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as much of a chance as the proverbial snowball in hell.”
    Ivory White interrupts again, “Sorry to interrupt your flow, doc, but isn’t this the stuff the voodoo witch doctors in Haiti add to their potions to create zombies?”
    Tamaguchi laughs. “It has been suggested by would-be ‘experts,’ but there is no evidence. Most potions—which are powdered mixtures of any number of insects, prescription and recreational drugs, and alcohol—have been shown not to have any TTX usually, and if present, to be in miniscule and nonlethal doses.”
    “Oh,” says Ivory, “thanks.”
    Dr. Smedley continues, “This is the poison best known for causing fugu poisoning from the consumption of the Japanese delicacy, pufferfish. You have to know what you are looking for in order to get the correct studies. Once you stumble onto the idea that this could be fugu, the lab problem is not particularly difficult. Tetrodotoxin may be identified and quantified in serum, whole blood, and/or urine to confirm the diagnosis of poisoning. Our NCTC Forensic Database Section lab has the mass spectrometrometers and gas and liquid chromatographic separation equipment necessary for the forensic investigation of fatal overdosages. I am convinced that we are on the right track. It is a pleasure working with Dr. Tamaguchi. I will keep all of you posted as the results come in. Good detective work, by the way.”
    Sybil Norcroft and I give each other a small appreciative nod.
    Four days later, Dr. Smedley calls Dr. Tamaguchi and the DCIA with his report.
    “We were right; I am my usual modest self when I report this. But I have to say that the NCTC lab geeks went a step further. They established the manufacturing process of the injectable poison used. You may not know but the pufferfish and other TTX producers do not actually make the poison. Instead, it is produced by some bacteria which are symbiotic with the fish’s cells and chemical makeup. In this case, the lab proved that a mixture of refined cultures of Pseudoalteromonas tetraodonis , and some species of Pseudomonas and Vibrio were used. That made an extraordinarily intense and rapidly acting toxin.”
    “How did this guy, Viachaslau Mazurkiewicz, come by such a sophisticated poison?” Sybil asks Dr. Smedley.
    “That is the best question for detectives to ask. I can tell you this much: he did not come up with the idea himself, and he did not make the toxin himself or in his garage lab. This required university-level microbiologists using top-of-the-line research facilities and culture materials, and a lot of time to get the job done. I am of the opinion that this had to be a national project, since the costs would be prohibitive, and the availability of qualified personnel would be beyond the reach of any amateur manufacturer or highly knowledgeable and qualified assassin, however clever. So far as I know, only US, Russian, PRC, or UK lab facilities have all of the necessary ingredients.”
    “And that says nothing about motive. I presume that if we can find the motive, that will lead us to the culprit and to his or her country and laboratory,” Sybil says with determination.
    “Likely so, Madam DCIA. I would appreciate being kept in the loop. This is certainly a fascinating case and probably one that we will write up when the denouement is reached.”
    “I will be more than happy to let you know what we know. For now—and probably for the next thirty years—this will have to remain top secret.”
    Sybil calls me the same day.
    “We have the toxicology report back, McGee. Your suspicions are altogether well-founded, and the experts’ concepts are likewise right on.”
    She explains everything Dr. Smedley told her.
    I ask her what she thinks was the scenario of the killing itself. “I have gone over this with my two closest confidants—who, incidentally, are a couple of the nicest guys who ever boarded an innocent ship and scuttled it after robbing all of the passengers, raping all