Necessary Evil by David Dun Read Free Book Online Page A

appeared to be shorthand for various kinds of cancer cells. A planeload of human diseases, a veritable Noah's ark of the plagues of mankind.
    His scalp prickled. After glancing again at Jessie, who still knelt by the corpse in the snow, he turned his attention to a large black box that lay open. Its contents were five heavy binders. Possibly laboratory documentation.
    No ordinary container, this box had a thick layer of rubberized material on the outside. The inside of the box was metal lined and its walls thick. It was undoubtedly fireproof and shock resistant. Beside the box lay two hefty combination locks that obviously had secured the latches before someone opened them. Carefully he lifted out the binder labeled vol. i, opened it, and saw a table of contents for six volumes inserted loosely, as if the set was regularly updated. Looking down at the box again, Kier saw space for a sixth binder of the same dimensions as the first five. If the sixth volume had ever been there, it was now missing.
    Jessie edged silently past him, headed toward the bodies in the plane.
    After the table of contents came a handwritten page scrawled in blue ink. There was a spidery quality to the writing that was the telltale sign of a fountain pen in a hurried hand.
     
    Jack Tillman's going to kill us all, Lord help us. And we have given him the tools.
    Although I have not yet made him God, I have put him at God's right hand. These volumes
    must be given to the media and to scientists who can sort out how to responsibly use what we
    have discovered. If you 're reading this (and whether you work for Tillman or not) you must
    kill him before he kills you.
    I wanted to help my wife. That's how Tillman talked me into the Wintoon Project with the
    Tiloks. I never knew that by trying to save her, I would start this nightmare
     
    The page ended in mid-sentence.
    Kier recalled Tillman's arrogant stare. He searched for the remainder of the handwritten diary, flipping quickly through the other volumes, looking for more summary explanations. Nothing.
    Jessie, looking at bodies, said something about not touching things. But this was a treasure trove of information and even she didn't sound convinced. Not wanting to start an argument, he said nothing and continued on.
    He searched the index for "Wintoon Project," finding only a reference to Volume Six. But Volume Six was nowhere to be found, unless it was in the forward cabin among the debris.
    Kier's eye wandered back to the flasks and vials and then to an index page. In a subheading that read "Adult Cloning Methodologies," he found a cross-reference to "Wintoon Project" at page 67 in the missing Volume Six. In fact, the table of contents showed that the entire last half of Volume Six was devoted to "DNA Reconstruction," "Gene Reassortment," "Gene Expression," and "DNA Chip Methodologies."
    Looking up, he saw that Jessie was mostly finished with the bodies, staring back at him, wanting to know what he was finding. Where to begin? "I'll tell you later," was all he said, in deference to the smallness of his real answer as contrasted with the potential magnitude of the discovery.
    Urgently, he skimmed the dense material for additional references to Wintoon. He again looked for the missing Volume Six, walking up the aisle partway toward Jessie. Nothing.
    He had to get these books out of the plane in case it exploded and burned. Kier carried the binders out into the maelstrom and found the mountain still in the midst of its makeover. Snow blew in swirls—it blew up, it blew down, it covered every offered space.
    He let his gaze wander over what he could see of the snow-covered trees and the crumpled jet, using what he observed and felt to focus his thinking. The men in this plane had been experimenting with DNA. They had been engaged in genetic tinkering that somehow involved the Tilok. According to the writer, Jack Tillman was a very dangerous man. He apparently owned the contents of the jet. Was all of this