Neel Dervin and the Dark Angel Read Online Free PDF Page B

question.
Warren Thompson… The name stirred memories. Certain news he had heard in an
educational program a long time ago.“I think I‟ve heard his name.” he said. He looked
uncertainly at Doctor Fahim and Divya. “He discovered something important, right? People
said he discovered big foot or something.”
    “
Fictitious rumors fabricated for the benefit of themedia.” DoctorFahim said. “In
reality, Doctor Thompson discovered something much more important, a discovery which
has such far reaching implications that the government has gone to great lengths to keep it a
secret.”
Doctor Fahim rose from his chair and offered it to Divya.
     
“I‟m fine, sir.” Divya said quickly.
     
“It is a question of manners, Divya.” Doctor Fahim said. She reluctantly took the chair.
DoctorFahim walked over to the end of Neel‟s bed and looked at him.
    “I was working with
Doctor Thompson on a piece of research work that promised to be
very intriguing.” he resumed his narrative. “Doctor Thompson had found a family of apes in
the African jungles. Although they numbered in a mere handful, the tribes people in the
surrounding area did their best to avoid confrontations with them. The remarkable thing about
these apes was their strength. They were much stronger than ordinary gorillas, capable of
uprooting gigantic trees and throwing heavy boulders across amazing distances. Doctor
Thompson tried his best to study them, but the apes were unused to human presence at such
close quarters. They attacked his research team and the two local tribes which were helping
him. It took more than a hundred men to stop them. In the end, only a single ape survived,
which Doctor Thompson kept with himself. That ape also died soon afterwards, but he had
collected enough samples to continue his study.”
    Doctor Fahim paused. Neel was listening intently now. Divya already knew all this, but
she was listening closely as well. Doctor Fahim went on.“Doctor Thompson was an old
mentor of mine. He called me in and told me about his research, and we worked together on
studying the samples for five years. We discovered a new compound which mimicked the
properties of an undiscovered hormone and was responsible for the remarkable strength of
the apes.”
Neel‟s mind began to lose controlagain, and the doctor‟s words became sluggish and
incomprehensible once more. With a huge effort, he forced his mind to slow down.
     
“I‟m sorry.” he broke in, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. “ButI don‟t see
what this has to do with why Ican‟t see or hear properly.”
    “I am coming to that.”
DoctorFahim said gently. “Please bear with me a while longer.
Your present situation is another link in a chain of events which were put in motion a very
long time ago. You need to understand everything from the beginning in order to appreciate
your unique condition.”
Neel nodded and sat completely still, staring at Doctor Fahim.
    “
Doctor Thomson was getting on in his years, and the conditions under which we
worked for so long were ill suited to his health.” the doctor continued. There was a ring of
sadness in his voice. Divya knew how deeply he had respected the man who had been his
mentor for so long. “He died a year after we had returned from Africa. He left all his
possessions to charity. But the samples and all his research work connected to our time in
Africa he left to me. I worked alone on the project for twenty eight years, and it was
developing into something truly remarkable. Divya became my assistant during that time, and
together we succeeded in uncovering most of the secrets of that curioussubstance.”
    “At this point,
however, our resources dried. We could not continue our research. It
seemed as though we had come to the end of our work. And yet there was still so much left to
accomplish.”
    “But then I received a call from a certain government official. Rumors of what I had
been working on had