Kalliope suddenly sat up and began paying close attention to the presentation. Thalia clued in enough to realize that Malsanto was proposing Floracopia work on a project to create super soldiers for the military.
Harmony's forehead wrinkled with concern. "I'm surprised a DARPA contract got you clearance to do human gene modding at all, even if it is for the war. The UN has strict bans on that. I understand you can't share all the details unless we take on the project, but I'm a little confused on the approach you are taking. What are some techniques that you have considered using on this project?"
"Oh various techniques, the gene gun, for example. But you know how unreliable that technique can be. Forced mutation, p-modding. We haven't really settled on an approach yet," Medea replied with a glance at Shiva that clearly implied the reason they hadn't settled on an approach was because Shiva couldn't find one that worked and that's why they needed to hire outside help. He pretended to ignore her.
Everyone at Floracopia did ignore the look since they were stunned into silence by the p-modding comment. Thalia vaguely remembered that p-modding had something to do with the break-in they'd had in the labs a few weeks ago. It had really shaken the rest of the family up. Clio was now inexplicably spending her nights hunting in her woods and Kalliope had installed a million new security measures in all the Floracopia buildings.
Thalia interrupted Medea. "Just so I'm clear, the projects seems to involve feeding something to a person that would cause their DNA to alter in such a way as to cause them to rapidly turn into huge super-soldiers with hyper-twitchy reflexes, right?"
"Well, there are many applications for this kind of technology," Gordon interjected with his toothy smile and a velvety chuckle. "I'm sure the government knows best the uses for these things. We just do what they ask. These contracts pay well and they bring a measure of other kinds of power. After all, the government isn't going to look too hard into a trusted supplier. It gives you a certain security that other companies just don't have."
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? 'That's not my department,' says Wernher von Braun." Harmony sang under her breath. Thalia arched an eyebrow but Harmony just shook her head.
"Thank you Gordon, but I believe that, as interesting as this project is, we will have to decline," Harmony declared. "We simply have too many other projects right now. I don't think we will be available any time in the foreseeable future."
Gordon produced his shark smile. "This is such a vital project for us that we would be willing to compensate Floracopia for any inconvenience." He proceeded to name a sum so staggeringly large that several people at the Floracopia table audibly gasped.
Bob the Money Guy grabbed Harmony's arm and began whispering rapidly in her ear. She gave him a dirty look.
"No, Gordon. I understand your urgent need to help our government, but we really cannot put off these projects. They are for critical areas that desperately need these splices," she said firmly. Bob sat back and sulked.
Thalia knew her mother was right. Half the projects they had were for malnourished or starving populations. She knew that no matter how much money was involved, they should work on saving lives before they worked on making America's soldiers better at taking lives away. But she did daydream about what she could do with a huge paycheck.
But now that the Co-op had refused to help the Malsanto suits as politely as possible, Malsanto was doing the veiled threats bit and taking just forever. Eventually, they wrapped up the meeting. The Floracopia team promised to think over the Malsanto proposal and get back to them if they changed their minds.
"Those are some scary people," Joanna said as she collapsed into a chair after graciously saying goodbye to the Malsanto team for fifteen minutes.
"You know they dropped that
Harmony's forehead wrinkled with concern. "I'm surprised a DARPA contract got you clearance to do human gene modding at all, even if it is for the war. The UN has strict bans on that. I understand you can't share all the details unless we take on the project, but I'm a little confused on the approach you are taking. What are some techniques that you have considered using on this project?"
"Oh various techniques, the gene gun, for example. But you know how unreliable that technique can be. Forced mutation, p-modding. We haven't really settled on an approach yet," Medea replied with a glance at Shiva that clearly implied the reason they hadn't settled on an approach was because Shiva couldn't find one that worked and that's why they needed to hire outside help. He pretended to ignore her.
Everyone at Floracopia did ignore the look since they were stunned into silence by the p-modding comment. Thalia vaguely remembered that p-modding had something to do with the break-in they'd had in the labs a few weeks ago. It had really shaken the rest of the family up. Clio was now inexplicably spending her nights hunting in her woods and Kalliope had installed a million new security measures in all the Floracopia buildings.
Thalia interrupted Medea. "Just so I'm clear, the projects seems to involve feeding something to a person that would cause their DNA to alter in such a way as to cause them to rapidly turn into huge super-soldiers with hyper-twitchy reflexes, right?"
"Well, there are many applications for this kind of technology," Gordon interjected with his toothy smile and a velvety chuckle. "I'm sure the government knows best the uses for these things. We just do what they ask. These contracts pay well and they bring a measure of other kinds of power. After all, the government isn't going to look too hard into a trusted supplier. It gives you a certain security that other companies just don't have."
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? 'That's not my department,' says Wernher von Braun." Harmony sang under her breath. Thalia arched an eyebrow but Harmony just shook her head.
"Thank you Gordon, but I believe that, as interesting as this project is, we will have to decline," Harmony declared. "We simply have too many other projects right now. I don't think we will be available any time in the foreseeable future."
Gordon produced his shark smile. "This is such a vital project for us that we would be willing to compensate Floracopia for any inconvenience." He proceeded to name a sum so staggeringly large that several people at the Floracopia table audibly gasped.
Bob the Money Guy grabbed Harmony's arm and began whispering rapidly in her ear. She gave him a dirty look.
"No, Gordon. I understand your urgent need to help our government, but we really cannot put off these projects. They are for critical areas that desperately need these splices," she said firmly. Bob sat back and sulked.
Thalia knew her mother was right. Half the projects they had were for malnourished or starving populations. She knew that no matter how much money was involved, they should work on saving lives before they worked on making America's soldiers better at taking lives away. But she did daydream about what she could do with a huge paycheck.
But now that the Co-op had refused to help the Malsanto suits as politely as possible, Malsanto was doing the veiled threats bit and taking just forever. Eventually, they wrapped up the meeting. The Floracopia team promised to think over the Malsanto proposal and get back to them if they changed their minds.
"Those are some scary people," Joanna said as she collapsed into a chair after graciously saying goodbye to the Malsanto team for fifteen minutes.
"You know they dropped that
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