MONDAY
In the morning Katie’s spirits had revived. She had gone to bed at half past eight and slept for ten straight hours. This was an adventure, after all! At the very least it would be interesting.
The house stood right on the summit of the promontory. In the daylight the view from her bedroom window across the Bristol Channel was stupendous, and looking down she glimpsed part of a garden.
She had breakfast and unpacked, and it was still only eight o’clock. She’d received a text message from Siobhan telling her to be at the main office for nine to get her pass and security code. She had plenty of time to explore.
She found her way out of the house, pausing to examine the birds in their glass cases. Emerging from the shrubbery, she found herself on a terrace at the side of the house. She followed a path down through a series of terraced lawns, past flowerbeds, dug over, with a few slimy brown stalks remaining, and a lily pond, where goldfish darted. The glory days of the garden were long gone. The university maintained it to a reasonable standard, but no more. There was something forlorn about the statues set in their vistas, their faces worn away by erosion, their bodies colonized by green and grey and yellow lichen.
The garden dropped down to a narrow combe lined by woods that she guessed would be full of bluebells and wild garlic in the spring. Now, in January, the trees – some kind of oak? – were bare, just a few bronze leaves clinging to the branches. There was a choice of path, down into the valley or up along the crest. She chose the latter and after a while she reached a vantage point on the headland, where a telescope had been set up to enable people to look across to the Welsh coast. There was a rather ramshackle fence round the perimeter of the headland. Katie saw that there was a steep drop of a couple of hundred feet straight down into the sea that foamed around the foot of the cliff.
Further along the coast to the west she could see a small cove with a concrete tidal bathing pool and a little jetty. That was probably reached by the path down through the valley. It was like something out of a children’s book, Swallows and Amazons or The Famous Five. She could imagine picnics with ginger beer and sausage rolls. It must be wonderful in the summer. But she probably wouldn’t be here that long.
She turned and walked back to where the path had forked, and went along the other path, which wound off to the right through the woods. She glimpsed something white through the trees and, curious, she took a detour. It was a Gothic Revival cottage, just one storey high, with arched windows, white-painted woodwork, a thatched roof, and a little garden with a picket fence. It was like a house in a fairy-tale. Someone lived here. There were curtains at the windows and when Katie walked round the side, she saw that a dark blue Jaguar F-type convertible was parked there, its sleek modern lines looking incongruous next to the cottage. She didn’t know much about cars, but she knew enough to know that it must have cost a pretty penny. It was well out of her price range and that of most of her scientist colleagues.
The grounds had been landscaped to conceal a track that swung round at the back and Katie guessed that this had once been a gate-keeper’s cottage. In one direction the track must lead back up to the house. She decided to follow it the other way and see if it led to the labs. She emerged from the trees to find a lawn on one side and on the other a stone arcade with niches containing life-size crumbling statues. She stopped to examine them. They didn’t seem to be classical figures; more medieval, judging by the costumes. The last niche was empty and there was a notice: “Removed for repair”.
Sure enough, after a few more twists and turns, the path did lead to the labs, so this would have been her quickest way to work. However, Katie was meeting Siobhan in the admin offices, which were in the old house, so she made her way back up the hill. It turned out to be a short-cut to Katie’s side of the house.
She decided that she would try to get out for a walk at lunchtimes.
In some ways the months of perpetual daylight in the Antarctic summer had taken their toll more than the days when the sun never rose. After all, it wasn’t uncommon in the UK to find yourself going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. Even so it wasn’t a healthy way to live. And Katie would be working in a double basement, deep in the ground. If she wasn’t careful, she might go for days without seeing daylight, and that wasn’t going to help her to re-establish her circadian rhythm.
* * *
Siobhan was fiftyish and overweight, with a warm smile and a photo of two small children – grandchildren? – on her desk. Katie recognized her immediately. Not her personally, but as the person who was the linchpin, the one who looked after everyone and who really ran the place. There was always someone and it was usually a woman. She was the first person people would go to if they needed something sorted out.
They had almost finished dealing with Katie’s security card and her code for the keypads when the office door opened and a young woman came in.
Siobhan said, “Here’s Maddie. She’s the technician who looks after the insectary in the malaria lab. She’s kindly agreed to show you where your desk is and give you a tour of the lab. Then she’ll introduce you to the biological safety officer, who’ll do the briefing about your Cat 3 lab work. Claudia’s been away for the weekend and won’t be back until lunchtime. She said to let you know that she’ll come and find you in the canteen around two.”
“Hi there, Caitlin,” the woman said, holding out a hand. “Welcome to Debussy Point, otherwise known as Alcatraz!”
She was short and dark and rather plump. Katie took an immediate liking to her. Maddie had such a kind, open face. But Katie was also aware that if anyone was likely to suspect that she wasn’t what she seemed, it would be another technician, so she’d better tread warily.
Luckily Maddie was a talker. As they walked down the hill, she chatted away. She was warm and friendly, but at the same time she was artlessly interested in her own life and asked hardly any questions about Katie’s. Once she’d established where Katie had worked before and that Katie was single, she was satisfied. Julia had been right about that. Katie could relax and let Maddie do the running while Katie lobbed the odd remark back over the net.
Walking into the lab was like coming home. Even with her eyes closed, Katie would have known where she was. There was the smell – something chemical like formaldehyde and a hint of something yeasty; and the sound – a constant background noise from a container hood as it emitted sterile air – not really a hum, more like the rhythmic swell of the sea. It was like any other lab anywhere in the world. There was something peaceful about it, almost cloister-like, separate from the outside world. Was there perhaps even something a little nun-like about the women, mostly with unmade-up faces, in their uniforms of white lab coats? Caitlin was certainly going to stand out here, she reflected.
Maddie showed Katie her bench and introduced her to Alan, the biological safety officer. After arranging to meet Katie for lunch in the canteen, she left them to it.
There was a whole protocol that had to be observed before Katie could be allowed to work unsupervised in the Cat 3 lab. She had been dreading this, afraid that her lack of experience would be exposed. But hopefully any gap in her knowledge would be put down to the fact that standard operating procedures and emergency procedures are specific to individual Cat 3 labs and the kind of work being done in them.
Fortunately Alan turned out to be a taciturn guy. He was not inclined to ask questions about where Katie had worked before, and was intent only on covering what she needed to know now and making sure that she understood. Then he handed her over to a senior technician, who showed her the layout of the lab and where everything was stored. And finally there was a trial run in the handling of hazardous material in the lab. Alan watched Katie at work and pronounced himself satisfied. There were Health and Safety forms and risk assessments to be read and signed, and then Alan signed her off as fit to work in the Cat 3 influenza lab.
She had cleared the first hurdle and as she went off to meet Maddie for lunch, she couldn’t help smiling to herself. She had been accepted as the new technician. She had actually got away with it.
* * *
As they sat chatting over their coffee, Katie decided that it would surely be natural to ask Maddie about her predecessor’s sudden departure. If Sophie had confided in anyone, it would have been one of the other technicians and, given that Maddie was such a friendly, sympathetic soul...
Katie said, “I had a walk this morning. What glorious views! I think I’m going to like it here. Though I hear the person before me didn’t stick it very long,” she added, as if it were an afterthought.
Maddie didn’t exactly stiffen, but it was as if she was suddenly alert.
After a few moments, she said, “Well, Sophie – she was the most recent one – her partner lives in London. They got tired of the travelling, and before that, Mark got offered a better job somewhere else and, well, I guess it’s not everyone’s cup of tea here.”
Katie didn’t want to push too hard, or to seem to know more than she ought to know, but in for a penny, in for a pound. “It’s not always easy, is it, working so closely with someone?” she prompted.
Maddie was vague. “There was a bit of a falling-out between Sophie and Claudia; not quite sure what it was about.”
Did Maddie really not know, or did she just not want to say?
Maddie went on, “And then, of course, it’s not for everyone, living out here – it’s so isolated. The place empties at weekends, but I must admit it can get a bit claustrophobic during the week, especially in the winter. Actually I’m often not here at weekends either. My bloke lives in Barnstaple. We met online. We’re both keen walkers and with Exmoor being so close... I’m a country girl at heart and I like it here.”
It was on the tip of Katie’s tongue to say that the isolation and the claustrophobia couldn’t be worse than they were in Antarctica, but she saw the danger in time. Instead she said, “So what do people get up to here during the week?”
“Well, there’s karaoke night and quiz night in the pub. That’s good fun. That’s the up side.”
“What’s the down side?”
“It’s a bit of a rumour mill.”
“What kind of rumours?”
“Oh, the usual. You know – who’s carrying on with who, whether someone’s got a down on someone else, who’s planning to leave for a better job. That kind of stuff.”
“So who is carrying on with who?”
“Well,” she leaned over the table, “they do say that Gemma Braithwaite, Claudia’s PI –” She broke off. “I’m wondering if you play cards,” she went on brightly, holding Katie’s gaze with her own.
Katie understood that someone was coming up behind her: Gemma? Claudia?
“The guys at the Monday evening poker school are always on the lookout for new blood – so to speak.” Maddie laughed self-consciously. “And why don’t you come to karaoke on Thursday?”
“Not sure it’s quite my thing. Haven’t really kept up with pop music.”
“Oh, that doesn’t matter. It’s a special evening on Thursday – not contemporary stuff. It’s Golden Oldie Karaoke!”
“Thanks. Maybe I will,” Katie said.
She looked round and saw Claudia standing beside her.
She was even more attractive in real life than in her photograph. That was Katie’s first impression. She looked like a woman from a Pre-Raphaelite painting: she had long fiery auburn hair that fell in waves around her shoulders. She had the creamy skin that goes with it and a scattering of freckles on her nose. It was only her eyes, which were too pale, a washed-out blue, that stopped her being one hundred per cent drop-dead gorgeous.
All the same, heads were turning. Her arrival had altered the chemistry in the room. It wasn’t just her looks, Katie realized. She had an energy that seemed to pull people towards her. It was as if she exerted a magnetic attraction, and it was affecting Katie too.
Claudia was smiling at her as if she was thrilled to see her. “Caitlin, yes? Boy, am I glad to see you. If you hadn’t shown up, I was in danger of having to culture my own samples. Let me get us some coffees. What’ll you have? A latte?”
“Thanks. That’d be great.”
As a technician Katie was, strictly speaking, lower down the pecking order. So Claudia was telling Katie that she wasn’t intending to pull rank, that she was going to treat her as an equal.
“How about you, Maddie?” Claudia asked.
“Oh no, I must scoot. But thanks.”
Claudia went to get the coffee, and Maddie got up to go. Katie thanked her for showing her round.
“My pleasure,” Maddie said. “And you’re welcome – any time – to come down and visit me in the insectary and see what we do there.”
* * *
Over coffee Claudia did ask Katie about her previous job, but in a perfunctory way. She was just being polite. She clearly wasn’t really interested in what Katie had done in the past. It was what she was going to do here and now that mattered. And fair enough, that was what Katie was there for – to support Claudia’s research.
So that was what they talked about.
“Exciting results,” Katie said.
“Yeah, it’s great. I’m writing them up for a paper to be co-authored with Gemma.”
That would certainly be a feather in Claudia’s cap.
“I don’t suppose we’ll see much of Professor Braithwaite in the lab?” Katie asked.
“Nah. Hardly ever. Can’t remember the last time she came down here. She just lets me get on with it. I see her once a week and she looks through my lab book. That’s about it.”
“She’s OK, is she? I mean...” Katie let her voice trail off.
Claudia thought about that. “She’s a strong woman who’s made her way against the odds. We need more like her. But I guess she’s not everyone’s cup of tea. She doesn’t suffer fools gladly, but as long as you measure up and you’re prepared to work hard, she’s great and she’ll back you to the hilt. I really like her.”
They got into the details of what Katie would be doing over the next few weeks. She would be generating the genetic mutations that Claudia required for her own experiments further down the line, so their work would be quite separate. This was going to make it that much harder to check up on Claudia.
But, in another way, Katie felt she’d made progress. What Claudia had said about Gemma confirmed her suspicions. Gemma was a hard taskmaster who would expect results and wouldn’t be interested in excuses. At the same time, she probably took a broad-brush approach to supervising, and didn’t do much more than glance through Claudia’s lab book. Which would make it much easier for Claudia to doctor her results – if indeed that was what was going on. This could be such a temptation for a young researcher. Sure, she would get into trouble if she was caught out in wrong-doing, but if she didn’t get good results, publishable results, her career was dead in the water anyway. Katie had felt it herself, had found herself on the brink of massaging some results that were nearly, but not quite, what was required. She’d pulled back at the last moment. But what if Claudia hadn’t?
In spite of Claudia’s friendliness, Katie found herself not liking her very much. Was she envious of Claudia, she wondered, so young, so bright and so much the going-places person, while she, older than Claudia, was in the doldrums, her scientific career stalled. Well, yes, of course she was envious, and it was better to be honest with herself. She would just have to put those feelings to one side and get on with the job.
* * *
Claudia went off to do some paperwork and it was time for Katie to take possession of her new domain and start work.
The lift took her down to the double basement where her Cat 3 lab was located. As the technician in charge, she would be in and out of it all the time. For safety reasons the Cat 3 labs had a CCTV camera fixed in the corridor outside. A glance told her that the lab was empty, which was what she expected. As she looked at the screen it flickered. She frowned. She hoped it wasn’t going on the blink.
She signed the log the old-fashioned way – a sheet of paper with columns for name, time, reason for entry.
The lab consisted of three rooms, and to enter the first room there were two layers of security. Katie went through the procedure she had been taught that morning. She inserted her key card and then she punched in her code. She stepped into the first room, taking with her the insulated bag in which was the flask containing the cells she would be infecting with the flu virus. The room functioned like an airlock. The door she’d entered by had to be closed before she could open the door into the next room.
That second room was the robing room. She put on a blue disposable lab gown over her clothes. Wobbling first on one leg and then the other, she pulled blue overshoes on top of her trainers. High-end trainers, of course. She wondered how she could have afforded them on a technician’s salary. She didn’t have a private income or a rich boyfriend. It was part of her cover story that she was unattached. If she didn’t have to remember details of a fictitious boyfriend, there was less danger of getting caught out. No, Caitlin would have saved up for those trainers. A large part of her disposable income went on clothes.
To get into the last room where the work actually went on, she used another key and another code. She went in with the insulated bag and the door closed behind her. Off to one side was the incubator containing the strains of flu virus.
She felt a frisson of unease at being alone there for the first time. It was part of her job to be always considering ways in which things could go wrong, to be alert to errors of procedure. And in a week or two, she knew, she would think nothing of it. It would be just another day at the office. But today she couldn’t help being very conscious of the potential danger of what she was doing. She reminded herself that the safety measures were stringent. The flask was made of a tough plastic, pretty much unbreakable. She would be working in a glove box, where she would be handling the material with gloves attached to a biosafety cabinet filled with filtered air. She had been shown how to do that this morning. The virus could not escape, but even if it did, there was negative airflow – air was drawn into the lab, but was then filtered before it came out. And the lab itself was sealed. Of course all this was dependent on a reliable supply of electricity, but there was an emergency generator that would kick in if there was a power cut.
No, it was perfectly safe.
She came to herself and glanced at the clock on the wall. Somehow she had lost ten minutes. How had that happened? She looked down at her gloved hand, holding the flask. She must have opened the insulated bag and taken it out without really registering what she was doing. It was only avian tissue, uninfected at this stage, but still... with this kind of work you couldn’t afford to let your attention slip.
After that she became absorbed in her work and made good progress. But by four o’clock she needed a break. She decided to take Maddie up on her invitation.