Insects 3: Specimen

by John Koloen

  “I don’t know what to say,” he told Duncan, “it was a stupid mistake.”

  “Do you know how it happened?”

  “I think it got caught on one end and when I pulled it, it slipped through my fingers.”

  “So, it won’t happen again, right?”

  “No way.”

  “Good. No harm, no foul.”

  49

  REALIZING HOW DIFFICULT it would be to capture an adult for dissection, Duncan lamented giving the original female to Nolan Thomas. She’d been isolated from her offspring in a small aquarium and was easy to capture. He’d done it because he was fed up with Thomas’ demands and didn’t want to spend more time than he had to dealing with him. However, even at the time he knew how problematic it would be to capture a single adult without having to deal with the others in the tank. It was something he’d been putting off, hoping that the habitat would eliminate this problem.

  Boyd had been reluctant to discuss what Gruber had told him during one of their lunch meetings. Ever since Duncan had criticized him for being late to work—on a Saturday no less—he’d harbored resentment, which came and went and returned like a bad penny. The more time he spent with Carolyn, the less time he wanted to spend working. He wasn’t happy with how he felt, but he found himself making choices that he’d never made before. He was certain of one thing: if push came to shove, he’d choose Carolyn over his job, something he could never have imagined doing in the past. He wondered whether, now that he was in his late twenties, it was time to break away from his mentor and find his own way. He still had his master’s and, thanks to his job at Biodynamism, which was due entirely to Duncan, he was paying off his college debt so quickly that he was looking forward to being free and clear in less than a year.

  “I wish I hadn’t given it to him,” Duncan groused.

  “Too late for that,” Boyd said.

  They were sitting in Duncan’s office, sipping coffee and watching Chang going about his business in the lab.

  “Maybe we shouldn’t have been so quick to set up the habitat,” Duncan said. “All it’s done is eliminate counter space. There’s barely enough room for them.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that, too,” Boyd said.

  “Do you know, does Thomas still have the female? I know he said he didn’t plan to return it, but even if he killed it to get the eggs, we could dissect what’s left. We could at least get started with the process.”

  “Thomas only needed the eggs. Gruber said they tossed the body.”

  “What? He didn’t dissect it?”

  “He doesn’t care about what we’re doing,” Boyd said. “I thought I’d told you.”

  “No, this is news to me.”

  “Well, it is what it is.”

  Duncan looked at him disapprovingly.

  “Sorry, I know you don’t like that phrase. It’s water under the bridge, how’s that?”

  “Don’t be sarcastic.”

  “I’m not trying to be sarcastic,” Boyd protested.

  Finishing his coffee, Boyd started to leave the office, pausing at the doorway.

  “By the way, is it OK for me to get next weekend off? Carolyn wants to go to Austin for a concert. We already have tickets.”

  “Do I have a choice?” Duncan asked, looking up at his assistant.

  50

  JACOB WINSTON WAS alone in the lab when he saw something in one of the aquaria that surprised him. It was common knowledge in the lab that blaberus had a penchant for mounding leaves, sticks and other matter in the corners of the aquaria. Some of them secluded themselves under the material while others climbed it. Though the behavior seemed to be universal, Duncan had not formulated a hypothesis to explain it. The first female had remained under cover of the mound in her aquarium before giving birth. At the time, Duncan thought the behavior might be related to the birthing process. But with the increasing number of adults and the fact that other females gave birth in the open, the behavior had no explanation. It was just something they did. However, what Winston observed changed that.

  “You have to see this,” Winston said excitedly, having rushed to Duncan’s office.

  “See what?”

  “You won’t believe it.”

  Duncan followed his assistant into the lab, not knowing what to expect. He watched as Winston stood in front of one of the aquaria, pointing.

  It was the tank into which the strip of mesh had fallen. The mesh had been raised and now rested against one side of the twenty-nine-gallon aquarium like a ramp, only inches from the glass top. The strip was crawling with insects of every size.

  “It must’ve happened last night,” Winston surmised.

  Duncan could hardly believe what he was seeing.

  “Do we have video of this?”

  “No. We only got cameras on a couple tanks, but not this one.”

  Even though the top of the ramp didn’t reach the top of the aquarium, two adults, standing on their hind limbs, could reach the front edge of the glass top with their forelimbs.

  “They’re trying to get out, aren’t they, doctor?” Winston asked.

  Duncan, fascinated by what he saw, barely heard his assistant.

  “Get a camera on this now,” he said sharply, pulling up a stool in front of the aquarium. “I would not have believed this if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”

  51

  DUNCAN TOLD HIS assistants to drop a mesh strip into a second aquarium and record the results. Though it took hours, the insects turned it into a ramp. However, as much as he wanted to explore this behavior, as the third cohort grew toward adulthood, he could no longer put off the decision he didn’t want to make. After spending so much time and effort breeding them, he now had to kill some of them or lose control. But it was not as easy as spraying them with an insecticide. He didn’t want to kill all of them, but every tank posed the same problem. Even if he killed the insects in all but one of the aquaria, the problem of accessing them would remain. All of the aquaria were crawling with blaberus, all of which would try to escape at the first opportunity and attack whomever was in the lab.

  His assistants had ceased providing food and water to two of the aquaria and were in the process of documenting how long blaberus could go without food or water before dying. He hoped this would work, but it was apparent the first week that they tried it that it wouldn’t happen quickly. Specimens that died were eaten by the survivors. That couldn’t go on forever, but it made starvation a less effective strategy.

  Brainstorming with his staff provided many proposals that turned out to be unworkable or risky. Boyd’s suggestion of pouring an insecticide into the aquaria instead of water won out. It turned out to be another partial solution. Dozens of the creatures lay dead the next morning around the poisoned puddle, but it was clear from the video that they had figured out that the liquid was deadly.

  “How can they do that?” Boyd asked as he and Duncan reviewed the video. “How can they know?”

  “They can’t,” Duncan said. “But there it is.”

  “I guess we just stop feeding them and giving them water and eventually they have to die, right?”

  “What else can we do?”

  “Gas ’em?”

  “The habitats aren’t air-tight. The whole lab would be poisoned. We could move one of the tanks into another room to keep it safe, but how do we seal the lab so the gas doesn’t escape or get into the ventilation system? I need to talk to Gabe.”

  52

  “I WAS JUST going to call you,” division administrator Gabriel Cox said as he returned the handset to its cradle. The door to his office was open as Duncan entered.

  “What’s up?”

  “I have good news. The rest of your habitat is going to be delivered next week, Tuesday to be exact. What do you think of that?”

  “Will wonders ever cease?” Duncan said cheerfully, taking a seat facing Cox’s desk.

  “You know, I really wish this hadn’t been so hard to get done,” Cox s
aid sympathetically.

  “It’s not your fault,” Duncan said. “I just hope we can get it installed in time for the next generation.”

  “You’ve got like twenty thousand of them? Is that what I read in your report?”

  “That’s what we estimate. In a couple of weeks we’ll have a half million in a dozen fish tanks, if you can imagine that. You should come see.”

  “Your lab stinks too much,” Cox said.

  “Not much we can do about if we can’t clean the tanks. I don’t really notice it that much.”

  “But this new habitat, that solves all your problems, right?”

  “I hope so. But I need to talk to you about how to go about killing off some of our specimens.”

  “Killing them?”

  “Well, some of them. At least a few tanks, maybe more.”

  Duncan described the discussions he and his assistants had that morning.

  “This would not have been a problem had we gotten the habitat a month ago, but now, even if we get the habitat installed next week we will have far more specimens than we can handle.”

  “You can’t just transfer them to the habitat?”

  “Not with this many adults. We won’t be able to figure out a process until the new system is installed. I think it’s prudent to reduce the population now.”

  “You know, we have exterminators on campus. Maybe you should talk to them. Hell, they may even do it for you. They’re in Support Services. Shirley will help you if—”

  “That’s OK. I’ll call them myself.”

  Duncan was out of Cox’s office and down the hall when Cox got a call from Galen Mazur’s secretary. The division administrator went to the hallway to find Duncan, but was nowhere to be seen.

  “Shirley, call Dr. Duncan’s office and tell him we have a meeting this afternoon with Mr. Mazur.”

  “Can I tell him what it’s about?”

  “Mr. Mazur’s secretary didn’t say. Just that he wants to meet with us.”

  53

  “GOOD NEWS, GENTLEMEN,” Duncan said cheerfully as he returned to his office.

  “What is it, boss?” Boyd asked expectantly, as he and Chang exited the lab.

  “The rest of the habitat arrives next Tuesday, at least that’s the word from Gabe.”

  “Wonderful!” Chang said jubilantly, holding his hand up for high fives from Duncan and Boyd.

  “So, what happened?”

  “I didn’t ask. I didn’t expect it. All I could think about was getting everything ready for Tuesday.”

  “Are we still going to kill some of the bugs?” Chang asked.

  “We have to,” Duncan said. “I’m going to talk to someone in Support Services who can help.”

  “So, what should we do?” Boyd asked.

  “Nothing, for now. Let Jake know. Otherwise, just continue observing. This is turning out to be a great day. Once we get it installed, we’ll have everything under control.”

  “Should we continue to feed them?” Chang asked.

  “No, there’s no point.”

  54

  DUNCAN WAS IN high spirits when he joined Cox for the walk to Mazur’s plush office.

  “What’re we gonna talk about?”

  “No idea,” Cox said, straightening his tie and running his hands through his hair. “You haven’t been talking to him, have you?”

  “Not since the last time, which you know about.”

  Cox didn’t share Duncan’s enthusiasm. Unscheduled meetings with the CEO were fraught with intrigue. However, as he thought about it, he felt a slight sense of relief. The fact that he wanted to see Duncan too told him that the meeting had less to do with him than it did with the scientist. Duncan had met with Mazur only twice but the second meeting left him uneasy. Not even a university administrator would threaten him the way Mazur did, leaving no doubt in Duncan’s mind that he didn’t want to challenge him in any way.

  Mazur’s secretary looked at the wall clock in Mazur’s lobby and welcomed them.

  “You’re a little early,” she said, as if they’d committed a venial sin. “He’s on the phone.”

  “Any idea what this is about, Annette?” Cox asked.

  She gave him a skeptical look as she shook her head. “Can I get you something to drink?”

  Both men declined, sitting in silence until the secretary ushered them into Mazur’s office.

  “Gentlemen,” he said, his face betraying no emotion. “Have a seat.”

  The first thing they noticed was the figure of Biodynamism’s security chief James Haverty standing in a corner, facing them, his muscular arms crossed. Cox thought it an ominous sign. Duncan was oblivious to this as he waited for an opportunity to update the big boss on the status of his new habitat. Eyeing the two men, Mazur folded and unfolded his hands on his desk.

  “There’s no point in beating around the bush,” he said. “We are discontinuing Dr. Duncan’s project.”

  55

  “I CAN’T BELIEVE this,” Cody Boyd said as Howard Duncan described his meeting with CEO Galen Mazur. “The bastard. They’re shutting us down, just like that?”

  Duncan had called his staff together soon after returning to his office. He had come to the meeting with Mazur in a good mood and left it angry and in a state of disbelief. For his part, Cox felt relieved that he was not involved with the decision and then struggled to find words to assuage the obviously distraught scientist. Duncan had many colleagues but few friends. With the exception of Cody Boyd, Cox was the closest thing to a friend that he had at Biodynamism, which meant that he had more meetings and conversations with him than anyone else. But it didn’t stop him from thinking the worst.

  “Did you have anything to do with this?” he had demanded after leaving Mazur’s office.

  “No, of course not,” Cox said defensively. “I had no idea.”

  “You’re sure? I mean, if you did, then at least be honest about it.”

  “I’m as blindsided as you are. I’ve got no reason to lie to you. I was looking forward to getting your habitat delivered.”

  Boyd had never seen his boss this infuriated, not even while he was being railroaded out of academia. As Duncan explained it, Nolan Thomas was successful in creating clones from the blaberus eggs.

  “Mazur said they no longer need our specimens,” Duncan said. “He said Dr. Thomas had produced clones from our eggs and they no longer need a breeding population.”

  “How can they do that? Where are they gonna get the eggs for more clones?” Jake Winston asked.

  “Mazur didn’t go into details,” Duncan said morosely.

  “This is just plain not fair,” Malcolm Chang said indignantly.

  “Tell me about it,” Boyd said. “Damn!”

  Boyd pushed his chair back and left the room, nearly slamming the door to Duncan’s office against a wall as he pushed it open. Looking at his colleagues and shaking his head he stormed out of the lab’s main entrance and down the hallway. Duncan called for him but he wasn’t listening.

  “Where’s he going?” Winston asked.

  “To see his girlfriend?” Chang suggested.

  “What’s she gonna do?”

  Chang gave Winston a derisive glance, as if the answer was too obvious to mention.

  “No, really. It’s not like she can do anything about it.”

  It didn’t take long for their initial shock and anger to pass, as they started to consider their options.

  “So, Dr. Duncan, what happens to the bugs, I mean blaberus?” Chang asked.

  “They’ll be exterminated.”

  “All of them?”

  “They’re going to keep one of the tanks. Mazur didn’t go into detail and I didn’t ask. I was stunned. I wasn’t expecting this at all.”

  ‘So, what about us?” Winston asked. “What happens to us?”

  “You’ll be fine. I don’t think this was supposed to be a permanent job for you. Cox will help you find a job in the company, if that’s what you want to do.” />
  Winston and Chang tried to conceal it as they exchanged surreptitious fist bumps. Duncan couldn’t help but notice.

  “Not so bad now, is it?” he said.

  The two looked at each other as if they’d been caught stealing cookies.

  “I’m sorry, Dr. Duncan,” Chang stammered. “Of course this is a bad thing but, you know, we’re not entomologists, we’re STEM graduates.”

  “That’s probably why it won’t be long before you find another job. You know, maybe you should clear your stuff out and meet with Gabe. I need to make some phone calls.”

  The three shook hands and the two assistants went to their lockers, grabbed their lab coats and backpacks and headed toward Cox’s office.

  “You know, I didn’t really like working with the bugs anyway,” Winston said.

  “Yeah, they’re stinky and I was getting kinda afraid of them.”

  “Me, too. I even had a nightmare.”

  “And here we are, lost one job and we’re about to get another one,” Chang said.

  “We hope.”

  “Don’t be a spoil sport,” Chang said, wrapping his arm around his companion’s shoulder. “I just hope our next job is better than this one.”

  “That won’t be hard to do.”

  56

  CAROLYN MCKENZIE WAS on a break when she answered Boyd’s call. She was sitting at a table in her lab’s breakroom, talking with colleagues. She knew immediately that he was upset about something, but he was speaking so fast that it was difficult to understand him. Not wanting her friends to listen in, she held the phone to her right ear and motioning with her free hand left hurriedly, ducking into a vacant conference room and leaving the door open.