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performed. He had been right in that.
    Aeolus’s phone vibrated in his pocket. Only Jitsuko could reach him, and she would know better than to call during the show unless it was both urgent and important.
    He stepped out of his box into the corridor and answered the phone. Jitsuko said, “Mr. Hughes, sorry to disturb you, but I have Walt on the line. It seems urgent.”
    “Okay, put him through.”
    Walt was somewhat short of breath, as if he had run to the phone.
    “Sir, apologies for disturbing you, but I think we might have a situation.”
    “Okay, this better be good.”
    “I just got a report in from Indonesia of a suspected outbreak. We currently have about fourteen hospitalized and seven casualties.”
    “Where?” asked Aeolus, picking up the pace as he walked down the stairs toward the exit.
    “A town called Ternate on the Maluku Islands. It’s an island just off to the west of Papua, with a population of about eighty thousand.”
    “What more do we know?” Aeolus voice was devoid of emotion, clinical and efficient.
    “Not much, it’s a small hospital; the doctor in charge barely speaks English. I’m not sure of her skill level. They’re poorly equipped, even for a third world hospital, just the absolute basics.”
    “Symptoms?”
    “Pretty vague so far. The doctor thinks the fatalities are due to pneumonia, but can’t be sure. Also she reports, and I quote, ‘weird discolorations of the skin in various places’.”
    Aeolus stopped in mid-step, his eyes fixed on the exit, but focusing far beyond, seeing nothing. “So it seems she has come back after all,” Aeolus sighed. “At least we got three weeks of breathing room.”
    Aeolus’s emotional reaction was controlled. He did not feel fear, worry or excitement. His pulse did not quicken. His mind just focused calmly, dispassionately, on the problem at hand and what needed to be done. He resumed his walk toward the exit.
    “This is it, Walt. Wake everybody up! Now is when we earn our keep. Isolation comes first. It’s an island, you say?”
    “Well, more like an archipelago.”
    Aeolus pushed through the double doors out into the cool Italian night. The square in front of the building was lit up by the full moon, overpowering the warmer light flowing out through the windows of the theatre. Its reflection made the patches of grass surrounding the statue in the square’s center glow an eerie greenish-gray.
    “If it’s far enough from the mainland, it should be easy enough to contain. I assume the local WHOoffice has already contacted the government with a request?”
    “It is, indeed, well isolated from the mainland, and yes, the local office has contacted the government, as has the office in Manila, but the request isn’t being viewed favorably.”
    “What? Just a month ago they extirpated an entire village without any complaints.”
    “Yes, but that was indigenous tribal land. There are ‘real Indonesians’ living on these islands, including members of the upper caste of their society”
    “You’ve got to be kidding me! Okay, what’s the fastest way to assert influence over the Indonesian government? We don’t have much time here. If we could successfully put twelve hundred people under house quarantine in such a chaotic city as Beijing for two weeks during the SARS epidemic, surely we can quarantine a small, archipelago?”
    “I spoke to Stan about it briefly.” Stan Russell was their ‘maestro politico’ at the WHO. He knew all the ways and tricks around the UN and everything worth knowing about international politics and foreign relations. “He said that if we wanted to be certain to get it done, and done quickly, it would have to go through the Secretary General.”
    “What does he think, can I do it over the phone or do I have to brief him in person?”
    “Stan said that, given your warnings in your last monthly briefing, the way has been paved, so it should be a relatively easy sell. He did, however, ask me to inform