All Fall Down Read Online Free PDF Page A

towards Kate’s lap.
    ‘Gone to play with Callum. Shelley’s going to give them tea. Which is good, because I need—’
    ‘
Me
. That’s what you need. Because I need you, and—’
    ‘Paul! Listen, please. Something’s happened. Sit down.’
    ‘What?’ He sat down on the sofa next to her, scanning her face with alarm.
    ‘That agent guy turned up at my lecture.’
    Paul looked puzzled. ‘The
lettings
agent? Short bloke with the hairdresser’s car?’
    ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake. Not him. Harley, the MI6 guy. The one who was there when …’ She couldn’t say it.
When Jack nearly died. When I nearly died.
‘… you know …’
    ‘Him? Thought we’d seen the last of him. What did he want?’
    ‘Paul, he wants me to go to California. Now. There’s a new virus, and they think it’s a mutated strain of Watoto. People are already dying. But it’s all been contained so far, on an Indian reservation, and they’re keeping it quiet because they don’t want to panic everybody. He said they need me to join a team working on it out there, that the lead scientist has asked for me.’
    Paul was silent for a moment. Kate looked at his downcas t eyes as he stared into the depths of his wineglass. She studied the contours of his face, the sharp planes of his cheek and jaw, so familiar to her years before they had even met. His twin, Stephen, had been the love of her life. For the hundredth time, she looked at Paul and couldn’t prevent herself wondering: is it him I love, or still Stephen? She had long ago concluded that it was a question that she neither wanted nor needed to know the answer to. Not yet, anyway, not while things were going smoothly in their lives.
    And things had indeed been going smoothly – until Harley showed up.
    ‘If MI6 are involved, they must have formed an inter-agency operation. It must be serious. Have they asked Isaac too?’
    ‘No. At least I don’t think so. Perhaps they don’t realise how knowledgeable Isaac is on Watoto. It makes sense for us both to go, as research partners.’
    ‘But you’re the primary expert. How long would it be for?’
    Kate shrugged. ‘As long as it takes to find a vaccine, I guess. Or until the powers that be decide it’s not a priority any more and the funding runs out. Though Harley said they are throwing unlimited resources at it. Isaac and I are so nearly there – if we were working with other top virologists and had a state-of-the-art lab, maybe, together, we could finally crack it. You know what, I think that’ll be my condition: that Harley lets Isaac come too. I might consider it then.’
    ‘Would they let me come with you, do you think? You could be gone for months.’
    ‘Yes, Harley said we could all go … if you wanted to come, that is. I’d hate to be out there without you.’
    ‘And what about Jack?’
    Kate shuddered. ‘I don’t know. Jack’s been begging to go and stay with Vernon this summer – we could maybe extend his visit? He’d be OK with his dad.’
    Paul drained his glass, put it on the coffee table in
front of him, and sunk his head into his hands. ‘This is a nightmare.’
    Kate moved closer to Paul on the sofa, hugging his side and burying her face in his chest. He smelled of that morning’s aftershave, and it reassured her. ‘I swore to Harley that there’s no way I would go, but part of me is saying I can’t turn my back on this, not when my being on the team would give them a better shot at preventing a pandemic taking hold. I don’t know what to do. But whatever happens, I promise I won’t go without you.’
    ‘Why don’t you talk to Isaac, get his advice? Maybe they’ve already asked him, and he said no.’
    ‘He’s in San Diego at that conference, remember? He won’t be back till Tuesday. But I’m sure he’d have rung me if they’d asked him to go.’
    Paul sat up, gently pushing her away so they could face one another, eye to eye. ‘Let’s be logical about it. Yes, you could make a difference.