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Seize the Night Dean Koontz 43120K 2023-09-02

Personally, all this ood old days when theup city-busting nuclear boas that causes its victims to turn inside out the way caterpillars do when cruel little boys sprinkle salt on them

For these experienerally can’t afford to hire first-rate attorneys to prevent thely, human subjects were readily available, as well Soldiers courts-e murders and conde inain this secret enterprise

Then so tioes woefully wrong Some say this is because the universe is inherently chaotic Others say this is because we are a species that has fallen fro humankind, for every Moe there are thousands of Curlys and Larrys

The delivery systeenetic material into the cells of research subjects--to insert it in their DNA chains--was a retrovirus brilliantly conceived by my mom, Wisteria Jane Snoho somehow still had tiineered retrovirus was designed to be fragile, crippled--that is, sterile--and benign:tool that would do exactly anted of it Once having done its job, it was supposed to die But it soonthat could be passed in bodily fluids through sie instead of disease These anisms captured random sequences of DNA fro them into the bodies of the project scientists, who for a while re slowly but profoundly altered Physically, mentally, e to thee…to have a lot in coes

A couple years ago, this process suddenly became obvious when a violent episode occurred in the labs No one has explained to me exactly what happened People killed one another in a bizarre, savage confrontation The experimental animals either escaped or were purposefully released by people who felt a strange kinship with theence had been substantially enhanced Although I’d thought intelligence was related to brain size and to the number of folds in the surface of the brain, these rhesuses didn’t have enlarged craniums; except for a few telltale characteristics, they resembled ordinary members of their species

Thefro to eradicate them and all other evidence of what happened at Wyvern before the public learns that its elected officials have ensured the end of the world as we know it Other than those involved in the conspiracy, only a handful of us know anything about these events, and if we atteh we possess no hard proof, they will kill us as righteously as they would waste the rhesuses

They killed my mom They claim that she was despondent over the way in which her as h speed into a bridge abutment just south of town But my mother was not a quitter And she would never have abandonedI believe she intended to go public, spill the truth to thea consensus for a crash research prograer than the Manhattan Project, coenetic scientists in the world So they pushed her through the big door and slammed it behind her This is what I believe I have no proof She was my mom, however; and about some of these issues, I’ll believe what I want, what Ifaster than the e can be undone or even contained Infected Wyvern personnel relocated all over the country, carrying the retrovirus with them, before anyone knew there was a problem, before a quarantine could have been effectively imposed Genetic mutation will probably occur in all species Perhaps the only thing in doubt is whether this will be a slow process that requires decades or centuries to unfold--or whether the terror will rapidly escalate Thus far, the effects have been, with rare exception, subtle and not widespread, but this may be the calm before the holocaust Those responsible are, I believe, frantically seeking a rey in an effort to conceal the source of the onco catastrophe, so no one will knoho’s to blaovernment wants to face the public’s wrath They’re not afraid of being booted out of office Far worse than job loss ht be tried for cri cover-up as necessary to avoid panic in the streets, civil disorder, and perhaps even an international quarantine of the entire North American continent, but what really concerns theryin the street outside the bungaloere a the twelve who had escaped froht of violence Most were descendants of the escapees, bred in freedoent as their parents

Ordinary monkeys are chatterboxes, but I heard no sound froether hat see, but if they raised their voices, the gabble wasn’t audible either through theglass or through the open front door, only a few feet away

They were plotting soh the rhesuses are not as sh to aet them drunk

These precocious primates aren’t the primary threat born in the laboratories at Wyvern That honor ht reo, the monkeys constitute a da-terned rhesuses, consider that rats are dreadful pests even though they are a tiny fraction as intelligent as we are Scientists estimate that rodents destroy twenty percent of the food supply ide, in spite of the fact that we are relatively effective at extereable Iht happen if rats were even half as s than they now enjoy We’d be engaged in a desperate ith the theour adversaries in soh level of intelligence, they have another quality that makes theh rats operate entirely on instinct and have insufficient brain power to take anything personally, these monkeys hate us with a black, bitter passion

I believe they are hostile toward humanity because we created them but did a half-assed job We robbed them of their simple animal innocence, in which they were content We raised their intelligence until they became aware of the wider world and of their true place in it, but we didn’t give theence to make it possible for theh to be dissatisfied with the life of a ive them the means to fulfill their dreadom and cannot find a new place to fit in Cut loose fro, lost, full of a yearning that can never beus If I were one of them, I’d hate us, too

My syalow and into the street, tenderly grasped a e at the arrogance of the hu rendition of "Yes, We Have No Bananas"

In minutes, I would be reduced to kibble

My mother’s work led to the creation of this troop, which they appear to understand: They have stalked eance on her for the anguished, outcast lives they lead Because I’m her only child, the monkeys nurture a special animosity toward me Perhaps they should Perhaps their hatred of every Snow is justified Of all people, I have no right to debate the h this doesn’t ed to pay a price for what, with the best ofsafely unkibbled at the bungalo, I heard what seee bell, followed by a clatter I watched as the churning troop parted around an object I couldn’t see A scraping of iron on stone followed, and several individuals conspired to raise the weighty thing onto its side

Busya clear view of the itean to roll it in a circle, fro while others scae In the burnishing ht, it initially reseiant’s pocket from the top of Jack’s beanstalk Then I realized it was a manhole cover they had pried fro as though they were a group of exuberant children who had made a toy out of an old tire In my experience, such playfulness was completely out of character for them Of my previous encounters with the troop, only one had been face-to-face, and throughout that confrontation, they had acted less like children than like a pack of homicidal skinheads wired on PCP-and-cocaine cocktails