Tess Gerritsen - Bloodstream

“Then perhaps you’ll explain all the disturbing rumors I’ve been hearing,” said Damaris, keeping her cool. “For instance, the number six-six-six painted on the side of the high school.”

Lincoln aimed a startled glance at Fern. Claire realized at once what that look meant. Clearly they were both surprised by the reporter’s knowledge of a real event.

“There was a barn found splashed with blood last month,” said Damaris. “What about that?”

“That was a can of red paint. Not blood.”

“And those lights flickering at night up on Beech Hill. Which, I’ve been told, is nothing but forest reserve.”

“Now wait a minute,” interjected Lois Cuthbert, one of the town selectmen. “That I can explain. It’s that biologist fella, Dr. Tutwiler, collecting salamanders at night. I almost ran over him in the dark a few weeks ago, when he came hiking back down.”

“All right,” conceded Damaris. “Forget the lights up on Beech Hill. But I still say there’s a lot of strange and unexplained things happening in this town. If anyone here wants to talk to me about it later, I’m ready to listen.” Damaris sat down again.

“I agree with her,” said a tremulous voice. The woman stood at the back of the room, a small, white-faced figure clutching at her coat. “There’s something wrong in this town. I’ve felt it for a long time. You can deny it all you want, Chief Kelly, but what we have here is evil. I’m not saying it’s Satan. I don’t know what it is. But I know I can’t live here anymore. I’ve put my house up for sale, and I’m leaving next week. Before something happens to my family.” She turned and walked out of the hushed room.

The high-pitched beeping of Claire’s pocket pager cut through the silence. She glanced down and saw it was the hospital trying to reach her. She pushed her way through the crowd and stepped outside to make the call on her cell phone.

After the overheated cafeteria, the wind felt piercingly cold, and she huddled, shivering, against the building, waiting for an answer.

“Laboratory, Clive speaking.”

“This is Dr. Elliot. You paged me.”

“I wasn’t sure if you still wanted us to call you on these results, since this patient’s deceased. But I’ve got some reports back on Scotty Braxton.”

“Yes, I want to hear all the results.”

“First, I have a final report here from Anson Biologicals on the boy’s comprehensive drug and tox screen. None were detected.”

“There’s nothing about the peak on his chromatogram?”

“Not on this report.”

“This has to be a mistake. There must be something in his drug screen.”

“That’s all it says here: ‘None detected.’ We’ve also got the final culture result on the boy’s nasal discharge. It’s a pretty long list of organisms, since you wanted everything identified. Mostly the usual colonizers. Staph epidermiclis, alpha strep. Bugs we don’t normally bother to report.”

“Is there anything unusual growing out?”

“Yes. Vibriofiscberi.”

She scribbled the name down on a scrap of paper. “I’ve never heard of that organism.”

“Neither had we. It’s never turned up in a culture here. It has to be a contaminant.”

“But I collected the specimen straight from the patient’s nasal mucosa.”

“Well, I doubt this contamination came from our lab. This bacteria isn’t something you’d find floating around in a hospital.”

“What is Vibriofischeri? Where does it normally grow?”

“I checked with the microbiologist in Bangor, where they did the cultures. She says this species is usually a colonizer of invertebrates like squid or marine worms. It forms a symbiotic relationship. The host invertebrate provides a safe environment.”

“And what does the Vibrio do in exchange?”

“It provides the power for the host’s light organ.”

It took a few seconds for the significance of that fact to sink in. She asked, sharply: “Are you saying this bacteria is bioluminescent?”

“Yeah. The squid collects it in a translucent sac. It uses the bacteria’s glow to attract other squid. Sort of like a neon sign for sex.”

“I’ve got to go,” she cut in. “I’ll talk to you later.” She disconnected and hurried back into the school cafeteria.

Glen Ryder was trying to quiet down the audience again, his gavel thumping ineffectually against a chorus of competing voices. He looked startled as Claire pushed her way to the speakers’ table.

“I have to make an announcement,” she said. “I have a health alert for the town.”

“It’s not exactly relevant to this meeting, Dr. Elliot.”

“I believe it is relevant. Please let me speak.”

He nodded and resumed banging the gavel with new urgency. “Dr. Elliot has an announcement!”

Claire moved front and center, acutely aware that everyone’s gaze was on her.

She took a deep breath and began. “These attacks are scaring us all, causing us to point fingers at our neighbors, at the school. At people from away But I believe there’s a medical explanation. I’ve just spoken to the hospital lab, and I have a clue to what’s going on.” She held up the scrap of paper with the organism’s name. “It’s a bacteria called Vibriofischeri. It was growing in Scotty Braxton’s nasal mucus. What we’re seeing now-this aggressive behavior in our children- may be a symptom of infection. Vibriofischeri could cause a case of meningitis we can’t detect with our usual tests. It could also cause what doctors call a ‘neighborhood reaction’-an infection of the sinuses, extending into the brain-”

“Wait a minute,” said Adam DelRay, rising to his feet. “I’ve been practicing medicine here for ten years. I’ve never come across an infection of this-what is it?”

“Vibriofiscberi. It’s not normally seen in humans. But the lab’s identified it as an organism infecting my patient.”

“And where did your patient pick up this bug?”

“I believe it was the lake. Scotty Braxton and Taylor Darnell both swam in that lake almost every day last summer. So did a lot of other kids in this town. If that lake has a high bacterial count of Vibrio, that could explain how they’re getting infected.”

“I went swimming last summer,” said a woman. “A lot of adults did. Why would only the kids get infected?”

“It may have to do with what part of the lake you swim in. I also know there’s a similar infectious pattern for amoebic meningitis. That’s a brain infection caused by amoebas growing in fresh water. Children and teenagers are most often infected. When they swim in contaminated water, the amoeba enters their nasal mucosa. From there it reaches the brain by passing through a porous barrier called the cribriform plate. Adults don’t get infected, because their cribriform plates are sealed over, protecting their brains. Children don’t have that protection.”

“So how do you treat this? With antibiotics or something?”

“That would be my guess.”

Adam DelRay let out an incredulous laugh. “Are you suggesting we dispense antibiotics to every irritable kid in town? You have no proof anyone’s infected!”

“I do have a positive culture.”

“One positive culture. And it’s not from the spinal fluid, so how can you call this meningitis?” He looked at the audience. “I can assure this town there is no epidemic. Last month, the Two Hills Pediatric Group got a lab grant to survey blood counts and hormone levels in kids. They’ve been drawing blood on all their teenage patients in the area. Any infection would have shown up in their blood counts.”

“What grant are you talking about?” asked Claire.

“From Anson Biologicals. To confirm baseline normals. They haven’t reported anything unusual.” He shook his head. “This infection theory of yours is the most crackpot thing I’ve heard yet, and it comes without a shred of evidence.