apolis O.K., Tulsa O.K., Buffalo O.K.,--and a
bunch more. No indication there. Except"--she fished out a one-page
report--"some little town in Tennessee. Yesterday there was a campaign
for everybody to write their congressman about some deal and today
they were to vote on a new water system. Hardly anybody showed up at
the polls. They've all got it."

Andy shrugged. "You can drink water, but don't vote for it. Oh, that's
a big help." He rummaged through the clutter on his desk and came up
with a crude chart. "Any trends yet?"

"It's hitting everybody," Bettijean said helplessly. "Not many kids so
far, thank heavens. But housewives, businessmen, office workers,
teachers, preachers--rich, poor--from Florida to Alaska. Just when you
called me in, one of the girls thought she had a trend. The isolated
mountain areas of the West and South. But reports are too
fragmentary."

"What is it?" he cried suddenly, banging the desk. "People deathly
ill, but nobody dying. And doctors can't identify the poison until
they have a fatality for an autopsy. People stricken in every part of
the country, but the water systems are pure. How does it spread?"

"In food?"

"How? There must be hundreds of canneries and dairies and packing
plants over the country. How could they all goof at the same
time--even if it was sabotage?"

"On the wind?"

"But who could accurately predict every wind over the entire
country--even Alaska and Hawaii--without hitting Canada or Mexico? And
why wouldn't everybody get it in a given area?"

Bettijean's smooth brow furrowed and she reached across the desk to
grip his icy, sweating hands. "Andy, do ... do you think it's ...
well, an enemy?"

"I don't know," he said. "I just don't know."

For a long moment he sat there, trying to draw strength from her,
punishing his brain for the glimmer of an idea. Finally, shaking his
head, he pushed back into his chair and reached for the sheaf of
papers.

"We've got to find a clue--a trend--an inkling of something." He
nodded toward the outer office. "Stop all in-coming calls. Get those
girls on lines to hospitals in every city and town in the country.
Have them contact individual doctors in rural areas. Then line up
another relief crew, and get somebody carting in more coffee and
sandwiches. And on those calls, be sure we learn the sex, age, and
occupation of the victims. You and I'll start with Washington."

Bettijean snapped to her feet, grinned her encourage