“Yes. DIANIMA has purchased an island. More, in fact, than just an island: an entire archipelago of sixteen islands and islets, and the surrounding waters as well. Is it what the conspiracy theorists claim? A kind of ‘Island of Dr. Moreau’ where DIANIMA can carry out the worst of its experiments? It has been reported…” The interviewer paused and rubbed his temples with one hand. “Sorry, I have a headache. It’s the lights in this studio. After a while, they get to me. Where was I? Yes. We’ll edit that part out. It has been reported that the archipelago is ringed with security, and that all vessels or aircraft attempting to enter the area have been destroyed, including—this was last year—the animal rights vessel the Rachel Carson.”

Mínervudóttir-Chan adjusted a sleeve. “The destruction of the Rachel Carson was unfortunate. A tragedy, really. But it was caused by their decision to attack us. And that decision—which we consider an act of terror, just like the assassinations of our corporate leadership, and all the other ugliness aimed at us—was caused by their misplaced, distorted ideas about our motives. What they failed to see—what a number of these animal rights and environmental organizations have failed to see—is that we are, in fact, on the same side. We are protecting that archipelago’s biodiversity. So, if you call protecting biodiversity ‘the worst of its experiments,’ then yes, DIANIMA is carrying out the worst of its experiments on Con Dao. I had the corporate social responsibility arm of DIANIMA buy Con Dao Archipelago because I was disgusted at what was going on there. The archipelago was a Global Conservation Park in name only. It was just a matter of time before Con Dao suffered the fate of much of the rest of the world’s oceans: raked through with nets for its protein, its reefs battered to pieces by boat anchors and smothered by the arsenic and dynamite of illegal fishing. No one was protecting Con Dao until DIANIMA came along and purchased the island.”

“And ejected the entire population.”

“I won’t deny we resettled the population of Con Dao. With compensation.”

“Families who had lived on the island for generations.”

“True. And many of them were poachers and illegal fishermen. I won’t even talk about the faulty sewer systems dumping human waste into the marine preserve, or the insane hotel development schemes wrecking the fragile coastal ecosystems. Yes, we sent them all away. Now Con Dao belongs to us, and the most important inhabitants of the island, the non-human inhabitants, will be safe in perpetuity.”

The non-human inhabitants. The octopuses—but also Evrim. Safe in perpetuity.

“From whom?”

“From us. From humans. Con Dao is, in fact, an experiment. The best of our experiments. We’re proud of what we are building there.”

“And what is that?”