Endemic

Endemic,
A new Novel by Donald Fritsche 

A retrovirus integrated into the human jaw 315,000 years ago. It built language. It built hierarchy. It is still running. And it is not finished.
When paleoanthropologist Dr. Maren Solís discovers an 800-year transition zone at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco — archaic mandibular morphology below, modern above, nothing between — she knows the standard model of human cognitive evolution is wrong. When geneticist Dr. Nina Reyes sequences an ancient viral element present in every mandibular specimen at the site and finds it actively transcribed in every living human donor in her biobank, she knows she has found the mechanism. When podcast researcher Marco Telles maps the virus’s expression gradient against 4,000 years of documented social hierarchy and finds a correlation that cannot be coincidental, he knows the finding is bigger than science. And when WHO epidemiologist Dr. Adaeze Obi identifies a global vaccination mandate targeting the same genomic sequences — administered without disclosure to 62 countries — she knows someone has known all of this for a very long time.
The four researchers have eleven days before the mandate achieves irreversible coverage. They have a paper to write, a Habsburg archive to crack open, and a Council of dynastic descendants who have been managing this knowledge for 300 years — and who are no longer willing to stay silent.
Available on Amazon

Spoken word, male, British accent, no music