Mammoth Dawn by Kevin J. Anderson, Gregory Benford Page A

own extreme disappointments with US government and law, he does not pass judgment on the Siberian.
    The two men met over twenty years ago, when Gregor Galaev was selling bits of frozen mammoth and sabretooth tissue that Helen and Alex first analyzed (in their famous genome-sequencing paper that neglected to include Geoffrey Kinsman as a coauthor). Since then, they have forged a good working relationship. Politically savvy and happy to do deals behind closed doors, Gregor knows how to smooth ruffled feathers. Hard-driven Alex is focused on his grand goal and not concerned about stepping on toes. He doesn’t care about the Luddite Evos, but Gregor understands “the power of ignorance.”
    As they look at the exotic once-extinct birds, Gregor subtly reminds Alex of all the favors he’s done for the Resurrection Preserve. Unfortunately, Gregor makes calm assumptions that a person should repay one favor with another, while Alex is much more of a “face value” sort of man and expects his peers to talk straight with him.
    Then Gregor drops his bombshell: He would like to kill one of the mammoths in the herd so that he can obtain a pristine set of fresh mammoth tusks . It is simply a business proposition, for which they will be well paid. Gregor has all the details worked out. Perhaps they need to thin the herd, or a specimen for dissection and study? Gregor can think of many customers who would pay a premium for a sample of mammoth steaks, too—a caveman banquet!
    Alex is offended, appalled, and turns him down flat. “What on Earth could you want the tusks for?” Gregor is surprised that Alex doesn’t have some inkling about how valuable such things are in the black market.
    “It was a request someone made of me.” A request Gregor cannot deny, and it would be in terribly bad taste for Alex to ask about details. They are business partners, and Gregor has never denied Alex any reasonable request.
    Upset, Alex says he could never shoot down one of his prize beasts just so some collector can have a trophy! It goes against the principles of the Preserve. Gregor is just as annoyed. Does this hugely wealthy man know nothing of how power is used? Incredible! “Now that we have brought back these creatures, why can we not benefit from them? You have a herd of a hundred mammoths—why is it wrong to profit from one?” It is idealism versus commercialism, and Alex doesn’t realize what an affront he has just given Gregor.
    Alex, after having defended his work to the Senate Committee, after facing down a nutcase like Kinsman, now can’t believe that his own business partner wants to start killing off their Pleistocene specimens. He says absolutely not, in a tone that allows no argument … but Alex doesn’t even realize that it is Gregor who runs the Preserve behind the scenes, while he buries himself in his Library of Earth work. And Gregor Galaev is not a man who takes No for an answer.
    O O O
    Inside the fabulous Main House, Cassie studies detailed projection maps of the Resurrection Preserve, ecosystems in progress. She is working on adding minor bits of the ecosystem: extinct plants, fungi, ferns, birds. Alex calls it “background detail,” the brushstrokes that paint an ancient landscape.
    Cassie avoids personal problems by submerging herself in work, as if hoping to impress Alex with her abilities. In her heart, she has loved him for a long time, but Alex is too wrapped up in his mission. He hasn’t even bothered to notice her as a woman, probably still remembers her as the spunky ranch hand.
    She wanders among the various plants in the greenhouse, new flowers, herbs, and weeds under development from La Brea and Mammoth Falls samples. There is a new worry: allergies and hay fevers have sprung up in and around the preserve. Workers and visitors to the Resurrection Preserve often suffer from new allergies, sniffles, and sinus infections. Alex once jokingly called it the “Pleistocene flu,” hay fever from the last