Darwin’s Radio

Darwin’s Radio
Greg Bear

A terrifying disease, or the next step in human evolution? Three scientists must battle to find the truth in this heart-stopping technothriller.Mitch Rafelson makes a major discovery high in the Alps – the preserved bodies of a Neanderthal family with a human child.Kaye Lang investigates a mass grave in the Caucasus – the bodies are mutated.Christopher Dicken tracks a mysterious flu-like disease that causes pregnant women to miscarry.Together, these three scientists discover that so-called junk genes, dormant in our DNA for millions of years, are waking up. A signal from Darwin’s radio has triggered the next step in human evolution.The women who miscarry become inexplicably pregnant again. However, this time they are carriers of Homo sapiens novus. But there is mass panic, official denial, draconian measures against the terrible ‘disease’. Only Mitch, Kaye and Dicken can solve the evolutionary puzzle that will determine the future of the human race, if a future exists at all.

DARWIN’S RADIO

Greg Bear

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_eea51712-0268-5d87-8250-6725e1684899)

HarperCollinsPublishers 77–85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1999

Copyright © Greg Bear 1999

The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780006511380

Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007369256

Version: 2014–08–05

DEDICATION (#ulink_5e2d5e08-6b77-51bd-82e6-9fc08d6caa9a)

For My Mother,

WILMA MERRIMAN BEAR

1915–1997

CONTENTS

Cover (#u35ef15b4-d69e-5b60-a6ac-3d9de58592e1)

Title Page (#u1ffd5465-6418-54bf-88f9-7e02a0766fa8)

Copyright (#u4d3e4d54-bc27-57cd-9dcd-3ee6cd4ae990)

Dedication (#uc1641fc8-8f6d-5e9a-a45f-570a054f767d)

Part One: Herod’s Winter (#u30843e6d-b2d0-5d84-8ae3-8cd46405efd8)

Chapter One: The Alps, near the Austrian Border with Italy August (#ud5044027-545d-5f6c-8103-238f25f87f37)

Chapter Two: Republic of Georgia (#ue8a6524e-0edb-5477-a3c3-e0eaf51f5e01)

Chapter Three (#u684bad8d-be84-5d53-93ff-62ece332b991)

Chapter Four: Gordi (#u49a8bdce-813c-5fe2-a0e2-4d56e7d15663)

Chapter Five: Innsbruck, Austria (#u92dac5be-d31e-5e67-b7da-7bffcb1dbe44)

Chapter Six: Eliava Phage Institute, Tbilisi (#u319060ce-92cc-544e-b0fb-fad5d2811ef1)

Chapter Seven: New York (#u0a88a66d-bafd-5906-aa12-bfac4efbd27e)

Chapter Eight: Long Island, New York (#u6bafe046-fc03-5d6e-b39b-4e69892984e5)

Chapter Nine: Manhattan (#ue34853e9-2fd4-5874-bb30-6ad38a3393ea)

Chapter Ten (#u82e25730-e152-5efc-9d1d-ad40b822ebc7)

Chapter Eleven (#ubfdb4b6a-a1aa-541d-824e-7eae9c1ee13a)

Chapter Twelve: Atlanta, 1600 Clifton Road: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention September (#ubefd4b28-b7bb-5c69-beba-62dc52ee46d7)

Chapter Thirteen (#u64525fe5-5bbf-5db4-8b11-f703ced468ae)

Chapter Fourteen: Atlanta, Georgia October (#ub4c28f33-4d91-592f-a245-deacd83e2481)

Chapter Fifteen: Boston (#u6fdede5c-de53-52a7-8197-b1651dc6ab1d)

Chapter Sixteen: Innsbruck, Austria (#ubab9437a-f904-525e-aaaa-c2a382361446)

Chapter Seventeen: Long Island (#u44e8aec6-1221-5bf2-bffc-14a65d55b5b1)

Chapter Eighteen: Atlanta, the CDC (#uc1bb68a2-1537-5267-aaa8-49c2bd8abafb)

Chapter Nineteen: Long Island (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty: London (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-One: Washington, DC (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Three: Atlanta, the CDC (#litres_trial_promo)