Free Dead End by Brian Freemantle Page B

delegate, don’t you think?’
    â€˜You want details of everything !’ persisted Benn.
    â€˜Unless you’ve got a more effective way of our co-operation getting off the ground.’
    â€˜You think you’ve got sufficient people?’
    â€˜No,’ admitted Parnell at once. ‘That’s why it’s necessary to prioritize from the very beginning.’
    â€˜So, you start – we start – with a long list!’
    â€˜And the research notes of that list, all of which I guess is computerized and easily downloaded without causing any of your people any extra work. We’ll simply create our genetic order of priority, where we think we can make the best contribution, share it with you and arrange to the convenience of us both the inclusion of my people in the ongoing physical experiments. Which won’t mean anything more than the exchange of slides and cultures and specimens, surely?’ Parnell was glad he was talking now as if he’d had everything ready in advance, which he hadn’t. There were only a few things, one specifically, that he wanted to introduce when he considered the time to be right.
    â€˜OK,’ said Benn, not trying to conceal the doubt. ‘Let’s try it your way.’
    â€˜And if it doesn’t work my way, we’ll devise another,’ said Parnell, easily. He nodded acceptance to the offered coffee refill.
    â€˜What about your people?’ asked Benn. ‘Any of those arrive with anything interesting from what they did before?’
    â€˜Sato’s interested in hepatitis C. He’s got a good argument, going beyond interferon, that I’ll let him follow. You doing anything on that?’
    â€˜Tokyo is. Canberra, too.’
    This could be the route he was seeking, Parnell realized. ‘That fits the demographics. But you’d have everything copied here, right?’
    â€˜It’ll be on the list.’
    â€˜What about Asia and severe acute respiratory syndrome?’
    â€˜SARS is being worked out of Tokyo again.’ He hesitated, forced into a concession. ‘You know, of course, that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is experimenting with a vaccine containing the DNA from the virus?’
    â€˜Yes, I do know,’ said Parnell, who had intentionally manoeuvred the conversation. ‘Cross-species infection, from animals to humans, is a field we could successfully explore,’ suggested Parnell. ‘It’s virus mutation, which is genetic, and it’s a carrier-borne condition, so it isn’t demographically limited. It just starts in China and Hong Kong from their live-animal trade but then spreads globally.’
    â€˜That’s why it’s on the list,’ said Benn.
    Parnell wasn’t sure whether the other man’s patience was forced. ‘Working genetically on hepatitis C will obviously lead on to tumours, restricted perhaps to liver cancer.’
    â€˜Cancer’s on every list, here and throughout all the subsidiaries.’
    The door was creaking open, Parnell decided. ‘Generally? Or defined, region to region?’
    Benn frowned at the specific question. ‘Rome and Canberra are concentrating on sun-generated melanomas, because of the predominant climate. Delhi and Manila on lung cancer, because of the combination of heavy nicotine use and uncontrolled air pollution in their countries.’
    â€˜What about France?’
    â€˜What about France?’ echoed the black professor.
    â€˜Diet,’ said Parnell, rehearsed. ‘Japan, with its very particular diet, a lot of fish and much of it raw, has the lowest cancer incidence in the world. You probably couldn’t find more polarized eating than the fat, oil and rich sauce preparations of France. Any subsidiary – or us, here – working on a dietary connection to cancer – bowel or stomach maybe?’
    â€˜Part of a general investigation,’ said