Page 8 - Unlikely Stories 2

El Asesino

He led the inspector through a series of rooms and hallways to a
closed door posted with a warning: Authorized Personnel Only –
Clean Room. They donned white coveralls, masks, gloves and cloth
bags tied over their shoes. Flacket made notes of the procedure.
Inside, a research assistant greeted them and showed the
government man the refrigerated containers holding genetic material,
the glass glove box in which fresh fertilized eggs were injected, and
the incubator in which something new might be hatched. Flacket
made more notes. They returned to Rabette’s office.
“That woman working for you: what is her name?”
“You mean Lili? She doesn’t work for me. She’s a graduate
student.”
“Full name?”
“Lili Ponscombe.”
“How long has she been working in your lab?”
Dr. Rabette’s eyes narrowed. “Six months. Mr. Flacket: I think it is
time you told me what this is all about. Do you think she is
embezzling project funds?”
“I need a little more information before I can take you into my
confidence, Professor. Rest-[= assured we’ve found nothing irregular
in money handling. Now, who was her predecessor?”
“Another graduate student, Alfredo Guerrero. He was here at the
beginning, about three years ago. He dropped out of school without
getting his master’s degree, as I recall.”
“Any reason why?”
Rabette shrugged. “We weren’t close. I know nothing of his
personal affairs. He was competent. Lili is excellent.”
Flacket consulted his files. “I see that you follow guidelines and
account for all materials used in your laboratory, coming in and going
out. What happens when those eggs hatch?”
“Only about half are viable. Any live chick is euthanized and its
morphology documented.”
“I see. Any dinosaurs yet?”
“No!” The professor was getting testy. “This is painstaking,
incremental experimentation. Nature took millions of years to evolve
flying reptiles, much less feathered ones: we cannot backtrack that
series of trial and error all at once. If it looks like we have a good

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