Hell's Teeth (Phoebe Harkness Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

answer is no … and yes.”
    I seemed to have their attention. I wondered if there were any Church representatives in the audience. They were often rather vocal when it came to any public discussion of the Genetic Others.
    “The Pale are certainly more complex structurally than we are, as are almost all of the Genetic Others we are working to understand,” I continued. “But to fully understand the Pale, perhaps it would be useful to remember why they exist in the first place. Where they came from. They did not evolve from humans. They were made, engineered, by humans. We created the Pale genetically, as a weapon. We manipulated their cells, we tampered with their DNA, their RNA, and we grew them, in layman’s terms, the first generation at any rate, in tubes. This is public knowledge. This is our history.”
    The room was uncomfortable now. Hundreds of eyes trained on me. We all knew our history. Mankind’s legacy, how we created our own worst enemy by playing God.
    I pressed on against the sea of silence. “And just as those who first used nuclear weapons back in the twentieth century had no idea they would be dealing with the radiation and the fallout for a great deal of time to come, so too those who came before us here today could not have known that their decision to create this breed of other would have far reaching implications for our own society.”
    “Dr Harkness?”
    The voice came from a woman in the third row. She was expensively middle aged, with a severe black bob of hair and wearing a plum-coloured suit, a choker of black jet like a net around her throat, and a mildly bemused expression.
    “Veronica Cloves. I have a question from the board of Cabal,” she said crisply, lowering a gloved hand. “Forgive my seeming impudence, I am aware that this presentation has been somewhat thrust upon you at the last moment due to the Servant being indisposed, but usually the purpose of this meeting is to present the current research and development findings of your area.” She toyed with her choker with a polite smile that did not remotely reach her eyes. “It would seem that, though entertaining, Dr Harkness, you are presenting a history lecture.”
    I knew her face of course, everyone did. Cabal may be our overlords and government, but they ensure they keep a very open and public face. No accusations of secrecy, no cloak and dagger nonsense. Cloves was their favourite figurehead. The PR queen. The people loved her like a celebrity.
    “I thought that it would be useful to put our findings in context,” I explained. “Especially for the benefit of the wider public present here.”
    “I understand your motivation, Dr Harkness,” the member of Cabal replied, again in a soft and polite voice which somehow managed to carry throughout the hall. “However, I think it fair to assume that we are aware of our history and of the issues surrounding the Pale and the Genetic Others, and the threats posed by them. Perhaps it would be more scientific for you to stick to the relevant facts at hand?”
    As usual with the all-powerful Cabal, it was an instruction presented as a suggestion. Veronica Cloves’ make up was too pale, her skin just ever so slightly too tight on her face. But she smiled like the nation’s sweetheart.
    Usually, I would have been cowed merely by being under the scrutiny of someone so much higher in the food chain that Trevelyan. Maybe it was the lack of sleep that made me argumentative, but her words riled me.
    “I feel I should make a distinction on your comment regarding the Pale and the Genetic Others, before I continue in any fashion,” I said. “You cannot simply lump them all together as a ‘threat’.”
    I made quotation marks in the air … God help me. “The Pale are creatures we created. They carry the condition we seek to cure. The bloodlust, the inherent violent tendencies, the danger they pose to society – they are all our doing. The others, the group we have deemed to class