“He doesn’t look so good,” Jack said. “I don’t think he’s going to make it to the prom.” It was hard to talk in the moon suit, and he was already perspiring.

Vinnie, who never quite knew how to react to Jack’s irreverent comments, didn’t respond even though the corpse did look terrible.

“This is gangrene on his fingers,” Jack said. He lifted one of the hands and examined the almost-black fingertips closely. Then he pointed to the man’s shriveled genitals. “That’s gangrene on the end of his penis. Ouch! That must have hurt. Can you imagine?”

Vinnie held his tongue.

Jack carefully examined every inch of the man’s exterior. For Vinnie’s benefit he pointed out the extensive subcutaneous hemorrhages on the man’s abdomen and legs. He told him it was called purpura. Then Jack mentioned there were no obvious insect bites. “That’s important,” he added. “A lot of serious diseases are transmitted by arthropods.”

“Arthropods?” Vinnie questioned. He never knew when Jack was joking.

“Insects,” Jack said. “Crustaceans aren’t much of a problem as disease vectors.”

Vinnie nodded appreciatively, although he didn’t know any more than he had when he’d asked his question. He made a mental note to try to remember to look up the meaning of “arthropods” when he had an opportunity.

“What are the chances whatever killed this man is contagious?” Vinnie asked.

“Excellent, I’m afraid,” Jack said. “Excellent.”

The door to the hallway opened and Sal D’Ambrosio, another mortuary tech, wheeled in another body. Totally absorbed in the external exam of Mr. Nodelman, Jack did not look up. He was already beginning to form a differential diagnosis.

A half hour later six of the eight tables were occupied by corpses awaiting autopsies. One by one the other medical examiners on duty that day began to arrive. Laurie was the first, and she came over to Jack’s table.

“Any ideas yet?” she asked.

“Lots of ideas but nothing definitive,” Jack said. “But I can assure you this is one virulent organism. I was teasing Vinnie earlier about its being Ebola. There’s a lot of disseminated intravascular coagulation.”

“My God!” Laurie exclaimed. “Are you serious?”

“No, not really,” Jack said. “But from what I’ve seen so far it’s still possible, just not probable. Of course I’ve never seen a case of Ebola, so that should tell you something.”

“Do you think we ought to isolate this case?” Laurie asked nervously.

“I can’t see any reason to,” Jack said. “Besides, I’ve already started, and I’ll be careful to avoid throwing any of the organs around the room. But I’ll tell you what we should do: alert the lab to be mighty careful with the specimens until we have a diagnosis.”

“Maybe I’d better ask Bingham’s opinion,” Laurie said.

“Oh, that would be helpful,” Jack said sarcastically. “Then we’ll have the blind leading the blind.”

“Don’t be disrespectful,” Laurie said. “He is the chief.”

“I don’t care if he’s the Pope,” Jack said. “I think I should just get it done, the sooner the better. If Bingham or even Calvin gets involved it will drag on all morning.”

“All right,” Laurie said. “Maybe you’re right. But let me see any abnormality. I’ll be on table three.”

Laurie left to do her own case. Jack took a scalpel from Vinnie and was about to make the incision when he noticed that Vinnie had moved away.

“Where are you going to watch this from, Queens?” Jack asked. “You’re supposed to be helping.”

“I’m a little nervous,” Vinnie admitted.

“Oh, come on, man,” Jack said. “You’ve been at more autopsies than I have. Get your Italian ass over here. We’ve got work to do.”

Jack worked quickly but smoothly. He handled the internal organs gently and was meticulously careful about the use of instruments when either his or Vinnie’s hands were in the field.

“Whatcha got?” Chet McGovern asked, looking over Jack’s shoulder. Chet was also an associate medical examiner, having been hired in the same month as Jack. Of all the colleagues he’d become the closest to Jack, since they shared both a common office and the social circumstance of being single males. But Chet had never been married and at thirty-six, he was five years Jack’s junior.

“Something interesting,” Jack said. “The mystery disease of the week. And it’s a humdinger. This poor bastard didn’t have a chance.”

“Any ideas?” Chet asked. His trained eye took in the gangrene and the hemorrhages under the skin.

“I got a lot of ideas,” Jack said. “But let me show you the internal. I’d appreciate your opinion.”

“Is there something I should see?” Laurie called from table three. She’d noticed Jack conversing with Chet.

“Yeah, come on over,” Jack said. “No use going through this more than once.”

Laurie sent Sal to the sink to wash out the intestines on her case, then stepped over to table one.

“The first thing I want you to look at is the lymphatics I dissected in the throat,” Jack said. He had retracted the skin of the neck from the chin to the collarbone.

“No wonder autopsies take so long around here,” a voice boomed in the confined space.

All eyes turned toward Dr. Calvin Washington, the deputy chief He was an intimidating six-foot-seven, two-hundred-and-fifty-pound African-American man who’d passed up a chance to play NFL football to go to medical school.

“What the hell is going on around here?” he demanded half in jest. “What do you people think this is, a holiday?”

“Just pooling resources,” Laurie said. “We’ve got an unknown infectious case that appears to be quite an aggressive microbe.”

“So I heard,” Calvin said. “I already got a call from the administrator over at the Manhattan General. He’s justly concerned. What’s the verdict?”

“A bit too soon to tell,” Jack said. “But we’ve got a lot of pathology here.”

Jack quickly summarized for Calvin what was known of the history and pointed out the positive findings on the external exam. Then he started back on the internal, indicating the spread of the disease along the lymphatics of the neck.

“Some of these nodes are necrotic,” Calvin said.

“Exactly,” Jack said. “In fact most of them are necrotic. The disease was spreading rapidly through the lymphatics, presumably from the throat and bronchial tree.”

“Airborne, then,” Calvin said.

“It would be my first guess,” Jack admitted. “Now look at the internal organs.”

Jack presented the lungs and opened the areas where he’d made slices.

“As you can see, this is pretty extensive lobar pneumonia,” Jack said. “There’s a lot of consolidation. But there is also some necrosis, and I believe early cavitation. If the patient had lived longer, I think we would be seeing some abscess formation.”

Calvin whistled. “Wow,” he said. “All this was happening in the face of massive IV antibiotics.”

“It’s worrisome,” Jack agreed. He carefully slid the lungs back into the pan. He didn’t want them sloshing around, potentially throwing infective particles into the air. Next he picked up the liver and gently separated its cut surface.

“Same process,” he announced, pointing with his fingers to areas of early abscess formation. “Just not as extensive as with the lungs.” Jack put the liver down and picked up the spleen. There were similar lesions throughout the organ. He made sure everyone saw them.

“So much for the gross,” Jack said as he carefully replaced the spleen in the pan. “We’ll have to see what the microscopic shows, but I actually think we’ll be relying on the lab to give us the definitive answer.”

“What’s your guess at this point?” Calvin asked.

Jack let out a short laugh. “A guess it would have to be,” he said. “I haven’t seen anything pathognomonic yet. But its fulminant character should tell us something.”

“What’s your differential diagnosis?” Calvin asked. “Come on, Wonderboy, let’s hear it.”