Alice tasted a hint of iron as she chewed her lip. Charon wasn't taking her seriously at all! And she would only look worse if she threw a tantrum! 

"Don't you dare talk to anyone else about this, or I [i]will[/i] have you killed," she said, and pressed the button that ended her transmission before her guest - no, her [i]servant[/i] - could respond. A long breath escaped her. Her fingers violently danced atop her keyboard as she sent Katie her instructions. Charon had called her pouty... how dare he? He ought to already be dead for that! So... why didn't she want to give her underlings the command? They would obey her, would dismiss the medic's tale as the babbling of a desperate man. So what was stopping her?

Charon's attempts to entice her to study under him were laughable. 'Savior of mankind?' Really? Alice was no hero. She didn't really care about finding a cure for the virus - her only goal was to stay alive, and make her short life as comfortable as it could be. And she was doing [i]excellently[/i]. The hope Charon had spoken of, the one even Alice herself presented to others... it was a lie. The virus would never be cured, least of all by her. She was a genius, not a god. Ten or twelve years wasn't long enough to learn all the science she'd have to know to stand a chance.

There was no point in denying it. Oracle or not, in a decade or so, she would die.

***

Katie gestured for Charon to wait as he exited the room. A moment later, the girl had sent her message. Katie looked up, smirking at the visitor. 

"She says I'm to take your samples. That's unfortunate." On the contrary; it was exactly what she needed. In the right hands, those samples might actually help develop a cure. No one man should hold them. 

"Follow me," said Katie with a wave of her hand. Her office was not far. Once she had led Charon to it, she closed the door behind him and gestured toward the seat in front of her desk. Casually, she sat down opposite him. 

"You may speak freely in here," she said simply. "I promise, this is no test of your loyalty. You have no reason to be loyal to... her. So tell me: having spoken to the [i]Oracle[/i] one on one, what did you think?"