Free Mammoth Dawn by Kevin J. Anderson, Gregory Benford Page B

nor Alex reveals this.
    Though the hairy elephants are majestic and gentle, Kinsman still disagrees with what they stand for: genetic tinkering, cloning, disrupting the natural process of extinction. When Kinsman spars with them, it is like a scientific debate between colleagues. Helen asks, “Don’t you have any racial guilt? Human beings wiped these species off the face of the Earth—isn’t it the right moral decision to rectify those mistakes if we can?”
    Neither side convinces the other, though. Shaking his head, Kinsman leaves them with a final plea to be careful, to think about what they are doing. But Alex and Helen don’t feel they have to worry about a small fringe group. After all, they are doing good work.
    O O O
    In Siberia, we meet young Cassie Worth—a beautiful and independent 22-year-old student and activist working for Helyx’s Library of Earth project as one of the “genetic bounty hunters” trying to preserve endangered species.
    She accompanies native guides in search of the rare Siberian tiger. It is high summer, the few weeks when the weather is tolerable for such an expedition, though she isn’t sure the subzero cold could be worse than the hordes of gnats and biting flies that buzz around her eyes, face, ears. She can’t smell anything other than the reek of potent, seemingly ineffectual, insect repellent.
    Cassie’s team is tired, about to give up on finding one of the rare tigers, but she exudes confidence and stamina to keep the team going. With her is Zach Browder, her lean and fiery boyfriend. Shared interests drew them together, the work saving endangered species—but their relationship is “theoretical,” without any real love; Zach is too possessive, and Cassie is focused on her goal.
    Stalking through the underbrush, they close on the quarry, then shoot with tranquilizer darts. The beautiful Siberian tiger falls thrashing and finally lies still. The team takes many photographs, makes measurements. Cassie collects a blood sample and peels back the animal’s lips to scrape epithelial cells from the soft tissue inside the unconscious tiger’s mouth. Everything is packaged in special preserving kits. “That’s all we need.”
    Zach points out that many zoos around the world would pay a fortune for a specimen like this, but Cassie won’t start down that slippery slope. He is willing to bend the rules for his own benefit, but she is not. While Helyx Corp works in Montana on perfecting the resurrection cloning process, Cassie has thrown herself into a proactive campaign, collecting vital DNA samples of species that may be gone within a few generations.
    Cassie and her fellow crusaders have already collected genetic specimens from nearly a thousand important animals, many obtained from zoos but others taken directly from animals in the wild, like this rare Siberian tiger. Helyx then carefully freezes and stores the cellular samples for some later date, when cloning techniques will bring back lost animal populations.
    Cassie ushers the team away before the tiger begins to stir. “Let’s get out of here, so he can wake up and think we were just part of a bad dream.” This wraps up their trip. Cassie and Zach prepare to get back to the main Helyx headquarters in Montana. Cassie is anxious to see how her “mother” is doing.
    O O O
    Alex and Helen welcome Cassie back to the Montana Ranch, after she has fought her way through the protesters. The young woman proudly delivers the Siberian tiger samples to the Library of Earth and asks about the herd. That afternoon, the three ride horses out to a distant valley in the ranch secure zone.
    Cassie has grown up around animals and ranches, has the Montana version of street smarts. When they reach a dramatic overlook, Alex, Helen, and Cassie look down upon a group of woolly mammoths—magnificent beasts covered with russet fur and sporting long tusks. These are second- and third-generation hybrids, nearly purebred mammoths, closer than