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lves.”
Becker continued. “Those given the wolf lobotomy and set free have all been accounted for.” Criminal werewolves were often given a choice between death or a wolf lobotomy, a drug that erased their human mind and kept them in wolf form.
“How can you be sure?” asked Emma. “Even in wolf form, they still have a gene for shifting. It’s just turned off.”
“No, what the warden recorded is due to a retrovirus found only in a few real wolves. What is known as an endogenous retrovirus or junk DNA.”
“So they are working on some sort of wolf human chimera, but with an adult human?”
“Yes, according to our data, even with wolves related to our ancestors, only a fraction carry this rare human retrovirus. And even then, someone needs special lab facilities to find the right wolf junk DNA and then to somehow manipulate it to cause the change in a human.”
“We know of a secret lab that created fierce dogmen,” said Rylee.
“The tissue sample I have indicates the lab created dogmen from dogs and human DNA. They never shift and always remain dogmen,” explained Dr. Becker.
“How many packs do you think have this retrovirus?” asked Rylee.
“We looked into that question. We traced a single ancestral pack with the retrovirus that migrated to Siberia long ago.”
Nik wrinkled his nose. “Like the packs in my, as you say, neck of the woods?” There must be at least a hundred throughout Siberia. They would have had to sample dozens. Nik wondered if his pack was originally killed to obtain their DNA. As far as he remembered, the secret squad of killers had massacred three normal packs near his family’s pack. “Siberia is big, where exactly?”
“Eastern Siberia, Verhoyansk Mountain Range.” Jesper turned on the screen and went to the map of the isolated area.
“Inaccessible to most humans,” said Nik mostly to himself.
Dr. Becker nodded. “According to our wolf gene pool data, there might be one or two wolves in that region with the retrovirus. Less than one percent.”
Emma furrowed her brow. “Even if they injected the wolf DNA directly into these men, I don’t understand how that would cause the change?”
Becker nodded. “We are working on determining how this retrovirus switches the shifter gene.”
Rylee turned to Dr. Becker. “So only those wolves have the possibility of being manipulated by some scientist to create a chimera?”
“Earlier this year, Lev brought back blood samples from some of the Siberian packs.”
“What did you find?” asked Emma.
Becker said, “The same retrovirus found in an isolated Eastern Siberian pack, but only a few of the alphas carry it. This human endogenous retrovirus allows the Stallo gene to initiate the change. It may be easier to manipulate it to go from man to wolf. If the pictures give any indication, this process is pure failure when going from human to wolf.”
Rylee turned to Duko. “Is it possible some of the men actually survived the change and were not amongst the dead?”
Duko nodded. “I believe so, madam. I noted an odd residual scent, human and wolf, but not like us.”
Nik furrowed his brow. “Dr. Becker, do you think all the alphas carry the retrovirus?”
“Unlikely. We found this retrovirus to be rare. Finding it in the suspect packs will be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Emma asked, “Is the Verhoyansk pack missing?”
“Only one way to find out,” said Nik.
Emma turned to him. “As in going to Verhoyansk?”
“Yes. Better that I go alone.”
Dr. Becker turned to Rylee, “Is Gaby available?”
Rylee shook her head. “Our wolf charmer and Steele are on a mission in India.”
