‘Kevin, if you continue down this line,’ Banks retorted, ‘then I’m going to have to ask you to leave the room – as well as this task force. These interventions of yours are simply not helpful and I need everyone fully onboard here.’ The two men glared at each other in silence until the more junior of the two backed down and looked towards the window, muttering something unrepeatable under his breath.

‘Now,’ resumed Gareth Banks, ‘we need to address the priority matter of the therapy. As we have established, this virus is a chimera – a fusion of Marburg haemorrhagic fever with an unidentified form of monkey pox. Normally, when searching for an antidote, we would expect to start where others have left off. But this is hardly a normal situation we’re facing, is it?’ He stood up straight and began to pace around the room as he spoke.

‘We do have stocks – right here on-site – of cross-immunity vaccines for smallpox. Obviously, the NHS freezers are holding a great deal more. A company in Europe has tested them for monkey pox and they were found to be in large part effective.’

‘Well, isn’t that the way forward, then?’ interjected the official from the WHO. ‘We hold stocks of smallpox vaccine ourselves.’

‘I wish it were that simple,’ said Banks, grimacing as he spoke. ‘It takes between five and seven days for the Vaccinia antidote to take effect – if it works – and, of course, now, tragically, we no longer have a live patient to work with, since Sheila Mackenzie is … is …’ For the first time Gareth Banks seemed to lose his momentum and he stumbled over his words. ‘Since she is no longer with us. Which means we’re going to have to fall back on our laboratory substitutes, with – I have to say it – unpredictable results.’

‘And Marburg? The haemorrhagic element?’ It was the delegate from Norway, and his pale features bore a look of suspended shock, as if he were still trying to digest what had just happened in his country.

Gareth Banks stopped pacing to address his question. ‘Yes, thank you.’ He acknowledged him with a nod. ‘Again, we have to start where others have got to. There are new experimental vaccines under study right now for haemorrhagic fevers in central Africa, in the DRC. We’ve worked on some of them here at Porton Down. Will they work for Agent X? That I can’t tell you yet, but—’ He put up his index finger. ‘Excuse me. Yes?’

He’d broken off as a young man had entered the room without knocking and come straight up to whisper something in his ear. Banks stared at him.

‘You’re certain?’ he asked. The man nodded. Gareth Banks turned to the rest of the room.