Chapter 2

Walking the streets of New York, Meghan was getting a lot of sex, and she'd never felt better. Some men refused, of course. Some gave as their reason the fear that she would accuse them of rape. To meet that objection, she printed many copies of this form:

"I, Meghan McDonald, of 555 Washington Street, Manhattan, hereby certify that I am over the age of 18 years and that I have consented to this sexual encounter. I furthermore guarantee that I shall not publicize this encounter in any fashion and will deny its existence if asked."

Pulling a copy out was most often met with amusement, but a few men stuffed one in their pocket before following Meghan to some secluded spot for a quick score.

With as many as 50 sexual partners a day, she might have expected to get sore from the friction of penises going in and out. But the encounters were usually very quick, and previous ejaculations provided extra lubrication. But she did develop sores which put a damper on her activity. The doctor diagnosed it as gonorrhea. When asked if she had had recent sexual activity with a new partner, her "yes" was accompanied by giggles. His jaw dropped when she said he'd love it if he'd just do her in a quickie right there in the examining room.

A thought flashed through Rachel Johnson's mind and her brow furrowed. She thought another few minutes. She was a grad student in primatology, not an infectious disease specialist. Would they laugh at her? Adam Schwartz had been in med school while she was in college, and now he was doing a residency in infectious diseases. She felt pretty sure he at least wouldn't laugh, so she gave him a call. After the preliminaries, she got to her point:

"You know this wild promiscuity thing that's sweeping the country?"

"In my field it's on everyone's mind these past few days. And it's not just this country, it's showing up other places too."

"I guess in this day and age nothing stays in a single country for long. Do they know what's causing it?"

"It sure looks like an infectious agent. The pattern fits perfectly. You have an infected individual who has unprotected sex with someone. There are frequent reports of a mild fever within the first 24 hours, and then the person is themselves sexually supercharged, which shows up as promiscuity in females and aggression in men."

"So do they know what the agent is?"

"No idea, but of course it's only been a few days."

"Well, I had this crazy idea. I hate to even mention it, because it's not my field."