The Lazarus Strain Read Online Free PDF

to recognise them when they’re brought in.’
    ‘Good,’ said Giles. ‘That might be useful.’
    * * * * *
    ‘I don’t often feel queasy in my job,’ said Marjorie Ryman. ‘But I’ll have to admit to it this time. For sheer, bloody minded cruelty this takes the biscuit.’
    Giles looked down at the body on the table and screwed up his face.
    ‘I mean, I can see the point of humiliating the man by stripping him and putting him in a cage like an animal. To a lesser extent I can even understand the thing with his eyes – although not with bleach – because of what’s gone on in animal experiments in the past. But the systematic mutilation of his body with a scalpel by the looks of it . . . I fail to see the point they were trying to make.’
    ‘Pure unadulterated sadism,’ said Giles. ‘I take it you were right about the cause of death? You usually are.’
    ‘Yes, it was the cannula through the heart.’ She held up the long, hollow needle that had been found in the cage beside Devon. ‘I was rather hoping I wasn’t because I hoped he’d died before they got round to that but no, it looks as if he was alive throughout the rest, God have mercy on him.’
    ‘Thanks Madge,’ said Giles. He found he had little heart for any further conversation.
    ‘What now, sir?’ asked Sergeant Morley.
    ‘Home. We grab a few hours while our colleagues bring in every animal rights bozo they can lay hands on and the whole county goes on monkey watch.’
    ‘What do you tell your wife when you’ve had a day like this?’ asked Morley as they walked across the yard.
    ‘I don’t,’ said Giles. ‘We have an agreement. After fifteen years she can tell by my face what kind of day I’ve had and what size of a gin is required. She puts it down on the table and I say, “Thanks love” and that’s the end of it. We talk about other things, inconsequential things like the meaning of life and the origin of the universe.’
    ‘And that works?’
    ‘Tonight she’ll be leaving the bottle.’
    * * * * *
    David Elwood grunted as he manoeuvred himself into bed, hampered by having one arm in a sling. His wife pulled up the blankets and made a fuss of tucking him in. ‘How’s the pain?’
    ‘It’s fine; the pills are dealing with it. ’
    ‘Fancy some hot chocolate?’
    ‘That would be nice, dear.’
    ‘Telly on?’ asked Mary, pausing by the portable television, which stood on top of a chest of drawers at the foot of the bed. ‘ Panorama’s on. Mind you, it’s just about finished but I think there’s a spooky film after it.’
    ‘I think I’ve had enough spooky nonsense for one day,’ said David.
    ‘Perhaps we both have,’ said Mary. ‘I only hope they catch these swine. What they did to that poor Professor was just plain evil.’
    ‘World’s full of fanatics these days.’
    Mary left the room and returned a few minutes later with two mugs of hot chocolate. She placed one on each of the bedside tables before going over to the window to draw the curtains. Something caught her attention in the garden and she held back the curtains with both hands while she pressed her nose to the glass.
    ‘You’ve not found another monkey out there, have you?’ said her husband.
    ‘No, dear,’ replied Mary. ‘I think it’s a spaceman with a gun . . .’

 
     
     
     
     
    THREE
     
    Home Office
    London
     
    ‘Gentlemen, the Home Secretary has asked me to convene this first meeting of the Earlybird sub-committee of the Joint Intelligence Committee in response to information received. As you are all aware, the JIC set up Earlybird in the wake of the Butler Inquiry and in accordance with its mandate to set up committees and sub-committees as it sees fit. Earlybird is seen as an appropriate vehicle for the early discussion of security alerts to those not directly concerned with the security of our nation but who, nevertheless, might be regarded as interested parties and who might have an input to make - thus broadening