“I hereby declare our battle of wits—or should I say, battle of wills—over. And now I ask that we begin anew. Allow me to introduce myself once more. My name is Doug Bacon and for the foreseeable future you are to remain a guest in my home.”

Bacon did not bother extending his hand this time.

“Not guest,” Kazimi said. “Prisoner.”

“I need to learn more about you, Dr. Kazimi, such as your reaction to stress, and I need to learn these things quickly. Your brilliance in infectious diseases is very important to us. Crucial would be a better word. Believe me, whatever happens here at Red Cliff happens for a carefully designed purpose. The stakes are high. Frighteningly high. And we have no intention of failing.”

Before he agreed to leave Stanford and go undercover, Kazimi had been thoroughly briefed by his FBI handler, Beth Snyder, on the highly clandestine extremist group named the Society of One Hundred Neighbors. He had no doubt now that Doug Bacon was one of the higher-ups, if not the leader, of that organization. It did not seem the man was using an alias, and the fact that he was purposely so free with his name was not a good sign. Either he had plans on holding him indefinitely, or Kazimi was a dead man walking.

“I presume you’ve found the accommodations to your liking,” Bacon said, returning to the lacquered table to retrieve his whiskey tumbler.

“You can skip the civility and the small talk, Bacon. Where is Burke? Why would you authorize the cold-blooded murder of two people like that? Burke was a coward. A pathetic coward.”

“Mr. Burke is no concern of yours,” Bacon said. “For now, you need nourishment. There is work to be done.”

He motioned to the food Harris had set out.

“Wager or no wager, I’ll die before I do any work for you.”

“That is a problem we have considered and rejected.”

“No! I do not need to eat. I need to get out of here. I absolutely refuse to help you murderers in any way.”

Doug Bacon’s smile turned menacing.

“I assure you, Dr. Kazimi, you will eat when we say, and you will rest when we say, and most important, you will work when we say. The only thing in your life we will not control are your prayers. A new prayer rug is beneath the bed. Right beside those two vases of flowers, facing toward the wall, is Mecca.”

Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

A government exists to provide order to the people while 100 Neighbors exists to define what that order shall be.

—LANCASTER R. HILL, 100 Neighbors, SAWYER RIVER BOOKS, 1939, P. 27