Jerry Kaczmarowski
released his latest novel Sapient in
April 2015. It is available for sale on Amazon in eBook
and paperback.
Genres: Thriller / Young Adult
Abandoned by her husband after the
birth of their child, Jane Dixon’s world is defined by her autistic son and the
research she does to find a cure for his condition. She knows her work on
animal intelligence may hold the key. She also knows that the research will
take decades to complete. None of it will ultimately benefit her son.
All that changes when a lab rat named
Einstein demonstrates that he can read and write. Just as her research yields
results, the U.S. government discovers her program. The army wants to harness
her research for its military potential. The CDC wants to shut her down
completely. The implications of animal intelligence are too dangerous,
particularly when the previously inert virus proves to be highly contagious.
She steals the virus to cure her son,
but the government discovers the theft. She must now escape to Canada before
the authorities can replace her son’s mental prison with a physical one.
Praise for
Sapient:
“The
plot is fast-paced, thought provoking, funny at times, and kept me reading to
find out what would happen next. I think that the YA audience will love it.” - Dana Bjornstad
“I
loved this story and I especially liked its animal characters - Einstein the
lab rat with the keen sense of humor and Bear, the one-eyed German Shepherd dog
who seems to always be the butt of Einstein's jokes. And the human characters
aren't half bad either.” - Cheryl Stout
“A timeless, engrossing and perfectly-paced
techno thriller about the promise – and fear – of modern medical science.” - Best Thrillers
Chapter
1
A young research assistant poked his head
through the laboratory door and said, “We’re heading out to grab some beers.
Want to join us?”
Dr. Jane Dixon brushed aside a strand of dark
hair that had fallen from her ponytail. She waved the offer off without turning
to face him and gave a curt, “Too much work.” I need to get out of here at a
decent time to see Robbie, or I’m going to need to find a new nanny.
“Come on, Dr. Dixon. One quick drink. It’s
Friday.”
She sighed and faced him, removing her
dark-rimmed glasses. “How about a rain check?” She gave the younger man her
best smile, but Jane knew she sounded insincere.
“Sure, a rain check.” The research assistant
gave a perfunctory nod and let the door swing shut. Jane wouldn’t receive another
invitation anytime soon, which was fine with her.
She put her hands in the small of her back and
stretched, yielding a satisfying pop. Not for the first time, she congratulated
herself on the regularity of her yoga workouts. They were one of the few distractions
she permitted herself. With forty in the not-too- distant future, it was one
distraction she couldn’t afford to forgo. She pulled her stool closer to her
computer and checked her maze for the final time. She chuckled to herself.
After all her years of education, she was reduced to playing video games with
rodents. Using a virtual maze allowed her to create a level of complexity
unrealistic with traditional animal intelligence testing.
Jane walked into an adjoining room with rows of
cages where her subjects spent most of their day. She approached a cage adorned
with a garish blue first-place ribbon. Her assistant had put it on the door as
a joke. At first, it migrated back and forth as different rats outperformed
others. For the past two months, it hadn’t moved.
She opened the cage and made a coaxing motion.
“Come here, Einstein.” A fat, white rat dashed out the door onto her hand and
scrambled up her right shoulder. His neon-blue eyes gave off an icy
intelligence. The change in eye color was one of many side effects of her tests
Jane still couldn’t explain. The rat whipped its tail into her hair for
balance, hopping from paw to paw.
“Settle down, boy,” she said. She carried
Einstein back into the lab with its virtual maze and extended her hand. He
raced down her arm to the large trackball and made little jumps in anticipation
of the race. As Jane clamped him gently into the metal rig that held him in
place, he stopped jumping. Einstein differed from the other rats—he never
struggled when Jane locked him in place. The other rats fought against the
harness, making it difficult to complete the test preparations.
A two-dimensional overview of a simple maze
flashed on the screen. Without hesitating, Einstein rolled through the maze on
his trackball, completing the challenge in seconds.
“Too easy,” Jane said. “You don’t even deserve a
prize.” Despite this, she stroked the rat’s head and gave him a small piece of
cheese. Einstein snapped it up in his front paws. As soon as he devoured it, he
pulled against his harness and chattered at Jane.
“Relax, big fella.” She tapped on her keyboard
to reconfigure the course before bending down to eye level with Einstein. “Now
the real challenge begins.” He stared into her sea- green eyes. The small
rodent had the intense focus of a fighter about to get in the ring.
A second maze flashed on the screen. There was a
straightforward solution that was long and twisting. A second solution existed,
but so far, none of the rats had figured it out. The second path had two tiny
virtual teleportation pads. If the rats stepped onto one of the pads, they were
transported to a corresponding location in a different part of the maze. For
this test, the pads would save precious seconds.
“Go,” Jane shouted, starting the timer. Einstein
didn’t budge. Instead, he looked back and forth between the obvious path and
the first teleportation pad.
“Clock’s ticking,” Jane said to herself in
frustration.
Einstein shrieked as he noticed the decreasing
progress bar. A tentative paw step forward cleared the maze overview and put
him in a six-inch-high virtual hallway. He waddled straight to the
teleportation pad but stopped short. He turned his gaze to Jane as his whiskers
moved back and forth, up and down. Jane stared back, willing him to make the
right move.
The rat rolled forward on his trackball across
the pad. The screen flashed, and he teleported to within a few steps of the
exit. With a final glance at Jane, he spun through the gate with twenty seconds
left on the clock.
Jane clapped her hands. “You did it.” She
reached toward him. He clambered up her arm, slower now that he was out of the
virtual world. She gave him a piece of cheese and returned him to the steel
table.
“Impressive,” she said to the empty room. At
times like this she wished someone could appreciate her triumphs. Her coworkers
were at the bar. And Robbie? Robbie is Robbie. The warm smile of a mother
flitted across her face as she thought about her son.
Einstein broke her reverie as he scratched and
clawed at an iPad on the table. “It’s like having a second child,” Jane sighed
to herself. She obliged Einstein’s pestering by starting an old episode of
Sesame Street. The classic show was his favorite. Most other children’s programming
bored him. His second-favorite genre was as far from the Children’s Television
Workshop gang as you could get. One of Jane’s more unsavory assistants had
decided to play Rated R comedies on the screen in the evening when the animals
were alone in their cages. The crass movies entertained Einstein for hours
despite the fact he couldn’t understand any of them.
Jane’s mobile phone vibrated. A message from her
nanny read, “WHERE R U!!!” She glanced at the time in the lower right of her
screen and gave a sharp intake of breath. I did it again, she chided herself.
“Leaving now. Sorry.” She almost typed a sad
face emoticon but caught herself. It wouldn’t be well received. She pushed Send
and dropped the phone on the lab table. She pounded the results of today’s
tests into her computer, not bothering to correct spelling errors as she raced
to enter her observations while they were still fresh.
The phone buzzed again. Jane gritted her teeth
at the unnecessary back-and-forth. These nastygrams would only delay her
departure. She reached for the phone in frustration, but Einstein was perched
over it, staring at the screen. She nudged the little rodent back and set her
jaw as she read the text.
The screen read, “Who is Einstein?” As she
struggled to make sense of the nanny’s text, her eyes scanned back to the
previous outbound message. She juggled her phone, almost dropping it on the
floor.
The screen read, “I am Einstein.”
Jerry
Kaczmarowski lives in Seattle with his family. He writes techno-thrillers
that explore the benefits and dangers of mankind's scientific advancement. His
first book, Moon
Rising, was released in June
2014. His second book, Sapient, was published in
April 2015.
Jerry
spent the first twenty years of his professional life in the consulting industry
on the West Coast. His fascination with technology is matched
only by his love of stories. His books intertwine action with a keen insight
into how technology will shape our lives in the coming years.
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