THERE WAS NOTHING Agent Kayl Green feared more than the kindness of strangers, something that could never really be repaid; kindness had a cost that was unknown until it was owed. Nothing Kayl feared more except the disease, the pandemic – perhaps more than one by now – that was destroying human life on Earth.

Above all, Kayl was consumed by terror of a pandemic getting into a community on their watch. Failure would kill too many.