Page 95 - Just Deserts

PIVOT

crimes against nature and humanity in his current research. I don’t
know how anyone could gain access to this information; I can only
guess that it’s a janitor, or somebody else going through the waste
baskets there. Maybe some hacker on the university computer
network? No way to track it down without bringing in the Bordham
campus police, and I’d rather not reveal some of the contents of this
letter. What I want to know is whether or not the professor has been
bringing to life organisms with palpably disfigured bodies and
radically impaired functions. He does not mention this aspect of his
research in the paper; not required of course, but the teratological
aspect is bound to raise some questions sooner or later, especially
among the animal rights groups and the left-wing mob that
demonstrates against things like irradiated food and prosthetic breast
implants.”
Euell Skinner frowned and swallowed hard, bobbing his green
bowtie. “Hmm. As you said, Hump, this really is incidental to the
scientific validity of the professor’s theory. We are not here to pass
judgement on where he might have come from or what he might
have encountered in his experimental trials.”
Campbell may have had a rejoinder, but he was pre-empted by
Persephone Ruffin. “Nor,” she trumpeted, ‘are we responsible for
any practical applications of paramorphic idiotropism via ontogenetic
transmutation, given its feasibility. And I, for one, am convinced that
it could work. Not ten years ago, but we have made quantum leaps in
gene resequencing. Curiously, I, too, received a communication from
an unknown source. Without too much reading between the lines, it
is clear that the author of this memo is employed by one or another
of the corporations which fund Dr. Kingswater’s private little
research institute at Bordham. I believe the term for such a person is
‘whistle-blower.’ He or she has gotten wind of the company’s plans
with respect to the commercial possibilities of PIVOT. Obviously, I
cannot vouch for the veracity of this information, and goodness
knows we have no business questioning the policies of our sponsors
in the business world.”
“So?” Skinner leafed rapidly through his copy of the Kingswater
paper, as if searching for some holy imprimatur.

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