Chapter 27

Harry spent the day on the phone chatting with a number of people with the Institute for American Antiquities regarding his possible employment. Dixie had taken the car to Cal Pacific to clean out her desk, and, later, Harry planned to contact Special Agent Jacoby to see if he had any updates on Millie’s whereabouts.

Dr. John Brock at the IAA was eager to discuss Harry’s potential employment. The salary would be considerably more that what he was making at Cal Pacific, and the organization was looking for someone of Harry’s stature to lead an expedition to Nepal. A follow-up on the Denisova bone fragment that had been found a few years earlier. The bone preserved just enough anatomy for the paleontologist to identify it as a chip from a primate fingertip--specifically the part that faces the last joint in the pinkie. Since there was no evidence for primates other than humans in Siberia 30,000 to 50,000 years ago--no apes or monkeys--the fossil was presumably from some kind of human. Judging by the incompletely fused joint surface, the human in question had died young, perhaps as young as eight years old. And Dr. Brock wanted Harry to continue the search for more specimens.

It was near the region where Harry had discovered the Yeti, and there was always the possibility of finding more of the creature he had invested so much of his time and passion in.

“John,” he said trying to keep his voice level, “it sounds like a dream job. I want it, that’s for sure, but I’d like a few days to talk it over with Dixie. That possible?”

“Of course, Harry,” was Brock’s sympathetic reply. “We’re not in a hurry, so we will continue to vet you. We want the right person, and I believe that person is you. With your experience in the region and in leading many similar expeditions, you are a perfect fit. You would have a free hand in organizing the group.”

“Including my wife, Dixie?”

“Whomever you desire. It would be your show?”

“You have a timetable?” Harry wondered how soon he would have to be ready.

“We’d like the expedition to have boots on the ground a year from now.”

“All right, John, let me discuss this with Dixie.”

“Fine, Harry. And like I said, the vetting process may take another few days, but I want you to know I think you’re our man. I’ll call you when everything is settled on our end.”

The Denisova hominid and a chance to find another Yeti. How lucky could a guy get? Harry couldn’t wait for Dixie to return so he could share his good fortune.

It would complicate things, however. He still needed to locate Millie and arrange a safe place for the chimera to be housed and studied. It was the only way to salvage his somewhat tarnished reputation. At least at Cal Pacific. He didn’t want to leave with such a shroud of irresponsibility hanging over him. His old and dear Professor Kesler would understand, God rest his soul.

He heard Dixie come in and jumped up to greet her. She carried a large box of books and journals. He took them from her and carried them into the study.

“I didn’t realize I had accumulated so much stuff,” she complained, slumping into a chair. She brushed a lock of blonde hair from her eyes and smiled.

“Guess what?” Harry said. “I’ve got great news.”

“Oh yeah, what?” Dixie said, her green eyes flashing sparkles.

“Dr. Brock with the Institute for American Antiquities offered me a position.”

“When?”

“Just a while ago. I talked to him while you were out.”

Dixie sat up straight.

“Just like that?” she said. “He offered you a job just like that?”

Harry waved his arms in an animated fashion and giggled.

“Yeah, honey, just like that. I need to go through the usual vetting process, but Dr. Brock believes I am their man. His exact words. Of course, he knew of my work with the Yeti, and he was a close friend of the Professor’s. He said I was a natural fit.”

“Wow,” Dixie said, slumping back in her chair. “I guess I’ll be needing to find work now.”

“There’s more. The IAA is mounting an expedition to Nepal to continue investigations into the Denisova hominids, and he wants me to lead it. Wants to be in country in a year. And the best part is I can take you. You can be a part of the team.

Dixie looked flabbergasted. She stared at her husband for a few moments then burst out laughing.

“It’s wonderful, honey. I’m excited.”

After her outburst, Dixie turned somber, a frown appeared on her tanned face.

“But what about Millie?” she said. “What do we do about her?”

“We’ll just have to find her. And soon. I’m going to phone Jacoby and see if he has any new information.”

“The Denisova hominid,” Dixie said, as she stared out the window.

“Scientists extracted the finger bone’s mitochondrial DNA, a small bit of the genome that living cells have hundreds of copies of and that is, therefore, easier to find in ancient bone.” Harry tried to not sound excited, but it was difficult to contain his elation. “They compared the DNA sequence with those of living humans and Neanderthals. Then they repeated the analysis because they couldn’t believe the results they’d gotten the first time around. On a Friday afternoon, the lab staff gathered and the lead investigator challenged anyone to come up with a different explanation for what he was seeing. The man still recalls that Friday as scientifically the most exciting day of his life. The tiny chip of a finger bone, it seemed, was not from a modern human at all. But it wasn’t from a Neanderthal either. It belonged to a new kind of human being, never before seen.”

“I remember discussing this find when I was a graduate student,” Dixie said.

“The mtDNA analysis further suggested this new hominid species was the result of an early migration out of Africa, distinct from the later out-of-Africa migrations associated with Neanderthals and modern humans. Some argue it could be a relic of the earlier African exodus of Homo erectus, because of the tooth size, although this has not been proved. The conclusions of both the excavations and the sequencing are still debatable because the evidence shows that all three human forms have occupied the Denisova Cave.”

“I remember that this specimen has complicated the picture in Asian evolution.”

“For now,” Harry continued, “the population to which these two fossils belonged is being called Denisovans. A decision on how to classify them will probably be deferred until we know more of their anatomy. The fact that Denisovans and Neanderthals both interbred with humans does not necessarily mean they are one species--there are many cases of modern species able to interbreed. Animal species are more usually defined by whether they ordinarily form a single interbreeding population, rather than by whether they are merely capable of interbreeding. This is obviously a fuzzy criterion, but the fact that the Neanderthal and Denisovan contributions to the human genome appear to have been limited events means these hominids could still end up being classified as three species.”

“I didn’t realize you were such an expert, Dr. Olson,” Dixie said, sporting a broad grin.

“It’s the extent of my knowledge, for sure. But you needn’t be so jocular about it,”

Harry pulled Dixie from the chair, put his arms around her, and kissed her hard on the lips.

“At least,” he said, after pulling away out of breath, “we’ll be able to remain working together. I’m happy about that.”

Later, he phoned the San Francisco FBI office and left a message to have Jacoby call him. As he waited for the special agent to return his phone call, he attempted to devise a plan by which he and Dixie could locate Millie. Maybe they could search her room at the facility. But then she probably did not leave anything incriminating behind. Or possibly Radner had already accomplished that task. He could call the man. He remembered Gerald Siscom was sweet on Millie so maybe he could offer a clue as to where she might have gone. Dixie thought she was in the Bay Area, and that might be right. The fact that her parents had no idea where she was wasn’t very comforting. But, then again, she might contact them in the future.

That Millie had been a graduate student then a faculty member in his charge weighed heavily on his conscience. He couldn’t just give up searching for her. But the fact that he had been summarily discharged without much of a hearing made him angry. At first, he was astonished then bewildered and confused. Those emotions had been followed by a certain depression, one that had settled deep in his soul and left him drained. But with this new job opportunity came a sense of anger. Anger that the university, to which he had been loyal to a fault, would give him up so easily. Surely, as a tenured professor, they had violated his rights.

“I feel like such a failure,” he said to Dixie who was busy unpacking the box from her office. “When I was growing up, failure presented itself as something extremely clear. You failed an exam, your team lost a game. And in the grown-up world, it was the same. Marriages failed, you failed to get that promotion. Later, I realized that failure could also be private and hidden. That there was emotional, moral, sexual failure. The failure to understand another person, to make friends, to say what you meant. But even in those areas, the binary system applied--win or lose, pass or fail.”

Dixie stopped her unpacking and gave Harry a hug.

“Honey, in the long run, we are all dead, and none of us is God. You must recognize that failure is, in large part, emotion, and the fact that we are haunted by it matters not at all in the long run. The Zen of it is that success and failure are both an illusion, and these illusions will keep you from your work. They will spoil your talent, they will eat away at your life, your sleep, and the way you speak to the people you love.”

She smiled and squeezed his arm.

“You’re too hard on yourself,” she added. “Not everything in life can be reduced to a win or a loss.”

“I know you mean well, but the problem with this spiritual argument,” he said, “is that success and failure are also real. You can finish a real experiment, and its results can be published or not, be reviewed or not. Each one of these real events makes it easier or harder to do one’s job. If you keep going and stay on the right side of all this, you can be offered honors and awards, you can be recognized on the street, you can be recognized in the streets of several countries, some of which do not have English as a native language. And all this can happen, by the way, whether or not your work is actually good, or still good. Success may be material but is also an emotion. One that is felt, not only by you, but also by the crowd. This is why we yearn for it, and cannot have it. It is not ours to hold.”

“Once you get settled in your new work,” Dixie said, “all these worries will fade away. You will forget these torments. I’m sure of it, sweetheart.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” he said. “Getting back is the hardest thing to do after you have been knocked to the ground. It takes a certain mental toughness. I want to think I possess that toughness.”

“You do,” Dixie said. “It just takes a little time after you have the breath knocked out of you. I’m not worried.”

Jacoby called and didn’t sound promising.

“Don’t have anything new to report,” he said. “We have checked all the doctor’s offices, emergency rooms, the morgue, without any luck. Animal control hasn’t picked up any strange looking animals. The fact is, Doctor Olson, she could be anywhere. And I mean anywhere.”

“Well, Dixie and I are going to keep looking for her,” Harry said, disappointment clearly in his voice. He had hoped that the agent would have stumbled onto something they could use.

“Good luck,” Jacoby said. “If we turn up anything, I’ll let you know.”

***

Millie spent the evening putting the apartment back in order while Roku sulked in the corner. He refused his food and water, causing Millie to become somewhat concerned. Since her earlier discussion with Roku, she worried that he was developing into something that would soon be impossible for her to handle. The chimera obviously had an intellect surpassing the Yeti she had studied at the primate facility and was developing a self-awareness that was definitely human. Actually, his language skills and his intellectual skills were far ahead of any human child of the same chronological age. It was impossible to judge where it was all headed.

The belief that humans were exceptional by virtue of their existence and were the most intelligent species on Earth might not be true, and animals could be intelligent in their own unique ways. The idea that humans were superior to all other life forms probably emerged about 10,000 years ago when humans decided to take up farming. The feeling of superiority went up a notch with the arrival of organized religion, which niftily put humans, especially men, at the center of Life and Universe.

The belief of human cognitive superiority became entrenched in human philosophy and sciences. Even Aristotle, probably the most influential of all thinkers, argued that humans were superior to other animals, due to their exclusive ability to reason.

Animals offered different kinds of intelligences that had been under-rated due to humans’ fixation on language and technology. These included social and kinesthetic intelligence. Some mammals, like gibbons, could produce a large number of varied sounds. Over twenty different sounds with clearly different meanings allowed these arboreal primates to communicate across tropical forest canopies. The fact that they did not build houses was irrelevant to the gibbons.

Tool use had been reported many times in both wild and captive primates, particularly the great apes. The use of tools by primates was varied and included hunting fish; collecting honey; processing foods, such as nuts; and collecting water, weapons, and, shelter.

Chimpanzees in the Fongoli Savannah sharpened sticks to use as spears when hunting, which was considered the first evidence of systematic use of weapons in a species other than humans. Several species of birds, including parrots and owls, had been recorded as using tools in the wild.

One species examined extensively under laboratory conditions was the New Caledonian crow. One individual, called Betty, spontaneously made a wire tool to solve a novel problem in the laboratory. Millie was aware of all these facts, but the knowledge didn’t cause her to feel any better.

She was tired of him sulking in the corner. She stood in front of him, sporting a stern expression, and signed, “Roku, get up and go sit in your chair.” No response. She signed again, “I am tired of this behavior. Now, I said get up and go sit in your chair. Right now.”

Roku continued to sit silently. His loud breathing in the form of wheezes.

She reached down to take a hold of his arm, and, when she did, he jumped to his feet, let out a loud shriek, and grabbed both of Millie’s arms. He pushed her backward out of the kitchen and into the living room. She fell onto her back and hit her head on the floor.

Roku was on her, teeth bared, snarling. His eyes, now red, glowed as if they were on fire.

“Roku, stop this,” she screamed, suddenly aware of the chimera’s tremendous strength. Where did it come from? “Get off me, this instant!”

Instead of obeying, Roku continued his assault. He shook Millie by her shoulders, and she began to fight back, but it only provoked a more intense response from him. She felt her head being pounded into the hard floor, again and again. Roku’s eyes were fixed on some far away place, as if he was not aware of what he was doing.

“Roku, get off me,” Millie pleaded. “Please, Roku.”

But the chimera did not stop.

Or get off Millie.

He continued bashing her head into the hard floor.

Over and over.

She felt she was close to losing consciousness. But, still, Roku did not stop his assault. The apartment began to fade, darkness closing around her.

She knew Roku was going to kill her.

“Please,” she said in a weak exhalation.

Then everything went black.