Chapter 14

Harry and Dixie were having after dinner coffee on the patio of their San Mateo home. As the sun set in the west, it left deepening shadows across the water along with a chill in the air. Autumn was approaching, and the trees were beginning to lose their leaves. A gentle breeze wafted over the patio.

Five months had transpired since they’d last heard or seen Millie, and there was no trace of Roku. While they sipped their coffee, they chatted about the current state of affairs.

“So the authorities haven’t found a trace of them, eh?” Dixie said.

“Not according to Pauling,” Harry said. “He stopped me in the hall this morning to give me an update.”

“I can’t believe they just up and vanished. In this day and age, it seems so unlikely. She has never contacted her parents?”

“When I called Dr. Harbaum he said he hadn’t heard from her.”

“Dr. Harbaum?”

“He’s a dentist in Toledo. I left him my number in case she did call him. I might try and call him again just to let him know we are still searching for her.”

“Does he know why?”

“I couldn’t bring myself to tell him the complete story, didn’t tell him we didn’t know where she was. I didn’t want to worry him.”

Dixie sounded surprised. “So, exactly what did you tell them if you didn’t say she had gone missing?”

Harry squirmed in his chair, set his cup down. “Well,” he said, “I said that I called the facility, but they told me they hadn’t seen her for several days. I said she might be taking a short vacation. I don’t think I alarmed Mr. Harbaum.”

“And her father said he hadn’t heard from her?”

“Now that you mention it,” Harry said, “it was peculiar. Almost as if Dr. Harbaum didn’t want to confide in me for some reason.”

“So he possibly had heard from his daughter.”

“I guess it’s possible.”

“Well, I think you should call him again,” Dixie said. “For all the Harbaums know, she’s not wanted by the authorities. They should know that she’s gone missing and why.”

“Maybe they do. Maybe the police have already told them.” He took another pull on the coffee.

“I still think you should call. If I were a parent, I certainly would appreciate it. As her department chairman, you should make the call.”

“You’re right, of course. Roku would be about seven months old about now,” Harry said, setting his coffee mug down. He stood, paced the patio. “I wonder how he is doing?”

“We’ll probably never know. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

“I know. I’ll go call now.”

***

Deep within the Superstition Mountains, the sun peeked over the ridge of peaks to the east forming an orange glow in the sky. Brown-crested flycatchers, Gila woodpeckers, and gilded flickers greeted the morning with their eager calls. In the meadow beyond the cabin, California ragweed, goldeneye, and desert marigolds doted the landscape edged with fir and Joshua trees. Gullies, washes, arroyos, buttes, and canyons punctuated the rugged terrain. The air was fresh and pungent with the aroma of wild sage, and each day filled Millie with awe. In the distance to the northeast, the famous landmark, Weaver’s Needle, pierced the sky like an ancient obelisk. A thousand foot column of rock, it played a significant role in the stories of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. The Needle’s shadow reportedly indicated the location of a rich vein of gold, and many treasure hunters had ventured into the surrounding hills in search of it. Hundreds of people, driven by their lust for gold, prospected around Weaver’s Needle.

Millie stepped out onto the cabin’s porch and filled her lungs with the mountain air. Since arriving at her father’s cabin, she had built a small playpen of rocks in front of the small porch where she could watch Roku play while she read or patched her clothes.

Today she was going to have to drive into Apache Junction for groceries, so she decided to allow Roku to play outside until she was ready to leave. As she fixed breakfast, Millie thought over what new words she would teach Roku. The child chimera had been learning sign language words at a phenomenal rate for the past month. And he was beginning to put the words together into simple sentences. Roku had grown much faster than his human counterparts as well. At seven months of age, he weighed nearly eighty pounds and was walking as well as an adult.

Observing the two Yeti at the facility, Millie was accustomed to the animals spending most of their time on two legs.

Occasionally, however, they would fall on all fours to lumber about their cages. Roku was different--he always walked upright.

Millie ate and went outside to the large playpen in which Roku was playing. He looked up when he heard her at the rock wall and ambled over to face her. His large lips formed a faint smile.

“Time for your ‘lesson,’” Millie said.

She signed the word lesson. Roku nodded and repeated the sign. She pointed to the cabin. “House,” she said and signed the word “house.” Once more Roku smiled, nodded, and again signed the word in return.

The exercise continued for another half hour until Roku appeared to tire of it. Millie took Roku into the cabin, changed his clothes, and placed him in the rear seat of her car while she drove to Apache Junction.

***

Harry called Millie’s father, John Harbaum, in Toledo. When the man answered, Harry identified himself.

“Good evening, Dr. Harbaum, this is Harry Olson, Millie’s chairman at Cal Pacific University. I talked to you a few weeks ago.”

“Yes, Dr. Olson. I remember. Millie has spoken of you often. She really admires you.”

“I’m calling to ask if you or your wife have heard from your daughter lately.”

Harry listened as John answered in the negative.

“No,” Dr. Harbaum said, “it has been a number of months since either my wife or I has talked with her.”

“We are concerned, John,” Harry continued, “because Millie has disappeared from the Primate Research Facility where she worked.”

“Disappeared? How?” Harbaum’s voice turned dark, concerned. “Have the authorities been notified?”

“Yes, of course. They were called almost immediately when we determined that she had used her car to leave with a valuable scientific specimen.”

“I’m not following. Exactly what has Millie done?”

“It appears she took an animal she was using in a research project.” Harry tried to sound emphatic but caring.

“And you’re saying she has left and taken this animal with her? How did it happen?”

“I’m sorry, John, I can’t divulge any more than I have. By so doing, however, she placed herself serious jeopardy with the authorities. If you hear from her, you need to call me as soon as possible. The animal with her could be dangerous to her as well as the public.”

“Well...”

“Please, John,” Harry said imploringly. “If you know anything about Millie’s whereabouts, do her a favor and tell me.”

“She called here about a week ago,” Harbaum said. Harry sensed he was reluctant to reveal the information.

Harry listened as Harbaum described Millie’s phone call a number of months earlier when she asked if she could use the family cabin in Arizona. He assumed it was for a short vacation.

“When was this exactly, John?” Harry said.

“About five months ago,” Harbaum said. “Millie isn’t the best at keeping in touch with her family. We just assumed she returned to the research facility to continue her work.”

“I see. Can you give me the directions to the cabin? We’ll need to check it out.”

“Surely, she wouldn’t still be there, Dr. Olson. The cabin is out in the middle of nowhere.”

“We need to check all possibilities, John.”

Harry took a pad and wrote out the directions given him by Dr. Harbaum. Finished, he was about to hang up when the man continued talking.

“Do my wife and I need to come to the university, Dr. Olson? We’ll gladly do whatever is necessary to find Millie.” The man sounded worried. And confused.

“Well, John, that’s up to you. I’m happy to meet with you here at the university as I’m sure is Dr. Pauling, our president. Yes, whenever you and your wife can make it out just let me know.”

“I think her mother will insist on us coming. Maybe to the primate facility.”

“Of course, John. We’ll keep in touch. If anything turns up regarding Millie, I assure you I’ll call.”

After hanging up, Dixie handed Harry a beer, and two moved back to the patio.

“So what did Millie’s father had to say?” she asked Harry.

Harry took a long gulp and swallowed.

“He and his wife want to come out, so I said fine. They’re upset, naturally. He did mention that shortly after Millie disappeared that she called him and asked directions to the family cabin in the Superstition Mountains. I’ll need to notify the authorities.”

“Yes, of course, you will. This isn’t looking good for Millie.”

“Not at all,” Harry said. “I wish she had confided in me months ago. I might have been able to help.”

“On the other hand, she was a woman obsessed with her project. And you would have nixed it out of hand. I don’t think anything you could have said or done would have changed what happened. She was bent on creating a chimera, and nothing was going to stop her. I’m surprised she used her own DNA, however.”

“Yes, I would have thought she would have used DNA from another animal or alien DNA.”

“Alien DNA?” Dixie said.

“Yes, I read about it earlier in the year. Creating alien bases is not a new concept, and a team added modified cytosine and guanine into DNA molecules. They hardly looked like the originals. Obviously, not the same cytosine and guanine that is normally found in DNA. In test tubes, the team was able to get the foreign base pair to copy itself, but the real challenge was to get a cell to accept this alien DNA. To do that they used a complicated method to feed foreign DNA to a specifically engineered E. coli bacterium. The bacterium accepted the alien DNA, and when it ran out of alien nucleotides, the bacterium replaced them with natural ones. Foreign base pairs like these could also be used to create new proteins--which, among other things, could be used in creating new drugs or treatments for diseases. Not really alien in the usual sense but a completely made up strand of DNA.”

“Interesting. You know, Harry, genetics is not one of my strong suits. Far from it.”

“That’s for sure,” he said and laughed.

“Hard to believe how far we’ve come from that first expedition to Mongolia. Who knew when we uncovered that crashed Russian plane it would eventually lead to this?”

“What was the man’s name who tried to kill everyone?”

“Eastwood. Rutherford Eastwood.”

“I wonder what happened to him?”

“Probably rotting away in a Mongolian prison. At least, I sure hope so.”

“Yeah, me too. Still bothered by the nightmares?”

“Not so much anymore. I rarely think about the cave and those Yeti. Thank heavens. Do you think of that time?”

“Now and then, I relive being in the cave-in and wondering if we were going to make it out alive. I figured we were all going to die. That was the most scared I’ve been in my life. We barely got outa there with our lives.”

“Have you thought any more about whether you want to stay at Cal Pacific or leave?”

“Not really. I want to see this thing with Millie through first, then we’ll talk it over. I do feel better now that I’ve had time to think about everything. I don’t want to make a hasty decision that I would regret later.”

“I know these past months have been extremely stressful for you, honey, and my heart goes out to you. I love you so much that I hate to see you so worried. Let’s go to bed, and I’ll try and help you forget for a while.”

Harry smiled and followed Dixie inside and to their bedroom. She was such a beautiful woman, and he knew he was lucky to be married to her. Later, after their lovemaking, he lay and tried to put his mind at rest. Soon he was floating, dreaming.

He and Dixie were back at the monastery in Tenduk, high in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia. They had traveled there to examine a skull supposedly belonging to a Yeti. He had gone to her room because he couldn’t sleep, and she welcomed him with a wide smile. It was there he confessed his forgery of the data that appeared in his journal article. It was then she placed her hand on his, and, on impulse, he kissed her.

And from that moment his life was different.