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Dropping my arms to my sides, I turned to face the biohazard suit It nodded "Thank you," it said "Now please stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and raise your arms to shoulder level This will be a visual examination only I will not touch you Do you understand?"

"What’s your nahed I wouldn’t have thought the filters would let the sound escape, but they did, and it carried a level of human frustration that all the words hadn’t been able to convey "It’s Dr Lo, Sally Now please, will you do as I a?"

"You could have said that before, you know" Iinto the position she had requested It felt less strange now that I knew she was someone familiar and not just a faceless automaton from the depths of Sy erous--worried me "Why didn’t you tell me who you were?"

"Because I wassocial pleasantries Hold still" Dr Lo reached into a pocket on the leg of her biohazard suit, producing a long tube that looked like it had been detached frohts She flicked a switch at its base, and it ca it through the air a few inches away froht reflected off my skin

"What is that?" I asked

"Don’th: not an inch of me was left unexamined True to her word, she didn’t touchdeeply inappropriate about having her looking at me that closely, especially with the protective suit between us Whatever she was looking for, it wasn’t anything good

Finally, she straightened, clicking off her wand "You can put the scrubs on now," she said, as she returned it to her pocket "You’re clean"

"Clean of what?" I asked, droppingto reach for the scrubs

"That’s a discussion for you to have with Dr Banks, not with er to yourself or others" Dr Lo turned away from me and knocked twice on the door After a moment, one of the security officers opened it This one hadn’t been present in the cafeteria I was starting to think that SymboGen had its own private police force, and that wasn’t a coht The line between "police force" and "army" is narrow under the best of circu under the best of circumstances

"Yes?" asked the officer

"She’s clean," replied Dr Lo "I need to go to decontah of a risk to require cleaning a biohazard safety suit I shrank back from the door, suddenly terrified of ion had we been exposed to? Was I going to go like Chave, normal one minute, eht Dr Lo’s eye, somehow; I had no idea what the peripheral vision was like in a biohazard suit, but she turned back toward me, and asked, "Now you’re afraid? After the worst parts are over, now you’re afraid? I knoe’ve given you a clean bill of health, Sally, but you lared at her She left the rooa mask I felt less like a risk to the health of everyone around me when I looked at another face without a piece of plastic in the way