0062381644 by James Rollins

Author:James Rollins [Rollins, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Action & Adventure, Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, War & Military, United States, Thrillers & Suspense, Military, Suspense, Thriller, Contemporary Fiction, Thrillers
ISBN: 9780062381637
Amazon: B00OP1K6GS
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: 2015-12-15T06:00:00+00:00

15

April 30, 7:22 P.M. CST

Beijing, China

“Now where are they taking us?” Kowalski grumbled under his breath.

Maria shook her head, as much in the dark as he was. She sat next to the big man in the back of an electric cart that whisked through the depths of the subterranean complex. She noted Kowalski picking at the bandage on his face, remembering his story of Baako attacking him. She also remembered his furtive signal that undercut this story.

[I’m lying]

Worry for Baako burned in her gut, along with guilt. She pictured her little boy alone in this strange foreign place. He must be terrified. She wished she could go to him, console him, but that was not where they were headed at the moment.

After revealing the fossilized bones of the newly discovered hominin species—Homo meganthropus—Major General Jiaying Lau had ordered them to be transported to a new destination. The general sat in front beside the driver, talking on her cell phone. From her clipped and angry tones, it sounded like she was browbeating the caller.

Finally the electric cart slowed before a tall set of double doors. A familiar figure in camouflage-colored fatigues waited for them, standing stiffly, his expression stoic. It was Gao’s brother, Chang Sun.

Jiaying twisted in her seat to face them. “Remain here.”

The general climbed out of the cart and drew Chang several steps away.

“Where does she think we can go?” Kowalski said, slumping deeper in his seat.

A second cart pulled up behind them, carrying Dr. Dayne Arnaud and a pair of armed soldiers. Arnaud was prodded out of his cart and marched over to them. The paleontologist eyed the tall set of double doors. A steel track system ran along the ceiling and passed through the top of those doors.

Arnaud sighed. “It appears we are getting closer to the reason you were brought here, Dr. Crandall.”

Maria sensed the same. After seeing those remains, she knew the Chinese must be pursuing ways to harvest specific sequences of DNA from the giant’s bones, all in order to engineer a stronger soldier.

But how far along had they gotten?

Arnaud crossed his arms, likely worried about the same. “As I understand it, your research—and your sister’s—was all about proving that the Great Leap Forward in human intelligence was due to the introduction of new genes gained from the interbreeding of early man with Neanderthals.”

“That’s basically our hypothesis. That this hybridization produced a small tribe of individuals who were capable of greater intuitive leaps, who looked at the world differently than either of their parents.”

“And it was from these few unique souls that the Great Leap Forward was driven.”

She heard the incredulous tone in his voice and pushed back against it. “Multiple statistical models support such a theory. Knowledge is like a virus, capable of growing exponentially under the right circumstances. It would take the creativity and innovation of only a small population of super-enhanced individuals to alter the world: to spread new insights, to share new tools, to teach new methods of art and ritual.

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