by J. A. Faura
“Mr. Loomis! I didn’t know you were coming, does Dr. Leonard know you’re coming this morning?”
Steven nodded, “Yes, he does. I called him yesterday. He said to come by this morning. Is he free?”
She smiled and stood up, “Yes, he is, please come back.”
When they were a few feet away from his office door she excused herself and went back up front. He knocked lightly on the open door as he stepped to the threshold.
Leonard turned toward him, a stack of blue test booklets balanced precariously on his desk, “Mr. Loomis! Come in, come in, please!”
He walked over to the small table in his office where there were even more booklets and moved a stack of books from the chair they were in to the floor. “I apologize for the mess. I keep meaning to get some of my graduate assistants to clean it out, but it seems I need everything here. I know it looks messy, but believe it or not I know where everything is, wouldn’t know what to do with myself if it were all clean.”
Loomis smiled and took the chair he had emptied. Leonard sat down across the table from him and with that beaming smile that seemed to always be parked on his face asked, “So, what can I do for you?”
Steven wasn’t sure where to start. There was so much he wanted to say to the man, but he knew that now was not the time to say it.
He started with the main reason he was there, “Dr. Leonard, first of all I want to apologize. I know how busy you are and I know how difficult the media can make things. It seems like they’re everywhere I turn these days and I know that it’s probably the same for you. I am sorry for that, it’s not what I intended and I wish I could change it, but I can’t. That’s the reason I asked to meet with you at this ungodly hour.”
The smile on Leonard’s face widened, “My dear sir, there’s nothing to be sorry for! Are you kidding?! I’ve been toiling in obscurity for over two decades, hoping that one day what we’ve accomplished, the work we’ve done, would see the light of day, but knowing all the while that it probably would not happen in my lifetime. Now not only is the world interested in the work I’ve been doing, they want to know what’s next! I’m scheduled to go on with Piers Morgan the day after tomorrow! No, Mr. Loomis, you don’t have a single thing to be sorry about. As for the hour, I am usually in here before six, so it was no problem.”
Steven smiled, honestly surprised by Leonard’s response, “I suppose I hadn’t thought about it that way. I’m glad, professor, the world needs to know about what you’ve done, the things you’ve discovered.”
Leonard’s face now took on a more serious expression, “I don’t know what you’ve gone through, I really can’t imagine, but I can assure you of one thing, Mr. Loomis, the world will know. I will make sure they know and so will all the other scientists that have dedicated their lives to this.”
Steven nodded and went on, “I’m also here because, as I am sure you’ve heard, my trial starts in a few weeks and my defense team is planning to call you as an expert witness, and I wanted to personally give you the heads up. I hope that won’t be a problem.”
Leonard shook his head, “Not at all. I am assuming they will be calling me to testify to the work I’ve done and to go over my findings.”
Steven nodded, “That’s right, that’s exactly what you’ll be called to testify about. My lawyers also want you to review Donald Riche’s file, you know, his history, his background and upbringing, and to provide your opinion.”
Leonard’s expression changed into one of concern, “Mr. Loomis, I can do a psychological autopsy and provide my point of view relative to it, but I hope you understand that there is simply no way for me to be able to determine whether Mr. Riche was in fact a Homo sapiens predaer. I just can’t make that determination. I wouldn’t feel right about doing that.”
Steven explained further, “I don’t think that’s what they’re looking for you to do, professor. I think the idea is that you do the psychological autopsy and then provide an opinion whether what you find might lead you to conclude that Riche could have been one of them. This whole thing professor is not about proving that Donald Riche was a Homo predator. I don’t think anybody believes that you can say unequivocally whether he was one or not.”
Leonard’s smile returned, “That I can do. I’ve done quite a bit of that over the years, actually. Unfortunately, we don’t always get to our subjects in time, and when that happens all we have is what’s left in their profile file.”
That settled, Steven debated whether to ask the scientist a question that had been bothering him for some time.
Leonard could see that the man was debating whether to ask something and decided to probe, “What’s on your mind, Mr. Loomis? I have a feeling that there something else you want to say.”
Steven smiled and shook his head slowly, “You got me. Yeah, you’re right, professor, I do have something I’ve been thinking about.”
Leonard just waited and Steven eventually broke down, “Alright, we’ve talked about this new species and you’ve explained that the reason you began to speculate that this was a new species in the first place was because they didn’t conform to the norms that you and your colleagues and others had set for extreme aberrant behavior, that you made the determination that these things are the way they are from the time they’re born, that they’re not a product of education or environment, but how do you know?
“I mean to make that determination you would really have to start studying them before they are old enough to be affected by their environment, and I can’t imagine that you’ve been able to conduct your experiments on newborn babies.”
Leonard’s expression lit up again. This was his field, what he’d dedicated a lifetime to, and it showed every time he was about to explain something. “Very perceptive, Mr. Loomis, very perceptive, but you see, while we can’t research newborns, we can research babies before they’re affected by any human norms or their surrounding environment. It’s relatively new research, pioneered by the Infant Cognition Center at Yale University. They’ve been researching babies as young as three months old, researching whether altruistic behavior and cooperative behavior is something human children are born with, something innate.”
Steven remembered the research Scoma had told him about, “Yeah, Dr. Scoma told me about some of it.”
Leonard stopped and, with a glint in his eye, stood up, “You know what? Come with me. I think you’ll find what I’m about to show you quite enlightening.”
Steven followed Leonard out of his office and down a short hallway. They went into a room with several flat-screen televisions and some DVD players attached to them. He sifted through a small stack of DVDs sitting on a television before finding what he was looking for. He walked over put the DVD into one of the players, turned the television on and motioned for Steven to sit down. Steven watched as the study utilizing the puppets that Scoma had described unfolded. It was clear that most babies shown chose the helpful puppet in the scenario. The same scenario was repeated several times with various babies.
Leonard turned the television off and turned to Steven, “We duplicated that experiment many, many times and just as you saw in that video, more than 90 percent of the babies chose the helpful puppet. The implications were astounding. This meant that human babies were basically predisposed to do good, to be helpful. Other experiments with other children found that roughly the same percentage were willing to share without being prompted to and they were willing to be helpful, even at their own expense.
“All of this, Mr. Loomis, had led the researchers at Yale and at other similar institutions to conclude that human babies are basically born ‘good,’ that there is what we often call a moral compass that leads them to choose to do what we as a society have determined is the right thing. It is still a young science and there are many other experiments being conducted as we speak, but that’s the gist of it.”
Leonard, with a sparkle in his eye and back in his child-in-a-toy-store mode, went on, “
So most of these researchers were testing the inherent goodness in humans, even at a very young age, but we were interested in the 10 percent that chose the ‘bad’ puppet. We retested them using different scenarios, and at first we found that for most it had nothing to do with good or bad, but rather a preference in color. They simply preferred one color versus another.”
Steven jumped in, “You said ‘most.’ What about the other....”
Leonard held up his index finger in triumph, “Exactly! What about those who chose the ‘bad’ puppet for some other reason? We conducted other similar experiments with those babies and found that those that selected the ‘bad’ puppet in one scenario selected the ‘bad’ puppet in every other scenario we devised. We began to get excited, but we had to make sure, so we kept track of those children and brought them back when they were older, 12 to 15 months to be precise. We eliminated all the children that had in any way been exposed to any form of psychological or physical trauma or whose parents seemed unstable or whose life situation was otherwise compromised.”
Leonard found another DVD and put it in. In the scene that started playing, an adult sat in a chair and there were two babies in the room playing with some toys. The adult then dropped a pen in such a way that the babies could see it. The adult attempted to reach the pen, stretching his arms and making gestures that showed he wanted the pen, but could not reach it. In the first group of toddlers, the two babies watched the adult struggle and after a short time, one walked over, picked up the pen and handed it to the adult. The same scenario was repeated with several children from the 90 percent group. In each situation, one or both of the babies tried to help the adult get the pen or they picked it up and handed it to the adult themselves. After repeating it several times, the experiment was conducted with one child from the 90 percent group and one child from the other group. Again, both toddlers watched the adult struggle and after some time the ‘good’ baby got up and got the pen while the other baby watched. The scenario was repeated several times with the same toddlers and each time the same thing happened.
Leonard whispered, “Now watch this.”
In the next scene, the same situation unfolded, except this time when the ‘good’ baby got up to go get the pen, the other child walked over and pushed the helpful child down, walked over to the pen, picked it up and walked back to where he’d been playing, pen sitting right beside him.
Leonard pushed pause, “That same situation was replayed with several iterations, and in every instance the same thing happened.”
Steven was not clear on what it was that he had seen, “So one baby wanted the pen for himself, is that it?”
Now excited, Leonard explained, “No, Mr. Loomis, the child did not know what a pen was or what it was used for. He waited until he knew that the pen had some worth for the adult and once he made that determination, he made the decision that he’d keep the pen for himself, even if he didn’t know what it was.
“If you observe closely, he gets really interested when the other child delivers the pen. We were able to ascertain that the reason for that is because the child was calculating whether the adult could reach far enough to actually catch the child picking up the pen, and when he saw that the adult couldn’t reach, he made his move.
“What you have witnessed, Mr. Loomis, is a 15-month-old child, not shaped by education or trauma or environment, making tactical calculations, assessing the worth of the object the adult wanted and finally deciding that it was important, which meant that it must have some value. The child didn’t know how or why but he knew it was useful and valuable, and that meant that if he had it, he would have more than the other two players in the scene. Fifteen months, Mr. Loomis, fifteen months!”
They watched a few more videos and when the last one was finished Leonard turned off the television.
Steven was shaking his head, “Jesus, this is amazing. It’s also scary as hell.”
Leonard turned to look at Steven, “Yes, Mr. Loomis, it is. Now you understand why some of my colleagues and I have determined that they are the new apex predators of the planet. If they are capable of that at 15 months, what do you think they’re able to do when they’re older and more educated and perhaps in a position of power?”
Steven leaned back in the chair he was sitting. He knew what one of them could do with all those things, had thought he knew it when he found Riche’s warehouse, but realized that was just the tip of the iceberg. Barlow had shown him that.
Steven thought of something he had heard Barlow say, “Professor, have you heard of a Nigel Barlow?”
Leonard’s expression turned into one of curiosity, “Yes, yes I have. Why do you ask?”
Steven did not want to complicate his relationship with Leonard any further, “I came across his name while I was doing some of my research.”
Leonard still looked puzzled, “Interesting. He hasn’t been involved in serious research for some time. He does consulting and profiling work for law enforcement. I believe he also has a practice. He’s a neuropsychologist.”
Steven went on, “What do you mean he hasn’t been involved in serious research? What kind of research has he done?”
Leonard looked uncomfortable talking about this. Steven could tell the man had come across Barlow at some point and had been affected by his dealings with him the same way he had.
Leonard was clearly being cautious as he answered, “What I mean is that he’s not done the type of research that most academics engage in. Research that can be reviewed, duplicated and then reviewed again. He hasn’t published anything in any peer review publication. He believed that we should simply observe them as they engaged in their atrocities. That in and of itself was enough to get him shunned by most of the scientific community interested in the science we were exploring.”
Leonard shook his head slowly as he continued, “But then he began writing a manifesto, something out of science fiction. He believed these beings were superior to humans and should be nurtured, allowed to reach their full potential. He believed the only way humans would survive this species was by understanding them and then harnessing their natural tendencies to our advantage. That ensured he would never be taken seriously by anyone in the scientific community. Then he disappeared for a few years, and when he came back, he started doing the work I just mentioned to you.”
Steven nodded. He didn’t want to show any sign that he was interested in Barlow beyond just simple curiosity.
“Well, like I said, I saw his name in a few things I came across and just wondered whether you’d ever come across him.”
Leonard nodded thoughtfully and responded, talking more to himself than to Steven, “Yes, yes I have. He’s not the type of person you ever forget, if you get my meaning.”
Steven simply nodded. If there had been even a shadow of a doubt or hesitation about what he had done, this had taken care of it. They went back to Leonard’s office, where Steven thanked the professor for his time and called for his driver. He knew it would be about 20 minutes, so he sat down in the chair Leonard had cleared.
Leonard sat across from him, “So, I suppose now you and your legal team will go about getting ready.” Steven sighed, hung his head and ran his hands through his hair. “Yeah, professor, that’s right, although to be honest with you, I’m lost half the time when my lawyers start talking about it.”
Leonard smiled, “I can imagine it’s like listening to another language.”
Steven smiled back and nodded. He thought about the change that had come over Scoma when they spoke and he thought of another question he wanted to ask Leonard.
“Professor, Dr. Scoma mentioned that the two of you had written a paper together. I know I came across it in my research, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was about. How did the two of you come together? I mean, I know how your work intersects now, but how did you meet?”
Leonard’s expression changed. That semipermanent smile that always seemed to be parked on
his face vanished. He regarded Loomis with a mixture of caution and compassion. That told Loomis that he was trying to decide whether to answer his question or not. That meant that the answer to his question was something far beyond ‘our work brought us together.’
After a few seconds, Leonard let out a big sigh and proceeded to explain how the two scientists had met. “Jim Scoma is a brilliant mind, Mr. Loomis, absolutely brilliant, but he’s also one of the finest human beings I have come across.”
Leonard paused and Steven got the distinct impression that he was saying all of it to prepare Loomis for what he was about to tell him. He nodded but said nothing.
“Jim was about to get ready to begin his own work relative to the new species. He’d read some of my papers and had been at some of the conferences where I spoke and became interested in what we were doing.” Steven just listened.
“Before starting his research, Jim thought it might be a good idea to establish a baseline for human physiology and genetics. He wanted to have something to measure his results against, so he tested himself in order to establish that baseline.”
Leonard paused and Steven could sense where he was going. He now understood why Leonard had been careful about answering the question. He remained quiet.
“After he got the results of all his testing, he became extremely concerned. You see, Mr. Loomis, Jim Scoma’s tests were almost identical to those of individuals that we’d come to establish as Homo sapiens predaer.”
This last statement seemed to hang in the air as Leonard allowed Loomis to fully digest it. His mind was racing and he had a million questions he wanted to ask, but he settled for a much simpler, almost feeble response, “How?”
Leonard’s smile appeared again, although it still did not have the brilliance in normally carried, “That was basically his question to me: How? He was confused, as you can imagine, and wanted to know how it could be possible.
“When we met, we went over all my findings and over his own measurements and quickly determined that while his physiology, genetic makeup and cognitive processes were a close parallel, there were some differences. Still, his results were definitely not within human norms. That was the reason he decided to research this from another angle, from an angle that did not concentrate on my end of the scale.”