Lori suddenly looked ill. "I remember something."

We all turned toward her.

"I was watching the news Sat.u.r.day, maybe Sunday. There was some story about a killing in Wisconsin, in some big city in the projects. A gang of kids had mauled this other kid, just beat him to death. The reporter said it was the worst thing he'd ever seen. They basically tore this kid apart with their bare hands."

"I remember seeing that, too," Heather said.

Lori continued. "They said it was like these kids turned into animals. Anyway, the camera flashed on the murder scene for like five seconds. And...that thing..." she glanced at Wesley. "...that thing you drew, or something like it, was drawn on an alleyway wall. I only saw it for a few seconds but..."

"What the h.e.l.l does it mean, though?" I was sitting with my back against the wall.

Wesley was silent as everybody started talking at once, wondering aloud to each other what those strange symbols meant, if there were a connection. I noticed Wesley was wrestling with something, trying to find a way to bring a new topic into the discussion. I think Martin noticed, too, because he nodded at Wesley.

"Remember a few weeks ago when we had those talks with Iran?" Wesley said.

"Yeah, I remember that!" James exclaimed. He shifted into a sitting position on the floor. "That was all over the news for like a week and then suddenly it was gone. It didn't make sense to me."

"Weren't they saying they wanted to nuke us?" Lori asked.

"We confirmed they had nuclear weapons," Wesley said. "Our intelligence found out they were planning to strike Israel, Great Britain, and the US East Coast. That's what was all over the news. We had diplomats trying to appeal to their government and deter things and...well...s.h.i.t, I might as well tell you what I know, and that ain't much."

"n.o.body's around to reprimand you anyway," I reminded him.

Wesley nodded. "Yeah. Anyway..." He looked afraid to tell us, disgusted perhaps, and I wondered if whatever it was had something to do with what happened. "I...we were told that the Iranian threat was going to be dealt with, and it was going to be done in a way that would be under the radar. No big explosions, no ma.s.sive troops being sent in, no big media sensation. In fact, the only media sensation that was expected and planned for was thought out over a year ago. And the idea was when it happened the American people, if not the world, would rally to help the people of Iran. There would be no finger pointing. It would be seen as a natural disaster, like the tsunami that hit Indonesia and Thailand in late '04. We had the best scientists already on hand to help explain things and they would have the support of other leading scientists, who had no idea what would really happen."

"So what the f.u.c.k is it?" I said.

Wesley paused for a moment, then took the plunge. "Human DNA is a very complex thing but it can be manipulated. It can be done with the right chemicals, and it doesn't matter if those chemicals are airborne or whatever...it can be done."

James Goodman seemed to know what Wesley was getting at. "This has something to do with that discovery about the Neanderthal gene, doesn't it?"

Wesley nodded. His voice was a low whisper, tinged with shame. "Yes. It does."

Heather and Martin looked confused. James looked like he'd been sucker-punched. I know how he felt. I think I looked the same way.

"How the h.e.l.l is that possible?" James exclaimed.

"What the f.u.c.k are you talking about?" Heather asked, the frustration obvious in her voice.

"Experiments were done on select US prisoners, then terrorist suspects from Guantanamo Bay," Wesley said. "I don't even know what the code name for the project was, but somehow word got out. It was like an underground rumor within the rank and file, almost like military urban legend and we didn't say anything about it to anyone outside the military. But we talked about it enough among ourselves that there seemed to be some semblance of truth to the rumors."

"What were those rumors?" Martin asked.

"That we'd found a chemical compound that could alter our DNA to activate the Neanderthal strain that's believed to be carried by us. And that this activation would, in essence, flip things so to speak. It would rewire us completely, alter the coding so that millions of years of breeding and refining of our DNA structure would be rolled back and reduced to our most primitive state."

"And why would our lovely government want to do this?" Lori asked. She looked and sounded p.i.s.sed off.

"You know that saying, 'We're gonna bomb 'em back to the Stone Age'?" Wesley explained. "Somebody in our government took that to heart and authorized that very sentiment when it was learned this DNA structure could be altered. Iran was a threat, North Korea was a threat, Syria was a threat. And China? They weren't an immediate threat but they were building up their military like we've never seen any country do since Germany and j.a.pan prior to World War II. All our enemies making those moves, it was like the years leading up to World War II all over again. It was decided early on that we weren't going to go down that road again, that we would not allow the world to go through another catastrophic war and the stakes were higher this time due to nuclear technology. There was a very likely chance these countries were ready to strike, and with our current troops stretched so thin..." Wesley looked grim. I think we all realized what could have happened in such a scenario. The United States would have been witness to the first enemy invasion by land since the War of 1812, not counting the sneak attacks on Pearl Harbor and Alaska by the j.a.panese in World War II, and the attack by Al Qaeda on American soil on September 11, 2001. "So...it was decided that if they were bombed back to the Stone Age, so to speak, they would be reverted...they would no longer be a threat. And the phenomenon would be explained by government scientists as...something in the water system or something. The Neanderthal DNA strand would be made public at that time and some form of an explanation would be brought up and-"

"So we did this!" I felt my voice rise. "We did this to ourselves?"

"I remember seeing something like this last week on TV," Martin said grimly. "Something about the riots in Iran right before all the nuclear saber rattling ceased."

"I remember that, too," James said. He still looked horrified at the implications that were hitting all of us.

"And you knew about it?" Lori looked like she wanted to leap across the room and throttle Wesley.

"It was nothing but rumors!" Wesley stated, his features and tone stern. "Rumors! When you're a career military person you hear a lot of crazy s.h.i.t. Detention camps being built by Halliburton for the confinement of US citizens critical of whatever administration is in the White House...Black Hawk helicopters doing surveillance on American citizens...the a.s.sa.s.sination of key political figures throughout the world...rumors of covert biological warfare. Most of it is pure bulls.h.i.t, but-"

"But obviously some of it's real!" Lori snapped. "Real enough to kill millions of people and turn the rest of them into a ma.s.s of slavering wild animals!"

"Even if I knew in my heart what I was hearing had been true, there would have been no way to stop it," Wesley said. He sounded like he was on the verge of throwing himself at our mercy. He sounded like he was at fault. Guilt lined his face, tinged his voice. "The rumor was this was top secret, that a couple of military people had already, quote unquote, disappeared because of it."

"People were taken out?" Martin asked.

"Yes," Wesley answered. "Word gets out about that kind of thing. Again, it all added to what was going around. Those that knew anything and tried to do something to stop it were stopped themselves. Permanently."

"How would this...chemical, or whatever...be spread?" James asked.

"I heard it was airborne," Wesley said. "That a good quant.i.ty of it was manufactured in a government lab somewhere on the East Coast and it would have been dropped from a bird flying over Iranian airs.p.a.ce."

"So all they need to do is breathe it in and it changes you," Martin said.

"Why didn't it affect us though?" I asked. I was having a hard time accepting this. My mind was racing. "Are we somehow immune? And if so, why did it affect my son and not the rest of my family? h.e.l.l, why didn't it affect me?"

"I don't know," Wesley said. He looked ashamed.

Now I was remembering something from the news. "Wait a minute. Wasn't there something in the news a week ago when this was going on...about a shootout at some lab?"

Wesley looked like he'd suddenly gone pale. "Jesus, you're right. That was Donnelly Labs, in Ma.s.sachusetts. They were a government lab."

"It was a security guard who was killed," I said, remembering now. "There was a big clampdown...because they thought some chemicals had leaked or something, but that turned out to be false."

Wesley was rubbing his face. He looked sick. "You didn't hear what I heard. The press mentioned the security guard but they didn't mention the missing scientist."

"What missing scientist?" Lori asked.

"I don't know his name," Wesley said. "He wasn't a top guy or anything. Still, he supposedly had All Clearance access. If the chemical was created in that lab and this missing scientist knew about it and...well, if he had political or personal issues of his own-"

"You think this missing scientist was responsible for this wider outbreak?" I asked.

"He wasn't seen again," Wesley said. "And I know that a very large effort was made by the CIA and the military to capture him. He went missing a day after the first of these...these Stone Age bombs were dropped over Iran."

"Was any of that chemical missing?" I asked.

"I don't know, but I suppose it was," Wesley said. "In fact, I'm sure it was, the way they were reacting to this guy's disappearance."

"And that would have given him enough time to travel widely to spread this s.h.i.t," Martin said.

"Not on any commercial flights," I added. "Not if he was wanted. He could have easily pa.s.sed the material on to a third party who spread it."

"Or to several people."

We all turned toward the hallway. Tracy was standing there, hands on her hips. How long she'd been listening to our conversation, I had no idea.

"So you're saying our government caused this," Tracy said. She sat down cross-legged next to me and took my hand.

"I'm afraid they did," Wesley said. He shook his head.

"Why didn't it affect us, then?" Heather asked.

"I don't know." Wesley wasn't looking at any of us. He bowed his head, looking ashamed.

"You don't know? Didn't they find this out when they were experimenting on prisoners and s.h.i.t?"

"You're grilling me as if you blame me for this. I told you, I only heard rumors about it and I didn't believe them myself until just two days ago!"

"f.u.c.k!" Heather turned away. "This is so f.u.c.ked up."

"I find it hard to believe our government would risk such a thing," James said. "I mean...yes, Iran was a threat. So were North Korea and Syria and a good portion of the Islamic Middle East for that matter. But to utilize biological weapons was a strict violation of-"

"Should've carpet bombed those G.o.dd.a.m.ned towel-head f.u.c.ks instead of doing this s.h.i.t," Heather muttered.

"Excuse me?" Lori looked at Heather as if she were about to take the younger girl down a notch.

Heather glowered at Lori. "Excuse you, what?"

"There's no need to get huffy with me, young lady," Lori stated. She rose to her feet, clearly irritated. While I could empathize with Heather's anger, she'd pushed too many b.u.t.tons in the past day and I was getting tired of her att.i.tude too.

"I'm not getting huffy, I'm just speaking my mind!"

"There's no sense arguing about this," Wesley sighed. He stood up and began pacing. "Heather's right. We had the strongest military in the world and we were too worried about political correctness in dealing with our enemies. Our occupation of Iraq was a joke. Our leadership lacked the sensitivity and the knowledge to effectively deal with our enemies."

"So we should've just carpet bombed Iraq when we went in?" James asked. "Kill millions of innocent people?"

"If you ask me, we shouldn't have gone in, but if we were going to go in at all, we should have done it right."

"And killed millions of innocent people?"

"The Israelis surely never thought of that when they invaded Lebanon in the weeks before all this s.h.i.t happened," Wesley countered. "They warned the civilian population, then proceeded to strike. That's what we should have done. Israel's response has been correct in my book. Meet force with greater force."

"What bulls.h.i.t!" Tracy muttered.

I could sense this discussion turning into an all-out political argument and I stood up and raised my hands. "We're not getting anywhere by arguing-"

While I was trying to stop what I perceived to be a full-fledged argument, Heather said something to Wesley. I didn't hear it, but Martin told me about it a few days later.

Heather had gotten to her feet, as did the rest of us, and what she said was directed at Wesley. I was well within earshot but didn't hear it-I was trying to calm Tracy down.

What Heather said to Wesley was this: "So you supported that Zionist occupation?"

Wesley's response was straight to the point. "I supported Israel's right to defend itself."

Lori Smith, who heard the exchange too, was the first among us who got into that fray. "What the h.e.l.l is your problem, girl?"

Heather turned to her. This part I did see, and if I was trying to convince myself that this kid, this throwback to the 1980's punk look, was really just a misunderstood kid, one who was going through problems before the world as we knew it ended, then I was proven wrong at that point. What I saw in her eyes was pure hatred.

"You're my problem," Heather said. "You and every other traitor to my race for polluting the world with your s.h.i.t!"

Tracy reacted like she was slapped in the face. "What?" She was looking at Heather as if the girl was some entirely new subspecies of human.

"Yeah, that means you too," Heather snapped at Tracy. "And your half-breed mutant kid. Women who f.u.c.k animals like your husband are disgusting."

I have to admit I was in shock when she said this. Hard to believe that at a time like this, with civilization pretty much kaput, that issues like race would be a major problem. Before all this happened I still found it hard to believe that somebody could hate me for the color of my skin.

"You little s.h.i.t!" Tracy muttered. I think she was so surprised at the sudden outburst that it left her unprepared mentally.

Lori Smith fixed Heather with that patented don't f.u.c.k with me glare. "So. It looks like I was right about you."

Heather sneered at her. "Like I give a s.h.i.t what a n.i.g.g.e.r like you thinks about me."

"Oh, you did not say that!" At the mention of that awful word, the expression on Lori's face was more than obvious. She was boiling mad.

"Oh but I did!" Heather sneered back. "n.i.g.g.e.r!"

I've never seen a fist fly so fast before in my life. Lori unleashed a straight right that smacked into Heather's face with such force that it lifted her off her feet. The punch sent her sprawling to the floor. While everything happened so fast, for a few moments it all seemed like it was happening in slow motion.

After Lori slugged Heather she loomed over the younger girl, fists raised, screaming, "I'm gonna f.u.c.k you up, b.i.t.c.h!"

Heather looked stunned. Blood gushed from her flattened nose-obviously broken from that single punch. Her face screwed into a rictus of anger and just as she started to get up, Lori dove forward, left hand grappling Heather's throat, and slammed three more punches into Heather's face, accenting each punch with a "f.u.c.king b.i.t.c.h, n.o.body talks to me that way!"

It took James and Martin to drag Lori off Heather. I've only been in a handful of fights in my life, and four well-placed blows to the face would have been the end of it for me. For Heather, they seemed to wake something up that had lain dormant inside her. Her face was bathed in blood and her left eye was beginning to swell shut. I have no doubt she would have thrown herself at Lori if Wesley hadn't locked his arm around her throat and pulled her back. "Get off me, G.o.ddammit!" She yelled. "I'm gonna f.u.c.k her up!"

"Shut. The f.u.c.k. Up!" Wesley growled at her. He hauled Heather back, and James and Martin held Lori back while something inside of me woke up and insisted on taking charge.

I directed my gaze at Heather, whose attention was wholly centered on Lori. "What the f.u.c.k is wrong with you?"

"I knew we should've dumped this b.i.t.c.h off when we got out of LA," Tracy muttered behind me.

Meanwhile, Wesley was trying to calm Heather down. He had a firm grip on her. No way was she going anywhere. "I don't have time for your petty racist att.i.tude, little girl. You understand me?"

"And I don't have time for your s.h.i.t!" Heather growled. "Get your f.u.c.king hands off me!"

"Just get her out of here!" Tracy snapped at Wesley.

Wesley started to haul Heather toward the staircase when James said, "Hold on, hold on, we can't just throw her out of here!"

Wesley stopped. Heather wasn't struggling in his grasp anymore. She was panting from the exertion of her struggle and her eyes gleamed with anger and hatred. Lori had herself under control now but she stood on the other side of the hallway near the conference room, James and Martin standing on either side of her. I have no doubt that if Lori and Heather decided to duke it out who would emerge the winner.