Memorial Day was often a day that came as the start of what many considered "summer." By this point, pretty much all the high school and college seniors had graduated, and depending on the length of the school year or the number or length of the breaks for that school year, most undergraduates and underclassmen weren't too far away from seeing the end of the school year. It also brought in some of the additional points of research that Horizon engaged in with regard to Animalian anatomy, strengths, and behaviors and it was seen as a means to have data for how far Animalians could push things and what would also be their health requirements. The big project in that regard would come a little bit later, and was hoping to avoid too much conflict with the IAC.
This namely being the work that would be there on comparing Koji Tomoshita, the herm Mamenchisaurus Dinotopian to Remington and Vera Albers, the male and female Mamenchisaurus Dinotopians. The data on speed, strength, weight, and height was something that would fit with Dr. Ramos's work on using the Dinotopians as a means to present data that could be used improve the hypothesis made on the actual animals they were based on and would help Jeremy fine tune the specific formula for Dinotopians at the Horizon Labs offices in Dino City. But Rex was primarily working state park that sat next to Dino City and Glen Rose, and had also gotten the opportunity to look over some bones that had lead to the publication of reports on a new Tyrannosaurus species. From what had reached Melvin Qvite in the main Horizon Labs offices in Lyre, Rex was more than eager to look over the bones and provide his own take on the earlier published reports. And Jeremy was busy with a lot of his other work and travelling to Ishinowa Island would be difficult to work with that. He was able to contract the work for gathering the data needed to Andrew and his wife Jen Thomas, which would work, as Andrew was among the first Dinotopians, and thus already knew a lot about the sort of testing that was to be done, and Jen could serve as an interpreter for the Albers, who didn't speak or read Japanese.
But that was all something for the future. For the moment, they were dealing with Memorial Day and some of the business that came along with it. Before the success of Animalia, Memorial Day was a day that Horizon generally let its employees have a day off on. It would give their staff and workers the time to honor family members that had served or just enjoy a day off, however, because Animalia had proven to be such a big success, Horizon offered special Memorial Day deals and reduced prices for veterans. They technically applied to any US veteran, but were often aimed at veterans who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan and lost limbs or suffered some major war related injury that essentially ended their active service. The conversion would heal the physical wounds, and every year, there would be a few that became Animalians under that deal, and Melvin Qvite was glad to give that sort of benefit to America's heroes. And while some of that was still going on this Memorial Day, not all of it was.
"May I ask why you're refusing this?" said an irate looking man in a black suit with an American flag on his lapel.
Behind him stood two individuals. One was a man with the left side of his face badly scarred, having lost the lower part of his left arm, and his entire left leg. He wore a military, and clearly Russian military dress uniform along with a series medals on his chest. Beside him was a Russian diplomat. The soldier was quiet as he leaned on a crutch, and was likely a result either a drone strike, an artillery shell explosion, or a landmine. It was, however, the diplomat that looked the most irate, and this in turn likely angered the US State Department official.
"For one, no paperwork has been provided regarding an understanding the animal's natural behavior and instincts," Melvin answered, "we thus have no way of knowing what he knows..."
"Are you saying we do not know habits of Russian Brown Bear?" the diplomat growled.
"First, there is no Russian Brown Bear subspecies," Melvin answered, "there are several Brown Bear subspecies that live across the vast land area of your country. None of them are named "Russian." Second, we are required by law in the US to make sure that ANYONE wanting to become an Animalian knows the behaviors and instincts of the animal in question. Thus preventing incidents where a new Animalian is overwhelmed by animal instinct and acts in a way that your officers might not want."
Melvin then turned back to the State Department official.
"And you've sold that we've give this soldier, and up to a hundred others, conversions into the same animal, the Eurasian Brown Bear," Melvin continued, "and at the Memorial Day discount price."
"He is a soldier, that is not a problem," the State Department official shrugged.
"He is a RUSSIAN soldier," Melvin replied, "and one that I would image that his Commissar here will want to return to Russia with him... likely to take part in Russia's war in Ukraine."
"It is only fair," the Russian diplomat answered, "you favored aggression against Russia and Nazism for the past four years. Now that you are on the RIGHT side of history and favoring RUSSIA'S RIGHT to RULE over ALL of the "Leninist" creation that is "Ukraine," that you give us EXACTLY what we want. If not, YOU will face consequences. Either from us or from your government, who RIGHTFULLY RULES over YOU."
Melvin could see the obvious threat there. He glanced over to see the State Department official's eyes looking almost as stern, and indicating that there didn't seem to be any intent to defend American norms. Not wanting to provoke an international incident, Melvin kept his voice as calm as he could.
"The president and his administration may govern, but our businesses are not State owned," Melvin answered, "and what laws we would have to follow would follow within reason. That requires us to require written proof that your soldiers understand things... But they also give us the freedom to run our business as we see fit."
"And you would reject the request of your strongest ally?" the Russian diplomat demanded, "you've worked with our scientists before. That included various American companies supporting our plan for the Mammoth Steppe."
"To protect Horizon's PRIVATE interests, yes," Melvin answered, "we are NOT a state entity and would like to make sure that things like the Animalia Virus are not weaponized against the innocent. To assure that the Animalians you want actually WANT to be Animalians, in protection of their INDIVIDUAL rights. If you cannot do that... then there is a problem that would make your government seem dishonest with regard to its own intentions. Something that was a fundamental problem that contributed to why we are not working with your project to rebuild the Mammoth Steppe in Siberia. A project, that to my knowledge, your government has also paused due to the resource requirements caused by your country's war of aggression against Ukraine."
The Russian diplomat glared angrily, "this will not be forgotten."
He then turned and the Russian soldier quietly followed, his crutch clicking on the tile floor. The State Department official didn't move with them immediately, but kept his eye on Melvin. After a moment he then spoke.
"We'll see you in court," was all the State Department official said and then hurried after the Russians.
Melvin quietly followed the man to the door of his office and watched them leave. He sighed heavily. Things were reasonably difficult the last time the present president was in office, and that included efforts to play into a scheme by North Korea to likely produce Animalian super soldiers. But back then, the administration was at least willing to follow many of the rules that had been set for Horizon to follow so far as Human to Animalian conversions were concerned. That was something that actually saw the North Korean agent defect to Japan and South Korea after 2020 and kept the Animalia Virus out of the hands of those that would potentially use it as a biological weapon. Now however, it seemed as though the new/old president was far more willing to brute force his way through things, and supporting Russian geopolitical ambitions at times seemed to be one of them. He'd seen occasional random statements on the news of criticism of Russian actions, but nothing that would force the Russians to back away and nothing that would support Ukraine. Melvin also followed the efforts to go after political enemies, of which he could likely count himself as one of them now.
He only returned to his office and shut the door. He quietly went to the window and looked out to see a Bloodhound and Falcon Animalian coming out and into the parking lot that his office overlooked, both likely veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq who had only just converted to heal their bodies and silently wondered if all that had been done, had been done in vain and the freedom for which so many Americans had died was, itself, dying.