7

Claudette is in her personal lab. The cadaver of the Surgeon is laid out on an examination table beside her. It seems somewhat more substantial than before—perhaps it gradually loses its intermittent intangibility after death.

Claudette looks up from her computer monitor as you enter, and grunts a brief greeting.

"You shouldn't stare at a bright screen in a dark room for too long," you tell her. She's left her blinds closed, and her lab is rather dim. "You'll ruin your eyes."

She looks up at a clock on the wall. "I got here early, and didn't realize the sun had completely come up." She rises, opens the blinds, winces a little. "You're here for an update on the cadaver? There's something very interesting going on at the DNA level. There's an aggressiveness about this thing's genetic material that I've rarely seen occurring in nature—nature here on Earth, anyway. I'll need some time to do a more thorough analysis, I'm afraid."

"How much time?" you ask.

"I'll have something for you before the end of the month. I hope."