Lou shook hands with the two scientists before they took their seats at the conference table. Banks’s hand was smooth, and despite the air-conditioning, quite warm.

Scupman spoke first. “In your phone conversation with Dr. Banks, you mentioned wanting to speak with us about a special type of bacteria. I admit your caginess pertaining to the specifics intrigued me. Unfortunately, my time today is short so we’ll have to get right to the point.”

“Not a bacteria, Dr. Scupman. A bacteriophage.”

“Oh?”

The scientist seemed to perk up.

“A patient at Arbor General named Hank Duncan is in trouble. He had a compound fracture of his femur a little over two weeks ago, and is now toxic from a flesh-eating bacteria for which it appears there is no treatment. Hank runs a gym in D.C. and is known around the city as Cap. He is my closest friend.”

“The splint!” Banks exclaimed.

“Pardon?”

“You’re the ER doctor who splinted the fracture in the wilderness north of here, aren’t you?”

Lou couldn’t completely pin down the expression in her eyes, but it was one he liked.

“It appears the Arbor General grapevine moves information as fast as ours does in D.C,” he replied. “I splinted the leg, but couldn’t have done it without my friend’s help.”

“So I heard,” Banks said. “Quite a story. Sorry there have been complications.”

“Thanks. That’s why I’m here. The ID specialist consulting on the case, Dr. Ivan Puchalsky, used the term Doomsday Germ when he spoke with me.”

Lou passed across two copies he had made of Humphrey’s abstract.

“Is this from Puchalsky?” Scupman asked with a disdain that immediately lifted his standing in Lou’s mind. “Arrogant son of a bitch,” he then muttered, earning a few more points.

“No,” Lou said. “Puchalsky has nothing to do with this. I made calls when I learned what was going on with Cap. One of my friends faxed me this.”

Scupman scanned more than read the pages. His eyes narrowed and Lou sensed an immediate souring in his demeanor. His body language, arms crossed, leaning back in his chair, seemed more guarded.

“You sure this wasn’t put together by Puchalsky? Actually, never mind. It doesn’t read as if it were something he would have come up with. Excuse me for saying so, but as a microbiologist, primarily interested in nosocomial infection, he really is quite limited in his scope and in his respect for the power of bacteria. Would you agree with that, Dr. Banks?”

“Actually, Sam, I think you’re being a little hard on the man.”

Lou suspected the same could be said for Scupman’s reaction to most of his colleagues. He wondered if Ahmed Kazimi had included the man in his cyber think tank. It wouldn’t surprise him in the least if he hadn’t.