And so well hidden, the government didn’t even know what was going on.
“How did he know there would even be ichor in those mummies?”
“Because it was a burial ground for my people, the Mah.” Johnathan started to turn in his seat then seemed to catch himself. “We served the Anubis, and in return for our loyalty, it made us in its image.”
“Look, I don’t care what your religious beliefs are—” A new flow of napalm rode up Reese’s arms and down into his fingers and Reese winced.
“This isn’t about religion, doc. This is aboutwhatwe are.”
“And what is that?”
“Not human.”
“Just because you’re Anubis—.”
“There is only one Anubis, and that’s Nash Kelli.”
“I’ve seen you—your brother—others change.”
“The black wolves we Phase into are Sarvari. My father developed the formula for the VrK so we could get back the wolf stolen from us when the first incarnation of the Anubis was destroyed.”
“First?” It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true.
“It’s why I sent you the genetic profiles,” Seung said. “I knew you’d never believe we weren’t human if I didn’t.”
“Who says I believe you, now?” Because Reese couldn’t.
“For fuck’s sake, man, you saw the file Seung sent you,” Johnathan said.
“You’re right. I examined the file. And if the information is legitimate, and all things considered, that’s a hugeif.” Reese wiped a clump of dirt off his cheek. “What I saw doesn’t mean you’re not human. It means you have an anomaly. An unusual, even undiscovered anomaly, but nothing more.
“You have the same number of chromosomes. You have the same protein coding for DNA.” Reese’s shoulder throbbed in time with the headache swelling at the back of his skull. “Your genes say you’re human, and therefore you are.”
Frost drove the truck up an incline and onto a secondary road. They picked up speed.
“Our genes are like humans because we come from them, like they did monkeys,” Johnathan said.
Reese made a face. “We didn’t evolve from monkeys. We’re primates. Like apes, like lemurs. We have common extinct primate relatives. We aren’t the same species.”
Frost snorted and Johnathan scrubbed a hand over his face. “A little help here, Seung.”
“Think of what we are as a kind of genetic Mosaic,” Seung said.
“Mosaic are organisms formed by two different sources of DN—”
The transposons. Groups on every chromosome, meeting them in number. Tiny bits of genetic information overlooked or undetected in normal genome sequencing. Location and type could turn genes on and off or change them completely.
An anomaly.
Or something even more incredible.
One species with twenty-three pairs of chromosomes and another with an unknown number combined?
Reese stared at the woman in front of him and said, “You’re not human.”
“No, Dr. Dante. We’re not human.” She took his hand again and held it in both of hers. “And neither are you.”