by D. S. Murphy
“In English?” Greg said.
“Basically, we snip the DNA and separate it into two pieces; then we have enough building blocks to restructure the DNA how we want it. The body fills in the gaps and uses the new code as a template. The bots go through and hack DNA; DNA replicates rapidly through trillions of cells; then there’s a tipping point where the body starts recognizing the changes in the DNA and doing them automatically,” Brad said, looking smug.
“It sounds messy when you say it that way,” David said. “But it’s like bioconcrete. They infuse it with bacteria, and food for them. When the concrete cracks, the bacteria eat the food and produce limestone that fills the cracks in a matter of weeks. The concrete lasts for 200 years and self-activates if damage occurs.”
“You’re full of useless trivia,” Amy said. “Just show us how it works.”
Brad took out a short cord and plugged it into his phone. The other end looked like the tip of a ballpoint pen. “We’re only testing one very specific thing at a time for each subject. This is the list of what we’re testing,” he said, opening his computer again and showing us the chart. After each entry was a long string of code, including the specific genes to target and what combinations to edit in.
Mouse #1 – Control (no change)
Mouse #2 – Larger Ears
Mouse #3 – Smaller Ears
Mouse #4 – Larger Eyes
Mouse #5 – Smaller Eyes
Mouse #6 – Longer Whiskers
Mouse #7 – Shorter Whiskers
Mouse #8 – Increased Body Mass
Mouse #9 – Decreased Body Mass
Mouse #10 – Color change
“We did most of them in pairs,” David said, “which will confirm that we’re doing what we think we’re doing, instead of it being accidental. And we chose things that would be really easy to see and measure.”
“You did all of this today?” I asked. I knew David was smart, but this was seriously impressive.
“I figured out a lot of it earlier this week,” David said.
“What about the tenth mouse?” Amy asked, “what color will you change him to?”
“We’re not exactly sure what genes cause hair color, or how to change colors,” David said. “Hair color is the pigmentation of hair follicles due to two types of melanin: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Generally, if more eumelanin is present, the color of the hair is darker; if less eumelanin is present, the hair is lighter. Since the mouse is white, the bots will edit the gene for eumelanin production, which should make the mouse darker.”
“So are we doing this, or what?” Brad said.
David looked at me. I looked at Greg.
“I’m in,” he said.
“Me too,” Amy and I said at the same time.
David nodded.
“Okay,” Brad said. “I’ve already added in the specific commands. All we have to do is shock each mouse with its unique setting, and the encoded commands should trigger the therabots.” He picked up the first mouse and held it in one hand. With his other hand, he pressed the metal tip of the cord to the mouse’s rump. Part of me was expecting the mouse to just explode or something. But when Brad hit the button on his phone, the mouse just wriggled a little. I wondered how much it hurt.
“How can we tell them apart?” Amy asked.
“I put in RFID’s,” David said, pulling up his phone. “They use electromagnetic fields to identify, track and store information. They’ll tell me where each mouse is and the basic details, like what’s been done and undone, and the latest procedure.”
Brad picked up the second mouse, and scrolled to another programming option. He shocked the mouse and put it in with the first. After he’d finished shocking all of them, he put his phone away.
“What now?” Amy asked.
“Now,” David said, “we wait.”
***
I got a text from David the next morning.
Can you come to school early? Have to show you something.
I got there thirty minutes later and burst into the science lab. David stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the mice.
“Hold up,” David said, “I need to warn you first.”
“Warn me?” I said, “Shit, what happened? Are they all dead?”
“None of them are dead. They are changed. Not exactly as we planned.”
“Great,” I said. “We’ve created mutant, monster mice.”
I pushed past him to look into the boxes, then I pulled back and covered my mouth with my hand to silence a scream.
“They aren’t that bad,” David said.
“No,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “They just surprised me.”
One mouse was the same. Another had ears that stuck up like a rabbit. One’s ears were flappy like an elephant’s. One had eyes as big as dimes and looked very surprised to see us. One looked like a tiny mop, his whole body covered in shaggy hair. One was as big as a hamster, and one was coal black. But the one that made me gasp was the most eye-catching. It looked like a lumpy little ball of skin and hair, with a fat body, almost like a fuzzy lizard with a hump on its back. It looked like something alien; a very tiny abominable snowman.
“That’s why I wanted you to see them first,” David said. “At lunch people are going to freak out. Some may think we should stop.”
“We’re not stopping,” I said. “My sister—”
“I don’t want to stop either,” David said, leaning against the bench and looking down at the mice. “These results are actually surprisingly good. But I thought if you had time to think about things, you’d be better able to convince the others later, if anybody is having second thoughts.”
He was talking about Amy. She’d be the weakest link. Then maybe Greg.
“You’re the most level-headed,” David said. “You think things through, and don’t just blurt out things out. Also, they’ll listen to you.”
That was nice to hear. I wished it was true. David had just never witnessed my outbursts. I guess I only opened up to close friends. I wondered for a second if I was being manipulated. Maybe David thought I was the one likely to start arguing, and was trying to dissolve tensions by showing me the mice earlier in private. Calling me level-headed so I’d control myself later. If so, David was a lot smarter than I gave him credit for. But the other thing was probably true as well. I don’t know why Greg would listen to me, but I could probably sway Amy on anything. And Brad was a wildcard, but he didn’t seem like a quitter.
“We’re not stopping,” I said again. “I’ll handle everybody at lunch.”
David was looking at the mice, but it seemed as if he was looking through them. Like he was accessing some private universe that only he knew the way into. I took a closer look at the mice, marveling at what we’d created. I couldn’t believe it had actually worked.
“Thank you,” I said. I gave David an awkward hug and he stiffened. I didn’t know what made me do it, I was just suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude. If not for David, this would all just be a crazy stupid idea. The bell rang and we broke apart. I reached for my bag and David put the mice in our group’s private locker in the prep room next door.
I made a mental note to pick up some cheese for the mice when we did our cafeteria run. It was the least they deserved.
9
When I walked into homeroom, people were huddled together whispering. That usually meant there was an absolutely savage rumor going around school. Could someone have found out about our science project? My heart pounded as I waited for them to turn and point to me with knowing glances, but instead they just ignored me, like usual. I took my seat and let out a sigh of relief.
The greatest development of our generation was happening right under their noses and they couldn’t have been more clueless. Then I saw the posters and relaxed. It was just a Halloween dance. People were talking about their costumes, or who was asking who to the dance. Not my scene. It was just an opportunity for people to show off as much skin as they could ge
t away with at a school function and take a million selfies. It was a useful distraction. Some guys even made elaborate gestures to ask someone to go to the dance with them. It would keep everyone busy while we focused on our project.
I didn’t go to dances, but Halloween was actually my favorite holiday, at least it used to be. Mom always helped us make costumes. Homemade, not store-bought. I hadn’t even thought about how it would be this year, without her.
In first period, rather than breaking us into groups again, Mr. Leister gave us a pop quiz, which I totally failed. I usually crammed every weekend, to make sure I kind of kept up with what was going on in class, but I hadn’t even thought about school recently.
I knew about half the answers for sure, and guessed the rest. Dad and I had an unspoken contract. I’d never been a straight A student, but I didn’t bring home many C’s either. I didn’t need him paying more attention to me. Not right now.
I needed some fresh air after class, and headed outside. There was a courtyard behind the school between the buildings, but it was already occupied. I spotted Greg playing with some of the other boys on the basketball team. Large piles of leaves had been raked into the center, and the guys were having a leaf-fight. Greg laughed, and then tackled one of his friends into the pile. He stood up with a smile, brushing his hair back, then reached out a hand to help his friend up. But his friend pulled him back down and stuffed a handful of leaves in his face.
I laughed, and Greg turned towards me, picking leaves from his teeth. When he saw me and waved, I practically fainted. I glanced over my shoulder warily, half expecting Melissa to be standing right behind me. There was no one around, but that didn’t mean nobody had seen. It was just a wave, but I didn’t want to have another run-in with Melissa.
I glanced at my phone to check the time, and realized lunch had already started. Shit, I was late. And I was supposed to be helping David calm down the group. I hurried to class, and David looked relieved to see me.
“You don’t understand,” Amy yelled as I walked into the room. “These aren’t your mechanical toys. This is life. You’re hacking life!”
“It’s not like we’re Frankenstein,” Brad said. “We aren’t making life, we’re just editing it a little.”
Tell that to the one that died,” Amy said, leaving the room and slamming the door behind her.
“Wait, one died?” I asked, peering into the cardboard box. The ugliest mouse was curled up into a tight ball of leather and fur.
“What did I miss,” Greg asked, coming in the room.
“Nine mouseketeers, one little bundle of death,” Brad summed up.
“What went wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing went wrong,” David said. “Mostly everything went right. The main issue, I think, was that I didn’t account for the body mass variance between humans and mice. Smaller changes in DNA have a bigger impact on the smaller bodies. In humans we might need one or two degrees of variance to see a physical difference, but in a mouse those one or two degrees could make a much bigger impact.
“So it worked too well,” Brad muttered. “What about the dead one?”
“I don’t know… but I’ll take it home and find out,” David said.
“So what’s next?” I asked.
“Listen,” Greg said, holding up his hands. “This was a really cool idea, but this is starting to feel a bit too mad scientist.”
David shot me a look. This is what he’d been worried about.
“We’re not doing anything wrong,” Brad said.
“Yeah but imagine if those were people. One with ears down to his knees, one with eyes the size of his hand?”
“It’s only the first test. We’ll correct the calculations—”
“Before you test on humans, right? But the first human test could look like this too. Who do you think is going to volunteer for that role?”
“I’ll do it,” I said.
“No way,” David said immediately. “It should be me.”
“Why?” I scoffed. “This whole thing was my idea. Plus you all have bright futures ahead of you.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” Brad teased. “I heard they need someone to mop up at Dairy Queen.”
“I’m just saying, it will take forever to get the calculations right for humans. We’d have to run tests on thousands of mice—”
“Which we don’t have time for,” I cut in. “My sister, my risk, my choice. Wait…let me go get Amy. She should be here for this.”
I found her standing in the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror.
“Those poor mice…” she said.
“Mice are used in science experiments all the time,” I said. “They save human lives.”
“You think that’s what we’re doing?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said, without hesitation. “Starting with my sister’s, but then everybody else’s. Right now the government controls the technology and the process. They choose who’s going to get treatment. Even with the new healthcare program, only people who can afford the treatment will be saved. It will take them years to squabble about the ethics, meanwhile millions of people could die. But if everybody had access to this technology, people could be saved. My mom could have been saved.”
“You see yourself as Robin Hood,” Amy said, smiling sadly.
“I’ve always been a bit of a rebel,” I said. “But this is something that matters. We could make a difference,” I said.
“Or destroy the world,” Amy said. At the time, she’d been kidding, and we both smiled at the joke. We were so naïve.
***
Amy followed me back to the classroom. The guys were still arguing, and Greg still wasn’t on board.
“Greg’s right though,” Brad said. “It’s going to take too long to figure out everything. Maybe a hundred mice for each individual upgrade feature.”
“Not a hundred mice,” David corrected, “One or two mice a hundred times.”
“With changes every day, that’s a little more than three months. And just for one feature,” Greg said. “We need to test dozens.”
“There’s one more thing I need to tell you,” David said. “I was waiting for the girls to get back. I built in a reset button. It works just like if you were editing a document, you go back and forth between undo and revert. But it can only work for one stage at a time. So if you get zapped, and then get zapped again without undoing the changes, you’d be stuck with those changes.”
“So you mean,” Amy said, looking down at the mice, “that you can undo this?”
“Yes,” David said. “In fact I set it to automatic. Changes last for 24 hours, then the bots undo everything they changed and revert to the original DNA sequence. I figured it saved a step in our progress.”
“Not really,” Brad said. “Now we need to wait till they turn back again”
“We need more mice,” I said.
“Even so, it would take way too long,” Brad said.
“At least three months, maybe six,” David nodded.
“No,” I said, crossing my arms. “We don’t have that much time. How can we speed it up?”
“You can’t rush this,” David said. “Not if you’re talking about using it on humans. There are too many variabilities. Calculations.”
“Wait—you said the problem was…”
“Mainly the specific mouse to human ratios for degree of genetic mutation.”
“But the NHTC is already using these on humans, so they would have done all that research already.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” David said.
“So why do you need to test for information that’s already out there?”
“It’s probably protected,” Brad said. “Copyrighted. The patent on a specific form of genetic engineering or DNA hacking would be worth billions if it has medical application.”
“Plus it’s the government,” Greg said. “Not just a private healthcare company.”
“Which means, their secrets will be more careful
ly guarded, and have the US military behind them,” Brad said.
“Yeah, but how hard could it be?” I asked.
“You’d never get into their main server or database,” Brad said. “The security on the building would be crazy. We aren’t cat burglars. But even if we got in, and even if I was able to get into their system, there’s no way we could do it without them knowing and tracking us.”
“But I’ve been in Dr. Jenkins’ office. It’s not exactly Fort Knox.”
“I’m out,” Greg said, crossing his arms. “This is a science fair project, not Mission Impossible. I don’t want my name in a news story about a group of high school kids torturing mice with genetic alterations. That’s the kind of story that follows you. But now you’re talking about what, stealing files from the government? No fucking way.”
“I agree with Greg,” Amy said. “You can’t ask us to break the law, or throw our futures away.”
“But my sister—”
“Even for that,” Amy said, putting her hands on her hips. “I’m really sorry about Megan. But this stuff isn’t safe. I don’t think we should be doing it. Trying to raise quick money to save your sister and risk killing thousands of people? That’s selfish.” The betrayal stung me like a slap. Was I selfish for wanting to save my sister, after having just lost my mom? Maybe. But that didn’t make me a bad person.
“I’m not saying we rush things or kill people,” I said. “We don’t do anything that’s risky. We only test on mice until we’ve got everything figured out.”
“But you want to break into the NHTC’s database and steal files!” Amy shouted. “That’s crazy. You shouldn’t ask people to do that for you. You’re asking us to give up everything.”
This was unraveling fast. I had to get them back on board.
“Okay, I get it. No grand heists. We don’t do anything that’s illegal. I’m just saying we find some way of speeding up testing. We’re smart, we can figure it out. We can at least try. I’m just asking that we try.”
