Christ Clone

by McLeod, David

  Malone ran his hand over his face and let out a huge sigh of relief. 'I'll pay you whatever the going rate is, and — thank you!'

  'Okay then, I'll call in sick for a few days. That way we can get together in the morning and figure out what we're going to do.'

  It had been an exhausting day and Malone felt drained; he thanked Daniel warmly as he saw him out, then he closed the door, and went to bed.

  His night was restless. The effects of drying out were coupled with the day's events turning over and over in his mind. The meeting with Logan — was he really going to help, or had he just fobbed him off? The shopping mall — he knew he'd been secretly looking at all the girls there, searching for Mary, desperately scanning for anyone who looked remotely like her, as he'd done for so many years. That is before he started hiding in the Dog Box. And then the chance meeting with Daniel in the computer store . . .

  A repetitive knocking awakened Malone. He looked at his clock: it was eight-thirty. Disoriented, dressed in track pants and a dirty white T-shirt, he made his way to the front door. Daniel was clutching two cups of coffee.

  'I thought you'd need this,' he said as he extended one of them.

  Malone grunted, took the cup and turned back into the house, leaving the door open for Daniel to enter.

  'You're welcome,' Daniel muttered.

  They went into the living room and sat down. 'What's wrong with your eyes? They look terrible,' Daniel said.

  'I actually feel better than usual, despite how I look. It's been a long time since I've had a morning without a hangover.'

  Daniel shuddered; Malone was not a pretty sight in the morning.

  'I had trouble sleeping last night, going over old memories and nightmares,' Malone added.

  'I couldn't sleep much either. The plumber's van is a good lead but it's not a lot to go on. We've got to find out more.'

  Malone liked the way Daniel said we.

  'I agree the link is a little tenuous and far-fetched, but believe me, I've chased after less.'

  'And achieved what?' Daniel snapped and then seemed to regret it instantly. 'I'm sorry, man.'

  'No, you're right. I've achieved very little and lost a lot, but I just have a gut feeling about this — I know there must be a better way to go about this. What do you suggest we do?'

  Daniel seemed taken aback at how open Malone was.

  'Well, I'm no detective, but we need to think outside of just the Marys and the van, and look for more similarities. I don't think the girls' first names — even though they're the same — have anything to do with it. I think that's just a coincidence. The use of the same type of van could be something, but with five years between the crimes, it's still a stretch.'

  The coincidence — if that was what it was — rang in Malone's head, but he dismissed it. The kid was probably right. Would they really be looking for someone who had a fascination with the name Mary and, for that matter, plumbing? He doubted it.

  'I think we need to look at the geography and time, date, and so on. Do you have an LA street map?'

  Malone went to the kitchen drawer and rummaged around until he found one. 'It's a few years old, but I think it'll do the trick.'

  They spread the map out on the dining table and looked at the city. In thick black pen was a circle over Malone's street and Mary's school. A line had been drawn between the two circles and it followed the streets around the area, crossing suburbs and passing parks, finally passing Malone's street. It looked like a small maze.

  'The bus route?' Daniel asked.

  Malone nodded. 'Yes, but she didn't take it, she walked home with a friend, or at least as far as her friend's house, two blocks away.'

  'So the bus is no similarity either,' Daniel said, more to himself than to Malone.

  'The police checked out the bus driver anyway, but got nothing. The teachers, the caretaker, the neighbours, they all got questioned. The only one who saw anything out of the ordinary was Mad Jack next door, and he only saw the van. No one called or used a plumber that day, that's how we know it's involved.'

  'Well, you know all about the missing Mary Malone, but we don't know enough about Mary Salinas. We need to get more details and match them up to each other, see if there's a pattern. I think you need to go and speak with the Salinas family and get as many details as you can. In the meantime, I'll see if I can hack into the missing persons' file and look for other cases like Mary's. I'll also get started on the beige plumber's van, maybe call around and see how many companies have them. What's your cell number so I can get hold of you if something comes up?'

  Malone admired the lad's way of thinking, but winced at the thought of the cellphone. 'Sounds like a plan to me. I don't have a cellphone, so I guess I'll just meet you back at headquarters here when I'm done.' So he'd just given his house, Casa de la Morte, a new title — Headquarters. Maybe this was a new beginning.

  He stood up, finished his coffee, and left the house whistling; he was happy with his new mission.

  4

  BERLIN

  Plasmid Systems Inc was a world leader in all areas of DNA and cloning techniques. Its head office and main laboratory were based in Germany, in Berlin. PSI employed over three thousand people, and was growing. Its labs took up several thousand square metres, and supplied medical and research solutions to the health, cosmetic, and engineering industries worldwide.

  It would have been easy to call it a one-stop cloning shop, and in layman's terms, it was. But the members of the board were quick to point out that its facilities in fact comprised three interrelated subdivisions — recombinant DNA technology or DNA cloning, reproductive cloning, and therapeutic cloning.

  It was early Friday morning and Dr Klaus Zudermeister, head of the three divisions, was tired. A big man, some would call him borderline obese, Klaus had hair in all the wrong places and none of it in the right ones. His breathing was laboured after climbing the three flights of stairs to the lab — part of his new fitness regime. In his hand was a half-eaten bacon sandwich, definitely not part of his recommended diet, but he'd decided to change one thing at a time.

  He was, as usual, the first to arrive and although he wasn't a morning person, he liked the quiet of the lab without the technicians. By being the first one there in the morning, he felt like he and the lab were in some way waking up together.

  Klaus stood there in the darkness for a while, looking across the bench tops at the small red standby lights and listening to the gentle hum of the machines' transformers; he often thought the hum sounded like the rhythmic breathing of a machine in a deep sleep.

  Against the wall, on the far side of the room, were rows of jars containing embryos. In an attempt to depersonalize this part of the business, experiment numbers were written on the glass sides, but these numbers could so easily be replaced by the names of their residents.

  'Time to wake up,' he announced as he flicked on the main switch. The lab bolted into life as if waking from a bad dream. He made his way to his office, running his finger along the line of benches as he went. He missed the hands-on part of the job, and often during board meetings found his mind going through old experiments. Was he really cut out to talk about profit and loss and lab budgets? He didn't like managing staff and he didn't like management systems; in fact, the only aspect of the job he really liked now was the pay.

  He opened his office door and walked inside, throwing the remains of his sandwich into the bin beside the coat rack. As he turned and closed the door, he switched on the room's lights. Taking off his jacket, he moved to the mirror and stared at the person looking back at him. He half-expected to see no one there — after all, he'd sold his soul to take this position, hadn't he?

  He slipped into his chair and started up his computer. After he'd typed in three different passwords and placed his index finger on the pad for identification, his computer came to life. As shortcuts to the different programs appeared on the desktop, he directed the cursor to the e-mail icon. With a double click, the prog
ram sprang to life; thirty-three messages entered the mailbox. Most of the one-line references contained various terms referring to the same topic — funding. Ignoring these, he opened the mail message from his web designers marked URGENT, and settled into his first job of the day, which was to approve the information going onto the company's web page.

  The information was not really intended for non-scientific eyes, but he always tried to make the science comprehensible. He figured that the better people understood it, the less frightened of it they would be.

  He adjusted the screen and began to read.

  The Recombinant DNA division (RDD) focuses on transferring a fragment of DNA from one organism to a self-replicating genetic element for propagation into a foreign host cell — essentially, cloning a gene. Recombinant DNA technology is important for learning about other related technologies such as gene therapy, genetic engineering of organisms, and sequencing genomes.

  Commercial benefits:

  Gene therapy can be used to treat certain genetic conditions, and genetic engineering can provide disease resistance, and even improve taste or nutritional value.

  The Reproductive Cloning Division (RCD) leads the way in generating an animal that has the same nuclear DNA as another or previously existing animal. It is the transfer of genetic material from the nucleus of a donor adult cell to an egg whose nucleus — and therefore its genetic material — has been removed. Once the cloned embryo reaches a suitable stage, it is transferred to the uterus of a female host where it continues to develop until birth.

  Commercial benefits:

  Reproductive cloning can be used to reproduce animals with special qualities, or in the cloning of endangered species.

  The Therapeutic Cloning Division (TCD) specializes in the production of human embryos for use in research.

  Commercial benefits:

  Harvesting of stem cells that can be used to study human development, and therefore treat disease.

  Klaus added a few notes to the TCD heading and sent the e-mail off to the web designers. As he looked through his messages again, one stood out.

  At first he didn't believe it, and it almost went the way of all spam — to the trash. 'US$25 Million R&D Grant' read the subject line. Maybe he was bored, or maybe it was the fact that, in the past week, funding had become the focus of the company's discussion topics at board meetings; whatever the reason, he opened the e-mail.

  My client is looking to put up US$25 million as a grant to the company that shows exemplary work in science — in particular, the area of cloning. Your company has been selected as one of the very few facilities able to fulfil our challenge. To find out more, and to register your interest, click on the direct link below.

  The message was simple, to the point, and it had all the hallmarks of a scam, but before he could think about it, his cursor was already over the link. He clicked and the full web page came to life. Music started and flashes of information began to appear on the screen. Once the song and dance had finished, it settled to a static home page. It read:

  US$25 Million Dollar Challenge

  Clone the King of Kings

  Klaus was astonished, but he read on.

  Never before has the cloning industry been presented with such a challenge. Cloning was revolutionized in 1997, when Ian Wilmut and his colleagues cloned Dolly the sheep; since then the ethics of human cloning have been debated among us all, as well as in the international courts. Now, our historic challenge to you is to clone Jesus.

  The terms and conditions of the challenge do not stop at the embryo or infant stage. We want you to bring him to adulthood; there will be advanced accelerated growth techniques added to the site as they are developed, should you need them.

  This is also an opportunity for us to share techniques and groundbreaking science with all participants, and to increase the overall knowledge pool. For further information, click on the Science Techniques link. You will notice a password is needed to enter this area; one will be provided if you accept this challenge.

  There is solid and credible evidence that Jesus lived and walked among us. There are many relics allegedly connected with his life and crucifixion. Provided these relics have been stored correctly, DNA traces should be adequate as a blueprint for cloning. For details of these relics, please click on the Relics link.

  There is also a Chat Room for discussions. This will be manned twenty-four hours a day; please feel free to use this to confer with other parties.

  To register your interest, complete the online form on the Interested link. The full details will be forwarded to you. We wish you good luck if you decide to register for this challenge. We know it will be difficult, but the rewards both financially and scientifically are beyond belief.

  To the right-hand side of the screen, among the collection of links, including those to the relics and the chat room, was one marked Terms and Conditions. Klaus clicked through to the small print and a new page opened up on his screen.

  Terms and Conditions

  – The person or persons offering this challenge will here-after be known as the Challenger. The officially registered competitors will hereafter be known as the Participants.

  – The date for final judging will be announced once all Participants are registered.

  – The Challenger accepts no responsibility for any international laws that may be broken, nor for expenses incurred by the Participants in the fulfillment of this challenge.

  – A Participant fee of US$500,000 is required to confirm registration and ensure validity of all participants.

  – Upon registration, the US$25 million grant can be viewed by correspondence with the office of our lawyers, Donaldson, Rory and Galbraith, Los Angeles, California, USA.

  The list of Terms and Conditions continued in the same vein, concluding:

  – All information that could assist other competitors must be exchanged, provided it does not infringe on internal company security.

  The Cloning Federation of the Globe has not sanctioned this challenge.

  Klaus was both intrigued and excited. It was an incredible challenge, and it could just be the answer to all their problems. He flicked through a few websites, including the lawyers', to confirm its validity, and once he was reasonably satisfied he printed off the details and sent an e-mail to his fellow board members requesting a closed-door meeting for ten in the morning.

  Klaus arrived at the meeting a little late, at ten past ten. He knew they would all be waiting, but he wanted to make a grand entrance; what he had was worth waiting for. He held in his hand a potential solution to all their money worries. He had to sell them on that side of things, but he also had to play down his growing excitement at the prospect of overseeing and being part of the greatest cloning experiment of all time. It was his chance to get the big bucks and do the science! Checking his tie in the mirror before entering the room, he was sure he detected a small part of his soul that had reappeared.

  As he entered the smoke-filled room, the chairman looked at his watch and gave Klaus a disgruntled look. Klaus looked around the table; eight men stared back at him with looks ranging from anticipation to distaste. Klaus raised his hand in acknowledgement and remained standing as he started to hand out copies of his find. Without waiting for everyone to receive the printouts, he began, 'Gentlemen, as you know, for the few past weeks we have been desperately seeking a cash injection to our company — without diluting share ownership or alerting the sharemarket to our position. The only things we've come up with are slashing expenditure or cutting staff. As you will read in the documents I've just handed out, we seem to have been given the opportunity to proceed in another way.'

  His voice was a little weak, but he felt sure his opening speech was good enough.

  With a show of slight reluctance, the group of men picked up their individual documents and began to read. While they did this, Klaus took a moment to revel in his discovery; his hand was shaking as he poured a glass of water. The cold water cleansed hi
s tobacco-coated windpipe, easing his dry throat.

  Then the barrage of questions began. As expected, the chairman — a man who looked as though he had seen and experienced everything life could find to throw at him — took the lead. 'Klaus, this looks like a very dubious document. Where did you find this?' His manner was a little condescending, but not enough to rock Klaus' confidence.

  'As basic as it may seem, it was sent to my e-mail address. My first reaction was that it was a hoax, or contained a virus, but since there wasn't any attachment I decided to investigate further.' This was a lie; checking for a virus was very much an afterthought.

  The first round of questions was based on the validity of the e-mail: Was it a joke? Where was the e-mail from? Was it some kind of test from the Cloning Federation?

  They were all valid questions, and ones that Klaus couldn't answer for certain. Yes, it could be a trap. Yes, it could be a hoax. Yes, it could even be a competitor trying to conduct some form of espionage. He knew he'd have to listen to a long line of negative questioning before proceeding.

  The room became a jarring mix of quick-fire questions and individual conversations, and Klaus realized it was time to take control again. Tapping the side of his glass in the manner of a best man about to deliver his speech, he called for their attention. 'Gentlemen, I am fully aware of the fact that this could be a wild-goose chase, but I want you all to think for a moment about the positive aspects of this challenge. Let's just say — for argument's sake — that this is a legitimate challenge . . . let's also say there is twenty-five million US up for grabs . . .' He was pausing between statements to emphasize his points.

  'Think about the achievement of cloning the most influential person of all time . . . the science that would be involved . . .' Klaus looked around the room, from person to person. They had all gone to their own special places of science fantasy. Were they thinking about the money? He thought not. To confirm this, the second batch of questions began: Could it be done? What would be needed? How long would it take? What would the budget be for such a project?