“Ah. Now I get it. And I’m guessing that’s my job: stabilizing the shape shifter.”

Dr. Monnet swiveled in the chair and faced her. “Yes. It’s an extremely important assignment, a problem we must—absolutely must—overcome. The future of this company hinges upon it.”

Oh, don’t tell me that, Nadia thought as she looked at him. “The future of the company… that’s… quite a responsibility.”

“I know. And I’m counting on you to handle it.”

“But you have other products—”

“They all pale in comparison to this.”

“You think this is doable?”

“I’m praying so. But there’s something else you must know about this molecule. It… it changes in a manner unparalleled in science.”

The intensity in his eyes, the way they bored into her, made Nadia uneasy.

“How so?”

Dr. Monnet licked his lips with a quick dart of his tongue. Could he be nervous?

“What I am going to tell you will sound impossible. But I assure you that I know through personal experience that it is true.”

I don’t believe this, Nadia thought. He actually looks unsure of himself.

He took a breath. “Once Loki changes to its inert state, any record of its former structure—whether digital, photographic, a plastic model, even human memory of it—changes as well.”

Nadia blinked, thinking, Pardon me, Dr. Monnet, but what the hell?

“No offense, sir, but that’s not possible.”

“Exactly what I said the first time I witnessed its degradation. I knew it had changed, knew side chains were missing, but I couldn’t remember which ones. No problem, I thought. It’s in the computer, so I’ll just call up the original structure from memory. But the molecule in memory looked exactly like the degraded molecule.”

“How is that possible?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t know, and I still don’t know. But I figured it must have been a freak occurrence, So I procured another sample—”

“What’s the source?”

A grimace. “That, I’m afraid, will have to remain classified for the time being. But after the change in the molecule and its records occurred a second time, I decided to take precautions. I made hard copy printouts of the original molecule and filed them away. When the next degradation occurred, I pulled them out and…” He paused and swallowed as if his mouth was dry. “They had changed. They all looked exactly like the degraded molecule.”

“Impossible.”

“My sentiments exactly. But there I was, staring at the evidence. The only explanation I could think of was mischief or sabotage. But who? So I thought of a foolproof way to overcome this. After obtaining a fresh sample, I took multiple photos of the unstable form and hid them in various places in the office and my home; I even went so far as to build a crude model and lock it in a safe.”

“That should have done it.”

Dr. Monnet was shaking his head slowly. “No. When I went to check later, they all had changed: the computer backups, the photos, even the structural model.”