Cyrill cleared his throat. He looked at Marissa’s flushed and angry face. He could tell she was convinced, but unfortunately he didn’t share her conviction. He didn’t know quite what to say.

“I’m not sure . . .” he began.

“Not sure of what?” demanded Marissa. “Is it just too hard for you men to believe that women could be victimized to this extent?”

“It’s not that,” Cyrill said. “It’s just that it is too complicated. It represents too much effort, too much conspiracy. It’s just too diabolical.”

“It’s diabolical, all right,” Marissa agreed, “but let’s be clear about the motivation. This is about profit, pure and simple. I’m talking about big money. Look!” Marissa stood up and went to a small blackboard that Cyrill had in his office. Picking up a piece of chalk, she wrote down 600,000. “This is the number of couples in the U.S. that fertility specialists estimate need IVF if they want to have a child that is genetically theirs. If we multiply that by fifty thousand dollars we get thirty billion dollars. That’s billion. Not thirty million, thirty billion. And that’s just in the United States. IVF could rival the world’s illegal drug industry as a money-maker. Admittedly not all of the six hundred thousand are middle class, and not all could come up with the money necessary. But that is why FCA has gone to such lengths to create their own market.”

“My God!” Cyrill said. “I never imagined there was that kind of money involved.”

“Most people don’t,” Marissa said. “The whole infertility industry is totally unregulated and unsupervised. It’s grown up in a no-man’s land between medicine and business. And the government has just looked the other way. Anything to do with reproduction is politically dangerous.”

“But such a conspiracy would require so many people,” Tristan said.

“Not that many,” Marissa said. “Maybe just one per clinic. At this point, I’m not about to hazard any guess as to the conspiracy’s actual organizational design.”

“And I was so sure drugs were at the heart of it,” Tristan said.

“They still might be involved, only indirectly,” Marissa said.

“It will be interesting to see exactly how Fertility, Limited, came up with the staggering amount of capital they would have needed to expand as rapidly as they did across three continents. I have a suspicion that their stock offerings were only clever ruses. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re tied up with the Wing Sin for ventures besides smuggling pairs of men out of the PRC. Fertility, Limited, could launder money from the Golden Triangle heroin for the Wing Sin. At least it’s a possibility.”

“If this is all true,” Cyrill said, “then it will take a massive effort with international cooperation to break it.”