Fatalis

Chapter Fifty-Four

"There's something I need to understand," Hannah said. Grand was behind the wheel of his SUV. The helicopter had placed Hannah and Grand back near the campsite. Wet and exhausted, they'd climbed into Grand's car and headed down from the mountains toward Hannah's apartment. The heat was on full and the windows were open, keeping them warm and awake for the half-hour ride.

"Cryogenesis," she went on. "How has that kept these animals alive until today?"

"I honestly don't know," Grand said.

"But that has to be how it happened. They couldn't have been living underground."

"I don't see how," Grand said.

Hannah was amazed that after all she'd been through she had the energy to get revved up about this.

"But there are a lot of problems with cryogenesis," Grand went on. "As you said, glaciation didn't reach this far south," Grand said. "Even if it had, simple freezing wouldn't have done the job."

"Why not? Remember those three Incan children who were found a couple of years ago, twenty-two thousand feet up an Argentine volcano?"

"Mount Llullaillaco."

"That's the one," she said. "Those kids were sacrificed five hundred years ago and freeze-dried by the climate. When they were discovered there was still blood in their hearts and lungs."

"They were also dead," Grand said.

"The children were dead before they were frozen," Hannah said. "What if they'd been alive when that happened?"

"Then all of their biological systems would have stopped immediately," Grand acknowledged.

"And preserved?"

"Theoretically."

"Which is what happens in cryogenics."

"True," Grand said, "but there's a big difference between preservation and successful reconstitution."

"I know," Hannah replied. "But first things first. Biological entities have a very high chance of surviving cryogenics and being revived if their systems contain glycerol-related oils and fats. Those compounds can be added to a specimen or they can be inherent, part of a diet. Typically, a diet that includes fish."

Grand glanced at her. "Another article?"

Hannah nodded. "About a local company that freezes donor embryos," she said. "As we know, the saber-toothed tigers like fish. But they could have gotten the substances from any number of animals. Back to my point about the Incan kids. At some time in the past, after they were frozen, one of those kids was hit by lightning. Despite having been dead and freeze-dried, there were signs of biological activity where the lightning had struck."

"I read about that, but it was extremely limited activity," Grand pointed out. "There was some cellular growth but not the full-scale metabolism we're seeing here."

"Yes, but maybe conditions were different in some way," Hannah said. "Some significant way that we're missing. Let's go through them."

Grand was tired but Hannah wanted to push him. Not just because she was curious and not just because she'd have an article to file in the morning. They were obviously missing something that would explain the reemergence of the cats and she wanted to know what that something was.

"We've had an incredible amount of rain and lightning over the past few weeks which could be a factor in some way," Hannah said. "What else? Give me words. Ideas. Anything."

"All right," Grand said. "I found the fur in what was apparently a volcanic vent."

"Volcanoes," Hannah said. "Intense heat. Could that have played a part in this?"

"Possibly."

"Things in Pompey were preserved by ash and pumice."

"Again, not alive," Grand said. "But you mentioned something a minute ago that wasn't entirely accurate yet may have something to do with this."

"What?"

"You said the kids in Argentina were freeze-dried. They weren't," Grand said. "They were frozen."

"What's the difference?"

"Freezing is intense cold," Grand said. "Freeze-drying is intense cold followed immediately by a exposure to a complete vacuum. That one-two hit preserves the object in its frozen state, but without ice. Then the object, whether it's coffee or fruit, can be restored by adding water."

"Which makes it easier to store or ship than something that's frozen," Hannah said. "Okay. What does that have to do with our situation?"

"You asked how the saber-tooths were preserved," Grand went on. "They wouldn't have been exposed to a vacuum but they might have been exposed to intense heat, which can have the same desiccating effect. When anything is burned, the water content vaporizes first, then the vessel itself disintegrates. But I wonder what would have happened if the biological matter were preserved in the nanosecond before the heat destroyed the shell."

"You mean the water is evaporated but the heat dies before the animal does?" Hannah asked.

"Yes."

"Is that possible?"

"In theory."

"That doesn't help us."

"It might," Grand said. "One of the reasons scientists have always assumed there was no volcanism in Southern California is because we don't have calderas here-volcanic craters. But I saw volcanic vents down there. So there definitely was lava flow."

"So you're saying-what?"

"Vents without calderas. That means the eruptions occurred somewhere else. Somewhere there might also be glaciation. Intense heat, intense cold. The one-two punch."

They fell silent. Hannah felt like her body had been mugged; she was suddenly very aware of the warmth from the heater, the heaviness of her arms, and the weight of her eyelids.

"Are you thinking?" Hannah asked.

Grand said he was.

"Good. Because my brain just shut down."

"Hannah, are you on line back at the apartment?"

"Yes. Why?"

"There's something I want to check," he said urgently. "Something that may explain the cats and a painting I saw."