The Orca Revelation Read online

the one making decisions on this scale.

  They needed a break. They had confirmed their result over and over. Now they needed time to rest and to think about what they would do next. Alex hooked up with Julie and apologized for spending so much time on his research. He told her that the project was not going the way he had expected. He spent the next two weeks focusing on the classes he was teaching and on spending time with Julie.

  Alex continued his research on the net. He stumbled upon a website that discussed the aquatic ape theory. The site contained speculation that tried to explain why humans were the most aquatic of the primates. None of the great apes can swim, and they are afraid of deep water. Humans have a different type of fat cells making us more buoyant; we are better at holding our breath, and our flexible shoulder and hip joints allow us to swim in a variety of ways. How this evolved was a mystery. Having whale DNA spliced into our genes could explain both menopause and our aquatic nature.

  It was time to get back to work; decisions needed to be made. He called Mike, but there was no answer. He left him a message to meet him at the lab. He kissed Julie goodbye and left. When Alex arrived at the lab, there was chaos, fire trucks and police all around. There were broken windows, and he could see the charred remains of what once was a hi-tech research facility. Alex’s project was one of a dozen or so that were housed there; all of them destroyed. He found the officer who appeared to be in charge, and asked him what had happened. He was told that it looked like arson, mostly likely done by some radical group that was against genetic research. There had been a few threats in the last year. Alex tried to call Mike, but again there was no answer. He left another message; this time telling him of the fire.

  Alex’s research was likely to be totally destroyed. He knew that Mike had made backups, but that they were probably in the lab as well. It would be a couple of days before they would be allowed into the lab to assess the damage. He called Julie to tell her about the fire. She was sad for him, but inside part of her was happy for now he would have more time for her. Alex went to Dr. Anderson’s office to tell him about the fire, and to ask if he knew Mike’s whereabouts. Dr. Anderson was just getting in, and he had already been informed about the fire. He knew this disaster was a great setback for many researchers, not just Alex. In fact, he thought that Alex had a lot less at stake than most from his point of view.

  It was Monday morning and Dr. Anderson said that he had seen Mike on Friday, and that he would likely see him today in his ten o’clock class. Alex did not have to teach until 1:00 o’clock, so he would wait and see if he could catch Mike. Mike did not show. It was unlike him to miss class, and Alex wondered if he was ill. After Alex finished teaching his class, he got Mike’s address from the secretary and then went to Mike’s apartment. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He began looking into the windows, but could not see anyone, then the police came.

  A neighbor had called them, thinking that Alex’s behavior was suspicious. He told the police that Mike was his research assistant, and that he had been unable to get a hold of him and was now getting concerned. The police knocked on the door and then looked in the windows. After that, they had the apartment manager let them in. They found Mike in his bed; he had died. From the evidence in the room, he had taken sleeping pills with alcohol. Whether his death was intentional or accidental could not be determined. There was no suicide note. The pills were in an unmarked bottle, and it was later discovered that Mike did not have a prescription for them, but drugs flow freely on a college campus.

  Alex was distraught. He liked Mike and thought that science needed men like him. Alex called Dr. Anderson and told him of the sad news. Two awful events in one weekend, what could be next. In the back of his mind, Alex wondered if any of this could be related to their research or was he just getting paranoid. Things like this just happen, and they had not told anyone about their findings. Now he probably never would; they would think that he had gone crazy, and he had no proof. He had made the greatest discovery of the twenty first century, and nobody would ever know about it. He would get on with his life, get a job and marry Julie.

  Wednesday afternoon, Alex was allowed into what was left of the lab. As he expected, everything had been destroyed. The fire was started in a different part of the building, but the draft from the ventilation system blew it right into their section, burning all of their equipment and their journals. Feeling a little depressed, he went back to his office. There he checked his mail. In it was a job offer from Vedagene Pharmaceuticals. He had never applied for a position with them, but in his field it was not unusual to be recruited. It was a lucrative offer, and openings for the professorships he wanted were hard to find. He was going to have to talk this over with Julie.

  While in his office, he wrote a report to the trustees of his grant. He told them that the fire had destroyed their equipment before they had a chance to get any results, and that there was not enough money left to start over. He mailed off the report, and then went to find Julie. He told her about the job offer, and that he was strongly considering it. He said that he could start after the end of the term and then he proposed to her. She said yes, and that she would be able to finish her degree by the end of the semester. She encouraged him to take the job at Vedagene, and said that she would try to get a position teaching at a community college nearby.

  It was getting close to the end of the semester. Alex had just finished creating his final exams and now had some time to relax. There were plenty of e-books on his reader that he had not had the time to read, so he started to scan the contents looking for a good title. One stood out to him. It was titled The Orca Revelation. He hadn’t remembered downloading it. When he opened it, he was amazed. Mike had backed up their results and his graphics onto Alex’s reader pad. Alex had left the device in the lab several times, but he had no clue that Mike had done this. It was like Mike; he enjoyed hacking things and surprising people. There was a note: “Surprise, I like to have lots of backups. We are also backed up on the cloud. MC.” ‘Backed up on the cloud’ Alex thought to himself. He was getting paranoid again.