WATCHERS by Dean R. Koontz

“Biological warfare?” Walt asked. “Using recombinant DNA to make nasty new

viruses?”

“Maybe that, too,” Lem said. “But germ warfare doesn’t have anything to do with

this case, and I’m only going to tell you about the research that’s related to

our problems here.”

The windows were fogging. Walt started the car. There was no air conditioning,

and the fog on the windows continued to spread, but even the vague, moist, warm

breeze from the vents was welcome.

Lem said, “They were working on several research programs under the heading of

the Francis Project. Named for Saint Francis of Assisi.”

Blinking in surprise, Walt said, “They’d name a warfare-related project after a

saint?’

“It’s apt,” Lem assured him. “Saint Francis could talk to birds and animals. And

at Banodyne, Dr. Davis Weatherby was in charge of a project aimed at making

human-animal communication possible.”

“Learning the language of porpoises—that sort of thing?”

“No. The idea was to apply the very latest knowledge in genetic engineering to

the creation of animals with a much higher order of intelligence, animals

capable of nearly human-level thought, animals with whom we might be able to

Communicate.”

Walt stared at him in openmouthed disbelief.

Lem said, “There’ve been several scientific teams working on very different

experiments under the umbrella label of the Francis Project, all of which have

been funded for at least five years. For one thing, there were Davis Weatherby’s

dogs . .

Dr. Weatherby had been working with the sperm and ova of golden retrievers,

which he had chosen because the dogs had been bred with ever greater refinement

for more than a hundred years. For one thing, this refinement meant that, in the

purest of the breed, all diseases and afflictions of an inheritable nature had

been pretty much excised from the animal’s genetic code, which insured Weatherby

of healthy and bright subjects for his experiments. Then, if the experimental

pups were born with abnormalities of any kind, Weatherby could more easily

distinguish those mutations of a natural type from those that were an unintended

side effect of his own sly tampering with the animal’s genetic heritage, and he

would be able to learn from his own mistakes.

Over the years, seeking solely to increase the intelligence of the breed without

causing a change in its physical appearance, Davis Weatherby had fertilized

hundreds of genetically altered retriever ova in vitro, then had transferred the

fertile eggs to the wombs of bitches who served as surrogate mothers. The

bitches carried the test-tube pups to full term, and Weatherby studied these

young dogs for indications of increased intelligence.

“There were a hell of a lot of failures,” Lem said. “Grotesque physical

mutations that had to be destroyed. Stillborn pups. Pups that looked normal but

were less intelligent than usual. Weatherby was doing cross-species engineering,

after all, so you can figure that some pretty horrible possibilities were

realized.”

Walt stared at the windshield, now entirely opaqued. Then he frowned at Lem.

“Cross-species? What do you mean?”

“Well, you see, he was isolating those genetic determinants of intelligence in

species that were brighter than the retriever—”

“Like apes? They’d be brighter than dogs, wouldn’t they?”

“Yeah. Apes. . . and human beings.”

“Jesus,” Walt said.

Lem adjusted a dashboard vent to direct the flow of tepid air into his face.

“Weatherby was inserting that foreign genetic material into the retriever’s

genetic code, simultaneously editing out the dog’s own genes that limited its

intelligence to that of a dog.”

Walt rebelled. “That’s not possible! This genetic material, as you call it,

surely it can’t be passed from one species to another.”

“It happens in nature all the time,” Lem said. “Genetic material is transferred

from one species to another, and the carrier is usually a virus. Let’s say a

virus thrives in rhesus monkeys. While in the monkey, it acquires genetic

material from the monkey’s cells. These acquired monkey genes become a part of

the virus itself. Later, upon infecting a human host, that virus has the

capability of leaving the monkey’s genetic material in its human host. Consider

the AIDS virus, for instance. It’s believed AIDS was a disease carried by

certain monkeys and by human beings for decades, though neither species was

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