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CHAPTER 094

The overheadlights came on in the autopsy room, bank after bank. It made a dramatic opening shot, Gorevitch thought. The figure in the lab coat was distinguished-looking in a severe way: silver hair, wire-rim glasses. He was the internationally renowned primate anatomist Jorg Erickson.

Using a handheld camera, Gorevitch said, “Dr. Erickson, what are we doing today?”

“We are examining a world-famous specimen, the putative talking orangutan of Indonesia. This animal is said to have spoken in at least two languages. Well, we shall see.”

Dr. Erickson turned to the steel table, where the carcass was draped in a white cloth. He pulled the cloth away with a flourish. “This is a sub-adult or juvenilePongo abelii, a Sumatran orangutan, distinguished by its smaller size from the Borneo orangutan. This specimen is male, approximately three years of age, in apparent good health, with no external scars or injuries…All right, now we begin.” He picked up a scalpel.

“With a midsagittal incision, I expose the anterior musculature of the throat and pharynx. Note the superior and inferior belly of the omohyoid, and here, the sternohyoid…Hmmm.” Erickson was bent over the animal’s neck. Gorevitch found it difficult to maneuver for a shot.

“What do you see, Professor?”

“I am looking now at the stylohyoid and the cricothyroid muscles, here, and here…And this is quite interesting. Ordinarily in Pongo we find the anterior musculature poorly developed, and lacking the fine motor control of the human speech apparatus. But this creature appears to be a transitional case, bearing some features of the classic pongid pharynx, and some features more characteristic of the human neck. Notice the sternocleidomastoid…”

Gorevitch thought, Sternocleidomastoid. Jesus. They would have to dub in a voice-over. “Professor, perhaps you could say it in English?”

“No, the terms are Latin, I don’t know the translation-”

“I mean, can you explain in layman’s terms? For our viewers?”

“Ah, of course. All these superficial muscles, most of which attach to the hyoid-that is to say, the Adam’s apple-these muscles are more human than ape-like.”

“What could account for that?”

“Some mutation, obviously.”

“And the rest of the animal? Is it more human, as well?”

“I have not seen the rest of the animal,” Erickson said severely. “But we will get there, in due time. I shall be especially interested to inspect any rotation of the axis of the foramen magnum, and of course the depth and arrangement of sulci of the motor cortex, to the extent that gray matter has been preserved.”

“Do you expect to find human-like changes in the brain?”

“Frankly, no. I do not,” Erickson said. He turned his attention to the top of the skull, running his gloved hands over the sparse hair of the orang’s scalp, feeling the bones beneath. “You see, in this animal, parietal bones slope inward, toward the top of the cranium. That is a classic pongid or chimp finding. Whereas humans have bulging parietal bones. The top of their heads are wider than the bottom.”

Erickson stepped back from the table. Gorevitch said, “So you are saying this animal is a mixture of human and ape?”

“No,” Erickson said. “This is an ape. It is an aberrant ape, to be sure. But it is merely an ape.”

For Immediate Release

John B. “Jack” Watson,world-famous philanthropist and founder of the Watson Investment Group, died today in Shanghai, China. Mr. Watson was internationally lauded for his charitable work and his efforts on behalf of the poor and downtrodden of the world. Mr. Watson had been ill for only a short time, but he suffered from an extremely aggressive form of cancer. He checked into a private Shanghai clinic and died three days later. He is mourned by friends and colleagues around the world.