“Okay,” Jack said.
“So you are going to keep it a secret,” Terese said angrily as Jack hung up the receiver.
“It’s not my doing,” Jack said.
“Yeah, I know,” Terese said sarcastically. “It’s not your job.”
“I already got myself in trouble over the plague episode for calling the commissioner on my own,” Jack said. “I don’t see any benefit by doing it again. Word will be out in the morning through the proper channels.”
“What about people over at the General who are suspected of having plague?” Terese questioned. “They might have this new disease. I think you should let everyone know tonight.”
“That’s a good point,” Jack said. “But it doesn’t really matter. The treatment for tularemia is the same as the treatment for plague. We’ll wait until morning. Besides, it’s only a few hours away.”
“What if I alerted the press?” Terese asked.
“I’ll have to ask you not to do that,” Jack said. “You heard what my boss said. If it were investigated, the source would come back to me.”
“You don’t like advertising in medicine and I don’t like politics in medicine,” Terese said.
“Amen,” Jack said.
16
* * *
FRIDAY, 6:30 A.M., MARCH 22, 1996
Despite having gone to bed much later than usual for the second night in a row, Jack was wide awake at five-thirty Friday morning. He began mulling over the irony of a case of tularemia appearing in the middle of a plague outbreak. It was a curious coincidence, especially since he’d made the diagnosis. It was a feat certainly worth the ten dollars and twenty-five cents that he stood to win from Calvin and Laurie.
With his mind churning, Jack recognized the futility of trying to go back to sleep. Consequently he got up, ate breakfast, and was on his bike before six. With less traffic than usual, he got to work in record time.
The first thing Jack did was to visit the ID room to look for Laurie and Vinnie. Both had yet to arrive. Passing back through communications, he knocked on Janice’s door. She appeared even more beleaguered than usual.
“What a night,” she said.
“Busy?” Jack asked.
“That’s an understatement,” she said. “Especially with these added infectious cases. What’s going on over there at the General?”
“How many today?” Jack asked.
“Three,” Janice said. “And not one of them tested positive for plague even though that’s their presumed diagnosis. Also, all three were fulminant cases. The people all died within twelve or so hours after their first symptoms. It’s very scary.”
“All of these recent infectious cases have been fulminant,” Jack commented.
“Do you think these three new ones are tularemia?” Janice asked.
“There’s a good chance,” Jack said. “Especially if they tested negative for plague as you say. You didn’t mention Susanne’s diagnosis to anyone, did you?”
“I had to bite my tongue, but I didn’t,” Janice said. “I’d learned in the past by sore experience that my role is to gather information, not give it out.”
“I had to learn the same lesson,” Jack said. “Are you finished with these three folders?”
“They’re all yours,” Janice said.
Jack carried the folders back to the ID room. Since Vinnie had not arrived Jack made the coffee in the communal pot. Mug in hand, he sat down and began going through the material.
Almost immediately he stumbled onto something curious. The first case was a forty-two-year-old woman by the name of Maria Lopez. What was surprising was that she worked in central supply of the Manhattan General Hospital! Not only that, but she had worked on the same shift as Katherine Mueller!
Jack closed his eyes and tried to think of how two people from central supply could possibly have come down with two different fatal infectious diseases. As far as he was concerned, it could not be a coincidence. He was convinced their illnesses had to be work-related. The question was how?
In his mind’s eye, Jack revisited central supply. He could picture the shelving and the aisles, even the outfits the employees wore. But nothing came to mind as a way for the employees to come in contact with contagious bacteria. Central supply had nothing to do with the disposal of hospital waste or even soiled linen, and as the supervisor had mentioned, workers there had little or no contact with patients.