Lemuria by Burt Clinchandhill (most popular novels of all time .txt) 📗

five,” Amie said, followed by a click and silence.

De Cremonese looked at his phone for a second. Weird.

***

“Let me explain,” Mulder said. “Lea, show me map E1, please.”

“Just a moment.” Lea appeared on the screen for a moment, followed by a map of the world.

“You see those red dots?” Mulder moved his laser pointer over the screen from Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela in South America to the Congo in Africa and India. “Any ideas?”

“Not yet.”

“Each of those red dots represents uncontacted people—indigenous people or tribes—that have lived in isolation all their lives and never had any contact with modern men or women. There are over a hundred.”

Jennifer nodded slowly.

“You see where I’m going with this?”

“I think so,” Jennifer answered. “It’s assumed that our evolution more or less stopped because there are no more real challenges. Those isolated tribes, however, still face those challenges we did thousands of years ago.”

“Exactly,” Mulder confirmed. “So, if you want to observe evolution in actual progress, where better to look for it than....”

“Sure.” Jennifer curled one corner of her mouth. “But what would you look for, and how would you do that in a non-evasive way?”

“There are ways, and we’ve been doing it.” Mulder pushed a key on the keyboard, and on the screen, a handful of red dots turned green. “Those are the first five locations where we started our study over two years ago.”

Jennifer leaned back again, her hands palms up in front of her. “How?”

“As I said, we’ve developed procedures. Basically, we observe and, when possible, take samples from feces and other trash wherever we can find it without interfering.”

“I gather this isn’t public knowledge?”

“It isn’t,” Mulder agreed. “Although we have permits in place at the local official communities, I’ve also decided not to go public with any of this at the time.”

“Why not?”

“To be honest, there simply would be too much debate, too much negative publicity. That would slow down my progress and have a negative impact on my other endeavors.”

“And that would have a negative influence on your commercial activities.”

Mulder smiled. “I like your directness. And, of course, you’re right. But it’s also simple. Without my commercial activities, I wouldn’t be able to do my research.”

Mulder’s words sounded sincere, yet she felt uneasy, a discomfort she couldn’t describe to herself. “All right, I understand,” she said after a short silence. “But why tell me?”

“There’s one more thing you need to know. I told you we assumed evolution in modern men has come to a standstill.”

Jennifer nodded again.

“Look at this.” On the big screen, the image changed to a cross-section of a brain with small parts lit up alternately in green, blue and red.

“You see?” Mulder asked. “This is an MRI cross-section of a brain of a person who is asleep. All the glowing parts come from a geodesic sensor net’s overlay. They are brain cells that fire up when this person has a dream. Without dreaming, we wouldn’t see many colors.”

“A net like the one I was wearing in the hospital?” Jennifer asked.

“Same thing.”

“Okay, go on.” Jennifer looked at her watch.

“You need to be somewhere?”

“No,” Jennifer said, opening her hands. “Please go on.”

“I’m sorry. But it’s a lot of information, so please hang on for a few moments longer.” He pointed the laser pointer at the screen again. “You see this here, the structure just below the frontal lobe, on top of the nasal cavity?” He pointed to two small green glowing stripes straight between the eyes.

“What’s that?” Jennifer asked curiously.

“That’s a good question. One that had many medical professionals stumped for some time now. You see, that part of the brain shouldn’t be lit up. It never did before. In humans, that is. In animals—like dogs, monkeys and snakes—however, it’s quite different. It’s called the vomeronasal organ, or VNO. An accessory olfactory organ. It was first discovered in the seventeenth century by Dutchman Frederik Ruysch, but it’s more associated with Danish surgeon Ludwig Jacobson, who described the structure in mammals a century later, and gave it its popular name, the Jacobson’s organ.”

“What does it do?”

“That’s an even better question, and one that’s been up for debate with scientists for many years. In humans, it’s kind of like an appendix of the brain. It’s there but doesn’t seem to do anything. Not anymore, that is. Or, that’s what we thought until this brain scan showed the organ lit up like a Christmas tree. But generally, in humans, the VNO lacks sensory neurons and nerve fibers. At some point, the genes coding the receptor proteins and ionic channels mutated and made it nonfunctional in humans. In animals, however, the VNO is functional and secretes the hormone gonadotropin. This hormone plays a role in the formation of social and sexual behavior.”

“They smell attraction?”

“It’s always hard to ask animals, but it’s generally believed that animals use the VNO to communicate things like readiness for sexual activity, how they feel, aggression and territoriality. They call that chemoreception.”

“So essentially, it’s a form of communication without talking?”

“Yes.” Mulder clapped his hands. “I believe it’s precisely that. And that would also explain why it’s nonfunctional in humans. We humans have learned to communicate in many other ways. We have gestures, speech and writing, so somewhere during evolution, our Jacobson’s organ shut down.” Mulder’s face brightened, and his eyes shined. “Wouldn’t it be something if we could get back some of our primordial instincts and capabilities? Could that possibly help us to start evolving again?”

“Big questions,” Jennifer concluded. “And what about the person on the scan? Is he showing signs of chemoreception?”

Mulder took a deep breath. “I don’t know. You tell me?”

Jennifer’s face contorted as she felt a shiver start in her neck, move through her shoulders, then rolled down her spine, all the way down to her toes.

Mulder simply shook his head. “I’m sorry.” He paused for a moment. “But, if I am really truthful, I have to admit I am not.”

“Not what?” Jennifer asked, still getting her thoughts together.

“I’m not sorry. I mean, you agreed to