“Well, it should have been.” Dishaw gave the snake a fond pat on the head. “Don’t get me wrong, Isaac. What you’re doing here is amazing. But we’ve got to be certain it’s safe. A single unforeseen magical mutation could have serious consequences for the entire world.”

It sounded reasonable. It always did. “All our rats are part of other research projects. They’re not expendable. If you want to submit a modified proposal, I’ll be happy to take a look.”

“Bam!” Vince crowed. “Rats: 1. Doctor Dishaw: 0.”

“Knock it off,” I said. “He’s got a point about checking Olaf’s long-term immunity. If you want to make your case against reinfection, write it up and have it on my desk by the end of the week.”

Vince sagged. “Damn, Boss. See, this is why everyone likes it better when you’re away on your road trips.”

“Don’t call me boss. Also, staff meeting upstairs in the Wheeler room in thirty minutes.”

“That’s cold, Boss. What did we do to deserve that?”

“Keep it up, and I’ll make you sit through a PowerPoint presentation.”

He raised his hands in surrender. “Cruel and unusual punishment.”

I headed for the stairs and made my way to my office on the second floor. I doubted I’d ever get used to being the kind of guy who had his own office, or called staff meetings.

My office was nowhere near as impressive as Babs’, but that was how I liked it. Bookshelves lined the walls on either side. A large window behind my desk opened onto the New Millennium grounds, giving me a view of the warehouse and southern wall. I sat down and switched on the computer.

Our network ran on a customized operating system, a modified version of the Porters’ old network. I’d worked with Talulah to build an additional layer into the user interface for our team, a bit of magical blue text that appeared to float in front of the monitor. I pressed my fingers to the text and concentrated on the programs I needed.

The screen came to life, opening up my email, calendar, and a spreadsheet of current and closed research projects. I sent a note to Charles and Talulah about the meeting, then grabbed a LEGO DeLorean Lena had given me for Christmas and fiddled with the doors as I skimmed the latest updates.

Charles was still griping about wanting to do a book tour on New Millennium’s dime. He also wanted to upgrade his hearing, and had narrowed the possibilities down to four books. I skimmed his notes, but my mind was elsewhere. I ended up reading the same paragraph on selective frequency echolocation three times before giving up.

I cleared the screen and ran a search for the USCGC Kagan instead, then sat back to read.