Free Killer Flies by William D. Hicks Page A

animal tests?” General Thomason asked.
    “It’s true we haven’t used live human subjects as part of these experiments. Animals were used. But we did test this on abandoned corpses. Invisible people. No family, no friends, no questions. The controversy and scrutiny resulting from anyone finding out about our experiments was deemed unacceptable. So the corpses came from morgues all over the country with little likelihood of family connections. And the results were more dramatic.
    “Is that what makes you believe we should stop work on this new weapon?” General Bider asked.
    Pankow hated it when they used that term. “Some of our testing included the use of human blood and tissue. It contains certain pheromones. Our main problem was in controlling the killer flies. The military’s idea was to use the flies on the enemy, not on American soldiers. How this could be accomplished was a major hurdle because people excrete the same pheromones.”
    “So we struggled to learn how to control the flies. At first we tried using different foods. The theory was if an American soldier ate garlic, or onions, these odors might mask the pheromone scent. Flies eat feces, so we expected they might not be thwarted by the foods with strong odors. Still it took two full years to prove this.”
    Laughter filled the room.
    Pankow continued, “No food scents were found to prevent attacks. So we moved onto other ideas. One plausible suggestion was to abandon bleeding soldiers, like sacrificial lambs, then move battalions away allowing the flies to feed on the wounded, which meant leaving men behind with mere flesh wounds and scratches. We rejected this idea.”
    “Why?” General Donner asked.
    Pankow looked at the sixty-year-old man quizzically. Either he was stupid or dense.
    “Could you imagine the outcry?” General Willard answered.
    “Oh,” General Donner responded.
    “Another solution called for cauterizing wounds. But this would produce visible scarring. The army rejected this as too extreme, especially after recent Agent Orange incidents,” Pankow said, tired of explaining, but certain it would help his mission to end the project and destroy the flies. He rubbed his eyes; he had stayed up all night trying to make his demonstration understandable for laypeople, trying to anticipate all the questions.
    “One research finally suggested using female fly pheromones. This worked for awhile. Much longer than any of our other ideas. It took several months of adjustments, but the female pheromone antidote finally proved effective on chimps. It worked for three months. That was enough to convince my team we needed human subjects, so we got a few soldiers to sign waivers for the vaccine tests. But human tissue proved incapable of sustaining fly pheromones for that length of time. People sweated it through their pores after a mere twenty days.” Pankow held down the yawn that wanted to escape. “If a soldier injected with the female pheromones remained in contact with the flies much longer he became part of their feeding frenzy, like a bloody carcass in a shark tank.”
    “So, you created a vaccine?” General Donner asked.
    “Yes, but its effectiveness is only twenty days, or less, depending on metabolic rate. Plus upon further testing this treatment doesn’t work on everyone.”
    “Any more questions before I continue?” Pankow waited, no one’s hand went up. “Even though many of my colleagues see little harm in allowing the mix of killer flies with general house flies, I disagree. Currently interbreeding appears safe, because few can survive alone, and without ‘mothers,’ as we call the females, they can’t multiply. But that doesn’t prevent these flies from mutating and forming a new lethal strain. And this would be even more likely if one of the mothers escapes.”
    “That won’t happen,” General Bider quickly interjected. “We have one room of mothers which is segregated from all the others.”
    “But what