Perfectible Animals: A Post Apocalyptic Technothriller (EidoGenesis Book 1) (10 page)

On our way home from the Congo we stopped off in Tanzania to spend a few days at the chimpanzee research center in Gombe. Here we saw something totally different. Male chimps, especially those competing for alpha male status, spent a good deal of time and energy displaying aggressively for one another, something bonobos never did. Females were bullied and often attacked by the males and even other females, and while they were cooperative in family units or among cliques, as a rule they didn’t help each other. The one time we saw them come into contact with another troop there was an aggressive standoff before both groups went their separate ways.
 

It was in Africa that I decided to analyze the bonobo genome and see where it differed from both chimpanzees and humans, and where Dylan decided to live in a way more similar to his bonobo cousins.
 

“Michael, nice to see you again. Thanks for coming.” Bruno, a heavy-set man, bald on top but with a beard to make up for it, offered me his hand.
 

“Bruno, likewise.”
 

Bruno led me across a grassy clearing. We went under a stone arch to a courtyard where a single tree was growing, its bare branches twisted into ever-smaller spirals, leaves just starting to bud.
 

“So, you’re interested in my work?” I said.
 

“It was actually a mutual acquaintance, Rowen Boone, who asked me to meet with you.”

“Rowen?” My heart did a double-take.
 

“Yes. He mentioned that you were involved in a project that our organization might be interested in investing in.”

“FutureGen?”

“No. That’s just my day job.” Bruno smiled.

“You’re part of the New Church?”
 

“No, no, we’re something else entirely. Here, come through.”
 

Bruno led me through some large double doors into a cool hallway and then to a small office with stained glass windows that looked out onto a native garden. He shut the heavy door behind us.
 

“Have a seat,” Bruno said, motioning to a club lounge.
 

I sat down and Bruno lowered himself into a chair across from me.
 

“The possibility of genetic modification changing the human race in a favorable way is something that I have been interested in for a very long time,” Bruno lowered his voice and leaned in towards me. “Being an evolutionary biologist, I’m always interested in the way certain species have evolved, particularly
Homo sapiens
, and I, like you, presumably, can’t help thinking that we’ve evolved to a very dangerous point and haven’t gone any further.”

“Just smart enough to kill ourselves and everything else along with us,” I said, still wondering how Bruno knew Rowen and how much Rowen had told him.
 

“Exactly. Now, Rowen mentioned Geneus’s lack of funding.”

“Yes. We’ve been looking for investors.”

“He said that. He also mentioned that part of the reason you’re so desperate to find an investor is because your wife is sick with HIV-4. Something Geneus doesn’t know about.”

I looked at him and felt my intestines start to stir. How could I have been so stupid as to confide that to Rowen? I put my hands on my knees, wanting to stand up, but I stayed where I was.
 

“Don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me.”

“What is it you want, then?” I was angry, more at myself than anyone else, but I tried to contain it. I couldn’t afford to get Bruno off-side.
 

“We want to invest in the project,” Bruno said.
 

“Who?”

“I can’t disclose our organization.”

“Why are you meeting with me, then? Anthony Simons is the man to talk to for new investment.”

“Because we want you to provide us with information. Information about the state of the project. The processes. Everything you do.”

“You’d have access to much of that as investors, anyway.” I was afraid that if I didn’t do what he wanted he would tell someone at Geneus about Annie and I would lose my job and be made a pariah.
 

“Yes. You’re right. But it’s access to what we wouldn’t get as investors that we’re interested in.”
 

I suddenly realized what he was talking about: industrial espionage.
 

“I’m sorry. I’m not your man,” I said, starting to stand up but hesitating.
 

“Hold on, sit down a moment.” Bruno waved me down. “Just hear me out.”

I had little choice.
 

“The reason I mentioned your wife was not to extort you, but because I need to be able to trust you.”

“It’s hardly the best way of going about it.” I took a deep breath.
 

“I gather from your papers and your research that you are no happier with the current evolution of
Homo sapiens
than I am. My question is, how unhappy are you? What do you think’s going to happen to us over the next fifty to a hundred years, and what would you be prepared to do to change that?” Bruno stared at me unblinkingly. His voice was deep and sure of itself, and I suddenly felt even more afraid than I had a moment ago.
 

“Why?”

“Just tell me.”
 

“Okay,” I replied, my heart still pounding. I thought about the de-regulated zones, the civil wars breaking out around the world. “I believe society is returning to a more primitive state. The most cunning and aggressive members of the species are rising up and leading the poor and the hungry, protecting them in return for their loyalty, their money, and their lives. They’re fighting it out, both here and overseas, for resources and territory. I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to return to civilization as we know it, as all of the easily obtainable resources that allowed us to develop this far have been exhausted. I think for the next couple of hundred years at least, if not for thousands of years, we’ll enter into a period similar to the dark ages, where war and aggression will win out over reason and justice. As to what I’m prepared to do about that, I’m already doing it. I believe an improved immune system will stop much of the suffering that’s been caused by disease throughout history. Even if people are poor, at the very least we can keep them healthy.”
 

“What about your research on cooperation?” Bruno said.
 

“What about it?” I shrugged.

“Wouldn’t you like to continue with that?”
 

“Of course I would. But I don’t think that’s going to be possible.”
 

“How about if I told you it was?”
 

“Even if I had the funding, I’m not sure I’ve got the time.”

“What if I told you that we could provide all the funding you needed, both for your immune-system research and your cooperation research?”

“I’d want to know what the price would be.” It seemed Bruno was here to make me a genuine offer and not just to blackmail me. Maybe this was Rowen’s way of investing in our research without being directly involved.
 

“Total secrecy. And total commitment to the organization.” Bruno’s eyes behind his glasses were out of proportion with the rest of his face.
 

I looked down, but didn’t answer him.
 

“So?” Bruno said. “Are you interested?”

“Of course I’m interested.”
 

“Are you interested enough to agree to die if you ever tell anyone about this conversation?”

My heart started up again, so strongly I could feel my neck and chest constricting.
 

“Yes,” I said, softly. “I suppose I am.”
 

“I’m not doing this to threaten you, Michael. I have to know that if I give you any more information you will be willing to keep it to yourself. You don’t have to agree to accept my help, but you do have to agree to never mention a word of this to anyone.”
 

“Okay,” I said, hardly breathing at all now.

C
HAPTER
N
INE

“WHAT’S WRONG?” ANNIE said, as I walked into the house that evening.
 

I wondered if Gendigm, the organization that Bruno worked for, was monitoring me already. Maybe they had been for a while now: ever since my meeting with Rowen. Even before then. Suddenly everything looked threatening and suspicious: a loose light fitting, the slightly skewed painting of a garden scene in our living room, a hollow elephant sculpture we’d picked up in Kenya.
 

At the same time as being deeply afraid, I felt the stirrings of hope. If Gendigm had unlimited funding and was willing to fund both my immune system research and my cooperation research, anything was possible. We could find a cure for Annie’s disease and cure not only her and Justin’s sister but tens of thousands of others around the world. We could create a germline modification of the immune system that would protect future generations from disease. We could even create a nicer, more empathetic version of humans, although whether anyone would ever want that or not I didn’t know.
 

“Michael?” Annie prompted, and I realized I hadn’t answered her.
 

“Sorry. Nothing. Just a hard day at work, that’s all.” I stared at the elephant again. I had to tell her what had happened with Bruno, but I had to find a way to do it that couldn’t be detected. Bruno had insisted on complete secrecy, even from Annie.
 

The next day, I received a message on my com from Bruno saying that he had set up a meeting with Gendigm that evening and that he would send through the encrypted access information.
 

That night, I told Annie I had a meeting with a potential investor and went into my office and locked the door. I connected into v-space and went to the IP address that Bruno had sent me and entered in the access details.
 

I found myself in a virtual boardroom very similar to any normal boardroom, except that outside the windows, which completely surrounded us, were stars and galaxies in a totally black night.
 

“Michael, welcome.” Bruno’s 3D avatar came over to meet me.
 

A number of other people were sitting around the table already. I walked clumsily towards a chair. I didn’t spend much time in v-space, and my motor skills there were not very well developed. After some trouble I managed to sit my avatar down and I greeted everyone. Their voices all had the slightly electronic twang of a scrambling device – presumably so that they could never be recorded and recognized.
 

“Take a moment to get acquainted,” Bruno said.
 

From each of the avatars I pulled up a short biography. No real names were mentioned, but there seemed to be an impressive list of people in the room: CEOs, scientists, an ex-politician, an army colonel, and a number of NGO executives.

“This isn’t all of us, by any means,” Bruno said. “But we’re part of the core group.”

“Thanks for taking the time to meet with me.”

I was glad I was in v-space or the fact that I was clutching the arms of my seat and sweating profusely from my underarms would have been noticeable.
 

“Well, first you’d probably like to know a little more about who we are and what we want?” Bruno said.
 

“Yes, please.”

“Gendigm was created nearly fifteen years ago. We’re a slow growing organization but now have over two hundred members in thirty-five countries around the world. Our main goal is to transform the human race through genetic modification. We believe we’re approaching a bottle-neck, a time when the numbers of our species will be so diminished that an evolutionary leap may be possible. I’ll send a list of our current projects to your com — have a look over them when you get the time.”
 

“Meanwhile, we’re here today to discuss your own research. We believe it could well become one of our most important projects.” Bruno turned to the rest of the group. “As all those who have read the brief know, Michael is involved in a project targeting the human immune system, with potential also for making humans more cooperative and empathetic. We’re here to discuss whether or not we should invest in his company, Geneus. It’s estimated they’ll need another hundred million at least before they’ve got a workable solution.”

“How long will it take, Michael?” Frank, labelled as the treasurer, asked. I admired the detail in the rendering of Frank’s jaw — almost lifelike. He must have had some pretty high-powered tech at home, or wherever he was located. Probably in a bunker in Sweden; one of those new underground hotels with high-res windows and hydroponic farms.
 

“At least six months. The benefit of this technology, though, is that we can apply it to other things. Our new delivery method, using histone code recognition, has almost been perfected. We might even be able to augment the entire immune system of those already born — somatically.”

“Can you tell us a bit more about your cooperation research?” Zoe, another geneticist, said. “I don’t quite understand how those who have been modified would differ from normal humans. We’re already a very cooperative species.”

“We’re also xenophobic. We’re good at cooperating in groups, but two groups won’t cooperate together unless they’re able to identify with one another. And even then we often require a third group who we label as “the enemy”. Our modified macaques no longer have such a strong “us and them” paradigm. And even within the group itself, everything is shared equally, usually under the control of a matriarch, rather than dominant males taking more. Bonobos, unlike chimps and humans, evolved in an environment where there were plentiful supplies of food and few competitors. Females formed strong coalitions which thwarted male aggression, leading to it being selected against, and higher levels of cooperation selected for. We’re still not exactly sure what the mechanisms are, and how they’d play out in humans — although we suspect bonobos’ greater empathy and polygamous sexual natures play a role. ”