“Tell me about it!” Jack said. He then related to Ted the discovery of an Old World primate parasite.

Ted made an expression of confusion. “I’m glad this is your case and not mine,” he said.

Jack placed the sheet of celluloid on Ted’s desk. “If I’m lucky, I might have some answers in the next few days,” he said. “Tonight I’m off to Africa to visit the same country Franconi did.”

“Is the office sending you?” Ted asked with surprise.

“Nope,” Jack said. “I’m going on my own. Well, that’s not quite true. I mean, I’m paying for it, but Laurie is going, too.”

“My God, you are thorough,” Ted said.

“Dogged is probably a better word,” Jack said.

Jack got up to go. When he reached the door, Ted called out to him: “I did get the results of the mitochondrial DNA back. There was a match with Mrs. Franconi, so at least your identification was right.”

“Finally something definitive,” Jack said.

Jack was again about to leave when Ted called out again.

“I just had a crazy idea,” Ted said. “The only way I could explain the results I’ve been getting is if the liver was transgenic.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Jack asked.

“It means the liver contains DNA from two separate organisms,” Ted said.

“Hmmmm,” Jack said. “I’ll have to think about that one.”

Cogo, Equatorial Guinea

Bertram looked at his watch. It was four o’clock in the afternoon. Raising his eyes to look out the window, he noticed that the sudden, violent tropical rainstorm which had totally darkened the sky only fifteen minutes earlier had already vanished. In its place was a steamy sunny African afternoon.

With sudden resolve Bertram reached for his phone and called up to the fertility center. The evening tech by the name of Shirley Cartwright answered.

“Have the two new breeding bonobo females got their hormone shots today?” Bertram asked.

“Not yet,” Shirley said.

“I thought the protocol called for them to get the shots at two P.M.,” Bertram said.

“That’s the usual schedule,” Shirley said hesitantly.

“Why the delay?” Bertram asked.

“Miss Becket hasn’t arrived yet,” Shirley explained reluctantly. The last thing she wanted to do was get her immediate boss in trouble, but she knew she couldn’t lie.

“When was she due?” Bertram asked.

“No particular time,” Shirley said. “She’d told the day staff she’d be busy all morning in her lab over at the hospital. I imagine she got tied up.”

“She didn’t leave instructions for the hormones to be given by someone else if she didn’t arrive by two?” Bertram asked.

“Apparently not,” Shirley said. “So I expect her at any minute.”

“If she doesn’t come in the next half hour, go ahead and give the scheduled doses,” Bertram said. “Will that be a problem?”

“No problem whatsoever, Doctor,” Shirley said.

Bertram disconnected and then dialed Melanie’s lab in the hospital complex. He was less familiar with the staff and didn’t know the person who answered. But the person knew Bertram and told him a disturbing story. Melanie hadn’t been in that day because she’d been tied up at the animal center.