Kevin had encouraged Esmeralda to go home in the evenings during the week if she so desired, but she declined. When Kevin persisted, she told him she’d been ordered to remain in Cogo.

“There is a phone message for you,” Esmeralda said.

“Oh,” Kevin said nervously. His pulse quickened. Phone messages were rare, and in his current state he did not need any more unexpected events. The call in the middle of the night from Taylor Cabot had been disturbing enough.

“It was from Dr. Raymond Lyons in New York,” Esmeralda said. “He wants you to call him back.”

The fact that the call was from overseas did not surprise Kevin. With the satellite communications GenSys had installed in the Zone, it was far easier to call Europe or the U.S. than Bata, a mere sixty miles to the north. Calls to Malabo were almost impossible.

Kevin started for the living room. The phone was on a desk in the corner.

“Will you be eating lunch?” Esmeralda asked.

“Yes,” Kevin said. He still wasn’t hungry but he didn’t want to hurt Esmeralda’s feelings.

Kevin sat down at his desk. With his hand on the phone he quickly calculated it was about eight o’clock in the morning in New York. He pondered what Dr. Lyons had called about but guessed it had something to do with his brief conversation with Taylor Cabot. Kevin did not like the idea of an autopsy on Carlo Franconi, and he didn’t imagine that Raymond Lyons would either.

Kevin had first met Raymond six years previously. It was during a meeting in New York of the American Association for the Advancement of Science where Kevin presented a paper. Kevin hated giving papers and rarely did, but on this occasion he’d been forced to do so by the chief of his department at Harvard. Dating back to his Ph.D. thesis his interest was the transposition of chromosomes: a process by which chromosomes exchanged bits and pieces to enhance species adaption and hence evolution. This phenomenon happened particularly frequently during the generation of sex cells: a process known as meiosis.

By coincidence, during the same meeting and at the same time Kevin was scheduled to present, James Watson and Francis Crick gave an immensely popular talk on the anniversary of their discovery of the structure of DNA. Consequently, very few people came to hear Kevin. One of the attendees had been Raymond. It was after this talk that Raymond first approached Kevin. The conversation resulted in Kevin’s leaving Harvard and coming to work for GenSys.

With a slightly shaky hand Kevin picked up the receiver and dialed. Raymond answered on the first ring, suggesting he’d been hovering over the phone. The connection was crystal clear as if he were in the next room.

“I’ve got good news,” Raymond said as soon as he knew it was Kevin. “There’s to be no autopsy.”

Kevin didn’t respond. His mind was a jumble.

“Aren’t you relieved?” Raymond asked. “I know Cabot called you last night.”