Philip Kerr - Esau

‘Wow,’ muttered Boyd. ‘Eraserhead.’

‘Wonderful,’ said Mac, quickly thumbing another roll of film into his still camera.

‘It’s a male,’ said Jameson, clamping the umbilical cord with a bulldog clip.

Swift stepped forward to take a closer look at the newborn yeti baby.

‘Isn’t he... sweet...?’ She smiled.

Jameson severed the umbilical cord and then began to pull on the cord that remained inside the mother’s body, trying to hasten the placenta out of the uterus.

‘What are we going to call him?’ he grunted.

‘You delivered him,’ said Swift. ‘You should name him.’

‘That’s right,’ said Jutta. ‘It’s your call.’

‘By the way,’ said Cody, ‘congratulations. I think you did a fine job.’

Jameson fell silent for a moment as the placenta was finally expelled into his hands. Soon after, Jutta began to repair the episiotomy, carefully suturing the posterior wall of the yeti’s vagina with a few stitches.

‘Here, Link,’ said Jameson. ‘I imagine you’ll want to have this.’

‘You bet I do,’ said Warner, and holding out a plastic bucket, he took possession of the yeti placenta.

For Lincoln Warner, this was the most exciting moment of all, the moment he had been waiting for, when he could finally go to work on a specimen of the baby’s blood. It was easily collected from the cord attached to the placenta by simply removing the clamp. He showed the contents of the bucket to Swift with delight.

‘Well, now I can get started,’ he said. ‘At last.’ And immediately he sat down at his makeshift lab table and began to prepare some slides.

‘I was wondering,’ Boyd said to Cody. ‘What do you suppose happens to the placenta and the cord in the natural state? I mean, in the wild a yeti won’t have Miles and Jutta to help. So how does Junior get separated from the cord?’

‘The mother eats it, of course,’ said Cody. ‘There are dietary, possibly even antibiotic benefits to be gained from eating it.’

Boyd affected a queasy look and turned away.

‘I thought of a name,’ said Jameson. ‘Esau. I vote we call him Esau. That’s what you called the skull Jack found, isn’t it. Swift? When you started to think about this expedition?’

‘Esau,’ she repeated. ‘I like that.’

‘Means we’ve got a name for his mother too,’ said Jameson. ‘Esau was the son of Rebecca and Isaac.’

‘Let’s hope Isaac doesn’t come looking for them both,’ said Mac. ‘He might be none too pleased.’

‘Like it or not,’ said Jameson, ‘we’re stuck with her for a couple of days. We can’t let her go until those stitches are out. As soon as she starts to come around, we’re going to have to give her a local anaesthetic so she won’t try to take them out herself.’

‘Are you finished now. Miles?’ asked Cody.

‘I think so, yes.’

‘Only I’d like to examine her in more detail before she wakes up again. Swift? What do you say?’

‘Try to stop me.’

HUSTLER. HEY, WHAT DO YOU KNOW? THEY FOUND A YETI. NO KIDDING, THEY REALLY DID FIND ONE. IT LOOKS LIKE DR. JEKYLL AFTER He’d HAD THAT ALL–IMPORTANT LITTLE DRINK, Y’KNOW? EXCEPT THAT ITS A FEMALE. THEY GAVE HER A NAME: REBECCA. NOW IF THAT WASn’t INCREDIBLE ENOUGH, It’s JUST POSSIBLE THAT THE YET! IS GOING TO HELP UNCLE SAM OUT. I HAVE YET TO RUN A SMALL TEST ON HER TO MAKE SURE OF THIS, BUT I DOn’t THINK I’M PUTTING MY BIG FOOT IN IT HERE WHEN I SAY THAT I THINK WE MIGHT JUST BE NEARLY THERE. UNTIL THEN, BE COOL. CASTORP.

When Perrins read CASTORp’s latest message, he groaned and picked up the telephone.

‘Chaz? It’s Bryan. Check the In Box from CASTORP. I think our man has completely flipped his lid.’

SUMMARIES OF FINDINGS FROM THE EXAMINATIONS OF TWO YETIS

REBECCA

Fully grown female anthropoid, age unknown, examined in the Annapurna Sanctuary, Nepal, by Professor Byron J. Cody and Dr. Stella A. Swift of the University of California at Berkeley, following the delivery of a baby, Esau, by Dr. Miles Jameson and Dr. Jutta Henze.

External Examination:

Weight approximately 140 kg (300 lbs.) Height approximately 186 cm (6 ft., 6 in.) Accompanying sketch shows body dimensions.

Although smaller in circumference than a typical gorilla’s 76–89 cm (30–35 in.) the yeti’s head 71 cm (28 in.) is roughly 1½ times higher above the ear, being over 17 cm (6.75 in.) high. Doubtless this large head height is needed for mastication — muscles sufficiently powerful to move the enormous lower jaw. Nevertheless, position of cranial crests confirms earlier observation that creature holds head in an upright position and, as a corollary, may be taken as prima-facie physical evidence of bipedalism. Quite pronounced nose, with small cartilage. No external parasites were found. Mammary glands in active phase, and when squeezed produced a great deal of milk. Some evidence of anemia indicated by pale pink colour of gums, although no dental caries were to be found. Large calluses on right palm seemed to indicate that Rebecca favours the use of this particular hand. Old scar tissue on left-hand side of neck, about fourteen centimetres long, possibly from a fight. More recent scar tissue on the right femur. General physical condition appeared to be good. Upper and lower body musculature quite noticeable, especially Rebecca’s legs, which were extraordinarily thick and massive, as might have been expected of a mountain-dwelling simian. Body itself covered with thick, foxy red-brown hair, about six centimetres long, quite oily to the touch and revealing itself to be completely waterproof. Most remarkable of all are the creature’s feet, 1½ times as long as those of the largest gorilla. The heel is noticeably massive, as is the hallux, or big toe, which is typically prehensile and doubtless well-adapted both for support and for gripping bare rock.

Internal Examination:

Genitalia bear a close resemblance to those of a gorilla.

Placenta (weight 1,140 grams) a shiny, bluish colour, with maternal surface divided into a dozen brownish-coloured segments, and generally healthy-looking.

Histology:

Blood group O, rhesus negative.

ESAU

Newborn baby male yeti anthropoid, examined immediately after birth of baby by same personnel, under same conditions.

External Examination:

Esau weighed 6.84 kg (15.16 lbs.), length approximately 68.5 cm (26 in.). Accompanying sketch shows body dimensions. Muscle tone after delivery was extremely good. Body temperature approximately 36.6 °C (98° F.) Heart rate was over 100 bpm. Respiratory effort strong and regular. Reflexes, strong. Colour, dark.

Put to his mother’s breast soon after birth, Esau displayed strong and rapid sucking reflex.

Histology:

Blood group P, rhesus negative.

Jameson said that the clamshell was as warm as any incubator and that if Esau had been premature it offered him the best chance of survival before being released back into the wild. So while Swift and Cody examined Rebecca and her infant, Jameson and Ang Tsering went outside, where they took apart the squeeze cage and then reassembled it underneath the clamshell. Constructed of heavy-duty steel bars and galvanized sheeting, welded at the seams to prevent an animal from tearing it off by inserting a claw underneath a seam, the cage had been originally designed to confine a bear. While it allowed Rebecca room to stand up or lie down at full stretch, it also allowed Jameson, by means of a wall of bars that could be moved in or out with a simple winding mechanism, to squeeze her into a position wherein she might be easily injected. As soon as the squeeze cage was erected under the clamshell, four Sherpas lifted Rebecca off the delivery table and carried her inside. Already recovering from the effects of the Ketamine, she turned onto her stomach and tried to sit up.