Under quite a few conditions...

“Emily? Mind writing something up for us? Just a few terms and conditions...”

Zoe asked after a few seconds of consideration... You nodded, glancing around and noticing the only computer was the one sitting on the desk, locked. Chloe followed with you though, inputting a password at blithering speed, and letting you get to it... Zoe started to detail each and everyone one of dozens of conditions, including several separate articles and terms... Chloe was bored out of her mind, inspecting her nails... And by the end of it, Shaw’s collar was rather stained with sweat.

“Aaaand that’d be it. Still want our help?”

Zoe asked, the contract basically tied his hands in every way imaginable, including some non-disclosure clauses, and a requirement that he hand over all the research they’d done, as well as transported Vanessa to Hideki so they could help her here. There was also no oversight, he’d be handling expenses personally, and there was no guarantee that she’d actually be back together in one piece at the end... But Shaw, despite his slimy appearance, seemed to have a backbone...

“Anything for her. Just do what you can...”

You printed out the contact, almost nine pages of it, and laid it out with a pen, you’d come to see Zoe in a new light, beautiful and fun, sexy and silly, and now, fierce and vicious, how hopelessly multifaceted of her. She pressed a button on the desk, and a camera in one of the corners of the room beeped to life.

“You confirm that you understand the full scope and requirements of this contract? And that even with that knowledge you are not being **** to sign it under duress?”

She ascertained, and Shaw nodded, signing on the dotted line. With that, the invading man packed up his stuff and started to go.

“I’ll send a courier with copies of all our drives and files. And when you feel you have the necessary equipment in place, let me know directly, and I’ll arrange transportation for Vanessa.”

He said solemnly, and was gone... The situation in the top office still felt tense and grim. Zoe’s contract basically got rid of every option for him, and he signed it without hesitation, you almost felt bad for the greasy, sweaty man... Almost...

“Well I guess first we gotta find ourselves a quantum physicist... Huh?”

Chloe joked, her PhD in Organic Chemistry might be enough to fathom the Cellular Part of the experiment, but anything involving quantum entanglement would probably look like gobbledegook to everyone in the room. The contract explicitly stated an allowance to bring in anyone at all with Zoe and Chloe’s approvals... And yet it was probably a bad idea to just grab anyone from outside Hideki to work on this... That left only a few options, and none to your awareness... And yet, Zoe had a slightly discontent look on her face, and Chloe groaned and facepalmed as she realized that this meant they needed to do...

“Something I should know about?”

You asked, with a slightly awkward shake to your tone. Over the last month, Zoe had opened up both literally and metaphorically about pretty much anything and everything you asked about. This meant there were still a few holes, but you knew about Chloe, and what she could do, for example...

“Hideki Labs’ forefront... Er... Scientist, in charge of the development and interpretation of quantum mechanics and exotic elements is... Well...”

Zoe started to say, trying to imagine how to put things nicely.

“She’s bonkers... Coocoo, its a miracle she hasn’t blown herself up, and that’s not even due to her lab being moved to an old weapons test site out of town... Dr. Greene makes everything from Gauss weapons to exotic matter bombs for the hell of it, and has more than once almost caused massive property damage... We’ve pretty much cut her out entirely, but since she can turn a pinch of cement dust into a substance with the explosive payload of plastic explosives... We figure it’s more dangerous to let her do whatever she wants without supervision...”

Chloe explained in an outburst, all in one breath. Zoe thought Chloe was being a bit harsh, geniuses tended to be eccentric... But there’s quite a margin of difference between Tesla needing to know the exact molecular make up of everything he ate, and Dr. Greene attempting to curate an element that could end all life as we know it “for Science!”...

“Let’s head down to the vacuum tube and see if we can’t convince her to stop messing with nitroglycerin long enough to help us.”

Zoe suggested, though it might be a better idea to just find someone else who isn’t apparently insane...