by gunning down two cops?”
“To protect this secret, yeah, I guess he is. He’s not exactly a
scrupulous man to begin with. And confronted with this opportunity, I
suppose he’ll stretch his scruples even further than usual.”
“Okay. So they developed the technique to prolong life and promote
incredibly rapid healing. Then what?”
Her lovely face had been pale. Now it darkened as if a shadow had
fallen across it, though there was no shadow. “Then… they began
experiments on lab animals.
Primarily white mice.”
Ben sat up straighter in his chair and put the can of Diet Coke aside,
because from Rachael’s demeanor he sensed that she was reaching the crux
of the story.
She paused for a moment to check the dead bolt on the room door, which
opened onto a covered breezeway that flanked the parking lot. The lock
was securely engaged, but after a moment’s hesitation she took one of
the straight-backed chairs from the table, tipped it onto two legs, and
braced it under the doorknob for extra protection.
He was sure she was being overly cautious, treading the edge of
paranoia. On the other hand, he didn’t object.
She returned to the edge of the bed. “They injected the mice, changed
the mice, working with mouse genes instead of human genes, of course,
but applying the same theories and techniques they intended to use to
promote human longevity. And the mice, a short-lived variety, survived
longer… twice as long as usual and still kicking. Then three times as
long . . four times .
and still young. Some mice were subjected to injuries of various
kindsverything from contusions and abrasions to punctures, broken bones,
serious burns-and they healed at a remarkable rate. They recovered and
flourished after their kidneys were virtually destroyed.
“And they did develop it?”
“Yes. Then they needed to positively identify genes associated with
aging and edit them outand develop artificial genetic material for the
virus to carry into the cells. Those new genes would be designed to
halt the aging process and tremendously boost the natural immune system
by cuing the body to produce vastly larger quantities of interferon and
other healing substances. Follow me?”
“Mostly.”
“They even believed they could give the human body the ability to
regenerate ruined tissue, bone, and vital organs.
She still stared out at the night, and she appeared to have gone
pale-not at something she had seen but at the consideration of what she
was slowly revealing to him.
Finally she continued, “Their patents were bringing in a river of money,
a flood. So they spent God knows how many tens of millions, farming out
pieces of the research puzzle to geneticists not in the company, keeping
the work fragmented so no one was likely to realize the true intent of
their efforts. It was like a privately financed equivalent of the
Manhattan Project-and maybe even more secret than the development of the
atomic bomb.”
“Secret. . . because if they succeeded, ihey wanted to keep the
blessing of an extended life span for themselves?”
“Partly, yes.” Letting the drape fall in place, she turned from the
window. “And by holding the secret, by dispensing the blessing only to
whomever they chose-just imagine the power they’d wield. They could
essentially create a long-lived elite master race that owed its
existence to them. And the threat of withholding the gift would be a
bludgeon that could make virtually anyone cooperate with them. I used
to listen to Eric talk about it, and it sounded like nonsense, pipe
dreams, even though I knew he was a genius in his field.”
“Those men in the Cadillac who pursued us and shot the cops-” Lungs
eaten half away by acid fumes were regenerated.
They actually regained their vision after being blinded.
And then…”
Her voice trailed away, and she glanced at the fortified door, then at
the window, lowered her head, closed her eyes.
Ben waited.
Eyes still closed, she said, “Following standard procedure, they killed
some mice and put them aside for dissection and for thorough tissue
tests. Some were killed with injections of airmbolisms. Killed others
with lethal injections of formaldehyde. And there was no question they