Angela shoved the door to Halt's office open without pausing to knock and strode inside. She glimpsed surprise on the harsh lines of her supervisor's face as he looked up, though it vanished by the time the door slammed shut behind her. Anger took its place as Halt half-rose from his chair, fists clenched hard on his desk.
"What—?"
"You have no right!" Angela yelled, cutting him off.
Halt straightened. "I have every right," he said, his voice low, dangerous.
Hands trembling, Angela approached his desk. "It's not ready, Halt," she hissed. "You can't start those trials tomorrow. I need more time."
Rising, Halt walked around his desk, until he stood towering over her. Angela stared back, defiant, anger feeding her strength. She had just learned Halt planned to initiate the next phase of the project tomorrow. The same project she had dedicated the last five years of her life to.
"The Director wants results, Doctor Fallow," Halt said between clenched teeth, "and you've been stalling."
Angela refused to back down. "I've been doing my job," she snapped, "and I'm telling you, the virus is not ready!"
Halt smiled. "I've looked over your work, Fallow." Angela shivered at his tone. "And I say it's ready. After all, fortune favors the bold."
The words of the old Latin proverb curled around Angela's mind as she stepped back. They reminded her of Halt during her early days. The government had sent him to her after she'd discovered the truth about the Chead, bringing her their new virus.
Angela drew in a breath to steady herself. "There are still problems with the uptake," she said. "You could kill them all with your recklessness."
"The alterations will work—"
"Of course they will," Angela interrupted. "Animal trials have shown us as much. It's their immune response that concerns me. Their bodies will tear themselves apart fighting the virus."
Halt waved a hand as he moved back behind his desk. "Should that eventuate, we will administer immunosuppressants until the chromosomal changes have set." He sat back at his desk, one eyebrow raised. "Is that all?"
"Immunosuppressants?" Angela pressed her palms against the desk and leaned in. "We'll have to move them to an isolation room, watch them around the clock. They wouldn't last a day in the cells."
"Whatever it takes, Fallow." Halt stared her down. "We can't wait any longer. The President himself wants answers. We'll be shut down if we don't provide them soon. The attacks are growing worse. The authorities are desperate."
"What?"
Halt leaned back in his chair. "We have underestimated the Chead for too long. The Director should have given us the funding we needed for this years ago. There was an attack in San Francisco yesterday. They've reached the capital, Fallow."
Doubt gnawed at Angela's chest at his words. "You really think this is the answer?"
"Of course." Halt regarded her with a detached curiosity. "Do not lose focus now, Doctor Fallow. Not when we're so close. This project will change everything. When we succeed, the Western Allied States will herald in a new era of human evolution. The Chead will be hunted down and eradicated, our enemies at home and abroad consigned to the pages of history."
Staring into her superior's eyes, Angela shuddered. Naked greed lurked in their grey depths. For the first time, she allowed herself to look around, to take in the grisly display lining the walls of Halt's office. The sight she had been doing her best to ignore.
Halt's office was lined with shelves, each holding dozens of jars filled with clear fluids. Suspended in the liquid within them were animals of every shape and size. Birds and lizards, cats and snakes and what looked like a platypus stared down at her, their eyes blank and dead. An opossum curled around its ringed tail on the shelf behind Halt's head, while beside it a baby chimpanzee hugged its chest. With its eyes closed, it might have been sleeping.
Angela looked away, struggling to hide her disgust from Halt.
"Soon they will all be obsolete," Halt commented, noticing her discomfort.
"Yes." She almost choked on the word.
But at what cost? she added silently.
Halt eyed her closely. "Was there anything else, Doctor Fallow?"
Angela shook her head. She knew when she was defeated. Turning, she all but ran from the room. She closed the door carefully behind her, her anger spent. Once outside, she placed a hand against the wall, shivering with sudden fear. Events were accelerating now, slipping beyond her control, and it was all she could do to keep up.
In her mind, she saw images of San Francisco, the steep roads teeming with life. She imagined the devastation a Chead would cause in such a place, the mindless slaughter. Bodies would pile up as police struggled to reach the scene through the traffic-clogged streets. How long might the Chead have run rampant?
Straightening, Angela turned from Halt's door and started down the corridor. Tomorrow, if they succeeded, the world would change. Humanity's evolution would take one giant leap forward, and one way or another, there would be no going back.
A sudden doubt rose within her, a fear for what was to come. What if they were wrong? What if they failed, and it was all for naught?
And what if they succeeded? What then?
Her skin tingled as she recalled Halt's words, heard again his triumphant declaration.
Our enemies, at home and abroad, will be consigned to the pages of history.