Chapter Six: Holmes vs. Manchu

Holmes: If you were willing to share your wisdom with all of mankind, just think of what an enormous contribution you could make! You could obtain everything you desire through entirely legitimate means.

Dr. Manchu: Mr. Holmes, whatever gave you the impression that I have been miserly about sharing my wisdom with the world? Has it never occurred to you to wonder why those filthy diseases—spread far and wide by the dissolute private lives of you Westerners and long regarded as incurable—suddenly acquired a miracle cure?

Holmes: And thermobaric bombs! There is no question that such a "brilliant" innovation could only have sprung from a mind that attempts to save lives through lethal poison. Many people have wondered how such a weapon of mass destruction appeared on the battlefield so suddenly. I, however, have never had the slightest doubt. It could only have been you.

Dr. Manchu: Oh, you have flattered my vanity with exquisite precision. You see, that was the second-proudest invention of my life. The first was fire. Both inventions serve the same purpose: to satisfy, to the greatest possible degree, mankind's two innate drives—the preservation of one's own existence, and the deprivation of everyone else's. So yes, I am indeed the man who has made the greatest contribution to humanity in all of history.