by Sofia Diana Gabel
Thriller
Date Published: 01-15-2024
Geneticist Lucien Roux’s cutting-edge experiment to clone Neanderthals
blurs lines between ambition and ethics after the clones are stolen and
forced to play a brutal and violent game dubbed Neanderball. Haunted by the
realization that his hubris overpowered his morality, Lucien knows he must
fix what he’s done.
Racing against time as a military faction and a sinister adversary close
in, he has one chance to expose the real reason his research was taken. With
his ex-Marine girlfriend, he sets out on a dangerous journey to save the
Neanderthals before it’s too late. It’s an all or nothing fight for
redemption, leading to a showdown for his survival, and freedom for the
Neanderthals.
EXCERPT
Lucien stood outside his lab door, hoping his Neanderthal clones had
survived to reach the five-day blastocyst mark. What made his cell phone
alarm go off? He placed his chin on the plastic extension to the right and
pressed the red button. With his retina scanned, a chime sounded. He
straightened. Next came fingerprint verification. He placed his thumb on a
small pad next to the retinal scanner and waited for the second chime. Last
came the voice verification.
He stepped back and spoke, “Bonjour, je m’appelle Lucien
Roux.”
A split-second pause. “Bonjour, Doctor Roux.”
Third and final chime. The door slid left into the pocket slot and closed
after he entered the lab. For a moment, he stood and enjoyed the cool,
unobtrusive, sterile comfort of the place where he’d spent most of his
time over the past three years. His second home. Come to think of it, it was
more accurate to call it his first home.
“Lights.”
The fluorescent lights flickered on and illuminated the countertops crammed
with glassware, notepads, microscopes, and computers. He dodged around the
benches and stools to the incubator room at the far end of the lab.
He pressed a button beside the door. “Release incubator
lock.”
As he wrapped his hand around the incubator’s door handle, his foot
tapped. “Come on, come on.”
To anyone else, it would look like a commercial refrigerator door, but
looks were deceiving. He kept his incubator out of view in a separate room
where only his voice would unlock it, tucked away from the potential prying
eyes of the techs and cleaning crew.
The lock clicked open.
What had happened? Nutrients he’d deal with, but if he’d
miscalculated the growth enhancers, it meant he’d lose the entire
batch of Neanderthal specimens. If they lived, all sixteen would have
developed further than any of the other clones that failed to thrive.
He swung the stainless door wide and hurried in. The interior lights
flooded the cool, small space. There they were, his sixteen specimens,
mounted vertically in silver-sided test tubes holding the growth medium,
four high with four side-by-side, all males to reduce the variables that
might come with both sexes. He peered closely through the small magnifying
window in the first growth tube and then the next and the next.
I’m a multi-genre author and have been writing for as long as I can
remember, and try to attend as many writing workshops and conferences as
possible.
I was born in Sydney, Australia, but have lived in the United States for
most of my life. I have two undergraduate degrees in archaeology and
environmental resource management (wildlife biology) and a master’s degree
in public archaeology, as well as a host of courses in writing, editing, and
even criminal justice. We can never learn too much, right?
In addition to writing, I absolutely adore traveling. I’m definitely a
wanderer at heart and find it hard to settle in one place for long. And why
should I? There are so many places to explore!
Contact Links
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Twitter: @sofiadianagabel
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M.C.V. EGAN ❧Defining Ways❧ 