‘Magnus Hedman. Pleased to meet you both.’
Hedman was dressed like a lumberjack, as if he were about to go out and cut wood for the winter ahead. Even though it was summer, he wore long work pants and a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled above his elbows. His hair was grey and unkempt. His face was ruddy and weathered. Dial’s first thought was that he looked like someone’s drunken uncle — the one who was always playing practical jokes. He certainly wasn’t what Dial thought of when contemplating an engineer at one of the world’s finest institutions.
‘Nice to meet you too,’ Dial said. ‘What’s your take on things?’
‘Whatever they were doing, it was cutting-edge,’ Hedman answered. ‘Some of the recovered samples were not organic, they were bionic. Are you familiar with nanotechnology?’
‘Let’s assume we’re not,’ Eklund said truthfully.
‘Nanotechnology concerns the order of things on the microscopic scale. We’re talking about machines and devices that are fully functional, yet no bigger than a human cell. In fact, there are those who believe we will someday be able to create machines that can be used to replace the very components of a cell. It would be like a heart transplant, only instead of something as big as a baseball, we’d be replacing a faulty nucleus a thousand times smaller than the head of a pin.’
‘And you found these devices in the lab?’ Dial asked.
Hedman laughed. ‘No, we’re not there yet. Perfecting machines that can operate on that small a scale is some time away. But what I found was still ahead of the curve.’
‘How so?’
‘Most nanotech in the market today relates to “passive” technology. For instance, microscopic particles that are added to sunscreens to make them more effective. The particles don’t change; they simply are what they are. That being said, the goal of nanotechnology is “active” technology, where a device could function as a sort of mini-mini-mini-mini-submarine that could be programmed to carry out a specific task, such as seeking out and destroying cancer cells before they propagate.’
‘And …’
‘I didn’t find that. What I found was somewhere in between. If I’m correct, it appears to be “reactionary” nanotech. It’s too soon to understand the trigger mechanism, but it seems they had created an inorganic microscopic delivery method.’
‘You’re saying it can’t seek out cancer, but it could react if it ever encountered it? Not so much a guided missile as a landmine.’
‘Theoretically, yes. That’s a very good analogy. But of course, there’s nothing that limits its target.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Programmed differently, it could just as easily be used to destroy healthy cells.’
Dial furrowed his brow. ‘It would attack healthy cells? Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t people mostly made up of healthy cells?’
‘Yes,’ Hedman said. ‘Theoretically, if you were to introduce a device like that into a human body, the result would be less like a landmine and more like a nuclear bomb.’
27
Dial took a moment to digest the new information. A pile of cremated animals that were in perfect health before their deaths. A bunch of dead scientists who had the ability to clone. Microscopic machines that could hurt or heal at the whim of their designer.
What the hell was going on at this lab?
With several crazy theories running through his mind, he decided to shift the focus to something different. If the property owner was as famous as Toulon had claimed, then someone in the room would have heard of him. ‘Tell me about Tomas Berglund.’
In a flash, the room grew still.
No movement. No sound. No breathing.
As if the air had been sucked from the lecture hall.
Dial and Eklund exchanged glances. With decades of experience between them, they instantly knew when a question resonated with an expert or witness.
This was one of those times.
Dial repeated the name. ‘Dr Tomas Berglund … Does the name ring a bell?’
Miles, the balding microbiologist, was the first to speak. ‘What would you like to know?’
‘Let’s start with the basics. Have you heard of him?’
‘Of course we’ve heard of him.’
‘And?’
‘Berglund is brilliant. A man ahead of his time.’
‘In what way?’
Miles sat up in his chair, as if slouching while talking about Berglund would be a mortal sin. ‘There are scientists in several fields who stumbled into greatness, men and women who made incredible breakthroughs without any forethought. Fortuitous accidents, if you will.’
‘You mean like penicillin,’ Eklund said.
He was referring to the unplanned discovery of Penicillium notatum, which was made when Dr Alexander Fleming returned to his laboratory after an extended absence and noticed that a culture of staphylococcus bacteria had been overrun by a strange mold. Upon closer examination, he noticed circular areas around the mold where the bacteria would not grow. He concluded that something in the mold was inhibiting, or possibly even destroying, the staphylococcus. Further studies showed that the mold was effective against bacteria while at the same time non-toxic to the host organism.
Eventually, the Penicillium notatum mold was purified and approved for medical use. The resulting drug — penicillin — had been used to treat bacterial infections since the mid 1940s.
It was the most popular antibiotic in the history of the world.
It was impossible to determine how many lives it had saved.
And it was discovered because someone forgot to put the lid on a Petri dish.
Miles approved of the reference. ‘That is the perfect example. Penicillin wasn’t a mistake, but it certainly wasn’t planned. Accidents like that happen all the time. You set out to prove one thing, and you end up making a discovery that is totally unrelated.’
‘And that’s what happened with Berglund?’
‘Not at all. In fact, that is the exact opposite of Berglund. He looks for the solutions before anyone has even identified the problems.’
‘I don’t follow,’ Eklund said.
Miles paused in thought. ‘Let’s pretend that we, as a collective group, manage to invent a revolutionary form of glass. Something that never smudges, just for the sake of argument. Well, Berglund is the type of guy who would go to his desk and pull out a notebook from a decade ago that would be filled with applicable uses for our new glass and theories about its limitations.’
Hedman chimed in with further explanation. ‘For instance, someone asks if the glass can be used in space. Well, we don’t know. We’ve never even thought about space. We were just trying to make a piece of glass that wouldn’t smudge. But Berglund — not only has he thought about space, he’s determined the issues with our new glass in sub-zero, non-atmospheric conditions, and he’s already established a treatment to correct these flaws.’
‘And he did that ten years before we even met,’ Miles stressed.
Dial nodded in understanding. ‘He’s a visionary.’
‘Yes,’ Hedman said, ‘and Picasso was just a painter.’
Dial smiled. It was a funny line. ‘What field does he work in?’
‘All of them. He’s dabbled in a variety of sciences,’ Hedman replied. ‘He has made unparalleled contributions in biology, chemistry, physics, you name it.’
Olsen rejoined the conversation. ‘Why do you want to know about Tomas?’
Hedman turned to face his host. ‘Isn’t it obvious? This was Berglund’s lab.’
Once again the air was sucked from the room.
Miles, who was clearly smitten with Berglund’s accomplishments, seemed particularly stung by the revelation. He stared at Dial and Eklund, hoping that one of them would refute Hedman’s claim, but neither did. In fact, after several awkward seconds, Eklund did the opposite.