lot of practice over the years.’
‘Then we’re even more in debt to you people than we thought,’ Jack said.
‘I’d no idea.’
Laurie looked out the side window of the car and shuddered. It was just
sinking in how seriously her life was on the line and that the threat
was not yet over.
‘How come you guys were in the soup?’ Warren asked.
‘It’s a long story,’ Melanie said.
‘So is ours,’ Laurie said.
‘I have a question,’ Kevin said. ‘Did you people come here because of
Carlo Franconi?’
‘Whoa!’ Jack said. ‘Such clairvoyance! I’m impressed, and intrigued. How
did you guess? What exactly is your role here in Cogo?’
‘Me, in particular?’ Kevin asked.
‘Well, all of you,’ Jack said.
Kevin, Melanie, and Candace looked at each other to see who wanted to
speak first.
‘We were all part of the same program,’ Candace said. ‘But I was just a
minor player. I’m an intensive-care nurse for a surgical transplant
team.’
‘I’m a reproductive technologist,’ Melanie said. ‘I provide the raw
materials for Kevin to work his magic, and once he has, I see to it that
his creations are brought to fruition.’
‘I’m a molecular biologist,’ Kevin explained with a sigh of regret.
‘Someone who overstepped his bounds and committed a Promethean blunder.’
‘Hold up,’ Jack said. ‘Don’t go too literary on me. I know I’ve heard of
Prometheus, but I can’t remember who he was.’
‘Prometheus was a Titan in Greek mythology,’ Laurie said. ‘He stole fire
from Olympus and gave it to man.’
‘I inadvertently gave fire to some animals,’ Kevin said. ‘I stumbled on
the way to move chromosome parts, particularly the short arm of
chromosome six from one cell to another, from one species to another.’
‘So you took chromosome parts from humans and put them into an ape,’
Jack said.
‘Into the fertilized egg of an ape,’ Kevin said. ‘A bonobo to be exact.’
‘And what you were really doing,’ Jack continued, ‘was custom-designing
the perfect organ transplant source for a specific individual.’
‘Exactly,’ Kevin said. ‘It wasn’t what I had in mind in the beginning. I
was just a pure researcher. What I ended up doing was something I was
lured into because of its economic potential.’
‘Wow!’ Jack commented. ‘Ingenious and impressive, but also a little
scary.’
‘It’s more than scary,’ Kevin said. ‘It’s a tragedy of sorts. The
problem is I transferred too many human genes. I’ve accidently created a
race of protohumans.’
‘You mean like Neanderthals?’ Laurie asked.
‘More primitive by millions of years,’ Kevin said. ‘More like Lucy. But
they’re intelligent enough to use fire, make tools, and even converse. I
think they are the way we were four or five million years ago.’
‘Where are these creatures?’ Laurie asked with alarm.
‘They’re on a nearby island,’ Kevin said, ‘where they have been living
in comparative freedom. Unfortunately, that’s all about to change.’
‘Why is that?’ Laurie asked. In her mind’s eye, she could see these
protohumans. As a child she’d been fascinated by cavemen.
Kevin quickly told the story of the smoke eventually bringing him,
Melanie, and Candace to the island. He related how they’d been captured
and then rescued. He also told them about the creatures’ fate effacing
lifelong internment in tiny concrete cells purely because they were too
human.
‘That’s awful,’ Laurie commented.
‘It’s a disaster!’ Jack said with a shake of his head. ‘What a story!’
‘This world isn’t ready for a new race,’ Warren said. ‘We’ve got enough
trouble with what we have already.’
‘We’re coming up on the waterfront,’ Kevin announced. ‘The square at the
base of the pier is around the next bend.’
‘Then stop here,’ Jack said. ‘There was a soldier there when we
arrived.’
Kevin pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the headlights.
He kept the engine running for the air-conditioning. Jack and Warren got
out the back and ran down to the corner. Carefully, they peeked around
the bend.
‘If our boat is not there, are there other boats around here?’ Laurie
asked.
‘I’m afraid not,’ Kevin said.
‘Is there another way out of town besides the main gate?’ Laurie asked.
‘That’s it,’ Kevin said.