FRIDAY – TUESDAY
Sheer exhaustion was the diagnosis. She was still suffering the after-effects of her fall into the sea, not to mention her immune system working overtime to fight off the attack of shingles. It was surprising she hadn’t collapsed sooner. They took her back to the apartment and she slept round the clock.
Every few hours a nurse came in to wake her up and take her temperature. At one point Katie was awake for long enough to drink a mug of hot chocolate and eat a piece of toast that the nurse made for her. Then she sank back into sweet dreamless oblivion.
On day two she spent most of the time dozing, watching Netflix, and contacting the outside world on her iPad and mobile.
She had a long talk with Lyle.
“I always get more than I bargained for with you,” he told her. “Still can’t believe that you pulled it off and transferred the virus.”
“Claudia was so nearly there herself. To give her credit, she’d been working towards getting genuine results, as well as having a Plan B of cooking the data if things didn’t work out. The modification in the virus was actually something she’d prepared in parallel but had never tested thoroughly, because she had overlooked something in the protocol. She was too impatient to persevere when she didn’t pull it off first time round.”
“It would be ironic if she...” He didn’t finish the sentence, but Katie knew what he was thinking. It would be ironic if, having faked her results, she caught the disease that she had failed to transfer.
* * *
It was Justin who told Katie the bad news that evening. “Claudia’s got a temperature of a hundred and two. She’s got aching joints and a sore throat. She’s just been airlifted to the high security isolation unit at the Royal Free in London.”
“Oh no!”
“Caspar said to tell you it’s only a precaution and that it’s not your fault.”
It was typical of Caspar to know that she’d be blaming herself and to want to reassure her, but it didn’t do any good. She felt terrible. If Claudia should get worse... But no, best not to go there.
Claudia did get worse. Next day there was a definite diagnosis of flu. She was being treated with antivirals, but they were so far having no effect and she was described as “very poorly”.
On day four Katie woke up to find Justin standing by her bed with scrambled eggs on toast and coffee on a tray. She sat up in bed. Surely her quarantine had another couple of days to run?
“It’s wonderful to see you. But should you be here?” she asked.
“Claudia started showing symptoms a couple of days ago,” he said, “and given that you are still symptom-free – and so is Tarquin – that means you’re probably both in the clear.” He put the tray on the bed and leaned down to kiss her.
“Well, yes, but –”
“No buts. I’m here now and I intend to stay. Now get stuck into your breakfast. I’m going to go and clear up in the kitchen. Call me if you need anything.”
“Is there any news of Claudia?”
He hesitated. “Well, she’s no worse.”
“But no better?”
“Not yet.”
Well, that was something at least. Katie ate her breakfast slowly, with the returning appetite of a convalescent. The patch of shingles behind her ear had almost completely cleared up and she wondered if the fact that she was already on antivirals had afforded her some protection from the flu.
When she’d finished, she put on her dressing gown and took her tray down to the kitchen. Justin was washing up. She went up to him and put her arms round his waist and rested her cheek against his shoulder.
“Thank you,” she said.
He turned round and took her into his arms. “I wasn’t going to leave you on your own a moment longer than I had to. Not after what happened.”
“After what happened?” she echoed.
“You haven’t forgotten that someone pushed you off a cliff?”
“Oh. Yes. Not forgotten exactly. But the shock of realizing that I might have triggered an apocalypse – that kind of pushed it to the back of my mind. And I know what the police think: there was a gust of wind and I stumbled.”
“Here, let’s have some more coffee.”
They sat down at the kitchen table.
“That isn’t what you think, though, is it?” Justin said. “That it was just an accident.”
“Well, no. But Justin, why would someone want to do me harm?”
“I wondered about Claudia.”
“Claudia didn’t know that I was on to her.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Katie saw again the shock and anger on Claudia’s face when Tarquin had blown her cover. Could Claudia have faked that? Katie shook her head. “I really don’t think she had a clue. And anyway, it doesn’t seem the kind of thing she’d do. Claudia is impulsive and can’t control her temper. Whoever it was must have planned it; must have followed me to the headland and waited for their moment. That’s very different.”
“I’m not so sure,” Justin said. “Of course, I’ve never met the woman, but didn’t creating those fraudulent results involve a fair amount of planning?”
“Actually, I think that was probably pretty impulsive too. And then once she’d taken the first step, she had to keep going. But even if it was her, she’s not in a position to do me any harm now. And what would be the point? Her secret’s out. Surely I’m safe enough?”