“I got it. I got it,” Vaill said, cutting Lou off. “Now, we need to get going. Let me ask you both one last time: Do you know of anyone else here besides Burke?”

“And that man, Ron, handling the radio from the security office,” Lou reminded him.

“I know of two other guards besides Burke,” Kazimi said. “One is a big, blond man named Collins and the other is an even bigger fellow named Drake. They seem very dangerous.”

Again, Vaill and Lou exchanged looks.

Not anymore …

“Anybody else?”

“Doug Bacon is here. Another bad man. I think he runs the entire organization. He limps and walks with a cane, and I think he has a drinking problem. But he is very smart and not to be underestimated.”

“Okay, last chance. Anyone else?”

“There’s a butler—an older man named Harris. Nobody else I know of. We have been told the microbiologist who first identified the Janus strain has arrived at the castle with tissue cultures growing the three strains of bacteriophage Mr. Miller believes will be the key, but we haven’t been introduced yet. That’s all.”

Vaill’s eyes were smoldering.

“Where is Burke?” he asked.

Good, Lou thought. False alarm. He’s back.

“I don’t know where he is right now,” Kazimi said again. “He comes back here a lot.”

Vaill removed the Red Cliff plans from his backpack and laid them out on the cement floor.

“Show me the way to Bacon,” he said. “If Burke is here, he’ll be guarding the head of the dragon.”

Kazimi used his finger to trace the best route from the laboratory to Bacon’s videoconference study on the north side of the castle.

“The details of the map are small and blurry, but I believe this route will get you to Bacon’s study.”

“You two stay in the lab. We’ll be back to get you.”

Vaill retrieved the extra pistol he had brought—a Glock like the one he’d given Lou from his backpack—and tried to hand the weapon to Kazimi.

“Ever fire one of these?” Vaill asked.

Kazimi held up his hands in refusal.

“I study microbes and the Koran, Agent Vaill. You know that.”

“As you wish.”

“Keep low and to the wall as you go through the mouse room and the main lab. There are two cameras in the Great Room, but I don’t know how you might avoid them.”

Vaill nodded, replaced the gun, and Lou retrieved the listening device that had fallen onto the elevator platform. Kazimi reopened the secret door. Moving forward on their knees, careful to hug the wall, Vaill and Lou followed Kazimi into the adjacent, main lab—an impressive facility that spoke volumes of the resourcefulness and resources of the Neighbors.