Everything to Lose (33 page)

Notes

The Lambeth Group was created in 1975 when a group of twenty-six University Vice-Chancellors from elite Universities met secretly at the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London to decide on a strategy to manage research and technology disasters that sometimes happen when researchers push boundaries farther than they should.

A
core team of nine leading researchers from across UK Universities were recruited by secondment to covertly investigate and resolve research project backfires that could damage crucial reputations and threaten tens of billions in annual research investment in the University sector if they were exposed. The group is managed jointly by a retired University Vice-Chancellor (known as the VC) and the Director of CPNI. The Lambeth VC provides a communications link between the Home Office and all the University Vice-Chancellors in the UK and Commonwealth.

Lambeth
Group academic investigators are supplied with one piece of kit. The Lambeth Group SEM (secure encrypted module) mobile phone looks just like Samsung Galaxy smart phone except it connects directly to a satellite for secure communications rather than a mobile phone network. It has clever apps to provide support and backup for Lambeth Group academics, who are non-combatants, not security service trained and not particularly street-wise.

The Official Secrets Act i
s used in the United Kingdom to describe legislation that aims to protect state secrets and official information
.
People working with secret information are required to sign a statement agreeing to abide by the restrictions detailed in the Official Secrets Act.

COBRA (Cabinet O
ffice Briefing Room A).

CDS (Chief of Defence Staff).

CNPI (Centre for Protection of National Infrastructure) a branch of MI5.

MI5 (
UK Security Service).

MI6 (
UK Secret Intelligence Service).

ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers).

JIC (Joint Intelligence Committee).

HMG (Her Majesty's Government).

GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters).

COBRA (Cabinet Office Committee Room A).

CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).

NCS (
National Clandestine Service) a section of the CIA.

POINT-K (President only informed if needs to know).

CASTER (Committee for Accountable Science and Technology Ethical Research) is a covert group attached to MI5's CPNI branch that scan UK universities and institutes for fraud, corruption, plagiarism, fabrication or falsification and other unethical behaviour.

RAE
(Research Assessment Exercise) is a government method of assessing the quality of research activity in academic departments and awarding grades. The grades are subsequently used to distribute research funds to academic departments for a period of six years. Competition is fierce. Research envy and snobbery is inevitable. The pressure on Departments to obtain a high grade and a high level of funding is intense. The funding stakes are high.

SLIPFIRE
designation code for the Lambeth Group investigation at the Department of Sports Studies, University of South England.

DHEA (
dehydroepiandrosterone).

ATP
(adenosine triphosphate). If there is one thing that unifies all life on this planet it is this molecule. ATP is a molecule composed of adenosine and three phosphates. This molecule supplies energy for living cells to function.

Just
like a house with no power feels dead and bereft. A cell with no energy cannot support life. Almost all living organisms on the planet use ATP's energy to power life.

We
can't hear, see, think, reproduce or move without power from ATP.

If you enjoyed
Everything to Lose
you might be interested in
Deadly Secrets
by Gordon Bickerstaff, also published by Endeavour Press.

Extract from
Deadly Secrets
by Gordon Bickerstaff

One

When her death throes came they fired crescendos of searing pain into her small body. Every nerve screamed pain and she didn't understand why. Fear and instinct told her death drew near. Her brave little heart craved for the love and safety she knew from her big brother.

Exhausted from searching and too petrified to stand, she lay on her side shaking uncontrollably. Traumatised by relentless pain her brain finally abandoned her young body. Suffering subsided and calm descended with a false sense of well-being.

This pain felt much worse than she'd ever known. Many times her brother beat her for running off but the pain lasted moments. She wanted to get up and run to her big brother, to kill more rats for him. Her brother hated rats and screamed madly at them. She killed lots of rats for her big brother and loved killing them.

A vision appeared in her mind of a hole in the wall where rats sneaked through. Close to the bed they shared. Her big brother lay there alone calling for her to help. Terror filled her child-like mind as her vision showed hoards of rats streaming through the hole attacking her brother. Her brother fought them off but they swarmed over him biting, tearing, squealing and the vision drained her heart. She tried to call out but her muscles refused to move. She stared ahead panting out puffs of moist air into the cold night while more traumatic visions raced through her mind.

The kind woman stepped out of her warm office and rubbed her arms against the cold night air. Her once razor sharp senses no longer reacted to noise and didn't hear the woman's footsteps crunch the fine gravel. The woman squatted down beside her and their eyes met. The woman flinched with concern but did nothing for her. They stared at each other and her fragile spirit reached out,
help
me
her dark eyes pleaded.

Concern twisted new lines around the woman's mouth; she breathed sharply and sighed loudly. Slowly she shook her head from side to side and tears filled her eyes as she stood up and turned her back. The woman's office door closed and with a loud blimp a light switch brought cold darkness back to the yard.

Fluid filled her small stomach, her gullet and lungs. Crushing feelings brought panic and helplessness. Painful coughing tried to expel the fluid and each cough became a hurdle that strangled her will to live. She gasped and gurgled, as pockets of gas expelled from her lungs. Fluid spilled from her mouth onto the ground where it formed a pool beside her head. The pain ended for her at least.

Two

East
Kilbride
,
Scotland

Colin Blunt listened to the BBC Scotland breakfast news programme on a portable radio in his bathroom while he showered away cobwebs of his dreams. His obese wife Annabel sprawled out in bed like a sad old walrus, screwed her face trying to focus on a telephone call. Hung over from a drinking binge, flustered, uninterested, eyes clamped shut, she caught a few words. Stubbornly she refused to raise her voice above the noisy power shower and told him what she could remember as he towelled himself dry.

Colin Blunt dressed quickly, finished his coffee and bid his wife a curt goodbye. She responded with her usual 'piss-off' groan and re-buried her head in her duvet to hide from the daylight that had arrived too soon.
Drunken
barrel
of
lard
flashed loudly in his mind as he slammed his front door shut.

A senior partner at Fairfells Pet Centre Reginald D.C. Blunt had a choice of three first names. He hated his first name and insisted people call him Colin. His wife called him 'Reg-ann-old' and he loathed her for it.

Tall brick walls surround the back yard at Fairfells Pet Centre to keep boarders in and wild animals out. The concrete cubicles and wire mesh kennels have few comforts other than a large plastic tub bed in one corner and a stainless steel water bowl in the opposite corner. Old newspapers spread in the centre soak up urine from the concrete floor. Some boarders had toys and blankets provided by thoughtful owners. Picture postcards adorned diet card holders on most cages.

The night duty veterinary nurse Carol Donginger finished off her paperwork in the small yard office. An attractive, educated and well-spoken woman in her mid-twenties. She was shorter than average height and in love with animals, especially dogs. She tied her chestnut brown hair at the back to form a pony tail. A few side strands worked loose and unconsciously she kept pushing them back behind her ear. She wore the Pet Centre's dark blue safari-type uniform. Carol dreamed of becoming a vet and prayed every week for a lottery win to make it possible.

Carol crouched down in the centre of a ring of twelve metal bowls laid out in a circle. Wielding a wooden spoon she started to mix dog-food when Colin stormed into the yard. His head searched side to side for a clue. The self-closing door slammed shut and startled her. Immediately the dogs pounded against their kennel doors barking at Blunt. He thought they greeted him but in fact they were telling Carol to hide the food.

"Where is it?" he called to her.

The familiar smell of kennels braced his nose and caught his throat.

"Morning Colin, she's over here," she said as she looked at Mr Morning Grumpy's face.

Carol pointed him to an isolation kennel set against the back wall of the building. On the floor lay an adult black and white mongrel bitch with long matted hair, speckled white ears and two white front paws. It lay on its side opposite the cage door. Carol moved over to the door and tucked her wooden spoon under her armpit.

"This poor soul arrived last night in a police van. I've called her Lonely; apparently attacked a man in the street but didn't bite. The police dog handler Charlie brought him to me," she said proud of her extra responsibility.

"Did you sedate it?"

Colin glanced at the motionless body and prepared to tear a strip off her for giving sedation without permission.

"She's dead."

"Dead!"

"Yes. I told your wife," Carol replied puzzled at his surprise.

He grunted loudly, lifted his case and turned to walk away.

"She barked for ages and wouldn't settle," Carol said raising her voice.

"Look Carol I'm not angry with you but you must not make emergency calls to my home unless really essential. Have you got that?" he said then stormed off.

Carol stood perplexed with her mouth ajar. She told his wife the dog was dead and she just wanted a quick word before surgery started. Colin made his way to a door leading to the office and surgeries. She suppressed a strong urge to shout something rude about his wife.

"Something you should see before I clean up," she emphasised.

He stopped in his tracks, pounded his left foot into the ground and rolled his eyes skyward. She slipped the bolt on the cage door and moved hesitantly inside the kennel. His eyes narrowed and he thought
you
little
witch
. He returned, crashed his case heavily down and followed her inside.

"I've never seen rabies but ...," she said looking down at the dog.

"RABIES! Don't be silly."

Blunt stood at the kennel door facing the dog. White fluid had seeped from its anus and spread out in a small pool on the ground. Similar material formed a larger pool around its mouth.

"Look at this damp patch under her body as if she's been sweating. I can't understand it," she said and looked at him for an answer because dogs have no sweat glands.

"Probably vomited," he dismissed.

Blunt moved around to the back of the dog for another view. He became conscious of something crushed under his shoe against the concrete floor. He crouched down on one knee and moved a sheet of newspaper for a closer look.

"What the hell's this? Teeth?" he raised his voice.

Carol sprang to her feet and turned her back on the dog. She covered her mouth with the palm of hand. She remembered the last moment she saw the dog alive.

"That poor baby must have been in terrible pain," she said emotionally.

Blunt leaned over the dog and with his right hand pressed on the body.

"Its abdomen has collapsed."

The dog gave out a loud burp.

"CHRIST." Colin blurted out.

His prodding disturbed the lay of the chest. It collapsed forcing trapped air to expel noisily like a deflating balloon.

Carol composed herself and squatted down beside him. Colin snapped with his fingers for her to pass the wooden spoon and he poked the handle end into the dog's mouth. He pressed hard to prise open its mouth. It seemed the gums were welded together.

"The jaws are..., Aagghh!"

He sprang back as his stick slipped off its gum, brushed the dog's eye causing fluid to spurt out of its eyeball. Splashes of vitreous fluid from its eyeball landed on the back of his hand and on his sleeve. They stared at the dog's head as fluid oozed out of its eyeball rolled down and dropped onto the floor.

"How could she decompose so quickly?" she sounded agitated.

Blunt drew the stick gently across the back of its body. Clumps of dark hair dislodged and stuck to the end of the stick. Although gentle he rippled and tore the dog's skin, exposing a white gel-like tissue underneath. They looked on in disbelief.

Colin's anxiety increased as a surge of adrenaline flushed through his blood and made his heart thump. Beads of perspiration formed on his hairline and his face paled.
What
the
bloody
hell
happened
here
? His thoughts were turbulent.

"What would cause her teeth to fall out?" she sounded like a worried pet owner.

His frantic brain searched and analysed. He didn't reply, so Carol broke the silence.

"When I saw this white stuff I thought her body might be rotting quickly but have you noticed it?" she asked curiously.

A pang of irritation sprang up in his mind. Colin hated open questions from juniors. He gave her a sharp sideways look.

"There's no smell! That doesn't smell of anything," she said pointing to the pool of material expelled from its mouth.

Colin remained silent and retrieved a handkerchief from his trouser pocket. He dabbed perspiration from his forehead and wiped moisture from his palms. He gasped when he saw her staring at the splash of vitreous fluid on the back of his hand. He jumped to attention and vigorously wiped the fluid.

He tried to recall events immediately following the death of an animal. He thought back to his student days at Vet School. They taught him little about death but he remembered something of the biochemistry of death. After death resident bacteria in the body begin rapid consumption of all freely available biochemicals to grow and produce more bacteria.

When simple sources are exhausted the bacteria secrete suites of digestive enzymes to demolish organs and tissues to simple building blocks. Large protein molecules reduced to small molecules such as ammonia and amines, many of which bear a strong smell. The characteristic smell of death develops slowly as a complex cocktail of small odour-bearing biochemicals accumulate beside rapidly growing bacteria.

"Okay this is clearly a massive bacterial infection."

He believed bacteria somehow killed and decomposed the dog without producing a smell. Colin ushered Carol out of the kennel and closed the door.

"Shall I clean up now?"

"No, fetch protective clothing and wait. I'll come back down in a few minutes. I need to make a call," he said as he hurried toward the office door.

Dorothy Chambers sorted morning mail at Fairfells while she talked to the trainee nurse Sameena. Colin breezed in though the door leading to the kennels.

"Morning," he said as he hurried into surgery number one.

As usual his surgery was open, brightly lit, sparkling clean and ready for business. Also as usual Colin dressed immaculately in a well pressed dark blue business suit, polished black brogue shoes, light blue striped shirt and matching blue tie.

Tall and thin faced, with a commanding voice much appreciated by pet owners who drew reassurance from his confidence, particularly when beloved pets were unwell. Dorothy followed Colin but stopped at the surgery door.

"Morning Colin; it's lovely again today," she said staring off through a window.

Colin said nothing. She noted his distraction, not unusual first thing for Mr Morning Grumpy and turned to walk back to her reception desk. Colin slipped his suit jacket neatly onto a coat-hanger and put on his white coat. He moved smartly around an examination table in the centre of his surgery and towards the door to follow Dorothy into the reception area.

"Coffee?" enquired Dorothy.

"Dot, a moment please," he said while glancing at a customer entering the foyer with an anxious pet poodle friend.

With his hand pulling her arm they moved inside the office and he closed the door behind her. She looked uncomfortable with his uncharacteristic manhandling.

"Will you call Sir Charles McCall-Brown at Kinmalcolm University; his number is on my personal list."

"Now?" Dorothy said looking at the wall clock.

"Yes, he'll be there, he's always at his desk by seven."

Dorothy rubbed her arm where his fingers had pressed then she dialled the number. She asked McCall-Brown to hold and Colin took the wireless handset into his surgery, closing the door behind him.

"Charles, yes, morning, fine I know I'll be there. I have an animal here at Fairfells. I think it's been infected with a kind of super bug. It's not natural. I think it has escaped from one of your research labs? I want you to send someone over here now? It is urgent, yes now, good, yes I will, thanks, yes of course, bye."

Colin felt relieved as he stepped back into the foyer. Clearly shaken he returned the handset to Dorothy. He noticed Dorothy and Sameena staring at him. This wasn't the overbearingly confident boss they knew and feared.

"Someone will be over from the university. Let me know when he arrives. I'll be down at the kennels with Carol."

He pushed through the door and when it slammed shut the two women exchanged looks of bewilderment.

* * *

One of the most difficult parts of the job of a University Vice-Chancellor is managing the chairman of the board of governors. Some VC's have it easy enough with a puppet chairman. Colin Blunt chaired Kinmalcolm's Board of Governors with an aggressive hand and even on a good day he could be very prickly. McCall-Brown decided that if Blunt was correct then such an issue should rightly be passed to the Lambeth Group.

The Lambeth Group was formed in 1975 when a group of twenty-six University Vice-Chancellors from elite Universities met secretly with Home Office mandarins at the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London. After prolonged discussion they agreed on the need for a doomwatch strategy to discover and manage research and technology disasters that can happen when top researchers push past the boundaries farther and faster than they should.

Working with CPNI (Centre for Protection of National Infrastructure) a branch of MI5 and the Home Office the Lambeth Group had successfully prevented the most damaging university and private research disasters from becoming public knowledge.

McCall-Brown first came into direct contact with the Lambeth Group six years ago when they recruited one of his staff Dr Gavin Shawlens. Knowing Colin Blunt's propensity for overreaction McCall-Brown decided not to contact the Lambeth Group immediately in case Blunt was in fact wrong. Colin Blunt used overreaction as a tool to get his own way so instead he phoned Gavin Shawlens and told him to assess the incident.