After the Truth (Book One)

Fourteen

That first year after leaving the WHO was a fraught time. I was not allowed to tell the truth of why I had resigned. But I could not lie. So, if asked, I answered that I was not allowed to tell the real reason for my resignation, which of course only raised more questions I was not allowed to answer.

Isabel would tell our friends I had left due the stress caused by the deaths of Evelyn and Hiro. I got angry at her for this, I was fearful that her lying for me (and my allowing it) would be a lie by proxy.

Eventually she changed her story to the stayed cliché often used when a public figure wants to cover up the truth of their failure: I had left to spend more time with the her and the boys.

My replacement as head of the GAR programme was someone from outside the WHO and I was not that surprised to find it was Deputy Director Fallows. He quickly made sure I was off limits from further contact with any of my old colleagues.

So I became a forced reclusive.

Side-lined, I spent my days monitoring medical news sources for sudden unexplained deaths. With growing dread, I saw a steady stream of cases reported. There was the occasional cluster but always a steady background count of single deaths. This background was not enough to make a noise in the mainstream media, but there were ripples of comments in the medical journals.

The rare chance meetings I did have with some old colleagues led to furtive exchanges of information. Through such meetings, I heard of secretive conference calls organised by Fallows. It seemed several governments were trying to co-ordinate their control of the situation. Despite these efforts, two incidents in France pushed experienced of sudden deaths into the full media spotlight.

The first was a large cluster of seventeen victims in southern Paris that could not be kept from the TV or newspapers, and reporters began asking questions.

The day after the Paris cluster hit the headlines, I was contacted by Sir Robert Newbury and offered lunch in the London. With wary interest, I accepted the Chief Scientific Advisor's invitation. He treated me to a private table at The Holly Tree, an exclusive restaurant on the northern border of Belgravia.

We had a private room and Sir Robert candidly informed me the British government were trying to play both sides of the fence. He detailed the cooperation happening between the Americans, Europeans, Japanese and Chinese authorities in attempts to stop the Word spreading via the Internet and all other forms of telecommunications. The Chinese expertise in state censorship was seen as a model they could use more widely. Privately the British wanted to know my thoughts on these strategies.

I had another mouthful of my very refreshing crispy duck and watermelon salad and then dabbed at my lips. I was trying to hide my cynical smile.

'I doubt you have paid my travel expenses from Geneva, and this very expensive meal if you had not already realised it is not possible to block the spread of single word in today's hyperconnected world.

'I imagine you have slowed it's spread in the short term, but you have only slowed it, not stopped it completely. From an epidemiologist's perspective it is quite an interesting problem. The normal mathematical models for transmissions of pathogens don't work when the viral agent (for want of a better term), can spread between two people on opposite sides of the world in a micro-second.'

Before boarding my flight, I had watched the news on second public event in France.

'Do you know how the French Defence Minister learnt the Word?'

Sir Robert nodded his head sadly, 'One of his aides, who is also thought to have been the origin of the Paris cluster, put the whole word into a briefing document.'