At least Jeremy hoped he didn’t understand.
He cleared his throat, then said, “Yeah, I suppose you should go ahead and do that.”
Then he left the room without looking back at the Subject.
CHAPTER 44
“Yeah, Brad. Stop by my office.” Jeremy set down the phone and ran his hands through his hair. Just what he needed. Brad Gilman wanted to talk to him. He just had a feeling nothing his corporate counsel could say would be good news.
A few minutes later, Brad knocked briefly, then entered. “Hey, Jeremy. How goes it?”
“All right, I guess. Depends on what you have to say.” Jeremy glanced up at Brad and attempted a smile. At least he wasn’t the stereotypical suited-up, gibberish-mumbling lawyer type. He was grateful for that much. Brad was a practical guy who understood SomaGene’s business and typically got to the point in an intelligible way.
Clad in jeans and a black T-shirt, Brad dropped his lanky frame into one of Jeremy’s guest chairs. He held a slim folder. “Got some movement on the Abbott matter.”
Jeremy’s shoulders tightened. His impending surgery had pushed the lawsuit out of his mind. It disturbed him he could have completely forgotten about something so important. His throat suddenly felt constricted. “Yeah, what do you have?”
“Well, Abbott lawyered up shortly after he got out of the hospital. No surprise there. Actually, I prefer dealing with an attorney on the other side. The pro se’s can make you crazy with their ridiculous demands.” He chuckled briefly. “Anyway, he’s come up with his wish list. Wants a new kidney generated, wants it transplanted under your new protocol. And he wants $50,000 cash for the privilege.”
Jeremy dropped his head into his hands and groaned.
“Are you serious? Jeremy, this is great. It’s not that much money, and it avoids trial and all the related expenses and exposure. Best of all, I’m pretty sure I can get him to sign a confidentiality agreement if we agree to his full demands and maybe sweeten the cash component a little. That’s more important than anything. You don’t want a whiff of this getting out, and it looks like we can manage that. You’ve changed the protocol so it can’t happen again. What’s not to like?”
“Yeah, that makes sense. I didn’t see it that way at first. It just seemed so overwhelming.”
“No worries. I think this will settle easily. You pay him the money, do the procedure—all done.” Brad looked at Jeremy more closely. “Hey, are you all right? You don’t look so good.”
Jeremy waved his hand. “I’m fine. Just a little tired, is all.” He didn’t dare mention he’d be having his own surgery shortly. Brad had no idea about the Subject and all that entailed, and he intended to keep it that way.
“OK then. When should I tell him to expect to have the surgery?”
Jeremy paused, not wanting to let on to Brad about his upcoming unavailability. Of course, there was no need for him to be personally present at the surgery. He could have several of the more recent hires handle it while he was convalescing. “I’ll let you know. I need to check our queue and capacity first.”
“Great. Let me know in the next day or two, so I can get back with Abbott’s attorney.” Brad sprang out of his chair and headed for the door. “Thanks. I’ll let you know when there’s an agreement to sign.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Jeremy put his head on his desk, relieved as hell, but just as exhausted.
CHAPTER 45
“Shut the door, Tim. I don’t want any interruptions. I want to discuss Jeremy’s upcoming procedure.”
“Sure.” Tim shut the door, then took a seat in front of Glen’s desk.
“Jeremy gave his permission to initiate a second clone. I think we should get that process started as soon as possible. We have nothing to base a guess on how long it will be before his Crohn’s attacks the new intestinal tissue.”
Tim squirmed in his chair. “I suppose that’s wise. It took a couple years for this Subject to be ready. I don’t know how we could speed up the process without inviting problems. In fact, I still worry that getting this one to adult size as fast as we did might have some consequence that hasn’t yet manifested itself.”
Satisfied they had agreement on one point, Glen steeled himself to raise the next issue. He expected a difficult conversation, given the nature of some of Tim’s remarks about the Subject. “All right, that’s settled. We can initiate tomorrow or the next day. There is another matter we need to discuss before the day of the procedure.”
Tim’s brow furrowed. “What’s that?”
“We need to agree on what is to be done with the Subject after the surgery—given that it will be a complete transplant this time.”
“I…I don’t know.” He stared out the window.
“Surely you’ve considered the implications before now?”
“Well, yes, but I hadn’t taken that next step in my mind. I was somewhat surprised Jeremy even agreed to the second procedure.”
“Oh come on, Tim. What else could he do? You saw how he’s deteriorated. Doesn’t matter if he’s uncomfortable about it, he has no choice. But that’s really beside the point now. He’s agreed to the procedure and we need to prepare for it. And we need to decide what to do about the Subject afterwards.”
Tim cast him a sharp glance. “Well, sounds like you have some ideas about it. What have you been thinking?” He sat back in his chair with folded arms.
Glen had been hoping to tease out ideas from Tim, so that maybe he’d be able to get more buy-in from him. But the surgery was only days away and this had to be settled ahead of time. “Well, the way I see it, there are two main ways to go. Each has a downside. Consider that the Subject was generated for the sole purpose of providing Jeremy a solution for his Crohn’s. So, unless Jeremy develops some unrelated problem, the Subject will be of no further use to him after this procedure. We could simply pull the plug. But then we have a disposal problem. We at least put off the disposal problem if we set up some indefinite form of life support to take the place of the digestive function.”
Tim stood up, his face flushed. “How can you talk about doing that to a human—?”
Glen rose to his feet and leaned forward over his desk for emphasis. “A lab asset. Do not forget his origin and purpose. We grew him in the lab from a scrap of Ivan’s tissue. We did so for this very eventuality. The sooner you stop thinking of him as a fellow citizen, the better.”
“Jesus, Glen. Open your eyes!”
“Tim, he looks like a human because he was cloned from a human. You look at him. He sits there day after day. He probably has no interior life at all. He doesn’t speak; he doesn’t particularly interact any more than one of the lab animals in the room next door to him. He’s tissue…tissue purposefully engineered to be put to a specific use.” He leaned forward a bit farther. “And you know what? You assisted all along. It’s a little late to try to wash your hands now.”
Deflated, Tim flopped back down in his chair and rubbed his face with his hands. “I wish to God I hadn’t.”
Sensing victory, Glen sat back down. “So, can we get down to a meaningful discussion of what to do post-op?”
Tim let out a long breath before answering. “I just can’t support pulling the plug. I suppose the thing to do is to come up with an alternate way to get him nutrition and fluids—and to try to do so as humanely as possible.” Tim rubbed his ear with a noticeably trembling hand. “I suppose we can go with total parenteral nutrition through an IV. But it will mean he’s hooked to a needle and tube the rest of his life, with a constant risk of infection, of course. It’ll probably put more pressure on his kidneys than otherwise, but at least he’ll be alive.” He stared at the floor.
Glen chose to ignore Tim’s defeated demeanor. “I’m glad we could get this figured out.” He then turned to his computer monitor to break off the discussion.
Tim got up and left without another word.
CHAPTER 46
Katie glanced at the sheep-themed clock on the wall
in Johnnie’s room. Tim was certainly running late today. She knew he liked to give the little guy his bath each night while she got dinner ready, but it was just getting too late to wait for him this time.
“C’mon Johnnie, it’s you and me tonight.” She picked up the baby and headed for the bathroom.
She held him on her hip as she started the water and waited for it to get to the right temperature. She scowled as she thought about Tim. He’d been getting more and more distant lately, and came home in a foul mood more and more often. She knew he was losing sleep, too. He didn’t think she could tell, but she could. He’d lie there next to her, shifting around, but definitely not breathing the calm breath of a sleeping person. She’d thought about reaching over and asking him what was wrong, but he usually liked to try to work things out himself, so she’d let it go.
It must be something at work. He used to speak more freely over dinner, regaling her with how well the business was doing, how many surgeries they did and what kind. He seemed so proud of his work at SomaGene, how much good they did their patients, and how no other clinic could touch what they offered.
But lately, he only spoke of his work in a very clipped sort of way. Single word answers, grunts—and he had to be prodded for even that much. Not only was that tone of pride gone, but he seemed to be keeping something from her. She wondered if something had gone wrong with a patient and he wasn’t free to talk about it. They had such a great success rate, but maybe something had blemished it and wasn’t public information.
Katie resolved to force the issue at the earliest possible opportunity. Whatever it was, it had gone on long enough—several months now, it seemed. And it was getting worse, not better.
She made sure the water was the right temperature, removed Johnnie’s diaper, and gently placed him in his little plastic bath seat. He became excited, jiggling his legs and splashing the water with his tiny hands. He babbled as she began to wash him.
CHAPTER 47
A bolt of lightning cut through the early morning gloom and nearly blinded Amanda as she turned into the SomaGene driveway. Heavy rain drummed against the windshield as the wipers struggled to keep up.
Neither she nor Jeremy had uttered a word on their way to the facility for his second surgery. There was no need. They both knew full well what the other was thinking. No matter how much they had tried to talk it through, neither one of them was remotely at ease with the ethics of the situation.
But both of them knew Jeremy had no other choice.
Amanda parked the car in Jeremy’s spot, same as last time. She harbored a slight superstition that it would bode well for him in getting through the surgery. Another thing they both knew and didn’t openly discuss was the fact that such extensive surgery had never before been attempted.
At least, not to their knowledge. Amanda wondered if other labs hadn’t successfully cloned humans for organ harvesting purposes and just kept it quiet to avoid the inevitable storm of controversy. Obviously, it was possible.
“Well, here we are.” She turned to look at Jeremy. He just sat there, staring down and apparently wiping sweat from his palms onto his pants. He didn’t respond. “Jeremy, you ready?”
He looked at her, his face pale, his eyes dark and tired-looking. He’d been back on the extreme meds to calm his digestive tract so he could be in the best possible condition to tolerate the surgery. He answered as if she had distracted him from deep thought. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Amanda glanced at the driving rain and sighed. “Better make a run for it. It’s coming down pretty hard.”
They swiftly exited the car and bolted toward SomaGene’s front door. Once inside, they brushed themselves off and silently headed for Jeremy’s office. The brief walk down the hallway felt like a grim replay to Amanda.
They stepped inside his office and hung up their rain jackets. Jeremy sat in his chair, and Amanda took one of the seats in front of his desk. They both stared at their laps and avoided conversation as they waited for the appointed time.
He lay down on his padded shelf. He was tired, so tired. He couldn’t remember not being tired, but there must have been a time. He just didn’t know.
His food still tasted terrible, but he tried to eat more of it because that White Coat seemed to want him to. That White Coat spent more time with him than he used to. Not like the other White Coat. That one didn’t seem to like him much. He didn’t understand why. It used to be harder to tell them apart, but they acted differently now so he usually could tell the difference.
The White Coat bringing his food was about the only thing that happened each day. He would hear the screaming and ranting from the room next to him, then a short while later, the White Coat would come in with food and would stand and stare at him until he finished it. Then he would go.
Not much else ever happened. Not White Coat came a couple of times. He always got a strange feeling inside when he came. He didn’t know how to describe it, but it just felt funny through his insides. Not White Coat would just look at him for a while, and then go away again. He never brought food or anything. He couldn’t understand why he came at all.
The door opened and both White Coats came in. He didn’t know what to think about that. They rarely came at the same time any more.
Except that other time.
Panicked, he sat up and pressed himself back against the wall, as if he could push through to somewhere safe. The White Coats were getting closer to where they could open the door to his little enclosure and get inside. He didn’t want them inside.
He suddenly remembered what happened last time they came together. Now he remembered when he used to feel better. He used to feel better before they came together that last time and took him out. He’d never been out before, and they both took him out into that strange room. The room with the painfully bright lights and that table.
He remembered more. He remembered being strapped to that table, unable to move, then feeling a sharp sting in his arm. Then nothing, until he woke up with a terrible pain in his belly. He remembered it all now, though he did not understand it. He woke up with white pads taped to his belly and it hurt so bad under those pads that he couldn’t walk at first.
And it was ever since then that his food tasted so bad, and he was always so tired.
And they were back! They were going to do it to him again.
He opened his mouth and he began to scream, startling himself with the sound. He could barely breathe from the panic that had set in and tightened his chest and throat.
“Shut him up!” The White Coat that didn’t like him quickly opened his enclosure and charged at him. The other one hung back for a moment, then joined him.
They had his arms pinned down. He twisted and tried to get away, but they were so much stronger. Then he felt a sharp sticking pain in his arm. He kept trying to break from their grip, but he felt weaker and weaker.
Then darkness.
CHAPTER 48
They waited until the Subject stopped struggling and fell under a light anesthesia from the intramuscular injection. Glen stepped to the door and checked down the hallway. “It’s clear. Good thing this section is cut off from the main operation. I’ll get the gurney.” He left the room.
Tim sat on the shelf-bed next to the Subject. He looked down at him and felt almost physically ill at what had just transpired. He must be capable of memory, or why would he have reacted that way? Tim wondered how specific his memories were.
At least he was out for now, and he wouldn’t awaken until the procedure was complete. He wouldn’t form any new traumatic memories of being marched into the surgical suite and strapped down. Tim supposed that was some small consolation.
Minutes later, Glen arrived with the gurney. He wheeled it into the enclosure and they lifted the Subject onto it. Tim winced as Glen cinched the straps more aggressively than was necessary. He supposed he was driving home the point that the Subject was nothing more than a living container for the organs Jeremy needed.
&
nbsp; They wheeled the Subject into the surgical suite and positioned the gurney alongside the one that would hold Jeremy. Both of them worked in silence to optimally position the carts, trays and various surgical instruments that would be needed.
Tim then began to prepare the Subject for surgery. He set up an IV, then hooked up the cardiac and respiratory monitors to his chest. He gazed at the screens for a few moments. Satisfied with the readings, he deftly intubated him and adjusted the gas flow. A cold feeling crept into the pit of his stomach as he watched Glen completing his own preps on the Subject.
Glen draped the surgical site as if he were draping a lab animal in preparation for a classroom demo. He performed his tasks roughly, as he exposed the Subject’s abdomen and swabbed it with antiseptic. He stood back for a moment as if taking a mental inventory, then said, “All right. Ready. If everything’s ready on your end, I’ll buzz Jeremy.”
“Yeah, he’s stable.”
Jeremy slowly set the phone down. “That was Glen. They’re ready for me.” He felt weak in the knees.
Amanda looked at him, her eyes wide. She looked like she was trying to keep from crying. “Oh,” she said in a tiny voice.
Jeremy took a deep breath, stood, and walked over to her. “I’ll see ya soon.” He attempted a smile, then bent down and kissed her briefly.
She stood up and hugged him hard. He could feel her trembling. This was already tough enough and—though it was no surprise—it made it worse to know she was scared, too. He gently pried her off him and held her by her shoulders. He kissed her again, trying to ignore the tears that had started down her cheeks.
“Gotta go. I’ll see you.” The words barely made it out of his tightening throat. He turned and left the room while he still could.
He gently shut the door and started down the hall to the surgical suite. Once inside the vestibule, he saw the gown that had been left out for him. He picked it up and stared at it for a few moments as he thought about what he was about to undergo. Theoretically, he could still back out. But what would that solve? He couldn’t go on as he had been. His disease was taking a brutal toll, and it wouldn’t stop until it tore him apart as it had his mother.
The Janus Legacy Page 14
