The Lazarus Strain Read Online Free PDF Page A

told Mr Lees that I had asked you to do this. Did you have any luck, Doctor?’
    Cleary looked at Lees and then at Giles. Lees knew that Giles was looking for verification of what he’d already told him but chose not to say anything.
    ‘Tim appears to have been working on . . . flu virus, Inspector,’ said Cleary.
    ‘So I understand,’ smiled Giles, although he had noted the pause in Cleary’s reply. ‘I apologise for putting you to all that trouble but I hope you both understand that it was imperative for us to know what danger the public might be facing.’
    ‘No trouble,’ said Cleary
    ‘Of course,’ said Lees.
    As they left Devon’s office Giles and Cleary came across the forensic team removing Devon’s body from the premises. They paused to allow the white-suited pall bearers to pass by.
    ‘I still can’t believe it,’ said Cleary, still clearly upset. ‘I suppose you must see a lot of this, Inspector?’
    ‘Not exactly like this, sir,’ said Giles. ‘This is a bit special.’
    ‘What did they hope to gain? People are hardly going to flock to the animal rights cause when they hear about Tim’s murder, any more than they were a few weeks ago when they stole the corpse of an old lady in Staffordshire. They’re just sick, these people.’
    ‘You may well be right,’ said Giles. ‘Extremist organisations always attract the sick and the inadequate. The cause doesn’t really matter too much to them and in this case, the tail may have started wagging the dog.’
    ‘A frightening thought.’
    Giles and Cleary watched as a dark coloured van with blacked-out windows took Devon’s body away.
    Giles cleared his throat and asked, ‘I take it you didn’t find any indication that the professor might have been working with any other virus, did you sir? I mean it was just flu?’
    Cleary seemed to take a long time to answer but when he did it was just to say, ‘No, Inspector, just flu virus.’
    ‘Good,’ said Giles. ‘Then we can all sleep safely in our beds . . .’
    ‘Yeees . . .’
    ‘But?’
    ‘No buts Inspector, of course we can. About the animals . . .’
    ‘What about them, sir?’
    ‘What will you do?’
    ‘The public have been warned not to approach them and to report any sightings to the police. After that we’ll leave it up to the usual agencies to bring them in, RSPCA, PDSA. Don’t suppose monkeys’ll fancy Norfolk too much with the nights getting colder . . . but then I suppose they’re smart enough to start looking for a billet indoors should the need arise . . .’ Giles watched for a reaction from Cleary.
    ‘Better warn the public to lock all doors and windows,’ said Cleary.
    ‘Really, sir?’ said Giles.
    Cleary looked at him. ‘They can give you a nasty bite, Inspector,’ he said but he knew he’d been tested.
    ‘Were all the monkeys infected with . . . flu virus, sir?’ Giles asked.
    ‘As far as I could make out; it was a six animal experiment. Four animals had received Tim’s experimental vaccine and had then been injected with flu virus – challenged, we call it - one had received the vaccine alone and the remaining animal, the virus alone.’
    ‘What was the purpose of the last two?’ asked Giles.
    ‘They’re what we call control animals,’ said Cleary. ‘One was a vaccine control to make sure the vaccine itself did not cause illness and the second was a virus control to demonstrate that the live virus was in fact alive and could cause infection. You always need controls to validate an experiment.’
    ‘I see, sir. Is there any way of knowing which animal is which when they are recovered?’
    Cleary looked doubtful. ‘I think not,’ he said. ‘We wouldn’t know which cage an animal had come from and they wouldn’t have labels round their necks. Mind you . . . Smithy might be able to tell.’
    ‘The man who fed them?’
    ‘Yes, the Professor’s notes state which animal was given what by name – they all had names, you see. Smithy might be able