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Fishy, Daisy, and Fang were still in their original positions, looking reht be shot at any ain, they were also all armed, and they knew that the folks with the rifles would be shooting at Dr Banks and Anna, not at the here, Shanti," said Dr Banks, stressing Dr Cale’s chosen name "I’m here as a friend, and as someone who needs your help I don’t see any reason for you to have your people treat me like a common criminal"

"Really? How many times did you try to have me killed, Steven? Two? Three? Oh, wait, there was that incident with the gas leak back at ure out how that happened, but as there were no cameras on the location, we couldn’t rule out industrial espionage That one al used to my wheelchair back then So I’d say that ‘four’ is a low estimate, wouldn’t you?" Dr Cale’s folded hands tensed and relaxed to a rhyth her own version of the druh my life

Nathan kept his hands on the chair, more I think so that he wouldn’t have to decide what to do with the else Dr Banks was the man who’d first conceived of the project that would lead to D syenesis, the downfall of the human race, and the end of the world as we knew it But he hadn’t done any of that on his own When he needed help, he’d gone looking for the sineer he knew: Dr Surrey Blackburn-Kim, Nathan’s mother Dr Kih the broken doors at last, and she’d tried to refuse--not too hard, I was sure; she’d been the saone by a different name--and when Dr Banks had produced information that he could use to force her to work on his project, she’d agreed, on one condition Dr Ki accident Nathan buried his mother Nathan’s father buried his wife And Dr Shanti Cale hung her newly rees on the wall of a private lab in a San Francisco biotech fire the world

I couldn’t really say whether she’d done the right thing All I knew about the blackh to make her walk away frorained desire to break the laws of nature without getting caught "Everyshe had said to me on several occasions, and fro at each other now, I guessed that was true He was trying to project a veneer of s confidence over a thick inner layer of exhaustion Dr Cale was ice She looked like she had never thawed, and never would

"Now, Shanti," said Dr Banks "Are we really going to let the past keep us fro here and noe have a chance to save the future? We ell together You knoe do"

"How ht," he adirl stopped two of et anywhere near you, and you dropped off the grid not long after that Where is she, by the way? I didn’t expect to be able to walk right up to your headquarters"

"You shouldn’t have been able to," said Dr Cale, her glare briefly flickering to the other three people who shared the elevator with Dr Banks and Anna Well, that explained why she’d left them in there: they were all involved with our operational security, and the fact that he was in the building at all ree, at their jobs "As for Tansy, she is on an extended leave of absence We hope to have her back with us soon"

"That means you lost her, doesn’t it?" Dr Banks shook his head There was a slight upward tilt to the corners of hisnot to smile "You should beharder to replace the harder to replace biotech firms, too, but you’ve apparently allowed yours to be coovernment," said Dr Cale ame of ‘who paid more to arrive at this point in ti tothat I could walk over and knee you in the balls"

I blinked Dr Cale’s paraplegia was a fact of life, soned to accoot that it was the result of her i the tapeworm that would eventually mature to become Adam in her own body, where it had coed unlikely to ever recover, even back when she had access to better medical care than we could supply in a repurposed candy factory The thought of her walking was surreal

Froret that flashed over Dr Banks’s face, I was the only one who felt that way "I didn’t ‘allow’ the government to commandeer my resources They take what they want And I never did tell you how sorry I hen I received the news of your injury"

"Really, Steven? You were sorry? Because here I thought you’d take it as proof that you’d been right when you decided to sideline h to be sidelined"