Chromosome 6

by Robin Cook

  “Good job, man! My name’s Warren and this is Jack.” Jack had come up alongside Warren.

  “I’m Kevin.”

  “Cool,” Warren said. “You back these wheels up, and we’ll see what we can do with the other opening.”

  “How did you get out so quickly?” Kevin asked.

  “Man, you pulled out the whole friggin’ frame,” Warren said.

  Kevin climbed into the car and slowly backed up. He could see the two men had already detached the chain.

  “It worked!” Melanie said. “Congratulations.”

  “I must admit it was better than I thought,” Kevin said.

  A moment later, someone thumped on the back of the Toyota. When Kevin looked, he could see one of the men wave for him to go forward.

  Kevin used the same driving technique he’d used the first episode. With approximately the same amount of power there was the same sudden release and unfortunately the same clanging noise. This time a soldier had appeared at the window.

  Kevin didn’t move, and he prayed the two men he’d just met did the same. The soldier proceeded to bring a wine bottle to his lips and in the process knocked several of the empties off the sill. They shattered on the stone pavement. Then he turned and disappeared back into the room.

  Kevin got out of the vehicle in time to see two women being extracted from the second window well. As soon as they were free, all four rushed for the car. Kevin went around to detach the chain but found that Warren was already in the process of doing so.

  They all climbed into the Toyota without discussion. Jack and Warren squeezed into the jump seats in the back while Laurie and Natalie joined Candace on the middle bench.

  Kevin put the car in gear. After a final glance at the army post, he drove from the parking lot. He didn’t switch on the lights until they were away from town hall.

  The escape had been a heady experience for everyone: triumph for Kevin, Melanie, and Candace; surprise and utter relief for the crew from New York. The seven exchanged terse introductions; then the questions started. At first, everyone spoke at the same time.

  “Wait a second, everybody!” Jack shouted over the babble. “We need some order in this chaos. Only one person at a time.”

  “Well, damn!” Warren said. “I’m going first! I just want to thank you guys for coming when you did.”

  “I’ll second that,” Laurie said.

  Having cleared the central part of town, Kevin pulled into the parking lot for the main supermarket. There were several other cars. He stopped and turned off the lights and the engine.

  “Before we talk about anything else,” Kevin said. “We’ve got to talk about getting out of this town. We don’t have a lot of time. How did you people originally plan on leaving?”

  “By the same boat we came in on,” Jack said.

  “Where’s the boat?” Kevin asked.

  “We assume it’s where we left it,” Jack said. “Pulled up on the beach under the pier.”

  “Is it big enough for all of us?” Kevin asked.

  “With room to spare,” Jack said.

  “Perfect!” Kevin said with excitement. “I was hoping you’d come by boat. That way we can go directly to Gabon.” He faced around quickly and restarted the engine. “Let’s just pray it’s not been found.”

  He drove out of the parking lot and began a circuitous route to the waterfront. He wanted to stay as far from the town hall and his own house as possible.

  “We have a problem,” Jack said. “We have no identification or money. Everything was taken from us.”

  “We’re not much better off,” Kevin said. “But we do have some money, both cash and travelers checks. Our passports were confiscated when we were put under house arrest this afternoon. We were destined for the same fate as you: to be turned over to the Equatoguinean authorities.”

  “Would that have been a problem?” Jack asked.

  Kevin let out a little derisive laugh. In the back of his mind, he could see the skulls on Siegfried’s desk. “It would have been more than a problem. It would have meant a hush-hush mock trial followed by a firing squad.”

  “No shit!” Warren said.

  “In this country, it is a capital offense to interfere with GenSys operations,” Kevin said. “And the manager is the one who decides whether someone is interfering or not.”

  “A firing squad?” Jack repeated with horror.

  “I’m afraid so,” Kevin said. “The army here is good at it. They’ve had a lot of practice over the years.”

  “Then we’re even more in debt to you people than we thought,” Jack said. “I’d no idea.”

  Laurie looked out the side window of the car and shuddered. It was just sinking in how seriously her life was on the line and that the threat was not yet over.

  “How come you guys were in the soup?” Warren asked.

  “It’s a long story,” Melanie said.

  “So is ours,” Laurie said.

  “I have a question,” Kevin said. “Did you people come here because of Carlo Franconi?”

  “Whoa!” Jack said. “Such clairvoyance! I’m impressed, and intrigued. How did you guess? What exactly is your role here in Cogo?”

  “Me, in particular?” Kevin asked.

  “Well, all of you,” Jack said.

  Kevin, Melanie, and Candace looked at each other to see who wanted to speak first.

  “We were all part of the same program,” Candace said. “But I was just a minor player. I’m an intensive-care nurse for a surgical transplant team.”

  “I’m a reproductive technologist,” Melanie said. “I provide the raw materials for Kevin to work his magic, and once he has, I see to it that his creations are brought to fruition.”

  “I’m a molecular biologist,” Kevin explained with a sigh of regret. “Someone who overstepped his bounds and committed a Promethean blunder.”

  “Hold up,” Jack said. “Don’t go too literary on me. I know I’ve heard of Prometheus, but I can’t remember who he was.”

  “Prometheus was a Titan in Greek mythology,” Laurie said. “He stole fire from Olympus and gave it to man.”

  “I inadvertently gave fire to some animals,” Kevin said. “I stumbled on the way to move chromosome parts, particularly the short arm of chromosome six from one cell to another, from one species to another.”

  “So you took chromosome parts from humans and put them into an ape,” Jack said.

  “Into the fertilized egg of an ape,” Kevin said. “A bonobo to be exact.”

  “And what you were really doing,” Jack continued, “was custom-designing the perfect organ transplant source for a specific individual.”

  “Exactly,” Kevin said. “It wasn’t what I had in mind in the beginning. I was just a pure researcher. What I ended up doing was something I was lured into because of its economic potential.”

  “Wow!” Jack commented. “Ingenious and impressive, but also a little scary.”

  “It’s more than scary,” Kevin said. “It’s a tragedy of sorts. The problem is I transferred too many human genes. I’ve accidently created a race of protohumans.”

  “You mean like Neanderthals?” Laurie asked.

  “More primitive by millions of years,” Kevin said. “More like Lucy. But they’re intelligent enough to use fire, make tools, and even converse. I think they are the way we were four or five million years ago.”

  “Where are these creatures?” Laurie asked with alarm.

  “They’re on a nearby island,” Kevin said, “where they have been living in comparative freedom. Unfortunately, that’s all about to change.”

  “Why is that?” Laurie asked. In her mind’s eye, she could see these protohumans. As a child she’d been fascinated by cavemen.

  Kevin quickly told the story of the smoke eventually bringing him, Melanie, and Candace to the island. He related how they’d been captured and then rescued. He also told them about the creatures’ fate of facing lifelong internment in tiny concrete cells
purely because they were too human.

  “That’s awful,” Laurie commented.

  “It’s a disaster!” Jack said with a shake of his head. “What a story!”

  “This world isn’t ready for a new race,” Warren said. “We’ve got enough trouble with what we have already.”

  “We’re coming up on the waterfront,” Kevin announced. “The square at the base of the pier is around the next bend.”

  “Then stop here,” Jack said. “There was a soldier there when we arrived.”

  Kevin pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the headlights. He kept the engine running for the air-conditioning. Jack and Warren got out the back and ran down to the corner. Carefully, they peeked around the bend.

  “If our boat is not there, are there other boats around here?” Laurie asked.

  “I’m afraid not,” Kevin said.

  “Is there another way out of town besides the main gate?” Laurie asked.

  “That’s it,” Kevin said.

  “Heaven help us,” Laurie commented.

  Jack and Warren came back quickly. Kevin lowered his window.

  “There’s a soldier,” Jack said. “He’s none too attentive. In fact, he might even be asleep. But we’ll still have to deal with him. I think it best you all stay here.”

  “Fine by me,” Kevin said. He was more than happy to leave such business up to others. If left to him, he wouldn’t have had any idea what to do.

  Jack and Warren returned to the corner and disappeared.

  Kevin raised his window.

  Laurie looked at Natalie and shook her head. “I’m sorry about all this. I suppose I should have known. Jack seems to have a penchant for finding trouble.”

  “No need to apologize,” Natalie said. “It’s certainly not your fault. Besides, things are looking a lot better than they did only fifteen or twenty minutes ago.”

  Jack and Warren reappeared in a surprisingly short time. Jack was holding a handgun, while Warren was carrying an assault rifle. They got into the back of the Toyota.

  “Any problem?” Kevin asked.

  “Nope,” Jack said. “He was very accommodating. Of course, Warren can be very persuasive when he wants to be.”

  “Does the Chickee Hut Bar have a parking area?” Warren asked.

  “It does,” Kevin said.

  “Drive there!” Warren said.

  Kevin backed up, took a right and then the first left. At the end of the block he pulled into an expansive asphalt parking lot. The darkened Chickee Hut Bar was silhouetted ahead. Beyond the bar was the sparkling expanse of the broad estuary. Its surface shimmered in the moonlight.

  Kevin drove directly up to the bar and stopped.

  “You all wait here,” Warren said. “I’ll check on the boat.” He climbed out with the assault rifle and quickly disappeared around the bar.

  “He moves quickly,” Melanie commented.

  “You have no idea,” Jack said.

  “Is that Gabon on the other side of the water?” Laurie asked.

  “It sure is,” Melanie said.

  “How far is it?” Jack asked.

  “About four miles straight across,” Kevin said. “But we should try to get to Cocobeach. That’s about ten miles away. From there we can contact the American Embassy in Libreville who will certainly be able to help us.”

  “How long will it take to get to Cocobeach?” Laurie asked.

  “I’d estimate a little more than an hour,” Kevin said. “Of course, it depends on the speed of the boat.”

  Warren reappeared and came to the car. Kevin lowered his window again.

  “We’re cool,” Warren said. “The boat’s there. No problem.”

  “Hooray,” everybody replied in unison. They piled out of the car. Kevin, Melanie, and Candace brought their canvas bags.

  “Is that your luggage?” Laurie teased.

  “This is it,” Candace said.

  Warren led the group into the darkened bar and around to where there were steps to the beach.

  “Let’s move quickly until we get behind the retaining wall,” Warren said. He motioned for the others to precede him.

  It was dark beneath the pier, and everyone had to move slowly. Along with the sound of the small waves lapping against the shore was the noise of large crabs scampering into their sand burrows.

  “We’ve got a couple of flashlights,” Kevin said. “Should we use them?”

  “Let’s not take the chance,” Jack said as he literally bumped into the boat. He made sure it was reasonably stable before telling everyone to climb in and move to the stern. As soon as everyone had done so, Jack could feel the bow become lighter. Leaning against the boat, he began to push it out.

  “Watch out for the crossbeams,” Jack said as he jumped aboard.

  Everyone helped by reaching for the wood piles and pulling the boat silently along. It took them only a few minutes to travel to the end of the pier which was blocked by the floating dock. At that point they angled the boat out into moonlit open water.

  There were only four paddles. Besides the men, Melanie insisted on paddling.

  “I want to get about a hundred yards away from the shore before I start the motor,” Jack explained. “There’s no sense taking any chances.”

  Everyone looked back at peaceful-appearing Cogo whose whitewashed buildings shrouded in mist glimmered in the silver moonlight. The surrounding jungle limned the town with midnight blue. The walls of vegetation were like tidal waves about to break.

  The night sounds of the jungle fell astern. The only noise became the gurgle of the paddles passing through the water or their scraping along the side of the boat. For a time, no one spoke. Racing hearts slowed, and breathing tended toward normal. There was time to think and even look around. The newcomers in particular were captivated by the arresting beauty of the nocturnal African landscape. Its sheer size was overwhelming. Everything seemed bigger in Africa, even the night sky.

  For Kevin it was different. His relief of having escaped Cogo and having helped others to do so as well only made his anguish about the fate of his chimeric bonobos that much more poignant. It had been a mistake to have created them, but abandoning them to a lifetime of captivity in a tiny cage compounded his guilt.

  After a time, Jack picked up his oar and dropped it into the bottom of the boat. “Time to start the engine,” he announced. He grasped the outboard and tilted it down into the water.

  “Wait a second,” Kevin said suddenly. “I have a request. Something I have no right to ask of you people, but it is important.”

  Jack straightened up from bending over the gas tank. “What’s on your mind, sport?” he asked.

  “See that island, the last one in the chain?” Kevin said while pointing toward Isla Francesca. “That’s where all the bonobos are. They’re in cages at the foot of a bridge to the mainland. I’d like nothing better than to go over there and release them.”

  “What would that accomplish?” Laurie asked.

  “A lot if I could get them to cross the bridge,” Kevin said.

  “Wouldn’t your Cogo friends just round them up again?” Jack asked.

  “They’d never find them,” Kevin said, warming to his idea. “They’d vanish. From this part of Equatorial Guinea and stretching for a thousand miles inland is mostly virginal rain forest. It encompasses not only this country but vast regions of Gabon, Cameroon, Congo, and Central African Republic. It’s got to be a million square miles, parts of which are still literally unexplored.”

  “Just let them go by themselves?” Candace asked.

  “That’s exactly the point,” Kevin said. “They’d have a chance, and I think they’d make it! They’re resourceful. Look at our ancestors. They had to live through the Pleistocene ice age. That was more of a challenge than living in a rain forest.”

  Laurie looked at Jack. “I like the idea.”

  Jack glanced at the island, then asked which direction was Cocobeach.

  “We�
�d be going out of our way,” Kevin admitted, “but it’s not far. Twenty minutes tops.”

  “What if you let them out and they stay on the island?” Warren said.

  “At least I could tell myself I tried,” Kevin said. “I feel that I have to do something.”

  “Hey, why not?” Jack said. “I think I like the idea too. What does everybody else say?”

  “To tell you the truth, I’d like to see one of these animals,” Warren said.

  “Let’s go,” Candace said enthusiastically.

  “Okay by me,” Natalie said.

  “I couldn’t think of a better idea,” Melanie said. “Let’s do it!”

  Jack gave the engine cord a few pulls. The outboard roared to life. Pushing over the helm, Jack steered toward Isla Francesca.

  CHAPTER 23

  March 10, 1997

  1:45 A.M.

  Cogo, Equatorial Guinea

  Siegfried had dreamed the dream a hundred times, and each time it had gotten a little worse. In it, he was approaching a female elephant with a young calf. He didn’t like doing it, but a client couple demanded it. It was the wife who wanted to see the baby up close.

  Siegfried had sent trackers out laterally to protect the flank while he and the couple neared the mother. But the trackers to the north became terrified when a huge bull elephant appeared. They ran, and to compound their cowardice, they failed to warn Siegfried of the danger.

  The sound of the enormous elephant charging through the underbrush was like the thunder of an oncoming train. Its shrieks built to a crescendo, and just before impact Siegfried woke up bathed in sweat.

  Panting, Siegfried rolled over and sat up. Reaching through the mosquito netting, he found a glass of water and took a drink. The problem with his dream was that it was too real. This was the incident through which he’d lost the use of his right arm and had the skin of his face flayed open.

  Siegfried sat on the edge of his bed for a few moments before he realized the shrieking he’d thought was from his dream was coming from outside his window. A moment later, he realized the source: loud West African rock music emanating from a cheap cassette player.

  Siegfried looked at the clock. Seeing that it was close to two A.M., he became instantly incensed. Who could be so insolent to make such noise at that time in the morning?