Read Online Chase Baker & the Humanzees from Hell (A Chase Baker Thriller Book 8) by Benjamin Sobieck - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Benjamin Sobieck
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course, my sources could’ve supplied a much more modern firearm, but all of my Helpers do well with the SKS, even if the laser sights rest on crooked mounts. The more advanced Helpers may be trusted with an AK-47, but the SKS is a fitting tribute to the Helpers’ heritage.”
There’s no way Doctor X dangled that much information in front of Hillary and I without wanting us to ask for more. She obliges him by asking, “What heritage?”
Doctor X grins and says, “Why, the American War, of course. Or as you call it here in the U.S., the Vietnam War. The Minnesota Iceman isn’t from Minnesota at all. It’s from Vietnam. Tell me, does the name Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov mean anything to either of you?”
Hillary looks puzzled, but the name rings a big brass bell in my mind. I thought the stories about Ivanov were a joke pulled by anti-communist propaganda. Who wouldn’t?
The story goes that in the 1920s, the Soviet Union hatched a plan worthy of a science fiction movie that could only have come from the deluded mind of Joseph Stalin himself. Looking for new ways to replenish his armies, Stalin instructed Ivanov, a Soviet biologist, to spearhead the creation of super-soldiers impervious to the physical demands of the battlefield. But not just any super-soldiers. Remember, this is the Soviet Union. Super-soldiers alone aren’t crazy enough. Stalin specifically wanted human-ape hybrids, or “humanzees,” and he demanded Ivanov deliver them to him. Stalin reasoned, if one could call it that, that these hybrids would combine the intelligence of humans with the physical endurance and survival instincts of animals.
Others might tell you Stalin had nothing to do with it, that Ivanov was simply an eccentric scientist who somehow received the backing of the Soviet government. Personally, I like the first version better. Seems fitting.
Regardless of which version is most believable, Ivanov successfully inseminated three female chimpanzees using methods best left to the dustbin of history. However, the chimps never conceived. Ivanov then reversed the approach, aiming to get male chimps to inseminate female humans. He even found five female volunteers willing to undergo the experiment. But before that could happen, Ivanov’s chimps died and the Soviets started purging scientists for reasons that only made sense to someone like Stalin. The Soviets exiled Ivanov to Kazakhstan. He died shortly thereafter.
I relate this story to Doctor X. Helper 8 stares at me while I talk, studying the way my mouth moves as if it craves the fine motor skills required to tell a story. I wonder what Helper 8 would say if it could do the same.
“Your knowledge of the occult is impressive, Mr. Baker, but also incomplete,” Doctor X says. “In the decades since the experiments, Ivanov’s work was ridiculed by scientists and laughed at by popular culture. What’s curious is how secret Soviet military experiments reached the general public in the first place. If the Soviet Union was good at anything, it was being opaque. It’s almost as if Ivanov’s work was discredited purposefully and publicly by the Soviet government.”
Helper 8 huffs through what I assume are its nostrils. A line of snot slinks to the floor.
“Let me guess. Ivanov didn’t die during one of Stalin’s purges,” I say.
Doctor X nods in silence. He clearly finds this amusing.
Hillary completes the other pieces of the puzzle. She says, “The Soviets discredited the experiments and humiliated Ivanov publicly in order to cover up the fact the hybrid attempts were successful. The super-soldiers eventually deployed to the Vietnam War, which is where the…”
She stops in mid-sentence. She’s flustered by the same conclusion I came to after seeing Helper 8.
“Which is where the Minnesota Iceman is from. It must’ve been shot and brought back to the United States to be studied, but somehow wound up in the hands of a collector,” Hillary says and gasps. She looks over to
There’s no way Doctor X dangled that much information in front of Hillary and I without wanting us to ask for more. She obliges him by asking, “What heritage?”
Doctor X grins and says, “Why, the American War, of course. Or as you call it here in the U.S., the Vietnam War. The Minnesota Iceman isn’t from Minnesota at all. It’s from Vietnam. Tell me, does the name Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov mean anything to either of you?”
Hillary looks puzzled, but the name rings a big brass bell in my mind. I thought the stories about Ivanov were a joke pulled by anti-communist propaganda. Who wouldn’t?
The story goes that in the 1920s, the Soviet Union hatched a plan worthy of a science fiction movie that could only have come from the deluded mind of Joseph Stalin himself. Looking for new ways to replenish his armies, Stalin instructed Ivanov, a Soviet biologist, to spearhead the creation of super-soldiers impervious to the physical demands of the battlefield. But not just any super-soldiers. Remember, this is the Soviet Union. Super-soldiers alone aren’t crazy enough. Stalin specifically wanted human-ape hybrids, or “humanzees,” and he demanded Ivanov deliver them to him. Stalin reasoned, if one could call it that, that these hybrids would combine the intelligence of humans with the physical endurance and survival instincts of animals.
Others might tell you Stalin had nothing to do with it, that Ivanov was simply an eccentric scientist who somehow received the backing of the Soviet government. Personally, I like the first version better. Seems fitting.
Regardless of which version is most believable, Ivanov successfully inseminated three female chimpanzees using methods best left to the dustbin of history. However, the chimps never conceived. Ivanov then reversed the approach, aiming to get male chimps to inseminate female humans. He even found five female volunteers willing to undergo the experiment. But before that could happen, Ivanov’s chimps died and the Soviets started purging scientists for reasons that only made sense to someone like Stalin. The Soviets exiled Ivanov to Kazakhstan. He died shortly thereafter.
I relate this story to Doctor X. Helper 8 stares at me while I talk, studying the way my mouth moves as if it craves the fine motor skills required to tell a story. I wonder what Helper 8 would say if it could do the same.
“Your knowledge of the occult is impressive, Mr. Baker, but also incomplete,” Doctor X says. “In the decades since the experiments, Ivanov’s work was ridiculed by scientists and laughed at by popular culture. What’s curious is how secret Soviet military experiments reached the general public in the first place. If the Soviet Union was good at anything, it was being opaque. It’s almost as if Ivanov’s work was discredited purposefully and publicly by the Soviet government.”
Helper 8 huffs through what I assume are its nostrils. A line of snot slinks to the floor.
“Let me guess. Ivanov didn’t die during one of Stalin’s purges,” I say.
Doctor X nods in silence. He clearly finds this amusing.
Hillary completes the other pieces of the puzzle. She says, “The Soviets discredited the experiments and humiliated Ivanov publicly in order to cover up the fact the hybrid attempts were successful. The super-soldiers eventually deployed to the Vietnam War, which is where the…”
She stops in mid-sentence. She’s flustered by the same conclusion I came to after seeing Helper 8.
“Which is where the Minnesota Iceman is from. It must’ve been shot and brought back to the United States to be studied, but somehow wound up in the hands of a collector,” Hillary says and gasps. She looks over to
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