"Have a seat," the slightly built woman said, staring intently at the screen. Or, rather, she had seemed slightly built in the open air, where Chaney felt a comfortable familiarity with his authority and natural physical presence. But in this small, well-insulated cubicle with millions of dollars' worth of machinery, he felt distinctly inadequate.
Quietly he took a seat, casting a single narrow glance to see the dual monitors' display reflected on Gina's wide, oval glasses. The dark eyes were unblinking as she manipulated the controls with a deft, gentle touch.
"There," she whispered, pointing to the screen, and did something else. In a moment Chaney heard a printout of the image kicked out on the table beside them. He gazed at the screen a long time, not having the foggiest idea what had just happened.
"I see," he nodded finally, turning to her. "And just what am I looking at? I hope you understand that this is not my forte. I barely passed high school biology."
His attempt at humor never penetrated. "This is an electron microscope and you're watching mitochondrial DNA in action," Gina said. "It's the small globs of molecules in a cell that are like the batteries of life. Each has its own DNA, separate from the cell itself. Mitochondrial DNA is what most institutes use to study evolution."
A pause, and Chaney asked, "Evolution? Did you say 'evolution'?"
"Yes."
"And why, exactly, would you study evolution with this DNA, Ms. Gilbert? You were a little excited and—"
"I still am," she broke in.
"Yes," Chaney said, watching her closely now, "and so you didn't tell me if this was the DNA you removed from the cast. But I assumed that it was. So… if it's a modern creature, then what's the purpose of studying it for evolution?" He waited; she didn't reply. Then: "Am I missing something here, Ms. Gilbert?"
"This!" she said quickly and hit the display for a printout again. And again the machine hummed and a long paper copy of what was reflected on the screen — it looked like a Fourth of July fireworks demonstration to Chaney — was printed.
Crossing his arms, Chaney leaned back. Maybe it had just been the excitement of the day's events, but he had half-expected some kind of smoking-gun revelation when he arrived.
At the moment, however, he wasn't even sure why he was here and, outside the higher realms of academic guesswork, doubted that any of it would forward his investigation. He wondered what else Brick might have turned up with his street goons when Gina returned with the printouts, laying them on a desk.
Rising, he placed hands on the table as he leaned over them. After a moment, he nodded studiously. "Uh-huh," he said as politely as his meager inspiration allowed.
"I know you don't understand yet," she said, drawing lines on the paper with a pencil, almost like connecting dots. "But listen closely. A quick lesson. I can make it very simple for you. Okay, DNA has four chemical bases. It's not important to know what they are. But when DNA reproduces itself, each chemical base also reproduces itself. The order by which the chemicals do the reproducing creates proteins, which are made up of amino acids." She looked dead into Chaney's eyes, which were concentrated on the page. "Are you following me so far, Marshal? Don't hesitate to tell me if you're not."
Chaney smiled, somewhat grim. "You're doing well, Ms. Gilbert. It's not easy explaining DNA to someone like me."
She flipped a hair from her face. "We learned it from Professor Tipler," she said offhandedly. "He says that if we can't explain the most complex molecular process to a six-year-old child, then we don't really understand it."
Chaney laughed, knowing what she meant and not offended. "Good enough. Go ahead."
"Okay." She pointed to the print. "Now, when these proteins separate to reproduce, they act like a mirror. They're constantly checking the new strand of DNA to ensure that it exactly mimics themselves. Sort of like you painting yourself with a mirror. It's a built-in safeguard so that impaired DNA molecules aren't reproduced. Follow me?
He nodded.
"Okay," she continued, "so each dual strand of DNA has the same chemicals, the same proteins and amino acids…"
She drew a dramatic hard line to a rather spectacular display of lines and sparks on the far side of the spreadsheet. Drew a circle around the center. She seemed to have somehow captured something important with the movement.
"And this doesn't have A, G, C or T factors of the dominant DNA found in the cast!"
Despite himself, Chaney was beginning to get the idea. "Altered DNA…," he mumbled before he realized he'd said anything.
"No, Marshal. Not altered. It's something else."
Chaney looked up at her. "Something else? Like what?"
Her mouth was tight. "Like a mutation that is completely different from the host DNA!"
Chaney stared. "Yes," he smiled, calm.
"You don't understand!" she shouted. She drew vicious lines across the paper. "This DNA could never have come from this DNA! They were fused, Marshal! Someone, or something, fused them into a hybrid DNA strand that is this! It's a created creature!"
Staring a moment, Chaney didn't know what to say.
"A fused creature?" he asked.
"A created creature!"
He shook his head, raising his hands. "Well, Gina, no offense. But what the hell is a…"
"Marshal," she was smiling now, "this thing was created by someone up there! It is not a mutation! Not really! It might look like it. Yet its DNA is fused. Which means that someone had to take" — she used her hands as if she were moving stacks of money—"human DNA, move it here. Then take some other kind of DNA, and move it over here. And then fuse them together to make a completely new creature! A creature that was created in some kind of matrix that didn't allow the proteins to splinter off!" She leaned into him. "I'm certain of it, Marshal! And you have got to believe me. This is what Rebecca was killed for. Because they were afraid that we were about to find out what they'd done!"
"Well… what the hell does that mean?" he asked after a moment.
"I think," she looked straight at him, "that you're dealing with a creature that has been scientifically created in some kind of electromagnetic matrix. Possibly it was a human being at one time, but it's not anymore. Now it's an impossibly strong thing that can heal itself almost as fast as you can hurt it as long as it has something to eat. And the alien DNA that was fused to the host is slowly taking over the host system. Like a parasite. It just keeps growing and growing, multiplying at an incredible rate because the human DNA doesn't see it as an invader."
Chaney didn't understand that one either. He did, remarkably, know a little about how an immune system responded to bacterial invasion. He asked, "Why wouldn't the host see it as an invader since that's basically what it is?"
"Because this alien DNA is so closely related to Homo sapiens DNA. It… it's just assimilated so easily by the host. I actually think the human immune system sees this fused DNA as part of its own system. It doesn't register it as a threat." She paused, her eyes narrowing. "Where this DNA strand came from, I don't know, but it was from something very closely related to homo-sapiens. "
Frowning, Chaney stared at the charts. "But, really, what would that be?"
She emitted a brief bark of harsh laughter. "Marshal, you're in some kind of delayed scientific shock at all this. There is more difference in the DNA between a sheep and goat than there is between a man and an ape, or a chicken for that matter. Most creatures on this planet are compatible with the DNA of man up to ninety-five percent. An ape is ninety-nine percent. Only one percent of its DNA is non-man. That's a fact. But that one percent is everything. Somewhere within it is intelligence, emotion, egoism, self-conscious awareness. Basically, the mind. This is no different. Somewhere in this one percent is something else — something that's not even close to man. And, degree by degree, it is slowly infiltrating the entire host organism, slowly gaining complete control. If it doesn't have complete control of its mind, it will soon."