Juan’s cheeks were beginning to ache from the smile on his face. He glanced up at the clock. “Okay. Great. Listen, I’ve got a meeting I need to get to, so I have to get going, but Kathy, I’m really glad to hear about your dad’s progress. Please keep me posted on how both of you are doing. It’s really been great talking to you.”

“Juan, thanks again for everything. I really mean it. Go catch your meeting. I’ll go back to doing chores in the kitchen.”

Juan laughed. “Have fun, Cinderella.”

“Cinderella, eh?”

“If the shoe fits—”

Kathy groaned. “Oh lord. Goodbye, Mr. Prince Charming.”

As he hung up, Juan punched the air with jubilation. He couldn’t remember ever being so excited at the prospect of a date.

His desk phone rang, and Juan snatched the receiver off its cradle. “Hello?”

“Juan.” It was Carol. “I just completed the metabolic panel on the new batch of specimens. You’ll want to see this.”

“I’m just now on my way to a meeting.”

“Be a few minutes late.”

Juan laughed. “Okay. Be right there.”

###

Juan scanned the rats as he walked past the rows of glass cages. All the animals had been seeded with cancerous cells, and in the control group, the result was as expected: every rat had obvious subcutaneous tumor growth. But the test group had first been given a viral cocktail that had changed their genetic makeup. And they showed no tumor growth.

The first specimen that had exhibited any level of tumor immunity had been Hercules. In addition to tumor suppression, the changes in his genetic makeup had made him grow much larger than normal. His metabolism had also significantly changed as compared to the norms of his species.

He stopped beside Carol. “So, what do the tests show?”

Carol handed him a printout with a complete blood chemistry workup and metabolic test results. “I think we’re practically there. We just have one test that’s a bit off.”

Juan skipped over the iron levels, bilirubin, protein and other miscellaneous tests that all proved to be in normal ranges. His finger floated across the sections of the report that Carol had highlighted and rested on the BMR row. “So, basal metabolic rate is just barely above the control range. Is that the case for all of them?”

“All of the oxygen consumption rates are relatively high. Out of the ten test specimens, seven have a BMR that’s above normal.”

“The other three are in range?”

Carol nodded. “They’d just barely squeaked under the top end of normal.”

Juan frowned. What could be causing the anomaly?

He looked over the rest of the highlighted rows. “So, there’s definitely something going on. Thyroid, glucose, potassium, albumin, calcium, all normal. BUN and creatinine are normal, so the kidneys seem to be working okay. Electrolyte levels are normal. Hmm.”

“You have any other ideas?” Carol asked.