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Our first thought experiment was called Merman It was a reference to the classic movie The Cabin in the Woods We were able to use Mix-n-Match to coeon and codfish Of course we didn’t create an actual Merman, but we could have With a few more tweaks we could have created an actual one, a huills and a fish’s tail It could have survived in cold water It would have been mentally impaired and be nearly blind, but still…

We didn’t But we thought about it I remember an after-work party, so at so about it About the whole playing God, Frankenstein thing Another few beers and who knows?

Now, though, it was not fun and ga my people in a criminal enterprise They couldn’t resist the lure of the research anythose lines? I gave them other work

I was also defraudinguseful work

The biot would be useful, if it worked, but useless, too, since its very existence had to be concealed If it worked, ould have a tool of a power … that no one could ever know about

It was Jasive the creature soer, or snake’s tooth, so or even an acid of soainst the tumor?”

And that’s e brought in cobras to supply us with DNA

It was then that a couple of things fell into place Because of course I realized that if the biot could be designed in such a way as to deliver drugs, well, why not actual venom? Why not bacteria? The biot, in short, could be weaponized

Which I realized in a flash hat Burnofskywith his nanobots That hy he wanted a one-kilo was sending nanobots to kill tu them to kill

I invited Burnofsky to dinner

“Birgid, you are looking beautiful,” Burnofsky said He took her hand and kissed it, old school, and he , but he could elevate his gaid He was jealous of our happiness, but not in any malicious way

Birgid took his coat If I remember, this would have been Deceone to visit their grandparents for a few days

Carla was not with Karl I asked after her

“Oh, she’s actually got a job, believe it or not”

“A job? She’s just a teenager, isn’t she?” Birgid asked