It turned out that Brennan Prate was right. Pigeons, with their flairs for logistical thinking, made excellent project managers. The scientists, or government officials, or whoever was in charge of figuring out such things, had in fact discovered aptitudes among all the animals who had transmogrified into human form. It amazed me how fast this knowledge bled into the culture that was rapidly changing around us; it soon felt as if we had always known which blomers were good at what, from the very first day of pullulation. Gophers, for example, had a propensity for courage and a sense of duty and thus were conscripted into the military. Dogs, we learned, possessed great physical stamina and strength, and soon went to work on a million construction projects launched in a thousand cities aroun
