“Nine,” Olga said again, and Sofia felt a wave of panic flood over her. She leaned on the counter to steady herself.

She glanced around the office. It was the nerve center of the institute, the place where all the calls came in and the researchers did their paperwork. Everything looked perfectly normal. One of the administrators had had a birthday and there were balloons by her chair. There was an open box on her desk with a half-eaten medovik cake in it.

Sofia told the orderly to grab her a pen and paper.

“Nine fatalities?” she said.

“In two hours,” Olga said.

“Symptoms?”

“Fever,” Olga said. “Headache, cough, chest pain.” She was speaking very quickly.

“When did the symptoms start?”

“All nine women woke up perfectly normal this morning,” Olga said.

Sofia scribbled down the notes.

“Women?”

“All of them.”

It was in the air, Sofia thought.

“What did they have in common, Olga?”

“Oh my god,” Olga said. There was something going on in the background, some commotion. “They’re bringing more now.”

There was a click, like the receiver had been dropped, and Sofia heard Olga talking to someone. Then she was gone. The line wasn’t dead, she could still hear sounds in the background, but Olga had left the phone.

“I’ve got to go to Infectious Diseases,” Sofia said to the orderly, grabbing her briefcase and coat.

She hurried to the elevator and threw on her coat before it reached the ground floor. Outside, the snow swarmed around her. It seemed early in the year for the temperature to be so low. She got to her car and fifteen minutes later was at the east entrance to Olga’s building.

She double parked in an ambulance bay and before she was even out of the car, saw a woman coming out of the hospital. The woman was wearing the light pink uniform of the Empress Catherine textile factory. Sofia knew the uniform well. She passed the workers every day. The factory was located in Chkalovskaya, just south of Yevchenko’s proposed production facility.

The woman hurried down the steps and stopped. She reached for the rail to hold herself up and began coughing. Then she fell to the ground.

Sofia ran to her. The woman couldn’t breathe. Sofia looked around for help but didn’t dare leave. The woman gasped for air and Sofia helped her to her feet.

“Come on. Let’s get you back inside.”

The woman leaned on Sofia and they made it a few steps before falling.

When they hit the ground, Sofia’s head smacked painfully against the ice. She got back up but felt dizzy as she tried to lift the woman. She was too heavy. Looking around desperately, Sofia cried for help.

A security guard came out of the hospital.

“What’s the matter?”

“She’s not breathing.”

“I’ll get a stretcher,” he said.