His ultraviolet sensitivity
diminishes, as does his apparent superhuman strength.
They are even able to detected slight life
signs in his inert body.
Paradoxically, the lack of blood doesn’t kill
Cain but causes him to appear more alive.
Not once in the book does Dark ever use the
word “vampire.” Maybe he was in denial about what 1728 really had
on its hands, but the ‘V’ word almost leaps off every page of his
book. Blood, sunlight...they do everything but test for an allergy
to garlic. Dark’s commentary might read like some dime horror
novel, but Dark writes with such banal attention of everyday detail
that it’s hard to think of it as anything but a faithful
documentation of fact.
But I’m editorializing. What I think of Dark’s Last Novel is beside the point. I’ll skip ahead to
where the book once again intersects with the Montavez case. Right
about when the relationship between Dark and Groves starts to break
down.
They’d had some success separating the
details of Cain’s genome from that of a normal human being’s.
They’d tagged the genetic divinations with markers and then
synthesized a retrovirus that replicates the strings in a healthy
genome.
But their animal test subjects fail to
manifest any of the characteristics they were hoping for. Instead
of increased strength and endurance, the genetically modified
chimpanzees demonstrate a punch-drunk, sloppy blissfulness.
Sound familiar? Yeah, that’s what I thought
as I read it. And Dark explicitly makes the connection as he’s
talking with the General:
#
...growing increasing concerned with the
General’s overall attitude to the Cain Project. When the results
from the last batch of test subjects arrived and were even less
encouraging that the early lots, I was seriously starting to
question the scientific merit of what we were attempting to
achieve.
We seemed to be inextricably escaping the
orbit of nation defense and straying into the murkier water of
eugenic curiosity.
Far be it for me to question Grove’s motives,
but his reaction to the daily results coming in from the
laboratories was beginning to disturb me. That our retrovirus was
showing no signs of replicating Cain’s unique abilities but was
instead showing pronounced narcotic effects, indicated to me that
the line of experimentation was reaching a dead-end.
But the General, somehow, saw the result as
encouraging.
What exactly was the Army’s definition of
success here? My concern grew with each new round of
experiments.
It was batch three hundred that finally put
me over the edge.
I stormed into the General’s office with
every intention of getting some answers. He was on a call when I
pushed past his secretary, steam billowing from my ears.
“I’ll need to call you back,” Groves said to
the handset as I paced before his large, oak desk. “Yes. Yes.
Fifteen minutes.” He hung up the phone. “This better be important,
Dark,” he said to me.
“It is.” I slammed the folder containing the
results of batch test 300 down onto his ink blotter.
The General, with his casual, military air,
did not react. “Are these the latest test results?” he asked,
without touching the manila envelope.
“Yes. I assume you’ve seen them?”
“I have,” the General confirmed.
“Then, do you want to explain them to
me?”
“Dark,” he said, in a condescending tone. “It
is not my job to explain test results to you...”
“That’s not what I meant!” I hollered,
throwing up my arms. “You and I both signed off on an
experimentation regiment, last week. We agreed that we were
excluding any more modifications to the alpha twenty-three
nucleotide chain. That the results we were seeing there were not
encouraging. Do you remember?”
“I do,” the General said calmly.
“Then, what is this?” I poked the folder
before Groves. “Thirty percent divination in the alpha twenty-three
chain? Are you going to tell me this was an accident?”
“No,” Grove
diminishes, as does his apparent superhuman strength.
They are even able to detected slight life
signs in his inert body.
Paradoxically, the lack of blood doesn’t kill
Cain but causes him to appear more alive.
Not once in the book does Dark ever use the
word “vampire.” Maybe he was in denial about what 1728 really had
on its hands, but the ‘V’ word almost leaps off every page of his
book. Blood, sunlight...they do everything but test for an allergy
to garlic. Dark’s commentary might read like some dime horror
novel, but Dark writes with such banal attention of everyday detail
that it’s hard to think of it as anything but a faithful
documentation of fact.
But I’m editorializing. What I think of Dark’s Last Novel is beside the point. I’ll skip ahead to
where the book once again intersects with the Montavez case. Right
about when the relationship between Dark and Groves starts to break
down.
They’d had some success separating the
details of Cain’s genome from that of a normal human being’s.
They’d tagged the genetic divinations with markers and then
synthesized a retrovirus that replicates the strings in a healthy
genome.
But their animal test subjects fail to
manifest any of the characteristics they were hoping for. Instead
of increased strength and endurance, the genetically modified
chimpanzees demonstrate a punch-drunk, sloppy blissfulness.
Sound familiar? Yeah, that’s what I thought
as I read it. And Dark explicitly makes the connection as he’s
talking with the General:
#
...growing increasing concerned with the
General’s overall attitude to the Cain Project. When the results
from the last batch of test subjects arrived and were even less
encouraging that the early lots, I was seriously starting to
question the scientific merit of what we were attempting to
achieve.
We seemed to be inextricably escaping the
orbit of nation defense and straying into the murkier water of
eugenic curiosity.
Far be it for me to question Grove’s motives,
but his reaction to the daily results coming in from the
laboratories was beginning to disturb me. That our retrovirus was
showing no signs of replicating Cain’s unique abilities but was
instead showing pronounced narcotic effects, indicated to me that
the line of experimentation was reaching a dead-end.
But the General, somehow, saw the result as
encouraging.
What exactly was the Army’s definition of
success here? My concern grew with each new round of
experiments.
It was batch three hundred that finally put
me over the edge.
I stormed into the General’s office with
every intention of getting some answers. He was on a call when I
pushed past his secretary, steam billowing from my ears.
“I’ll need to call you back,” Groves said to
the handset as I paced before his large, oak desk. “Yes. Yes.
Fifteen minutes.” He hung up the phone. “This better be important,
Dark,” he said to me.
“It is.” I slammed the folder containing the
results of batch test 300 down onto his ink blotter.
The General, with his casual, military air,
did not react. “Are these the latest test results?” he asked,
without touching the manila envelope.
“Yes. I assume you’ve seen them?”
“I have,” the General confirmed.
“Then, do you want to explain them to
me?”
“Dark,” he said, in a condescending tone. “It
is not my job to explain test results to you...”
“That’s not what I meant!” I hollered,
throwing up my arms. “You and I both signed off on an
experimentation regiment, last week. We agreed that we were
excluding any more modifications to the alpha twenty-three
nucleotide chain. That the results we were seeing there were not
encouraging. Do you remember?”
“I do,” the General said calmly.
“Then, what is this?” I poked the folder
before Groves. “Thirty percent divination in the alpha twenty-three
chain? Are you going to tell me this was an accident?”
“No,” Grove
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