Third World War by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page A

brown envelope. Nolan was not the first Prime Minister or President that Campbell had briefed during a crisis. He knew he could be blunter with Nolan, a former Royal Marine who would understand military strategy and missile threats.
    'If I was serving in the US now, I would be briefing the President - if I could get to him,' said Campbell with a knowledgeable glance at Colchester. 'As it is, I am on secondment to Her Majesty's Government, so I have asked to brief you, Prime Minister.' He knelt on the floor and spread photographs over the coffee table. 'I flew in a few hours ago from Australia, where there's been a break-in at a virology lab. We hadn't put two and two together until the North Korean missile tragedy at Yokata.'
    At the mention of Yokata, Nolan eyed Campbell sharply, and took hold of the photograph Campbell was offering him. 'That's the canteen,' explained Campbell. 'That was taken at shortly after 3 a.m.'
    Nolan took his time studying the scene in the photograph. There was an unfinished snack on a table. Two cups of coffee, one black, one a creamy white, sat undisturbed on each side of the table. A mark of light red lipstick ran around the rim of one cup. At the centre of the table was a bowl of fruit containing bananas, tangerines, kiwi fruit and a bruised apple. On one plate were the remains of a ham omelette; on the other was the crust of a burger bun, smudged with tomato sauce. The knives and forks were laid side by side on the plates. A newspaper on one side was folded over to the crossword page. The chair was neatly pushed in to the table. The other chair was toppled over on the floor.
    'That fallen chair,' said Campbell, looking over the Prime Minister's shoulder, 'is the only sign there had been a struggle. The Australian police are certain that the two scientists on duty at the time were murdered. But their bodies are missing.'
    Campbell passed Nolan another picture. It showed a laboratory with a red neon sign on the wall saying in large capital letters NO ADMITTANCE. HIGHLY INFECTIOUS AREA. Two people were inside, both wearing darkgreen surgical gowns, gloves, medical masks and blue polypropylene shoe covers. The door ahead was closed. Behind it was an ante-chamber of transparent glass with a blue ultra-violet light shining inside.
    'This is a file picture,' said Campbell. 'It's the ante-room of the laboratory where they've been working on a substance known as interleukin-4 or IL-4.' He handed over a third picture, which simply showed a cage with two mice in it.
    'This is what they were after, isn't it?' said Nolan, dropping the picture on to the pile on the coffee table, and leaning back in his chair. 'You're here now because they succeeded?'
    'IL-4 is a tragic scientific mistake,' said Campbell. 'It is an agent that makes mice sterile. The Australians were planning to spread it throughout urban mice populations using a virus called mousepox, which is normally harmless. But something happened that no one had anticipated. Not only did it shut down the reproductive system, it also shut down a key element of the body's immune system, something called cell-mediated response, the specific mechanism that fights against viruses. Suddenly, mousepox became a killer virus. Those mice infected with mousepox together with IL-4 died almost immediately.'
    The expression on Nolan's face showed that he was beginning to understand the implications. 'And mousepox is--?'
    'A sister virus of variola major, which is smallpox,' said Colchester. 'Mice are - or were - far more immune to mousepox than we are to smallpox. But virologists are now pretty certain that if IL-4 is administered with the smallpox virus, the world will be facing a biological weapon threat such as never before.'
    'Not least because we don't have a vaccine for it,' said Campbell.
    'Has there been a theft of smallpox as well?' asked the Prime Minister.
    'Not that we have heard of,' said Campbell, glancing across to Colchester. 'But we're checking.'
    'And