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.
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