As Richard lay there, his mind drifted back a half dozen years, to a point just before he met Dr. Stone. Richard had been hired to work at the 341st Medical Group’s Genetic Research Facility at Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls, Montana. It was home to the world’s most advanced genetic engineering laboratories available, and although it was a highly classified testing and research facility, everyone who worked in the field of genetics knew of its existence. Richard worked on phase two of the Human Genome Project under a grant from the Department of Energy. Phase one, the mapping of the entire human genome had been completed decades earlier, but phase two was an ongoing effort to identify mutations in the human genome that were known to cause genetic disorders and diseases. Richard believed that gene therapy was the wave of the future, but the development of treatments was only as effective as the depth of understanding of the genetic mutations that caused the affliction in the first place. Richard felt that his research would lead to novel treatments and reduce human suffering from the more than 10,000 identified genetic disorders.
Across from Richard’s lab was DARPA, the Department of Advanced Research Projects Agency. It was a secretive branch of the military that conducted small-scale clinical trials using performance enhancing pharmaceuticals on soldiers. Sometimes Richard heard the soldiers out in the hallway complaining about the negative side effects of the drugs they had been given. On one occasion, a test subject became violent and had to be carried away in a straight jacket. Richard secretly hoped that the enhancement program would be closed down, but DARPA was persistent. Once their drugs trials came to an end, they searched the fringes of the scientific community in an effort to salvage their faltering program. That’s when Richard saw Dr. Stone for the first time. He was a tall slender man with dark hair, and recessed facial features. Richard could tell by his hawkish stare that he was ambitious and driven. When Richard introduced himself, Dr. Stone feigned an interest in his work, but then quickly changed the subject to his own research. Richard would never forget his haunting statements, “I’m taking the enhancement program in a new direction. Come to my presentation and see the future of humanity.” Richard cringed with disappointment. He disliked Dr. Stone from the very beginning, but he attended his classified presentation later that day out of morbid curiosity. The ‘new direction’ as Dr. Stone put it, was going to focus on his discovery that certain flatworms formed para-symbiotic relationships with their host. The worms lived off the host, but in return they secreted an array of biochemicals into the host bloodstream that actually killed off competitive pathogens and enhanced the host’s performance. Dr. Stone theorized that through careful genetic manipulations of the worm’s DNA, he could modify it to secrete more performance enhancing biochemicals, thus making it suitable for biological implantation. Richard remembered how repulsed had been by the presentation, but it was the radical innovation DARPA was looking for, and there was no stopping it.
Shorty after Dr. Stone moved in, he used his connection to DARPA to have a number of the Genome Project’s labs reassigned to his program. It was a move that infuriated Richard, but not being one to get bogged down by bureaucratic wrangling, he chose to ignore the issue. It turned out to be a smart strategy because Dr. Stone quickly built a reputation of getting people fired if they got in his way. Richard wasn’t sure why Dr. Stone had so much power and influence, but he suspected it was because DARPA’s parent agency was the Department of Defense. The DOD in turn, had complete control over all U.S. military installations, including Malmstrom AFB.
Once Dr. Stone took over the labs he wanted, M237- M252, he brought in specialized incubators full of various species of flatworms. Since the slimy little creatures disgusted Richard, he avoided going into those labs unless absolutely necessary.
A few months down the road, Richard learned that Dr. Stone had selected Taenia Solium, as the candidate worm for genetic manipulation. It was a nasty parasitic flat worm that was not only capable of infecting humans and other primates, but could also evade their immune systems after implantation. It was the stuff of nightmares, and Richard hated ever knowing that such things actually existed in the world.
Even though Richard largely ignored Dr. Stone, every one of his breakthroughs made its way around the facility. When Dr. Stone modified the worm’s secretion output and variability to meet DARPA’s performance enhancement requirements, there was a celebratory cake in the cafeteria. Richard loved cake, but the white frosting was coved with elongated gummy worms, a satirical touch that repulsed him. When Dr. Stone was able to genetically modify the worm larvae to meet the host’s cranial capacity limitation, there were celebratory balloons in the hallway shaped like giant inflated brains. Richard popped a few when no one was looking, but his act of retaliation went unnoticed.
Not too many months later, Richard remembered seeing a bunch of top brass touring the facility and knew Dr. Stone had reached another milestone. That’s when a half-dozen caged chimpanzees were delivered to his lab by mistake. When Richard inquired about the purpose of the simians, an assistant from Dr. Stone’s lab informed him that the larval implants had been perfected, and they needed test subjects. The assistant also said that since the implants were benign, they had been officially re-classified as, ‘biological augmentations’. A distinction Richard figured had to do with marketing the procedure to the Congressional Oversight Committee that funded DARPA.
After the simians were removed from Richard’s lab, he broke his own rule of keeping quiet and complained to his boss about their use for experimental research. The next day Richard remembered getting an email notifying him that the Genome Project labs were being relocated to the third floor. No explanation was given, but he knew Dr. Stone was behind the move. The relocation meant that Richard had to walk past Dr. Stone’s test labs each day. Richard largely ignored the insult, but he could not ignore what went on behind those glass doors. One day there was a biohazard sign taped on the door and he could see the chimpanzees were being exposed to an array of infectious pathogens. A few weeks later, he saw Dr. Stone testing the poor animal’s pain tolerance and ability to heal from combat simulated injuries. Those tests appeared unethical, and Richard sent an anonymous letter to the base commander threatening to expose Dr. Stone. Once again his efforts were thwarted, and despite the anonymity, he was notified that the Genome Project was being moved off base as soon as a suitable facility could be located. Richard knew it was retribution, but he didn’t care. He actually wanted to be moved away from Dr. Stone’s sphere of influence. It seemed like everything the doctor touched was perverted into something nefarious.
While Richard waited to be relocated, he remembered hearing that DARPA had approved phase two testing of the larvae on humans. The first implants were given to a small group of soldiers headed for deployment overseas. Richard remembered hearing Dr. Stone talking-up the procedure and claiming it would turn an ordinary soldier into a super soldier. The procedure was voluntary, and Richard remembered seeing all twelve of the soldiers going over to the clinic after their pep talk. A few days later, Richard saw a document in the recycle bin addressed to Dr. Stone’s from the clinic. Richard discreetly took the document back to his lab so he could read it over in private. He would never forget the contents of that memo, it described how each soldier was given a local anesthetic injection at the base of their neck and then injected with a single worm larva proximal to the pituitary gland. Richard was repulsed by the memo, but like watching a train wreck, he could not stop reading it. The second page went on to describe how the larva would attach itself to an artery near the base of the pituitary gland and then send out dendrites into the surrounding tissue as it matured into an adult worm. Then the worm would use the dendrites to siphon off nutrients, analyze the host condition, and secrete the appropriate performance enhancing chemicals directly into the host’s blood stream. The document even had a color diagram depicting the three-inch long, eight gauge cranial injection needle, and the proper placement for larval injection. It was an image that Richard would never be able to erase from his memory.