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Authors: James Patterson
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of
extraterrestrial visitors.
I finally rejected it, the idea of another E.T., but maybe I shouldn’t have.
I have a pretty strong memory. I’d been number one in my high school class, and the files in my head were filled with more
information than I had expected. I had actually examined a hermaphrodite, a child having both male and female reproductive
organs. I’d also come across humans and animals with missing body parts, and several with duplicate parts. I’d seen two ears
on one side of a little girl’s skull. A boy with six toes. A girl with four breasts. In vet school I’d also witnessed what
toxins and pesticides can do to alter livestock. Not a pretty sight, and not one you ever forget.
As far as pictures go, I’d seen images of “formed fingers”; that is, horns, on a human head. A parasitic horse body growing
from an otherwise perfect one. A second head growing on the head of a calf. From somewhere in the back of my brain came a
tidbit from ancient Babylon
:An infant born with the face of a lion means the King shall not have a rival.
I had once seen a child with the ears of a lion.
But never a very pretty, otherwise normal-looking girl with a pair of beautiful white and silver wings! Maybe she
was
an extraterrestrial.
Of course, there was also biotechnology and genetic engineering as a serious area of exploration and mystery. David’s chosen
field, I reminded myself.
My memory files in David’s specialty area were a little less comprehensive than I would have thought. David and I had been
good at sharing most things, but he never liked to talk much about his work.
Strange, as I thought about it now. David rarely brought work home with him. I, on the other hand, was always ready to chat
about the Inn-Patient, or the beautiful colt I had delivered at four the previous morning on somebody’s horse farm.
So what did I already know about biotechnology? From the broadest overview, biotech involved harnessing natural biological
processes of microbes and of animals and plant cells. Cross-species research and experiments would be in the field of molecular
biology, too. David had been a molecular biologist, and a good one, though he never made much money as a researcher.
I remembered a couple of things he’d talked about that might relate to a little girl with—say it, Frannie—beautiful silver
and white wings. When the film version of
Jurassic Park
came to Boulder, David told me that the idea of cross-species genetic work was actually a whole lot less far-fetched than
the wonderful movie dinosaurs. He said cross-species experiments were being done now in a number of independent labs. The
experiments were sometimes illegal.
Biotech was definitely the new frontier in science. It can, and undoubtedly will, push evolution farther and faster than anything
has in history. The question, though, is whether we’re ready, emotionally and morally, for what we will be able to create
in the very near future. I remembered that David said that
most
serious work was still being accomplished with fruit flies, and I found that profoundly reassuring.
David had also told me something interesting in light of what had happened to me the night before. He said that in the area
of genetic manipulation, “Things always go awry. It happens all the time, Frannie. Goes with the territory.”
Things always go awry.
Chapter 21
I T HAD BEEN a busy and productive day for Kit. He’d been a functioning FBI field agent again. It felt good, excellent. He was
working alone, but at least he was off the Bureau’s long, restrictive leash.
He had taken a chance by interviewing the widow of Frank McDonough. Barbara McDonough didn’t seem to know anything beyond
the obvious, but the more they talked, the more certain he was that Dr. McDonough had been murdered. McDonough had been an
excellent swimmer for one thing, a former college star. For another, he’d supposedly broken his neck making a
extraterrestrial visitors.
I finally rejected it, the idea of another E.T., but maybe I shouldn’t have.
I have a pretty strong memory. I’d been number one in my high school class, and the files in my head were filled with more
information than I had expected. I had actually examined a hermaphrodite, a child having both male and female reproductive
organs. I’d also come across humans and animals with missing body parts, and several with duplicate parts. I’d seen two ears
on one side of a little girl’s skull. A boy with six toes. A girl with four breasts. In vet school I’d also witnessed what
toxins and pesticides can do to alter livestock. Not a pretty sight, and not one you ever forget.
As far as pictures go, I’d seen images of “formed fingers”; that is, horns, on a human head. A parasitic horse body growing
from an otherwise perfect one. A second head growing on the head of a calf. From somewhere in the back of my brain came a
tidbit from ancient Babylon
:An infant born with the face of a lion means the King shall not have a rival.
I had once seen a child with the ears of a lion.
But never a very pretty, otherwise normal-looking girl with a pair of beautiful white and silver wings! Maybe she
was
an extraterrestrial.
Of course, there was also biotechnology and genetic engineering as a serious area of exploration and mystery. David’s chosen
field, I reminded myself.
My memory files in David’s specialty area were a little less comprehensive than I would have thought. David and I had been
good at sharing most things, but he never liked to talk much about his work.
Strange, as I thought about it now. David rarely brought work home with him. I, on the other hand, was always ready to chat
about the Inn-Patient, or the beautiful colt I had delivered at four the previous morning on somebody’s horse farm.
So what did I already know about biotechnology? From the broadest overview, biotech involved harnessing natural biological
processes of microbes and of animals and plant cells. Cross-species research and experiments would be in the field of molecular
biology, too. David had been a molecular biologist, and a good one, though he never made much money as a researcher.
I remembered a couple of things he’d talked about that might relate to a little girl with—say it, Frannie—beautiful silver
and white wings. When the film version of
Jurassic Park
came to Boulder, David told me that the idea of cross-species genetic work was actually a whole lot less far-fetched than
the wonderful movie dinosaurs. He said cross-species experiments were being done now in a number of independent labs. The
experiments were sometimes illegal.
Biotech was definitely the new frontier in science. It can, and undoubtedly will, push evolution farther and faster than anything
has in history. The question, though, is whether we’re ready, emotionally and morally, for what we will be able to create
in the very near future. I remembered that David said that
most
serious work was still being accomplished with fruit flies, and I found that profoundly reassuring.
David had also told me something interesting in light of what had happened to me the night before. He said that in the area
of genetic manipulation, “Things always go awry. It happens all the time, Frannie. Goes with the territory.”
Things always go awry.
Chapter 21
I T HAD BEEN a busy and productive day for Kit. He’d been a functioning FBI field agent again. It felt good, excellent. He was
working alone, but at least he was off the Bureau’s long, restrictive leash.
He had taken a chance by interviewing the widow of Frank McDonough. Barbara McDonough didn’t seem to know anything beyond
the obvious, but the more they talked, the more certain he was that Dr. McDonough had been murdered. McDonough had been an
excellent swimmer for one thing, a former college star. For another, he’d supposedly broken his neck making a
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