“I appreciate the offer,” Jack said. He then told Terese the same thing he’d told Laurie about the charts he was working on.
“I keep hoping you’ll give up on that crusade,” Terese said. “It hardly seems worth the risks, since you’ve already been beaten up and threatened with the loss of your job.”
“If I can prove someone is behind this affair it will certainly be worth the risks,” Jack said. “My fear is that there might be a real epidemic.”
“Chet seems to think you’re acting foolishly,” Terese persisted.
“He’s entitled to his opinion,” Jack said.
“Please be careful when you go home,” Terese intoned.
“I will,” Jack said. He was getting weary of everyone’s solicitude. The danger of going home that evening was something he’d considered as early as that morning.
“We’ll be working most of the night,” she added. “If you need to call, call me at work.”
“Okay,” Jack said. “Good luck.”
“Good luck to you,” Terese said. “And thanks for this ‘no waiting’ idea. Everyone loves it so far. I’m very grateful. ‘Bye!”
Jack went back to Nodelman’s chart as soon as he put the phone down.
He was attempting to get through the reams of nurses’ notes. But after five minutes of reading the same paragraph over and over, he acknowledged he wasn’t concentrating. His mind kept mulling over the irony of both Laurie and Terese asking him to dine with them. Thinking about the two women led to pondering again the similarities and differences in their personalities, and once he started thinking about personality, Beth Holderness popped into his mind. As soon as he thought about Beth, he began musing about the ease of ordering bacteria.
Jack closed Nodelman’s chart and drummed his fingers on his desk.
He began to wonder. If someone had obtained a culture of a pathological bacteria from National Biologicals and then intentionally spread it to people, could National Biologicals tell it had been their bacteria?
The idea intrigued him. With the advances in DNA technology he thought it was scientifically possible for National Biologicals to tag their cultures, and for reasons of both liability and economic protection, he thought it was a reasonable thing to do. The question then became whether they did it or not.
Jack searched for the phone number. Once he found it, he put through a second call to the organization. Early that afternoon on Jack’s first call he’d pressed “two” for sales. This time he pressed “three” for “support.” After being forced to listen to a rock music station for a few minutes, Jack heard a youthfulsounding male voice give his name, Igor Krasnyansky, and ask how he could be of assistance. Jack introduced himself properly on this occasion and inquired if he could pose a theoretical question.
“Of course,” Igor said with a slight Slavic accent. “I will try to answer.”
“If I had a culture of bacteria,” Jack began, “is there any way that I could determine that it had originally come from your company even if it had gone through several passages in vivo?”
“That’s an easy one,” Igor said. “We phage-type all our cultures. So, sure, you could tell it came from National Biologicals.”
“What’s the identification process?” Jack asked.
“We have a fluorescein-labeled DNA probe,” Igor said. “It’s very simple.”
“If I wanted to make such an identification, would I have to send the sample to you?” Jack asked.
“Either that or I could send you some of the probe,” Igor said.
Jack was pleased. He gave his address and asked for the probe to be shipped via overnight express. He said he wanted it as soon as possible.
Hanging up the phone, Jack felt pleased with himself. He thought he’d come up with something that might lend considerable weight to his theory of intentional spread if any of the patients’ bacteria tested positive.
Jack looked down at the charts and considered giving up on them for the time being. After all, if the opposite turned out to be the case, and none of the bacteria was from National Biologicals, perhaps he would have to rethink the whole affair.
Jack scraped back his chair and stood up. He’d had enough for one day. Pulling on his jacket, he prepared to head home. Suddenly the idea of some vigorous exercise had a strong appeal.