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habitually to turn down his friend's invitations.
    "What same old thing?"
    "Your not being able to drink. When I know for a fact you used to drink like a fish."
    "It's not that."
    "Look, if you don't want to drink, you don't have to. Fake it with oolong tea or something. But you've got to be there."
    "I said it's not that."
    "So you can drink?"
    "Sort of."
    "Wait-is it some girl you're after?"
    Miyashita's intuition was sharper than one would have guessed from his rotund physique. Ando always tried to play things as straight as he could with Miyashita, but he wasn't sure he could say he was "after" a woman he'd only met twice. He didn't know how to respond, so he said nothing.
    "She must be something if she made you forget Funakoshi's send-off."
    Ando still had nothing to say.
    "Well, I'm happy for you. Don't worry-hey, why don't you bring her along? We'd welcome her, you know? With open arms."
    "We're not at that stage yet."
    "You're taking things slowly?"
    "I guess you could say that."
    "Hey, I won't twist your arm."
    "Sorry."
    "Do you know how many times you've apologized during this conversation? I get the picture. I'll put you down for a no-show. To make up for it, I'm going to spread the word that you've got a girl, so brace yourself."
    Miyashita laughed, and Ando knew he wouldn't be able to get mad at the guy. The only comfort Ando had been afforded during the gut-wrenching da' s after his son died and his wife left him had come from a present Miyashita had given him. Miyashita hadn't told him to "cheer up" or anything meaningless of that sort; instead he'd given Ando a novel, saying, "Read this." It was the first Ando had heard of his friend's interest in literature; he also discovered for the first time that books could genuinely give strength. The novel was sort of a Bildungsroman, the story of an emotionally and physically scarred youth who learns to overcome his past. The book still occupied an honored place on Ando's bookshelf.
    "By the way," said Ando, changing the subject, "did you learn anything from Ryuji's tissue sample?"
    It was Miyashita's Pathology Department that usually handled any diseased samples that needed to be analyzed.
    "Oh, that." Miyashita sighed.
    "What's wrong?"
    "I don't know quite what to tell you. I'm at my wits' end with that. What do you think of Professor Seki?"
    Seki was the doctor in charge of the pathology lab. He was famous for his research on the initial formation of cancer cells.
    "What do I think of him? Why?"
    "The old man says some funny things sometimes."
    "What did he say?"
    "It's not the arterial blockage that he's focusing on. You remember the throat was ulcerated?"
    "Of course."
    It wasn't very noticeable, but he definitely remembered it. He'd overlooked it until his assistant had drawn his attention to it. After the autopsy, he'd cut the affected portion out complete.
    "He took one look at it with his naked eye, and what do you think the old man said it looked like?"
    "Knock it off and just tell me."
    "Alright, alright, I'll tell you: he said it looked like what you see on smallpox victims."
    "Smallpox?" Ando yelped in spite of himself.
    Smallpox had been stamped out through a concerted global vaccination effort. Since a case in Somalia in 1977, not a single patient had been reported worldwide. In 1979, the WHO had declared the disease eradicated. Smallpox only infects humans. No new victims meant that the virus itself had effectively ceased to exist. The last specimens were being kept frozen in liquid nitrogen in Moscow and in a lab in Atlanta, Georgia. If a new case had appeared, it could only have come from one of the two research facilities, but, given the tight security the virus was under, it was unthinkable.
    "Surprised?"
    "It has to be a mistake."
    "Probably is. Still, that's what the old guy said. Respect his opinion."
    "When will you have the results?"
    "In about a week. Listen, if we actually do turn up the smallpox virus, it'll be huge for you."
    Miyashita