“Whoa!” Nicole said. “That’s a hard question. There are a lot of factors involved, particularly host immunity. I’d have to say the most virulent would be an entirely new pathological strain, or one that hasn’t been around for a long time. I suppose the subtype that caused the pandemic of 1918 to 1919 that killed twenty-five million people worldwide might get the dubious honor of having been the most virulent.”
“What subtype was that,” Jack asked.
“No one knows for sure,” Nicole said. “The subtype doesn’t exist. It disappeared years ago, maybe right after the epidemic wore itself out. Some people think it was similar to the subtype that caused that swine-flu scare back in seventy-six.”
Jack thanked Nicole and again assured her he’d get the samples to her that day. After he hung up, he called Agnes back and asked her opinion on shipping. She told him the name of the courier service they used, but she said she didn’t know if they shipped interstate.
“Besides,” Agnes added, “it will cost a small fortune. I mean overnight is one thing, but you’re talking about the same day. Bingham will never authorize it.”
“I don’t care,” Jack said. “I’ll pay for it myself.”
Jack called the courier company. They were delighted with the request and put Jack through to one of the supervisors, Tony Liggio. When Jack explained what he wanted, Tony said no problem.
“Can you come to pick it up now?” Jack asked. He was encouraged.
“I’ll send someone right away,” Tony said.
“It will be ready,” Jack said.
Jack was about to hang up when he heard Tony add: “Aren’t you interested in the cost? I mean, this is not like taking something over to Queens. Also, there’s the question of how you plan to pay.”
“Credit card,” Jack said. “If that’s okay.”
“Sure, no problem, Doc,” Tony said. “It’s going to take me a little while to figure out the exact charge.”
“Just give me a ballpark figure,” Jack said.
“Somewhere between one and two thousand dollars,” Tony said.
Jack winced but didn’t complain. Instead, he merely gave Tony his credit card number. He’d envisioned the cost would be two or three hundred dollars, but then he hadn’t thought about the fact that someone might have to fly round-trip to Atlanta.
While Jack had been engaged in giving his credit card information, one of the secretaries from the front office had appeared at his door. She’d handed him an overnight Federal Express package and departed without saying a word. As Jack hung up from the courier service he saw that the parcel was from National Biologicals. It was the DNA probes he’d requested the day before.
Taking the probes and his viral samples, Jack went back down to Agnes. He told her about the arrangements he’d made with the courier service.
“I’m impressed,” Agnes said. “But I’m not going to ask how much it’s costing.”
“Don’t,” Jack advised. “How should I package the samples?”
“We’ll take over,” she said. She called in the department secretary and commissioned her to do it with appropriate biohazard containers and labels.
“Looks like you have something else for me,” she said, eyeing the vials containing the probes.
Jack explained what they were and what he wanted, namely to have the DNA lab use the probes to see if they reacted with the nucleoproteins of the cultures taken from any of the four recent infectious disease cases he’d been working on. What he didn’t tell her was why he wanted it done.
“All I need to know is whether it is positive or not,” Jack said. “It doesn’t have to be quantitative.”
“I’ll have to handle the rickettsia and the tularemia agent myself,” Agnes said. “I’m afraid to have any of the techs working with them.”
“I really appreciate all this,” Jack said.
“Well, it’s what we’re here for,” Agnes said agreeably.
After leaving the lab Jack went downstairs to the scheduling room and helped himself to some coffee. He’d been so frantic since he’d arrived that he’d not had much time to think. Now, as he stirred his coffee, he realized that neither of the homeless men that he’d inadvertently run into in his flight from Reginald had been brought in. That meant that they were either in some hospital, or they were still out there in the park.