Endangered Species: PART 1 (15 page)

Christie picked up his briefcase and began
to edge closer to the couple. As he continued to watch them, he ran
through the bullet-point list of characteristics commonly
associated with terrorists. They seemed comfortable in the uniform
seventy-four degree temperature in the terminal; no signs of
sweating. Their facial expressions were bland, perhaps even
bored-looking; no nervous tics. Their hands were calm; no shaking
or nervous twisting of the sweaters each was carrying. Their
clothes were fitted tightly enough that it was virtually impossible
for explosives to have been concealed beneath them, even if they
had been able to get through TSA with them.

As he ran through the list, Christie
realized it was only their eye movements that might match it. The
more he studied them, the more he determined they were just two
attractive, totally self-absorbed individuals, constantly scanning
the horizon to see if there was something better out there than
what they currently had. It’s no wonder, he concluded, that members
of Gen Y waited longer to get married than members of prior
generations did. Commitment was difficult when you expected the
grass always would be greener around the next bend.

* * *

Satisfied that the couple didn’t pose a
threat to anyone but each other, he glanced at his watch again and
was relieved to see that it was now eight o’clock on the West
Coast. Christie found a relatively quiet place in the now-bustling
terminal and pulled his throwaway cellphone from a trouser pocket.
He looked up the number on a small note pad he carried in an inside
jacket pocket and dialed it. After three rings, he heard a voice on
the other end.

“
Hello?”

Christie felt a sense of relief that the
call went through on the first attempt. “Hi, Dr. Nishioki?”

“
Yes, who is
this?”

He could picture the small,
compact Asian man, who was in his seventies. He would be wearing
a
gi
in
preparation for his morning
Aikido
exercises. “Doctor, it’s Mitch
Christie.”

“
Ah, yes, the FBI agent.
And please call me Bill.”

“
Yes, Bill,…well, I hope I
haven’t called too early.”

“
Not at all. I’ve been up
for some time.”

“
Working on your
Aikido
skills, I
imagine.”

“
Yes, how clever of you to
know that, but then you are an investigator. How may I help you,
Mitch?”

Christie cleared his throat and said, “I’m
revisiting the affair last year that involved that former military
unit, the Sleeping Dogs.”

Nishioki was slow to respond. And
noncommittal. “I see.”

“
I was hoping perhaps you’d
given the subject more thought since our visit a year or so
ago.”

Nishioki’s response was measured. “As a
matter of fact, I have been following some interesting developments
based on very recent research. As you know, I am retired, but not
vegetative. I like to keep up with current developments in my field
of genetics. After all, Evolution is like rust—it never sleeps. All
life forms, especially humans, are evolving continuously; sometimes
even into extinction.”

“
Would these ‘developments’
have anything to do with the Sleeping Dogs?”

“
Possibly. They appear to
raise another theory about why those men had such remarkable
physical and intellectual skills.”

“
You’re speaking in the
past tense, Bill. Is there a reason for that? Do you think these
men no longer exist?”

“
Some things are best left
in the past, Mitch. Do you get my meaning?”

Christie decided to push on without
answering the question. “I’d like to hear about these
‘developments’ you mentioned.”

Nishioki hesitated briefly, as if gathering
his thoughts, then said, “You’ll remember that my late colleague,
Jake Horowitz, and I were research geneticists.”

Christie almost moaned audibly, remembering
the previous conversation he’d had with Nishioki. He knew the
scientist had tried to dumb down the discussion for the layman. But
he remembered the crushing headache he’d gotten trying to follow
the scientific jargon. He hoped he wasn’t in for a repeat
performance. “Yes,” he said, “I know you and Dr. Horowitz were
scientists. You were the ones who developed the theory that, on
rare occasions, the mating of the right male with the right female
can produce superior offspring, or something like that.”

Nishioki chuckled. “That’s close enough.
Without getting overly technical, our theory suggested that with so
many possible genetic combinations, once in every so many million
conceptions a being is conceived that is superior to others of its
species. Think of them as beta models, Nature’s way of furthering
the evolution of the species.”

“
I get that, but what do
these so-called recent developments have to do with
that?”

“
As I was about to say,
Jake and I theorized that these superior beings might be the result
of further evolution of the human species. Among hominins, and
humans in particular, the rate of speciation—the introduction of a
new species, is dramatically faster than for other life forms. For
example, Hominins split off from the last common ancestor we had
with the great apes more than seven million years ago. Yet, over
the just the past thirty thousand years—a mere flash in the time
continuum—human evolution has sped up dramatically. For example,
within that period, humans have developed thick, straight black
hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and other traits. Evidence indicates
this happened as a result of the enormous increase in global
population over that time. That allows for countless unique
mutations. Theoretically, natural selection takes over and that
genetic trait becomes widespread, perhaps global.

“
Now, it appears that
perhaps we should have been looking in the other direction as well.
Based on newly discovered evidence and research, these superior
beings, the Sleeping Dogs, may be a modern manifestation of our
ancient ancestors. Until very recently, it was accepted that there
had never been interbreeding among Homo sapiens and other hominin
species.”

“
And now?”

“
Now there is an emerging
body of evidence to the contrary.
Homo
sapiens, our hominin species, migrated out of Africa into the
Caucasus region more than sixty thousand years ago. We believe the
initial wave arrived in Western Europe not more than ten thousand
years later. They encountered an earlier race of hominins we call
Neanderthals. Although Neanderthals became extinct some thirty
thousand years ago, there was a lengthy period of time during which
the two species coexisted.”

Christie interrupted. “Hold
on a second, Doc. You’re not going to tell me that our ancestors,
ah, had sex with ape-men…or women.”

“
Indeed. We now have
evidence that confirms interbreeding did occur.
The recently discovered bones of an individual who lived in
northern Italy some thirty to forty thousand years ago appear to be
those of a Homo sapiens/Neanderthal hybrid.
A five-year study by a large group of international
scientists, including paleogeneticists,
provides the strongest evidence so far that such encounters
took place around sixty thousand years ago in the Fertile Crescent
region of the Middle East. It determined
that modern humans of non-African descent
carry between 1 and 4 percent of Neanderthal DNA, but it
varies in individuals.
The sum total of
Neanderthal genetic material in modern Homo sapiens is twenty
percent or greater.
It also is possible
that we share a common African ancestor with the
Neanderthal.”

“
So, you’re saying we have
a…genetic… commonality with Neanderthals?”

“
Actually, Neanderthal and
modern human genomes are about 99.5 percent identical. Until
recently, we thought our closest evolutionary relative was the
chimpanzee. But we share only about 95 or 96 percent of our genes
with chimps.”

Christie pondered what
Nishioki had told him. “I take it that you’re suggesting that the
reason the men of the Sleeping Dogs unit are stronger and quicker
than the rest of us is because their Neanderthal DNA is more
prominent?”

“
That is
one possibility, but it no doubt is more complicated than that. We
expect
more evidence of
interbreeding to surface as research continues. There may be DNA
from other, as yet undiscovered, hominins lurking in our
genomes.”

“
You mean other than
Neanderthals?”

Nishioki chuckled. “Possibly. The European
Early Modern Humans, or EEMH, from whom all those of European
ancestry descended, are the ones who interbred with the
Neanderthal. These early ancestors are often erroneously called
Cro-Magnon after the place in France where the first remains of
these people were discovered. These people were every bit as large
as humans today, and they were more powerful and physically robust.
And, intriguingly, their brains were one-eighth larger than modern
man’s.”

“
You’re losing me, Bill. So
what
are
the
Sleeping Dogs, Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon?”

“
Actually, they could be
both. The interbreeding between the two hominins resulted in a
genome that contains DNA from both. That’s where Jake Horowitz’s
and my theory enters the picture. Given the hundreds of millions of
children conceived by modern Westerners, all of whom have this DNA,
it isn’t illogical to theorize that on some infrequent occasions
the right genetic combination occurs, and you have a physically and
intellectually superior being.”

Christie thought about this
for a few moments then said, “If that’s true, there is something
that doesn’t fit.”

“
What is that?”

“
One of these Sleeping
Dogs, Quentin Thomas, is black, not of European descent. And
another one, Marc Kirkland, is Jewish. His grandfather Anglicized
the family name from Krickstein when he emigrated from Europe in
the early 1900s. His ancestors aren’t originally from Western
Europe. How did those men get the DNA?”

“
Very simple. In the case
of Quentin Thomas, there very probably were one or more white
ancestors in the family tree. It is well known that some slave
owners engaged in sex with their female slaves. Kirkland’s
situation is even easier to explain. Although his family originally
belonged to one of the twelve tribes of Israel, they eventually
settled in Europe as a result of the Jewish diaspora. While there
may not have been any large degree of interfaith sexual activities
given the nature of those times and the frequency of pogroms, there
unquestionably were some.

“
But
there’s yet another interesting phenomenon that needs so much more
research. It involves the development of genetic
mutations
in advance
of the need for a particular trait. It’s as if
Nature senses a future threat to the species and begins to mutate
it to better respond to the threat.”

Christie mulled over what Nishioki had said.
“So, I guess either way the bottom line is these Sleeping Dogs are
a dangerous bunch.”

“
You have no idea,
Mitch.”

“
Have you ever seen them in
action?”

“
No. The laboratory has
always been my milieu. But I couldn’t help hearing
things.”

“
Such as?”

“
Not only are they
enormously powerful and quick, but they also have dispositions
toward violence. And an almost insatiable bloodlust. That said,
they also are extremely bright and perceptive. And introspective.
They can spend countless hours studying, practicing, and perfecting
something so that they can be better at it than anyone
else.”

“
You have an
example?”

“
Yes. Kirkland, of whom we
were just speaking, may be the finest swordsman alive. He spends
much of his time meditating and practicing the martial
arts.”

“
Which style?”

“
All styles. He’s like the
late Bruce Lee is said to have been, endlessly curious about each
and every martial arts technique or weapon. Because of my own
ethnicity as a Japanese American, I am a lifelong devotee of Aikido
as well as Iaido and Kendo, which are Japanese sword fighting
styles.”

Christie interrupted him. “What’s the
difference between Iaido and Kendo? A sword is a sword.”

“
Essentially, Iaido is the
art of drawing and sheathing the sword. Kendo is more focused on
the art of fighting with the sword.”

“
What does this have to do
with Kirkland?”

“
He was the best swordsman
I have ever seen.” He paused briefly, as if contemplating his
choice of words. In a reverential tone, he said, “He may be on a
comparable level with the greatest swordsman of all time, Miamoto
Musashi.”

“
Surely you’re not going to
tell me he actually used his sword in combat
situations.”

“
Consider how quick these
men were. Quick to size up a situation, quick to respond to it. And
Kirkland had an incredible
katana
, a Japanese blade made for a
samurai warrior by an ancient swordsmith. I have seen it. It was a
remarkable weapon. The smith reputedly folded over and hammered out
the impurities in the steel more than thirty thousand times. It is
written on the blade in an old style of Japanese that, when tested,
it cut through five human bodies in a single slice. And that was by
someone far less powerful than Marc Kirkland.” There was an
unmistakable note of ancestral pride in Nishioki’s
voice.