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happening too fast . The sudden change of directors . Her promotion to primary researcher . And now the damn plague , and all that it implied . Her head swam, and she tried to slow her breathing . Now would not be a good time to have a panic attack . Or an asthma attack . Or faint . No, none of those would be impressive to the audience here today.
    Henderson abandoned his attempt to find the report . He looked at the dozen or so doctors sitting around the table, anxiously awaiting his first remarks .
    “As you all know, this is only my fourth day on the job, and I’m basically relying on security to make sure you are actually on my staff , so feel free to chime in if I ask a question in your field of expertise.”
    Somehow , hearing her new boss’ own admission that he was overwhelmed helped Amanda get a grip on her own growing anxiety . Maybe he wasn’t the ogre that she thought.
    The large man dove back into the stack of papers, obviously intent on a certain page, but quickly gave up again . “The nationwide bulletin has been issued?”
    “The fax went out to all FBI and Home l and Security offices,” the scientist next to Amanda spoke up.
    Dr. Henderson search ed the room for the person who spoke . “I’m sorry . Y ou are?”
    “Dr. Vincent MacVetti …” the scientist paused, apparently waiting for a glimpse of recognition from the director, but when he got none, MacVetti continued . “Besides being head of our d omestic branch, I’m also the point person for all upper - echelon law enforcement communications.”
    “Right,” Henderson said , then looked at the rest of the group . “How about everyone just shout out your name if we’ve never met… Or even if we have ? ” Henderson turned back to MacVetti . “Emergency rooms?”
    A voice came from the other side of the table . “Dr. Ev ylin Tarmel , Head of Medical Coordination.” Once Henderson found the tall woman, she continued , “And y es, an alert has been distributed to all emergency rooms with populations above one hundred thousand citizens.”
    “And no group has taken credit for the outbreak?” Henderson asked of everyone and no one in particular.
    “No,” came the answer from the one man in the room without a white coat . “Sorry . Andrew Devlin , your CIA liaison.”
    “So no one is jumping out of their skin to take responsibility for the return of the Black Death?”
    The shorter man shrugged . “As a matter of fact, the hot-listed groups are going out of their way to make sure that we know it’s not them.”
    Henderson nodded, obviously processing the information . His eyes scanned the table . “Who’s the lead on the Yersin i a p estis bacterium ?”
    Amanda paused long enough so that everyone turned to look at her . The director followed their gaze . “Cat got your tongue?”
    She liked it better when he was bouncing around the room . Why did he need to talk to her ? Take MacVetti — he could easily answer any questions . But Henderson fixed her with his gaze and frowned . Her time was up . She cleared her throat, buying her another half a second from doom .
    “Dr. Amanda Rolph .”
    “Any new cases reported in Europe in the last four hours?” Henderson asked.
    “No, sir.” You know , this might not go too badly if she could keep her answers to two words . But then , Jennifer nudged her . Damn it, if her assistant wanted to say something, she had a tongue . She nudged again, but Amanda kept her gaze forward .
    Luckily , Henderson didn’t seem to notice her assistant’s prompting , since he moved on . “And still no cases in the States?”
    Everyo ne in the room shook their head s .
    “So this could be a natural anomaly after all,” the director said with a significant amount of relief.
    Again, the audience seemed to answer as a single being , with a warm murmur of agreement.
    Devlin nodded the most vigorously . “We might have dodged a bullet on this one.”
    “All right, let’s keep up the — ”
    Before