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The man wearing flannel pajamas snorted. "Keller, if you had a sense of humor I'd be laughing. Since you don't, you must have cracked up." He carefully placed the manila folder, brown with age, on the table next to the Veldt china coffee cup which he picked up, taking a gulp of the hot liquid..

Keller looked back impassively. As always, the President's Assistant Undersecretary of Scientific Intelligence was wearing an immaculate but drab suit with his tie perfect. "I assure you, Mister President, this is unfortunately true," he replied in his flat monotone.

The President of the United States put the coffee cup down, sending some of the brown liquid sloshing into the saucer. "Nazi scientists. Genetic experiments in the 1950's. All you need is flying saucers and aliens from outer space. You aren't going to tell me those are real, too?"

Keller considered for a moment, then decided to leave that file for another time. "Mister President, during the Truman administration certain experiments were continued. At the time, it seemed prudent in case the Soviets were..."

A busboy brought in a cart, serving the two men breakfast. After he left, President Hall opened the folder and looked at the contents, then closed it again. "Suppose you tell me the details."

It was all in the folder, but Keller knew that the President preferred to have the information summarized. "In 1947, Doctor Hans Zange was asked by the OSS to continue certain genetic research he had started during the Second World War. He was.."

The President interrupted. "Zange was a war criminal. Wasn't he convicted and executed?"

"The OSS felt his research had merit, falsified his execution and gave him a new identity."

"So much for morality. Then what?"

Keller patiently continued. "Zenge had a theory that it was possible to create an underlying set of DNA in humans that could be triggered later. His experiments continued through the 1950's, and eventually six hundred and seventy two test subjects were created."

"Created? Test subjects? By god, Keller, I hope you mean lab rats."

"No, Mister President." The Undersecretary shifted uncomfortably, picking up a fork and pushing the scrambled eggs around on his plate. "Two thousand women were given injections under the guise of a war on poverty wellness program. Of these, seven hundred forty eventually became pregnant, and six hundred seventy two gave birth."

"So what was this genetic stuff - what did it do?" Hall prodded. He glanced up, making sure none of the White House staff were in the room.

With a specific question, Keller regained his composure. "Given a specific chemical trigger, the underlying DNA would become active and rewrite the test subject's base DNA. Over a period of approximately two weeks, the test subject would regenerate into another creature."

"This is idiotic." Hall tossed the file across the table, sending several documents spilling out. "It could not possibly work."

Keller took off his glasses and began to wipe them with a White House napkin. "I assure you, Mister President, it did. In 1962, seventy of the tests were... completed."

"I don't like the sound of that, Keller."

"Seventy children aged three months to five years were given the chemical trigger. Eight died from shock or other unknown factors. The remaining sixty two metamorphosed into animals. Friesian horses, to be specific."

"That's ludicrous. Why would a Nazi.." Hall's words drifted to silence as Keller handed several black and white photographs across the table showing humans in various stages of transformation to equines.

"Zange was very fond of his horse," Keller stated. "Mister President, we have an emerging problem."

"And what is that? What could be worse... than the United States supporting an immoral outrage like this?"

Keller hid his annoyance. The President doesn't understand that some things are necessary to protect the freedom of America. . "The chemical trigger was felt in the 1950's to be impossible or at least unlikely to replicate. When President Nixon found out about the program, he ordered it be terminated. The six hundred fifty four remaining test subjects- several died in accidents- were never informed of their participation in the project, and are leading normal lives."

"What about the sixty two that your freak agency turned into animals?" Hall demanded. "What about them?"

Keller again removed his glasses. "They led normal lives as well, Mister President. As horses." Keller looked at Hall. "Mister President, we are not evil. We did what was necessary to safeguard America and our way of life."

Hall slammed his fist on the table, smashing one of the saucers. "How the hell are you protecting America by turning people into animals?"

The undersecretary was taken aback. "This was only the first step, Mister President. Science needs it's building blocks. You were not told about this project, nor has any other President been told since Nixon except for President Reagan. He understood the reason for this research, to stay ahead of the Communist threat. The rest of you did not need to know."

"So why are you telling me now, Keller?"

"The Chinese."

"The damn Chinese are involved now? How did they find out?"

Keller shook his head. "They didn't. But by coincidence, they stumbled onto the chemical formula for the trigger and are now shipping it to the United States. We have intercepted and banned the shipments, but several hundred thousand of the product got through."

"What product?"

"Candy mints. Mint-O's." Keller handed another file across the table. "A difficult to synthesize chain molecule happens to be an excellent sweetener and preservative. In the 1950's it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to create, but it appears that a Chinese government chemical factory that was built to produce nerve gas was converted to make candy. The equipment is quite sophisticated and capable of synthesizing the molecules needed to trigger the DNA."

"So you have to warn them. Warn the victims of this outrage to not eat candy." Hall pointed his fork at Keller. "Now."

"We cannot, Mister President. Due to funding cuts, we've lost track of some of the test subjects. There's also another issue."

"Another issue. What the hell is this one, Keller?"

"Many of the test subjects now have offspring. We aren't sure of the consequences."

The leader of the free world stared at his eggs and toast, now cold. "You'd damn well better find out."