In the Virginia countryside, Saturday…

Even in the dim red light, RP1, SW2 and GW3 could see that the lab was stuffed with modern equipment. They walked quietly between the work tables, only partially understanding what they saw there.

The computers were even strange. There were several new workstations, together with their huge screens, voice interfaces and data keypads, computers that made GW3's eyes shine in anticipation. He sat down at one and started to play.

"Are you sure you should touch those?" asked RP1.

"Give it a rest," said GW3. "You may not know what the fuck you're doing, but I do. This is the latest stuff. For me, it's better than sex." He glanced at SW2's cleavage. "Although I'm pretty good at that too."

"In your wildest dreams," she said.

RP1 and SW2 continued to walk around the lab, not worried about the videocams, since GW3 had figured out how to fool them again. They could be there for three hours, the time when the videocams would stop repeating the movie strip GW3 had fed them and return to their normal surveillance.

There were several high-priced optical microscopes and one of the more expensive electron microscopes scattered around and between the work tables, together with specimen slides, both used and sterile. Also available were two gas chromatography machines, a mass spectrometer, several scale/beam balances, hydrometers, and laser spectrographs. There were several cell culture hoods and high-speed centrifuges plus three new DNA analysis machines that were networked with the workstations. On one side of the lab there were shiny stainless steel cryogenic tanks and blood diagnostic machines.