Whiteout - Ken Follett [25]
“Do you want me to stall him?”
“Feel him out.”
Toni picked up the handset and touched a button. “Hello, Larry, this is Toni Gallo, we met in September. How are you?”
Mahoney was a peevish press officer with a whiny voice that made Toni think of Donald Duck. “I’m worried,” he said.
“Tell me why.”
“I was hoping to speak to Professor Oxenford,” he answered with an edge to his voice.
“And he’s keen to talk to you at the first opportunity,” Toni said as sincerely as she could manage. “Right now he’s with the laboratory director.” In fact he was sitting on the edge of his desk, watching her, with an expression on his face that might have been either fond or merely interested. She caught his eye and he looked away. “He’ll call you as soon as he has the complete picture—which will certainly be before midday.”
“How the hell did you let something like this happen?”
“The young man sneaked a rabbit out of the laboratory in his duffel bag. We’ve already instituted a compulsory bag search at the entrance to BSL4 to make sure it can’t happen again.”
“My concern is bad publicity for the American government. We don’t want to be blamed for unleashing deadly viruses on the population of Scotland.”
“There’s no danger of that,” Toni said with her fingers crossed.
“Have any of the local reports played up the fact that this research is American-financed?”
“No.”
“They’ll pick it up sooner or later.”
“We should certainly be prepared to answer questions about that.”
“The most damaging angle for us—and therefore for you—is the one that says the research is done here because Americans think it’s too dangerous to be done in the United States.”
“Thanks for the warning. I think we have a very convincing response to that. After all, the drug was invented right here in Scotland by Professor Oxenford, so it’s natural it should be tested here.”
“I just don’t want to get into a situation where the only way to prove our goodwill is to transfer the research to Fort Detrick.”
Toni was shocked into silence. Fort Detrick, in the town of Frederick, Maryland, housed the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. How could the research be transferred there? It would mean the end of the Kremlin. After a long pause, she said, “We’re not in that situation, not by a million miles.” She wished she could think of a more devastating put-down.
“I sure hope not. Have Stanley call me.”
“Thank you, Larry.” She hung up and said to Stanley, “They can’t transfer your research to Fort Detrick, can they?”
He went pale. “There’s certainly no provision in the contract to that effect,” he said. “But they are the government of the most powerful country in the world, and they can do anything they want. What would I do—sue them? I’d be in court for the rest of my life, even if I could afford it.”
Toni was rocked by seeing Stanley appear vulnerable. He was always the calm, reassuring one who knew how to solve the problem. Now he just looked daunted. She would have liked to give him a comforting hug. “Would they do it?”
“I’m sure the microbiologists at Fort Detrick would prefer to be doing this research themselves, if they had the choice.”
“Where would that leave you?”
“Bankrupt.”
“What?” Toni was appalled.
“I’ve invested everything in the new laboratory,” Stanley said grimly. “I have a personal overdraft of a million pounds. Our contract with the Department of Defense would cover the cost of the lab over four years. But if they pull the rug now, I’ve got no way of paying the debts—either the company’s or my own.”
Toni could hardly take it in. How could Stanley’s entire future—and her own—be threatened so suddenly? “But the new drug is worth millions.”
“It will be, eventually. I’m sure of the science—that’s why I was happy to borrow so much money. But I didn’t foresee that the project might be destroyed by mere publicity.”
She touched his arm. “And all because a stupid television