Dr. Saito explained it to the oversight committee. "They will feel nothing until the 70th hour. Then, a biological imperative stronger than hunger, stronger than fear, will activate. They will find each other. They will mate."
They touched.
He deleted the file. Then he looked at his own hands, imagining a countdown on his bones.
The monitors showed flatlines, but also — in the petri dish of their shared fluid — the first mitosis of something new.