by Robin Craig
Miriam could only smile; she decided she had better not play poker for a while. “Yes. In every way. The man certainly knows how to entertain a girl.”
Darian clapped her hands delightedly. “I expect a full report at the next meeting of the girls’ club!” she said.
Then she looked suspiciously at Miriam and snorted. “Though from the look of you, you might be too busy to attend for a while.”
Chapter 18 – Rianna
When the forensics team had taken samples from Katlyn’s hideout, given the state of the place they had not been hopeful. The building was dirty, a temporary home for human vagrants and a more permanent home for vermin. Not only that, where it had not been incinerated the sprinkler system had mixed everything together into muck. The chance of getting anything useful out of any of their samples was minimal.
They had one piece of luck: one of the forensic investigators had lifted a piece of fallen metal in Katlyn’s former nest and noticed a piece of charred human hair stuck under it. It had been partially protected from the flames and on closer examination the investigator saw it had an attached follicle. Forensics still weren’t hopeful: while intact, the hair was obviously damaged by heat and smoke. But it was their best chance and they had sent it to the DNA lab. That had been a few weeks ago: in the scheme of things it had no special priority.
A call announced itself on Miriam’s screen. It was Rianna, who was in charge of the DNA lab.
“Hi Rianna,” she said. “I hope you have good news for me.”
“Sorry. We’ve looked at that piece of hair from your fire, but its DNA is badly degraded, as well as the hair being contaminated with all kinds of crud. It would be expensive to get into a state where it could be sequenced and even then we’d only get fairly short pieces. Nowhere near good enough for positive identification, though maybe good enough for a modest probability match. In either case certainly not good enough to use in court: any defense attorney would tear it apart. But if your boss authorizes the expense we can try. It won’t be cheap.”
Miriam shook her head. “Damn. No, we don’t have enough to go on, clues or budget. No way he’d authorize it. Double damn. It’s the nearest to a real clue I have.”
Rianna thought a moment. “Well... there might be something. We do have a research budget. Pushing the envelope on how much data we can get out of compromised samples is something the Powers like us to do. At least when it works. Yes,” she smiled, “I can see an interesting problem here. I can put my new person Kimberley on it. She’s pretty good at tough work and likes a challenge.”
Miriam frowned. “Thanks for the offer, but are you sure it would be OK? I don’t want you getting into trouble over it.”
“No, Miriam, it’s legitimate research. And interesting. Hell, if it works I might even get a pay rise.”
Miriam grinned at her. “Richly deserved, too. Thanks a lot, Rianna. Keep me posted.”
“Bye babe. See you at lunch.”
Chapter 19 – Cousins
It was a rainy Sunday afternoon, and they were sitting on her couch, loosely entwined around each other, watching a nature documentary. It was an old one, digitized and converted to 3D, starring a gentle but enthusiastic Englishman with a raspy voice. But as Amaro pointed out, evolution was slow and nature last century was much like nature now, albeit somewhat more common then.
Amaro had rekindled her interest in nature. She was not by temperament as purist as he, and tended to think that any improvement was a good improvement by definition, whether done by genetics or by physics. But she supposed a bit of genetic purism went with his job. She had been interested in the living world as a child and now found rediscovering it, especially with such an expert guide, to be an unexpected pleasure.
The professor was creeping up on some mountain gorillas, relatives of man that despite a usually gentle disposition were mountains in more than habitat, and if angry could tear a man’s limbs off. She decided the unassuming professor was a brave man. He went on to contrast the gentle vegetarian gorilla with the more aggressive chimpanzee and the oversexed bonobo, the two closest relatives of man. She could certainly see human beings as a combination of the two: go out, fight a war, go hunting, come home and have sex all night. That sounded like a lot of human history to her, like a summary of the Trojan War. A lot like us come to think of it, she thought fondly, glancing at Amaro.
The lines leading to the different chimps and man had diverged only a few million years ago; that to the gorillas a few million earlier. It was remarkable how different humans were from these close evolutionary cousins, and the professor went on to describe differences besides their big brains. Miriam sat up straight. Something he had said had collided with something in her own brain and made a connection. No, it can’t be that. If it were that simple he’d have known, surely. She stood up suddenly. “Oh my God.”
“What’s the matter, sweet Miriam?” asked Amaro. “You look like you saw a ghost. But fear not. Brave Sir Amaro will ride to your aid, sword held high!”
She looked at him, barely seeing him, but his banter from their traditional teasing rang another bell primed by her suspicions. The phrases friends share, she thought. Why is that important? The phrases... Then the other connection fell into place. “Odin, Thor and Loki!” she cried. “Amaro, I have to go!”
He looked at her in amazement. “Hey, slow down, tiger! What’s gotten into you? You’re worrying me!”
Her eyes swept over him, still not really registering his existence except as a shape in her field of view. “Sorry. Sorry. Can’t talk. I just realized something, something important. Holy Hell. Jesus. Christ. Almighty.” Then she stopped, belatedly remembering it was Sunday. This was important but was it urgent enough to drag people away from their homes and families? Maybe, but they probably wouldn’t see it that way. Somewhat deflated, she realized this wasn’t so hot it couldn’t wait until tomorrow.
She turned away and began composing a long note into her phone.
Amaro looked at her, nonplussed. Then his eyes narrowed. Well, he thought, now this is an interesting development.
“Sorry Amaro,” she said when she’d finished. “I just had a thought about work that might be important. But it can wait until tomorrow. I’m back in the present now. So where were we?”
“We were studying our animal relatives. I believe we can learn many things from them, especially the bonobo. Let me demonstrate.” With that, he took her in his arms and gave her a lingering kiss, which somehow ended with his lying on top of her in a mutual tangle. Her earlier intellectual excitement evolved seamlessly into a more physical one, and the tangle began to assume configurations that would no doubt be interesting to topologists but were even more interesting to the participants. Then she forgot about her work for a while.
Later, Amaro watched her contentedly sleeping form affectionately, but there was a calculating edge to his gaze. He tapped a message into his own phone then he sat and thought, idly playing with her hair but careful not to wake her.
~~~
The next morning, with the imminence of being able to do something about it, Miriam’s excitement over her idea grew. She sent messages to Stone and Ramos to meet her in the Chief’s office as soon as they arrived.
Ramos was first to arrive after Miriam, who was already waiting for him trying to hide her impatience. He usually liked to settle in for a while before granting audience to his minions, and had a look of grumpiness overlaying a faint odor of gym about him. Jack turned up a few minutes later and leaned against the wall looking cynical but intrigued. Miriam was looking a little wild-eyed.
“OK Hunter, what’s so urgent it can’t wait until I’ve had my coffee?” grumbled Ramos.
“I was watching a show yesterday. About chimpanzees. Then it hit me.”
Jack looked up. “Great. I rushed in here for a movie review. So did the chimp get the girl?”
“No, no,” said Miriam, completely oblivious to sarcasm. “Remember when we talked to Dr Tagarin? Re
member what he said? Our thief couldn’t be a geneh, because nobody could have made her 25 years ago?”
“Sure, that’s one reason we never escalated it to GenInt except as a note worded so nobody will care. Covering our asses both ways,” said Ramos. “Anyone who does decide it’s worth a look will probably come to the same conclusion. A woman with tacked-on mods, not a geneh. Our problem, not theirs.”
“But it never rang true to me. I’ve met her, remember. We had a long chat.”
“Sure, sure, we know,” replied Jack. “But as the man said, sometimes you can’t beat arithmetic.”
“But that’s the point! I was watching this show, and the presenter said something interesting. Humans have an unusually long childhood even for apes. Chimpanzees are about our size but reach puberty in only 8 to 10 years! Gorillas are twice our weight and reach puberty even earlier! This girl has faster muscles and faster nerves! What if she also has faster development, more like a chimp than a man? She might only be 15!”
They both went still and stared at her. Jack’s mouth was open. Then he closed it, only to open it again to say: “Sure, as far as I know. But if it were that easy, our friendly expert would have seen it straight away. He would have...” then his voice trailed away, as he saw it too. “Oh my God.”
“That’s what I said! Then I remembered something else. I’d forgotten it, but then Amaro said something, one of those little inside jokes couples have. When Katlyn first grabbed me she said something that struck me as important, but she was choking me and I forgot about it. But I remember now. She said, ‘A life is a terrible thing to waste.’ Those are almost the exact words Dr Tagarin said at our first meeting. It stuck in my memory it because it’s kind of a funny phrase – there’s some famous quote like it, but it’s about a mind not a life. Those two know each other! I’m sure of it!”
Jack and Ramos looked at her, looked at each other. “Christ, Miriam,” said Jack, “It isn’t proof, but it sure answers some questions.”
“But what can we do about it?” asked Ramos. “It’s certainly relevant to our case of the thief. But is it enough for a search warrant? It’s certainly enough to bring in GenInt.” He frowned. “Not that I’d like to. But we might have to now.”
Miriam said, “I don’t want to bring GenInt in either. It’s still just a crazy theory, right? Let’s try talking to Dr Tagarin again. Jack and I can go.”
“The last time he saw you he said don’t come back without a warrant, remember?”
“Yes, but even without a warrant he might prefer us to GenInt.”
Chapter 20 – Tagarin
They parked the car and looked up towards the entrance. This is getting to be a habit, Miriam thought. Perhaps she and the gate would become friends.
“Oh well, let’s see if he still likes us,” Jack said. “Despite my superior experience and interrogation skills I think you should do the talking. If he likes anyone, it’s you. Like a boxer likes his punching bag, but it’s something.”
Tagarin had apparently given his gate an update. They had barely come within range when it said, “I detect no warrant, detectives. I believe my employer advised you that you were no longer welcome in his home and he would not entertain you without one.”
“Please convey my apologies to Dr Tagarin,” Miriam answered. “But there has been a development in the case. He is now a person of interest himself and it would be in his interests to talk to us.”
“Dr Tagarin wishes to know what part of the word ‘warrant’ you fail to understand. He further wishes me to remind you that no matter how interesting he is to you, the interest is not reciprocated. Especially when your interest is not shared by a judge, or not enough to get you that warrant. He also refers you back to his team of shark-like lawyers and wonders if you have more understanding of the word ‘harassment’ than of the word ‘warrant’?”
“It is true that we don’t have enough to get a warrant. But we do have enough to interest GenInt. We do not want to involve GenInt at this stage and I am sure Dr Tagarin would agree. We hope we can sort this out with a friendly discussion. That’s all we’re here for.”
The gate was silent.
In a few minutes, it opened without comment and they went up the path to the door. As they approached, the door opened and James greeted them. His butler façade had slipped a little and his eyes were hostile, though his manner was as gracious as ever.
Again they were ushered directly in to Dr Tagarin’s office. This time James stood less in the shadows and more in their line of sight. Miriam was impressed at how a man who appeared to have just one expression could make it appear as aloof politeness or stony threat without any detectable rearrangement of its features.
“All right officers, this is becoming repetitive. My Jacuzzi blondes will be getting jealous of you, Ms Hunter, and then I might become less relaxed than you’re used to,” he said with a sharp edge. “So what is this latest exciting piece of news?”
Miriam explained her reasoning about Katlyn’s possible accelerated development and how it solved the timing dilemma. She went on to note that if it was true, it indicated ongoing, undiscovered human genetic engineering in the years since it was made illegal. She omitted, however, the coincidence of phrasing between him and Katlyn. That wasn’t proof and would only put him more on the defensive. Best not to play that card yet: see what cards he showed, first.
“And so you think that I, as a once eminent expert in that field, am the most likely suspect?”
Miriam spread her hands. “Not necessarily, though you see how it looks. But you would also know any other likely candidates. For now, we are not treating you as a suspect. We just want to know what you think.”
“How kind,” he observed skeptically. “I think you are clutching at straws and at my expense. Surely it is obvious that even if your theory were plausible my previous assessment, that you are dealing with a skilled human with a few later enhancements, remains more likely.”
“Except that I have met her. It doesn’t ring true to me. Even she said she was a geneh. She practically beat me into naming it.”
“And you are a silly little girl who was scared out of her few wits!” he snapped. “Witnesses see things that aren’t there all the time, as you’d know if you’d done your schoolwork! Of course she wanted you to think she’s a geneh! A complete distraction from discovering her true nature, which might lead you to those capable of making her what she is! Maybe that is the sole reason she left you alive!”
“Perhaps I have been led to someone capable of making her,” she countered.
“Pah! You are obsessed with your childish fantasies, incapable of adult thought! There are no genehs! They are all dead! If you weren’t holding the stick of GenInt over my head I’d have James throw you both out!”
He glared at them, breathing heavily.
“I am sorry to anger you again, doctor. But do you claim that accelerated development is impossible? If not, why did you fail to mention it?”
“No, it is not impossible,” he said, as she saw his face slip into his dispassionate scientist mode. “But nor would it be easy. I can see paths one might take to achieve it. But really, think for once. Evolution doesn’t play games. A long childhood is dangerous for the child and expensive for the parent. There is a reason why our children take so long to grow up. We might look a lot like apes, but surely your nature show was not so stupid as to omit the main difference?” He tapped his own head. “This brain has made us what we are. It needs a lot of training. That is why we have a long childhood. It is not a matter of arbitrary chance, it is intimately tied to our humanity.”
“But you said her nervous system appears to be accelerated. Could that compensate? Allow her to have a shorter childhood?”
Tagarin started and gave her an odd look, almost of respect. “That is the most perceptive thing you’ve said yet, Ms Hunter. Perhaps. Perhaps. But still, it wouldn’t be easy. Our developmental program is tied to a lot of things: physical, hormonal, psycholog
ical. Perhaps it could be sped up a few years? Enough to give us someone who looks ten years older than she really is? Difficult. And if so she might have had a hard time of it, growing up. I’m not convinced she would have survived it.” He paused, considering.
“And even if it is scientifically possible, she still had to be born after the Geneh Laws were imposed. In our earlier interview I mentioned the need for sophisticated equipment, and the logistical problems are not to be ignored. This kind of work is highly technical. You can’t do it with a microscope and a pair of tweezers. Working out what to do, or at least working out what to try, can be done with a comprehensive comparative genetic database, a good computer program and a bit of human artistry. But doing it. Well. You are trying to perform delicate genetic manipulations on tiny delicate cells, and you don’t have much time to do it in. Successful genetic engineering of this order requires the right sequence of physical and enzymatic steps to insert or replace any number of genes, parts of genes or entire chromosomal segments – and it has to be done right. A slight mismatch and your genes won’t work at all. Bad positioning and the result will be a monster, dead or riddled with cancers. And the stem cells won’t wait for you forever: you have to do your engineering, patch up the cells and put them back into an environment that makes them happy again as soon as possible. And that’s not including the further difficulties in persuading a stem cell to achieve totipotency and from that go on to produce a viable embryo.
“It all requires highly advanced, very expensive robotic technology. There are few suppliers. The equipment has what GenInt would call ethical uses, for some medical procedures and of course for plant and animal genetic modification, which is still allowed at least in some countries and for some purposes. But GenInt has a chokehold on it. Every machine produced is tracked from cradle to grave, all its internal operations are electronically audited, and there are random site checks to boot. For our thief to be a geneh, her makers would somehow need access to such a machine and not only that, do their work without even the machine knowing about it. I don’t know how they could do it. Certainly GenInt have gone to great lengths to ensure they can’t.”
