I was thinking over those pleasant days and too platonic but still exciting nights as I came to the door of the Director's office. Dr. George Hallam, that straight backed old soldier, was sitting at his desk when I walked in. He was shuffling a pile of black and white photographs and, as they riffled over, I saw that they were some of Polly's electron microscope pictures of elementary particles. Hallam was a large man, but not fat, with black thinning hair combed straight back. Ordinarily a pleasant expression rested in the light brown eyes behind his rectangular spectacles, and a slight smile brightened his round, firm-fleshed face. Today he was definitely not happy, and under the white lab coat his big shoulders hunched forward determinedly like a fullback ready for a plunge through the line. I was wondering what bothered him until I caught a glimpse of the headlines in the "Sun" lying on the desk. EXTRA! Greatest Epidemic Ever! I noted the edition was later than the one I had bought. Flu Epidemic Spreads Through B.C. it said. "Good morning, sir." He nodded at me and I waved at the paper. "What goes on since I left?" "Five thousand cases of Flu." Bang! He slapped the desk. "Just like that. In one day!" He ran one big hand over his chin and was silent, leaning on his elbows. I picked up the paper to read the lead as he spoke again. "That was a week ago. For three days the cases rose to a peak and then eased off. We've been working on it and I think we've isolated the virus." He looked up at me. "Didn't you know about it?" "Chief," I said reproachfully, "You don't think I'd have stayed away if I'd known." "No ... no, of course not. I haven't had time to think much about it. But we could have used you and Pat. I'm damned glad you're back." "We ... ah ... I didn't look at a paper for the whole time. Went for a trip in my boat. I even turned off the television." "You must have had interesting company." He grinned at me slyly. "Yeah, I had a good crew," I said and changed the subject. "But what about this epidemic?" The fun died out of his eyes. "We've been expecting the second wave to hit anytime. Judging by the headlines we have it ... and it's a corker. The Department of Health tells me it's spreading faster than a dirty story both north and south of the border." "You say you have isolated it?" He picked out several of the photographs and passed them across to me. I looked at them for a moment. "But these particles are irregular, and too big!" He nodded. "What about the agglutination tests?" "It isn't A, B or C," he said. "It's a new virus, or at least one I've never heard of. There doesn't seem to be a relationship to any other flu virus ... and probably no immunity to it either." "Then how do you know it is flu?"