HELIX (a technothriller)

9 - Genome

Denton paused the camera feeds. Two recruits—teenage girls—ran through the street, firing blue pistols. He checked their records. Their names were Xiu and Olesya. He leaned back in his chair. It creaked, making Dr Cecilia McLoughlin wince. He secretly enjoyed it.

McLoughlin was motionless, a folder under her arm. She studied him like she would study the Project GATE recruits. McLoughlin was different from most of the staff at Project GATE. While she was easily bothered, she lacked the psychological imperfections of most people, and that granted her clarity and focus. She carried only the necessary emotions.

Denton recognized this in her. Just as she recognized it in him.

'I assume you have something to show me,' Denton said.

McLoughlin placed the folder before him. There were only a few pages inside, paper-clipped. He didn't pick it up, just leaned forward and read the title.

'Ah yes, the Human Genome Project,' he said. 'An ideal cover story.'

One that had allowed him to build the Fifth Column's DNA database of the human race, entirely in secret. Thanks to the clandestine sample collection of the genome project, Denton had 1.4 billion records he could filter for particular genetic markers; 0.4 percent of those records carried the markers he was looking for, and those underwent further DNA testing to determine those who possessed rare abilities.

Denton oversaw the testing of 7,000 candidates for Project GATE, children from countries around the world and often from impoverished families. Less than 1,000 of those children passed the tests and were admitted into Project GATE under the guise of a lucrative scholarship. Denton expected that over the coming years no less than 80 percent would fail their Special Forces and Intelligence training. The 200 or so who passed were the nucleus of Project GATE: to create the most formidable operatives the world has known. Remarkably trained and genetically enriched. And they would all be his.

All the more reason to have the world's best computer geneticists on his team. McLoughlin was the best, here to study the genes that made each recruit special, and learn how to switch them on in other recruits.

Denton opened the file. On the first page, he noticed a dark image of the human body, lit brilliantly with green fluorescence.

'You were successful?' he asked.

She took a step closer. 'You seem surprised that my zinc finger modules worked.'

'Impressed. That is different from surprise.' Denton ignored her stare. 'And you deliver these inside a virus: adeno-associated virus,' he read off her papers. 'Why this one?'

'Serotype eight. By far the most efficient vector,' she said. 'We inject it into the operative's bloodstream. We're talking systemic expression within twenty-four hours.'

Denton was impressed. McLoughlin had achieved the unachievable inside of two years.

He tapped the green fluorescent image with one finger. 'And it's permanent?'

'We can resurrect pseudogenes,' she said.

'Can we can take a recruit's ability—say, Damien's thermogenesis—and copy it to another recruit?'

'Yes, but we are limiting ourselves to existing mutations,' McLoughlin said. 'We can create our own. The genes are there, they just need the right kick. Sometimes, the right twist.'

Denton met her piercing gaze. 'Let's not get ahead of ourselves.'

'That's what I do,' she said evenly. 'That's why you hired me.'

Denton waited for her to blink. She didn't.

'Do you have something in mind?' he asked.

'I have multiple things in mind, I always do. But as you said yourself, let's not get ahead of ourselves.' She almost smiled. 'For our own safety, I recommend we implement some sort of control system in the recruits.'

'They will be programmed,' Denton said. 'We have the best programming.'

'I don't doubt that.' She paused, just for a moment. 'I was thinking control of a more genetic nature.'

Denton leaned back in his chair again, disappointed when it didn't creak. 'Go on.'

'I'm talking about encoding loyalty directly into their DNA,' she said. 'And one step closer.'

'Closer?'

'We encode a fail-safe.'

Denton raised an eyebrow. 'Define fail-safe.'

'We have to consider the scenario where an operative fails to comply. Or is turned by the enemy,' she said. 'They would become a formidable weapon in the wrong hands.'

Denton thought for a moment. 'You're proposing a kill switch.'

'Part of the package,' she said. 'A seemingly harmless protein that fuses with the pseudogene and lies dormant. Something we can trigger at a later time, if necessary, to terminate the operative. Final measures, of course.'

'I'll take it under consideration,' Denton said.

McLoughlin glanced over at the camera feeds. 'Olesya. She interests you.'

'She warrants my interest.'

'Are you certain?' McLoughlin said. 'She shot her own squad leader by accident.'

Denton allowed himself a smile, knowing it would irritate her. 'It wasn't an accident.'

Her eyebrows lifted a fraction. 'Olesya is not one of your precious candidates.'

'Yet we had a difficult time programming her. Just like my candidates.'

'Her DNA doesn't qualify,' McLoughlin said. 'If you insist, I can run a new analysis on her bloods for you, but then I'd have to push viral testing to next week.'

'No.' He paused a camera feed as Olesya ran through the beacons. 'Test the candidates we have. We need to know.'

He could feel her gaze weighing on him.

'What are you looking for?' she asked.

'Perfection.'

***

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Nathan