The Samantha Project

by Stephanie Karpinske

  Jack and Erik didn’t believe me. “No, that’s not right,” Jack said. “You two were designed to never get sick. Erik hasn’t even had a cold. He’s certainly not going to have a heart attack. Neither of you will.”

  I said nothing, trying to wrap my mind around the concept. “Let me see it again.” I pulled the laptop over and reviewed the pathway again. “I’m telling you, Jack. If this actually happened to someone, they would be dead. Almost instantly.”

  Jack still wasn’t believing a word of it. “Give me some time to look it up. I have medical books downstairs. No offense, Sam, but you’re not exactly a doctor.”

  “What if she’s right?” Erik asked. “Does that mean we both—die? That doesn’t make sense. I thought GlobalLife wanted us to be their prisoners. To study us for life.”

  “That was the plan, yes. So I must have misread the program. Let me go back and redo some things and check my medical books.” Jack took the laptop and raced downstairs. I could hear Brittany watching some reality show on TV, completely unaware of the drama that was unfolding above her.

  “I’m worried, Erik. This isn’t good.”

  Erik scooted his chair near mine and put his arm around me. “My dad will figure it out. He hasn’t slept much the past few days. He’s probably just tired. Give him time to look at the software again.”

  “Yeah, but like you said, he knows software code better than most anyone on the planet. I’m sure he didn’t screw anything up. Now I’m really worried.”

  Erik pulled me closer and kissed my forehead, just as Colin used to do when I was upset. “No worrying at the kitchen table,” he said, trying to lighten the mood. “It’s a house rule.”

  “That’s a weird house rule.”

  “It’s not really a house rule. I just made it up. But it sounds like a good rule, especially now, so I’m making it one.”

  I continued to worry, wishing Jack would hurry up.

  “So where did you learn so much about biochemistry?” Erik asked, moving back across the table to face me. “Did you have it in school?”

  “I took AP biochem but I also learned a lot from my mom. She was a biochemistry professor. I find biochem interesting. The way that so much goes on in the body at the molecular level. Complex reactions occurring right now, in every cell of the body, and we don’t even pay attention. It’s fascinating.”

  Erik smiled flirtatiously. “You know, all that science talk is kinda sexy. You should do it more often.”

  I could feel myself blushing. “Well, I’ve never heard that line used before.”

  He smiled. “Hey, I’m just trying to get your mind off this timer thing.” He grabbed my hand, sensing that I was getting more worried the longer we waited.

  We waited an hour, not saying much. Finally, Jack walked slowly up the stairs and plopped a giant medical book on the table. He sighed and took a seat next to us. “She’s right. I didn’t want to believe it. Still don’t. But it’s right there in black and white. Just like Sam said. Instant cardiac arrest.”

  Erik and I sat silently, absorbing each word. None of them made sense. Why would GlobalLife do this? Why would they build this into our DNA?

  After a few minutes, Erik asked the question that I couldn’t bring myself to ask. “So if this is all linked to some timer, what does that mean? How much time before this happens?”

  Jack kept his head down to hide his emotions. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “From what the program tells me, Sam has about two years.”

  “And me?” Erik asked. His dad said nothing. “Dad? How long for me?”

  Jack looked up at Erik. “Less than a year, Erik. A little less than a year.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Missing Pieces

  Nobody knew what to say next. Erik and I had been given a death sentence. An expiration date built into our bodies by GlobalLife. And Erik would be the first to go.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” Erik said. “Why would they spend all that money? Go to all that trouble to make us? Kill anyone who got in their way? All that and then just get rid of us?”

  “I don’t think GlobalLife wants to get rid of you, Erik. Or you, Sam.” Jack looked up at us. “I think they want you alive, but only on their terms.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “If you ever got away, it would be a major loss for them, right? They would lose valuable technology. And they couldn’t risk someone taking that technology. So if you escaped and they couldn’t find you, you would need to be, well, terminated. This thing—this timer—is basically a termination code. A kill code really. It ensures that if they can’t have you, nobody will.”

  “How can they think that way? We’re people, not machines that can just be turned off.” I got up from my chair. I wanted to do something, to go after them, anything.

  “Remember, you are both considered company assets. They don’t think of you as people. They think of you as technology. And they won’t let their technology get into the hands of others. They’ve worked too long on this and spent too much money.”

  “So go in and change the code.” Erik was talking fast, desperate to find a solution. “You rewrite code all the time, Dad. Just go in and rewrite it. Disable the thing. Stop the timer.”

  “I wish I could, son,” Jack said. “But it’s hardwired into your DNA. I can’t do it.”

  “But there’s gotta be a way to stop it. If GlobalLife got us back, they would turn it off, right? Once they had us, they would want us alive.”

  “Yes. There has to be some way to disable it,” Jack said. “But GlobalLife may have built it so that only they can turn it off. That way, if you ever found out about this timer, you would be forced to return to them.”

  “I am not going back there, Jack,” I said. “I’d rather die.”

  “Of course you’re not going back there. You either, Erik.” Jack got up from the table. “There’s got to be a way around this. I’ll find it. I have to. I’m going to work on it some more. Erik, keep packing boxes. We’re still going to have to leave here on Sunday or we could all end up dead.”

  Jack was frantic but trying not to show it. He raced downstairs and slammed the lab door behind him. Erik and I remained in the kitchen, stunned at what we had learned.

  “I still don’t understand it. Why are these timers both set to go off when we turn 20? Why would they wait?” Erik looked puzzled.

  I hadn’t thought about it, but he was right. According to Jack’s calculations, the timer ended its cycle when we turned 20 years old.

  “And why would my timer even be on?” Erik asked. “GlobalLife thinks I’m dead.”

  “Maybe yours went off accidentally. Your timer isn’t on those markers like mine is. Maybe it works differently.”

  “Why didn’t my dad know about this? He’s been studying my DNA for years. How could he not see this?”

  “Don’t be so hard on your dad, Erik. He only found the timer because of the markers on my DNA. It isn’t exactly something he would have been looking for.”

  Erik didn’t respond. He walked out the side door, letting the screen door slam behind him. “I need to be alone,” I heard him say as he left.

  I sat down at the kitchen table again, trying to figure out how to fix this. I was good at science but I didn’t know much about computer software. Maybe we could disrupt the chemical sequence that would lead to the cardiac arrest, I thought. It was a good idea. But the biochemical process would happen so quickly that it wouldn’t be possible to stop it.

  After my parents’ deaths, I had started to think about death in general a lot more. But I hadn’t given my own death much thought. I was teenager in good health. To think that I would be dead in two years was unimaginable. And to think that Erik would be dead in just a few months? There had to be a way to stop this.

  As I sat there, Brittany came up the stairs. “What’s going on with you guys? What’s with all the stomping around and slamming doors? Hey, is there any cereal around here? I�
��m hungry.”

  Brittany had no idea what was going on. I figured it was best to tell her. When I was done, she looked confused.

  “So there’s something in your cells? Sorry, Sam, but I don’t get all that science crap. I slept through those classes.”

  “Forget that part. Bottom line is that if Jack doesn’t find a way to fix this, Erik and I will be dead. Erik’s time is running out. He has less than a year.” I found it hard to say out loud.

  “His dad’s really smart though, right? I’m sure he’ll figure out how to fix it.” Brittany wasn’t grasping how serious this was, but I didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

  “Yeah. You’re right. I’m sure he’ll find a way.” But I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t even a little bit confident. Jack was working with subpar equipment in the basement of an old farmhouse. GlobalLife had state-of-the-art equipment and technology that the public didn’t even know existed. They wouldn’t make the termination code something that could be disabled just by rewriting the software code. They wouldn’t make it simple. They would make it impossible to disable.

  “I’m gonna take my breakfast downstairs.” Brittany grabbed a bowl, spoon, box of cereal, and the whole gallon of milk. “Hey, what do you think?” She looked down at her clothes. She had cut her t-shirt at the neckline, making it into a plunging v-neck and cut the sleeves to make it a tank top.

  “It looks good, Brittany,” I lied. She had ruined a perfectly good t-shirt. But it was her style and I had told myself not to judge her anymore. And at least it was better than what she had on before.

  Brittany headed downstairs and I decided to get to work on my training. The training seemed pointless now, knowing that I would be dead in a couple years. But I didn’t know what else to do.

  Erik stayed outside all morning and then buried himself in his bedroom all afternoon.

  By evening, I was tired of training. I went to check on Brittany, who was in the side bedroom, cutting and ripping more of our clothes.

  “What are you doing? I have to wear some of these. Stop it.” I grabbed some shirts from the pile.

  “You said they looked good.” She held up a white t-shirt that was now covered in some type of design made using permanent marker.

  “They look good on you. Not me,” I clarified. “Let’s just split everything up. Take whatever you want and I’ll take what’s left over.”

  “But this would look so good on you, Sam.” Brittany held up a blue shirt that had sleeves on one arm but was sleeveless on the other. “You know, I think I have a real talent for this. Maybe when we’re in California, I can sell these to celebrities. I could be like one of those stylists to the stars.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” I didn’t want to ruin her dreams. And I was happy to see that she was finally accepting our plan to leave Comfort. Maybe Erik was right and I had misread Brittany. She did seem excited about leaving.

  “Sam, I want to show you something.” Jack stood at the doorway.

  “Okay. Hey, Brittany, while I’m gone, don’t cut up any more of these shirts. I need at least a few to wear.”

  Jack glanced over at the clothes, looking confused, then turned back to me. “I built some computer models I want you to see.”

  “Shouldn’t we get Erik first?”

  “No. Leave him be. He’s really upset. I’ll talk to him later.”

  Jack and I went into his computer lab, where he had a large screen displaying a double helix. On his laptop, he had the software code running across the screen.

  “So this is the part we were talking about earlier.” He pointed to a section of the double helix. “I was able to download the software that tells the timer what to do. That’s over here.” Jack pointed to the laptop. “And in doing so I found something I didn’t expect.”

  “Okay. What is it?”

  “This code, the one that starts the reaction when the timer runs out? I developed it. Well, at least the idea behind it.”

  “What? Why would you do that?”

  “I developed it years ago, when I was at GlobalLife. It was meant for animals. Livestock. GlobalLife said it was for their agricultural division. They had invested a lot of research in bioengineered cattle for large ranching operations. And they didn’t want other farmers stealing the cattle. So if that happened, and the rancher couldn’t locate his cattle, they could enable this and it would kill the cow, filling its body with poison, making it worthless. You couldn’t eat it, couldn’t sell it.”

  “Why didn’t you say something before?”

  “Because it was never used. It was more theoretical—to see if it was possible. They weren’t even selling those cattle back then. They were still in the research phase. And my original model didn’t have a timer. Instead there was supposed to be a device that they would put in the cow. You would only activate it if needed, and the idea was that the owner could do that remotely.”

  “What are you saying? That GlobalLife activated this once they lost track of me? What about Erik? They thought he was dead.”

  “I don’t know how they turned it on, in either of you. But it doesn’t matter, Sam. It’s already on and running and we need to shut it off. So now look at this.” A new image came up on the screen with bands of dark and light lines. “This top row shows your DNA and the bottom one shows Brittany’s.”

  “What does Brittany have to do with any of this?”

  “Well, I was thinking that we could insert Brittany’s nonenhanced genes here to replace this section that has the timer, thereby making it inactive.”

  “Jack, that’s it! You’ve figured it out!” I felt a wave of relief.

  “It’s not that simple, Sam.” Jack brought up yet another screen showing a double helix. “When I tried it in this model here, Brittany’s genetic material ended up merging with yours instead of replacing it. It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure what to make of that yet. So then I linked up the software program to this new gene sequence, and it disrupted the timer, slowing it down. If it works in real life, then that’s good news. Problem is, it’s only slowing the timer by a few months. But if it continues to disrupt it even more, the cycle might slow by a year or so.”

  I started to feel sick again. “So it buys us time, but it doesn’t stop it. I don’t understand. If you wrote that program, why can’t you rewrite it to disable the timer?”

  “It’s not the exact same program. And I didn’t write it for humans, Sam. There’s a big difference. The theory is similar but the actual code is not the same. It’s much more complex than my original program. And as I said, I didn’t write it with the timer function.”

  Jack pointed to the screen again. “What else do you see here, Sam?”

  I looked closer at the double helix. The ladderlike rungs that would normally go across the helix were not all connected. It was like part of it was missing. Almost like there were tears in certain sections that needed to be mended.

  “The helix. It’s not fully connected like it should be. The base pairs aren’t lining up right.”

  “Exactly right. Again, I’ve never seen anything like this. DNA is composed of nucleobases, right? A and T. C and G. Basic genetics. Those nucleobases, or bases, should link up, filling in the rungs on the ladder. But here, it looks like there’s some type of damage. Like something is missing. I think that section is missing some other base pairs.”

  “Other base pairs? That’s all there are, Jack. Adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. A, T, C, and G. There are no other base pairs.”

  “Actually, I think there are. Years ago when I studied Erik’s genetic code, I noticed there were more than those four. There were two others that I couldn’t identify.”

  “Did you ever tell Erik?”

  “No. I didn’t know what it meant and it’s not like I could do anything about it. So why tell him? It only showed up on the enhanced genes. When I started looking at your DNA, Sam, I found that you also had these unique base pairs—again, only in your enhanced genes.”

>   “How could we have different base pairs?”

  “I’m not sure. It’s like GlobalLife added something in those sections of enhanced genes. Those unique pairs, along with the software built into the gene markers, are likely what’s giving you and Erik your abilities.”

  “I thought they had just manipulated our genes with software. To be better versions of ourselves. Stronger. To have more of a mind-body connection.”

  “Initially, that was my theory as well. But when I found that strange pattern in Erik’s DNA, I considered the idea that it might be something GlobalLife added. Something they engineered. Now I’m almost certain of that.”

  Jack turned away from the screen. “GlobalLife has spent trillions of dollars on bioengineering, Sam. It’s what they’re counting on to be their home run. The thing that will make them richer and more powerful than ever. So it’s conceivable that they’ve moved beyond plants and animals and are trying to bioengineer humans by developing new base codes that make new genes. Better genes. Genes that have never been in humans before. Basically, it’s a way to speed up evolution.”

  “And Erik and I are the first human test subjects. Or at least the first ones who lived. I can’t believe this type of technology even exists. How are they able to keep this a secret, especially if the research has been going on for so long?”

  “They’re good at hiding things, Sam. I’m guessing that a lot of people who work for GlobalLife don’t even know about this. Heck, I worked there for years and didn’t know half of what they were doing, even for some of the research in my own lab. They never tell you the whole story. Instead they have you work on bits and pieces and then someone higher up puts it all together. I bet only a handful of people at GlobalLife know about this.”

  “I guess that’s why they want Erik and me dead. We’re walking around with their top-secret technology.”

  “That’s why they’ve made it so hard to disable the timer.” Jack pointed to the screen again. “When I see this over here—this section that looks empty or broken? It makes me think that those unique base pairs are what’s needed to fill in these missing rungs. I think filling those in would turn off the timer and prevent the reaction from starting.”