Free Species by Yvonne Navarro Page B

program he watched was information on stereoscopic vision in the order of carnivora, a category of carnivorous mammals—a good portion of which has stereoscopic vision. There are, of course, predators in other orders—reptiles, rodents, and fish, for instance. Just as not all mammals with stereoscopic vision are predators, not all predators have front-facing eyes. Only those predators whose primary hunting sense is vision have front-facing eyes and stereoscopic vision; on the other hand, having both doesn’t automatically mean the animal is a predator. Primates, for example, are largely vegetarian, yet they are mostly associated with stereoscopic vision because they evolved in trees. Thus they needed stereoscopic vision for exceptional depth perception.”
    “Stereoscopic vision?” Dan asked.
    “The ability to see things in three dimensions,” Laura clarified. “Stereoscopic perception is possible because of binocular vision, or the ability to use the image seen by both eyes to result in a single view that appears to have three dimensions . . . which is where it ties into the program you watched, Dan. If one animal is incapable of accurately judging the distance to another, it cannot be a predator . . . because it could never catch its prey.”
    The scenes playing on the computer monitor ended and they all blinked as the lights came on. Fitch turned to Press. “Mr. Lennox, as a nonscientist, are you at all clear on what’s happening?”
    Press glowered at him from his slumped position on his chair, his face cold. “Oh, I think so, Doctor Fitch. In layman’s terms, you made a monster with a formula from outer space, it’s escaped and is going around killing people.” He fixed each of the others with a glance. “Now you want us to hunt it down and kill it.”
    “You have quite a talent for simplicity, Mr. Lennox,” Fitch said peevishly.
    “Thank you.”
    Laura ran her hands through her hair in a gesture that seemed more disheartened than anxious. “There’s no way we can capture her and keep her alive to study further? I mean, she is half-human.”
    There was a hushed moment as they all considered this. Dr. Fitch looked as though he wanted to agree but oddly, didn’t dare. After they’d all thought about the idea for a minute, Press stood, ready to leave. “Laura,” he said quietly, “I think this is strictly a search-and-destroy mission.” His gaze brushed Fitch then wandered to the floor, and he didn’t look back up.
    “They’ve never asked me to find anyone they didn’t want killed.”

12
    L ooking at Union Station for the first time through a slit in the curtain, Sil could see that this was a world apart from Brigham City, Utah. In fact, she thought the population of that entire town could have been outnumbered just by the people milling about on the platforms here as they waited for trains to arrive and depart.
    Before leaving the sleeping compartment and its decaying contents behind, Sil smoothed the front of her new conductor’s uniform and checked to make sure the fanny pack was adjusted properly—her hips were slightly narrower than A. Cardoza’s had been. Stepping off the train, she followed the rest of the disembarking passengers down a ramp to a tunnel that apparently led to the main station.
    The main building was immense, nearly overwhelming. The elaborately adorned ceiling was so far overhead it was dizzying, and Sil tried to focus on the smaller things going on around her in an attempt to give her mind time to get used to the frantic pace: off to the side of her a little girl smiled and held tightly to her mother’s hand; just ahead a man in a plain, navy-blue suit and dark glasses headed purposefully toward her—
    Sil tensed, waiting for a confrontation. It never came; instead, the man passed without comment and went up to the woman and daughter. They exchanged a few words and he flashed a small identification card, then steered them in the direction of a door marked