“Why not?” Pitt’s surprise at Giordino’s anguish seemed genuine. “I think it only fitting and proper we make a big splash under the appropriate banner.”

<<14>>

“Fine bunch of international contamination detectives we are,” grumbled Hopper as he watched the sunset over the lakes and marshlands of the upper Niger River. “All we’ve come up with is typical third world indifference toward sanitation.”

Eva sat on a campstool in front of a small oil stove to ward off the evening chill. “I tested for most of the known toxins and failed to find a trace of any of them. Whatever our phantom malady is, it’s proving very elusive.”

An older man sat beside her, tall, heavy, with iron-gray hair, light blue eyes, wise and thoughtful. A New Zealander, Dr. Warren Grimes was the chief epidemiologist of the project. He contemplated a glass of club soda. “Nothing on my end either. Every culture I’ve obtained within 500 kilometers showed free of disease-related microorganisms.”

“Is there anything we might have overlooked?” asked Hopper, dropping into a folding chair with padded cushions.

Grimes shrugged. “Without victims, I can’t conduct interviews or autopsies. Without victims I can’t obtain tissue samples or analyze results. I have to have observational data to compare symptoms or do a case control study.”

“If anyone is dying from toxic contamination,” said Eva, “they’re not dying around here.”

Hopper turned from the fading orange light on the horizon and picked up a pot from the stove and poured a cup of tea. “Can it be the evidence was false or exaggerated?”

“UN headquarters received only vague reports,” Grimes reminded him.

“Without hard data and exact locations to work with, it seems we jumped the gun.”

“I think it’s a cover-up,” said Eva suddenly.

There was silence. Hopper looked from Eva to Grimes.

“If it is, it’s a damned good one,” muttered Grimes finally.

“I’m not sure I’d disagree,” Hopper said, his curiosity aroused. “The teams in Niger, Chad, and the Sudan are reportedly coming up dry too.”

“All that suggests is that the contamination is in Mali and not the other nations,” said Eva.

“You can bury victims,” observed Grimes. “But you can’t hide trace amounts of contamination. If it’s around here, we would have found it. My personal opinion is that we’ve been on a wild goose chase.”

Eva looked at him steadily, her Dresden blue eyes large in the reflection of the flame from the camp stove. “If they can hide victims, they can alter reports.”

“Aha,” Hopper nodded. “Eva has something. I don’t trust Kazim and his crew of snakes, haven’t from the beginning. Suppose they did alter the reports to throw us off the playing field? Suppose the contamination isn’t where we’ve been led to believe it is?”

“A possibility worth pursuing,” Grimes admitted. “We’ve been concentrating in the dampest and most inhabited regions of the country because it follows suit they would carry the highest incidence of disease and contamination.”

“Where do we go from here?” asked Eva.