‘My God.’
‘Anne remained in character. John was left married to a fourteen year old child from the seventeenth century.’
Macandrew was left speechless.
‘There was worse to come,’ said Simone. ‘Anne took her own life. She threw herself from a window at the institution.’
Fourteen
‘John was never really the same after that,’ said Simone. ‘He seemed to lose all confidence and started to question everything he’d done with his life. He’d always been a deeply religious man in spite of the contradictions that his career threw up along the way but now, suddenly, he found himself hopelessly confused and uncertain. His own research had undermined the very foundations of his faith. What happened next really pushed him over the edge.’
Simone paused to sip her brandy. ‘After Anne’s death, none of us had much heart for the project so we decided that we would take a break. We agreed to meet again after one month to discuss what we were going to do — continue or abandon the whole project. John chose to go on retreat to a monastery: I came home to Paris: Ashok returned to India to see his family... or so he said.’
‘You mean he didn’t?’
‘Oh yes, he went back to India but he had something other than his family in mind. Ashok had been wondering what the lack of Theta 1 did to patients to cause such major changes in personality — admittedly it was scientifically intriguing. Unknown to John and I, he took a vial of the synthetic protease with him to India and started experimenting — third-world countries are a Mecca for unscrupulous researchers. They’re like giant laboratories with unlimited human resources and very little paperwork to get in the way. In a land where people are willing to sell their kidneys for a few rupees, it was easy for Mukherjee to get “volunteers” to undergo tests with the protease.’
‘How did you find out about this?’
‘Mukherjee confessed everything to John when he came back. He was feeling so guilty.’
Macandrew waited while Simone took another sip of brandy.
‘After giving them the protease, Mukherjee started to panic when his volunteers started behaving like the Hartman tumour patients: they underwent severe personality change and started to assume new personalities. He tried to redress the balance by giving them some cloned Theta 1 but he had to use crude estimates and this wasn’t very successful.’
‘What happened?’ asked Macandrew.
‘He managed to stabilise a few of them but never as themselves. Like John’s wife and your patient back in the States, their old selves seemed to have been wiped out for ever.’
‘None of them recovered?’
‘At first, Ashok lied and told us that they had all made a full recovery but after close questioning from John, he admitted this wasn’t so. None recovered. Four died and two were left deranged.’
Macandrew grimaced. ‘What happened to Mukherjee?’
‘There was no point in reporting what he’d done to the British police because the crime had taken place in India and the people who had suffered were Indian nationals. John fired him and told him that if he had anything to do with it he would never work in science again. Ashok went back to India. The last I heard he was working among the poor in Calcutta.’
‘You don’t have to be a psychologist to work that one out,’ said Macandrew.
‘I suppose not.’
‘That still leaves the question about what Theta 1 does in the normal brain,’ said Macandrew.
‘It does,’ replied Simone. When she looked up at Macandrew he saw that she looked very vulnerable.
‘Will you say it or shall I?’ he asked.
‘Perhaps you?’ said Simone, as if somehow hoping that some secret she was harbouring might still be safe.
‘From what you’ve said,’ began Macandrew hesitantly and painfully conscious of the enormity of the conclusion he was about to draw, ‘it would appear that Theta 1 wipes out memories of... lives we’ve lived before... past lives?’
Simone conceded with a sigh. She closed her eyes for a few silent moments before saying, ‘I think that’s really why John had a breakdown. He just couldn’t cope with the idea.’
‘So he ran away from it.’
‘He was full of doubts and questions about his faith: it had always been so important to him.’
For a few more moments, the only sound was a gentle hubbub of conversation from the other tables and the clink of coffee cups in the background.
‘It seems to be the only explanation that fits with everything we’ve seen,’ said Macandrew. ‘On a bigger scale it would explain Multiple Personality Disorder and changes of personality after brain surgery and why some people can undergo memory regression under hypnosis. If these cells behind the pineal gland get damaged and stop making Theta 1, the natural memory block breaks down and the patient remembers — and assumes — previous personalities. Only, it’s not just patients, it’s all of us. Jesus, this could have enormous implications for society all over the world.’
‘That’s why we didn’t publish anything about it,’ said Simone.
‘I can see how a lot of people might find it difficult to come to terms with,’ said Macandrew. ‘I take it you’re not religious yourself?’
Simone shook her head. ‘I’m a scientist. I need proof before I accept anything and I’ve long since stopped apologising for that or feeling guilty about it.’
‘So the idea of a past life doesn’t upset you?’ said Macandrew.
‘If anything, I find it reassuring that the end of this life might not actually be the final curtain I had assumed it to be.’
‘You know,’ said Macandrew, still considering the implications, ‘it might be the same enzyme that helps us get over grief,’ said Macandrew. ‘People are always saying that time is a great healer and we all know how we recover from grief and pick up the pieces. After a while you tend to remember only the good things.’
Simone smiled. ‘And you’re left with summer days that went on forever.’
‘So John Burnett and Mukherjee gave up scientific research entirely and you changed fields?’
‘I did... but I continued to work on the tumour project part-time. It had to be that way because we agreed that the work could never be published because of the possible repercussions.’
‘So what have you been doing?’
‘The original aim for all three of us was to find a way of helping people who had been left brain-damaged so I’ve continued to do as much as I could along these lines. One of the things that struck me was the fact that the Theta 1 — producing cells were not actually destroyed by the tumours; they just stopped producing the enzyme. I’ve been trying to find a way of turning production back on again.’
‘Sounds like a reasonable approach,’ agreed Macandrew.
‘I’ve managed to set up a cell culture system in the lab where I can turn off Theta 1 in cells using John’s synthetic protease and then I try to turn it back on again using various chemical compounds.’
‘Any luck?’
‘I’ve come up with something that works in the lab. Whether it will work in patients or not is quite another matter.’
‘But that’s absolutely wonderful,’ said Macandrew. ‘You haven’t tried it out yet?’
‘Not possible,’ replied Simone. ‘There’s no way I could get permission to set up any kind of trial without explaining the rationale behind it. I think this may be why John suggested you come here. You’re a neurosurgeon with access to brain-damaged patients and you were already on the right track.’