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incubated environment intentionally. Then he put the message at the top of the list. He wanted everyone’s thoughts on this. Pronto.
    He was about to call up some position papers by the NIH when the sound of retching made him fly back to the bedroom. He saw Janice in their bathroom bent over the bowl throwing up. At a time like this, a man makes a choice, one that will either dog him or herald him for decades to come. Bill chose wisely. He pulled back Janice’s hair, placed a gentle hand on her upper back, and was ready with a damp washcloth when she was able to stand again. He then guided her by the shoulders back to bed and sat alongside her.
    â€œYou okay?”
    â€œI don’t know what happened.”
    â€œYou were pretty restless all night.”
    â€œI can’t imagine what got into me.”
    â€œProbably some bug or twenty-four-hour thing.”
    He spoke reassuringly, but inside, Bill’s silent alarm went off. This is how it would happen . Thousands of Americans dismissing the first sign of an attack as a bug or bad sushi. He got another washcloth, wet it down, and laid it on Janice’s brow.
    â€œRest. I’ll call in for you.”
    â€œJust give me a minute or two, I’ll be okay.”
    A half-hour later, Janice was ready to get dressed and start her day. She headed off to work, but only after Bill made her promise to see a doctor later.
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    At 7:30 a.m. from his office phone, Bill called Judy, America’s “MD #1.” By 8:00, she was in his conference room.
    â€œWhat’s the gestation period of the kind of influenza we are going to get hit with this season?”
    â€œThirty-six to forty-eight hours from the time of infection, depending on the antibodies and general health of the exposed.”
    â€œEver hear of HD Complex 33?”
    â€œWhoa. Yes. Very nasty, a super-strain on steroids. Helped along by synthetic technology. And unfortunately that genie is out of the bottle. We couldn’t stop the propagation of the synthesis process because it was Chinese-Soviet research initially. When the Soviet Union went down the papers got out.”
    â€œSo why isn’t this more of a concern? I mean, I just learned of it.” Hiccock asked as he tapped the printed out email in front of him.
    â€œThe only good thing is it is very unstable outside the host and not easily transported. Can I ask why you brought it up?”
    â€œWhat would the gestation period of Complex 33 be?”
    â€œAgain it’s supercharged; maybe twenty minutes.”
    â€œSo how long would it take before our public health system was alerted to any spikes in influenza with a normal virus?”
    â€œI know you are going to tell me why you are asking me, but three to four days is the generally accepted timeframe for confirmation of a major event.”
    â€œRoughly twice the gestation time. So if we were hit with Complex 33, the confirmation time would be forty minutes?”
    â€œI see where you’re going, but let me call in the boys at CDC. They have some epidemiological data sprays on stuff like this.” She picked up the phone and dialed. “You know, if you think this agent is in play, you are duty bound by law to inform my office.”
    â€œI assure you all of this is just speculation, a big what-if.”
    She nodded to the computer. “Is this an exercise in your SCIAD group?”
    â€œYep. Just egghead stuff. For now.”
    â€œLet’s hope it stays that way.” She drew her attention toward the phone. “Hello George, Judy. Can you flash-net over to Mr. Hiccock’s office the first three tiers of the EP study you ran for me last week? Oh and George one more thing, does Complex 33 have a dormant quotient? Uh hum. I see. Okay, get back to me fast.”
    She hung up the phone. “You better hope it stays an exercise, Bill. Complex 33 has a dormant quotient.”
    â€œWhich means?”
    â€œIt can lie