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aspects. Remember, we're in the Bible Belt. Once the story breaks,
we'll draw all kinds of hellfire and damnation from preachers, and
not just locally.
And you think it will break, don't you? Masters asked, looking
directly into Tyrone Beamer's eyes.
I do. I think we should wait before doing anything, but in the
meantime, watch those agents. And we need to start bringing more of
our people into the loop. Also, we need to co-opt someone real good
with the net, so we can publicize our good points, and raise hell with
the government for investigating us.
Fred looked around the table at the others then spoke up, directing
his question to Beamer. Tyrone, we all discovered this thing
independently, except for Charlie. How in hell do we know who is one
of us and who isn't? Have you discovered some sort of a marker,
maybe?
No, but some habits of the ones we want to contact are common
knowledge. Take Judge Myers. Remember the hoorah in the Capitol
when he ruled against us being forced to use state Textbooks? And we
all have friends that we know who share similar lifestyles. Just be
discreet. Let's try to gather some names but not let them in on the fact
that there is a council of sorts and that we're still trying to figure out
what to do; not to mention that I'm still studying the nature of what
we are.
All of the council members knew that Beamer had been investigating
the phenomenon for some time, trying to discover just what was
responsible for making Masterville a city akin to no other that they
knew of.
Have you discovered anything conclusive yet? Jones asked.
I'm getting closer, I think. Eric's library records and Eileen's old
ledgers from the courthouse are helping. And speaking of, I'm not
going to return them to you any time soon. There's no sense making
life any easier for the NSA than we have to.
So what have you found out so far? Jones asked the question they
all wanted the answer to.
It's going slow, but it is beginning to look like our particular group
originated back in Scotland several centuries ago. I have several
genealogists and historians working on it, but none of them know
what the others are up to. I'm correlating the data myself, or rather
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Gina is. He gave his assistant a fond smile. A lot of this is still
theory, but here's what we think. It turns out that a number of
reclusive clans in the highlands of Scotland thought of themselves as
different from their neighbors. They never converted to
Protestantism because they were never Christians to begin with,
though-and I'm guessing here-they probably pretended, just to keep
the peace. Then they were given a rather hard time during the
reformation, which is when authorities first became aware of them.
Some of them went into hiding. Some were executed, some probably
pretended to convert. A goodly number migrated to America. From
the east coast, they scattered in different directions, still trying to get
away from abusive neighbors. One group eventually settled in this
valley and managed to live in peace. There was some intermarriage
outside the group, but not too much. What generally happened was
that the men who couldn't find a woman who suited them left the
valley. That's normal, of course and happens anywhere.
What makes us different is that most of the time, when the men
found themselves a woman to love, they moved back to the valley,
among their own kind. During the twentieth century, women also
went looking and they, too, moved back here when they could
convince their husbands. Nowadays, some of us simply keep homes in
the valley as vacation spots and secondary residences. However, their
roots are here and their friends and family are here, and I expect
most of them will retire here, or move back as soon as they can afford
to.
There's something else that's extremely interesting and that will
probably give the spooks fits: I've been collecting specimens from a
couple of doctors and from the hospital lab and running genetic scans
on them. I've compared them to a base population from random
samples from other areas of the country. So far, I've found no
difference in the DNA of us and other humans.
Charlie screwed up his face as if he had bitten down on something
sour. Isn't that sort of unethical, Tyrone? Doing genetic scans on
people without their permission?
Not really, Charlie. I make damn certain that I don't know whose
DNA I'm working with. The samples are given to me without labels.
It's completely blind, but I had to do something to get a base of sorts
from around here, and another from outside. I thought for sure they
would show some differences, but so far as DNA goes, we're as
normal, so to speak, as the preacher up the road or the crook in
prison. It's a damn puzzle. He paused in contemplation for a
moment then continued. That's good in a way. There are bound to be
more people like us scattered around the country, but the feds won't
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have any way to identify them.
They identified us, Fred said.
That's because we're concentrated. But let me get back to the
genetics of the thing for a moment. I can't find any genetic differences
between us and others, but I doubt that we all derive from just those
clans from Scotland; Eileen here proves that.
Slow down, Tyrone. Some of my ancestors were white, as should be
obvious. I could have inherited the gene from them.
If I had found a gene. So far I haven't. I'm speculating here, I'll
admit that, but I'm willing to bet that there are others like us, maybe
in this country, maybe in others, especially since the immigrants from
Scotland didn't all settle in one spot.
Eric Buffer got up for more coffee. From the side of the room, he
stood and sipped at it. Haven't I read that scientists have decided
that environment plays a big role in the expression of genes? Maybe
that's what's happening, something in the environment here.
Beamer shook his head. What you say is true, but even if not
expressed, the genes are still there, and I repeat; our gene pattern is
as normal as anyone else's, so far as we can tell.
Buffer wouldn't let it go so quickly. Well, if you say so, but suppose
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