EPILOGUE

Spirit walked into the office and held out the file folder. Dr. Catherine Richardson looked up. "Well?" she asked.

"He's dead," the younger woman answered.

Richardson raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"Could've been any one of a thousand different viruses," Spirit answered coldly.

"How long did it take?"

"Thirteen hours. He was comatose within two. It's all documented there," she nodded.

Catherine looked over the papers, her mind racing over other things. He had not been immune. As a human, he possessed the same physical weakness that every other mortal being did. A part of her was sad that he had died, and that they had had to trade their full-blooded mutant specimen for him. But she knew it had been necessary to make that trade. Her father's classified documentation made it perfectly clear that Raphael was not one with which to match force. And there was surely no other way they could have gained his cooperation.

And what had they lost, really? They had plenty of DNA from the mutant, and they still had the living cross mutated child. They had semen from both the turtle and, by Spirit's hand, his transformed brother. Catherine smiled at the young woman's cunning. She had known from the start that he would never give such a thing willingly. She hadn't even considered asking him, or confronting him with the knowledge that she recognized him from the start. The tiny bit of blood on the needle that had given him that initial vaccine was all she had needed to confirm that theory; but she had known even before that.

As Catherine considered how to gain his cooperation, Spirit was already working. It took her less than a week to get him to bed. Perhaps her beauty was on her side; perhaps it was just her mind that had gotten what she wanted. She had played him expertly, like a hand of poker that she had never revealed in even the slightest way. All the time, he thought he was using her. Ironic, she thought.

Perhaps in the future, those cryogenically frozen samples of DNA could be used to create a human/mutant crossbreed that would be immune to disease. A new race of superhumans that would live through biological warfare and nuclear fallout. It would take years, that much was certain. But at some point, in the distant future, these experiments would save lives.

Spirit turned and headed for the door. "I'm going to go write up my report," she informed.

Catherine looked up as she reached for the handly. "Dr. Alex?" she asked.

The woman turned and Catherine smiled fondly at her. "The family story was a nice touch. I'm sure both our fathers would be proud."

Spirit smiled at the compliment. "Thank you, doctor."