“Of course, he was a Nazi doctor in the concentration camps—”

“That’s who you are. A modern-day Mengele.”

“Pia, that is ridiculous, but I can understand that what you saw requires some explaining on my part. It is not what it seems.”

“Some explaining! You bastard.” Pia sat up and gave Berman a look of pure hatred and anger. Berman stepped back, even though he knew Pia was restrained. For him she had an intense power that was deeply unsettling.

“Where the hell am I? You have me chained to a wall in this medieval dungeon like something out of Robin Hood. You really are a pathetic, impotent little man.”

Berman’s face reddened. “I don’t think you are in a position to make that kind of judgment. You’ve never given me a chance to show you who I am, personally or professionally. I am on the verge of leading the greatest scientific medical breakthrough of the last fifty years. Maybe a hundred. And here is the issue in a nutshell. I want you to join me as I suggested back in my home. I want you to join us. I’m making you an offer of a lifetime.”

Pia laughed a mirthless laugh. She shook her head. “Sure you want me to join you? That’s why you have me chained to the wall in a dungeon.”

“You wouldn’t listen to me the other night at my house. You never listen. It’s always about your agenda. If restraining you is what it takes to get you to hear me out, then so be it. And I needed to make sure you wouldn’t spoil everything at the last minute. Right now I just want to talk to you.”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Unfortunately, no. But I ask you to think about what I am saying as a scientist, a researcher, a doctor who is interested in helping save millions upon millions of people, not someone who is immature and controlled by sentimentality and knee-jerk delusions of ethics.”

“I suppose my ethics are ‘reflex,’ as you suggest, especially if I think there’s something wrong with carving people up and keeping them half-alive in tanks.”

“You are a good scientist, potentially a great one. Mariel Spallek said as much, and I trust her judgment, especially in light of your polyethylene glycol suggestion for the microbivores. But she also said that you can’t help interfering in areas that shouldn’t be of your concern.”

“Isn’t that what a good scientist should do? Be concerned? Isn’t that what Robert Oppenheimer implied when he looked back on his career as the father of the atomic bomb?”