The Premise

by Andy Crossfield

  "It sure looks like Mark is dead Colleen. I was able to track down Mark’s boss in Chicago. He was in total denial about the whole thing, although he admitted he hadn’t talked to him in days and sounded worried."

  Jack and Tom were mouthing so many questions; Colleen couldn’t concentrate and had to turn away to listen to Kyle.

  "Finally," Kyle added, "remember how I told you the Air Force was behind this whole thing?’

  ‘Yes?" Colleen replied, not knowing where Kyle was going.

  "Well, the military has taken over the case and put a lid on any news. Even the sheriff is locked out! Mark’s body has probably already been recovered. They’re just not making anything public at this point. I’m told the sheriff was able to save some evidence from the military’s clutches. We’ll just have to wait and see if they find anything. Anything new with you?"

  Colleen laughed out loud in a nervous, uncontrollable laugh that got Jack’s attention. Colleen put her had over the receiver and said "Kyle wants to know if anything is new with me!"

  Jack rolled his eyes.

  As Colleen filled Kyle in on her recent experiences, Jack began to rethink possible reasons for their abductions.

  When Kyle’s call abruptly dropped in mid sentence, Colleen began filling Jack and Tom in on Kyle’s news.

  "Kyle thinks they found Mark’s body, but the Air Force took control of the case before the sheriff could confirm it. The Air Force Jack! Maybe Kyle was right?"

  About half an hour into their flight, Tom’s head drifted slowly toward his chest and he was out. Jack had complained for years about his inability to sleep on an airplane, and complained even louder watching Tom doze off without any trouble.

  Tom always said it was a defense mechanism. His body’s natural defense against the horror of witnessing a crash first hand, he claimed. Each time, Jack was reminded of a dachshund he once owned that went to sleep any time the car was in motion, yet would wake anytime the car stopped.

  With Tom out for what would be hours, Jack moved to Colleen’s side of the table and started laying out Mark’s research in front of them.

  "If Mark’s work threatened someone powerful, we need to know as much as possible in order to figure out the five W’s." Jack said as he thumbed through stacks of research.

  Stealing Jack’s next thought, Colleen blurted out "But we already know the where and when, and we’ve a pretty good idea about the who, …I guess we should concentrate on the what and the why… don’t you think?"

  Mark’s expression was one of miffed wonder, amazed at how well they thought in tandem. "Okay, who’s the who?" Jack asked sternly.

  "Well," Colleen said, "I’d say it was the guy Kyle told us Mark suspected… Hank somebody…"

  "I know he is a prime suspect, but do you really think a prison executive could have the pull it takes to order the Air Force around? I mean, who besides the president do you know that could tell the Air Force to kill people?"

  "C"mon Mark, are you saying the President of the United States is a suspect?"

  "Sure, haven’t you ever watched Fox News?" Mark’s eyes danced as he caught Colleen’s gaze just long enough to convey his wacky conspiratorial theory.

  "Let’s get back on track, okay?" Colleen said as she allowed herself a slight chuckle and a dismissive darting glance in Jack’s direction. "Finding the what and why will lead us to the who, I feel sure. And this project 'Termes' is my choice for where to start on it."

  "Wait." Jack said with a slight smile. "Where we start on who and why leads to …what?"

  "Third base!" they both yelled in unison. Colleen and Jack laughed out loud, each surprised that the other would pick up on the old comedy routine.

  Tom stirred a bit at their outburst but went promptly back to sleep, now slumping over onto the cabin’s couch. Colleen reached over and pulled a blanket over him.

  In a hushed tone, Colleen tried again to steer the discussion back to the goal, while Jack pulled more papers onto the workspace.

  "You heard Willis back at the hotel, Jack, someone was stalking me relentlessly! I feel much safer now that we’re away from Vegas, but let’s not forget about the break-in at my lab. As far as I know, we’re heading toward danger, not away from it!"

  "You’re right, of course" Jack said, sobered by her summary of their situation.

  "Okay, good." Colleen flashed her arresting eyes to pull Jack out of his gloom. "So," she continued, "the question is, what would a geneticist be doing that a prison would find valuable or threatening enough, to kill more than a dozen people?"

  Jack began reading some of Mark’s notes, and then stopped. "This notation here in the margin, production spikes, persistent decline followed: Termes? Could that be production of some kind of drug? And why do you think they named it project Termes? Any idea what Termes means?"

  "Colleen looked up from her reading. "Termes is Latin for termite, but I have no idea what the connection could be."

  "Termite…" said Jack, stroking his chin and speaking in his far away "thinking" voice.

  He suddenly got an 'ah-ha' look on his face. "Maybe he was creating a superior class of prisoner, …one with the ability to eat their way to freedom!"

  Colleen shook her head. "Are you going to contribute anything positive to a solution or not? Besides, Brainiac, eating wood does you no good in a concrete cell!

  "Although," she admitted, "you may be onto something with that superior class of prisoner comment. You said Mark made a note about 'production spikes', right? I’ve read where prisons are more factories and call centers today than correctional institutions, and the production could refer to that…

  "And here’s a mention of caloric intake…" Colleen said, offering her find to no one in particular.

  "Maybe the old magic trick solution would work here Colleen." Jack said with a look that almost dared her to finish that thought.

  "Okay, I’ll bite, what’s the old magic trick solution?"

  "When you see a magic trick and want to know how it was done, don’t try to think how the magician did it, instead try to think how you would create the same illusion."

  "Well, isn’t that the same thing?" said Colleen, wary that Jack was wasting more time.

  "Not exactly. When you see a trick performed, you’re hampered by the false signals your senses have interpreted, the ones the magician built into the trick, like misdirection, to disguise how he actually did it. Starting from the basis of how you would create the trick removes the distractions and let’s you concentrate on the objective."

  "Okay, so how does that apply here?"

  "We simply ask ourselves, how would we use a geneticist if we ran a prison corporation?"

  "Oh, that is smart." Colleen said, sounding a bit too surprised that Jack could offer a good idea.

  "First off," Jack began, "there must be a financial benefit. Finding a motive for corporations is almost too easy… it’s always profit! It’s the only thing that drives a corporate decision. So, where do we make money?" Jack asked.

  "From government contracts paid on a per inmate basis?" Colleen offered.

  "Right, but these days, didn’t you mention prisons were becoming factories too?"

  "Yes."

  "Factories with a difference though, right?" Jack asked as he led Colleen to his train of thought.

  "What do you mean, Jack?"

  "Their employees are essentially slaves aren’t they?"

  "I never thought of them as such, but I guess you could say that. Maybe slaves with an 'expiration' date…." Colleen smiled.

  "Ok," Jack said, ignoring Colleen’s humor, "and the most profitable employee would be one that produced lots of goods and didn’t cost you much in return. So, what are the costs of labor in a prison?"

  "The usual," Colleen offered, "food, shelter, clothing, …security, I guess?"

  "Right, maybe add training and medical care to the list too."

  "So how could they keep those costs down using genetics?"

  "They
could use the Genesis gene I suppose." said Colleen.

  "The Genesis gene?"

  "You remember, don’t you?" said Colleen. "Several years ago, some scientists at Newcastle in the UK announced they had isolated a region in the hippocampus area of the brain. It contained a patch of genetic material that would carry on trait modifications throughout the organism."

  "Huh?"

  "Okay," Colleen said seeing Jack’s confusion. "Basic genetics. Making changes to a few cells in an adult body won’t have much effect. Yes, they’ll reproduce, but they don’t spread the modification to other cells in the body, just their immediate downline. That’s why modifications need to be made to the gametes, or the fetus at an early stage… so the modification exists in all the cells throughout the body.

  "Anyway, these guys in England found a small patch of cells in the brain that could spread modifications throughout the body of an existing individual. In effect, making any desired changes there, changed the body’s entire blueprint. Don’t you remember this?" Colleen asked.

  "That must have been the month my subscription to Genetics Monthly lapsed," said Jack dryly. "Damn, nothing worth reading for months, and then Wham! I miss the good stuff" Jack couldn’t keep a straight face. He turned and looked quickly at the clouds passing by, chuckling.

  "Joke all you want but this news was huge! I can’t believe you missed it."

  "Okay, so what happened?" said Jack still chuckling.

  "They sold out to the tabloid scientists and corrupted their reputation. Kind of like the cold fusion of genetics, except they may have actually had something. Clinics started popping up in Asia offering a two-month "vacation and makeover". At first they were swamped… mostly for self-indulgent reasons… natural breast enlargements, weight reduction, that kind of thing."

  "Folks would check into the clinic and be 'infected' with a modified, denatured flu virus. Over the next eight weeks, the virus would target the Genesis gene and grow boobs, eat fat, shrink feet… don’t laugh!" Colleen said defending her point to a disbelieving Jack. "Little feet are big in Asia! All while you spent the time in a drug or alcohol induced fog."

  "Wait, could they make me taller?" Said Jack, now suddenly interested in the topic.

  "Sure, if you also wanted permanently fractured DNA."

  "Hmm… how fractured?" Jack said, still weighing the advantages of a taller frame.

  "Last I heard they had 'issues' that were causing some horrible outcomes…

  "The FDA banned it in the US, but what really caused the idea to crater was the press photos of people with an extra nose, or worse. I remember a toenail growing on some guy’s forehead…." Colleen shook her head trying to force the conjured image from her thoughts. "Work was abandoned because of public outrage, but I thought it had merit. It remains a taboo topic in genetic circles, but I think in controlled conditions it could really be beneficial."

  "So, you think Mark could have used that process?"

  "Perhaps, I’m just not sure of the traits he would try to induce." Colleen’s voice dropped off as she began to think.

  "Well," said Jack, "Food is a big expense at a prison. Maybe he wanted Mark to get them to work more on less food?"

  "Maybe, …his notes mentioned a production spike and then a drop-off." Colleen said as she paged her way into the notes Mark had made on his project.

  "Hold on," Colleen said finding something curious. "Here’s a mention of caloric intake from two sources. Traditional and Cellulostic."

  "Cellulostic?" Jack repeated, looking puzzled.

  "Project Termes! Of course!" Colleen blurted out. "It makes sense now Jack! Mark was working on increasing the prisoner’s nutritional diet by trying to change their digestive systems to process regular food, and essentially…. wood!"

  "What?"

  "Actually, it is brilliant!" Colleen said admiringly. "Most plants that we eat have the good stuff we can digest, and cellulose, which we can’t. We can’t derive any nutrition from it of course, because we lack the stomach enzymes like cows have to break it down. But just think if we did … more energy from the same amount of food! Brilliant!"

  "If he was so brilliant, why is dead now?" Jack asked in a deadpan voice.

  "Maybe he ran into the same problems the guys in England encountered. I can’t imagine it would be good for the corporation to have this little experiment go public, especially if the participants were…"

  "Guinea pigs?" Jack chimed in.

  "Yes, although I was thinking more along the lines of test subjects. Oh my God Jack, this may be the reason those poor prisoners were killed in the desert, and why Mark was killed too… to cover up the whole experiment!"

  "If that’s the case, how big does it get?" Jack said. "Let’s not forget the military’s possible role in this."

  Jack paused and thought for a moment about their next move. "I think first we check out the situation at your lab and then pay a visit to Mark’s lab and talk with his boss over there. What was his name again?"

  "Um, Dr. Basra, but Kyle said he wasn’t much help. He denied Mark was even missing, let alone dead."

  "Well, I think it’s important we pay him a visit. But we need to come up with a story that would get us in to see him." Jack paused again, trying to come up with a solution. "I know! You could be a reporter from a medical journal wanting to do a story on him or something," he said pulling info up on his tablet.

  After a short Internet inquiry into Mark's lab and their services, Jack placed a call to IFT posing as Colleen’s assistant. He scheduled an appointment for her using the name of an existing reporter from an industry magazine to interview Dr. Basra regarding the Institute’s push for the standardization of genetically modified products. Jack made up a story about a last minute cancellation of a scheduled story, and the availability of an opening for the next issue if they could hit deadline. He secured an interview for the day after tomorrow.

  Jack thanked the scheduler and hung up. He was about to fill Colleen in on his plan and her new identity but saw Colleen was frozen in place, engrossed by something she was reading.

  "Colleen?"

  "Yes, I’m listening… I’m a reporter, blah blah blah. Can do…" she parroted Jack's ploy dismissively, her eyes fixed on her reading.

  "Did you find something important?" Jack asked, disappointed his scheme to get into IFT wasn’t more visibly appreciated.

  Colleen shook her head as if to return to the present, "Sorry, I was just reading a note from Mark. I, … um, rather he… made notes and observations about my research," she stumbled trying to read and explain the notes to Jack at the same time. "It really is quite flattering!"

  "Well, spill it, Colleen, what’s he say?"

  "He thinks my work is brilliant, and my clinical trial design is superb! Superb, Jack! Did you hear that?"

  "Wow, said Jack, "a fan!"

  "Here’s a note about his admiration of the fact I used the virus against itself, and how he believed it could easily pass through the blood-brain barrier, 'An essential trait required of any attempt at a cure', he said."

  Colleen looked up from her reading and beamed. "Mark called my idea 'ingenious' Jack!"

  "Ok", Jack asked, completely missing why Colleen was so excited. "Help a novice out… why do you think he identified the brain blood whatever as so critical?"

  "Well, remember the Genesis gene, the area in our brains that can replicate any genetic change inserted there throughout every cell in the body? The patch of cells that make it up were found in the earliest, most primitive region of the brain, the very region Mark suspected could be the target for my serum! There are several structures in that region, the hippocampus, the amygdala, and others, with functions that frankly we are just now beginning to understand.

  "But the body’s defenses against any infection reaching the brain are formidable. Each of us has what is called a blood brain barrier, which acts like a kind of gate. It allows nutrients and oxygen carried by the blood to pass through, while blocking toxi
ns or infectious agents. In order to make changes to the whole organism at the cellular level, you would need to get your modifying serum past that barrier. By coincidence, the HIV molecule has demonstrated such ability!

  "Mark must have realized that my serum worked because it was able to make modifications to the Genesis gene. And it was only able to do that because I modified the 'carrier' from one of the very few viruses able to cross through the barrier!

  "Wow," Colleen said, basking a moment in her newly discovered praise. " I am ingenious!"

  "Now that’s impressive, Colleen" Jack said trying to match her enthusiasm level but falling short. "I always knew you were resourceful, but I have to bring you down to earth a little bit. You aren’t the only one who knows their way around an amygdala, you know."