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valve by the reservoir?” Ryan asked, ignoring Siri’s little quip. “All you have to do is turn it like this and the flow stops. There are also two flow meters in line with each other that’ll sound an alarm when a full pint has been delivered.” Ryan flicked a switch and a loud electronic beep started. “You hear the alarm. You shut off the valve, nice and simple.” He turned the alarm off.
    “It seems simple enough,” the Director said.
    “Your recruits should be able to handle it,” Ryan added. “It’ll take about ten minutes to deliver the target volume. Those two peristaltic pumps are metered to provide an even flow. The station is run by that laptop which can calibrate the delivery rates on the pumps to suit her needs.”
    Siri inspected the laptop’s display. “You had time to write the software to run this thing?”
    “Of course not,” Ryan said. “I’m using an old version of HP Chemstation. I’ve used it to run these types of pumps before, just not for this . . . this application.”
    “It’s downright unsettling,” the Director cheerfully added. “Someone sits here on this side and watches her on the other side feed on their blood. Not something for the squeamish. No, it’s downright macabre.”
    Siri didn’t seem to fully approve of the setup. She kept looking at it from one end to the other, shaking her head. “What exactly is she putting in her mouth on her end?”
    Ryan handed her a spare valve assembly. “Once she puts this in her mouth she’ll need to apply about five pounds of bite force to open the valve.”
    “Why five pounds?”
    “It’s a guess.”
    Siri rubbed the valve with her thumb. “It’s plastic.”
    “I formed the mouthpiece out of low-density polyethylene and then molded the spring valve into the middle. I made spares since I don’t know how gentle she’ll be with it. She might rip it to shreds the first time with her fangs and I’ll have to try a tougher material.”
    “That’s
if
she’s willing to feed like this.”
    “Oh, don’t worry Doctor Lei,” the Director said. “These creatures are always willing for fresh blood.”
    Siri continued to study the valve as it sat in her palm. “It looks like a mouthguard. Why not just use all metal from the start?”
    Ryan scratched the back of his head. “To be honest, I don’t know. Which would you rather bite down on? Hard metal or a semi-soft plastic?”
    “It’s very considerate of you,” the Director said. “I’m sure you’ll get everything figured out.”
    “And now what?” Ryan asked. “You’ve got this creature here . . . what are you going to do with it?”
    “We’ve discussed this, Doctor Ryan. She has many unique abilities and I want you to discover the mechanisms that allow these abilities.”
    “For what purpose?”
    “This country loses too many field agents every year. If her talents could be reproduced it would give us an advantage in a world that grows ever more dangerous to our country’s very existence.”
    “And what if her abilities can’t be separated from the need for blood?”
    “I’m not concerned with trivial issues,” the Director replied. And with that he left the cell, talking to no one in particular as he went.
    “How close to being ready is it?” Siri asked.
    Ryan stopped fussing with his invention and looked at the female still lying motionless on the concrete floor less than ten feet away. Video cameras covered every angle of her cell. She would be under a constant twenty-four hour watch. He wondered how she would respond to such a lack of privacy. One thing he had recognized during the last two frantic years as he helped track down these creatures is that they were driven to be extremely reclusive so they could stay hidden from the society on which they fed.
    Ryan finally shrugged. “She’s absorbed an incredible amount of human blood in the last thirty hours. I think we can at least try an animal first, just in case she wakes up hungry.”
    “We