“What did she say?” Raskin asked.

“The warlord who did all that later became a Christian minister. You see, doctor, we had to associate with such people since we were children in order to keep from starving. We had to become predators to keep from becoming the prey of others. So I apologize if I’m less than sympathetic to your years of teenage angst and bullying. I’m sorry that you were the fat girl at the party, but you should count yourself blessed that your family had the means to raise you up to be a spoiled little American hog.”

“You know, it’s not supposed to be a contest of suffering. It’s not my fault that you were squeezed out between someone’s legs in a hut rather than a condo. And there are plenty of poor folk who don’t take to murdering and chopping people’s limbs off for a living. So you can take your sob story and stick it right up your self-righteous ass.”

Kruger walked over to the table where she sat and pulled out one of the other chairs. “I’ve known more vile creatures than you, Dr. Raskin, but in this moment, I cannot recall hating any of them quite so much.”

“Ah, ain’t that sweet. You sure know how to make a girl feel special. While we’re having such a nice little chat, I’ve been thinking.”

“I thought I smelled bacon grease sizzling,” he said.

“Well, look at that, it’s trying to make a joke like a real person. That’s adorable. Here’s the thing. You obviously think that I had something to do with what happened at that squatter camp.”

“Choose your words carefully, doctor.”

“My instructions were clear, and the infection should have been contained to only the eight target subjects. Three jugs of the water you passed out to those specific people were supposed to be infected.”

“But you obviously didn’t know what you were doing because the infection spread like wildfire.”

“That’s the thing, Mr. Kruger. The virus doesn’t work that way. I thought that you got trigger happy or couldn’t follow instructions and poisoned all of the jugs.”

“That’s ridiculous. I can follow orders.”

“So you injected the jugs of water yourself?”

“Well, no, I was driving the van and …”

“That’s what I thought. I wanted to make sure that the infected jugs of water were teeming with the virus, and so I gave you a lot more than you needed. A syringe of the virus for each jug. There’s no way that the virus could have accidentally travelled between jugs. But, with the way this pathogen reproduces, someone could have shot only a small amount of the liquid into each jug and stretched out the supply to poison them all.”

Kruger considered the implications, her words like a blade of ice to his chest. He knew she was right. He supposed that he had always known but hadn’t wanted to believe it. “Why would my Zarina do such a thing? Why would she want to kill all those people?”