Madeline went on, softly, even as Ayala came and stood over the seated man, “You see, Shinobu, you don’t mind if I call you Shinobu, do you? Well, Shinobu, I do not work for the US government, nor did I steal this technology from some research institute, in fact I don’t work for anyone except myself right now. My colleague and I have decided it is time you found out exactly where your new technology came from, and why you are going to do exactly what we are going to tell you, or suffer a quick and ignominious death.”

His eyes widened, darting from the ex-Mossad agent standing over him to the calm, seated lady who had just threatened his life. But Madeline was just getting started and over the next half an hour his reality slowly caved in around him. He listened intensely as Madeline began to explain the depth of the conspiracy they had drawn him into.

Carefully, slowly, and deliberately, she laid it all out for him. All of it. The eight capsules, the conspiracy, the discovery in the Indian Ocean and the subsequent death of the crew of the King’s Transom. He shook his head occasionally, he dismissed the photographs of the capsule they produced from Ayala’s case, and though he was fascinated by some of the design schematics John had given them, he still seemed to maintain some small grasp on his previous world. But the design of the nano-machine, if it could be called a machine at all, that they wanted to start manufacturing with the resonance manipulator was beyond anything he could have imagined.

It was impossibly complex, and its minuscule dimensions were even harder to grasp. It was not a machine at all. It was a cellular construct. They weren’t using metal, or silicate, they were using proteins and polysaccharides and fatty acids. They wanted to use his wonderful machine to make what could only be described as a creature. A tiny, vicious-looking cellular weapon that shook him to the very core.

It was the explanation of this terrible device and its purpose that finally broke his resistance, allowing the full extent of their story to wash over him. It was like he had been staring at the truth through glass, unreal and distorted. But this final piece, this cracked that shield like a shattering aquarium, the liquid realization his mind had held at bay suddenly flooding over him. He sat there, bewildered, fear and lack of hope soaking his psyche as he gave in to the truth.