“How… where did you find the unaltered Loki?”

“From the source. It doesn’t change within the source, only after it’s been removed from it.”

She turned to face Dr. Monnet. “And are you still keeping the source a secret?”

“For now, yes.”

Nadia wanted to scream at him to tell her. It had to be organic—a plant? An animal? What?

“And the mysterious celestial event? Does that remain a secret too?”

“I only held back on that until you’d seen for yourself the changes wrought by the event. The event itself is common, occurring a dozen, sometimes thirteen times per year: the new moon.”

Nadia wet her lips. “The new moon? When was that?”

“Exactly eight-forty-two last night.”

The cycle of the moon, one of the primal rhythms of the planet. And the new moon… a time when Earth’s celestial night-light was out, blind to what was going on below on the darkest night of the cycle.

A chill ran over her skin.

“I’d like you to get started right away,” Dr. Monnet was saying. “We have no time to lose. The Loki source may be… unavailable after this, and then we will have lost forever our chance to unlock its secrets.”

“Don’t you think we should get some outside help? I mean, if we’ve only got twenty-nine days…”

Dr. Monnet shook his head vigorously. “No. Absolutely not. Loki does not leave GEM. I thought I made that clear.”

“You did, but—”

“No buts about it.” His face paled, but Nadia wasn’t sure whether from anger or fear. “Absolutely no outside consultation on this.”

Nadia wanted to wail that he couldn’t—shouldn’t—put all this responsibility on a beginner like her.

“You are going to help me, I hope,” she said.

“Of course. To save you time, I’ll show you all the dead ends I’ve already explored. After that, I’m counting on you to come up with a new perspective.”

Uncertainty tickled her gut. “I don’t know if you should count too heavily—”

He held up a hand. “I never told you this, but before I hired you I put in a call to Dr. Petrillo.”

She stiffened. Her research mentor during her fellowship—the Grand Old Man of anabolic steroids. “What did he say?”

“What didn’t he say! I couldn’t get him to stop talking about you. He was overjoyed you were staying in research instead of ‘wasting’ your talents in clinical practice. So you shouldn’t underestimate your abilities, Nadia. I’m certainly not. But as an extra incentive: if you stabilize the Loki molecule within the next four weeks, I am authorized to offer you a bonus.”

“Really, that’s not necessary.”

He smiled. “You shouldn’t say that until you hear the amount. How does one million dollars sound?”

Nadia was struck dumb. She opened her mouth but it took a few seconds before she was capable of coherent speech. “Did… did you say—T

“Yes. A lump sum of one million. You can—”

Pat, a middle-aged tech with salt-and-pepper hair, knocked on the dry lab door before pushing it open. Fluorescent light streamed in from the hall.