“Now then, slide two shows a second warning indicator of possible biological-agent preparation.” She clicked a button, and the new slide appeared. It showed a computer monitor that displayed an elaborate graphic model of the molecular structure of a particular drug compound. “This is a French system. It’s called Bio-Ordinateur. It’s used by Unetat’s drug subsidiary for computer-assisted drug design. If you see this machine in Beijing, you’ve made a significant discovery. This is a red flag.”

“Why? What can they do with it?”

“They can use it to synthesize peptides—especially the ones known as ‘bioregulators,’ which can, quite literally, turn the body off and on. If these peptides could be manipulated and synthesized in large volumes, they might yield very toxic weapons. It would be possible to create agents that could affect the mood of the target population—allowing the user to create fear, depression, fatigue, lassitude, confusion, panic. As a matter of science, this is entirely possible. So keep your eyes open, please.”

She clicked for the next slide. It showed huge glass-and-stainless-steel vessels, rising up what looked like several stories. “These are called ‘bioreactors,’” she said. “They are state-of-the-art vessels for large-scale fermentation of bacterial cells. The vessels can have capacities of thousands of liters. That is large enough to allow the user to create militarily significant quantities of specially engineered bacteria. If you see these fermentation vessels, you are not looking at a simple research laboratory.”

“Wouldn’t it be dangerous to get near them?” I asked.

“Oh yes, quite dangerous … Now here’s the last slide.” She clicked again. The slide displayed a complicated schematic drawing. It was labeled “Suicide Genes.” I thought I remembered that phrase from before.

“I must warn you,” she said, “that this slide contains information carrying a code-word classification. I had to obtain a special clearance, just to show it to you.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to see it. Once you were read into these secrets, certain obligations seemed inevitably to follow.

“This is what the intelligence community believes Dr. Navarre is working on in China,” she continued. “He is doing only a piece of the research—they haven’t shown him the whole—but we suspect he understands how the parts fit together. When you met him in Paris, Dr. Navarre was working on ways to get neurotrophins into the brain with some kind of ‘chaperone,’ to rebuild damaged nerve cells. Is that right?”

“Yes. He thought he could cure Alzheimer’s disease.”