning to causing collapse. The media information is stating that the skin reactions are caused by the high levels of pollution. Patients showing signs must be isolated immediately. A number of Doctor’s in A&E are already doubting that this is a reaction to pollution.

19.10. In the basement the maps are being updated with information fed from the hospitals. It is clear that, with a few exceptions, the trails of infections lead from near Betcherton to London almost following the railway lines. There is still a chance to contain the spread if they act quickly. The army is immediately actioned. The commander in the basement cannot resist making a sly comment about having reduced numbers due to cuts.

19.15. The Editor and senior team cannot believe what they have just heard. It is so massive, so terrifying that they just can’t credit it. And yet, something about it, possibly it’s very scale and perverseness make it seem real. Finally the Editor let’s out a sentence that has rarely echoed in this room because it is so bald. ‘People deserve to know the truth’. The next chapter of horror is about to be written.

19.20. The lads and girls leave the underground and are surprised to see the streets near Jane’s mum’s flat are really quiet and empty. ‘What the hell’s going on, it’s like a Zombie movie,’ says one and the others laugh. Within a few moments they have climbed the stair and are inside. Jane turns on her computer while the other get glasses for the drink they have bought. After logging in the USB stick is inserted and the password box flashes up.

19.25. News is delivered straight away to both the basement and, in another office, the Zurich team. Tracking is underway and the Minister authorises the Army to locate the stick. They will be in full protective clothes and can use weapons if required. This news is also leaked to the man in control of the Zurich operation via his PA. This is no time to reveal their involvement so discretion is the answer. Besides the growth in public illness is making him nervous.

19.30. They are having fun trying different passwords. Each shouting ruder and ruder thoughts and laughing as they fail. Finally the boy who took the USB stick from the computer at the shop says ‘Armageddon’. Having spelt it wrong twice they finally enter it and the screen unlocks. They all turn to the boy I awe before one of the girls shouts and points. ‘What the f**k has happened to your arm.

19.35. The first edition of their paper will be in the morning but they are going to put teasers on line to make sure there will be record sales. Having reviewed the copy four times the lawyers have finally approved it. They sit and watch the screen in the board room as it goes onto the site. The online editor has never had this much attention. He watches the site hits bar. It remains stubbornly stuck where it was and then there begins a gentle increase.

19.40. With the army moving towards the USB stick the Zurich team look to their new young boss. He tells them to wait outside and asks them to send in his PA. She slowly walks in and shuts the door behind herself. He is sitting at the desk where for so many years her lover had sat. He looks up to her. He is worn out and looking visibly older already. ‘Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown’, she thinks. He looks up at her. ‘What would he have done?’ He asks her quietly.

19.45. The girls are screaming. The pus is weeping from his arm and the rash and boils have gone to his face. He is slumped in the corner. One of the boys is staring and can’t stop shouting ‘what the f**k is going on.’ He turns to them and sees a boil on one of the girls faces. He screams even louder and points. Their screams are drowned out by the sound of a helicopter landing in the park opposite. They rush to the window in time to see a stream of people in white suits rushing to the house.

19.50. She has given him her counsel. His previous boss and the ‘father of the organisation’ knew when to cut his losses. There is no way they can compete with the army, it would make them too public and potentially unravel too much. They key is now to protect themselves and their clients. A knock on the door ends their conversation. One of the Zurich team says, ‘You’d better see this.’

19.55. In the basement the screen shows the front page of a national newspapers website. There is a moment of jaw dropping silence as people begin to scan the article. ‘Where did they get this from?’ he asks no one in particular. The article is accompanied by photographs of some of the most powerful and influential people not just in the UK but worldwide. His photo is in the centre of the web. ‘But it’s rubbish,’ says Faith, ‘Isn’t it?’ The silence makes her repeat the question. ‘Isn’t it?’

Seismology of the face

He was obsessed with his idea, had been for years. It became an obsession when he realised he could not understand the emotions people showed through their facial movement. His teachers and the specialist ‘friends’ he had to visit said it was a symptom of his Asperger’s. He just knew he was missing out on something and that his failure to understand could often reduce his mother to tears.

His breakthrough came when he decided to learn about seismology. He heard a mention of it on the news and for the next few weeks learned everything he could about the subject. What fascinated him was the construction of seismometers, instruments that could map and measure the seismic waves leading to a greater understanding of their implications.

Since then he had been working on something that could identify and measure the movement of lines on the face. He called it his sighmometer as his failures in some situations caused adults to shrug and sigh. The joke was lost on him.

Linked to his tablet he strapped the small camera to his jumper and prepared himself for beta testing. Going down to breakfast his mother turned to look at him from the fridge. He aimed the camera at her face and read the response on his tablet.

There was clearly some teething problems to iron out. The display recorded so many emotions and states – exhaustion, sadness, anger, frustration, and love. 'Love' he thought so he said ‘good morning Mummy,’ in his best voice and smiled. The readings on the tablet changed – love, love, LOVE.

It needed tuning but it might just work.

23 hours - the nineteenth hour

18.00. Faith quietly walks over to me. She has a strange look in her eyes. She grabs me by the elbow and leads me out onto the second balcony. “What’s wrong?” I say before she stammers out, ‘Things are a lot worse than we thought.” ‘What the hell was on that stick?’ I say. “He won’t say what is on it but I do know what they packed around it.’ She leans forward and whispers in my ear. I instantly feel sick

18.05. If he had been ready he could have completed the next part of the contract. Both have appeared on the other balcony. As it is he is not ready and in a public place. He curses himself but he knows he will get his chance. He is the best. The very best

18.10. The leading specialist in contagious disease walks to the back of the bus takes one look and tells everyone to get off. He draws tall the senior people together and relays his instructions. This is a situation they have practiced for in a control room below Whitehall on many occasions. He dials a preloaded number and speaks the password. In three words the world begins to change. He jumps into the back of an unmarked police car and the blue lights go on.

18.15. The journalist has escaped the press conference and not answered the questions of fellow professionals about his question and list of names. It was clear from the reaction that it had scored a hit. He is wondering what to do next when his mobile goes. ‘No caller ID’ flashes on the screen. He answers and recognises the voice immediately.

18.20. We descend in a lift to a basement room. We are two of the first here. I recognise the faces of three of the other four in the room from the television. I get the sort of questioning look that says’ what’s he doing here?’ Faith speaks, ‘This is Mike, he was on the delivery from the start.’ I glance round the room and see maps of central London, the helicopter crash site, rail routes and then I almost gag when I see a photo of a woman head covered with weeping boils.

18.25. The Zurich team regroup at the office of the Leader. Their network of contacts has thrown up some interesting information. Although the stick is still missing it is clear that the other side do not have it. The have their own meeting currently going on. A journalists question has linked a number of names they were conscious of. A young woman, as yet unidentified, has died from a highly contagious disease.

18.30. In the basement we finally begin to understand the scale of what might happen. The stick has information on it so sensitive it could change the world. To safeguard it the packaging it was held in contained a mutation of a highly virulent disease that was previously eradicated and as a result there is little resistance, if any, in the population. It will spread and already hundreds, possibly thousands will have been infected.

18.35. Newspapers are getting reports of some A&E departments getting ‘call ins’ with similar complaints. There is a growing sense that something very odd is happening. The journalist is sitting at his desk in a daze. What he has been told over his mobile by the ‘voice’ has scared him witless. He now knows there is a contagion – well two. One is physical and the other is the network of links that the organisation has had the subverts power and has done for years.

18.40. The biggest decision is about to be made. Morally can they withhold the information they have and put at risk the lives of thousands, potentially millions, knowing it can only get worse? Finally the senior Minister speaks. ‘We are going to have to break silence. We will not mention the USB stick but we must let people have a chance. I will make the call.’

18.45. The lads and girls make a decision. They will go back Jane’s place and try to find out what is on the USB stick. They jump up and head for the Underground Station. As they walk along one of them grabs the boys arm and shouts in his ear ‘stop scratching yourself’ He hasn't even really noticed that he has a red weal on his arms where his nails have been digging into the surface.

18.50. Discussions in the basement room now focus on the disaster management plans that they have rehearsed regularly knowing they would never have to use them. The head of the emergency have arrived to augment those present. They have made the decision not to issue the true reason for their actions but have settled on ‘significant’ air pollution as the reasons for their actions. A media information pack is agreed upon and will be issued shortly.

18.55. The Zurich team is still in the office with a leaked copy of the information statement from the basement room. They know something really big has happened and are not fooled by the ‘air pollution’. Finally one of them risks saying what they are all thinking. In that small utterance they all begin to think of the implications.

We're only making plans - by Nigel

‘Miss, miss!’

‘What is it now Nigel?’

‘He’s taken my pencil miss’

‘No he hasn’t Nigel, it’s there on your desk.’

‘But he could have Miss.’

‘Yes he could have, but he didn’t. In fact, you’ve got over ten pencils there on your desk.’

‘I know, I might need them.’

‘And he hasn’t got a pencil at all’

'I know, but if he takes my pencil others will want to take them. Then I won’t have any pencils’

‘He hasn't taken your pencil even though he really wants to write something. Do you want to write or draw Nigel.’

‘No, I just want to make sure my pencils are safe.

‘All right Nigel, but I do hope you grow out of this fear fuelled selfishness.’

‘Miss, miss, he’s getting too near my desk.’

'He hasn't moved Nigel.'