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"And by doing it after a cri with the ‘local underground,’ " said Alaric, with grudging respect "Slick Stupid, but slick Why bother screwing around? Why not just stop the inside in the first place?"

For once, I had the answer the Newsie didn’t "Because a few break-ins keep everybody believing the CDC is at risk, and we never look too hard at the budget for security upgrades and growing new people in big tanks All of which loops us back around to the thing we’re not talking about here Why did you clone Georgia? There are way cheaper ways to convince us that you’re the good guys And yeah, I know, I said ‘leverage’ earlier, and I ain, way cheaper ways to do it You could have threatened et to your teaet to you, and we knew that was a risk as far back as the can trail," said the doctor calmly President Ryman looked away "She wasn’t the only one ere prepared to resurrect, although her death meant she was the best candidate We were able to extract her brain alet to hile the Kellis-A in her syste how little of the brain the virus actually requires--" He s in our faces, because he changed topics in the e, as you’ve indicated, but she was also going to help us be sure you were getting the information we needed you to have"

"Manipulate the old ,out how et the rest of the world to go along with it?"

"I’m not Tate," said the doctor acidly "I don’t need to convince you that I’ht I’m here to present you with a choice Work for us Help us to shape the next twenty years Or never leave this building again It’s up to you"

I looked at Becks and Alaric They looked back atI don’t think any of us knehat to say

Finally, Alaric asked, "You pro to die on their own?"

"You have ed not to snort

Alaric continued "And none of us are being charged with any cris out to our mutual satisfaction, we’ll announce that you’ve been added to the list of bloggers with White House press access The only reason you weren’t added before was out of respect for your loss" The doctor smiled The expression seemed alien on his face "I think you’ll find that we can be very reasonable when you follow the rules and behave like rational people"

"And George?" I asked

"You can keep her, if you can keep her in line and out of sight"

"My sister?" asked Alaric

"Will be returned to your custody as soon as possible She was fortunate to escape Florida"

Becks didn’t say anything Her fa the CDC than at risk from their actions

"Well?" asked the doctor