Page 137 of The Bone Code

antigen; antibody; replicated; inactivated; attenuated; purified; surface proteins

These terms were self-evident and suggested that the notes had to do with vaccine production. Made sense. The file was labeledInovoVax.

The remainder of the text was much more cryptic.

EBFV; CBFV; RFV; WHOGIS&RS; CVV; LAIV; FDA; CDC; HAs; CRISPR; baculovirus; neuraminidase; M2 ion channel; RNP

MightCDCstand for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? AndFDAbe Food and Drug Administration?

Now I was getting somewhere.

I knew that a baculovirus is a virus that infects invertebrates. Had Melanie been concerned about the health of worms?

I was turning to the web when my phone rang. Sang.

“I have a somewhat more enlightening rundown on Monsieur Murray.” The timbre of Claudel’s voice suggested a morning not going as planned.

“Docteur,” I corrected.

“As I mentioned earlier,le docteurhas no dossier, though his traffic record is long and sullied. Apparently, the man has quite the leaden foot.”

I didn’t correct his misuse of the idiom.

“Murray was born here in ’sixty-seven, grew up in NDG.” Claudel used the nickname for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a middle-class residential neighborhood in Montreal’s predominantly English-speaking West End. “He attended public for primary, Loyola for secondary school. Then, apparently having higher aspirations, he went to study in the States.”

“Where?”

“Some place called Grinnell. I’ve never heard of it.”

“I have.”

“Félicitations,” said Claudel. “He was awarded a doctorate at MIT in ’95, something to do with genes and immune systems. I phoned down there. The biology department has some eighty faculty members, but no one remembers a boy genius from Quebec. At least, no one with whom I connected.”

“Who was his PhD adviser?”

“A brainbox by the name of”—I heard rustling, pictured pages flipping—“Hao Jianghong. I think it was a male.Sacre bleu.Who knows with these—”

“Did you talk to him?”

“He died in 2012.”

“What did Murray do after leaving MIT?”

“He went to work at”—more rustling—“The Whitehead Institute at the MIT Center for Genome Research. In Cambridge, Massachusetts.”

“Doing what?”

“Call me crazy, but I’m thinking genome research.”

Easy.

“Five years in Cambridge, then Murray returned to Canada to take the job with InovoVax,” I said.

“Oui.” In Quebecois, it sounded likewhy.

“Where does he live now?”

“Laval.”