He just let the smoke drift from his nostrils. “I sense you’re not so keen on Rubicon,” I tried.

The man reached into his pocket, removed some tinted lenses, and clipped them to his glasses.

2.

It was midafternoon when the limos parked outside a three-story brick building downtown. There was an old laundry service advertisement preserved on its side, and sunlight struck the windows, sending shapeless reflections to the sidewalk below.

At some point in the drive, our group had reduced by half. Mayor Vance and Baker Watt were gone. Only ten of us passed through the door and headed up to the lab.

In the front room, we were supplied with blue scrubs, caps, and masks. The Texans were pretty drunk by now and made a clownish show of getting dressed, while the Frenchman secured everything crisply, as if accustomed to the protocol.

Dr. Kriss entered her code on a keypad and we filed down a corridor, bright from the skylight, where through glass you could see rooms filled with cages. Most of the cages were empty, but in one of them I saw a rat’s pink tail disappear between the bars.

I stuck close to Dr. Kriss, who hadn’t acknowledged me yet, eavesdropping on her conversation with one of the military officers.

“Those were for pigs,” she said, indicating some cages, “and those were for rabbits, back when we were still in the animal trial. Are you in the market for some cages?”

The officer laughed, and so did Dr. Kriss, but I thought I detected some anxiety in her voice.

Kenneth Sample, on the other hand, seemed loose, confident. The Rubicon CEO was a little over seventy, his wrists all bone where they shot from the scrubs, but as he guided the tour, he spoke with youthful enthusiasm. “This is, frankly speaking, one of the most advanced medical science labs in the world.”

Dr. Kriss entered her code on another keypad and we moved into a room with a long laboratory bench, where some Rubicon technicians were at work. In a series of flasks, bits of pink-and-purple flesh were floating.

“I’ll let Dr. Kriss explain what we’re looking at,” Sample said.

She cleared her throat, “Here we have a series of devices and tools to evaluate, ex vivo, the solution’s long-term effects. We study everything from brains to hearts and lungs, kidneys, the urethra, everything.”

The Texans hung toward the back, but the other, silent man drew close, inspecting the flasks.

“As you’ve read by now in our report,” Sample said, “human trials are already successfully underway.”

The man raised his hand and Sample said, “Yes, Maxime?”

“Dr. Kriss, you’ve gone from rats to humans in just over a year.”

“That’s right.”

“How have you been able to secure the necessary approval in such a short time?”