The Gene of Life

by Tetsuo Ted Takashima

  “When the sun goes down, we sleep, and when the sun rises, we wake up. People are a part of nature, and everything we do falls in sync with its flow.”

  “Life is supposed to be that way. But we’re running against that. We’re trying to take advantage of all twenty-four hours in the day. And that definitely comes back to bite us one way or another.”

  “We have been culled by natural selection and evolved, all within the bounds of nature.”

  “If Darwin knew what we get up to today, he’d be shocked. The theory of evolution itself has changed. Natural selection no longer applies to humans.”

  “That just means a new theory of evolution will rise to take the place of the old.”

  “A body that can withstand chemical substances,” Katya said, “a stress-free psyche, a giant braincase of a head, and barely functional arms and legs. That’s where we’re headed. And we could live longer if we got rid of our emotions. Soon we won’t even need reproductive organs, or gender differences. We’ll have virtual sex and create offspring from clones. The brain will be everything. Just thinking about it makes me shudder.”

  “But in the larger cosmos, that doesn’t matter. In the eyes of the universe, we might just be some accident of nature born in a far-flung corner—just a little dust and nothing more.”

  “Even beings made of dust have a right to exist. You don’t know what it’s like to be insignificant, Professor. You’ve always basked in the brightness of the sun.”

  Max laughed at Katya’s words. “Your career is nothing to sneeze at, either. You’ve written quite a few papers already. When I was your age, I hadn’t published a third of what you have.”

  “But when you were my age, everyone in the world of science already knew your name. The quality of work isn’t measured only in the number of papers. Your discoveries are featured in textbooks. Those who aspire to life science read your papers and follow the path you walked.”

  “But does any of that matter?”

  “It’s important,” she said with conviction. “I said you were chosen by God when those thugs attacked us in Germany. You got angry.”

  “I wasn’t angry.”

  “Don’t lie. I think you were.”

  “Why did you come to this jungle? Don’t say it was because I asked.”

  “It interested me. One can’t do much in a lab alone.” Katya thought silently for a while. “The truth is,” she added, “I was interested in the actions you take. Something of tremendous significance must be behind the actions of a man with a track record as impressive as yours—something someone like me can’t fathom. Why did you come all the way out here, Professor? And please don’t say it just interested you.”

  “It’s getting chilly out there,” he said, ignoring her words as he zipped up his sweatshirt. “But there are still plenty of mosquitoes and blackflies around.”

  “Okay. I get it. I’m an assistant who forced you to hire me. I won’t ask any more.” Katya shivered and leaned toward Max. “Now I know the Amazon gets cold, even though it’s near the Equator.”

  “You should thank your roommate. We were close to freezing to death in the rainforest.” She’d brought a thick sweatshirt because of his advice.

  “Former roommate. Now he’s just a friend,” she said, with a hint of sadness. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Is this picking up where you left off last night?”

  “Will you ever get married?”

  “Do you think I have that kind of time?”

  “Time has nothing to do with it.”

  “Time is an important factor. People live on borrowed time.”

  The two silently gazed at the sky for a while. Max felt the warmth of Katya’s soft skin.

  “You’re thinking about that laboratory, aren’t you?” asked Katya.

  “What were the Nazis doing there?” Max said.

  “Viruses, biological weapons, iron-bar cells, operating tables with leather belts—it’s scary to think about, but the villagers don’t seem scared. They seem indifferent.”

  “Maybe they’ve forgotten the horrors. The research building was used more than twenty years ago, but when I try to imagine the research Dr. Gerhard was doing there—” Max swallowed his words, hesitant to say more.

  “There were four operating tables,” said Katya. “And an examination table with stirrups.”

  “Did they do the same thing they did in Auschwitz?”

  “Human experimentation . . .”

  Max thought about what Feldman told him about Simon and his twin sister, as well as Feldman’s neck scar and missing fingertip. The Nazis were merciless even toward women and children. “The Nazi doctor Mengele was said to have made soap using the fat of slaughtered Jews, and lamp shades from human skin.”

  “Some of the equipment we found had to do with biological experiments, and at the cellular level.”

  “Bacterial or viral cultures. They could make biological weapons and infect people. Was the dry black lump in the jar once part of someone’s body?”

  It suddenly grew dark. The moon was gone. Raindrops pelted them, and they hurried back into the hut. The snoring from the hammocks that were lined up in the dark was as loud as the pouring rain. Max got into his hammock. The rain pounded violently on the roof. Max closed his eyes and listened.

  The next morning, Max called out to Jake, who was about to go back to the graves. “I want to collect blood samples from the villagers.”

  “I don’t think that’s in the cards,” he replied, staring at him like that was obvious. “Are you just going to say ‘give me your blood’? They’ll think we are some kind of vampires from hell. They might shoot us with poison darts and burn us alive. And right after we established friendly relations, too. So please, Professor, don’t ruin our historic discovery by causing trouble.”

  “They just need to be shown respect and gratitude.”

  Max surveyed their food piled up in the corner of the hut. Most of their rations were meals like noodles, soup, and vegetables, but there were also cans of corned beef and meats. There were also snacks like chocolates and cookies.

  “Don’t push our luck. We have enough food to last six people for five days. Taking into account the way back, we’re close to running out as it is. Besides, I don’t think that’s going to work on them.”

  “We won’t know until we try. Didn’t Feldman tell you to ‘accommodate me to the greatest extent’?” Max took a few cans of corned beef and some chocolate from a box.

  “Are you planning to trek through the jungle without anything to eat on our way back?”

  “I can eat fish, birds, insects, the same things they eat. And if that bothers you, I’ll just become a vegetarian.”

  “I can’t say I like either idea.”

  “Just think, if we do things my way, we might actually find what we’re looking for.”

  “We’ve already found what we were looking for. Now we can finally free ourselves from the nightmare of the twentieth century.”

  “But we still need to do this, just to make sure.”

  Max stared at Jake until he gave in, sighing, as he looked up at the ceiling.

  “I’ll let you give away half of it. If it all disappears, we’ll have a mutiny on our hands. I’m already dieting enough,” he added before going back outside.

  Max also left the hut.

  “Professor!” Katya was sitting on a log in front of the hut, Tania beside her. “Tania’s the village chief’s daughter. She and Davi live together, just the two of them.”

  “Are you sure she’s not his granddaughter? Davi’s over seventy years old. Or do you mean to say . . .” He didn’t want to entertain the thought that the two were married.

  “She calls Davi ‘Vater.’”

  “So she does speak German?”

  “Just that one word. I don’t think it’s her native language.”

  Max looked at Tania and had a thought. “Could we maybe take a sample of her blood?”

  “Y
ou want to take samples from the kids first? Not sure I agree.”

  Katya shrugged and turned to face her. Then she crouched down and gripped her little hands. “We don’t want to hurt you. We just want your help.”

  Tania stared at Katya with quizzical eyes. In the meantime, more children had formed a circle around the three.

  “We’ll only be taking a tiny little bit of your blood. And it won’t hurt, promise. I always disinfect, and I never use the same needle. You will be helping science.” She stretched out her arms and faced the other children. A desperate gambit.

  The kids whispered and sniggered among each other. Tania got to her feet and headed for the hut.

  “It’s no use. They don’t understand us.”

  “It’s not like you to give up so easily. Put yourself in their place. How would you feel if a stranger popped up out of nowhere asking for your blood?”

  “I wouldn’t be thrilled about it.”

  “I’d think an evil spirit was coming for me. And I’d try to drive it off. We need a quicker, easier—”

  “Say no more. These people are plain and unaffected. I especially like the children. The kids in America and Germany try to act all mature. The kids here are a million times more natural and human, chasing after mice and climbing up hundred-foot-tall trees without a care in the world.”

  “That’s just another way to be.”

  The kids were kicking up a commotion, pointing at Katya and talking. Tania approached her with a coconut-half container.

  “What’s this?” Katya squatted down next to her.

  The coconut half contained a red liquid. It was the crushed fruits of some tree. Tania put a finger in the liquid and drew a line on Katya’s forehead. The other kids cheered joyfully.

  “What is this?” Katya took a mirror out of her bag, and almost shrieked.

  Tania also applied the red liquid to her own forehead. Each of the kids took turns dipping their fingers, tracing some pattern on Katya’s head, and then tracing it on their own. At some point, the women from the village also gathered around.

  “You’ve finally been recognized by your comrades. You are the kids’ boss now,” said Max, stifling a laugh.

  “But—”

  “This must be a ritual among the children. I’m sure it washes right off.”

  “That’s not the issue,” she said, on the verge of tears.

  The women surrounding them were also laughing.

  With Katya’s help, Max began collecting blood from the villagers, giving them food and chocolate in exchange. At the same time, they conducted interviews. They asked for their names by pointing at themselves, saying their own names, and then pointing at them. Katya jotted down their approximate ages, heights, weights, and physical characteristics. Surprisingly, they didn’t object to the shots. Each silently offered their arm and watched as the needle punctured their skin and drew their blood. Perhaps this was not their first time. He asked a mother with her child if she had ever seen a syringe, but she just stared at the needle tip expressionlessly. Blood collection proceeded more smoothly than expected, and by evening they’d been able to take blood samples of around half of the population.

  “Analyzing the blood of fifty-seven people here is going to be impossible,” Katya said, as she sorted the samples and data.

  “Just collecting the samples is enough for now. We’ll analyze them when we get back.” Max was peering into a microscope.

  “The interviews are the real problem. Davi can’t be the only German-speaker, can he?”

  “They’re being modest. They won’t flaunt their education. That’s how they’ve been able to live here undisturbed all this time.”

  “Please don’t make fun, Professor. I’m being serious.”

  “We could always learn their language, you know.”

  “I’m tired. Opening cans is hard labor.”

  “Even if that’s all we’ll learn through this, that alone’s a considerable find.”

  “They’re really eating the stuff with relish. I feel warm and fuzzy inside just watching,” she said, as she observed a bunch of villagers gathering in a corner of the village, eating chocolate and cans of corned beef.

  “A unique combination, to be sure, but it looks like those flavors aren’t unfamiliar to them.”

  “You’re saying they’ve had whatever food the Nazis gave them.”

  Max nodded silently.

  Jake’s group returned. His assistants were each carrying a full bag.

  “These are the pairs of glasses, teeth, and uniform scraps of thirty-two people. We also found notebooks and photos. But they’re all very old. Some fall apart at the touch. Grave robbing is not easy.”

  “What about Benchell and Gehlen’s personal belongings?”

  “All we found was their skeletons with their uniforms on, and they were deteriorated. Maybe because of the humidity?”

  “And the teeth?”

  “Care to see?” He took a smaller bag from the big bag and shook it in front of Max.

  “Unfortunately, I’m not a dentist.”

  “We’ll be finished robbing their graves in two days.”

  “Will you be able to finally settle the score that way?”

  “I hope so, Professor,” Jake said with a fatigued look, peering down at the bag full of teeth. His expression radiated equal parts relief and anxiety.

  The next day, while Jake’s group was out exhuming, they continued their blood sample collection and interviews with the villagers. The interviews didn’t go all that smoothly. For one, nobody knew their date of birth. There were no calendars in the village, and no paper. They had to rely on their own judgment.

  They woke up at sunrise and went to sleep at sunset. The women prepared the meals and dug up potatoes in the fields. Women also extracted starch from the potatoes. The men went hunting in groups with bows and blowpipes, but all they’d managed to bring back in three days was a single spider monkey.

  The village was isolated from civilization. It made sense for the remnants of the Nazis to flee to such a place, and yet at the same time, they couldn’t help but wonder why.

  That evening, Max sat on the log in front of the hut, looking at the village. Katya was beside him. When the sun went down, the light disappeared quickly, as the village was surrounded by trees. Scant light shone through the dense canopy onto the clearing.

  “They’re tough customers,” said Katya, watching the villagers who continued about their lives as if nothing had happened. “There are obviously people who understand German besides just Davi. Like the older men. The younger women seem to speak it, too, but they pretend they don’t for some reason. What can they possibly be thinking?”

  “I don’t think they’re hiding it. I think they just don’t want to get involved.”

  “In any case, they must have learned German from the Nazis. Maybe Tania too.”

  None of them mentioned the arrival of the Nazis in the village. Mentioning Dona and Gehlen’s names did nothing but elicit suspicious looks. And yet there were traces of Nazi activity here.

  “Have you noticed the number of kids is increasing?”

  “They must’ve come out from hiding.”

  At first there were only a few children in sight, but now there were more than ten.

  “We’re going about this all wrong. Drawing them in with food is basically bartering in blood. And all we’re giving them is a can of corned beef and a piece of chocolate. We’re swindling them.”

  “Is there any other way?”

  “If we took the time to persuade them, I’m sure we’d get through to them.”

  “We haven’t got that kind of time.”

  “What’s the point of doing this? The Nazi war criminals we were looking for are already dead. Is it our job to collect blood from the villagers?” Katya slammed her interview notebook on her lap.

  “They’re rustic, innocent, and not poisoned by civilized society. But I barely even know their names. No one knows their date of bi
rth. They don’t even know what day it is today, because they have no need to,” Katya said. “Benchell, Gehlen, the owner of that hand. Their clones may be physically identical, but that doesn’t mean their minds are identical. I think it’s unreasonable to punish them even if they are former Nazis. It wasn’t the clones that committed those crimes. What is the point of examining the villagers? You could examine the lab building in the same amount of time and get a hundred times more to go off of.”

  Katya took a breath. “Your eyes are bloodshot. You woke up in the middle of the night and looked into the microscope all through the night, didn’t you?” She was glaring at him. “You’re looking for something. Please tell me what it is. I can tell by looking at you that you’re hiding something. That you’re suffering alone. It’s only been a short time since I met you but I came all the way out here with you. It’s time you put some faith in me.”

  Max gently averted his eyes. “Even I’m not sure what will come of this.”

  “But you do have an idea. Otherwise, I . . .” Sweat coated Katya’s forehead.

  “Ninety-nine percent of research is monotonous and boring. Everyone dreams of the remaining one percent, but the majority never get there.”

  “What are you looking for, Professor? Please tell me that much.”

  “I want you to wait a little longer.”

  Max stood up and turned to the forest surrounding the village. The silhouettes of the trees floated in the now colorless air.

  What I’m looking for—I know full well what that is. And at last, I’m beginning to see a small light at the end of the tunnel. But that light felt so fragile, he was scared speaking it aloud would cause it to vanish.

  “It’s quiet. It’s like being taken into the forest.” Katya sighed. The sun had set, and there were no people in the clearing. All sound disappeared, and the silence pressed in from the wild. The huts were lined up in their modest rows, and inside people were doing what they had done for thousands of years, and were now trying to fall asleep.

  “People have lived this way since ancient times. This may be what we are all meant to be like.”