The Secret

Steven declined Macmillan’s offer of lunch, not for any reason other than the fact he wanted to be alone with his thoughts. He bought sandwiches and shared them with the ducks in the park as he wondered with more than a little trepidation what the rest of the day would bring. His determination to see justice done for his friend had led him deeper and deeper into an investigation that had put him at loggerheads with what felt like half the governments of the western world and put his own daughter’s life in mortal danger. The question he now had to wrestle with was... had it been worth it? Had it been an unswerving search for truth and justice or just a single-minded display of obstinacy on his part?

‘A toughie,’ Steven murmured as he threw the last of the crusts to the ducks and got up to go.

‘Change of plan,’ announced Macmillan when Steven returned to the Home Office, ‘the meeting is cancelled.’

Steven’s puzzlement showed. Jean Roberts was no help; she just diverted her eyes when he looked at her.

‘I had a private debriefing with our computer experts and I’ve been able to make sense of their findings. I’ve thanked them and informed them that their services are no longer required. I’ve also reminded them that they are subject to the Official Secrets Act and, in their own interests, I am removing them from our retained consultants list. I’ve also suggested that it might be wise to omit their association with Sci-Med from their CVs.’

‘Sounds like you’re expecting some sort of backlash,’ said Steven.

‘If there is, I’m just trying to make sure that I’m the one to take it. I’m the one nearest retirement. I’ve cancelled our little get together this afternoon because I’ve called a bigger one. You may remember that we were summoned to the Foreign Office a few weeks ago to meet with the great and the good who warned us off probing into the deaths of Simone Ricard and Aline Lagarde?’

‘I do,’ agreed Steven.

‘I have requested that the same people come here tomorrow at ten o’clock to hear what I have to say.’

‘All of them?’ exclaimed Steven remembering the high-powered attendance at the last meeting.

‘All of them. I’d like you, Scott Jamieson and Lukas Neubauer to be present.’

‘Of course,’ said Steven.’

Macmillan disappeared into his office leaving Steven to expel his breath in a low whistle. He turned to Jean and asked, ‘How on Earth did he manage to get them all to agree?’

Jean smiled and whispered, ‘Between you and me, he said they could either come and hear what he had to say... or read it in The Telegraph.’

‘Wow,’ said Steven. ‘Respect.’

Thirty three

‘Ladies and Gentlemen, you summoned Sci-Med to appear before you some weeks ago. The purpose of that meeting was to assure us that the death of Dr Simone Ricard of Médecins Sans Frontières had been an accident and that the murder of her colleague, Dr Aline Lagarde had been connected to Dr Lagarde’s involvement in drug trafficking. My colleague and Sci-Med’s chief investigator, Dr Steven Dunbar, did not believe you and neither did I. We were both right.’

Macmillan had to pause to allow a hubbub of protest to die down. He looked around calmly at the angry faces and expressions of outrage as if he were auditioning actors for an amateur dramatics production. ‘I am going to read you a statement outlining what we have since discovered and I would be grateful if you would allow me to do so without interruption.’

‘Dr Daniel Hausman, an American research scientist with CIA credentials, working at Fort Detrick in the USA made a very significant discovery. He discovered that the condition known as ME or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome if you prefer was caused by a virus, not by a new virus but by a virus that has been under the noses of researchers for years but whose presence would be dismissed as “normal”. The virus was the attenuated strain of polio virus used in the Sabin sugar lump vaccine to protect many thousands if not millions of people across the globe against the scourge of polio.

Hausman showed that the virus, alive and present in all individuals who’d received the sugar lump vaccine and also in those who’d subsequently been infected by it due to its excretion, could mutate under certain conditions and in response to certain triggers to cause the illness known as ME.

In the belief that this finding would cause widespread panic among the many who’d received this vaccine, a cloak of secrecy was drawn over the findings by the US and UK governments and several others until such times as a method of inactivating this virus could be devised.

Dr Hausman was seconded to Dr Tom North’s lab in London to work on this — Dr North was an acknowledged world expert on the polio virus — and we believe scientists at the top secret establishments of Fort Detrick and Porton Down have also been working on this.