"Precisely ... if it works," Hallam said. "That's what we will concentrate on. Biochem is analyzing the structure of the virus. They are going to advise us when they get the nucleoproteins sorted out. We may be lucky. Sometimes substituting a methyl group by hydrogen or changing the positions slightly will make a tremendous difference in properties of the molecules. It will have to be rather a hit and miss program. There isn't time to work out the full formula of the virus. By the way, have you seen the paper this morning?" "Not yet," Pat said. "They have a new name for it now--Sterility Flu, or S-Flu for short." "Yeah, short for flu but long for sterility," I muttered. "Maybe the sperm cells will regenerate after a few months," Pat said hopefully. "I wouldn't put any down payments on a baby carriage if I were you," I said, as we moved towards the workrooms. * * * * * It was the third morning after the fight on the docks. Pat had finished injecting an enormous dose of concentrated human serum into my left buttock and was giggling at my choice selection of swear words when the phone rang. I answered struggling with my pants at the same time. "Cope here," it said. "Is that you, John?" "Yes Harry, how are you?" "I'm afraid I've caught the flu, laddie." He was obviously trying to sound unconcerned. "I've got a fever and all the aches and pains that go with the ruddy stuff. I wanted to tell the Old Man I shan't be working for a day or two." "Damn it, that's a shame," I said. "Look Harry, why don't you come up here and let us give you some serum, it might forestall the complications." "Might as well, I suppose, but isn't it too late, really?" "Too late for the flu, of course, but maybe not too late for the orchitis." "Right-o," he sounded resigned. "I'll see you in half an hour." "Wait!" I had the receiver halfway down before I remembered. "Better bring Polly along too. If she hasn't got the flu now, she probably will have." "Will do," he answered and cut me off. Pat heard us talking but Hallam was away and would have to be told later. Nowadays he was seldom available, being constantly in conference or on the telephone talking to specialists in preventive medicine or virology from other parts of the Americas or Europe. For the moment, Vancouver was the center of attention of the western world. Most of the NATO countries by now were battling full scale epidemics of their own and wanted to know what we had found out about the disease.