let you know.’
‘Tell me more about the change in mating habits,’ I said, taking the plan from him before unpacking the respirator and checking it. ‘What were they hoping to achieve?’
‘They were working on the receptors for vassopressin.’
‘Isn’t that a hormone?’ I asked, trying to remember.
Dallas nodded. ‘They’d based their original project on an experiment with field voles and mountain voles in the USA.’
‘Voles?’ I wasn’t even sure what a vole was .
‘The American scientists induced behavioural changes in voles with hormonal tweaking,’ said Dallas. ‘From being promiscuous, they became faithful to one mate.’
I considered that. Restricting a male rabbit to only one mate could have a big impact on rabbit populations. ‘You said the project started out that way,’ I reminded him. ‘Did it change?’
‘The original Faithful Bunnies series was not successful,’ said Dallas. ‘Consequently, over the last few months, they’ve been working on another angle—a double-edged sword. They called it Terminator Rabbit. Working with rabbit pox in a double-barrelled way. Increasing lethality as well as tweaking the virus genetically to carry a sterilising payload.’
I tried to keep up but Dallas must have sensed my bemusement.
‘You know there’s always this arms race going on between the virus and its host,’ he explained. ‘The virus getting weaker over the generations, the host animal developing immunity. The idea is that any females who survive the initial infection—and that’s generally around five to ten per cent of the population—will eventually breed themselves out of existence because the sterility will be passed on to the next generation as part of the maternal DNA material. So that, one day, the last litter will be born and, after those individuals have all died without issue, that’s the end of the rabbits in Australia.’
And the end of Thomas Austin, Esquire’s experiment, I thought. The wealthy Geelong grazier had imported rabbits to Australia from England in 1859 so as to have a little hunting and shooting.
‘Of course,’ Dallas was saying, ‘it’s still in the developmental stage.’
It had been estimated that rabbits caused trillions of dollars of damage per year to farmers and, in the long run, to the economy. Many countries are plagued by them and a scientific solution to their infestation would certainly be lucrative.
‘So how close were they to delivery?’ I asked.
‘Years away. It was a very long-range project.’
I couldn’t make up my mind about Dallas Baxter. Though he was expansive, almost boasting, about his scientists’ work now, he had been evasive previously and I wanted to know why.
‘I want you to go in there, Jack, and find out what the hell is going on. I’m hoping there’s been some malfunction with Claire’s mobile or even that they have eloped . . .’ He paused.
‘Get Hazchem on standby,’ I said. ‘I can’t go in until you do that.’
He seemed reluctant and again I wondered why. But I stood, waiting, until he made the phone call, turning away into a corner as he talked to the chief of the local Fire Investigation Unit.
Eventually he rang off and came back. ‘Ewan Purcell confirmed the protocols state that in the case of a possible biohazard, you’re to go in first.’
‘I’ll bet he did,’ I said. ‘You’ve just spent some time assuring me nothing toxic could be involved. Now you’re behaving as if there’s a risk of contamination.’
‘There’s no risk to humans at all,’ said Dallas, sounding annoyed. ‘I might have been an administrator a long time, but I am, first and foremost, a scientist. I’m simply being ultra-cautious. Until I’m sure in my mind that it’s safe in there, I’d rather be too careful than not careful enough. But I can assure you, there’s nothing in the Terminator Rabbit program nor the earlier project that could cause any concern to a human being.’
At
‘Tell me more about the change in mating habits,’ I said, taking the plan from him before unpacking the respirator and checking it. ‘What were they hoping to achieve?’
‘They were working on the receptors for vassopressin.’
‘Isn’t that a hormone?’ I asked, trying to remember.
Dallas nodded. ‘They’d based their original project on an experiment with field voles and mountain voles in the USA.’
‘Voles?’ I wasn’t even sure what a vole was .
‘The American scientists induced behavioural changes in voles with hormonal tweaking,’ said Dallas. ‘From being promiscuous, they became faithful to one mate.’
I considered that. Restricting a male rabbit to only one mate could have a big impact on rabbit populations. ‘You said the project started out that way,’ I reminded him. ‘Did it change?’
‘The original Faithful Bunnies series was not successful,’ said Dallas. ‘Consequently, over the last few months, they’ve been working on another angle—a double-edged sword. They called it Terminator Rabbit. Working with rabbit pox in a double-barrelled way. Increasing lethality as well as tweaking the virus genetically to carry a sterilising payload.’
I tried to keep up but Dallas must have sensed my bemusement.
‘You know there’s always this arms race going on between the virus and its host,’ he explained. ‘The virus getting weaker over the generations, the host animal developing immunity. The idea is that any females who survive the initial infection—and that’s generally around five to ten per cent of the population—will eventually breed themselves out of existence because the sterility will be passed on to the next generation as part of the maternal DNA material. So that, one day, the last litter will be born and, after those individuals have all died without issue, that’s the end of the rabbits in Australia.’
And the end of Thomas Austin, Esquire’s experiment, I thought. The wealthy Geelong grazier had imported rabbits to Australia from England in 1859 so as to have a little hunting and shooting.
‘Of course,’ Dallas was saying, ‘it’s still in the developmental stage.’
It had been estimated that rabbits caused trillions of dollars of damage per year to farmers and, in the long run, to the economy. Many countries are plagued by them and a scientific solution to their infestation would certainly be lucrative.
‘So how close were they to delivery?’ I asked.
‘Years away. It was a very long-range project.’
I couldn’t make up my mind about Dallas Baxter. Though he was expansive, almost boasting, about his scientists’ work now, he had been evasive previously and I wanted to know why.
‘I want you to go in there, Jack, and find out what the hell is going on. I’m hoping there’s been some malfunction with Claire’s mobile or even that they have eloped . . .’ He paused.
‘Get Hazchem on standby,’ I said. ‘I can’t go in until you do that.’
He seemed reluctant and again I wondered why. But I stood, waiting, until he made the phone call, turning away into a corner as he talked to the chief of the local Fire Investigation Unit.
Eventually he rang off and came back. ‘Ewan Purcell confirmed the protocols state that in the case of a possible biohazard, you’re to go in first.’
‘I’ll bet he did,’ I said. ‘You’ve just spent some time assuring me nothing toxic could be involved. Now you’re behaving as if there’s a risk of contamination.’
‘There’s no risk to humans at all,’ said Dallas, sounding annoyed. ‘I might have been an administrator a long time, but I am, first and foremost, a scientist. I’m simply being ultra-cautious. Until I’m sure in my mind that it’s safe in there, I’d rather be too careful than not careful enough. But I can assure you, there’s nothing in the Terminator Rabbit program nor the earlier project that could cause any concern to a human being.’
At
Similar Books
