“Their caloric consumption is off the charts. I guess all that energy has to be expended in some way. Have we tried putting a sterile petri dish in there with some agar to see what we’ll get?”

“No, but we wouldn’t be able to grow any virus we caught outside of a host—”

“That’s the point. We don’t know what the hell these things are giving off. Is it some kind of virus? A bacterium? Some chemical compound that dissipates when the animal dies?”

“One way to find out.” Jennifer turned to a supply cabinet and pulled out a stack of sealed petri dishes. Each held a thin layer of translucent agar.

“Great. Open one of them in the biosafety cabinet near the toxic mice. Let it sit there for a minute or two, and then we’ll take a look under the microscope and see if there’s anything to be seen.”

Jennifer used remote grippers to push the petri dish forward into the safety cabinet, unwrap the seal, and lift off the lid. She was just starting to move it closer to the toxic mice when she gasped.

The solid gelatin had already begun to react.

“Oh my God.” Jennifer gasped.

Juan felt a chill race through him. “Do you see how fast that discoloration is happening? Pull it away and put the lid back on. I want to see what the hell just happened.”

Juan heard Jennifer’s breathing through the speaker and he patted her on the back. “Deep breaths, I don’t need you passing out on me. Just use the remote tools like you have been and everything’ll be fine.”

Jennifer pulled the dish back, then used tongs to put it on the stage of the high-powered microscope. She flicked on the monitor so they could both see the results, then zoomed in on one of the darkened spots.

“It looks like mold.”

Juan shook his head. “Too quick for mold. Then again, I’m willing to believe just about anything at this stage.”

Jennifer dialed in the objective lens to a higher resolution, then adjusted the focus. “Did the agar melt? But there’s not that much heat involved. We just verified that.”

“It could be a chemical reaction. Zoom in closer.”

“Okay, I’ll move to maximum zoom. Field of view is one micrometer. Hang on. Focusing is getting tricky.” She fiddled with the microscope’s controls. “There. That’s definitely not algae we’re looking at.”

Juan stared at the circular cell Jennifer had managed to zoom in on. “It looks almost like a lymphocyte. But what are those string-like protrusions—”

“One of the strings moved!” Jennifer yelled.

Juan looked up at the camera in the ceiling. “I hope you people are getting this!”

They continued to monitor the strange cell for another five minutes. Twice more, one of the protrusions wiggled.

“What do you think?” Jennifer asked, finally breaking the silence.