“Not in the least, Minister. As I said, it’s only going to get worse. We have a reservoir of infected animals and fleas in a park in the heart of the city. This infection kills faster than almost any other one we know of. The spread is accelerating. And, most worrisome of all, we have already seen two cases of multi-resistance. This bacteria has the potential to become an international epidemic or, worse, a pandemic.”

“Resistance? What does this mean?” the mayor asks in a pained tone.

“This bacteria has an uncanny ability to rapidly acquire resistance to antibiotics.”

The color drains from the mayor’s cheeks. “Are you saying we might soon not have any treatment available?”

“It’s possible, yes.”

“Then how will we control it?” the mayor asks, gripping his upper arm. “With this vaccine?”

Byron turns to the bearded Swedish vaccine expert. “Dr. Larsen, care to comment?”

Larsen pulls his glasses off and taps them against the table. “At best, the American military vaccine will provide seventy percent immunity. Besides, there is only enough to immunize a few thousand people, not the whole city.”

“That is all we have?” The mayor looks as if he might jump out of his seat.

Larsen taps his glasses even faster. “Our Geneva lab is already working on developing a vaccine for this specific strain of Yersinia, but it will take a minimum of four months before it’s available.”

Byron glances at Alana. “We are also developing an antiserum using antibodies from the blood of survivors. But its availability will be measured in weeks, if not also months.”

“And in the meantime?” Pivetti demands.

“We continue to do what we are already doing, Minister,” Byron says. “We treat anyone with suspicion of the plague with antibiotics. We quarantine known victims and do aggressive contact tracing. We screen all air, sea, and rail travel points for symptomatic people. We apply aggressive pest control measures to the local rat population, especially in the parks.”

“Good luck with that!” Justine pipes up. “Unless the plague does the pest control for us.”

“And finally, we are about to embark on a strategy of ring prophylaxis.”

“What does that involve?” Pivetti asks.

“In the sixties, the WHO effectively eradicated smallpox using the same approach,” Byron says. “They would locate any villages or towns with smallpox victims and then immunize everyone living in the ring—the immediate vicinity—surrounding that hot spot.” He levels an infrared pointer at the map on the screen and encircles the areas around the construction site, the hospital, and the Parco Serra Gropallo. “We’re going to do the same with these foci of outbreaks here in Genoa. We intend to treat everyone living in a one-mile radius of these hot spots with antibiotics, even if they’ve had no known contact with any victims.”

“How do you expect to stop this . . . this organism, when you do not even know where it originates?” Pivetti challenges.

“I didn’t say we expect to stop it,” Byron says with an affable smile that contradicts his tone. “At least not yet. At this point, we’re focusing on containing or, to be more accurate, slowing its progress.”