Heiser-The-Facade - Sparkling Eyes

together on this project, Kevin, Malcolm, and myself have succeeded in pinpointing thecatalyst behind the biochemical changes we've outlined for you this morning, but wedon't know where it came from. We knew that the presence of identical genetic anomaliesin these mutilated cattle couldn't be a random coincidence. What we're dealing with is aheretofore-unknown virus that was somehow contracted by the cattle and then passed ongenetically. Although we can't be sure, judging by the number of cattle we presume are"infected," the contraction of the virus probably occurred decades ago. It's only becausethere are so many altered cattle at the present time that the environmental effects are nownoticeable."Dr. Garvey sat forward in his seat, a sign that he wanted to add something. "Whenwe discovered the viral anomaly you've heard about," he said clearing his throat, "wepostulated that it might have been caused by radiation. We started our search for a causeusing cattle from the aforementioned geographical areas linked to the methane buildup.We began testing large herds which grazed near military installations which housednuclear weapons, as well as those near other facilities that emitted a great deal of energy,including ultraviolet radiation of environmentally permissible levels. Unfortunately, andto our surprise, the results were mixed—not every animal had the virus, and in a fewcases, only a minority of the herd had contracted it. The only conclusion we can draw isthat nuclear and ultraviolet radiation are not related to our dilemma.""So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen," Malcolm chuck-led nervously, "yourbest and your brightest are totally clueless as to how to keep the earth's population fromfrying like worms on an Arizona sidewalk once the atmospheric dissipation runs itscourse. No . . . wait a minute," he added sarcastically, "I've got a solution! Why don't weenlist the help of our capable military in nuking all the cattle in the Great Plains? Thatshould buy us another decade or so, even with nuclear fallout!""Could we please avoid the sarcasm?" Dr. Garvey asked quietly."Really," Neil echoed his sentiments, but in an angered tone. "Your whole attitudeis completely counterproductive.""But am I wrong?" asked Malcolm smugly.Neil glanced over at the Colonel, who pushed back his chair, stood up, andapproached the podium once more. Everyone in the room watched in surprise as a door inthe wall behind the podium slid open in response to his touch of the console, a door thatblended perfectly into the wall and had been invisible to the unsearching eye. Without somuch as a word, the Colonel reached into the opening and withdrew two large coveredboxes with the now familiar "Above Top Secret" stamp on them. The Colonel proceededto remove eleven black 4-inch notebook binders from the boxes, each filled to capacity."The answer to your question, Dr. Bradley, is yesyou are in fact wrong," theColonel announced, standing erect behind the podium, "which brings us to the reasonwe've assembled this team ahead of schedule. Weand by that I mean myself, Dr.Bandstra, and the members of the Group know exactly what the source is for the mysteryvirus you've so ingeniously detected for us, and your efforts have been quite instrumentalin our acquiring that knowledge.""What?" Dr. Chadwick exclaimed in disbelief Everyone in the room lookedequally incredulous. Even the placid Dr. Garvey seemed disarmed by the revelation."Please pass these notebooks along to the person seated next to you," hecontinued nonchalantly, handing notebooks to each per-son seated nearest on either side52