by Mark Alpert
“And that was the first Fury? Your great-great-great-grandmother?”
“Correct. Believe it or not, a human’s biochemistry is roughly similar to an amoeba’s, so the restoration of the antiaging effect isn’t so surprising. The Fountain gene causes some odd side effects in humans, though. It’s linked to another gene that gives us green eyes and red hair.” Smiling, she tugged at her ponytail. “Also, our teeth never stop regenerating. New teeth are always forming in our jaws and pushing out the old ones. And that’s a good thing, because otherwise we’d suffer from centuries of tooth decay.”
He recalled the baby tooth Gabe Rodriguez had found in Ariel’s mouth while stitching up her bullet wounds. It had puzzled the hell out of Gabe, but now it made sense. John pointed at the computer screen, specifically at the part of the Punnett square that was marked XFY. “But what about your men?” he asked. “They inherit the Fountain gene too. Why don’t they get the antiaging effect?”
Ariel’s face turned serious. “Here’s where it gets complicated. Although the X chromosome has been pretty stable over the course of evolution, the Y has changed a lot because it mutates frequently. One of the newer genes on the Y produces a different kind of activator protein, which triggers the development of human sperm and a few other cellular processes that are essential to male fertility. Unfortunately, this protein also interferes with the one produced by the Fountain gene. Whenever the two proteins come near each other, they merge into a useless clump. Because both proteins are immobilized, neither one can do its job. That’s why our men age normally but never become fertile. Although they inherit the Fountain gene, they show none of its effects except the green eyes and red hair.”
John nodded. He was starting to get the gist of what Ariel was saying. Mother Nature had given her family a gift, but there were some strings attached. “When did you figure all this out? A long time ago, or just recently?”
Ariel made a sweeping gesture, pointing at all the lab tables in the room. “Our family has a long tradition of scientific research. My grandmothers discovered the rules of heredity hundreds of years ago by experimenting with plant hybrids. But we also keep abreast of research in the outside world. When scientists in the international Human Genome Project mapped the full chemical sequence of human DNA a decade ago, we realized we could use this information to identify the gene on the X chromosome that makes us unique.” She grinned with pride. “We identified the Fountain gene five years ago. A year later we identified the Upstart gene, the one on the Y chromosome that works at cross-purposes with Fountain. Then we started the effort to isolate the activator proteins produced by the genes. I had to recruit more assistants to work on the project, because by that point we were under pressure from our men.”
“Pressure? What do you mean?”
“Both the young men and the old were anxious to see progress. Because the young wished to father children, they hoped we’d learn how to disable the Fountain gene or its protein. With Fountain out of the way, the Upstart gene could make them fertile. But the older men wanted the opposite. They hoped we’d discover how to shut down Upstart, so their Fountain genes could stop them from aging.” Ariel turned away from the lab table and pointed at the hundreds of flasks on the shelves. “You see all those chemicals? Those are the drugs we tested, trying to see if they inhibited either Fountain or Upstart. Unfortunately, none of them worked. Although a few of the compounds shut down Upstart, they weren’t safe. They also turned off dozens of crucial genes on other chromosomes, which would be fatal.”
She stared at the crowded shelves, slowly turning her head from left to right. Instead of continuing the story, she remained silent for a long while, biting her lower lip and averting her eyes. John sensed she had more to say but dreaded telling the next part. He leaned toward her. “What happened then?”
Ariel took a deep breath. “About two years ago I decided to conduct a test. Our lab had hundreds of blood and tissue samples from Fury women. Because the Fountain gene is in all our cells, I knew those samples would contain the gene’s protein. I wondered what would happen if I extracted the protein from that tissue and injected it into a Fury male. If the man’s cells were literally flooded with Fountain proteins, I hypothesized that Upstart wouldn’t be able to block them all. Maybe enough of the Fountain proteins would escape immobilization and trigger the antiaging effect. It was a radical idea, but I knew that scientists in the outside world were using a similar technique to fight tumors. The crucial step is binding the protein to molecules that can carry it from the bloodstream into the cells.”
“And who was the subject for this test?”
She paused before answering. “Sullivan volunteered. This was before the rebellion, obviously. He and I had been on bad terms for many years, but I decided not to let our history get in the way.”
John knew that “bad terms” was a hell of an understatement. He’d witnessed Sullivan thrashing Ariel. And he remembered what the bastard had said during the beating, how he’d railed about killing any man who came near her. It was clear that sometime in the past, maybe years and years ago, Sullivan had desired his half sister and Ariel had rejected him. But John wasn’t going to bring up this subject now. “So did the test work?” he asked.
“Yes, Sullivan stopped aging. But only temporarily.”
She fell silent again. John waited several seconds, but she didn’t say anything else. “I don’t get it,” he said. “What went wrong?”
She frowned. “The treatment worked, but it required a huge amount of Fountain protein. I extracted the stuff from nearly all of our tissue samples, and even then I had only enough to treat Sullivan for a week. He stopped aging for seven days—I could see the changes in his cellular activity—but then it resumed when we ran out of the protein. At first I thought I could get more by culturing big batches of Fury cells, or using recombinant technology to insert the Fountain gene into other cells. But Fury cells don’t grow well in the lab, and the protein is tricky to produce any other way. We just couldn’t make enough.”
“So what did you do?”
“I kept at it. Maybe you didn’t notice this, but I can be pretty damn stubborn. It occurred to me that the cellular processes triggered by Fountain are similar to what goes on inside every human fetus during its development. So I guessed that some of the proteins in a fetus would be similar to the Fountain protein. As it turned out, we had some fetal tissue samples in our lab. One of our Rangers had collected them from a hospital in Detroit several years ago because we were doing a study on birth defects. When I analyzed the samples I discovered I was right. The fetal tissue was full of an activator protein that was very similar to Fountain’s. And there was a chemical reaction that could transform the fetal protein into Fountain protein. All I needed to do was find a catalyst, a special enzyme to trigger the reaction.”
John winced. He pulled away from her, shifting in his chair. The memory of the specimen jar had come back to him. Once again he stood in the woods of Valley Forge National Park and stared at the tiny brown hand floating in the yellow liquid. He shook his head to dispel the memory. He was angry at Ariel now. “Jesus, that’s horrible. Didn’t you realize what you were doing?”
He expected her to get angry, too. He thought she’d furiously defend herself. But instead she simply nodded. “Yes, at that point I saw what could happen. Once we had the catalyst, we’d need fetuses to supply the protein. At least ten thousand fetuses a year for a few hundred men. It was an ethical nightmare. So I told the Council of Elders I couldn’t continue doing this research.”
“How did they react?”
“They agreed with me, but not because they had ethical concerns. Mother was worried about the practical consequences. The only source for so much fetal tissue would be the outside world’s abortion clinics. Every year they send hundreds of thousands of fetuses to medical-waste companies for disposal. A good number of those fetuses, maybe fifty thousand, would be large enough for our purposes. But even if we could secretly o
btain some of those aborted fetuses, we couldn’t keep the arrangements secret for very long. The outsiders would eventually discover what we were doing. So the council instructed me to go back to my lab and start over.” She lowered her head and gazed at the floor. “At first I was relieved. I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Then a week later, Sullivan and his friends escaped from Haven.”
John’s anger subsided. As he stared at Ariel’s disconsolate face he saw how guilty she felt. She’d opened a Pandora’s box. She felt responsible for the rebellion. “And then Sullivan’s men decided to collect some fetuses on their own?”
Ariel kept her eyes on the floor. “They’re bribing someone who works for one of the medical-waste firms. So far they’ve managed to keep it quiet. They’ve hidden the fetal tissue in our caches. A few of Sullivan’s men previously worked in our labs, so they know how to extract the fetal protein from the tissue. But they can’t turn the fetal protein into Fountain without the catalyst. They have to know the catalyst’s chemical formula before they can produce the antiaging remedy.” She shook her head. “Mother was frantic when she learned what they were doing. It was exactly what she’d feared. Can you imagine what would happen if an outsider discovered that our family was grinding up fetuses to produce medicine? The reaction would be catastrophic. It would be the sixteenth century all over again.”
John could imagine it. People would be outraged and horrified. Maybe they wouldn’t burn or lynch the Furies, but they’d certainly want to. First, the police would round up and interrogate Sullivan’s men. Then they’d raid Haven and arrest everyone else. “You’re right,” he said. “It wouldn’t be pretty.”
“The Elders had no choice but to start negotiating with Sullivan. Mother sent him messages, begging him to come back to Haven. She promised to devote all our resources to discovering a better way to produce the Fountain protein. At the same time, she ordered me to find the formula for the catalyst. She thought we could use it to produce a small amount of Fountain from the XX and XY fetuses that our women miscarry. We could also make regular blood donations and extract Fountain from that supply. All together, we might be able to collect enough protein to treat the oldest of our men until we came up with a better solution.”
“How did Sullivan respond?”
“He said it was a good start. He refused to return to Haven, but he agreed to stop attacking our Rangers while we worked on the catalyst. But I didn’t trust him. My half brother is as devious as a crow. I knew he’d use his spies to watch our labs. So I contacted Mariela, the chief of our Caño Dorado outpost, and told her to do the catalyst work there.”
John had heard the name of the outpost before. Sullivan had mentioned it, and so had Ariel’s Aunt Margaret. “Caño Dorado? Where the hell is that?”
“It’s not in one location. It’s a floating outpost, literally. The researchers travel from place to place in the Amazon River basin, searching for undiscovered plants and analyzing their properties. They go up and down the Amazon and its tributaries, carrying their lab equipment in skiffs and canoes. Sometimes they’re in Brazil, sometimes Peru or Colombia or Bolivia. And no one in Haven knows where they are, except me.”
“Why you?”
“They’re loyal to me. Mariela and all five of her assistants worked in my lab at one time or another. And they’re all women. That’s why I could trust them with the task of finding the formula for the catalyst. Sullivan couldn’t spy on them.”
“But he figured out a plan for getting the formula, didn’t he? By attacking you in New York?”
Ariel finally raised her head and looked him in the eye. “Mariela took great pains to keep the formula secret. When she was ready to deliver it to me, she hired a courier, a professional who usually transports diamonds for international gem brokers. She traveled to Panama to meet him and wrote the formula in runes so the man wouldn’t understand it. But Sullivan discovered that Hal and Richard and I were going to meet the courier in New York, at Grand Central Station. So he ordered his men to follow us to the rendezvous, but they didn’t attack us there.”
“Because Grand Central was too public?”
“Exactly. The Riflemen followed us and waited until we reached the hotel in Brooklyn. They knew I’d be more vulnerable there.” She moved closer to John, leaning forward in her chair. “But they didn’t count on you, John. You did much more than save my life. If Sullivan had taken the formula, he would’ve used the catalyst on every fetus he could get his hands on. And he would’ve stayed on this risky course until he destroyed all of us.” She moved still closer. “So I’m grateful. You saved my family. Maybe the Council of Elders doesn’t appreciate it, but I do.”
Her face was just inches away. She was so close he could feel the warmth of her breath on his cheeks. He wanted to kiss her, and he had a strong feeling that Ariel wanted it, too. But John held himself back. Ariel had explained a lot of things, but she’d left out something important. “And now you want me to help you again? To prove my worth to the Elders?”
She nodded, keeping her eyes locked on his. “I’m trying to come up with my own plan. Trying to figure out a way to neutralize Sullivan without killing all his followers. But first I need some information from you.” She lowered her gaze, staring at his chest. “Well, to be more precise, I need some information from your body.”
“My body?”
“I’d like to see how you react to the Fountain protein. I’ve tested it on Fury men, but never on an outsider.”
John was surprised. His passionate feelings for Ariel swiftly dissipated. “What are you trying to find out?”
“I want to know how much protein is required to trigger the antiaging effects in your cells. You have the Upstart gene on your Y chromosome, but you don’t have the Fountain gene on your X. So I’m guessing you’d need more protein than the average Fury male would, because you don’t have any natural sources in your body. But it’s hard to say exactly how much more you’d need.”
Her tone of voice had changed. She was speaking so clinically now. John hated the sound of it. “And how will this information help you?”
“I’m not sure yet. But it could be useful.”
This answer was unsatisfying. He looked at her carefully. “No, you’re up to something. You’re wondering what would happen if people in the outside world learned about your Fountain of Youth. Because if they hear it exists, they’re all going to want it. Am I right?”
She gave a noncommittal shrug. “Maybe so. But you’re jumping ahead. Right now I just want to collect some data. So will you help me?”
John backed away from her and rose to his feet. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Ariel. He just didn’t like being used this way. He started pacing back and forth, moving between the lab table and the shelves full of flasks. “This protein you want to inject into me, does it come from fetuses?”
“No, it comes from us, the Fury women. At my request, the Council of Elders ordered every woman in Haven to donate a pint of blood.” She pointed at the refrigerator at the other end of the lab table. “Some of the donated blood is already in there. I’m going to extract the Fountain protein from that supply. It’ll be enough to stop a male Fury from aging for about ten days. But I don’t know how it’ll affect you.”
“How will you know if it works? Can you tell if I’ve stopped aging?”
“I’ll take cell samples from various parts of your body. I’ll look at them under the microscope and analyze their chemical composition. Fountain halts aging by accelerating the rate of cellular repair, and there’s a distinctive chemical marker that’ll show the rate. I should be able to tell if it’s working in a day or two.”
“Will there be any side effects? Anything dangerous? If Fountain counteracts the Upstart protein, won’t it make me infertile?”
“Just temporarily. It’ll probably lower your sperm count for a few days, but then you’ll return to normal. There shouldn’t be any side effects other than that.”
John st
opped pacing. He stood in front of the shelves, looking at the laboratory flasks instead of Ariel. He noticed she hadn’t reminded him that his cooperation might help sway the Elders. Maybe she knew he didn’t need a reminder. Or maybe she sensed that he didn’t care how the council ruled on his case. Whether he lived or died wasn’t important. His decision would be based on something else altogether.
He turned around and walked back to Ariel. A few long strands of red hair had escaped from her ponytail and hung in front of her pale forehead. Even though she was three hundred and seventy-three years old, she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He’d sacrificed everything to help this woman, throwing away his whole past life in the process. How could he say no to her now?
He stopped in front of her chair. “When do you want to start this experiment? Today?”
“No, tomorrow morning. I need some time to purify enough protein.”
“Okay, I’ll do it. Just don’t poison me, all right?”
In response, she jumped out of her seat and wrapped her arms around him. She clung to his shoulders, keeping her weight off her healing legs, and pressed her lips against his. After a moment of stunned paralysis, he gripped her waist and closed his eyes. Her lips tasted of salt and oranges. Just like before, when John had kissed her in that hotel room in Brooklyn, he felt like he was falling. The laboratory and everything in it disappeared, all the hundreds of flasks whirling out of sight.
The kiss went on and on. Then Ariel pulled back and smiled at him. “Thank you, John,” she said. “Once again I’m in your debt.”
The look on her face was so intoxicating that John leaned forward to kiss her again. But she let go of him and fell back to her chair.
“Sorry, not now. I have to get to work.” She slid her chair to the other end of the lab table and opened the door to the refrigerator. Inside was a stack of pint-size plastic bags, each filled with dark red blood. “Conroy will be your escort for the afternoon. He should be waiting for you now by the elevator.”