“I’m not surprised you made the connection so quickly. There are few who would have. As our research has disclosed, you are certainly a highly intelligent man.”

“Maybe not that intelligent, Mr. Bacon. I cannot figure out why you would kidnap me to continue my work and not kill me to stop it.…” Realization of the answer to the conundrum took just a few seconds. Kazimi laughed sardonically. “Your germ has bested you, hasn’t it. Like Frankenstein, you have created a monster, and now you have no way of stopping it. Your scientists should have known, sir. They should have known that sooner or later this would happen. Now you are in danger of losing your leverage.”

Bacon calmly took another sip from his tumbler, but there was no slyness in his expression. No playfulness.

“We created our hammer for a singular purpose,” he said finally, “and that purpose is working. However, for our plan to be a total success, the government has to believe without a doubt that we can contain the Janus strain—turn it on and off at our will. But as you suspect, the geometry of the spread of infection has deviated from our precise statistical modeling. An anomaly if you will. It appears the bacteria has mutated into something even more potent then what we had designed. It is beginning to spread and is appearing in people we did not infect. The treatment our scientists developed, which has worked perfectly for several years, and which we are prepared to make available to you, is no longer effective.”

“Your scientists are mad to have thought they could contain it for any length of time. The lessons of antibiotic history have always been available to them.”

“We have means at our disposable you cannot begin to imagine. We will resolve this bump in the road one way or another, with your help, or without. We are here to orchestrate change. Massive change. It is in our charter as it has been since our inception.”

“Yes, the twisted charter of One Hundred Neighbors,” Kazimi said.

“I’m sure your employers have given you a distorted view of our mission and our methods,” Bacon responded acidly.

“Your man Burke has given me all the view that I will ever need. I believe the government’s portrayal of you is accurate, Mr. Bacon, just as is their portrayal of the Oklahoma City bomber, and the Unabomber, and the master of Waco, and all the other deranged killers who follow your tenets, whether they are members of your precious society or not.”

“Tell me, Dr. Kazimi, have you ever read 100 Neighbors?”