“I’ll try to answer them,” Igor said.
“Does National Biologicals also sell influenza cultures?” Jack asked.
“Indeed,” Igor said. “Viruses are a big part of our business, including influenza. We have many strains, particularly type A.”
“Do you have the strain that caused the epidemic in 19187” Jack asked. He just wanted to be one hundred percent certain.
“We wish!” Igor said with a laugh. “I’m sure that strain would be popular with researchers. No, we don’t have it, but we have some that are probably similar, like the strain of the ‘76 swine-flu scare. It’s generally believed that the 1918 strain was a permutation of H1N1, but exactly what, no one knows.”
“My next question concerns plague and tularemia,” Jack said.
“We carry both,” Igor said.
“I’m aware of that,” Jack said. “What I would like to know is who has ordered either of those two cultures in the last few months.”
“I’m afraid we don’t usually give that information out,” Igor said.
“I can understand that,” Jack said. For a moment Jack feared he would have to get Lou Soldano involved just to get the information he wanted. But then he thought he could possibly talk Igor into giving it to him. After all, Igor had been careful to say that such information wasn’t “usually” given out.
“Perhaps you’d like to talk to our president,” Igor suggested.
“Let me tell you why I want to know,” Jack said. “As a medical examiner I’ve seen a couple of deaths recently with these pathogens. We’d just like to know which labs we should warn. Our interest is preventing any more accidents.
“And the deaths were due to our cultures?” Igor asked.
“That was why I wanted the probes,” Jack said. “We suspected as much but needed proof.”
“Hmm,” Igor said. “I don’t know if that should make me feel more or less inclined to give out information.”
“It’s just an issue of safety,” Jack said.
“Well, that sounds reasonable,” Igor said. “It’s not as if it’s a secret. We share our customer lists with several equipment manufacturers. Let me see what I can find here at my workstation.”
“To make it easier for you, narrow the field to labs in the New York metropolitan area,” Jack said.
“Fair enough,” Igor said. Jack could hear the man typing on his keyboard. “We’ll try tularemia first. Here we go.” There was a pause.
“Okay,” Igor said. “We have sent tularemia to the National Health hospital and to the Manhattan General Hospital. That’s it; at least for the last Couple of months.”
Jack sat more upright, especially knowing that National Health was the major competitor of AmeriCare. “Can you tell me when these cultures went out?”
“I think so,” Igor said. Jack could hear more typing. “Okay, here we are. The National Health shipment went out on the twenty-second of this month, and the Manhattan General shipment went out on the fifteenth.”
Jack’s enthusiasm waned slightly. By the twenty-second he’d already made the diagnosis of tularemia in Susanne Hard. That eliminated National Health for the time being. “Does it show who the receiver was on the Manhattan General shipment?” Jack asked. “Or was it just the lab itself?”
“Hold on,” Igor said as he switched screens again. “It says that the consignee was a Dr. Martin Cheveau.”
Jack’s pulse quickened. He was uncovering information that very few people would know could be discoverable. He doubted that even Martin Cheveau was aware that National Biologicals phage-typed their cultures.
“What about plague?” Jack asked.
“Just a moment,” Igor said while he made the proper entries.
There was another pause. Jack could hear Igor’s breathing.
“Okay, here it is,” Igor said. “Plague’s not a common item ordered on the East Coast outside of academic or reference labs. But there was one shipment that went out on the eighth. It went to Frazer Labs.”
“I’ve never heard of them,” Jack said. “Do you have an address?”
“Five-fifty Broome Street,” Igor said.
“How about a consignee?” Jack asked as he wrote down the address.
“Just the lab itself,” Igor said.
“Do you do much business with them?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know,” Igor said. He made another entry. “They send us orders now and then. It must be a small diagnostic lab. But there’s one thing strange.”