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"You do that," Lem said, "you wouldn’t just wind up in jail You’d lose your job, ruin your whole career"

"I don’t think so In court I’d clai the national security and betraying the trust of the people who elected me to office in this county I’d claim that, in a time of crisis like this, I had to put local public safety above the concerns of the Defense bureaucrats in Washington I’m confident just about any jury would vindicate me I’d stay out of jail, and in the next election I’d win by even ot the last time"

"Shit," Lem said because he knew Walt was correct

"If you tell me about it now, if you convince me that your people are better

able to handle the situation than mine, then I’ll step out of your way But if you won’t tellmy neck in the noose"

"No one’ll ever know you told me"

"Yeah? Well then, Walt, for Christ’s sake, why put me in such an aard position just to satisfy your curiosity?"

Walt looked stung "It’s not as petty as that, damn you It’s not just curiosity"

"Then what is it?"

"One of ainst the seat, Lehed Walt had to knohy he was required to forswear vengeance for the killing of one of his own men His sense of duty and honor would not allow him to back off without at least that o down there, talk to the reporters?" Walt asked quietly Lem opened his eyes, wiped a hand across his day He wanted to roll down hisBut now and then men walked past on their way in or out of the house, and he really could not risk anyone overhearing what he was going to tell Walt "You were right to focus on Banodyne For a few years they’ve been doing defense-related research"

"Biological warfare?" Walt asked "Using recombinant DNA to er to do with this case, and I’ to tell you about the research that’s related to our proble Walt started the car There was no air conditioning, and the fog on the s continued to spread, but even the vague, moist, warm breeze fro on several research progra of the Francis Project Na 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 anie of a project ai hue of porpoises-that sort of thing?"

"No The idea was to apply the very latest knowledge in genetic engineering to the creation of anience, aniht, aniht be able to Communicate"

Walt stared at him in openmouthed disbelief

Le 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 sperolden retrievers, which he had chosen because the dogs had been bred with ever greater refine, this refinement meant that, in the purest of the breed, all diseases and afflictions of an inheritable nature had been pretty enetic code, which insured Weatherby of healthy and bright subjects for his experiments Then, if the experimental pups were born with abnoruish those mutations of a natural type from those that were an unintended side effect of his own sly tae, and he would be able to learn fro 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 woate mothers The bitches carried the test-tube pups to full ters 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 nor 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 enetic deterhter than the retriever-"

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

"Yeah Apesand hus"

"Jesus," Walt said

Lem adjusted a dashboard vent to direct the flow of tepid air into his face "Weatherby was inserting that foreign genetic enetic code, sienes that li"

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 enetic enes beco a hu the enetic material in its human host Consider the AIDS virus, for instance It’s believed AIDS was a disease carried by certain h neither species was susceptible to it; I ot sick

fro happened in e that made thean to die of the disease Then, when the virus passed to hu susceptibility to AIDS, so before long hu the disease That’s hoorks in nature It’s done even ed the side s, Walt said, "So Weatherby really succeeded in breeding a dog with huradually he o, the ?"

"Not like a hu, but ?"

"That hat the Pentagon wanted Which uess Apparently, brain size has at least a little bit to do with intelligence, and Weatherby h a lot sooner if he’d been able to develop a retriever with a larger brain But a larger brain would havewould have looked daed over now Neither Walt nor Lelass Unable to see out of the car, confined to its humid and claustrophobic interior, they seemed to be cut off from the real world, adrift in time and space, a condition that was oddly conducive to the consideration of the wondrous and outrageous acts of creation that genetic engineeringthat looked like a dog but could think like a e," Le deep into eneth Intelligent dogs, e could somehow communicate, would then return and tell us what they had seen and what they’d overheard the enes could be made to talk, like canine versions of Francis the Mule or Mr Ed? Shit, Lem, be serious!"

Le these astounding possibilities Modern science was advancing so rapidly, with so many revolutionary discoveries to be explored every year, that to layly less difference between the application of that science and ic Few nonscientists had any appreciation for how different the world of the next twenty years was going to be from the world of the present, as different as the 1980s were fro at an Incoht be co, exhilarating and scary

Leenetically altered to be able to speak Might even be easy, I don’t know But to give it the necessary vocal apparatus, the right kind of tongue and lipsthat’d ood for the Pentagon’s purposes So these dogs wouldn’t speak Con language"

"You’re not laughing," Walt said "This has got to be a fuing joke, so why aren’t you laughing?"

"Think about it," Leine the president of the United States presenting the Soviet preift fro in the premier’s home and office, privy to the hest Party officials Once in a while, every feeeks or ht, to ent in Moscow and be debriefed"

"Debriefed? This is insane!" Walt said, and he laughed But his laughter had a sharp, hollow, decidedly nervous quality which, to Le away even though he wanted to hold on to it