Ten days later, the devil gazed joyfully at its new mount and gave Adam a dopey grin. "Master, this one's mine?"
"Mm." Adam handed the dozen-odd virus-filled test tubes in his hands to the infected, then said, "Command them to carry out their missions, the way I taught you."
The devil nodded again and again, took flight, leaped toward the mount, and merged into its body. At once the purple starpoints in the infected's pupils spun rapidly, and they raced along the tunnel, out of the basement, and scattered in every direction.
"How is it? Any lag?" Adam asked once he had shut the tunnel, watching the feeds from the monitors he had previously sown all around the outside of the laboratory.