Scupman appeared pleasantly surprised, perhaps by the literateness of her question. He turned up the lights.

“Dr. Banks, would you like to handle this one?”

Scupman’s associate looked as if she would prefer to listen. But when she did speak, her answer was delivered with confidence, and with none of the bravado of her boss.

“You’re all familiar with Toll-like receptors?” she asked.

The three physicians nodded.

“Then you know these proteins are what initiate the fight against deadly bacteria. TLRs are like ten-digit alarm codes. For any pathogen that comes into contact with an immune cell, a code is entered, and if the germ is not benign, an alarm gets triggered, activating the body’s defenses. And yet, B. pseudomallei, like a microscopic magician, tricks the system by entering the code of a harmless bacterium, leaving the body unaware of the intruder’s presence. So to answer your question, yes, we believe there is a genetic reason why some people become infected but never get ill. Still, we are far from using that knowledge to develop an effective vaccine or antibiotic.”

“Thank you, Vicki,” Scupman said.

Banks smiled demurely, and looked to Lou even more attractive than on first impression. In spite of himself, he noticed that she wore no wedding ring—no jewelry of any kind, in fact.

“This is for either of you,” Lou said. “Do scientists believe that bacteria like B. pseudomallei normally mutate after infecting the host or do their properties stay fairly constant?”

“And you are?” Scupman asked.

“Welcome. Lou Welcome. I’m an ER doc from Eisenhower Memorial in D.C., but I have my boards in internal medicine as well.”

“Good question, Dr. Welcome. One thing I have learned during the course of my twenty-five-year career studying bacteria is that nature is constantly grooming and furbishing them to be the ultimate warriors. As I said, these are soldiers going to war without a conscience and without fear. In the battle for species survival, they are the most powerful threat mankind will ever face. Trying to account for and combat the in-host mutations of bacteria is like pitting a child’s soccer team against a Manchester United team that is not only more powerful at the opening whistle, but ever-changing during the game, and playing by different rules. Put another way, bacteria are much better at surviving than we are at developing effective vaccines or antibiotics.”

Lou pulled his eyes from Vicki.

“Thank you for underscoring my point,” Scupman was saying. “Humans are messy, whereas microbes are perfect—a perfect society largely invisible to our eyes and yet existing all around and within us. As I said, there is no reasoning in a microbe, no hesitation, nothing to delay the inevitable attack. When threatened, these mindless killing machines transform, mutating seemingly at will into something that cannot be defeated. They act instantaneously without regret or regard for others.