“Bacon, listen to me,” Kazimi blurted out. “You’ve got to let me and your scientists work with the government. You miscalculated the power of Janus. Now, you rightly say that we’re running out of time. We need more resources.”

“Then take the scientist I’ve offered you,” Bacon said.

Kazimi shook his head. “We need a vast, coordinated, combined effort here. The mutation has changed the rules of this game. Even my group of experts wouldn’t be enough.”

Bacon turned to him, his eyes glowing like the embers buried deep within the fireplace.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” he said. “So long as we have the leverage of possessing the means of stopping the Doomsday Germ, we can move even this ponderous government to accede to our demands. We have come too far not to make this happen.”

“But you don’t possess the means to control what you created. Sooner or later, even if Congress passes the laws you are demanding, even if they agree to change the way our government does business, it will become clear that you cannot deliver on your promise.”

Bacon slammed the tip of his cane on the stone.

“And that is precisely why you must succeed, Dr. Kazimi,” he cried out, his voice shrill and unsettling. “You must succeed at all costs.”

“Tens of thousands, even millions could die.”

Bacon went apoplectic.

“Without the sort of change we are demanding, there are hundreds of millions in this country who are at risk! At risk for poverty! At risk for global irrelevance! Hundreds of millions who will be left destitute as this country goes broke. We are not here to save a life, Dr. Kazimi, or even a few hundred lives. We are here to save a country!”

“You are insane! All of you.”

The fire in Bacon’s eyes receded, replaced by a disturbing look of vision, determination, and peace.

“Many people are depending on your success, doctor,” he said evenly. “Don’t disappoint them.”

Turning his back, Bacon ambled over to the bar where he poured himself a drink. Kazimi stood by the towering windows, his arms dangling at his sides, his head bowed. There was to be no reasoning with the Society of One Hundred Neighbors. Not now, not ever.

“Come, sit by the fire,” Bacon said. “I’ll get us something to eat.”

He raised a finger to his behemoth guard, and the man silently vanished into the darkness of the corridor.