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with any recognized species of bird or beast.’
    ‘So what do we do now?’ asked Tim. His cheeks were even more flushed than they usually were. ‘Jesus . . . I’ve been working on this one cryptozoology project ever since I left the Academy.’
    Nathan laid a hand on his shoulder. ‘We refrigerate the remains and first thing tomorrow we start a detailed necropsy. And – listen – we don’t tell anybody what’s happened, not yet. I had a call from the Zoological Society’s funding department yesterday afternoon, and so far we’ve managed to go through two-point-seven.
    ‘ Million ,’ he added, when he received no immediate reaction. ‘Dollars.’
    Richard looked down at the wretched tangle of bones and feathers lying in the incubating unit. ‘Wow,’ he said.
    ‘You’re damn right, wow – when all we have to show for it is one putrefying embryo.’
    ‘Still,’ said Richard, ‘we might be able to salvage something from it. If we can discover how the embryo managed to live for so long, in such an advanced state of decomposition . . . the zoo might get some return for its investment in Cee-Zee research. You know, somebody like Pfizer might be interested.’
    Nathan didn’t answer. Richard was probably right, but he felt much too upset. After a while, Richard went over to one of the refrigerators and returned with a stainless-steel tray. He picked up one of the embryo’s wings but Nathan said, ‘No, Richard – it’s OK. It’s my fricking disaster, I’ll clean it up. I’ll see you guys early tomorrow, OK?’
    ‘You’re sure?’ said Richard.
    Nathan nodded. ‘I could do with some thinking time. Right now, I’m feeling kind of bereaved, to say the least.’
    At that moment, the laboratory door opened again, and George stuck his head around it. ‘Jesus born yet?’

THREE
    Feathers Fly
    I t was nearly midnight before he made it back home. He walked into the bedroom and stood beside the bed, exhausted, saying nothing, as if he had reached the end of a very long journey. Grace was sitting up, reading Northern Liberties , a romantic novel about early Philadelphia, when it had been the largest city in America.
    ‘My God, Nathan,’ she said, putting down her book. ‘You look pooped .’
    ‘Bad day at Black Rock,’ he told her. He pulled off his dark green sweater and started to unbutton his shirt. ‘I think God is giving me a hard time for playing God.’
    ‘So what went wrong?’
    ‘What didn’t go wrong?’
    ‘Not the gryphon. You thought it might be hatching today.’
    He sat down on the end of the bed. ‘It died. Its heart was still beating, but it obviously didn’t have the strength to break out of its shell. So I cracked it open. And – yuck . You should have smelled it. Or rather, you were lucky you didn’t. It was eighty per cent putrefied. Almost liquid, parts of it.’
    ‘Oh, Nate. After all your work.’
    ‘I’m going to get myself a beer,’ he told her. ‘You don’t want one, do you?’
    She shook her head. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said.
    ‘Well, it’s always been totally out there, this project. But I really thought that this was going to be the one.’
    He went downstairs to the kitchen and came back with a can of Dale’s Pale Ale. He sat back down on the bed and popped it open. ‘Somehow, the embryo got infected. I don’t know how, or what with. But it looks like some kind of necrotizing fasciitis.’
    Grace pulled aside the bedcovers, climbed out of bed and sat down close to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. ‘You must be shattered. I don’t know what to say.’
    ‘I feel totally numb, to tell you the truth. Feel my hands, I’m freezing. I was convinced that by this time next week, there I’d be, on the front cover of Scientific American , grinning at all those skeptical bastards who said that I couldn’t even breed hamsters.’
    ‘What will you do now?’
    Nathan swallowed beer, and sniffed. ‘In the short term, try to find out what the