Bayou Remedy

Part 20

Silence stretched between them as Jim checked the markers against the Institute's database of known hominoids. A silence so profound that it had Kisin periodically checking his phone just to make sure that the call was still connected. It was.

Eventually, Kisin set the phone to speaker and returned to his Google search. He wasn't really finding anything useful, but perhaps 'nagarou' was a new name for something old. Regardless, all Google was giving him were YouTube songs, Facebook profiles and the odd company or two. None of which was particularly helpful.

He sighed and shut his laptop. He'd have to talk to Karen and John again, maybe convince them to tell him some more Cajun folk legends. Ones involving snakes. Anything that might shed some light on what that old man at the pier was talking about. Then again, Kisin could have just misheard the old man when he'd confronted John. He hadn't been at his best at the time so anything was possible. Kisin reopened the laptop.

It was some time before Kisin heard anything but the occasional rustling of papers from the cell phone he'd now placed on the bedside table. He looked up when the noise took on a different rhythm and Jim spoke, "You still there, Kisin?"

He picked up the phone and turned it off speaker before responding, "Yep, find anything?"

"Yeah, and you're not gonna believe this."

Kisin waited, but when Jim didn't continue, Kisin prompted him. "Jim, what did you match it to?"

Jim's voice held hesitant awe when he next spoke into the phone. "It's human."

Kisin paused briefly to collect his thoughts, his next words chosen deliberately. "Could the sample have been contaminated?"

Jim's answer was immediate, "No."

"But you said the sample contained human DNA. How is that possible otherwise?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean 'human' in the same sense as you and I are human. Not homo sapiens. I meant that the sample contains DNA markers of a similar genotype to our own, but different. But it's close to ours."

"Jim, what are you trying to say exactly?"

"What I'm saying Kisin, is that we've just uncovered scientific proof of the existence of another sentient race. One that is a cross between a cold-blooded and a warm-blooded species, something previously thought to be impossible! This changes everything we ever thought we knew about cross species geno dynamics!"

"Jim-"

"I mean, think about it Kisin! A whole race of moving, breathing snake folk who've existed right under our noses for centuries! And we find one in Louisiana! What are the odds? I mean really, how is that even possible?"

"Jim!" Kisin shouted into the phone. Silence descended. Kisin took a deep breath, "Calm down."

"But-"

Kisin cut him off, "You can't tell anyone what we've found yet."

"But-"

"No, Jim." Kisin continued sternly. "Imagine what will happen if you go around spreading this news."

It took a moment, but when Jim responded it came matter-of-factly. "They'll be hunted into extinction."

Kisin nodded even though Jim couldn't see him. "Exactly. Every trophy hunter. Every scientist. Every trumped up millionaire who wants to add to their collection. It would be open season. There would be no laws in place to defend them and even if there were, that wouldn't stop the blackmarket hunters. They wouldn't even be thinking of these creatures as sentient beings, they'd just see a new type of big game. And that's not even counting the percentage of the populace that would see them as monsters or demons and kill them in a fit of religious fervor. I for one don't want to be responsible for the genocide of an entire race. Do you?"

"Of course not," Jim snapped. "But we can't just sit on this either. I told you before, I've shown this to other people. Eventually, someone is going to put this together and come up with the same thing we did and then what? We can't just do nothing."

Kisin stood and started pacing the small room. Three steps one way, turn and repeat. "Just... Just give me a bit more time."

"Kisin..."

"Just a few more days, two weeks at most. Time enough to collect real proof. No one is going to believe us with just a single undocumented sample anyway. Results can be faked or falsified, machines faulty, samples contaminated. Hell, that might even have been what actually happened."

"But you don't think so."

Kisin thought of the face he'd seen in the storm dark swamp and of the claw marks that marred both his jacket as well as his own flesh. "But I don't think so." He agreed.

Jim sighed. "Fine. A few days. What do I tell people in the meantime?"

"Tell them that you think the sample may have been compromised. If they persist, cite all those logical reasons as to why it's impossible for a mammal and a reptile to interbreed. That should shut them up for a while at least, if not stop them outright."

Jim was silent for a moment. "What are you going to be doing?"

Kisin smiled faintly. "I think I might try to get it to talk to me."