11

The six doctor-agents were working in their operation room. The smell had been reduced, but it was still quite bad. Bad enough to make the six of them wear some kind of gas-masks. The creature was remarkable. It had no reproductive organs, and the only opening it had was a large hole in what might seem like a face. No eyes, no nose, no ears. And the hole had long, sharp teeth. Five on the top and six at the bottom. It had arms and legs. But its arms had no hands and no fingers, and its legs had no feet and no toes. Well, you could say it had hands and feet, but it was simply a sharp knife-like extension on the arm. Its skin was smooth and very cold. Its colour was a sort of mix between dark brown and olive green. Whatever it was, the creature was extraordinary. If it hadn’t been for Kanwar running over it. Because some parts of the creature had been flattened, but luckily no vital parks. Just one arm and both legs. But painful enough to kill it. Upon opening up the creature’s torso, the men came across something quite overwhelming. There were barely any organs inside it. Just something that could presumably be a liver, something else that seemed to be a stomach, and that’s it. Some other little bits and pieces, and of course a heart. And there was no blood there. The blood was limited to the few veins and arteries. Tzanev carefully removed the organs one by one, revealing more and more extraordinary information. Meanwhile, Shah and Kostov were trying to access the creature’s brain which Murthy and Kanwar would study. Khalili was studying the organs that Tzanev was removing. Another amazing thing about this creature was that it had no bones. Instead, it had strange tubes of jelly that would fill up in order to give support, like those blow-whistles that you get at parties. You blow into them and they fill with air and stick out, and then when you stop, they come back, loose. Because of this, the creature needed no muscles. Just powerful gland-like organs that would generate jelly and fill the tubes at an amazing speed. This was indeed a masterpiece. No creature known to man has been crafted so ingeniously. This most definitely had to be the work of a god from another world. Seeing without eyes. Hearing without ears. Moving without muscles. Standing without bones. It was marvellous. The six of them were dazzled by this creature. None of them could talk, they just wanted to operate and find out as much as possible about this creature. Suddenly, Khalili finally spoke.

‘I just came to realise something. Do you remember those talons we found?’

‘Yeah,’ Shah replied.

‘Well how come this creature has no talons?’

‘You’re right, and that can only mean two things…’ Kanwar said. ‘Either there are two different species, or maybe talons come later, or this creature has got talons and now lost them – perhaps with old age. And maybe that’s why this creature was clumsily running across the road.’

‘Yes. But we can be sure by further investigating this body. We must look for glands or organs or anything likely to produce talons, or something that would let us know if talons have ever existed, or would have existed,’ Tzanev said.

‘And also, we wouldn’t want to forget to check this DNA and see if any human DNA type can be found – remember about the DNA fusion?’ Kanwar said.

‘But what if this particular creature did not kill anyone. What if only other ones have done it?’ Murthy asked.

‘Well, we did find blood on his, shall I say, hands, which –after being tested – I found out it belonged to a human,’ Shah said.

‘And look what we have here,’ Khalili called, taking something out of the stomach that he was examining. ‘It looks like a human eyeball. That furthermore proves that this guy wasn’t innocent.’

‘Well only testing, checking, operating, and working, working, and working will tell us everything. We should continue working as we were. Soon all the little pieces will fall together and we will have a crystal clear explanation for anything and everything,’ Kostov declared. They hoped what Kostov said would turn out to be true. Khalili had now had the creature’s lungs before him. Actually, the creature’s lung, not lungs. It had only one lung, which was a strange purplish colour. Khalili opened up this lung and examined the air sacs – but surprisingly, there were no air sacs, just emptiness. The lung was just a big air sac on its own. What a strange creature. A very good use of space and mass. Meanwhile, Kostov examined the inside of the hands and feet, hoping to solve the talon mystery.

‘I’ve just thought of something,’ Shah cried suddenly. ‘What if the thing which we think is a talon is actually not a talon and just something else? You know, some sort of tooth it expels into its victim…?’

‘Perhaps. That’s a good thought,’ Kanwar said. ‘Why don’t I examine the mouth and throat and see what I can get?’

‘Okeydokey,’ Murthy called.

‘Man, I swear. After this operation, well should I say after we solve um… the talon mystery and all the shit that  newly emerged within the process of the operation, I’m gonna take a vacation,’ Tzanev exclaimed.

Tzanev was right. After the operation, the group discovered several facts. Some were startling while others shocking. But all of them were worth the suffering.