“I did not know that.”
“You surprise me…”
“Hey — when it comes to hacking I could kick your ass down one side of the street and back up the other.”
“You know, I can’t see that happening… but I can begin to see what all this is about.”
Alex suppressed a scream of frustration. “Please explain to me just what the hell all this means!”
“No problemo. I remember reading a few years back about how some scientists had discovered that a certain type of bacteria can actually change ions into solid gold.”
“You mean like alchemy or something?”
Ryan smiled. “That’s how they would have described it five hundred years ago, but today we know better. This has nothing to do with the prima materia, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Say Philosopher’s Stone if you mean Philosopher’s Stone.”
He smiled at her. “Sure… but the principle is similar though — we’re talking about the transition of matter from one state to another.”
A roll of the eyes. “Explain.”
“This is all about bacteria.”
“Explain better than that.”
“The scientists discovered a bacteria called delftia acidovorans which have a self-defense mechanism when they come into contact with gold.”
“Why?”
“Because they form on gold deposits but exposure to gold ions kills them, so it does its thing and releases a chemical which basically turns the gold ions into gold nanoparticles when the gold ions are dissolved in H2O…”
“Say water if you mean water.”
“Sure… because when gold ions are dissolved in water they become toxic, and their toxicity poses a danger to the bacteria which is already in the water. For this reason the bacteria releases a protein which protects them, but it also has the side-effect of turning soluble gold ions into actual solid gold.”
“I don’t understand the difference.”
“The difference is that ionic gold is soluble in water but metallic gold — the stuff your rings are made from — is not. This bacteria transforms gold ions into regular gold.”
“And a gold ion is..?”
“A gold ion is a single atom of gold that is lacking three electrons. There are other experiments going on in this field — one used a different bacteria called cupriavidus metallidurans to create pure 24-carat gold from gold chloride, a toxic chemical.”
“Sounds like something King Midas would have loved.”
“Funny you should mention that because on my researches I was reading all about how…” he paused. “Forget it — I digress. The fact is this just has to be about some kind of airborne bacteria that is getting transferred from the severed head into the victims and transforming their very molecular structure to a different state.”
“I’m starting to get a headache.”
“Look, we don’t need a chemistry lesson to stop Kiefel, at least not yet. All we need to know right now is this must have something to do with the bacteria, or something very like it. If that bacteria can release a protein to defend itself from toxic attack, it’s not out of the question that something similar is going on now.”
“So you definitely think something similar might be going on with Medusa?”
Ryan nodded vehemently. “Definitely. If there is some kind of ancient bacteria on there, it could be capable of triggering some kind of reaction at the molecular level and somehow transforming the ions in the human body into a solid state.”
“So it would look like someone was turned to stone?”
“Got it in one — and take a look at this.”
“What is it?”
“While you were talking I tracked this down.”
“You flatter me.”
Ryan looked at her, confused for a second. “I was listening at the same time…”
“Sure — show me what you have.”
“It’s a paper on a laboratory experiment in England a few years back all about how bacteria can turn flesh to stone.”
“I think I preferred it when we talking about gold and Midas.”
“Yes, but these people are turning to stone not gold. I said the process was similar.”
“I was at high school a while back now, Ryan, but isn’t that what fossils are?”
“Sort of, yeah. The process of mineralization you’re describing takes millions and millions of years, but the experiment at the English lab took place over just a few weeks.”
He directed her attention to the paper and she scanned through it. “This is fascinating — I had no idea. So they kept shrimps in isolation under special conditions in seawater and they turned to stone?”
“Yeah — thanks to the way the bacteria interacted with the process. The shrimps’ soft tissue was turned into calcium phosphate. If Kiefel really does have the head of Medusa — severed by Perseus all those millennia ago — then it’s possible it contains some kind of unknown bacteria.”
“Capable of something similar to the shrimp experiment?”
“Indeed, only whatever the hell it is, its capacity to ossify is obviously considerably more powerful.”
“So you think this is what the entire Medusa myth might have been based on?”
Ryan shrugged and cracked open another Pepsi. “Sure, why not? You didn’t think it was hocus pocus or anything did you?”
Now Alex shrugged. “Ryan, since Poseidon I’ve learned anything is possible.”
He smiled and gave a short laugh. “I hear you.”
“And Ryan?”
“Yeah?”
“Please never refer to yourself in the third person in my presence ever again. It’s weird.”
Ryan smiled and gave a casual one-finger salute. “Gotcha.”
“Thanks — we have to tell Hawke straight away.”
“Agreed — I’m on it.”
“And another thing…” Suddenly Alex winced in pain and doubled over in her chair, holding her thighs.
“What’s the matter?” Ryan asked, rushing forward and holding her shoulders.
“Nothing…” She sounded in pain. “It’s nothing at all…”
“It doesn’t sound like nothing, Alex. What’s going on?”
“I said it’s nothing, really. Just a pain in my legs, is all.”
“It’s a pain in your legs and you say it’s nothing… This could be something to do with the elixir, Alex! You can’t just ignore this.”
“Sure, I know that, but there’s no time for that now. We have to stop Kiefel from destroying America!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Vincent Reno watched out of the window as the Learjet 31 touched down at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans on the outskirts of the city around midnight. The tires of its main undercarriage squealed on the asphalt and sent up a puff of white smoke into the dark Louisiana night.
The Frenchman was last to leave the aircraft, with Hawke, Scarlet, Agents Doyle and Taylor and the SWAT men walking ahead. As he stepped outside onto the apron he immediately noticed the much higher humidity down here in the Deep South.
Hawke wiped sweat from his brow. “Reminds me of my jungle training in the rainforests of Belize. That was a long time ago… when I was a much younger bloke.”
“Another era then,” Scarlet said with a smirk. “Didn’t you train against velociraptors back in those days?”
“By the way,” Hawke said, deadpan. “Your sense of humor called and asked when you’re going to find it again.”
Vincent moved between them and put his heavy arms over their shoulders. “You crazy English guys love each other really, oui?”
Agent Doyle spoke a series of commands into his headset and gave the signal to move out. They wasted no time in climbing into the Jeeps and speeding out of the airbase on their way to the processing plant.