The Sins of the Fathers

Chapter Twenty-Five

July 2064

Empire Hotel

Manhattan

New York

Miss Candice Cartwright was put with the children when she arrived at the famous British owned five-star hotel, in what amounted to a makeshift creche. It was an insult, of course. At home, she was considered a young adult, even if she did not always dine with her parents when they had guests, but the British keepers who seemed to be in charge took one look at her and exiled her to the nursery. She was placed on a couch with the Procter twins and one of the Symonds girls, who was unmittened, was told to read the holy bible to them, whilst the keepers, including Miss Tate and Miss Smythe, ran around after the little ones. She was told that she was not having dinner with her parents later on.

Mrs Olivia Procter would have preferred to keep Bailey and Emily with her, but as soon as the BIB party arrived at the hotel it was quite clear that she would not get the choice. She was taken straight to a room where all the ladies were taking afternoon tea. Mr Symonds had taken over most of the hotel to house the British negotiating team and he had arranged for his guests from Boston to socialise. They were only in New York for one night, and as her son, Marcus Forbes, was yet to arrive, Howard Proctor had decided that her identity would not be compromised, as she did not know Connor Symonds or his wife well, and with her different hair and older face, he reckoned that their secret would be safe. But even so, she was quite relieved when she was put with Pamela Cartwright and some of the wives of junior officials with the British party. Forgetting about the girls and concentrating on doing Howard proud, she accepted her place, talking to as many people as possible.

Mrs Grace Palmer-Stoddart found herself further up the food chain, as she was placed with Mrs Holden and Mrs Hermione Symonds, Connor's wife. Like everyone else, she was firmly tethered before her mittens were removed, and had to endure a very formal and stilted affair filled with inane and boring conversations, all avoiding the elephant in the room. It was quite possible that the British women did not know about the United Nations statement, but all of the Americans surely did, and no one had even mentioned it on the short train journey. Grace had read some of the initial media reaction before she had to get ready to leave, and although the statement was suitably vague, the British government were being definitely blamed for causing the great pandemic and possibly elongating it by their failure to progress the Hycanil vaccine as quickly as they could have done. Brett was expecting anger to build as more details emerged, which he was sure they would, as the press hordes got to work.

No one from the United Nations had explained what they meant by a failure to progress but that would not stop the press digging for answers as the black cat was now firmly out of the bag. Drew Symonds was named and shamed as the guilty party and he was conveniently dead, but she did not think that would really stop journalists searching for the truth. And the husbands of the imperious Daughters of Eve she was eating cucumber sandwiches with were in town to agree the price Britain would have to pay for their various sins. It was like Nero fiddling whilst Rome burned around him.

"Social media is suitably confused...the statement does not make anything clear...but there are people asking how many people died because of the Hycanil delay?" Brett said, because he had been charged with keeping their client informed of public reaction. They were sitting around a table in a conference room, updating Connor Symonds on the project, but he was currently more interested in the fallout from the statement, as he was walking right into the eye of the storm in the big apple. "I don't think the release of the virus is such a shock...they already knew about that, long before Mr Symonds was ever accused of being involved with it...but the official vagueness around this supposed delay is causing intense concern and speculation...if it was delayed by a month or two, I am not sure it will be so big a deal?"