Rob Ransone

The Spy Who Was Part Snake and Part Dog Rob Ransone

When Richmond, Virginia, freelance newspaper reporters Charlie Johnson and Sheila Miles stumble onto a strange traffic victim who has no fingerprints and is part man, part dog, and part snake, they find themselves involved in a top-secret U. S. Government project to develop super spies for the Counter Intelligence Agencies. A brilliant DNA scientist in a secret laboratory in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, west of Charlottesville, is splicing the genes of various animals into humans to develop keen senses of hearing, seeing, heat sensing, swimming, and strength. Charlie and Sheila eventually find the elusive Dr. Frederick Morganthau and initially pledge support, but when Sheila tries to take matters into her own hands, they find themselves helplessly in danger. The story discusses the technology and ethics of gene splicing. Rob Ransone, an aeronautical engineer and former U. S. Government official, has held all of the top-secret clearances described in the story, and has made the various actions and procedures authentic. The scariest part of the whole story is that, although it is fiction, it is not "science fiction"-It is completely within the current state-of-the-art.