Microbes of Power (Wallace of the Secret Service Series) (17 page)

‘Sullied you?’

‘Yes, sullied me.’

‘Beast!’ growled Shannon.

She quickly put a white, shapely hand over his mouth.

‘S’sh!’ she warned. ‘Your voice is like yourself, Hugh; very, very big. Oh! What is that?’

He withdrew from the parcel a suit of overalls with which he had thoughtfully provided himself. He explained, quickly donning it over his clothing, while she curiously examined the microphone. Shannon’s thoughts were busy, and not altogether with the work in hand. He was wondering if Thalia had again met Hill, and if she also had been attracted to him as he had been to her. That would certainly account for the softness in her face, and that something in her heart which she said she could not understand. It would also explain her sudden repugnance for Radoloff’s attentions. He wished he could have asked her, for he was very keen that his friend’s sudden devotion for her should end in happiness, but of course it was out of the question. He abruptly put all thoughts of a sentimental nature aside, and turned his attention to the matter on hand.

‘It is lucky,’ he commented, remembering to keep his voice very low, ‘that it is too warm for fires. That certainly would make our project impossible.’

He walked to the huge ornamental fireplace, which had been designed in imitation of the work of Bernini. Stretching his great bulk underneath, and looking up, he was gratified to find that he would be able to negotiate the chimney. It would be a tight squeeze, but it could be done. Bars of iron, placed at uniform distances apart, would make the ascent fairly easy. Pushing the microphone into his pocket, he handed Thalia the headphones, arranging the flex in such a manner that it would run out evenly as he ascended, and not jerk the microphone out of his possession.

‘Be careful not to make a noise,’ she warned him. ‘It is possible that they may hear you.’

‘They will think it is a mouse,’ he grinned.

She laughed softly.

‘Oh, but what a very great mouse!’ she exclaimed.

He commenced the ascent, and was soon in an atmosphere of soot that threatened to choke him. The chimney had not been swept at a very recent date, he reflected ruefully, and wondered if he would cause the soot to fall and make a mess of Thalia’s neat room. He just fitted in, and that was about all. If he had been two or three inches more in girth, it is probable that he would have been unable to make the ascent. Slowly he went up, taking care not to make a sound, and endeavouring to refrain from dislodging the thick masses of carbon deposit he found all around him. In this he was not altogether successful, as he could tell by the chunks which he could hear softly falling. It seemed a long way up, the rooms of the building were extremely lofty, but at last he came to a turn in the chimney, and knew he was close to the fireplace above. Here it narrowed, and he found it impossible to squeeze his broad shoulders any farther up. That was a poser, and he remained where he was, wondering what to do.

It was while he was stationary that he became aware of the murmur of voices. He decided that he must be directly behind the fireplace. A few inches higher, and he ought to be able to hear the conversation. He reached up a hand, and presently felt what seemed to be a ledge. If he could succeed in jamming the microphone there, it would be an ideal spot. Wriggling desperately, keeping his hand up and one shoulder higher than the other, he succeeded in gaining at least half a foot, but he was now fastened in so tightly that he was helpless. The voices, however, were quite distinct, and he remained in his desperately uncomfortable position listening intently. Someone, speaking in the Greek language, was apparently
giving a long technical explanation of a chemical formula, which was gibberish to Shannon. Presently he caught the word plague; then typhoid and cholera, and became at once intensely interested.

‘Are you quite certain you can do this?’ asked an eager voice.

‘Of course I am,’ came the quick reply of the man who had already been speaking. ‘Paul Michalis and you, also, Plasiras, have observed what I can do. It is only the difficulty of making enough to enable you to commence operations. When you dictate your terms, it is necessary that you give evidence that your threats are not empty. You can only do that by having a sufficient supply at hand. Is it not so?’

‘But it is amazing. I did not realise that your research work had taken you so far forward. Actually then it would be possible to declare our intentions almost at once.’

‘Yes. It is only that there must be a good supply in reserve.’

‘And the antidote?’ queried another man. ‘It is quite certain?’

‘Absolutely. Listen, my friends, I have not told you this before – only Michalis knows. I experimented on myself.’

There were mingled exclamations of horror and excitement.

‘It was terrible,’ declared a deep, vibrating voice. ‘I, Paul Michalis, give you my word that I was terrified. I strove to dissuade Kyprianos, but he was so certain that he could not fail. In the cause of science and our great schemes, he took the risk, while I stood by and watched him. As you will gather, it was entirely successful.’

Murmurs of admiration reached Shannon’s ears.

‘When can the demonstration be arranged that you promise us, Kyprianos?’ asked someone, after a short silence.

‘In two or three days I will tell you. It is a great pity that we had to leave Cyprus so hurriedly. I had selected Troödos for the experiment on the first grand scale. All of our people would have
been warned to leave. There are not many. Muslims and Armenians and some English would remain – to die.’ His voice contained a soft, horribly gloating note. ‘A few pints of my preparation in the water supply and, in less than a week, the inhabitants would have been stricken with a mysterious disease which could not have been combated. The bacteria have been interbred in such a manner that the drugs administered to prevent the spread of one branch of the disease would simply encourage another. You see, gentlemen, drugs which kill some species of microbe organisms feed others, and it was with that idea in my mind that I experimented. The result has been successful beyond my dreams. No one who is infected can be cured, and once an epidemic commenced it would spread with the greatest rapidity.

‘Think of the power which is in your grasp. You, Plasiras and Bikelas, will be dictators of Greece; General Radoloff and Doreff of Bulgaria; Bruno of Italy; Michalis of Cyprus. When you have obtained the power in your own countries; then you can combine to become masters of Europe – of the world. There is no limit to the possibilities which my brain has conceived for you. And you, Plasiras, with Bikelas had visions of making one more attempt to overthrow the present Greek government in a similar manner to that which ended so disastrously in December. You plotted with the general to obtain the help of Bulgaria, and held out the promise of Western Thrace in return. Signor Bruno was admitted to your counsels in the hope of his being able to rouse the sympathy and perhaps the help of Italy. Then Michalis was to raise an army of Cypriots of Greek extraction in return for which Cyprus would be annexed by Greece – that is the Greece under Plasiras and Bikelas. Were there ever ideas of such foolishness? But I, my friends, I, Nicholas Kyprianos, have made them not only possible but certain.
With the help of Bulgaria would you have conquered Greece? No – I tell you, you would not. If you had tampered with Cyprus, down on you would come the British navy and army. Of all your mad plans, that I think was the worst. What Signor Bruno could have done, when he is out of favour with his own government, I do not know. But now because you have allied yourselves with me you can all benefit beyond your wildest dreams.

‘You need no army, you need no navy. All that is necessary is for you to express your demands, and give an unmistakable demonstration of your powers. General Radoloff and Monsieur Doreff are men of importance already, yet they are, after all, but two in a government, with no promise of anything greater. Now supreme and unlimited control looms before them. Western Thrace – bah! Bulgaria, under them, can have any seaboard she wishes to take that does not interfere with the Greece of Messieurs Plasiras and Bikelas or the Italy of Signor Bruno. The people themselves will quickly decide for you. Threaten to wipe them out with a strange contagious disease; show them how with one small proof, and quickly they will destroy the existing governments and bend the knee to you. Are you not glad you took Paul into your confidence, gentlemen, and were told by him of me? It is good that he is to have Cyprus. Great Britain will not dare to refuse, when she knows what refusal will mean to her people. He is popular, and will make a good ruler.’

His harangue was followed by a buzz of excited chatter, but of too confused a nature for Shannon to follow clearly. He had forgotten his painful cramped position. If he had not already been practically unable to move, he would have been frozen into a condition of horrified immobility by what he had heard. He had little thought, when ascending the chimney, that such a diabolical
scheme was afoot. The thought of it made him feel physically sick. Kyprianos must be a monster, when his brain could conceive a plot so vile, and experiment until the means were at hand to exploit it. No less fiends than he were the others who could countenance, for one moment, a way so utterly inhuman of forcing themselves into power. All the time the Cypriot had talked with the fanaticism of a cold-blooded scientist, whom no scruples of humanity could deviate from a course which the cleverness of his brain had opened up. Shannon became acutely aware of the pain in his arm and neck, but was too eager to listen to all it was possible to hear to descend a little for relief. One of the men put a question to Kyprianos, when the babble had subsided, which had occurred to the Englishman.

‘You have spoken much of what we obtain through the brilliance of your experiments, friend Kyprianos, but what is your reward?’

The Cypriot could be heard to laugh.

‘That I will tell you afterwards,’ he replied, ‘when your plans have succeeded. It is at present a secret in here.’ Shannon concluded he had indicated his head or heart. ‘You will not deny it to me. Of that I am quite certain. You will, in fact, be eager to grant me my wish.’

The listener thought there was something sinister in his observation. Apparently the other men were of the same opinion, for there was a silence, suggestive of unease, lasting for several seconds. ‘Why not tell us what it is now?’ asked one.

‘Because it is something I prefer to keep to myself. Afterwards you will know. I shall not forget.’

Again there was a silence, broken at last by the deep voice of Michalis.

‘Once an epidemic of this terrible disease has been started,’ he observed, ‘it appears to me that it will be difficult to stop it.’

‘The antidote I have contrived is all that can stop it. That is why I have said that you cannot commence operations until the supply is enough. In these bottles is a sufficient quantity of interbred bacteria to send the disease raging through the whole of Europe, but only this large green one contains the antidote. How far would that go, do you think, gentlemen, to put an end to a devastating contagion that spreads hourly? Large quantities must be made. You will have to supply me with a bigger laboratory than this. During the next month I will be at work, and can promise you that by the end of that time there will be two dozen large bottles like this full. Perhaps you may think such an amount will suffice. If not, then you must arrange for a proper laboratory and assistance.’

‘Would it not be dangerous for you to have people to assist you?’

Kyprianos laughed.

‘They would not know what they were doing. I would take care of that. We should select students who do not know much, and the two chief components would be inserted only by me, and without the knowledge of anybody.’

‘Where do you keep the formula?’ came in a voice Shannon had not heard before.

‘Why do you wish to know, Signor Bruno?’ snarled Kyprianos savagely and suspiciously.

‘I merely asked out of curiosity.’

‘Well, it is a question I do not like. But, in order that you may not waste your time prying for it, I will tell you where it is. It is in my head. I do not think anyone could steal it from there. When my experiments had been conducted with entire success, I studied the formula until I knew it by heart word for word, measure for measure. Then I destroyed every scrap of memoranda I possessed regarding it.’

‘It seems,’ remarked another voice, ‘that you, Nicholas Kyprianos, hold the ultimate power.’

‘Is that not as it should be, my friend? I do not trust anybody, and, therefore, must take precautions to protect myself. And in order that you may not be disappointed I will add, for your benefit, that analysis of the antidote will not reveal the vital constituent that renders it potent. It becomes utterly lost, leaving only its effect on the other constituents.’

‘Kyprianos, you are a devil,’ declared one of his companions.

The Cypriot laughed as though at a compliment.

‘Are not we all, Monsieur Bikelas? This is, I think, a meeting of devils, and I am the supreme devil, is it not so? Perhaps it would be well, if that fact was not forgotten.’

‘If you are attempting to threaten us,’ snapped Bikelas, ‘you had better learn now that I, for one, will not allow myself to be threatened.’

‘I do not threaten. I but desire to protect myself for, as I have told you, I trust no one. Is it not natural?’

‘Well, you can protect yourself as much as you like, so long as it is not at the expense of my friends or me. Threats from you will mean that I instantly withdraw from any further part in the scheme.’

‘You cannot withdraw now – none of us can,’ declared another. ‘We are in far too deep. One withdrawing would immediately constitute himself a danger to the others. It would, therefore, be incumbent on the others to destroy him.’

‘What do you mean by that, general?’

‘Exactly what I have said, no more and no less. I think it is plain enough.’

Again the voices became confused as a heated argument
ensued. Shannon by that time found that it was absolutely essential that he should seek relief, at least for a little while, from the terribly cramped position in which he was jammed. It was not as easy as he had expected, however. He had forced himself up, but, wriggle as he would, he was unable for some time to descend. Matters began to look serious; he did not wish to use too much exertion for fear of dislodging bricks and, in consequence, causing a noise that would be heard. He rested from his efforts, and heard one of the men asking anxiously if the bottles containing the deadly bacteria were securely sealed.