“Response times to emerging diseases are falling and will continue to fall,” Krieger said, “making it less likely that Covid-19 and other zoonotic diseases hiding in the forest will make it to our shores. Scarce resources produce famine, corruption, violence, war. We know how important this is now. By starting at the beginning—with nature—we believe we can prevent not only the next terrible pandemic, but also the next global conflict. We are proud to include The Sovereign in the Perseus Group family. Together, we will uncover secrets of the natural world and use them to protect this planet for all of us. Thank you.”

A smattering of applause filled the room. Sharon returned to center stage and said there was time for a few questions.

The Sovereign’s chief ornithologist pointed out that sparrows hovering was not natural at all and asked what testing had been done to determine its effect on community bird behavior. Someone from television said if drone birds could follow an elephant herd, like bodyguards, with park rangers wearing GoPro cameras, The Sovereign might want to do a film about it, “Through the Eyes of Sparrows” or something.

“What’s in it for you?” someone shouted, causing some uncomfortable laughter.

“Let’s keep this civil,” Sharon said.

“No,” Krieger said. “It’s the right question. What’s in it for me? A lot. How many times have we heard, ‘We should protect a rainforest or a coral reef because we don’t know what benefits might lie hidden inside’? The technology you witnessed this morning was brought to you by hummingbirds. We attached sensors to hummingbird wings and let machine learning algorithms train our drones how to move. Among elephants, our drones fly like the sparrows they resemble. Other environments require the mobility of hummingbirds. We have built a UAV capable of both. By flying naturally we can get closer to wildlife, and protect it better. By flying faster we can protect it more quickly.

“Nature is full of dual-use secrets,” he continued. “Hypertension medicine hidden in the poison of a Brazilian viper. Anticancer drugs locked inside Madagascar’s rosy periwinkle. Blood thinners coursing through Brazil’s tike uba tree. Adhesives under gecko pads. To unlock nature’s secrets, we first need to protect them. Not through charity, which demeans the recipient, but through markets, which enable nature to earn her keep. At Perseus Group we are disrupting legacy conservation to deliver the world a highly profitable conservation dividend.”

A young woman in the middle of the room raised her hand.

“The new hottie,” Fox whispered to Klay. “Tanya Something. Grantee. Works on sharks.”

The shark expert asked why, based on his history, they should trust Krieger to continue The Sovereign’s mission—“Not just your history in Iraq as Raptor Systems,” she said, “but your more recent history, as Perseus Group Media, buying up newspaper and television stations and either closing them down or turning them into platforms for racist, misogynistic demagogues . . .”