Chapter 2Eduard Sarfas glanced around the lab once again before stepping out the door. It hissed shut behind him, his day at Sabile Nanobio Research on Tartus IX, like the door, coming to a close.
The long sterile corridors at the Institute bespoke its commitment to contaminant-free work zones, every employee screened at arrival and departure for nanochines. It was all Eduard ever did—screen for nanochines or evidence thereof, and derive ever more effective means of doing so. Not that any of us get the resources we really need, he thought, budgetary pressures compounded by increasing demands. Sabile Nanobio produces the most sophisticated nanotectors in the Coalition, he thought, but we're just breeding better nanochines.
“Budget never drives policy!” his boss had thundered on one occasi
