September 8th, 2027

David stared at the final page in Darrow’s pamphlet of blasphemy, trying to keep his eyes on both the road and the words before him. He couldn’t believe what he was reading. For a moment he completely forgot he was driving and simply looked at the words, as if burning a hole into them with his eyes would suddenly make them disappear.

That insane, maniacal, sociopathic little . . . What was he thinking?

David had read the papers three times in the past seven minutes alone, driving the entire time he was reading—his hyperactive mind allowed him to focus on both at the same time—but each time his brain shut down after reading the last page. He simply couldn’t believe it.

Darrow had done it. He’d proven evolution. No theory, no hypotheticals; he’d put the nail in the coffin and left no possible alternative.

Well, technically he hadn’t yet. Tomorrow, if he received approval from the federal government, he most certainly would. And if they didn’t approve of it, no doubt someone else would. China, perhaps. Russia even. Any of the majority atheist nations.

The U.S. was neutral, as far as the government was concerned. Though the nation had been started on Biblical principles, those principles were outdated when faced with thousands of other cultures with thousands of other religions. Equality was what mattered now, and the government couldn’t endorse one side of the evolution debate without appearing intolerant of the other.

Even if one could be proven and the other couldn’t.

That would all change soon. Tomorrow, in fact, if Darrow went ahead with his plans to announce his findings at a public engagement just outside the college. SLU was accommodating of him, of course, as they were of David, but they still wanted the money from both sides of the debate. If one side won over the other, there wouldn’t be a need to fund any more research. In the interest of protecting their income, the board couldn’t endorse or deny Darrow.

But that mattered little, because his backers would all be there to praise his glorious accomplishments. Even representatives from the president himself would be there to hear Darrow’s announcements and, if they sensed enough credibility in his research, they would send the word along to the president. Then the real crisis would begin.

David swerved the black Mitsubishi in order to stay between the double yellow lines and the single white one. If there was one thing that demanded his full concentration, it was a single man’s sudden ability to prove the impossible after so many failed attempts—an impossibility which, by the way, defied the very essence of David’s belief system.

There was, however, the fact that Darrow’s tests had yet to be performed. They looked good on paper, but without solid evidence he really had nothing but a plan and a machine. That was the one good thing about it.

A horn sounded off behind David, and it was only then that he realized he was doing far under the speed limit. Thankful for the reminder, David returned his attention to the road and saw that he was only a few seconds away from his turn-off. The blinker flipped on and David slowed to allow for a smooth turn onto the bumpy concrete.

The Providence Manors apartment complex may have been essentially a deceptively-named ghetto, but it was David’s home, and he welcomed the sight of that luxurious sign outside the main office. It was a far more comforting sight that the white paper speckled with black words of defamation.

David banked a right, then one final turn to the left, and he was right outside his own apartment building. He decided as he grabbed the papers and shoved them in his bag that he wasn’t even going to worry about it today. Darrow wouldn’t hold the conference until tomorrow afternoon, which gave David plenty of time to go over the report—he rarely slept thanks to that wonderful curse called insomnia.

Upon opening the door, the 2025 Eclipse slammed itself into park and turned itself off, releasing the keys for David. Technology. Where would anyone be without it?

He slammed the door shut, effectively signaling the car that it should lock itself, and upped the three steps leading to his door in one jump. A second or two fiddling around with the keys, and the large red slab of metal swung in on itself.

Strange. He didn’t remember leaving the light to the living room on.

But this was turning out to be a strange day, and having forgotten something so trivial was the least of David’s worries. The ten-year-old tan settee caught his bag welcomingly, though it allowed the contents to spill. He’d need a new one soon enough.

Couch or bag?

Both.

The apartment was designed to house one person and one person only. The living room, furnished with a couch, Panasonic 54” TV, and a single escritoire, could contain two people comfortably at the most. The kitchen, not even that. A single bedroom that was completely filled by a bed and a bathroom designed for potty-training infants finished out the bachelor pad.

Despite its setbacks, David had made the place home--yes he had painted the walls a deep red himself--and he was proud of it. Especially the TV, though it seemed they were getting bigger every time he went to Wal-Mart.

David threw his keys on the desk, as well as his wallet once he’d retrieved it from his back pocket. Finally the phone, which had been vibrating a hole in his jeans for the past hour at least. Eventually he’d have to answer or call them back, but right now he just wanted to relax. He flung the phone onto his bed, where it could vibrate to its heart’s content.

But there was something wrong with that picture. Upon flinging the most annoying invention to befall mankind, David saw something out of place standing at the doorframe to his bathroom.

A woman.

A gun in her right hand.

His sister.

That couldn’t be right. Miri certainly wouldn’t come here, and especially not with a gun. He was hallucinating. The stress from Darrow’s confrontation and research was causing him to see things that weren’t there.

That’s what his psych training told him, anyway. His eyes told him a completely different story. A story of a woman with long blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. Yellow blouse under a black suit coat. Aero jeans that set off long, thin legs.

Blue eyes hiding under a two hundred dollar pair of Aviators. The same blue eyes David had.

But it was impossible. He was kidding himself, transposing Miri’s image onto another woman or making her up entirely. She would have never come back--in fact, David had had to track her down to get in touch two years ago. She wouldn’t come back. He knew that because he wouldn’t were he in her shoes.

Trying to persuade himself that this woman who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere wasn’t his sister was too easy. Almost a little sad really, considering all the evidence that she was, in fact, there.

But she was there, transposed image or conjuration of his mind or the actual living, breathing Miranda. She had the same old look of Miri that David always remembered: serious yet nonchalant yet playful all in one. The same eyes that screamed she was a trustworthy and respectable person.

The same sister he’d always known, real or not.

She removed her Aviators and an exchange occurred that might be experienced by two best friends who hadn’t seen each other in ten years. It hadn’t been nearly that long, but it might as well have been. He didn’t even remember the last time they’d talked on the phone.

David stood there like an idiot, not knowing what to say to a sister who he was supposed to be on perfectly good terms with.

And the gun! What was Miri doing with a gun? Now that he thought about it, how had she found him? Broken into his apartment without unlocking the door? Entered the bathroom without coming out gagging?

Admittedly, the last one was the plumber’s fault, but still. She couldn’t be there.

But she was, and her voice confirmed it. “Hi David.”

That was it. This was David’s older sister, because something registered in his mind whenever she spoke that screamed out her reality. He wasn’t hallucinating and he hadn’t imagined that another woman was Miri. This was her.

“What are you doing here?” David asked, mentally kicking himself as soon as he did. He didn’t want to sound unhappy, but the facts were the facts. Neither one of them were good at keeping up relationships of any kind because of whatever had screwed them up in the past. The fact that Miri was here said that she’d either dealt with those problems or something important had happened.

“I . . .” she started, but paused as if she was at a loss for words. Perhaps she was. He certainly was. But David couldn’t believe that about Miri. She’d always been the outgoing older sister, and if she’d temporarily lost the natural extrovert in her, something was seriously wrong.

David realized he’d been rude, though, and he didn’t have the right to psychoanalyze his sister. “I’m sorry, that didn’t come out the way I meant it.”

And there it was, the sister he knew. She cracked a smile--a genuine smile because David hadn’t been much for apologies when she left--and David saw her as she was for the first time. Instead of seeing a businesswoman who looked like his sister holding a gun, he saw Miri as he always remembered her: a teenage girl who would put her brother before anything in life.

That was the sister he loved, and now that she was here a whole new world of possibility spun through David’s mind. Miri had come back, which meant she was sorry for being so distant.

And if she was sorry, so was David.

“You never were good at beating around the bush,” Miri said with a smile. It was true, of course. David never saw the point in hiding anything, even if it wasn’t necessarily considered appropriate to voice some things. If anyone would be used to that part of him, it was her, seeing as this childhood knack of his had left him a loner for most of his youth.

Now, an esteemed creationist scientist at a semi-prestigious college, he was surprised it had slipped out so easily.

“I guess you’re right,” he agreed, smiling along with Miri. “I’m glad you’re back, Miri.”

The statement somewhat happily surprised her, and she closed the distance between them in two strides--the apartment really was that small. She slipped her arms around him and squeezed tight.

“It’s good to be back, little brother.”

When she was satisfied that she’d hugged him long enough, Miri let David go and looked him over, grinning happily. He regretted not wearing his usual dress shirt and tie, but he also knew that Miri wasn’t the kind of person who cared about how well-dressed David was. At the very least she had to think his hair was an improvement--he’d cut it short and let it return to its normal brown since seeing her last. He probably looked more like a preppy college kid than a punk.

“You look good,” Miri said.

“So do you. But I hope you don’t mind me saying it’s just a bit weird that you’re in my apartment with a gun.”

Miri lifted the thing to look at it. “Well I guess you caught me on that one.”

“And I guess that means you didn’t take a security position at the bank.”

She laughed. “Not exactly. I got bored handling people’s checks and working out their deposit forms for them. All you need to get into the FBI is a bachelor’s degree and the smarts to catch criminals, so I went to their field office in Denver.”

David’s brain blacked out on him. For a second, he could’ve sworn Miri had just said she was an FBI agent and a tidal wave of conspiracy theories battered him against a mental rock wall, all of them having something to do with his sister being in his apartment with a gun. Did the FBI plan to kill him now that Darrow had finally come up with his long-sought-after proof? Were they really going to use David’s estranged sister to get close to him and assassinate him?

Then the smart part of his brain kicked in, and he realized these thoughts were ridiculous. She was joking. Had to be. But then if this was all a prank, how did she get her hands on a gun? David could see it was real because he himself had one quite similar tucked under the console in his car.

“You’re serious?” David asked, even though he could see she most certainly was.

“Beats giving money to deadbeats and rich snobs. Now most of the time I get to throw them in jail.”

She was being funny, naturally, because she saw that David was having trouble believing her. He didn’t see any of the common physiological tells of a lie, but he also couldn’t believe that Miri would get through the FBI Academy and not even tell her brother about it for two years.

Then again, they hadn’t exactly been on speaking terms until now.

“Sorry,” David said quickly, knowing his frown was much too obvious. “It’s just . . . a lot to take in.”

Miri nodded understandingly. “I thought it would be. Look, David . . . I know I haven’t exactly been in touch for a while . . .”

David nodded, understanding immediately. There was such subtle guilt in Miri’s voice and a sadness David was familiar with. Whether it was their obstinacy or their fear of trust, neither had put nearly the effort into maintaining their relationship as they should have. David was just as guilty as Miri.

“It’s okay, Miri,” he said, stopping her before she tried to continue any further. “I could’ve picked up the phone too. I don’t know why I never did but . . . I should have.”

Miri nodded as well, averting her gaze for a moment to hide the water dotting her eyes. David wasn’t sure what it was about their family, but no one ever liked to wear their heart on their sleeve. Some believe that showing emotion is a sign of weakness and in certain cases David believed it was true, but in situations like this he thought family should be as open as possible with each other. Easier said than done, of course, when you’ve got twenty years of stubbornness and trust issues on your mind.

Even so, David knew there was really only one thing he could do. He leaned in close and hugged Miri tight. A miniscule attempt at recovery, but they had to start somewhere.

When they pulled away Miri chuckled and dabbed at her eyes. “And here I thought being a fed was supposed to make me tough.”

David joined her in the laugh. “Everyone has to be weak at some point, Miri. Happens to the best of us.”

“Thanks, David. I wasn’t sure that coming back here . . . well I thought maybe it would go a different way. I’m glad it didn’t.”

“So am I, sis. Although I have to say, if you had made a less dramatic appearance I would not have held it against you in the slightest.”

David’s sarcasm got a genuine laugh out of Miri. “Yeah sorry for the whole cloak and dagger thing. My boss was really concerned about being secretive while I’m on assignment.”

Assignment? “So you really are working for the FBI.” Though it was intended as a question it came out as more of a statement of surprise.

“Yeah I am,” Miri said, reaching for something on her waist. “Got the badge and gun to prove it. You can spot a fake, can’t you, smarty?”

In fact he could. Miri had been joking, naturally, but in college David had considered going into criminal justice himself and was halfway through getting his degree in criminal law when he realized science and psychology were his true passions. He’d been taught by a retired CIA agent how to spot the telltale signs of a fake law enforcement badge, along with quite a few other things he probably shouldn’t have learned.

When Miri held out the badge for her brother to inspect, he saw that it was quite genuine. The alphanumeric sequence was up-to-date with current Bureau security standards, the seal was obviously authentic, and Miri’s picture definitely hadn’t been photo-copied onto an actual badge.

That was it then. She was telling the truth. David had little doubt, of course. He knew Miri was no liar. He just had to get past the initial shock of realizing that his sister—the same girl who used to play with Barbie dolls and string them from the ceiling to make them angels—was now an FBI agent.

“Good enough?” Miri asked, a curious smile on her face.

David nodded and shook his head at the same time. “Hard to believe, but good enough. Congratulations. Now I guess I have someone to get me out of all those speeding tickets right?”

It got a decent laugh out of Miri. “Sorry kiddo. Can’t work much magic there.”

“Oh come on, what’s the point in being able to carry a gun if you can’t threaten people once in a while?”

David said it with a smile and thought it was obvious that he was joking, but Miri’s face darkened a shade. She tried to hide it by laughing weakly, but for David even a split second of emotion was too easy to read. Something about carrying the weapon disturbed her, and that reality brought to mind David’s previous concerns regarding why his sister was in his apartment with a lethal weapon. The first thought to cross his mind was that he was in danger, and the resulting question nagged him even more. Was Miri there to protect him, or just the opposite? After all, the American government wasn’t afraid to use force on what it perceived as a threat.

But then, how could David possibly be seen as a threat apart from his ominous driving habits? He was an Average Joe in every way really, aside from the fact that he was one of the leading creationists in the country.

A strange thought occurred to him. What if the government was on Darrow’s side and wanted to silence David? Were they really so vindictive that they would send his sister to assassinate him?

So paranoid and absorbed in his own thoughts had David become that he didn’t even hear Miri until she spoke a second time.

“David?” she asked. “You all right?”

When a man has to question whether or not his sister has been sent by the government to kill him because of a conspiracy theory, answering such a simple question becomes a very hard thing to do. So with all the sincerity and calmness he could fake, David turned to his sister. “Yeah, fine. Just surprised to see you, you know? Especially now that you’re a Fed and probably rolling in money.”

She scoffed at that. “Yeah, loads of money on my end.”

The question still nagged at David. Miri had said she was here on an assignment. What possible assignment could she be on that required her to break into her brother’s house with gun in hand as if she were on a SWAT raid of some cartel warehouse? Small talk seemed irrelevant when there was obviously something untoward about Miri’s sudden appearance. David was thrilled, of course; astounded that he and Miri had seemingly begun working things out in the space of five minutes. However, his mind wouldn’t do him the courtesy of setting his suspicions aside. He had to ask.

“So, you’re on assignment?” It was the only thing he could think of without being too obvious. “Anything you can talk about or is it some black ops thing?”

Miri smiled. “No, that’s more the CIA’s line of work. Actually, you’re not going to believe this, but . . .” She trailed off, turning to enter David’s living room and rubbing her forehead. “My boss sent me here because of you. Because you’re close to Mark Darrow.”

David’s mind spun. He had to do a mental triple-take just to make sure he’d heard Miri correctly. The FBI had sent Miri—who David had only just now learned was working for the FBI—to reconnect with her brother because of his college professor? Absurd didn’t even begin to describe such an implausible idea.

But on second thought, it made sense. Darrow was attempting to fundamentally change the scientific community and essentially the world at large. If his experiment truly proved evolution—and all the data seemed to support this theory—there would no longer be any question. It would cause outrage among those who still held to the core doctrines of Christianity, followed undoubtedly by riots and total chaos. A man is most dangerous when his belief in an ideal is shattered right in front of him. Naturally the government would want to avert such a thing. That was the most logical choice, considering that they had come to David instead of going directly to Darrow.

“What does the FBI want with Darrow?” David asked, eager to test his new theory.

Miri shrugged. “Honestly, I think it’s just a wild goose chase. Apparently the president got word from one of his advisors that something big is happening in relation to this evolutionary research.”

“So big they needed to send the FBI to investigate it?”

“That’s all I know. The boss knows about your proximity to Darrow and my relation to you, so he sent me here to investigate Darrow’s research. See if there’s anything in there other than a science experiment.”

David struggled to make sense of what Miri was saying. “What, does the government think Darrow’s some kind of criminal? A domestic terrorist? He’s just a scientist. As much as I may dislike him for making my life harder he’s hardly the kind of person the FBI should be hunting down.”

“I’m assuming that’s why they sent me here,” Miri said, her eyebrows raised. She knew as little as David did on the matter. “I’m probably just as in the dark as you are. I guess they were hoping you would know something we don’t or that you could give us some insight into what Darrow’s working on. Like I said, I’m sure it’s nothing, they just want to make sure of that before this thing starts gaining traction.”

There was one massive coincidence if David had ever seen one. Darrow had literally just handed David his research papers, who just happened to have a sister who just happened to secretly be working for the FBI who just happened to suspect Darrow of foul play. God really did have a sense of humor after all, and David couldn’t suppress a slight chuckle.

“What?” Miri asked, completely oblivious to the massive set of unbelievable circumstances that had landed them in this situation.

David didn’t respond except a quick look in Miri’s eyes before walking back to his couch and grabbing his bag. The papers were right where he’d left them and as he turned to face Miri he saw her eyes were glued to them.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“Everything Darrow has on his research is right here,” David replied, allowing Miri to snatch the papers for herself and begin combing through them. “Well, I’m sure not everything, but whatever’s necessary to prove his theories.”

Miri stood there bemused for a moment, unsure of whether she’d just been handed an olive branch or a time bomb. Either one wasn’t quite what she was expecting no doubt. “How did you get this?”

“He uh . . . he gave it to me.”

“He just handed you his research without a care in the world as to what you could do with it?”

“It’s like I said, Miri, I don’t understand any of this. If Darrow does have something bad in mind for his work he certainly has an odd way of going about it. The man’s a genius, he wouldn’t just hand over research that could be used for some sinister purpose. Although, he also didn’t realize that my sister is a Fed.”

“If he did we would have a much bigger problem,” Miri said, still rifling through the paperwork. “So I’m going to feel stupid for asking, but what exactly is this? I made it through basic biology but this is way beyond anything I’ve ever seen.”

David smirked at that. There were only a handful of people in the world who had ever seen such a thing, and an even smaller amount that could understand it. He gave Miri credit simply for trying.

“It’s recorded experiment theories and notes on a process that can essentially prove evolution. His only problem is getting permission to test this process on human subjects.”

“And could that harm them?”

“It could devolve them. They’d be returned to humanity afterwards, of course. So unless Darrow plans to devolve the entire world into monkey savages—which don’t get me wrong actually sounds like something he’d do—I don’t think there’s much of a case here.”

Miri sighed and slumped to the couch, still scanning through the papers attempting to make sense of them. “A little less sarcasm here would go a long way, David. This is pretty serious.”

Well so was the fact that she was an FBI agent who wanted David’s help to gather evidence on a possible terrorist professor at Saint Louis University, but you didn’t hear him complaining. He wondered why that was. His sister had just come to him with the most absurd idea in the history of absurdity and he’d gulped it all down with only ten seconds of protesting. Any normal man would need convincing, but no, David implicitly trusted Miri and believed in the craziest thing to hit his fan in a long time.

Maybe it was the fact that Darrow was about to prove evolution. Maybe David wanted to believe it because if it were true then Darrow’s work would never be taken seriously. For the briefest of seconds as David sat next to Miri on the couch he was tempted to think that he really had made this up, Miri and all, but he also knew he wasn’t insane.

Which meant that this wasn’t just a coincidence, and somehow David’s subconscious mind had already found the truth and accepted it.

Darrow had a weapon.

It was all speculation, naturally. Just because the device could be converted into a weapon didn’t mean Darrow would actually use it as such. But the government didn’t just allow private citizens to own weapons of mass destruction—assuming that’s what it was—hence Miranda. Apparently even the slightest speculation of danger was enough to mobilize the federal government to drastic measures.

“You’re right,” David admitted, if only to lessen the tension in the room. Apparently Miri was fully convinced of Darrow’s intent to use his research for some unknown destructive purpose, and seeing as this would go a long way to discrediting his reputation, David decided there could be no harm in entertaining the possibility.

Time to save the world from his college professor.

“So,” Miri continued as if their exchange hadn’t even occurred. “There’s nothing in here that we could use against Darrow?”

David chuckled. “Depends on your definition. I can explain everything if you’ve got about ten hours and a strong will to stay awake. Otherwise this is going to put you to sleep.”

Miri shrugged and handed him the papers. “I’ve got all the time in the world. Show me.”