Notes

Soundtrack suggestions:

The Mystery of the Anomalies - Dominik Scherrer, Primeval.

-o-

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Guillaume Vuillier was eating in his office. His computer screen was on and the WDMC director was taking advantage of the lunch break to carry on the investigation about the Bethany project. Since the evening when Rossiter had approached him at the Perth Castle Pub, he had inquired about the names on the list he gave him and had synthesized the results of his research in the form of little cards:

Name: Darcy Karpyshyn.
Profession: Geneticist.
Main Employer: Stanford University.
Date and place of death: 16/09/2011 at her domicile in Woodside.
Circumstances of death: Murdered by a "disturbed person".

Name: Milo Sheen.
Profession: Geneticist.
Main employer: Stanford University.
Date and place of death: 16/09/2011 at Karpyshyn's domicile in Woodside.
Circumstances of death: Murdered by a "disturbed person".

Name: Yvette Strahovski.
Profession: Geneticist.
Main employer: Stanford University.
Date and place of death: 16/09/2011 at Karpyshyn's domicile in Woodside.
Circumstances of death: Murdered by a "disturbed person".
Notes: Was involved in the Human Genome Project.

Name: Adam Wibberley.
Profession: Geneticist.
Main employer: University of California, Santa Cruz.
Date and place of death: 22/07/2011 near Davenport.
Circumstances of death: His car jumped from a cliff. The fall killed him and Bulloch instantly.

Name: Jerry Bulloch.
Profession: Geneticist.
Main employer: University of California, Santa Cruz.
Date and place of death: 22/07/2011 near Davenport.
Circumstances of death: Was Wibberley's passenger.
Notes: Was involved in the Human Genome Project.

Name: Darren Logan.
Profession: Geneticist.
Main employer: University of Oklahoma, Norman.
Date and place of death: 19/08/2011 in Norman.
Circumstances of death: Found dead in an alley near a bar. Probably poisoned.

Name: Ted Morrison.
Profession: Geneticist.
Main employer: MIT.
Date and place of death: 26/08/2011 at Cambridge.
Circumstances of death: Died when his lab at the MIT exploded.
Notes: Was involved in the Human Genome Project.

Finding all this information had been more or less easy. While some of the geneticists were famous enough to have a Wikipedia page, others such as Karpyshyn, Sheen and Logan did not, probably because death took them before they reached the age of thirty, before they could acquire a certain reputation in their field. At the end of the first research session he had a few days earlier, he had been struck by the fact that the seven people on the list were geneticists, with most of them being specialists in human genetics, and that three of them had even been involved in the famous Human Genome Project. Even more puzzling, they had all died within a single period of two months and in dramatic circumstances, including a confirmed multiple assassination. It couldn't be a coincidence...

Beyond their specialty, something must have connected the seven scientists, something that Guillaume couldn't put his finger on.

Why did Rossiter want me to investigate about them? Did Biosyn had a role in their death?

Rereading the cards, the WDMC director remembered that Karpyshyn's, Sheen's and Strahovski's workplace had a special connection with InGen.

In the early eighties, John Hammond and Benjamin Lockwood had recruited Norman Atherton, head of the genetics department at Stanford University, for the Jurassic Park project, of which he should have been the chief geneticist if cancer hadn't killed him. To make up for this loss, Hammond had then recruited Atherton's protégé, none other than Henry Wu and the rest of the story was well known. Guillaume wondered if Wu had at least known Yvette Strahovski, who was already working in the department at the time. Since the 2000s, Wu had also started teaching at Stanford, when his activities at InGen did not take up all his time. Perhaps he had also known Darcy Karpyshyn and Milo Sheen, first as students and then as post-doctoral researchers?

The WDMC director had already sought to meet with InGen's chief geneticist over the past few months, trying to contact him via the phone number and email address available on InGen's website, but each time, an assistant replied that Wu was unavailable at the moment. Guillaume was not surprised by this situation. The geneticist had not made public appearances since late December 2017 and January 2018, when he and the rest of InGen denied the accusations against them, and all social media activity on his part ceased soon after while his name had not appeared on any publication since the second half of 2017. One could almost believe that he was missing, especially since he had been one of the big absentees at Lockwood's reception in March.

Not surprising. I would also try to be discreet if I were in his place.

Suspecting that Wu was still carrying on research for InGen, Guillaume then wondered about his part-time teaching position. Was he still teaching at Stanford or was he also avoiding universities now?

The WDMC director then remembered that one of their summer interns, Teri Godwin, had just finished her second year of a bachelor's degree in biology at Stanford. Thinking that she must have taken lessons in genetics, he wondered if she had Henry Wu as a teacher or not. If so, maybe she had some information about him.

Shortly after the end of the lunch break, Guillaume went to the offices of the Science program, which door was adorned with a sign featuring various illustrations. There was the fossil of a theropod dinosaur with a backward arched neck, a double helix, and a dragon curve, representing respectively palaeontology, genetics, and mathematics, three areas covered by the program.

In an office near the back of the room, the director saw a young woman sitting at her desk. About twenty years old, she wore a red T-shirt adorned with a seal depicting a sequoia and around which was written Stanford University in white characters.

"Teri?" he asked.

"Yes sir?" The student replied, raising her eyes to look at him.

"I don't remember if you told us, but did Henry Wu gave lectures since you started college?"

"No. I was supposed to have him in the second half of my freshman year but Jurassic World collapsed in the meantime and he had to be replaced. Last September, we were told that he wouldn't return for a while, that he didn't have time to give lectures. The other teachers added that maybe it was for the best."

"I see. It would have been awkward if he had to answer questions about the Indominus rex in front of a whole amphitheatre."

Guillaume thanked her and then returned to his office, where he made a call to an old friend from the FBI, Michaela Kelly, whom he had met during an Interpol operation and who lived on the east coast. She owed him a favour since years, and in dire need of her help with his little investigation about the seven geneticists, he friendly reminded her of it during their conversation. The WDMC director specifically asked the FBI employee if the authorities had found anything suspicious about the scientists, such as shady funding or controversial research, if someone wanted them dead, and if any suspects had been identified. Once they had finished their conversation three quarters of an hour later, Guillaume sat back in his seat with a sigh, hoping that Michaela's research would prove conclusive. As he scanned the desk, his eyes fell on the calendar, where he had written "Arcadia arrival" in the box of July 12th.

A little later in the afternoon, he went to see his assistant.

"Peggy. I come to tell you that I'm taking Friday the 25th off."

"You intend to have a special weekend," she guessed. "Where, if that's not indiscreet?"

"Orick."

She raised an eyebrow, knowing he was planning on going there for the dinosaurs.

"Do I contact the same motel as last time?"

"Nope. This time, I'm willing to test Lockwood's hospitality. Last time, Eli Mills promised me a discount. I intend to benefit from it… I'll return to San Francisco on Sunday evening."

"Very well, Guillaume. I'll call the manor right now."