“You think somebody mutated these termites to increase their size and egg-laying capacity?”

Humphries nodded. “I do. And I further suspect that the radiation and hybridized breeding resulted in the mutation that altered the termites’ natural diet. I think that’s how these herbivores became flesh-eaters.”

“Why would anybody want to breed a termite that produces more eggs?” Lou wondered aloud. He looked over at Darlene and saw that she had turned pale.

“Lou,” she said, “the corn. You told me it was bigger than a normal ear and had a lot more kernels on it, too.” She pointed to the jar of termites. “What if that’s how they’re growing corn like that?”

Lou understood immediately. “Oliver,” he said. “Could the DNA from this termite be inserted into the nucleus of a corn seed?”

“Of course,” Humphries said. “The DNA transfection process would allow cross-breeding with any number of species.”

“What would you call corn that was cross-bred to include the DNA of a mutated termite?”

The entomologist laughed at the notion. “I don’t know what I’d call it,” he answered. “But I know what it isn’t.”

“What’s that?” Darlene asked.

“It isn’t corn,” he said.

Chapter 42

CHAPTER 42

While waiting for Joey to emerge from the staff entrance to Millie’s, Lou checked over the large piece of equipment Oliver Humphries had lent him. The ground-penetrating radar system looked like a jogger’s stroller, minus the canvas seat where the infant would go. It had a twenty-inch front wheel and two twenty-four-inch rear wheels, making the contraption reasonably easy to transport. The 270 megahertz antenna was encased inside a bread box–sized container and secured to the underside of the carriage. The antenna was capable of broadcasting subsurface images to an eight-inch display screen mounted between the handlebars.

Perfect for locating termite tunnels.

Humphries felt confident that a single termite tower did not preclude the possibility of there being others nearby. In fact, the tattooed entomologist thought it strange that only a single tower existed in a given area. If these termites had escaped from a lab where they’d been radiated, as Humphries believed to be the case, then there should be a ventilation shaft connecting the isolated mound to the rest of the colony.

The Macrotermes bellicosus species were strange, almost mystical creatures. Their huge towers, Humphries had explained, did not provide habitation for the colony. Instead, scientists believed the elaborate Tolkeinesque structures were built for the thermoregulation vital for growing the fungus essential to their diet. The ground-penetrating radar might not provide answers to any perplexing questions, but it would help to find other mounds by detecting the subsurface ventilation shafts joining one colony to another.