Vigilantes Read Free

the labels in this room, not just the level-one labels. And this one is of particular significance to humans.” Muñoz touched the edge of the case, as if she could reach inside it. “This double helix shows us everything we need to know about the physical make-up of PierLuigi Frémont.”
    Stott frowned for a moment. The name was familiar, but he couldn’t place it.
    And then he did. He’d heard about Frémont as a cautionary tale. Poor boys, like Stott had been, were considered prime targets for deluded messianic leaders like Frémont. Frémont had committed genocide, eliminating his followers in not one but three different attempts at starting his own colony.
    Stott couldn’t remember if Frémont had been a religious fanatic or not, and doubted it mattered. Frémont was used as an example of the bad things that human beings could do if left to their own devices.
    He wanted to ask if Frémont was truly an evil genius but wasn’t sure how Muñoz would take the question. Instead, Stott asked, “Is there anything in the DNA that later predicted Frémont’s behavior?”
    “Good question,” Muñoz said. “In the twenty-five years since his death, the answer has changed more than once.”
    She nodded toward the labs.
    “Every now and then, someone in this division suggests slow-growing a batch of baby Frémonts, raising them differently from each other, and seeing which one of them ends up like the original. I’m sure you can understand the folly in the suggestion?”
    Was this another test? If so, it caught him by surprise.
    “If they phrase the purpose of the experiment the way you just did,” he said, “then they’ll skew the experiment to get the results they want.”
    She smiled at him, as if he had just become her very best student ever.
    “And that’s why this division doesn’t ever do that kind of experimentation,” she said.
    But something in her tone caught him. If this division didn’t do that kind of experimentation, did that mean another division did?
    Stott wasn’t going to ask. Not on his first day at this new job. But he stored the question for later.
    If those teams existed, he wondered how hard it would be to join one. How many years of experience would he need in this division to get there? Or would he need to move his way through the other divisions, from Biohazard to Mixed Species and beyond?
    He felt giddy. He had made the right decision after all.
    His future was here.
    He could use his abilities, grow, and become the person he had always wanted to be.
    For the first time since he had been a child, he would be doing something useful. He might even make a discovery that would save lives.
    Which was something he needed to do.

 
     
     
     
    TWELVE DAYS AFTER THE PEYTI CRISIS

 
     
     
     
    THREE
     
     
    TORKILD ZHU STOPPED half a block away from Sevryn’s, and waited as two cops walked through the door. His stomach twisted. The day before, cops had assaulted him in that deli, deliberately pouring hot soup and some lemony drink all over him.
    No one had defended him. The owner had actually thrown Zhu out as if it had all been his fault.
    He wanted to go back in now and say something. He’d been turning it over and over in his mind ever since it happened. And what he wanted to say was this: He was as entitled to eat somewhere as those cops were. Hadn’t they ever done something difficult for their jobs?
    But he wasn’t that tough, except in a courtroom. Defending someone else. Using his brain.
    The moment he got to the point where he had to defend himself, particularly physically, he was the quiet kid in school all over again. The one who thought of the good lines after the fighting was over. The one who curled up into a fetal position whenever the bullies went after him.
    He ran a hand through his dark hair. He kept it neatly trimmed now, just like he wore actual silk suits, paid for by his employers, the exclusive law firm of Schnable, Shishani & Salehi. S 3 , as everyone called