Lethal Outbreak (11 page)

Outside one of Shepford’s schools, Troy looked at his approaching partner and, puzzled, said, ‘School? At three in the morning?’

Lexi nodded. ‘I’m guessing it’s a Blossoming.’

‘I’ve heard of that.’

‘Bringing up an outer baby is a job for a nanny. Seeing them to adulthood – at the age of fourteen for us – is a job for the community. When they reach it, the community celebrates with a Blossoming.’

‘But at three in the morning?’

‘Apart from a few fifteen-minute pauses, we’re twenty-four hours a day people, remember. And we
prefer to do it when most majors aren’t around. In fact,’ she said, ‘it’s probably best for you to wait here and I’ll go in and get Blaine.’

‘Majors not welcome, eh?’

‘You’d be … a distraction.’ Lexi smiled and went towards the entrance on her own.

When she brought out the technician from Shallow End Laboratories, Troy was in a hurry. Standing in the light of the school’s reception, he said, ‘Think back to last Friday. Your end-of-the-week maintenance visit to BSL4 with Fern Mountstephen. Who left the lab first? Who was first into decontamination?’

‘Er … me.’

‘So, Fern was behind you. For a while, you couldn’t see what she was doing.’

‘No. But it wasn’t long. Well, longer than normal now I think about it, but not a huge wait.’

‘Did you take anything in with you?’

‘A specially designed bag for new equipment needed in the lab,’ said Blaine.

‘Both of you had one?’

‘Yes. Why?’

Troy ignored the question. He nodded knowingly. At last, he had a mental picture of what had happened. ‘Thanks,’ he said. But before leaving, he
asked one more question. ‘By the way, is Fern hot with computers?’

‘Better than me – and probably better than most majors,’ Blaine answered.

As they raced back to Fern Mountstephen’s house, Lexi said to her partner, ‘I haven’t got much on that third demand. No more impressions, but there was something that could’ve been a particle of clay.’ She paused and then turned to make eye contact with him. ‘I was worried that you’d hold me back – like a lot of majors, but … ’

‘Yes?’

‘Looks like you’ve called another one right.’

‘Maybe. Fern was the last person out of the lab on Friday. When Blaine turned his back to leave, she released some SUMP and put the vial in her bag. If she contaminated them both in the process, the poison was destroyed as they came through the cleaning stages. Then she tinkered with the computer, making it look like a Sunday sabotage while she was at the gym.’

‘Hey presto. A clever alibi.’

‘Not quite clever enough.’

‘You know,’ Lexi said, ‘there’s a chance we might just sort this out before sun’s up and we get relegated.’

‘It’s our bike,’ Troy replied. ‘We don’t want anyone else pedalling it. But what I really want is someone in a cell and that vial of SUMP back in BSL4.’

In their final few minutes before confronting Fern Mountstephen, they consulted the surveillance team. Apparently, she was upstairs in her bedroom with the light out, almost certainly asleep. They also studied the plans of her house on Lexi’s life-logger.

Frustrated, Troy shook his head. ‘There must be a way into her basement.’

Lexi nodded, thinking about the layout. Her forefinger followed the lines and angles, and came to a stop at the place that was now a cloakroom. ‘It’s still got to be here somewhere. It can’t be anywhere else.’

‘It fits. But … ’ He shrugged.

‘A false floor,’ Lexi said. ‘We’re looking for a trapdoor.’

Outside Fern’s home, Lexi whispered, ‘Everything’s changed. Now the evidence has built up, we can break in if we’re sure someone’s in danger or if we can prevent a serious crime.’

Troy nodded. ‘Every outer’s in danger and killing them all’s a pretty serious crime.’

‘Agreed,’ Lexi said. ‘I don’t think we need an
invitation or a warrant. We’re going in.’ Her right foot crashed into the door.

With a ring of surveillance officers outside to make sure the suspect could not escape, Troy and Lexi went in search of conclusive proof. They made straight for the cloakroom. Lexi dropped to her knees and rummaged near the carpet. It wasn’t properly fixed to the floorboards. Rolling it back, she revealed a concealed hatch. ‘Hey presto,’ she whispered. ‘No dust. Not musty. This is used a lot.’ She levered up the trapdoor with her fingernails and revealed steps descending into a black hole. She didn’t wait. She put her left foot on the first step and at once lights came on to guide her. ‘Controlled by a motion detector,’ she said.

She led the way down into a makeshift laboratory with a smooth concrete floor.

Careful not to touch or disturb anything, the two detectives recorded it all on their life-loggers. To the right was a fume cupboard. On the left, there was a long bench with various flasks, tubes, beakers, syringes and other chemical equipment. Further along was a digital camera capable of recording video. There was also a small roll of sticky tape.

‘I’ll have to analyse it,’ Lexi said quietly, ‘but it looks familiar.’

‘Looks like a trump card to me.’

In the far corner, there was a cubicle that looked like a shower unit. But it was more sophisticated. It was, perhaps, Fern’s amateurish version of a high-security lab.

Troy pointed to a piece of cardboard on a shelf next to the chamber. It was another threat.

‘Not the final piece of the jigsaw,’ Troy said, ‘but enough to convict.’

Lexi nodded, still anxious. ‘But where’s the final piece?’

‘Looking for this?’

They both spun round to see Fern Mountstephen standing on the stairs, holding up a glass vial.

‘I took the precaution of scoring the glass,’ she told them. ‘It’s weakened. Just a tap and it’ll break.’

Troy stepped forward. What he did next and what he said next would decide the fate of every outer. Trying to control his emotions, he said, ‘I don’t think you want this on your conscience, Fern. Someone would have to invent a new term for what you’re
thinking of doing. It’s north of ethnic cleansing, worse than genocide.’

‘There’s already a word for it. Extinction.’

‘Is that what you want to be remembered for?’

‘I dare say you’ve got the place surrounded. Let me go, clear me a way through and no one’ll die. Get me a cab and I’ll leave this,’ she said, nodding at the vial, ‘by the side of the road.’

At once, Troy shook his head. ‘I can’t do that. For lots of reasons. For one thing, I can’t trust you to leave it. You could get in the car and throw it from the window.’

‘You have to trust me.’

‘Why would I do that?’

‘Because I have to trust you not to rig the cab to take me straight to Crime Central.’

‘No.’

She gripped the vial in both hands, ready to snap it into two pieces.

‘No!’ he shouted.

‘A cab, then,’ Fern said.

Troy took a step towards her and then hesitated. ‘Let me check something on my life-logger.’

Immediately suspicious, Fern said, ‘What are you doing?’

‘It’s a big call for me and Lexi. I’m asking our commander if he’ll offer you a deal.’

‘Under these circumstances, what choice has he got?’

‘It’ll take a few minutes.’ Troy looked up at her and said, ‘Think of your friends. Outer friends.’

Fern screwed up her face. ‘They weren’t friends. They were insurance, so I didn’t look like a separatist. Sick of the sight of them all.’

Playing for time, Troy said, ‘What’s the problem with outers, Fern?’

‘Don’t you know what it’s like to work with them, live alongside them, go to school with them? Always claiming to be superior to you.’

‘They’re better than me at some things, not as good at others. That’s okay.’

‘At school, I had a friend – a
real
friend. A major. They – outers – made fun of her all the time. It was relentless. Until she snapped.’

Troy allowed her a moment of silence.

‘I was the one who found her hanging from her bedroom door.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Troy said softly. ‘That’s awful. It must have been a terrible shock. But you can’t blame every outer for a few rogue bullies. You can’t condemn them all. Lexi wouldn’t have done anything like that to your friend.’

‘I would have tried my best to stop it,’ said Lexi.

Troy took another two steps towards the technician. ‘You can’t take it out on Lexi and all the others who’d be horrified by what happened. That’s not fair.’

‘But they just keep digging away. “We’re cleverer than you.” Well, they’ve dug enough to make themselves a great big grave.’

‘What was your friend’s name?’

‘Celine.’

‘Is that what Celine would have wanted? The extinction of outers.’

‘After what she went through, yes.’ Fern looked down at him and hissed, ‘Don’t come any closer. What has your boss said?’

‘Nothing yet,’ Troy replied. ‘He’s a major. Probably asleep. Someone will get him on task as soon as possible.’

‘It had better be soon.’

Troy looked again at his life-logger and came to a decision. ‘Here’s the thing, Fern. I’m not as clever as most outers. I admit it. But I think I know people. I think I know you.’

Her hands tightened on the glass container. Her knuckles were white. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘I don’t think you’ll do it, Fern. I don’t think you’ll
kill every outer. That’s why I checked something.’ He motioned towards his life-logger.

‘You weren’t consulting your boss?’

‘No. I’m looking at images of glass vials. And I’ve got a dilemma. That one in your hand isn’t the same as the one in the video about the Integrated Games. It’s different from the photos in the other two demands. And I don’t think it’s the same as the ones our drone picked out in BSL4.’

Fern swallowed and said, ‘That’s because I transferred the SUMP to this one.’

‘In here?’ Troy looked around at the facilities – far more crude than Shallow End Laboratories. ‘I’m a long way south of outers when it comes to science as well, but I think that’d be too risky.’ He glanced at Lexi and she nodded her nervous agreement. ‘And I don’t know why you’d change one sealed bottle for another.’ Troy walked forward two more paces until he was at the bottom of the stairs.

‘Get back!’ she yelled.

Troy mounted the first step. ‘It’d be better if you handed it over to me, Fern.’

There was a loathing in Fern’s face.

Troy knew her expression wasn’t aimed at outers this time. In that instant, she loathed him. Because he’d figured it out. He went up another step.

And that triggered her. She raised the vial over her head and threw it down onto the hard floor where it smashed into three pieces. Something that looked like soil spilled out.

At once, Fern turned and flew back up the stairs.

Troy let her go. The team outside would deal with her. He had more important work.

Lexi came to his side and said, ‘I hope you’re right, Troy.’

He got down and photographed the main part of the broken container and immediately sent the image to Julia Nineteen. Talking to Lexi while he made the phone call, he said, ‘She’s an outer. She’ll be up.’ As soon as the laboratory supervisor answered, Troy said, ‘Well? Is that your vial – in pieces?’

There was deathly quiet for five seconds.

Troy was sweating and the silence seemed like a lifetime to Lexi.

Then Julia’s voice said, ‘No. No, it isn’t.’

Troy replied, ‘Thanks. That’s what I thought as well.’ He ended the call and turned to his partner. ‘She was bluffing, trying to make her escape. That’s all.’

‘So, where’s the real vial? I can’t see it here.’

Troy took a deep breath. ‘I don’t know, but she met up with Precious Austin and Oriana Skillicorn so I’m guessing … ’

Lexi checked her life-logger. ‘You might be right,’ she said, the dread clear in her tone. ‘I’m getting reports that all the tailed TRAPT members are getting up early. Skillicorn’s already heading in the direction of the community centre.’

‘As if they’ve got something new and urgent to talk about. Like a way of killing all outers.’

‘We can listen. I haven’t removed the bugs and cameras yet.’

Troy said, ‘We’ve got to do more than listen.’ He made another call. This time, he had to be patient.

While he waited for the ringing to wake Dominic Varney, Lexi whispered, ‘They’ve arrested Fern Mountstephen upstairs.’

Troy nodded. ‘We’ll charge her on our way out.’

Dominic’s voice, barely recognizable with drowsiness, said, ‘Yes?’

‘Troy Goodhart. I need you right now, Dominic. I’m delegating to you – to Gritty really – the job of saving every outer on the planet.’

Masking the first light of dawn, the black cloud overhead unleashed a torrent of rain on Troy and Lexi as they huddled under some trees outside the entrance to the community centre, watching the events inside on their life-loggers.

Making his way through the downpour, Dominic Varney approached the main door. Troy and Lexi stood up so that he could see that they were already in position. Dominic glanced across at his colleagues and, totally immersed in his role of bigot, he shouted abuse at Lexi before he entered.

Oriana Skillicorn was on her feet, standing in front
of three rows of believers in the ideas of Two Races Apart. When Gritty walked in, dripping water from his raincoat, there was a commotion and a disruption. But he seemed to be welcome.

‘I heard you were getting together,’ he said in a loud voice. ‘Strange time to do it, so I reckoned something big had come up. I didn’t want to miss out.’

Oriana waved him towards a seat. ‘It doesn’t come any bigger.’ She clutched a vial and lifted it up. ‘A poison that doesn’t affect majors. A poison that kills only outers. All outers. It gives us incredible power and incredible responsibility. Right now, we could banish outers to hell forever. We alone could inherit the Earth.’

The reaction from the TRAPT supporters was hard to gauge from outside in a noisy April shower. Troy and Lexi guessed that a majority – including Gritty – were calling for the extermination of outers. A few were shaking their heads. Perhaps they had their quibbles with outers but a terrible, irreversible revenge was simply too much for them to sanction. Some were cheering. Ralph Hester was waving his walking stick in the air.

Precious called out, ‘Let’s go for it. We – majors – can fill the holes they’d leave behind. All it takes is a bit of learning and a lot of determination.’

Gritty glanced around at them all and then shouted above the mayhem, ‘Let’s have a vote.’

Troy said to his partner, ‘He’s making sure we’ve got pictures – proof – of who’s in favour of mass murder and who isn’t.’

Rainwater ran down their faces and necks and seeped into their clothes but neither Troy nor Lexi noticed the discomfort. Hearts pounding, they were focused entirely on the meeting. They were focused on the future of outers. They had also steeled themselves in case there came a moment when they’d have to decide whether to storm the meeting.

Precious got to her feet. ‘I agree. It’s the only way.’

‘All right,’ Oriana said. ‘Let’s do it. First, hands up … ’

‘It should be a secret ballot,’ someone shouted.

Outside, Troy muttered a curse.

‘We can’t organize that here and now,’ Gritty argued. ‘It’s a waste of time, man.’

There seemed to be general acceptance that a formal vote was going too far.

‘Okay. A show of hands. Put your hand up if you want to save outers.’ Oriana paused for a second or two and then counted the raised hands. ‘Now, hands up for casting them out for all eternity.’ Again she counted.

The members of Two Races Apart didn’t need to wait for Oriana’s announcement. They’d seen the decision of the majority for themselves. Even so, they gazed at her.

‘If you include my vote, it’s ten in favour of releasing the poison and five against.’

More applause.

‘You’re all welcome to stay,’ she told the meeting, ‘but some of you – five – might want to leave now.’

Three got to their feet straightaway. The remaining two were going to stay but, on seeing the others grab their coats, they followed suit.

Lexi and Troy ducked down, making sure they were out of sight when the five objectors traipsed out of the community centre.

‘Now,’ Oriana said, ‘if we’re going to go ahead with this, one of us has got to break the vial.’

‘She’s a coward as well,’ Troy muttered. ‘She doesn’t want to do it herself.’

‘We should draw lots,’ Ralph suggested.

‘It’s one possibility,’ she replied.

‘She won’t agree to that,’ Lexi said with a sneer. ‘She might get the short straw and be forced to do it.’

‘It’s just like the secret ballot,’ Gritty replied. ‘Too much trouble. And I don’t know about you but I’m completely out of straws.’

‘What are you suggesting?’ Precious asked.

‘A volunteer,’ Gritty answered.

‘That’s a good idea,’ Oriana said. ‘All right with everyone?’

There was a murmur of approval.

‘Do we have any volunteers?’ she asked.

‘I’ll do it.’ Grim-faced, Gritty was totally convincing. ‘It’d be a privilege to damn the lot of them.’

‘Me too,’ Ralph called out.

‘Ah. Two volunteers.’ Oriana was clearly annoyed that Ralph had added an extra complication. ‘How do we decide?’

Using Ralph’s unimaginative nickname, Precious said, ‘You’re an old man, RH. I’m sorry to mention it like this, but you won’t have long to live with … your burden. And if you got caught … Well, the powers-that-be can’t do much to a man of your age.’

‘Quite right,’ he agreed, nodding.

‘Anyone got anything else for us to think about?’ Oriana asked.

‘RH tends to let things out of the bag when he’s talking to people,’ Gritty said.

Ralph cackled and replied, ‘That’s true, Gritty.’

‘We have a one-all draw.’

‘I was first in the queue,’ Gritty reminded them.

Troy sniffed and said, ‘He’s getting desperate.’

A different member of TRAPT called out, ‘I’m persuaded by the age thing. I think RH should do it.’

‘God’s chosen one,’ someone else agreed.

‘Give me the vial,’ Gritty said. ‘I’ll hold it out and RH can whack it with his stick.’

‘It’s a bit theatrical.’ Oriana shrugged. ‘But I like the idea of a joint effort.’

Gritty stood up. ‘Let’s get on with it.’

‘Are you sure?’ Oriana asked.

‘Absolutely.’

Her eyes sought out Ralph. ‘Are you sure as well?’

‘Yes, definitely.’ He made his way to the front.

Oriana looked at the two men, face to face, standing there as if about to fight an old-fashioned duel. ‘This is it, then. No going back.’

They nodded at her.

‘Let’s take a few seconds for silent prayer.’

After half a minute, Oriana gave a little cough and held out the sealed container towards Gritty.

The undercover officer intended to enclose it in his large hand, leaving no glass for Ralph to strike, but the old man didn’t wait. Impatient and unpredictable, he swung his stick immediately and with surprising force at Gritty’s fist.

Gritty couldn’t dodge quickly enough. Instead, he
tried to cushion the blow. Tried to soften it with his hand. The stick cracked him across the knuckles before he had the vial fully in his grip. He couldn’t hold on and it shot out of his grasp.

They all turned. Every pair of eyes followed the vial as it flew up and across the room towards the door. It was a brief moment in time – a second, perhaps – but it seemed to happen in slow-motion.

The door opened and Troy, who had used the period of silent prayer to sprint into the building, dived towards the fearsome vessel. Outstretched, he slipped his right hand under the tumbling container and caught it centimetres above the floor.

Shaking with emotion, he got to his feet. Unable to trust himself with the vial, he gave it to Lexi who had appeared at his side. Together, they blocked the way to the exit.

‘Stay exactly where you are,’ Troy demanded. ‘Don’t try anything stupid. We’ve recorded this whole thing. You are all under arrest.’ For a split-second, he glanced at Dominic but did not break his colleague’s cover. He gave no hint that Gritty was anything other than a failed multiple murderer.

For the benefit of the inbuilt microphone in his life-logger, Troy said, ‘Backup to the community centre. We need an immediate police escort. Ten to be
arrested, questioned and charged.’

Lexi also sent a message. Hers went to Shallow End Laboratories and Julia Neve Nineteen. ‘One unopened vial for immediate return to BSL4.’