But it was critical that the dose be maintained. Initially, large quantities of the plant would be needed to ensure sufficient reovirus to effect the bodily change.Once the transformation was complete, the plant need be consumed only in small quantities, supplemented of course by other proteins. The climax of their ceremonials was undoubtedly the induction of a new creature-the force-feeding of the plant to the unwilling human victim. The cult would have centered around the plant itself, its cultivation and harvesting. Chances are, the Kothoga only kept one of the creatures around at a time-more than that would be too dangerous. The creatures kept the enemies of the Kothoga at bay-yet they themselves were a constant threat to their masters. The plants were a curse that was simultaneously hated and needed. Kawakita could now visualize parts of the Kothoga's secret religion. Mbwun-the word the Kothoga used for the wonderful, terrible plant, and for the creatures those who ate it became. And then he had asked for the intermediate form. Kawakita had placed human DNA on one side and the reovirus DNA on the other. And the proof lay within his grasp: his extrapolation program. The creature, the Museum Beast, He Who Walks On All Fours, was Whittlesey.
Kawakita remembered clearly the day everything came together for him. By eating the fibers and becoming infected with the reovirus, Whittlesey had turned into Mbwun. But Kawakita had already discovered his miracle. Everyone knew that the darkest, most isolated areas of rain forest held undiscovered plants of almost inconceivable importance to science. In sufficient quantities, it had the power to induce morphological change of an astonishing nature. Chances are, it had existed relatively unchanged since the Mesozoic era. The reovirus in the plant was astonishing.
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