INTERLUDE - London 16:45

"Are you certain?" Amanda snarled down the phone. "Because you'd better be. If I cry wolf and it's a false alarm then I'll be out on my ear. And I'll make damn sure you're out too."

She paused, listening to the response from the gabbling Marrenforth Chief Constable. He definitely believed what he was saying, in fact it sounded as if he himself was terrified. There wasn't just a riot in Marrensford, the whole town was in the grip of violent mass hysteria. Raj's earlier suggestion of a chemical or biological incident was beginning to sound highly probable. She was glad she'd risked setting the wheels in motion before getting any definitive proof.

"OK," she said. "Gather up any officers you can get hold of. Set up a CBRN response team with yourself as Gold Command. I've got Alan from Health here," she glanced up at the Health Secretary, who was sitting in a chair opposite her. "There's a specialist team on the way to you now, they'll find out what this disease is and advise you further. Until they arrive, put every person you've got on the streets. Don't waste any more manpower putting roadblocks inside the town, use your resources to block the roads heading out. I don't want anyone leaving that town."

She paused for the predictable response, then continued. "Yes, I know you don't have the authority to do that. But you will. It'll take about an hour to have the papers drawn up and signed by the Prime Minister, but I'll make sure they're timed from now so you'll be covered. OK. You're doing a fantastic job Geoffrey, you have my thanks."

"You do know," said Alan as she hung up, "That if it really is a communicable lethal infection then putting a quarantine in place now is probably too late. At least one carrier is bound to have left the area and anyone still in that place is as good as dead."

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"Of course I know that. But I didn't want him to know – he sounded close to panicking already and we need him. I need a Gold Commander on the ground to..."

"Take the blame for anything that goes wrong."

"I was about to say: to keep me informed. Anyway, I'm not just going to quarantine Marrenforth. I'll get the PM to authorise Operation Fissure and bring in the army to enforce a hundred mile exclusion zone."

Alan nodded. "A hundred miles. Drastic, but necessary. I just hope it's not too little too late. You really should have done it earlier. Knowing you, I'm surprised you didn't have tanks on the street hours ago."

"I thought about it. But what if it had all turned out to be a hoax? I couldn't take the risk, it would have been the end of my career. But now the place is burning, bodies are littering the streets and..."

"You're covered."

Amanda ignored him. She picked up some papers from her desk. "Right. I'm off to Number Ten see the PM. I've already spoken to Defence, they're ready to move as soon as the papers are signed."

She stood and walked to the door of the office. "Let me know if anything else develops. But I think it's all under control."

Alan nodded. "I hope so. God help us if this thing gets to a major population centre."

"Trust me," said Amanda. "Within an hour, the whole area around Marrenforth will be in total lockdown. Not even a journalist will be able to slither out. A situation like this just needs someone with the guts to make the difficult calls and do what's right."

"And once it's all over... the public will know who to thank?"

Amanda smiled and walked silently out of her office.

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