The Egyptian Read Online Free PDF

of lab coats, computer banks, medical equipment. The employees he saw looked unconcerned with the protests outside, lost in their own worlds as scientists can be.
    They arrived at a large office at the end of a line of empty cubicles and futuristic coffee makers. A plaque on the door read “Dr. Graham East, President.” The office, sparse and neat like the cubicles, made Grey think it was an afterthought, that the real work took place in the laboratories.
    A man in an unbuttoned lab coat turned as they entered. A shy smile spread across boyish features, although as Grey drew closer he noticed creased eyes and veins of grey running through his shrub of brown hair. A stained tie was draped haphazardly over a wrinkled blue dress shirt. The scientist met Grey’s eyes with an open, almost childlike gaze.
    There was also a woman in the room. Grey guessed her about his age, mid-thirties. She was striking: tall and thin and self-assured. Straight blond hair brushed a camera case slung around her neck.
    The guard and Dr. East spoke off to the side, then Dr. East approached Grey. He eyed Grey’s badge as if it were a pit viper. “Why haven’t I heard about this?”
    “You’ll hear soon enough.
After
the sweep.”
    Dr. East shrugged in deference to Grey’s badge, as Grey knew he would. “I was just about to give Veronica a tour of the lab,” Dr. East said. “Give me a minute to wrap up with her, and I’ll show you around.”
    “How about if I tag along? It’d save everyone some time, and I can break off when I need.”
    “Oh. Well, I suppose that’s fine.” He waved his hand at the woman. “Veronica Brown, Mike Hood. Veronica’s a reporter with the UN.”
    Veronica swayed her hips as she stepped forward and took Grey’s hand. A fitted red sweater and black pencil skirt hugged her slinky figure. “Investigative journalist,” she corrected. “Freelance.”
    That’s just lovely
, Grey thought. Veronica looked at Grey as if expecting a further introduction, but Grey nodded towards Dr. East. Veronica looked at him askance. Her face matched the rest of her: thin and classy, a petite pointed chin and intelligent blue eyes. Her mouth exuded mischief, and the possibility of a wide range of emotion. It evened out her other features and made her more accessible.
    Dr. East led them out of the room. On the way down the hallway Veronica said, “Thanks for agreeing to talk to me. We understand the importance of your work and its implications for stem cell research.”
    His eyes brightened. “You understand—they’re calling us monsters, and we’re on the side of humanity. If they had any idea of the possibilities…”
    “I’m fully aware of the possibilities. It’s why I’m here.” She hesitated. “Is it true? You have an interspecies embryo?”
    “We have more than that. We have a blastocyst.”
    “My God,” Veronica whispered. “That wasn’t reported.”
    Dr. East grinned like a schoolboy. “I think the public is still wrapping its mind around the—the embryo. That’s been done before, you know, with rabbit eggs. It wasn’t in the journals because the experiment was stopped after an embryo formed and started dividing.”
    They seemed to have forgotten Grey’s presence, which was fine with him. Grey followed them into a sleek elevator and down to a bottom floor comprised of an enormous laboratory and a swarm of people in white frocks. The scientists moved with purposeful flair between the tables, nodding and chatting quietly. The room smelled faintly of formaldehyde. Grey’s eyes swept the room, searching the faces of the scientists for a telltale nervous twitch, a gesture of unease. He had already concluded that the probability that Dr. East had traveled to Egypt to steal corporate secrets, or ordered someone to do so, was close to nil.
    “The lights are kept low to facilitate visibility through the microscopes,” Dr. East explained. A dark-haired woman hunched over her microscope, one hand slowly