Walking the block to the small park on her street corner, Lopez slipped an earpiece in and tuned into the six A.M. newscasts on her smartphone. Coverage of MRGAS dominated the news. No matter where she turned the dial, she couldn’t escape her own voice, recorded at the previous day’s news conference. She felt slightly uncomfortable listening to herself speak. And when her tone rose in response to the loaded question regarding who was to blame for MRGAS, she noted the distinctly Latina inflection in her pronunciation. Nevertheless, she didn’t regret one word of her answer.

The newscast was interrupted by a long steady beep. She pressed a button on the device, switching it from radio to phone. “Lina, it’s Nelson. Have I caught you at a bad time?” Amar asked, even though his gruff tone suggested he didn’t care how or where he had caught her.

“No, it’s fine.”

“What do you know about this drug?”

“Oraloxin?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a new class of antibiotic that specifically targets the cell wall. It was developed for MRSA,” Lopez said. “But Graham Kilburn tried it without permission on a MRGAS patient.” She had trouble keeping the admiration from her voice. “The patient was already too far gone to respond, but the culture results were dramatic. So far, all MRGAS samples tested in the lab are sensitive to Oraloxin.”

“Hmmm,” Amar grunted. “Have we tried it on other patients?”

“We’re starting today,” Lopez said.

“Is it safe?” he asked.

“Far as I know,” she said, but she realized she hadn’t asked. “Human trials have been going on for six months and FDA approval is expected, so I assume it has to be.”

“Then there’s no excuse for delay,” Amar grunted. “Who is liaising with SeptoMed?”

“Graham went to med school with the scientist who developed it,” she said. “He’s talking to her this morning. SeptoMed has been running a MRSA trial in the Seattle area, so we don’t anticipate any delay in getting the drug.”

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll need to find out if the same trial is running in the Bay Area.”

She suddenly remembered that her boss was in San Francisco. “What’s the latest there, anyway?”

“Not good, Lina. Twenty-eight more cases were reported yesterday, sixteen of them in Oakland, where there have already been seven deaths. MRGAS has decimated the Oakland County Hospital. They’ve had to shut it down.”

“Closed the whole hospital?” Lopez felt a sudden chill. “Hard to imagine the impact.”

“That’s the irony of it,” Amar grunted. “There is no impact. Other hospitals are setting records for low volume. Everyone is avoiding them.”

“We predicted this, Nelson,” she sighed. “People are panicking.”

“Or maybe they’re being sensible.”

Not true! she thought. “But hospital spread of MRGAS can be stopped with common-sense measures,” she said. It’s the inevitable community spread I worry about.”