Whiteout - Ken Follett [35]
Stanley answered: “The virus is not very infectious across species. In order to infect Michael, we think the rabbit must have bitten him.”
“What if the rabbit had got loose?”
Stanley looked out of the window. A light snow was falling. “It would have frozen to death.”
“Suppose it had been eaten by another animal. Could a fox have become infected?”
“No. Viruses are adapted to a small number of species, usually one, sometimes two or three. This one does not infect foxes, or any other form of Scottish wildlife, as far as we know. Just humans, macaque monkeys, and certain types of rabbit.”
“But Michael could have given the virus to other people.”
“By sneezing, yes. This was the possibility that alarmed us most. However, Michael seems not to have seen anyone during the critical period. We have already contacted his colleagues and friends. Nonetheless, we would be grateful if you would use your newspapers and television programs to appeal for anyone who did see him to call us immediately.”
“We aren’t trying to minimize this,” Toni put in hastily. “We are deeply concerned about the incident and, as I’ve explained, we have already put in stronger security measures. But at the same time we must be careful not to exaggerate.” Telling journalists not to exaggerate was a bit like telling lawyers not to be quarrelsome, she thought wryly. “The truth is that the public have not been endangered.”
Osborne was not finished. “Suppose Michael Ross had given it to a friend, who had given it to someone else . . . how many people might have died?”
Toni said quickly, “We can’t enter into that kind of wild speculation. The virus did not spread. One person died. That’s one too many, but it’s no reason to start talking about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” She bit her tongue. That was a stupid phrase to use: someone would probably quote it, out of context, and make it seem as if she had been forecasting doomsday.
Osborne said, “I understand your work is financed by the American army.”
“The Department of Defense, yes,” Stanley said. “They are naturally interested in ways of combating biological warfare.”
“Isn’t it true that the Americans have this work done in Scotland because they think it’s too dangerous to be done in the United States?”
“On the contrary. A great deal of work of this type goes on in the States, at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, and at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick.”
“So why was Scotland chosen?”
“Because the drug was invented here at Oxenford Medical.”
Toni decided to quit while she was ahead and close the press conference. “I don’t want to cut the questioning short, but I know some of you have midday deadlines,” she said. “You should all have an information pack, and Cynthia here has extra copies.”
“One more question,” said Clive Brown of the Record. “What’s your reaction to the demonstration outside?”
Toni realized she still had not thought of something more interesting for the cameras.
Stanley said, “They offer a simple answer to a complex ethical question. Like most simple answers, theirs is wrong.”
It was the right response, but sounded a little hard-hearted, so Toni added, “And we hope they don’t catch cold.”
While the audience was laughing at that, Toni stood up to indicate the conference was over. Then she was struck by inspiration. She beckoned to Cynthia Creighton. Turning her back on the audience, she spoke in a low, urgent voice. “Go down to the canteen, quickly,” she said. “Get two or three canteen staff to load up trays with cups of hot coffee and tea, and hand them out to the demonstrators outside the gate.”
“What a kind thought,” said Cynthia.
Toni was not being kind—in fact she was being cynical—but there was no time to explain that. “It must be done in the next couple of minutes,” she said. “Go, go!”
Cynthia hurried away.
Toni turned to Stanley and said, “Well done. You handled that perfectly.”
He took a red polka-dotted handkerchief from his jacket pocket and discreetly