We were inside the gates now. The PSB man would have to create a scene to stop us. Bowman kept going; the guard fell back into his slouch. We melded into the flow of students and faculty crisscrossing the quadrangle. The campus was like the rest of Beijing: crowded with people; dust and concrete blurring together in a tan-brown landscape.

“Now where the hell is this lab?” asked Bowman. I pointed to where Rubino had said it would be, near the back of the campus, in a building marked N-16.

Bowman led us there, walking deliberately, but not so fast that he seemed to be in a hurry. We passed classroom buildings and laboratories; after perhaps ten minutes, we reached our destination. Building N-16 was a large two-story structure with bars on the windows and a guard booth just outside the front door. It appeared to be brand-new.

Bowman turned to me. “This is it, buddy. This is your show. Are you looking for anyone in particular?”

“I need to see a French biologist named Roger Navarre. He has a lab here. And I want to take a tour to see what kind of equipment they’ve got.”

Bowman went up to the guard, greeted him in guidebook Chinese and asked to see the French scientist. “Ni hao. Wo yao Roger Navarre.”

“Bushi,” said the guard sternly, shaking his head. That obviously meant no.

“Roger Navarre,” Bowman said again. He removed his ID and pointed at the company name. “Unetat,” Bowman said loudly. “Unetat.”

The guard went inside to fetch someone more senior. A minute or so later a Chinese man in a white coat emerged. “Yes, please,” he said. “Can I help you?”

“My name is Arthur Bowman.” He extended his right hand in greeting while displaying the card in his left hand. “I’m in Beijing with Unetat for the Asian Communications Conference. I was hoping that we could see Mr. Roger Navarre. I was told that he works in this building.”

“One moment, please. Could I have your identification card, please.” He took the Unetat card and disappeared back into the building. We had another wait, this time for several minutes. I took the opportunity to tell Bowman about the breakfast meeting that morning and the conversation with François Minart, the Unetat group vice president for pharmaceuticals. Eventually, a tall blond man emerged and shook Bowman’s hand. He was formal in his manners and spoke with a French accent.

“Hello, Mr. Bowman. Welcome to Qinghua. How may I help you?”

“Are you Roger Navarre?” Bowman asked.

“No. My name is Antoine Seraut. Roger is busy in the lab right now. I’m afraid this is a closed facility. We do not normally have visitors here.”