Growth

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"Sample 1 is still growing."

"That's impossible."

"It is."

"Well- haven't you tried some way of stopping it? It can't just keep growing."

"Should I relay it your objections? Every other method we've tried hasn't worked, but maybe your insight-"

"That's enough, jackass."

"I want it incinerated."

"You know I can't make that call."

"Then send it up to Waste Management."

"What am I supposed to tell them?"

"Do you know what the worst part of this job is?"

"What? What the hell does that have to do with Sample 1?"

"Everybody thinks they're entitled to an explanation, and that if they can't understand the issue no one else possibly can. Not even when that someone has a doctorate in oncology, multiple decades of laboratory experience-"

"Alright, spare me the lecture. What do you expect me to do? Management's not going to give you permission just on your say-so. That isn't how things are done here and you know it."

"Is recording active?"

"Of course it is."

"I'm going to give Management what they want, and I'm not rehashing this every time some paper pusher decides he needs a simple explanation of my work. Send them the tape and let them listen for once."

"Okay. Start when you're ready."

"This is a supplementary recording to my request for incineration, in which I will be going over the facts of the Boston case and attempt to explain the reason for my request. I have a representative of Internal Security here, to serve as my witness."

"Can you state your name for the record?"

"You've already got my name in the request, if Management can't or won't read a simple document we've got bigger concerns."

"Do you want me to restart the recorder?"

"No, that's alright. They get to hear everything, and the more time we waste the larger the sample gets. Ask any questions you want, so they don't have to."

"Sure."

"Let's get started then. December 18th, Boston PD responds to two simultaneous reports, one of a firearm discharge and one of an officer down call. Victim is Officer William Hadley, pronounced dead on arrival at Tufts. Autopsy discovers a mass of foreign tissue at the site of the bullet wound. Coroner extracted it and it eventually ended up in our hands, along with the rest of the cases."

"There are more of these?"

"There's no point in giving it a number if there's only one. Next case, elementary school teacher Olivia McAllister is shot at a gas station, pronounced dead at the scene. Same tissue is recovered. Same tissue is recovered six more times during the course of the Boston sniper attacks."

"Don't you have more samples than that? This request lists-"

"Numbered differently, yes, but it all comes from the same tissue. We've had to cut it up a lot to run all the tests we wanted to."

"And these attacks all targeted members of the same department?"

"Yes."

"And nothing was found on the shooter or their motivations?"

"I'm not in charge of that. Go bother Public Relations if you want to know about that. We're not here to talk about that anyway, I'm strictly discussing the nature of the Boston samples and the associated storage problems."

"Get on with it then."

"Sure. Six weeks ago, Sample 1 consisted of 471 grams of organic material recovered from Officer Hadley, about the size of a golf ball. Today, it weighs approximately 7 kilograms."

"That does sound unusual."

"It's very fucking unusual. We've been trying to isolate it, slow down the growth rate. Sterilized and sealed containers, immersing it in inert gas, putting it in a vacuum chamber, it keeps on growing. We removed 1 kilogram of Sample 4 for testing and it started growing too. The samples will be filling their containers by next week."

"Doesn't it eat?"

"What?"

"You can't have matter come from nothing- I'm no scientist and even I know that."

"It doesn't appear to consume matter like a traditional organism. We don't know where the matter comes from or how it stays alive."

"What is it, then?"

"You don't actually think we know that, do you?"

"You've got to have some idea."

"It exhibits properties similar to human tissue. As best as we can tell, it's got human DNA. If you held a gun to my head, I'd say it's an aggressive form of cancer, but there's problems with that definition too."

"Why can't you use radiation?"

"You're not listening. Nothing. Works. The radiation we threw at it would turn you to soup. We've burned it with fire, acid, radiation- nothing affects it. The cells will not die."

"So it- it doesn't shed dead cells?"

"It sheds live ones. Take a look at this."

"Moles?"

"Tumors. This is Dr. Harrington's hand. He was head of the investigation for the first two weeks. His hands are currently sitting in a box in my lab."

"Did he-"

"He's being held for observation. We didn't expect it to be this dangerous at first. Didn't use rebreathers or anything. My team's been in Level A protection since we found out what happened to Harrington."

"Christ."

"Indeed."

"So- what are you hoping to accomplish with the incinerator? You said yourself fire doesn't kill it."

"We don't have access to the kind of heat the main incinerator produces- we need to break down the material components entirely, not just kill the cells. The incinerator can handle it."

"You're awfully confident about something you haven't tried."

"You think I'm- confident about this? I'm falling back on the least bad option, all the other ones just kicking the can down the road. Keep the damn thing on for a while, to, and make sure the contents are contained. All the samples. There's no value to be gained from studying this further. That's it."

"Okay. This is what you want to send to Management? You sure?"

"Yes."

"Sure. Let me send this off, and we'll talk when you get back from Dallas."

"Dallas?"

"There's been another attack."

"Then burn that too. I don't give a fuck what it's attached to, anyone who bears this needs to be dealt with. I want nothing more to do with this."

"Hold- wait! What do we do if this doesn't work?"

"No point in worrying about that. If that happens, we won't have much more to worry about. Ever."

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