Philip Kerr - Esau

‘The chimp is our closest living relative. Up to now, scientists like me have found only five out of a grand total of thirteen hundred amino acids that are actually different. Three of them are in an enzyme called carbonic anhydrase. One is in a muscle protein called myoglobin, and the fifth is in a haemoglobin chain called the delta chain.

‘So here’s the first part of the news. That enzyme called carbonic anhydrase? Rebecca has only two of those particular amino acids different from us, not three. And the delta chain? It’s the same. So what we have here, very crudely, is an animal — and I use the word with some caution — an animal that is different from us in its DNA by less than one percent. Which makes Rebecca and her species our closest living relative, not the chimpanzee.’

‘That’s fantastic. Link,’ said Swift.

‘I’m not finished. Not by a long way. Some of you will be familiar with the idea of using differences in protein chemistry as a kind of molecular clock. A protein can be used as a marker, determining a mutation from the main evolutionary branch. To cut a long story short by a few million years, it’s generally assumed that Homo sapiens split from chimpanzees about five million years ago. Personally, I’ve always thought it was rather more distant than that, about seven to nine million years ago. But whatever the time span, it’s clear to me that Homo sapiens and Homo vertex , as I propose that we shall call the yeti, demonstrate a much more recent separation. Perhaps as recently as the beginning of the Pleistocene epoch, some one million years ago, before the last great periods of glaciation. It could even be that the pre-glacial period, at the end of the Pliocene epoch, may date the mutation.

‘Only I don’t speak of the mutation that has resulted in man, but rather the other way around. Until I get back to my laboratory, it’s hard for me to be more precise about this. However, my early findings indicate that the yeti’s ancestor split from man’s ancestor and that, given the mutation was in all likelihood occasioned by a dramatic change in the world’s temperature, then we should regard Homo vertex, the yeti, as the younger of the two species. Far from being some kind of missing link that reinforces man’s privileged status in the evolutionary scheme of things, we can probably regard the yeti as no less of an inevitable being than ourselves. You can’t argue with the molecules, folks. However we may wish to view it otherwise, we can no longer view Homo sapiens as the ultimate living being on earth.

‘Now, all of this might not mean very much except for the nuclear war that threatens this part of the world, perhaps even the whole planet, and the climatic conditions that might easily result from it.

‘What is certain is that a climatic catastrophe would result from even a nominal thermonuclear war between the superpowers. All of the post-holocaust environmental consequences would cause sunlight to be absorbed by the dust in the atmosphere, the atmosphere to be heated rather than the earth itself, and the earth’s surface to be cooled. A study by a number of scientists including Carl Sagan demonstrated that severe and prolonged low temperatures would follow even a small thermonuclear war, what they called a nuclear winter. Even a one-degree cooling in the world’s temperature would nearly eliminate wheat-growing in Canada. But a worst-case nuclear scenario might result in a temperature drop of between twelve and fifteen degrees Centigrade. In short, it would bring on another ice age.

‘I have a computer program that predicts how DNA connections and evolutionary trees might be affected by environmental changes. It was designed to take account of climatic differences between continents. But I was interested in what it might say about the environmental changes provoked by a nuclear war. And what it says is that in the event of one hundred major Chinese and former Warsaw pact cities being destroyed, a nuclear winter would ensue within a few months, lasting for at least a year, during which period the only major anthropoid to survive would be Homo vertex. Already well adapted to almost permanent Arctic conditions, the yeti might very well inherit the earth, and man might find himself as extinct a species as the dinosaur. Within another million years, according to the same computer predictive sequence, the yeti could conceivably have evolved to become the dominant life-form on this planet.’

Lincoln Warner stopped talking. His eyes flicked across the faces of his small audience in search of some reaction. They looked stunned by what he had told them, and pursing his lips, Warner threw up his hands as if both confirming that he had finished and that he was as surprised by his own findings as they were. It added a demagogic touch to what he had just said.

‘You can’t argue with the molecules,’ he said again, by way of epilogue.

‘So much for man’s God-given stewardship of the earth,’ remarked Cody.

‘Amen,’ said Swift.

‘Someone saying their prayers?’

It was Boyd, back under the clamshell and wearing one of the SCE suits. In one hand he has holding a helmet. And in the other he was holding a gun.

‘Are you planning on using that thing?’ asked Jack.

‘If I have to,’ said Boyd. ‘But please don’t make me shoot one of you just to prove that I’m serious. Jack.’

‘That’ll be a first,’ said Swift. ‘You never made much of an impression as a scientist. But go ahead with the good manners if it makes you feel any better about yourself. You’ll still look like a cheap hood with a gun in his hand. What are you, anyway? Some kind of government agent?’

‘Something like that, yes.’

‘Didn’t they tell you? Or were you just too dumb to ask?’

Boyd put down his helmet and, grinning unpleasantly, took a step toward her.

‘You and that smart mouth, Swifty. Think you’re Katharine Hepburn, huh? Well I never did like redheads much.’

For a moment she thought he was going to shoot her. Then he started to say something, but before he had uttered more than one syllable, the ever-present grin had disappeared and he slapped her hard, a backhand blow that knocked Swift off her feet and sent her sprawling to the floor.

Intending to grab the hand holding the gun. Miles Jameson darted forward only to find the barrel of Boyd’s automatic shoved painfully under his ribs. Their eyes met for only a second, long enough for Jameson to relax and return his weight to the back foot.

In his last e-mail. Hustler had only said that he wasn’t to kill any American citizens. He hadn’t said a thing about not killing the citizens of Zimbabwe. Boyd made a tut-tutting noise and pulled the trigger.

Under the clamshell, the noise of the shot left everyone’s ears ringing like a tuning fork. Rebecca started to scream. Boyd let her. She was too important to his plans for him to kill her. Jameson hung on to Boyd’s arm for a moment, like a blind man. He and Boyd were the only two still standing. Thoroughly cowed, most of the team gradually picked themselves up from the crouching, protective poses they had adopted on the floor, as equally slowly, Jameson collapsed. Swift stayed where she was, still stunned by the ferocity of Boyd’s blow. Jutta crawled toward Jameson, in a futile bid to stem the blood that was trickling from his side. His legs jerked convulsively and then he was gone.

‘He’s dead,’ she said quietly when at last Rebecca stopped screaming.

‘You bloody bastard,’ said Mac.

‘You know it’s a pity it had to be Miles,’ said Boyd. ‘I rather liked him. A bit stiff sometimes. But I really did like him.’

Smiling bitterly he wagged a finger at Swift who was sitting up and cradling her jaw with her hand.