“They are, aren’t they?” François said, cocking his head to the side to regard them from a slightly different angle. “They’re like modern art.”
“What exactly do they tell you?” Kim asked. She would have preferred to leave, but with everyone watching, she felt obligated to ask a question.
“The colors refer to concentrations of radioactive Ultra,” François said. “The red is the highest concentration. These scans show quite clearly that the drug localizes maximally to the upper brain stem, the midbrain, and the limbic system.”
“I remember Stanton’s referring to the limbic system at the dinner party,” Kim said.
“He did indeed,” François said. “As he suggested, it’s part of the more primitive, or reptilian, parts of the brain and is involved with autonomic function, including mood, emotion, and even smell.”
“And sex,” David said.
“What do you mean, ‘reptilian’?” Kim asked. The word had an ugly connotation to her. She’d never liked snakes.
“It’s used to refer to the parts of the brain that are similar to the brains of reptiles,” François said. “Of course it is an oversimplification, but it does have some merit. Although the human brain evolved from some common distant ancestor with current-day reptiles, it’s not like taking a reptile brain and sticking a couple of cerebral hemispheres on top.”
Everybody laughed. Kim found herself laughing as well. The general mood was hard to resist.
“As far as basic instincts are concerned,” Edward said, “we humans have them just like reptiles. The difference is ours are covered by varying degrees of socialization and civilization. Translated, that means that the cerebral hemispheres have hard-wired connections that control reptilian behavior.”
Kim looked at her watch. “I really have to be going,” she said. “I’ve got a train to catch into Boston.”
With such an excuse Kim was finally able to break free from the obliging clutches of the researchers although they all encouraged her to come back. Edward walked her outside.
“Are you really on your way to Boston?” Edward asked.
“I am,” Kim said. “Last night I decided to go back to Harvard for one more try. I’d found another letter that included a reference to Elizabeth’s evidence. It gave me another lead.”
“Good luck,” Edward said. “Enjoy yourself.” He gave her a kiss and then went back into the lab. He didn’t ask about Kim’s latest letter.
Kim walked back to the cottage, feeling strangely numb from the researchers’ intense congeniality. Maybe something was wrong with her. She hadn’t liked how aloof they’d been, but now she found she didn’t like them sociable either. Was she impossible to please?
The more Kim thought about her response, the more she realized that it had a lot to do with their sudden uniformity. When she’d first met them she’d been struck by their eccentricities and quirks. Now their personalities had become blended into an amiable but bland whole that shrouded their individuality.
As Kim changed clothes for her trip into Boston, she couldn’t stop mulling over what was happening at the compound. She felt her misgiving-the very anxiety that had driven her to see Alice-on the increase again.
Ducking into the parlor to retrieve a sweater, Kim paused beneath Elizabeth’s portrait and looked up into her ancestor’s feminine yet forceful face. There was not a hint of anxiety in Elizabeth’s visage. Kim wondered if Elizabeth had ever felt as out of control as she did.
Kim got into her car and headed for the train station, unable to get Elizabeth out of her mind. It suddenly occurred to her that there were striking similarities between her world and Elizabeth’s despite the enormous gap in time. Elizabeth had to live with the continual threat of Indian attack, while Kim was conscious of the ever-present peril of crime. Back then there had been the mysterious and frightful menace of smallpox while today it was AIDS. In Elizabeth’s time there was a breakdown of the Puritan hold on society, with the emergence of unbridled materialism; today it was the passing of the stability of the Cold War with the emergence of fractious nationalism and religious fundamentalism. Back then there was a confusing and changing role for women; today it was the same.