Page 178 of The Bone Code

The tape jumped abruptly.

“—been just the three of us for so long. But should something happen to me, my kids deserve to know about their fathers. Not that sweet Ella ever will.” Melanie looked down, I presumed, at her hands. “The sad truth is, I haven’t a clue who Ella’s daddy is. I was pretty much out of control my final year in college.”

“Lena’s father was a man named Jeff Russo. Jeff was in the Navy. We were going to get married, but the year Lena was born, he was killed in Iraq. Some of his family may still live in the—”

Again, the tape skipped.

“—unbearable at work. Arlo rides me constantly. I’m making this tape in French in case he gets his hands on it. The dolt doesn’t know a word unless it’s on a menu.”

There was another disjointed cut-and-paste transition.

“—thought the idea would help me. Help my kids. Score us some money. But I just can’t go through with it. So many people would be hurt. That’s why I want everything on record. In case—”

Another break.

“—met in the early ’nineties while we were working for the Human Genome Project at MIT. I was a lowly data analyst. Zero advanced degree, you know.” With a note of bitterness. “Arlo and Sullie were bigwig scientists, earning huge coin. I could barely scrape by.”

Another downward glance. Another disconnect.

“—were totally different animals. Arlo was flashy, the macho daredevil always bragging about riding his bike going ninety without a helmet. Sullie was an introvert, a whiner, always moaning about how his father ignored him when he was a kid. But from the get-go, they bonded. Both had PhDs and very lofty views of themselves. Both were into genomics, boating, hair products.” The last punctuated with a disparaging eye roll. “Maybe they were lovers, maybe not. I didn’t know, didn’t care.”

The tape hopped again. Altered shadowing suggested a light source off to the left. I guessed some time had passed.

“—not sure why the great doctors deigned to slum with me, but the three of us got into the habit of having a few beers after work.” Pause. “It all began as a joke. No, not a joke. A game. We’d construct these elaborate scenarios involving genome editing. At first, it was all hypothetical. What if this? What if that? Eventually, Sullie—”

An icy chill took hold of my chest.

“—chance to make big bucks. The plan was complicated, but in a nutshell, we’d edit a gene that controls immunity to some noninfectious condition. The mutation wouldn’t be harmful, since it couldn’t spread throughout the population. We’d introduce it through some pharmaceutical channel, maybe a vaccine or—”

Holy, Christ!

“—couldn’t put my finger on exactly when things changed, but after a point, it wasn’t mind play anymore. It got real. It was going to happen. Sullie launched a website in ’ninety-nine. GeneMe. In 2000, he got Arlo and me jobs at InovoVax through some friend of his father who’s on the board. Arlo is from Montreal. My role—”

And that was it. The rest had been lost.

The chill traveled along my spine. I grabbed my mobile.

Ryan answered right away.

“I was right, Ryan. Holy Mother of God, I was right.”

“Right about what?”

“Huger.”

“Calm down. Then hit me with the two-minute elevator version.”

“Huger and Murray figured out a way to manipulate a vaccine in order to alter a person’s genome.”

A beat of silence.

“Maybe alittlemore detail?” Ryan urged.

I provided a crash course, including both old and new info. CRISPR/Cas9. mRNA vaccine production. TLR4.Capnocytophaga canimorsus.

“TLR4 is a gene that gives an early shout-out when foreign bacteria enter the body,” Ryan clarified when I’d finished. “CRISPR/Cas9 is a genetic cut-and-paste tool.”

“Exactly. Huger and Murray were using CRISPR to replace a person’sgoodcopy of the TLR4 gene with abadcopy. A mutation that makes the person’s immune system partially blind to infection by capno.”