'He could do what the enclave wanted and bring it to their attention that Trisk's donor virus was not the savior to their species it looked to be, prove that other avenues of research shouldn't be shut down.' Before he sabotages her work, though, he plans to steal it for himself. Then, the enclave sends him to Global Genetics to double-check Trisk's sabotage of her human colleague's tactical virus, which the other Inderlander groups (e.g., werewolves, vampires) fear will kill their members if Trisk has made any mistakes in her calculations.Īt first, Kal is furious at being pulled away from his own research, but being the soulless, unethical man that he is, Kal eventually comes to view this as a perfect opportunity to sabotage Trisk's work and ruin her reputation. Meanwhile, Kal's research is not going well at all, and he is on the verge of getting dumped. At this point, the plot thickens when a vampire becomes the new CEO of Global Genetics. At first, Trisk is disappointed to be forced to live and work in the human world, but then she realizes that, 'On paper, being forced to work outside of an elven lab was a harsh punishment, but in reality, she'd be doing what she enjoyed, what she was good at, and working someplace where she could make a difference.' She will actually have more freedom and power there than she would in the male-dominated Inderlander world.Įventually, Trisk creates the Angel tomato, a true-breeding plant that can stand up to drought conditions and is on the verge of solving the world's hunger problem. Surprisingly, a high-ranking member of the elven enclave asks Trisk to infiltrate Global Genetics, a human-run genetics research laboratory in California so that she can keep the enclave informed of any unusual developments, particularly if the humans develop any tactical viruses that could injure or kill Inderlanders. Although Kal instigated the argument, he is humiliated and angrily blames everything on Trisk, generating a grudge against her that will lead him to do some very dark things. After a magic-filled confrontation with Trisk, Kal loses his job bid with NASA and is forced to take a lesser position.

Hotter Than Hell by Kim Harrison