Receptor clustering is tighter now—aggressive binding. But host degradation hasn't accelerated. Containment’s still possible... maybe.

She didn't want to finish that sentence.

The lights overhead buzzed faintly as she jotted notes into the margin of her logbook, a shorthand she didn't need to reread to remember. Just a constant, narrowing race against entropy.

She paused, fingertips lingering on the page, and stared past the metal shelving to the darkened hall beyond. She could feel the shape of the silence out there. Even graveyard shift lab assistants already clocked out by now.

She didn't want to leave. Not while the compound was still showing signs of responsiveness, or while the mutation profile was still folding in on itself like origami laced with teeth.

Because what if they were close?

What if all it took was one more hour, one more iteration, one more carefully measured deviation—and the curve would bend?

Her eyes returned to the vials. Seven left and still stable.