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Dataset card Data Studio Files
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Genetic damage?
When DNA is defective, it often uncontrollably replicates long repeating sequences of the same base pair. Viruses can damage DNA. So can radiation, certain chemicals. Even cancer. Let's let the G.S.E. sort it out. I have to get started. This will take several hours.
We need someone to take us to the secure storage area.
Pendergast? Are you all right?
No. I think I'm hallucinating.
You're not. Where is it?
Gone.
Wounded?
No. A chromium alloy tipped .45 caliber bullet bounced off that thing's skull like a spit ball. I think it was bothered by my light.
That would fit. It's nocturnal. Quick. Come inside.
I don't know how to deal with this. It's hellish. Like nothing I ever saw. I'm not trained to deal with a monster, a supernatural creature like that.
It's not supernatural. Mbwun is an animal. Part lizard, part human, a genetic freak of some kind, like the halfgoat, halfsheep they found last year in the jungles of Vietnam.
But this isn't the jungle! This is New York. How did it get here? A thing like that crossed two continents. It makes no sense!
But what can we do? Our guns are useless
We have the fibers. Don't you see? The creature is hungry. It wants the hormones in these plants. It would take hundreds of human brains to supply what's in these fibers. We're just a poor substitute. To make it stop hunting, we have to give it what it wants.
You'd slow us down and put Margo in danger.
Unlock one of the other storage rooms. We're going upstairs. We'll leave a trail back to 1012 and try to trap the monster in here.
That was D'Agosta.
The planetarium!
Vince!
Is there another way around?
No. The planetarium is in the next cell. This is one of the fire doors...
Hide quickly!
What are you going to do?
What is it doing?
It's scared of me.
What happened?
Its eyesight is worse than I thought. It couldn't see us. And it couldn't smell us through the glass.
It didn't want the fibers. What does that mean?
I think... it means it's full.
Then it won't go after the others?
No. It's still hunting, but not for the hormones.
For what?
I think... for the pleasure of the kill.
We have to try and draw it off!
How?
The answer's right in front of us.
That's a ptarmigan, feigning a broken wing. The bird pretends to be injured to draw the fox away from its nest!
It's deceptively simple. Like a Bruckner Symphony or a Matisse.
Help someone!
Oh God! Help!
You smell that?
It's coming. Run.
We're not going to make the storage room!
Listen to me, Pendergast. Mbwun's DNA is part homo sapien. In primates, the eye is a direct path to the brain! If you get a clean shot, there's only one place you can kill it. Shoot it in the eye!
No! Don't kill him! Pendergast, you were right. It's John!
What?
That thing is John Whittlesley. I should have seen it before! The fibers are infected with a virus. You eat them, and the virus alters your DNA! He became addicted to them in South America, followed the plants back to the states. He probably entered the country as a man. It would have taken several months for the change to take place. That's how he got from the boat to the museum!
I don't believe it.
You have to! Listen! All viruses pass on their own DNA. Instruct the cells of the host to make more viruses! This one was different. It inserted a whole array of genes into John. Reptile genes, sixty five million years old. Those genes remade him! It's not his fault!
Whatever that thing is, we have to kill it!
Just like John. He won't listen.
I have to shoot.
Do it, quickly. Please. Aim for the eye.
He has to look here or I won't get a clear shot. Call him, Margo.
I can't!
You have to. Do it now!
I'm so glad to see you. What's the occasion?
I'm in town on a case. Dropped by to see Vince and we thought we'd see the new display.
If I spent half the time on my Fractal Evolution thesis that I spend on this fly rod, I'd have my PhD.
But at what a price.
I have the species identification on these teeth. We can extract DNA and start running tests on the extrapolator program. Call Dr. Frock. He wanted a demonstration.
Margo, you haven't heard?
What?
Frock's been fired.
That's impossible.
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but you know me. Telegraph. Telephone. Tell Kawakita. I got the definitive word from Cuthbert's secretary. This is Dr. Frock's last week.
For once I'm glad you're rumor central. What in the world is going on?
Someone's been murdered. Not shot, strangled or stabbed, either. Torn limb from limb. There's talk of a psychotic killer or even an animal.
Mbwun.
What's that?
What do you make of it, Margo?
It's not mammalian, that's for sure. I think it's reptilian.
Turkish Gecko, I believe. A lizard.
Lizard DNA and human DNA on the same strand? Impossible. The sample must be contaminated.
There's another possibility. A lot of repeated base pairs could suggest a high level of genetic damage.
What kind of egg is it?
It's reptilian.
These plant fibers are loaded with hormones!
What kind of hormones?
4monoxytocin is... "A hormone secreted by the human hypothalamus gland."
Try Weinstein's tropic hormone.
This is it. This is what he, or it... is after! The plant has high concentrations of the same hormones found in minute quantities in the human brain!
So what?
Pendergast told me the killer extracts and eats the hypothalamus and thalamus of the victim's brains!
Eats them?
Yes. Whatever killed Beauregard may have lived on this plant. When the crates were put in secure storage, they were out of reach. The killer couldn't get them, so it got the next best thing.
Is Dr. Frock safe!
Yes, he's fine. Greg... take care of yourself!
Got to finish this thesis sometime.
How about lunch?
Not today. Besides, I think the director of the museum is expecting you.
Okay.
Hard to read in this light. The ink is so faded.
The dogs have lost the scent, Mr. Pendergast. Maybe we should head back.
Not yet. Let's try the fork to the left.
They've got something.
Keep the light up. I can't see.
Shut them up!
Heel Argo! Hobbes! Heel!