by Speiser, Zvi
Next came Reo, skinny and youthful in appearance. Like most youths, he was very fond of video games, as well as being fluent in the world of computers in general. Reo was in charge of locating studies worthy of notice. Every day, he classified tremendous amounts of information that, for the most part, proved to be irrelevant. Only data that aligned with the predetermined criteria were assembled, summarized, and distributed among the members. Reo also made sure the information passed between them in roundabout ways, subsumed within articles on various general topics. An uninitiated reader could not have uncovered the connecting link between the various articles that the members received.
The third to arrive, Rokoro, was Reo’s complete opposite—large and chubby, with a perpetual smile on his face. Rokoro’s work was similar to the work that Reo performed; however, the two of them did not communicate. They were prohibited from sharing their work with one another. Each of them distributed the results of their studies in different ways and under different covers. Each had a different distribution list which, in various circuitous routes, ultimately made its way to the members. Generally, they were highly coordinated. Only rarely did one of them add on some important aspect that had not been detected by the other. Rokoro had only joined the crew a few years ago, when the amount of information requiring their attention had risen significantly.
The last two, who arrived together, were James, the Australian, and Uri, the Israeli. James served as a messenger and assistant to Uri, the sect’s “foreign minister,” responsible for the Guardians’ relationship with other organizations, and particularly with the media, in all its varieties. He was the one to spread rumors, send letters, and write articles that diverted public attention in directions that suited the sect. Uri understood the human psyche and was endowed with a rare quality—people tended to listen to him attentively when he talked, and read the articles he wrote with interest, while nodding in agreement to his claims. Yes, they thought just as he did, or that, at least, was their impression. A skill of this kind could not be acquired in any academic institute; it was innate, and was further enhanced over the years.
The meetings were businesslike and focused, as usual. They did not include small talk or personal matters, and there was no socializing between the attendees before the discussion commenced. Those who were early simply sat down in their usual places, without exchanging any remarks with any of the other members. Other than Kazuki, none of them knew a thing about the others beyond their roles in the organization, and they did not interact on a social level. Kazuki, whose role included screening candidates, was well familiar with each of their backgrounds, but did not share this information with the other members.
The meeting commenced with a brief, general greeting by Kazuki, who immediately turned the stage over to Reo, who in turn proceeded to yield the floor to Rokoro once he was done. Both Reo and Rokoro briefly summed up the latest developments in the various scientific areas pertinent to the sect. Both noted the dizzying increase in the quantity and quality of studies, directly resulting from the enhancement in the quality of researchers and the exponential increase in computing power. They assessed that within twenty to thirty years, science would come close to deciphering the secrets of human existence to an extent that would require the Guardians to take action in a sphere that was dozens of times as extensive as the one in which they had acted to date. All this assuming that they maintained their current course of action.
The other attendees restricted themselves to short reports. Kazuki summed up the meeting with a general admonition that they must all be prepared for action and alert for any development. The more eyes monitoring and tracking what was going on, the earlier they’d be able to detect future threats while the reliability and the interest level these threats generated was still limited, and the better their ability to deal with them efficiently.
Prior to the meeting, Kazuki had made the decision not to share his pessimistic assessment regarding their preventive capabilities with the other members. His own evaluation matched Reo’s and Rokoro’s, although he had not compared notes with them before the meeting. That’s it, the end of an era is nearly upon us, he thought. Would he get the chance to witness the exposure of the secret of the human race in his own lifetime? And it’s interesting, he thought, that no one has asked about the Leading Gentleman, who he is, and why he isn’t meeting with us.
Or perhaps they thought he himself was the Leading Gentleman, he reflected, his lips curving in a brief smile. There was no way he could tell them that despite the countless conversations the two of them had conducted, he had never met the Leading Gentleman face-to-face.
Chapter 4
The Murder
Chicago, Wednesday, July 16, 2036
“Tom, wake up… Tom, wake up…”
The voice, warm yet assertive, filled the bedroom. It was emitted by his personal assistant device, which he had affectionately nicknamed Momo, and which would not stop calling his name until he touched it. He still remembered the primitive assistant from years ago, which under similar circumstances produced a loud ring that would undoubtedly have woken Kate up. The current assistant knew that he slept next to his wife and that she should not be awakened.
The call had extracted Tom from a very deep sleep. From the corner of his eye, he saw that the clock on the nightstand was showing 3:13 a.m. He was not expecting any important messages justifying a nocturnal wake-up call. There were also no gravely ill people in his family. Kate stirred in bed beside him, almost waking up as well. He held the assistant up against his ear, saying “Hello,” his voice blurry and sleepy. On the other end of the line was Steve, head of the security force at the university, who asked him to come to the lab building as soon as he could. Oleg, the night-shift security guard, had been found dead in the lab building, and the door to Tom’s lab had been found wide open.
As he dressed quickly, he tried to figure out the purpose of the break-in. His lab wasn’t the first one in the corridor; it was preceded by other labs on the ground floor. It also wasn’t the best furnished in regard to expensive modern equipment. Quite the contrary—most of the equipment was outdated, causing numerous mishaps and requiring tests to be rerun fairly frequently. No, his lab had been broken into intentionally rather than at random, unless the burglar had had time to pass through the other labs first. If that was the case, it would have been easy to establish. Steve would have told him that other labs had been broken into, in addition to his own. No, apparently his lab was the only one to be breached.
The most unique asset of the lab was the research conducted in it. He tried to reconstruct recent events in an attempt to figure out which study might interest someone to such an extent that the intruder would be willing to commit murder to get his hands on it.
Once he was dressed, he gently woke up Kate. Her gaze wandered from her fully dressed husband to the clock on the nightstand and back. She was overcome by confusion, and barely managed to mumble, “What’s going on, Tommy?”
Tom leaned in toward her, whispering in her ear, “I got a call from the university. Someone left the faucet running and the lab got flooded. I have to go see what was damaged and make sure it’s not dangerous. I’ll be back soon.”
The cold night air outside, the roads glimmering after a rainy evening, and the calm automatic driving, with no traffic to deal with at this late hour, all allowed him to return to his contemplation. Which of the studies in which he was involved was important enough to someone to justify a murder? For the past year or so, his lab had been involved in research funded by a group of private investors, who had established the Glenhill Company. Glenhill’s goal was to develop a revolutionary medical procedure to expand human longevity. All of the major pharmaceutical manufacturers had been at it for many years; in that regard, the topic wasn’t unique at all. For more than ten years now, medication and self-care kits claiming to enhance longevity, which was already increasing even with no specific interv
ention, had been appearing on the market.
The group funding his study was made up of scientists at the forefront of biological research, who had come together in order to develop the medical procedure. The group had come up with a unique idea, and assigned the development of one of its components to Tom’s lab. Other components were allocated to other labs in order to protect the group’s exclusive control over the entire process. Even currently, people who took care of their health and received proper treatment had lifespans of one hundred years, and were able to maintain active lifestyles nearly until the end. Recent theoretical studies predicted a significant breakthrough on this topic. Studies on guinea pigs showed that by combining several treatments with appropriate nutrition, the lifespans of small mammals could be doubled and even tripled. There was no doubt that the right procedure would have unlimited commercial potential.
The more Tom delved into the subject, the more strongly he felt that it was this study that had interested the burglars. But perhaps it was the other study being carried out at the lab that had caught their attention? About two years ago, he had managed to get an unusual grant on the topic of conserved sequences in human DNA. He had made a massive effort to secure the grant, but encountered fierce objection from the grant committee. They presented him with other requests that had been waiting for an endowment for quite a while, and would be put off yet again because of him.
He still remembered the reasoning that had tipped the scales in his favor. Gene resilience to change might contribute significantly to the fight against cancer and various degenerative diseases. Secretly, he hoped his research would also yield a better understanding of processes of bodily aging and decay, which could lead to greater support of studies dealing with increasing longevity. Perhaps the ease with which he had won his role in the longevity-enhancement research was a result of the knowledge he had acquired in this earlier study. Understanding the mechanisms governing the resistance to change of such conserved sequences might draw many pharmaceutical companies and researchers to the lab.
Perhaps, fueled by frustration, one of those rejected researchers who had lost a grant had decided to find out what was so special about Tom’s research. Or maybe the burglar was actually interested in the research he was conducting on “Ronnie,” the skeleton of a two-million-year-old humanoid. This study had begun with the random discovery of an unusually well-preserved skeleton near the towering and perpetually snowy Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. It was the most ancient humanoid skeleton found at a level of preservation that might allow significant DNA extraction. This was the reason the university demanded absolute secrecy regarding this topic, as they were hoping to win international prestige not just for discovering the skeleton, but primarily for accurate extraction of the most ancient human DNA available, and comparing it to that of contemporary humans.
During biology classes at school, Tom would gaze at length at the colorful plastic model of a DNA molecule that was hung up in the biology lab. In his imagination, the long chain of bound base pairs would dance and twist through the room, its gentle curving accompanied by celestial music.
The study was officially titled “An examination of resistance to change in the human genome,” a dry definition that actually revealed very little. He didn’t think such a topic would appeal to anyone other than DNA fanatics like himself, who believed that uncovering and understanding the mechanisms protecting specific genes from changing throughout thousands and millions of years of evolution might aid in preventing many illnesses resulting from exposure to factors affecting and degrading the genes, such as sun radiation and radioactivity. Resilience to radioactivity could, for example, help in significantly reducing the required load in piloted space expeditions, in which the astronauts are exposed to intense, ongoing sun radiation, as well as radiation originating in the spacecraft’s engines and, of course, metabolic processes creating plenty of free radicals.
It was obvious that genes which were essential to the existence of basic life processes were carefully preserved by natural selection, as any change affecting them would have a disastrous influence on the very life of the organism. However, his study dealt with discovering conserved DNA sequences that, as far as researchers could discern, had no effect on the life of the organism, which was precisely the reason he found them fascinating.
Tom emerged from his thoughts on 59th Street, just before the turn to South Ellis Avenue. Usually, the car’s navigation system continued down 59th until it met Cottage Grove Avenue, and he would reach the western campus buildings from there. However, in view of the light traffic at this late hour, it took less time to enter from Ellis Avenue.
A quick glance at his assistant revealed the time to be 3:50 a.m. It was hard to believe that about half an hour ago, he had still been fast asleep, while now he was on his way to deal with murder and burglary. Several vehicles were clustered in the lab building’s parking lot, a rare sight so late at night.
The guard stationed at the entrance of the building didn’t know Tom. Luckily, his wallet was in his pocket, and contained his employee ID card, which allowed him to enter. First, however, the guard called the security center in order to authorize his entry in light of the night’s events.
Steve was waiting for him at the entrance to the lab area, standing with two police officers, one man and one woman. Directly opposite the door lay what looked like a human corpse, covered with a sheet. Steve introduced Tom to the police officers. They nodded at him without saying a word, and the four immediately turned toward the lab. On the way, Steve let him know that he had delayed the police’s investigative team from entering the lab until Tom arrived, so that they would not harm the equipment during their investigation. Tom nodded at Steve in gratitude for allowing him to be the first to examine the lab.
As they walked, Tom tried to imagine the lab after the break-in. About three years ago, their house had been burglarized while the entire family was celebrating their oldest daughter Lynn’s eighth birthday at the venerable Ditka’s, a restaurant that had retained its original name many years after the death of its original owners. The sight of the house and the upturned drawers, their contents strewn everywhere, resurfaced from the depths of his memory as if it had all just occurred; the memory was that vivid. As he theorized once more that the longevity study had been the intruder’s goal, he reached the wide-open lab door.
An expression of wonder spread across his face. The lab looked exactly as it had when he had left that evening. There was no sign of a break-in. Even following a thorough examination, conducted without touching anything while Officer Leanna and Steve trailed him, he could find no difference between the lab’s current condition and the state in which he had left it when he had gone home that evening, the last to leave the premises. It’s odd, he thought. Maybe the murderous burglar hadn’t even entered the lab? Maybe what happened scared him off, and he ran away before he could carry out his plan? Perhaps the open door was just a distraction for the true matter at hand? Too many questions and not a single answer, he concluded.
Throughout the inspection, he heard many additional voices.
Reacting to his querying look, Leanna responded, “It’s the forensics department. They’ll check the entire area using sensitive technology, looking for clues regarding the perpetrators.”
And indeed, when the three of them exited the lab, they saw a group of people, some wearing police uniforms while others were in civilian clothing, bustling around the body and throughout the length of the corridor.
The eldest of them, wearing civilian clothing, turned to Tom, shook his hand, and said, “Rick Heller, homicide detective. I understand that you’re Dr. Lester, the head of the lab where the break-in occurred?”
“That’s true, although strange as it may seem, in a cursory inspection I just carried out in the lab, I can’t see any signs of a break-in. The lab looks exactly the way it did when I left this evening. Did you find any evidence that might he
lp with uncovering who was responsible for the murder?”
The detective ignored his question, continuing, “Once I’m done here in a few minutes, I’ll ask you to accompany me to police headquarters for questioning. In the meantime, I’ll ask you to stay in the building and not to talk to anyone. Also, please hand over your personal assistant.”
Surprised by the lack of response to his inquiry and by the instructions he’d received, Tom immediately handed the assistant to Detective Heller. A strange sensation, almost akin to parting from an old friend, took hold of him. He had never given Momo to anyone in the two years since acquiring him, other than the one time he had to hand him over for repairs.
Tired, confused, and frustrated, Tom returned to the lab and absentmindedly sat down in his chair facing the computer, as was his custom. His thoughts wandered as he tried to organize the facts he knew into a logical narrative. A security guard had been murdered, the door to the lab had been wide open without any signs of forced entry, and there had been no signs of a break-in within the lab—all strange and extremely illogical.
As he reviewed the facts, he was overtaken by an odd feeling. A feeling that someone had made his way through the lab, apparently very cautiously, without moving a thing. Someone had hatched a plot to be carried out in the lab, in a manner that would not evoke any suspicion, until he had encountered a problem with the security guard. There must be important clues around him that had eluded Tom during his first inspection, and which would become apparent if he concentrated harder. It was impossible that a stranger had walked around his lab, touching and moving things, and that he would be unable to notice this fact. Steve, who entered the lab at that moment, distracted him briefly.
