The DNActive Research Institute/Thinktank 5 Beachfront Way San Bahama West Indies Derrick Oil, Inc. Office of the Executive Director Wilhelm, East Dakota Dear Sir: First of all, our sympathies for your recent legal troubles. We at the institute believe that we have a solution to your financial dilemma which may prove mutually beneficial. I shall get right to the matter without mincing words. We are now in possession of the means to produce an organic additive to petroleum which will enable the average car to achieve, by our estimates, approximately five hundred and thirty-six miles to the gallon. These estimates are crude and you certainly will wish to run your own tests with the enclosed sample, but no doubt the order of magnitude has gotten your attention. You may well ask why we approach your company rather than one of the major corporations. We believe that our thought process shall be made clear by the end of this correspondence. Obviously we have every reason to believe that the major companies of your industry will attempt to suppress our discovery rather than to begin production, and for this reason we would ask for your absolute discretion at least until such time as any arrangements between us are finalized and production begun. In spite of your size, however, your location is ideally suited to remain overlooked until such time as production is well underway, a customer base established, and the subsequent media attention working to your benefit against your better-resourced rivals. We trust that you appreciate the irony of the media's having this role in revitalizing your corporation, considering your recent past. It must be stressed that the discovery of this additive came about by pure chance. If you have heard of our facility, you will know that we use the latest in gene-identification and splicing technology in an attempt to eliminate various diseases, mainly viral or genetic, which are at present considered incurable. These humanitarian efforts have, as has your own industry, been met with nothing but frustration by the multitude of government agencies which make virtually any business in our native country so impossible these days as regards productivity. Unlike yourselves, our operation is compact enough so that it could be relocated to this Caribbean island well outside the intrusive and hyper-redundant glares of government busybodies. I trust I need not dredge up the tired old stories of the cancer scandal and how many unfortunate victims fell to that pervasive disease during the decade in which the Philadelphia Institute's cure lay idle on the FDA shelves. However, an inattentive perusal of the enclosed videotape would obviously lend itself to misrepresentation, so again we must stress your discretion for the time being. Allow us to talk you through the events you are witnessing. Lest my remarks be considered libelous at some later date, I must stress that the attractive blonde research assistant on the far right, while only in her early twenties, had in fact received not only a medical degree from a certain prestigious east-coast medical university, but also a separate PhD in mutagenic medicinal research. As the tape begins, we have just finished a detailed genetic antigen analysis of the dog on the medical table. I must stress that this operation did not harm the animal in any way, but was only undertaken in the hopes that an analysis of the genes responsible for the production of certain canine antibodies might allow us to treat an obscure disease in homo sapiens. Note that the research assistant in question is not near the dog in any way but is analyzing the readouts which her colleagues are obtaining through their invasive scan. Through an unfortunate blunder of a since-dismissed anesthesiologist, the dog regained consciousness during the operation, and in the resulting confusing one of the examiners bumped into the gene- altering device which was being utilized to make subtle alterations to the canine's endocrine system. The hands you see protruding on the front of the device from offscreen are my own in an awkward attempt to steady the device. I must stress again that this moment could easily be misconstrued, but I believe that a freeze-frame analysis will vindicate my version of events. The only immediate result, apparently, was that the research assistant was knocked unconscious for several minutes. A thorough but ordinary physical revealed no damage, and we did not immediately make the connection that the focusing device on the gene-alterer had been momentarily aimed in her direction. Several days passed before the research assistant, making a stray comment to another, more callow female (the receptionist, not one of our medical personnel), noted that her breasts seemed a little bigger. The receptionist proceeded to spread the story to virtually everyone at the institute in the form of a vicious rumor that the research assistant was pregnant. Because the next crucial scene was conducted in secret, we have no videotape of it to include on the cassette, but what happened is as follows. I must stress that I cannot condone the research assistant's behavior in any way and that she acted without our knowledge or consent. On the philosophical side, it may be noted without libel that even the most intelligent, credentialed woman remains, after all, a woman, with all the unique baggage of her gender. Once again, lest I be misconstrued, I should add that no doubt we males have our own baggage, and were the circumstances reversed - if you understand me - no doubt you or I might be tempted to the sort of furtive activity to which she resorted. The data from the canine's operation and the subsequent accident was all recorded in the computer, though we had not thought to make use of it and had not at this point made the connection to the accident, being persuaded by the rumor that she was indeed pregnant and had been for some time, explaining the resulting breast growth, which was certainly not of observable dimensions... at least while she remained clothed, which is of course the only manner in which we had seen her at that point, the exception in our minds being whichever of our staff stood implicitly accused of fathering her supposed fetus. At all events, she must have spent several days analyzing the data in secret with an end to repeating the operation... obviously to more observable dimensions. The irony of course is that she was not particularly underendowed in the beginning, as the first scene makes evident even through her medical garb, but this is the aforementioned weakness of the female at work again, perhaps. We pick up the videotape in the next sequence, after her furtive operations. You will note that she is quite evidently strapped down and screaming profanities at the researchers who are attempting to reverse the process. Although her remarks have been edited out for decency's sake, I can personally assure you that her ramblings were incoherent and hysterical. These were not the actions of a woman who quite sanely feared the loss of her new breast-size. We certainly would not have attempted to cure such a beneficial side-effect unless there were other, more malignant side-effects which justified the risks of unknown experimentation on a human female. When it was ascertained that she had no contactable next- of-kin, it was decided that the urgency of treatment and her mental condition justified the risks of experimentation. Following a computer model of the projected cause-effect sequence of the gene-alteration, we attempted to undo the genetic damage. Her clothing obviously needed to be removed to the waist for the operation once she was strapped in so that any immediate side-effects could be observed, but apparently in her unstable mental condition she was only capable of understanding the disrobing as some sort of sexual assault, adding to the furious resistance depicted on-screen. One of my colleagues is concerned that her eyes may suggest, in his words, a "look of intelligence", perhaps better termed a "look of sanity", and while I personally see no such "look" myself (I am perhaps biased by the reality of what I witnessed), he wishes it emphasized that she was indeed in urgent need of medical attention due to the side-effects of the endocrine changes upon her brain. We at the institute have nothing against breast enlargement *per se*, and it would no doubt be as financially tempting as was the actual outcome of these events. I must stress that we were experimenting. Gene-alteration is, as you know, a relatively new science and - had she not been driven insane - the research assistant herself might well have gone on to become one of its rising stars, having graduated with honors. (Incidentally, you will note that I do not risk naming her here, but the briefest websearch of graduates and their resumes will allow you to deduce her identity.) As you are undoubtedly aware, the alteration of genes is not an exact science, and even duplicating the procedure would be variable enough, let alone reversing it. We of course knew with a fair degree of certainty the state to which we wished to restore her genes, even though her birth-genotype was not on our records. (Lest I again be misconstrued as disingenuous, I must stress that her furtive duplication of the procedure was a lucky accident. If indeed it was precisely duplicated, for after the initial accident she showed no observable mental deterioration whatsoever. As to trusting the receptionist - since discharged - this too is in the nature of females, especially since they were the only two females in our employ.) As you will observe on the tape, she is eventually sedated and the experimentation begins. As this portion of the tape ends, she is released into a comfortable holding area in which she would be incapable of hurting herself. As the third recorded session clearly indicates, our attempts to reverse the process only succeeded in producing an effective third dose. You will note that she enters wearing only a bathrobe, for she clearly will no longer fit into any of her blouses. It had been suggested that the largest women's brassieres or bikini tops would still fit her, but by this point the receptionist had been discharged and naturally we males modestly declined to go shopping for 40-plus inch apparel. Note that her attempts to resist as she is again disrobed and strapped in clearly speak to her disturbed mental state, now even more pronounced. You yourself may peruse the successive experimentation sessions at your leisure. It must be stressed that in each session, our approach to the problem was once again radically altered, but the same effect always resulted: an increase in breast size. By the fifth session you will note that we no longer need to mute her verbalizations, as she only stares at us quietly and cries. It is doubtful that she was aware of much of anything by this point; at least all self-awareness surely was long gone. You will note that from the fourth session onward, no attempts were made to clothe her at all any longer, and whatever concerns may have remained in her brain certainly did not give priority to modesty. Note that her breasts require physical support from our assistants by this time. From the sixth session onward, you will note that the treatments take place in the holding area where she must now be perpetually restrained - owing to occasional outbursts of relative clarity. By the eighth session she no longer requires restraint, being pinned to the floor by her inhumanly large mammaries, now measured at two feet each in diameter. By the twelfth session her breasts rest comfortably on the floor and she has resorted to standing at all times. Enclosed at the proper point is footage of her sleeping, to illustrate that her only means of relaxation is to lean on her quite immobile breasts. By the fourteenth session you will note that her mammaries have outgrown the comfort of the room and she has been moved to an underground holding arena of considerably greater size. She is by this point, of course, quite incapable of independent movement. Upon moving her, it was decided that the cumbersome ritual of feeding her should give way to a perpetual "feeding tube" kept down her throat at all times, and removed only for our ongoing sessions in which we still attempted to reverse the process. By this point, of course, we had long despaired of restoring her sanity, but the reduction of her body to human dimensions was, of course, the only humane course. After three sessions in the holding arena, we finally abandoned our work awaiting further medical developments. In order to fully support the above testimony, you will note that no attempts are made to censor her speech in the last three sessions. For following a non-verbal period in the treatments (only superficially resembling ordinary despair) she has by the end reverted to inhuman grunts resembling, according to our resident anthropologist, the speech of the early primates. Philological research conducted almost whimsically via the internet by one of our researchers revealed that the oft-muttered word (which you will observe, now comprises most of her vocabulary) "fukual" is remarkably similar to an Indo-European word widely believed to mean "help." Alas, we were of course unable to grant this request, for all attempts to experiment were now undeniably only exacerbating the problem. There was also the concern that further loss of faculties might resort in coma or even brain death. In all events, as our anthropologist observed, this reversion to a long-dead stone age language would undoubtedly cause the re-evaluation of all understood patterns of speech and language development, were you or we less discreet. I must backtrack in order to explain the next level of our understanding of the situation. At first, of course, we had no reason to believe that her bodily secretions would be in any way affected by the transformation, and indeed she was according to all available data a virgin at the time of the accident... at least our examinations revealed with certitude that she has never been pregnant. So we had no cause to study her merely theoretical lactic emissions. Eventually it came to our attention that during her still-fairly desirable phase, one of our ancillary staff (bringing her food and sponge-bathing her) had been abusing her disgracefully. She was certainly penetrated on at least one occasion, but it seems the preferatory form of abuse naturally took the form of breast- fondling. Eventually, he was overheard by our researchers commenting to another member of the ancillary staff saying (in effect) that his oral stimulation of her breasts had finally produced results, but that her milk was increasingly sour after each operation. Both men were immediately dismissed and we made little of this side-effect at the time, though we did of course proceed to study what would otherwise have been her lactose. Only after all experimentation had stopped was the independent observation made that some kind of mechanical milking might at least reduce her discomfort and might even have unforeseen positive side- effects (though no causal connection was ever explicitly formulated) toward reversing the process manually to some degree. And so you will note on the final section of the tape that experimentation has stopped and: (1) The feeding tube is inserted permanently down her throat. It was decided that gravity-feed was most efficient, so the discomfort - if any she is still capable of understanding - of her head being forced up was not considered a sufficient liability, though again this could be misconstrued as inhumane. It has been remarked that unless her head were forced back, she would indeed quickly suffocate on her own breasts barring some sort of breathing apparatus additionally installed... which might indeed malfunction at any time and kill her before we could remove it. (2) Mechanical milking devices have been attached to her massive nipples. She is not milked non-stop but her metabolism (now almost exclusively geared for such production) can support, on the average, about eighteen hours of milking per day. The conflict between humanitarian and practical concerns - preventing further gorging of her breasts - eventually resolved itself on a fourteen hour per day milking schedule. I must also stress that every experimentation in her diet was made to prevent the production of milk, but to little positive effect. It must also be stressed that at this point the term "milk" is a massive misnomer, as will be noted below. At first we were led only by the practical need to answer the question as to how to dispose of her copious secretions. Even on an island as free from intrusive regulation as San Bahama, the disposal of such massive quantities would lead to awkward questions by the authorities... which would ultimately impact negatively not only upon our institute's other studies but upon our ability to care for and hopefully to cure her someday. We are at present undertaking makeshift provisions, but these cannot much longer escape notice. I shall not go into the bizarre details of how it was first discovered that the organic compound now issuing from her breasts could, when combined with gasoline in the proper proportions, improve its fuel-efficiency on the impressive scale described above... except to say that it involved a twisted series of accidental (and here and there almost obscene) occurrences, making the find not only fortuitous but positively miraculous (on the order of Fleming's moldy bread). I can only assure you that we were performing no experiments on the substance's usefulness and would not have dreamed of performing complex theoretical computations on its organic structure. Indeed, we have no such expert on hydrocarbons on staff at the moment, as would surely be necessary. It should in all honesty be noted (lest you find out from other sources later) that exhaustive research has since revealed an obscure (and not well-regarded) Russian scientist who some years ago published an article in an even more obscure Russian journal detailing his belief that a slight change of the genes controlling the female endocrine system would result in "lactic" emissions resembling complex hydrocarbons. Needless to say, we (and the rest of the scientific community, it seems) were totally unaware of his computations. I must stress that his work was entirely theoretical and he seems not even to have possessed a respectable degree of any kind. I bring the matter up only because the internet-journal- system (since encompassing Russia) allows journalists access to even the most obscure and crankish publications and our find could easily be wildly misconstrued. (Certainly the Huxleyan Totalitarianism currently enforced by the Russian state would have pursued his reasoning were it thought at all respectable. A careful study of our humane experiments and his calculations will reveal that the mechanisms involved are only superficially similar, and that it seems his work remains largely discredited in spite of the coincidence. Apparently his incompetence caused a fall from favor and banishment to the Pleasure Gulag, which, it must be noted, remains a remarkably efficient - if ruthless - way of neutralizing intelligent dissidents, since they will shortly not even desire escape.) This coincidence has been belabored enough. We therefore propose the contractualization of the following arrangement: namely, the exportation to your country and company of the substance as a fuel additive, in exchange for 30% of the profits from the process. If this seems a cold and expedient necessity, I should point out that the additional funds will enable us to cure the unfortunate young lady. If we are ever successful, of course, it must be understood that your source will "dry up", so to speak, but by then you will undoubtedly be the world's leading petroleum corporation anyway. Not often do humanitarian concerns and the profit motive so elegantly combine, it should be noted. However, a cure does not seem forthcoming at this time, sadly. Should you agree to this business dealing, please contact our offices within the month and we will negotiate the details. Obviously should the deal take place, we shall be requiring a large influx of clerical staff to handle the exportation; recall that we are mostly scientists. I myself as head of our facility shall take charge of such business dealings, but the day to day running will of course require numerous secretaries. Sadly, our island does not possess young ladies of such competence, being largely a pleasure resort for the very wealthy. Such local women as there are seem interested only in sunning themselves on the beaches and pursuing the steady turnover of wealthy bachelors; I fear even we here in the west are being contaminated by the Russian ideology. However, it is my understanding that your state is at present currently experiencing something of a recession (the matters are perhaps not entirely unrelated, but I shall leave that to the politicians), and American young ladies are notoriously more competent at such clerical duties than our Caribbean breed. If the deal (and the subsequent expansion of our facilities) goes through, we shall be requiring approximately twenty-five women of such competence, not exceeding the basic stenographic skills required in this computer age of business. Such employees would, of course, be required to sever connection with their lives in the states, but their leisure hours would, I think, be comfortable enough, as noted above in this paragraph, and their salaries quite generous to compensate for the inconvenience of their relocations. Please contact our office as soon as possible for the negotiation of all these matters. Sincerely, Director of the DNActive Research Institute/Thinktank P.S. My condolences once again on your recent economically crushing series of sexual harassment lawsuits. But I believe that the arrangement described above will solve both of our (economic) problems.