“So how are you doing here?” he asked.
“I’m okay.” She smiled appreciatively, then glanced nervously around the small room. “I could sure use my team though.”
“Where are they now?”
“Reassigned to another ship. Continuing the project we were working on.”
“The sonar array project?”
“Mmm hmm,” she nodded, and took another sip of tea. “I know it’s safer that way, but I wish I had their full brain power with me on this. Occasional phone calls just aren’t the same.”
“I think we can all relate. Frankly, I think the admiral made this plan sound a lot easier than it was.”
This time Neely laughed. “He did, didn’t he?”
“Almost like a recruitment commercial. Join the Navy! Save the world! But don’t screw it up.” Caesare watched as each laugh seemed to soften Neely’s shell. Between the loss of her father and the stress of their mission, she needed it. Grief was the worst kind of penance. Something he’d already experienced more than his share of. And to see that pain in eyes as beautiful as hers was just another reminder of how ruthless life could be.
He watched as Neely stared pensively at her cup. “So, do you think there’s going to be any good news on this call?”
She looked back up. Her smile had completely disappeared. “I don’t think so.”
“Does it have to do with those cages in the lab?”
Their eyes met across the table and she nodded without a word.
33
Admiral Langford stared at the monitor, his face drawn with a look of disbelief.
“Come again, Commander?”
On the screen, Neely Lawton blinked and repeated herself. “My test subjects are dead. All of them.”
“So it doesn’t work?”
“No, sir. If anything, it works too well.”
“What exactly does that mean?” Miller asked.
On Neely’s larger screen, she could see both video feeds — one for Langford and one for Miller. She remained seated at a small round table, flanked on either side by Caesare and Borger.
“Sir, this kind of hyper regeneration is one thing for the body, but it’s quite another for the brain. All cells are not created equal. Regenerating things like muscle tissue and organs don’t present many problems. But for brain cells, the effect is much different. When brain cells are improved, so are their synaptic responses. The more they regenerate, the more active they become.”
“And why is that a bad thing?”
“Because, sir, the human brain can only take so much. When we sleep, we dream. And those dreams are the manifestation of an overloaded system. Whether we remember them or not, dreams are the by-product of a cognitive system’s need to dump excess stimuli.”
His expression grew more intent. “And this is what the bacteria is doing?”
“No, Admiral. It’s doing the opposite. Instead of allowing the brain to slow down, rest, and resume, the synaptic activity is causing the cells to work harder. So much harder that they can’t rest. Again, the body’s repair cycle works differently than the mind. Everything below the neck slows down and is in a state of disuse. There may be an increase in some signaling, but not like the brain, which is all signaling. The bottom line is that the DNA, hidden within the bacterium cells, simultaneously gives us two sides of the same coin. One side will heal you in ways we previously could only dream about. The other side causes the brain to literally burn itself out.”
When Neely finished, there was not a sound to be heard until Langford finally exhaled. “Christ.”
“Just when I was beginning to think nothing would surprise me anymore,” mumbled Caesare.
“Sir,” Neely quickly added. “Before we start talking about what this means, it’s important that you understand… what I just said is only my assertion. I’ve only done a limited amount of testing. There is far more left to verify here. Weeks of study. I could be wrong.”
Langford stared quizzically at her. “Are you?”
Surprised by the question, she stopped and looked at each of them before finally shaking her head. “I don’t believe so.”
“And as of this moment, how sure are you?”
Neely shrugged. “Ninety percent.”
With a sigh, Langford took a step back and sat down. His dark polo shirt highlighted his thick gray hair, combed neatly back atop a rugged face. A face that thankfully gave away none of what he was thinking.
Because what he was thinking was not good.
From his own monitor, Miller watched Langford raise a hand and rub his chin.
“Commander Lawton,” Langford said. “Could this effect be changed? So it didn’t destroy the brain?”
“Conceivably, yes.”
“And how long would that take?”
She didn’t reply immediately. But when she did it was not the answer Langford was hoping for.
“Years. Maybe decades.”
Langford fell silent again. It was a devastating setback. The Chinese were going to attack. As retribution for the United States having taken something of theirs that, for all intents and purposes, may not even work. At least not as the Chinese believed.
“Okay,” Miller countered, leaning forward. “If not this bacteria, then what about those damn plants or that monkey from South America we brought back? They have this DNA too. Don’t they? Why didn’t it destroy them?”
“I don’t know.” Neely shook her head. “The plants do have it, but I’m not sure about the capuchin. We’ve been running tests on his DNA but haven’t found any of the base markers yet that we see in the bacteria. But that’s not altogether surprising. Even common genome markers don’t always work the same way. Now why the plants have survived, I don’t know. They have very different structures than we do. Their cells are rectangular with protective cellulose walls. They have chloroplasts. It could be any number of differences. And their absorption of minerals is also much slower through their roots. Which means their exposure, even directly, would likely be much more gradual. In evolution the more gradually a life form is exposed to something, the easier and more moderate its adoption, generally speaking.”
“So the plants haven’t been destroyed by this because their DNA changes more slowly over time?” Caesare asked.
Neely turned and nodded. “Probably.”
“And in South America, the absorption was slower because the monkey was eating the same plants.”
“Possibly.” Neely turned back to the screen. “Nothing happens quickly in evolution. Only through direct intervention. And that is often where we experience side effects.”
“Like we’re seeing with the bacteria.”
“Correct.”
“So the bacteria itself is no good to us.”
“Well, I’m sure it could be altered. Through testing and experimentation, but there will always be some tradeoff. Everything in life is balanced, even physics. For every give, there is a take. Even in common pharmaceutical medications. Every new drug treats something but negatively affects something else.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that tweaking this bacterium in an attempt to avoid overworking the host’s brain may ultimately be possible. But there will always be another tradeoff. Regardless of what it might be. For now, something may have happened during the Chinese extraction for the bacterium. Something that made it unstable. Therefore, the plants are likely more valuable.”