About the book: 2001 / “...The heavy fortress gates opened, from inside the fort there was a chill of chilled stone. The newcomer climbed up the winding staircase, took off his coat and, pushing the doors, found himself in a spacious room where he was greeted. We were greeted with laughter, news, jokes, questions, and champagne. These were plagueologists, and Fort “Alexander I” was a “plague fort”: it was here, near the capital, that Russian doctors, voluntary prisoners of the fort, fought the infection that was spreading across the globe…»