4
Enough is Enough
Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.
—Niccolò Machiavelli
Khalid stood in the comforting warmth of the shower, soaping up after examining the corpses of the newest batch of dead mice. He didn’t touch the mice, of course—they were sealed in the biosafety cabinet—but working with them always made him feel a need to get clean.
He dropped the soap. “No,” he whispered as another waking nightmare found him.
He stood with his wife Anjum in the shower, gently rubbing her distended belly with soap. “I can feel our daughter kicking,” he whispered in her ear.
Anjum kissed him. “I’ll just bet you can. I’m sure that’s the only reason you’re taking so long. My tummy is now the cleanest
