The Egyptian by Layton Green Read Free Book Online Page B

egg?”
    “If I were looking for something shady in biotech, I’d look at Somax. It’s a company headquartered in Bulgaria.”
    Grey kept a blank face, but his inner alarm was buzzing. Somax was one of the seven companies on Al-Miri’s list. “I didn’t realize cutting-edge technology was taking place in Eastern Europe.”
    “Somax started in the former Soviet Union, under a different name and government ownership. From the beginning it’s been involved in radical experimentation, in particular biological warfare and militaristic human experimentation. God knows what else they were doing, back in the day. During the cold war they moved operations to Bulgaria.”
    “Good choice. Bulgaria’s not exactly known for its transparency.”
    “When Bulgaria gained independence, Somax privatized and moved into aging. Somax has a number of patents, is cash-rich, and no doubt has plenty of legislators in its pockets.”
    “What exactly do they do?”
    “If it’s done in biotech, they do it. Fetal stem cell research, cloning, organ farming, interspecies experimentation, cryogenics, biological warfare, designer genetic engineering, you name it. There are lots of rumors, and few facts. I’ve been looking for a reason to investigate them, a solid lead, for some time.”
    “Thus this meeting, and why you told me without much of a fight.”
    She lowered her voice, batted her eyes and purred. “Alcohol lowers my mental defenses.”
    Grey smirked. “What else do you know about them?”
    “The last time Somax was really in the news was a few years back. The story was never proven, but they allegedly conducted a series of biological tests in a village in Sudan. A few months after Somax left, a baby was born in the village with four arms and no face. No one could trace it to Somax, but it was widely assumed their drugs were responsible.”
    The buzzing in his mind escalated. Sudan. Africa.
    “They call it science and progress, but they operate in a moral vacuum, in my opinion. And I’m progressive.”
    He considered what he’d seen in that lab. “I admit that… embryo… we saw today made me pause. Apparently the people outside the gate weren’t too happy about it.”
    “The minotaur isn’t viable, of course. But it’s still alive, depending on your definition. People, especially religious types, tend to get a little crazy when the natural order of things is disrupted. Can you believe the Pope recently denounced the “largely uncharted world of biotech” as today’s greatest danger zone for the human soul? I’m sorry, how about mass poverty and child soldiers? People don’t like change, and biological experimentation is change most extreme. It challenges people’s worldview, their concept of egocentric humanity and the divine design behind life.”
    “You don’t seem to have a problem with it.”
    She lifted her hands, palms up. “I don’t know about the whole God thing, but if He didn’t want us to tinker with it, why make it accessible?”
    “There’re lots of things theoretically available to us, but off limits. Like experimentation on African villagers.”
    “I’d never dispute that. I’ve heard it all before, believe me. If you run in the biotech world for long you’ll see life and death and everything in between in a whole new light. Did you see what they were doing today? They sucked out the DNA from a cow egg, and inserted human DNA. Think about that. Do you understand how new this field is? What’ll we be seeing in five, ten, fifty years? If God doesn’t want us to go certain places, He better step in quick, because His new high priests are tinkering with life and death.”
    Grey could only think of one appropriate response. “I need another beer.”

– 8 –
     
    V eronica watched Dominic Grey leave the bar after their second round. Soon after the biotech discussion ended he mumbled something about needing to take a walk, then paid their tab and left. He wasn’t the king of social graces,