A part of him could not help but lament the wonderful device he would be giving away as well: the greatest invention of all time, a panacea for every communicable disease known to man. He sagged into his chair at the thought and Ayala saw that he was theirs. She saw that he was no longer thinking of how to resist, or whether to believe, he was thinking of the consequences of what he knew he must do and that meant they had succeeded. And as the final touch, she would cauterize the wounds they had given him just a little by giving him one small spark of hope to light the way through his despair.

“Of course, these machines that you will so kindly be giving away, these cells that will cure AIDS, and Malaria, and Polio, you should know that they have a shelf life. And if one man were to help us give humanity this first mass release of them to protect us from the coming viral attack, then I see no reason why that man wouldn’t be able to sell the next release … for profit … if you like.”

A patent on the greatest medicine in history, and on the only way to manufacture it. He swelled with the very concept of it and with that Ayala saw that she had pulled him through to the other side. Like threading the eye of a needle, she had pushed and prodded him through that impossibly small hole. But now she had a hold of him on the other side and he was hooked. Now they could truly use him and his vast resources to help defend humanity.

She had known that he would never have been a willing ally. They had needed to break him of that which he valued most, his personal power, and then they had needed to show him a route back to it, a route back to that by which he had always defined himself.

The fear of losing what he had now would make him theirs today. The promise of wealth and prestige beyond measure would keep him true tomorrow. Months from now, when their purpose was served, he would eventually discover that the machines they were going to release were self-replicating. But by then it would be too late for him to take them back. His purpose would be served, and they would cut him loose.

Madeline glanced at Ayala. She had doubted the older woman’s strategy when they had discussed it earlier, but there was no doubt in her mind now that this lady had broken men far stronger and far more capable than this poor specimen.