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“Yes You ht want to remain seated while you read them”

He pulled up a chair and passed her the binder

“Troubling results?”

“I’ll say Preliminary analysis shows exactly what you suspected The El Salvador saenetic makeup than Vibrio cholerae O1 DNA analysis shows an additional seventeen gene clusters in the genonificance”

“Seventeen?” Montgomery said “That is a notable difference Likely an isolated mutation, which has reproduced in the El Salvador reservoir”

Byron gave her a sober stare, then shook his head “I’m afraid not The computer found the same, or similar, bacteria in two of the three other water samples you sent down for analysis In addition, we made a hit on five additional baseline control samples in our database”

Montgomery nearly popped out of her chair “What did you say?”

“You gave us suspected pathogen water samples from Cairo, Mumbai, and Haiti Both Cairo and Mumbai resulted in virtually the same results as your El Salvador speciens in water sahai, and Sydney Only the sample from Haiti came back different It contained the classic V cholerae O1”

“The rest were the saomery asked “You’re sure about that?”

“Yes Well, they all have the same structure as the El Salvador sample, except for Paris, Rio, and Sydney Those saenetic cluster Between the saroups we’ve never seen before”

“Not one, but two? It can’t be” Montgoen takes tilobe are unheard of, even today”

“True, but the Cairo, Haiti, and Shanghai water samples are several weeks old”

Montgo the analysis “I’m not aware of any cholera outbreaks in Paris or Sydney—nor Rio, for that matter”

Byron shook his head “Perhaps the added genetic structure has reduced the toxicity”

“Thank heavens, if so Still, how did it appear in the public water supplies of Paris and Sydney? Those were treated water samples, weren’t they?”