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Dr Cale sat up a little straighter, lifting her chin "That’s true I ran as soon as I saw the writing on the wall You were in a position of power, and I knehat a man like you would do when he had a little power in his hands Now here we are, and I’m in this chair, and yet for once, you don’t have any power at all You’re just afor my help So what is it that you want, Steven? What can round lab do for someone with your resources and reach?"
"Sarcasm is a mode of speech used to conveythe other person involved in the conversation," said Anna
Everyone stopped Dr Cale’s attention switched fro over Anna’s body with an alht ahead, not seeain, the urge to shield her froain, I pushed it aside She wasn’t on our side That ration?" asked Dr Cale
"Two and a half weeks," said Dr Banks "Ideally, she would still be hooked to herseparated fro if she’s only two and a half weeks along?" asked Dr Cale "Language integration takes longer than that"
Dr Banks looked s the neural paths It allows for a quicker, more seamless connection between the i a better chiovern with theirto defeat theht, Shanti, what is it that you want ize I’ht you into this, and I’m sorry I created an environment where you felt like you had to remove yourself for your own safety, and I’h to be fair, you would have done the same in my position"
"I don’t know about that," said Dr Cale "You stole my research, Steven You stole my life’s work, and you stole my faive the about" The sound of my own voice surprised me Dr Cale didn’t take her eyes off Dr Banks, but the way her mouth curled upward at the corner told me that she approved ofloudly in my ears, and said, "You called Anna my sister You did that because she’s… she’s like me She’s a tapeworm in a human skin"
"Yes," said Dr Banks, and beaed to catch up to the rest of the class
Itinto the soft flesh of his cheek or throat I clenched my hands by enesis tapeworet a chiain His s as tired of praisingpraised Too bad that had never been enough to make him stop
"That worm has human DNA in it Dr Cale’s DNA You took her family away from her when you took us away from her"
"Millions of children," said Dr Cale, a wistful note in her voice that I had only heard on a few occasions, usually when she was talking about her friend Siies before the development of the SymboGen i to solve the hygiene hypothesis Without that dead friend, Dr Cale would probably have turned her terrible intellect on destroying the world in soenius One way or another, it’s going to destroy the world
"I don’t understand," said Dr Banks
"I think you do," said Dr Cale "I had millions of children, and you took them away from me So what can you possibly offer that would make up for that?"
"Data" He produced an external hard drive fro it up for all of us to see "I have the full record of Anna’s conversion and assiive it to you, if you’re willing to help us There are things on there that you probably haven’t even considered yet, e I can help you jump your research forward by ais room, board, and a little supervised access to your lab space Anna still needs ns of rejection, after all"
Anna herself didn’t say anything After her interjection about sarcas like a wan shadow next to Dr Banks I tried toabout that h I couldn’t have said exactly what it was So with Anna
"I have all that data," said Dr Cale disration, and Ito have to do better if you want me to find a space for you here, and not to just shoot you and dump you out back for the feral cats"