The Combine, led by Dr. Ernst Kelso, is an international cabal of admirers and like-minded scientists. Kelso used an elaborate series of front companies and false identities to hide his fortune.

The Combine’s secret compound in New York City is inside a nondescript brownstone mansion in the heart of Manhattan, a building like any other. But the inside has been converted into a complex of high-tech laboratories and lavish living quarters. From here Kelso continues his unnatural experiments, and plots revenge against his enemies.The soft-spoken Dr. Kelso is able to continue his own research unmolested, while creating diseases to plague the societies that he feels betrayed him.

Deprived of the normal sources of funding, Kelso and the Combine make money by doing “freelance” biomedical research for hostile governments and organizations. The deadly Z-Kron microbe is the result of one of these projects.

Dr. Ernst Kelso is the founder of the Combine and the creator of the Z-Kron microbe. A charismatic scientist with intense, hypnotic eyes, he has always worked at the bleeding edge of biological research, testing the boundaries of ethics and legality. His early successes, and the fabulous wealth that followed, fed his ego to the point that he considered himself above the law.

He believed that those who possess superior intellect are entitled, even obligated, to do whatever they think is best for humanity. Unfortunately for Dr. Kelso, law enforcement didn’t share this view. Shunned by his peers and convicted of numerous crimes, Kelso decided to go underground rather than face prison.

Kelso used an elaborate series of front companies and false identities to hide his fortune. His secret compound in New York City is inside a nondescript brownstone mansion in the heart of Manhattan, a building like any other. But the inside has been converted into a complex of high-tech laboratories and lavish living quarters. From here Kelso continues his unnatural experiments, and plots revenge against his enemies.