“What’s wrong with that?” I asked,
and then added, “It makes sense to me.”
     “It does make sense, but that’s   
not my problem with it,” she said and  
shook her head.                        
     “My problem is with the mice.”    
     “Why? What’s wrong with the mic?” 
     “We can’t send them through the   
Tunnel, Cart-Washer, autoclave, or wash
them in a shower...”                   
     “Why would you want to?”          
     “I don’t want to, but if they     
cross over that line,” she said and    
pointed at the de-contamination line   
again.                                 
     That’s when I realized what she   
was talking about. A mouse could mis-  
takenly end up over here, and then...  
“What? You’re kidding, right?”         
     “I wish I were Crim, but it’s a   
* fact of life in here and everywhere      
else in research. Mice aren’t worth    
diddly if they’re not being used in    
experiments or are contaminated.”      
     “We should do something... shit,  
I wish I’d known about this before,”   
and actually started thinking about    
looking for another job.               
     She looked at me curiously before 
answering, “We should, but what? Real- 
istically, even if by some magical     
force of nature, we were able to con-  
vince everybody in the world to let all
the mice go, where would they go, and  
what would they eat?                   
     “We’re talking about millions of  
mice, maybe billions. Even the ones in 
here would probably starve or die some 
other horrible way, but at least in    
here, they have food and their death is
painless.”                             



CHAPTER 3: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd
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