COLE is facing the BOTANIST who's using a pointer to indicate various fading photos and newspaper clippings tacked on the wall.
BOTANIST
" Let's consider again our current information -- if the symptoms were first detected in Philadelphia on June 28, 1995, that makes us know that...?"
COLE
"It was released in Philadelphia, probably on June 14, 1995."
BOTANIST
"And it appeared sequentially after that in...?"
With a quick glance at the panel of SCIENTISTS staring at him from behind the long table, COLE replies like a good pupil,
"San Francisco, New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Kinshasa, Karachi, Bangkok, then Peking."
BOTANIST
"Meaning...???"
COLE
"That the virus was taken from Philadelphia to San Francisco, then to New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Kinshasa, Karachi, Bangkok, then Peking."
BOTANIST
"And your only goal is...???"
COLE
"To find out where the virus is so a qualified scientist can travel back into the past and study the original virus."
BOTANIST
"So that...???"
COLE
"Uh, so that a vaccine can be developed that will, uh, allow mankind to reclaim the surface of the earth."