Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
The results were starting to come in from the many tests, and Ian studied them, checking to see if anything stood out. Surely somewhere in the data would be the clue he’d been seeking. The marker to identify the animal hidden within humanity.
A knock at the door had him barking, “What?”
A head poked through, Sergei something or other, his new translator since the loss of Olga.
“Sorry to disturb, Dr. Levy. However, aerial surveillance has picked up an approaching helicopter.”
The news brought a scowl to Ian’s face. General Davidson was finally returning from his failed Malaysian trip.
Pity. Ian had never been more annoyed to find out Davidson lived.
The only one to do so after his invasion of a weretiger village in a jungle.
He’d barely escaped with his life. Even worse, he’d not managed to acquire a single feline therianthrope.
Sergei waited for orders. “No cause for concern. It’s just the general.”
“I thought he wasn’t supposed to get here for a few more hours,” stated Sergei with a frown.
“The general isn’t one to stick to set schedules.” The man liked to surprise people, claiming it was the only way to accurately ascertain whether or not they were actually working.
“Understood. We will turn on the landing lights and prepare for his arrival.”
“And make sure there’s some warm food for him to eat.
” No one wanted to deal with a hangry general, especially one returning empty-handed.
It didn’t help that Levy had managed to accomplish what Davidson hadn’t.
Recovered one of their original patients from the lost Canadian lab, plus two naturally occurring therianthropes.
If lucky, soon they’d be adding their first baby to that mix.
Levy resumed perusing the numbers, not seeing anything that jumped out. That would have been too easy. Perhaps DNA sequencing wasn’t the right way to go about this. After all, chromosomes, the grouping of the strands more specifically, played a huge role in differentiating species.
Before he could continue that train of thought, the helicopter arrived.
Despite the building being fairly soundproof, he could still hear the rotor noise.
Within minutes, that blustering idiot of a general would be stomping and demanding and getting in the way.
The man might have been the one to find the original therianthrope and convince the government they needed to study and use it, but when it came to actual science, he didn’t understand certain things took time and that there would be much trial and error along the way.
Didn’t stop the general from demanding results, NOW.
Nor did it prevent the general from undergoing the protocol.
What a shame it didn’t kill him. Although Ian did end up impressed that Davidson exposed yet another animal possibility.
A silverback gorilla. Very unexpected, since none of their digging into legends ever mentioned any.
Pop. Pop. Pop. “Argh!”
The unexpected gunfire and muffled scream had Levy bounding from his desk to glance out his window.
A helicopter sat parked on the tarmac, but not the one on loan from the military.
On the contrary, he stared at a red and yellow search-and-rescue machine.
Why had it landed? They’d certainly not requested it.
It took more gunfire and the sight of muzzle flash for him to realize, We’re under attack!
Ian tripped getting around his desk but still managed to make it to the security pad by his door. He centered his face on the screen until it unlocked, and then he keyed in the code to set off the alarms.
Let the soldiers handle whoever dared interrupt his work.
As for Ian, he returned to his desk and, while the data tempted, flipped his computer screen to the video monitoring system.
“Oh, damn.”
This was bad. So very bad. He recognized those emerging from the helicopter. People who had a grudge.
Time to salvage what he could and flee.