Antibodies 25

Antibodies 24.

© Copyright BG Taff

Characters.
Verna Spiro Type one Virus
Nana Bev, Interplanetary prospector.
Jamie, Bev’s younger prospecting Partner.
Dennis Potter Freight manager and old friend of Beverly’s.
Jack Godfrey Yard foreman and walking boss.
Charlotte and Lucy - Jamie’s younger dancing & clubbing friends.
Rose and Violet. Cis-girl friends of Jamie.
Dr Williams Virologist
Jennifer Jamie’s girlfriend. (Sleeping partner.)
Shirley Jamie’s niece.
Dafydd Bev’s older brother.
Digger Beverly’s first ship.
Miner Beverly’s second, larger and newbuild ship.

Digger Beverly’s first ship.
Miner Beverly’s second, larger and newbuild ship.

The rebel leader stared at me with a mixture of anger and fear creasing his features. I could see the mixed emotions working through his mind so a rested my butt against a table and folded my arms to let his uncertainty gain a tighter hold.

“You’d better donate your blood immediately!” He ordered but I could easily detect the uncertainty in his demeanour.

“Okay,” I agreed loudly for all his score of henchmen to hear, “but you’d better get the nurses to advise your henchmen as to who gets first dibs. Two hundred out of a couple of thousand rebels – or whatever you call yourselves. Good luck with that!”
I watched his posture slowly loosen as he sensed the dissention among his cronies. They had clearly heard my words and their maths was certainly good enough to draw their own conclusions.

For my part I approached the three medical staff and held out my arm symbolically.

“Well Doc; we’d best get on with it. The sooner the better.

A ripple of uncertain discontent passed amongst the score of henchmen and I turned questioningly to their leader.

“Where’s your sterile clinic.”

His eyes widened in panic as the circumstances closed in on him.

“No wait! We’ll need your vaccine!”

“Well I can’t organise that here.” The care-worn, weary doctor sighed. “I’ve only got the most basic equipment for rudimentary first aid.”

“There must be someway to make a vaccine!” He almost whined.

“Well I don’t know of one,” The doctor added knowingly as she waved her hand towards the rudimentary hospital which was essentially a grass roofed first aid hut without even running water.

“That’s all we’ve got, it’s not exactly Smith-Clyne or Phyzer laboratories is it?” The doctor almost growled her sarcastic objection.

I turned to their rebel leader and sneered with disgust.

So your are building a nation with nothing but guns and death; no hospitals and I suppose no schools either.
“They’ll come later;” he tried to sound inspirational.

I almost smiled at his naivety but quickly recovered my mood of censure to advance my argumentative inroad into his leadership. I scanned around the camp to recognise all the signs of social failure where even the most basic precautions against disease and dirt were conspicuously absent. Now was the time to strike as I scanned my eyes around and slowly wagged my head before declaring loudly for everybody’s benefit.

“I give your gang two weeks before everybody is dead - except of course, your friends who obviously you’ll elect to receive my blood.”

I could almost feel any bonds of loyalty between the groups that comprised the gang, beginning to loosen and stretch so I carefully adopted a theatrical posture of resignation while my facial expression darkened forebodingly. It behoved me now to stay quiet and let the uncertainty take root.

The leader slowly realised what I was doing, or more correctly, what I’d done. His eyes flashed briefly with anger that imperceptibly shaded to a grudging admiration as he snarled an order to have me secured in the only concrete blockhouse in the camp. He was too late though for even as I was deposited in the ‘prison’ I heard arguments and shouting breaking out in several different languages.

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Before I had even settled on the only seat available, a ramshackle wooden bed frame, I could hear the leader trying to hold some sort of calm conversation with their doctor.

“But there must be a way.”

“No” replied the doctor emphatically, “look around you. It takes a fully equipped laboratory to produce vaccine from his blood. We’ve got nothing but the most rudimentary bits here. Even the sterile needles from the hospital have been broached by drug abusers.
Look at all those torn boxes on the trash dump. I haven’t even got the needles to transfuse any of his blood.”

I heard more cursing by the rebel leader in his own tongue and forced myself to stay silent. While the man was stressed out and angry, anything could happen, and in a fit of rage he might take it out on me. So I sat and waited as the arguments moved across the compound towards the large hut that served as their only meeting place. Despite the distance I could still hear the feint sounds of dissension. Even as the day wore on, there was little I could do but settle back on the makeshift bed with its woven palm mattress.

After a short while the doctor entered and brought me some supper. As I ate, she talked at length about the reasons why the rebels were at war with the Central Republic’s government. Eventually, in the pitch blackness of the tropical, jungle , she left.

I did not sleep well for the sound of small creatures scrabbling around sounded like rats though I could not be sure. Then I heard a sudden soft thump, followed by some panicked squeaking, followed by what I suspected to be a snake either coiling around the ‘rat’ or a snake slithering hopefully away with the ‘rat’ in its mouth. There was a deathly silence after that but I chose to keep my footwear on while lying on the bed. Tropical nights are long by their very nature but this one seemed inordinately so.

I was never so glad to meet the dawn!

Eventually, the door was freed and my captors brought some food. In the light I noted the tell-tale serpent tracks in the dust and pointed them out to the captors.

“There was a snake here least night; look.”

“What type?” He asked as he acknowledged the tracks on the floor.

“I don’t bloody know, it was dark, but it killed and ate a rat I think.”

“It’s no matter they’re moving you today.”

“Any idea how or where?” I asked him.

“They’re going to negotiate your release for vaccines.”

I seized my chance to spread more fear and uncertainty.

“You’d better move bloody quickly; you’ve all been exposed for nearly two weeks now. Three weeks and it’ll be too late, you’ll be over-exposed and fatally infected.”

He almost leapt back and out through the door as I ate what he’d brought for my breakfast. After more distant argument, the leader appeared with the doctor.

“We’ve negotiated your release in exchange for vaccines. Don’t try spreading any more panic!”

“Who are you negotiating with?” I pressed. ”It had better be with some reputable organisation. Half the governments in Africa are no more legitimate than you!”

“It’s with the United Nations, you know the doctor.”

“Who is he?”

“It’s a she, somebody called Doctor Williams, from Oxford.”

“Oh yes, I think she’s the virologist who developed the vaccine. Did you demand that she comes or did she volunteer?”

“She volunteered. She seems to count you very valuable.”

“I won’t lie, yes she does hold me valuable, it was my blood that enabled her to make the vaccine break through. Though other volunteer, donor’s bloods have since proven to be suitable.”

“Will the vaccine work?” He asked.

“I don’t know, when will it get here?”
“They said tomorrow morning at Nairobi airport. That’s where they’ve agreed the exchange.”

“It’ll take us two days to get there by truck.”

“They’re sending a helicopter. The Nigerian air-force have offered because they’ve got no beef with my people and they’re neutral.”

I reflected silently as to how I and others used anti-gravs to reach for the planets and these people were still using helicopters. Still, if it prevented wars and conflict from spreading to civilised countries, I had no beef. I was quietly grateful that there appeared to be a peaceful settlement, a simple trade-off. Me for the vaccine.

With my mind more or less at rest, I settled down until the well-known ‘wok – wok – wok’ of a large, ancient chinook came circling in and picked a spot to land. I peered through the chinks in the door and watched as a military man stepped out and paused until the rebel leader identified himself. I heard them confirming that the vaccine was being held in Nairobi airport and that they would make the exchange there.

The military Nigerian man was to wait at the rebel base while I was exchanged for the vaccine then they would bring the vaccine to the rebel base and he would return to Nairobi. I only hoped that the decades old chopper was up to it. I’d heard some fearsome stories about flying in Africa.

Nervously, I climbed into the ‘wick-wock’ and we clattered skywards as I took the ‘dickie-seat’ behind the co-pilot. Speech was barely possible with the roar of the engines so I simply sat tight and watched Africa rushing by underneath. Eventually the jungle turned to agriculture and I realised we had crossed into Kenya. On the apron of the Kenyan Airforce base I saw Doctor Williams waving but I could not make myself visible and simply waited to step down the rear loading ramp.

“Are you okay?” Were her first words.

“Apart from sleeping with snakes and rats, yes.”

“Is it true there’s a doctor being held there against her will?”
“Against her will? I don’t know, but probably; there’s also two nurses.”

“What are the conditions like?”

“It’s a mess. The camp is filthy with little basic hygiene and the rebels look a pretty sick lot.”

“Did you get any inkling of the mood in the camp?”

“The rebels comprise several different tribes who have been forced to join together to prevent illegal mining and logging on their lands. They say foreign organisations are stealing their wealth.”

She nodded sympathetically but declared it had nothing to do with her.

“They’re right though,” I added, “I saw plenty of evidence of logging and mining though I can’t say whether it was legal or not.”

“You can tell the UN negotiator, she’s in the commanding officer’s office.”

“Fat lot of good that’ll do. The rebel leader seemed like a reasonable man to me, even if a desperate one.”

“Well, you’re the only person who’s come face to face with him, so you might be able to advocate his case.”

I gave her a wry smirk as we approached the group captain’s office and a sentry snapped to attention as he commanded us to halt.

“It’s alright guardsman, theses are the people we are expecting.”

A high ranking Airforce marshal emerged with a lady whom I deemed to be the united nations negotiator. When Doctor Williams confirmed my identity they wasted no time in ushering me into their air-conditioned offices.

“Did they harm you in anyway?” The marshal immediately asked as we settled to sit around a large desk.

“No,” I replied dismissively, “only my pride was abused when I had to sleep overnight in some pretty grotty surroundings.”

“Go on,” the marshal urged. “How well armed are they and how many; an estimate will do.”

I looked askance.

“What do you need to know that for? We’re not going to bloody war with them!”

“They’ve attacked the mining organisations.” He intoned somewhat malevolently. “They need to know their place.”

“They are in their place!” I countered as my mood deteriorated. “They’re native tribes on their native land. Who gave the mining organisations and loggers the rights to invade their land and just take the minerals and timber?”

The Air-Marshall fell silent as he realised he was stepping into areas outside his boundaries. He turned to the United Nations representative negotiator who spoke up.

“The mining companies negotiated the rights with the democratic government’s representative’s fairly.”

“Who’s getting the benefits?” I demanded. “I didn’t see any hospitals or schools anywhere around their base. Nor when we flew back in the chopper. And another thing, all the roads I saw went to logging camps and mines; not to villages.”

“How could you know that?” The UN rep countered.

“You forget lady. My whole life has been devoted to exploring for minerals and mining them. I saw several exploratory boreholes and test trenches. I know a mine when I see one and anybody can recognise hills denuded of trees as ‘clear felling’. That’s guaranteed to desertify the land! These tribes are being robbed and raped.

I suggest that you send the vaccines as promised and not send troops. There have been enough broken promises. Besides, there’s a high-ranking Republican general isolated at the rebel base and he’s expecting to come home.”

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