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Janis had witnessed a steady urban surge that left open spaces like KBR Park a premium afforded by only the more affluent neighborhoods. The rising promise of available jobs in sprouting tech industries had made the city of Hyderabad a mecca for the young, the industrious, the opportunistic.
    Time had sped by and this year, Alyssa became a teenager. More than a decade ago, Janis arrived in India with a newborn and painful memories of a brief marriage. She clung to the chance to do important work, to understand the bio-mechanisms of life and aging. In actuality, now it seemed more likely she had come to the other side of the world to escape an ethos and lifestyle that clashed with her youthful idealism.
    In the decade since, those fires of altruism had been tamped down by the reality she watched taking shape around her. Maddeningly, everyone in her adopted home increasingly wanted what she had run away from. What was once a second world settlement had metamorphosed into a burgeoning city of four million consumers, eerily remote-controlled in many ways by an unquenchable desire for development, progress, and a higher standard of living.
    It had been all too easy to watch what was happening and recoil with righteous contempt. Signs of contagion abounded. Everywhere could be seen the virulent symptoms of the disease – cell phone towers, sky-high stacks of corporate cubicles, an insatiable lust to consume and become affluent, the oppressive metastasizing of a mass-produced, global culture taking root, ever more oppressive in its hypnotic insistence to be noticed and define the priorities of life for all.
    In many ways, local life had turned into a dreamlike but kitschy reality show whose theme song might feature ancient Hindu and Islamic prayers set to a hip-hop beat. The purist in her reviled the worst parts of it. But now, awakening self-doubt overshadowed her. Rooted in the horror felt at the pace of transformation around her, she had to face a tacit hypocrisy. Strolling through her posh neighborhood, made comparatively rich by the esoteric high-tech arts of genetics, who was she to cast aspersions on the progressive changes enveloping the developing world?
    Aged beyond her all-too-easy militancy of youth, Janis could now confront the enemy within. Admittedly, there were undeniable benefits to the encroachment of self-labeled progress that surrounded her. She only had to look to her daily routine to find ample examples, conveniences she wouldn’t want to be without. No longer was it a surprise that those tainted benefits fed into the best and worst of a predictable, universal, and unchanging human nature – even at the cost of Nature herself.
    What had she learned in her youth? Ideologues at the Ivy League college had taught her that the American Dream was conjured up by oppressors and exploiters. Pragmatists at USAMRIID had taught her that the rule makers abided by no moralistic convention or measure of restraint. Despite international agreements, the insect politics of expediency and self-interest would prevail. “Dual-use” bio-security projects ensured that anything studied for defense in the light of day would easily find offensive applications under the deep cover of sanctimonious night.
    The last couple of days had taught her that nothing, no one was safe or secure.
    “Hello?” crackled in one ear.
    The familiar voice was discordant to her thoughts yet salve for the soul.
    “Mom?”
    “It’s so good to hear you.”
    “You too. I called a little while back but I guess you weren’t up yet.”
    “I was up. I took a walk to the lake. Just got back. It’s a beautiful morning. Crisp but clear.”
    “How’s the snow?”
    “Not bad. Roger came by yesterday and plowed a path to the road. I didn’t need the snow blower done around the house – not deep enough for that. What about you? How are you holding up?”
    “OK. I’m still not sure about Alyssa.”
    “Don’t worry. It’ll take time. Like I said the