Crisis (8 page)

‘If you would follow me Dr Bannerman?’ said the
young man who had re-appeared in the doorway
putting an end to his philosophizing.

Bannerman put down the magazine, smiled goodbye to the female clerk and followed the young man
downstairs, where he was shown into a large room
with a long table as its main feature. Four men were
sitting at one end; one of them got up and came
towards him as the young man left.

‘Dr Bannerman? I’m Hugh Milne. We spoke on
the telephone. We are all obliged to you for coming
here at such short notice. May I introduce, Sir John
Flowers, Secretary of the MRC, Dr Hector Munro, Director of the Neurobiology Unit in Edinburgh and Mr Cecil Allison from the Prime Minister’s office.’

Bannerman nodded to each of the men in turn and
took his seat.

Flowers said, ‘I understand from Dr Milne that you
were kind enough to examine some brain sections we
sent you.’

‘It didn’t take long,’ said Bannerman. They were
very clear. Typical Creutzfeld Jakob Disease.’

‘So I understand,’ said Flowers. ‘Hugh also
explained their origin?’

‘I understand the sections came from the brains of
three young men who died after a short illness and
that all three worked with sheep.’

‘Quite so,’ said Flowers. ‘What was your reaction
when you heard this?’

‘I thought there had to be some kind of mistake, a
mix-up with the slides perhaps.’

‘We are assured that there was no mix-up,’ said
Flowers.

‘So I was told,’ said Bannerman.

This puts us in a very difficult position,’ said Flow
ers. He turned to the man from the Prime Minister’s
Office and said, ‘Perhaps Mr Allison would like to
explain?’

Allison nodded, cleared his throat and said, ‘Her
Majesty’s Government is very anxious to assure our European colleagues that there is absolutely
no problem with British meat products. Ideally we
would like to be able to say categorically that
slow
virus diseases of animals cannot be transmitted to
man through the food chain.’

‘I see,’ said Bannerman.

‘We have reason to believe that Her Majesty’s
Opposition is about to press us very soon to make
a statement to this effect. If we cannot do this with
the backing of the Medical Research Council then
the effects on the farming community might well be

catastrophic.’

‘All the evidence has been pointing to an effective
species barrier between animals and man and then
suddenly, we have this report from Scotland,’ said

Flowers.

‘I can well understand the problem,’ said
Bannerman.

‘Naturally, we are hoping that the report is mis
taken in some way,’ said Allison.

‘But even if it is, and please God it is, I under
stand that there has been an overall increase in
the incidence of degenerative brain disease in the
population. Is that not so?’ asked Bannerman.

Allison appeared to move uncomfortably in his
seat. He said, ‘Our statisticians have concluded that that is not necessarily the case. Data in the
past has been scant and very difficult to obtain so
what represents a true increase percentage-wise is
quite hard to define …’

Bannerman looked at Flowers but the Secretary
diverted his eyes and looked down at the table. ‘I
see,’ he said.

‘If this report is accurate however,’ said Flowers,
‘and an animal brain disease has been transmitted
to man, then that would be quite another matter.’
‘Quite,’ said Allison.

Flowers looked up at Bannerman and said, ‘Might I ask what your feelings are at this stage Doctor?’

‘I think that if this report is real, then some extra
factor must have come into play,’ said Bannerman.

‘What sort of extra factor were you thinking of?’ asked Allison.

‘If the
Scrapie
agent caused the deaths of these
men then I believe it must have changed in some
way; something caused it to mutate, enabling it to cross the species barrier.’

“This is largely the conclusion I and my colleagues
have come to. It would be very worrying of course,
if the change were due to a spontaneous mutation
occurring in the animals because that would mean that this sort of thing could happen at any time and
in any place. If however, the mutation was induced
by some outside factor then it may be possible to identify such a factor. With luck we should be able
to take steps to prevent it happening again.’

‘Something tells me that you have identified a
factor,’ said Bannerman.

‘I think we may have,’ said Flowers. ‘The area
where the three dead men farmed the sheep is
adjacent to the Invermaddoch power station.’

‘The Invermaddoch
nuclear
power station,’ added
Allison.

‘Oh,’ said Bannerman, taking a moment to consider the possible implications. Radiation was one
of the most common inducers of mutation in living
things. ‘I suppose you couldn’t hope for a better
candidate,’ he said, ‘assuming there has been a leak.
Has there?’

‘Officially no,’ said Allison.

‘What does that mean?’ said Bannerman.

Allison took off his glasses to clean them, unnec
essarily.

There was a slight problem at the station some six months ago,’ he admitted hesitantly.
‘Which was covered up,’ said Bannerman.

‘We were assured that it was very slight and
we didn’t want to cause unnecessary alarm,’ said
Allison.

‘But it happened,’ said Bannerman.

Flowers moved in to defuse the situation. ‘I think
it’s about time we came to the point,’ he said to
Bannerman. ‘We were rather hoping to enlist your
professional help with this affair.’

‘
I would be happy to help you with the lab work
if that’s what you mean,’ said Bannerman.

‘Actually, it isn’t,’ said Flowers. ‘What we would
like, would be for you to investigate this whole matter.’

Bannerman was taken aback and left speechless for a few moments.

Flowers said, ‘We need a first-rate pathologist to
go up to Scotland and report back. We have to know;
one, if the men’s deaths were really due to
Scrapie;
two, what caused the disease to cross the species
barrier; and three, whether or not we can regard
this as an isolated incident.’

‘And it has to be done discreetly,’ added Allison.

‘Presumably no mention of
Scrapie
was made on
the men’s death certificates?’ asked Bannerman.

‘No. The official cause of death was given as
meningitis.’

‘What about the sheep in the area?’

‘The
Scrapie
-infected sheep were, of course,
destroyed but there has been no general alert,’
said Allison. ‘That would have attracted immediate
and unwanted attention.’

‘And you wouldn’t want to cause unnecessary
alarm,’ added Bannerman, acidly.

‘You must see how delicate the situation is, Doc
tor,’ said Allison.

Reluctantly, Bannerman had to admit that he could. ‘But you must have a pathologist working on it already,’ he said. The man who reported the
problem in the first place.’

That’s another thing, I’m afraid,’ said Flowers.
‘Dr Gill has disappeared.’

‘Disappeared?’ exclaimed Bannerman.

‘He left home nine days ago and hasn’t been
seen since.’

‘Some domestic upheaval, we’re told,’ said Munro.

Bannerman shook his head in bemusement but
didn’t know what to say. ‘Where is the pathology
lab work being done?’ he asked.

‘Edinburgh, in George Stoddart’s department at
the medical school,’ said Flowers.

‘Edinburgh is full of experts on
Scrapie
and
slow
viruses,’ said Bannerman, looking to Munro.

‘My people are scientists Doctor,’ said Munro. ‘We
would give you all the back-up you required but the investigation calls for a medic.’

‘Insistent but discreet,’ added Allison. ‘I’m sure
there’s no need to tell you what the press would
make of this.’

Bannerman sighed and looked down at the well-
polished surface of the table.

‘We appreciate that you will need a little time to
think this over,’ said Flowers, ‘but you must know
that time is of the essence and we would have to ask
for your decision by say, ten o’clock tomorrow?’

‘You’ll have it,’ said Bannerman.
‘Perhaps I should add that we would provide
the hospital with a locum in your absence,’ said
Flowers.

Bannerman was about to say that he had intended
to take some time off anyway but he thought better
of it. His morale had been given an unexpected
boost by what had been said about his professional
reputation. He did not want to diminish the effects
with talk of stress and strain.

‘Would you like me to call you a taxi, Doctor?’ asked
the woman at the front desk as Bannerman prepared
to leave. He looked out and saw that it had stopped
raining. ‘I think I’ll walk for a bit,’ he replied.

The air was damp and fiercely cold after the heat
of the offices; for a moment it made his eyes water.
He grimaced and pulled up his collar as he made
his way down Park Crescent to cross Marylebone
Road and continue down into Regent’s Park. The
grass stretched before him like a wet, green desert below a leaden sky. What the hell was he to do? He
wondered.

An investigation of this importance was hardly a
job for someone undergoing any kind of personal
crisis but on the other hand the whole thing intrigued
him deeply. It would be no picnic but at least, if he
took up the investigation, he would be away from the pressures of the hospital and there would be no
emergency diagnostic work for a while. He might
even be able to do some winter climbing in Scotland
after all.

Bannerman was suddenly aware of a woman stand
ing in front of him. She was swathed in loose-fitting
clothes which disguised her shape and consequently
her age; she carried two bundles wrapped in what
appeared to be bed covers. A head scarf was sup
plemented by a further scarf wrapped round the
lower portion of her face. She hooked two fingers
over the scarf round her mouth and pulled it down
slightly. ‘Have you anything for a cup of tea?’ she
mumbled.

Bannerman took out his wallet and gave her a five
pound note.

‘Bless you, mister,’ said the woman clutching it
tightly with gloved fingers which left the tips free.

‘You too,’ said Bannerman quietly. He turned to
watch her shuffle off and began to see executive stress and strain in a new light. Until that moment
he had planned to discuss the morning’s events with
Stella before reaching a decision. Now he decided to
accede to the MRC’s request.