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"What is it?" I asked, half fro to et information fros they are

"Slime mold," said the assistant He sounded happy about it, too

"Oh," I said, unable to quite oo s like fifteen percent of her skin I think I was allowed a little dismay "That’s… special What happens to it when you’re done with o dormant, and then just roll it off your skin," he said "Can you relax your arinal position He attached the sensor to the inside of uess that makes sense No residue, no ets bloody, it’s safe to use again after eight hours It also reacts to the presence of live virus"

"Really?" I asked, blinking "How?"

"It tries to ooze away"

This time, I couldn’t suppress my shudder Several alarms went off on theme dirty looks from a few of the assistants "Sorry!" I said

"George, please refrain fro away froe--reddened "Sorry, Dr Shaw"

I waited for hiet the sensor on e, huh? The original fore R Stewart," he replied "And yes, the ‘R’ stands for ‘Roia, here," I said "One of ht?" George caughtfan of your work Your last post was… it was a like it"

I wasn’t sure whether I should feel flattered or e both reactions as I said aardly, "Oh So you know the part where I’ for a quarter century" Heanother sensor Dr Shaw’s other assistants all seee with the dubious honor of working with the living equiplad you’re back If anyone deserves to be back…"

"Let’s hope the rest of the world feels the sa circuit," I said, putting a lilt in

"They’re waiting for you," he said, cheeks getting redder still He stopped talking after that, focusing all theI blinked a little, watching him I’d expected a lot of reactions That wasn’t one of them My last post… it made me another name on The Wall, but that was all, wasn’t it?

Wasn’t it?

The idea that I’d become some sort of symbol worried me I’m a realist I’ve been a realist since the day I looked at the Masons--who’d been Mommy and Daddy until that ht, and they didn’t love us

I’d already known the CDC was never going to let ht me back for--blackmail or science project or just because I was the most convenient corpse when they decided to prove they could do it for real--it wasn’t going to include opening the doors and telling o on my merry way I was a prisoner I was a test subject I was, in a very real way, as much a piece of lab equipment as the machines that I was connected to The only difference was that the machines couldn’t resent the fact that they had no choice in their own existence

And if I was a symbol, I was also a weapon, whether I wanted to be one or not

"Are any of the the urge to shake er any ood to continue"

"We’re almost done," he said, and offered oneaway

The re slie, sometimes by one of the other assistants;Dr Shaw’s equip on insideat the monitors I didn’t understand the theain when the assistants began pulling the sensor pads off, letting George sprinkle what looked--and sreen residue the sensors left behind True to his word, the green stuff rolled into tight little balls, which he scraped off ooey-looking et to feed the sli to disconnect the sensors at my temples "I have no desire to listen to a week of complaints because we have to culture ourselves a new colony"

"Yes, Dr Shaw," said George, and hurried off with his handful of inert green goop Most of the other assistants followed hi me alone with Dr Shaw and Kathleen, the assistant who had initially brought ain, face ame from their equipment