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How I love the world in all its beauty and strangeness

Because of er in the years to come--and perhaps less beautiful

If not for me, she would have refused to put her mind to work for the project at Wyvern, would never have led them on new roads of inquiry And ould not have followed one of those roads to the precipice on whichstand

As Orson moved to make room for him, Manuel came to theHe stared in at his son, and with his face ht in his eyes but only overwhelence of animals," I said "Hoould that have , what better spy than a dog as s, sent behind enes’ passports What better scout on a battlefield?"

Maybe you engineer an exceptionally powerful dog that’s sely vicious when it needs to be You have a new kind of soldier: a biologically designed killing ht intelligence depended on brain size"

He shrugged "I’m just a cop"

"Or on the number of folds in the brain surface"

"Evidently they discovered different Anyway," Manuel said, "there was a previous success Soo An aolden retriever The Wyvern operation was launched to capitalize on what they learned froence It was about enhancing hus"

In the studio, hands covered with Kevlar gloves, Toby placed the hot vase into a bucket half filled with ver process

Standing at Manuel’s side, I said, "Many things? What else?"

"They wanted to enhance hu ways not just to transfer genetic material from one person to another but from species to species"

Species to species

I heard ranular vermiculite over the vase, until it was covered Verlass to continue cooling very slowly and at a constant rate

I res, cats, and monkeys were not the only experimental subjects in the labs at Wyvern, that there was so worse

"People," I said numbly "They experiuilty of murder, condemned to life sentences in military prisons They could rot there…or take part in the project andon people…"

"I doubt yourabout that They didn’t always share with her all the ways they applied her ideas"

Toby must have heard our voices at the , because he took off the insulated gloves and raised the big goggles fro," Manuel said "I’ not just in one way Many ways It blew up in their faces Suddenly things happened they weren’t expecting Changes they didn’t conteenetic es that weren’t desired and couldn’t be controlled…"

I waited a moment, but he apparently wasn’t prepared to tell me more I pressed hiela Ferry look that Manuel turned onthat I was sure he had seen into my heart, knew the contents of my every pocket, and had an accurate count of the number of bullets left in the Glock

"They recaptured the rhesus," he said, "butits escape to huo, released They didn’t realize there were a few scientists in the project ere…beco new Changing"

Toby switched off the natural gas The Fisher burner sed its own fla how?" I asked Manuel

"Whatever delivery systeenetic material in a research animal or prisoner…that system just took on a life of its own"

Toby turned off all but one panel of fluorescents, so I could go inside for a visit

Manuel said, "Geneticcarried into the bodies of the project scientists without their being aware of it Eventually, soan to have a lot in common with the animals"

"Jesus"

"Too much in common maybe There was some kind of…episode I don’t know the details It was extremely violent People died And all the animals either escaped or were let out"

"The troop"

"About a dozen ss and cats…and nine of the prisoners"

"And they’re still loose?"

"Three of the prisoners were killed in the attempt to recapture them The military police enlisted our help That’s when most of the cops in the department were contaminated But the other six and all the animals…they were never found"

The man-size barn door opened, and Toby stepped into the threshold "Daddy?" Shuffling as ed hirinned at me "Hello, Christopher"

"Hi, Toby"

"Hi, Orson," the boy said, letting go of his father and dropping to his knees to greet the dog

Orson liked Toby He allowed himself to be petted

"Come visit," Toby said

To Manuel, I said, "There’s a whole new troop now Not violent like the first Or at least…not violent yet All tagged with transponders, which means they were set loose on purpose Why?"

"To find the first troop and report their whereabouts They’re so elusive that all other attempts to locate them have failed It’s a desperation plan, an attee But this isn’t working, either It’s just creating another problem"

"And not only because of Father Eliot"

Manuel stared ath And too ht--Father Toht him out Others chew the transponders out of each other This new troop…they’re not violent but they’re plenty smart and they’ve becoing Orson, Toby repeated his invitation to me: "Come visit, Christopher"

Before I could respond, Manuel said, "It’s al hoht sky was beginning to turn gray in that direction, the fog prevented e

"We’ve been friends for quite a few years," Manuel said "Seems like I owed you soood to Toby But you know enough now I’ve done what’s right for an old friend Maybe I’ve done too , he had un in his holster He patted the weapon "We won’t be watching any Jackie Chanme not to come back I wouldn’t have tried to ht have returned to see Toby from time to time Not now

I called Orson to o