The Einstein Pursuit

26

Dial knew that mice and rats were used in laboratories throughout the world. He imagined a huge factory in the middle of nowhere filled with millions upon millions of fertile rodents, their offspring serving as an endless supply of test subjects. The mere thought of it gave him chills. He quickly blocked the image from his mind and focused his attention on the larger animals.

He said, ‘Tell me about the monkeys, pigs and turtles. Can those species be traced? And if they can, does the supplier require information about the testing itself?’

‘They can be traced,’ Olsen said, ‘but only if they were procured through legitimate means. In Sweden, the European Council determines the method of procurement. It governs the buying and selling of animals that are to be used in testing, and regulates the entities involved.’

‘However,’ Cassandra said, ‘there’s no reason to believe that a rogue laboratory such as this would adhere to EU standards. They could have easily imported these animals from countries outside of Europe, or obtained them through the black market.’

Olsen spoke again. ‘And even if they used EU-approved sources, I doubt they would have shipped the subjects directly to the lab. Since no one knew of its existence, it appears likely that the animals were delivered to a separate location, then moved to the facility.’

Dial made a note to contact the companies that were certified by the EU to provide animals, but he knew Olsen was right: having test subjects delivered direct to a secret laboratory would be a massive oversight on the part of whoever was running this operation.

Eklund picked up from there. ‘Since we know which species they were using in their testing, does that help us determine what field they were studying?’

Cassandra shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I mean, it’s pretty obvious they weren’t studying astronomy, but we were able to figure that out from the equipment alone.’

‘What about disease?’ Dial asked as Cassandra returned to her seat. ‘Is there any chance they were using these animals to test infectious agents?’

The question hung in the air like a contagious pathogen.

No one was willing to handle it.

Dial had seen some horrible things in his life, but they were always isolated incidents. He knew they paled in comparison to a worldwide epidemic, which was one of his biggest fears. Given what he still didn’t know about the lab, he had to at least consider the possibility.

What if they were cultivating the newest super-disease?

What if they were designing the perfect biological weapon?

Finally, after several seconds, a balding scientist in his mid forties addressed Dial’s question. ‘The animals were clean. In fact, the evidence leads me to believe that every effort was taken to keep them that way. The chemical traces suggest a full series of vaccines and immunizations. They didn’t have so much as the common cold.’

Dial nodded his appreciation. ‘And you are?’

‘Dr Alton Miles, microbiologist.’

‘And what do the vaccines tell us about the lab?’

‘That’s for you to determine, not me. I deal in facts, not speculation.’

Dial glanced at Olsen to see if he knew why the microbiologist had just snapped at him like an insolent child.

Olsen apologized on behalf of his colleague. ‘Sorry. It’s been a long night.’

Dial forced a smile. ‘No apology necessary. You’re doing us the favor, not the other way around.’

Olsen spun toward the group. ‘Dr Norling, perhaps you could speak next.’

Dr Hanna Norling was the other female in the group. She was Cassandra’s opposite in nearly every way imaginable. At seventy-four years of age, she was the matriarch of the institute’s science departments. Despite her age, her hair was a darker shade of brown than her eyes. A shade under five feet tall, she was forced to use a step stool when speaking from behind a lectern or else her audience wouldn’t know she was there. Today, however, she simply tapped the ground twice with her cane. It was her way of letting them know that she would not be rising.

She launched into a long, rambling explanation in Swedish. Nearly a full minute passed before Dial found an opportunity to cut her off.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘but I don’t speak Swedish.’

A scruffy man who had not yet spoken translated for him. ‘She says there’s a chance they created the animals themselves. They have large quantities of growth medium and Petri dishes, as well as microsurgical scalpels and the other implements needed for artificial embryonic division. Basically she’s saying they could split one embryo into two.’

Hanna nodded her agreement of the translation, yet she continued in Swedish.

This time it was Olsen who related her words to Dial. ‘She also says they had the right equipment — microscopic needles and what not — needed to pull the nucleus from its original cell and transplant it into another cell. A second cell without any genetic material of its own. They also had the equipment needed to incubate the newly created recombinant cell.’

Dial pondered the new information. ‘Is she talking about cloning?’

‘Yes,’ answered the scruffy scientist. ‘That is what she is saying. They had the means to clone their own animals.’

‘Just animals?’

‘No. Anything they liked. It’s all the same science. Dolly the sheep is no different from a human being. It’s the same procedure.’

‘But it’s an entirely different world of ethics,’ Dial challenged.

‘I suppose to some,’ the man argued.

‘But not to you?’ Eklund asked.

‘It is a luxury I can enjoy: not choosing sides. I am only an engineer. I simply build the machines. How they are used is not for me to decide.’

‘And your name?’ Eklund asked.

‘Magnus Hedman. Pleased to meet you both.’

Hedman was dressed like a lumberjack, as if he were about to go out and cut wood for the winter ahead. Even though it was summer, he wore long work pants and a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled above his elbows. His hair was grey and unkempt. His face was ruddy and weathered. Dial’s first thought was that he looked like someone’s drunken uncle — the one who was always playing practical jokes. He certainly wasn’t what Dial thought of when contemplating an engineer at one of the world’s finest institutions.

‘Nice to meet you too,’ Dial said. ‘What’s your take on things?’

‘Whatever they were doing, it was cutting-edge,’ Hedman answered. ‘Some of the recovered samples were not organic, they were bionic. Are you familiar with nanotechnology?’

‘Let’s assume we’re not,’ Eklund said truthfully.

‘Nanotechnology concerns the order of things on the microscopic scale. We’re talking about machines and devices that are fully functional, yet no bigger than a human cell. In fact, there are those who believe we will someday be able to create machines that can be used to replace the very components of a cell. It would be like a heart transplant, only instead of something as big as a baseball, we’d be replacing a faulty nucleus a thousand times smaller than the head of a pin.’

‘And you found these devices in the lab?’ Dial asked.

Hedman laughed. ‘No, we’re not there yet. Perfecting machines that can operate on that small a scale is some time away. But what I found was still ahead of the curve.’

‘How so?’

‘Most nanotech in the market today relates to “passive” technology. For instance, microscopic particles that are added to sunscreens to make them more effective. The particles don’t change; they simply are what they are. That being said, the goal of nanotechnology is “active” technology, where a device could function as a sort of mini-mini-mini-mini-submarine that could be programmed to carry out a specific task, such as seeking out and destroying cancer cells before they propagate.’

‘And …’

‘I didn’t find that. What I found was somewhere in between. If I’m correct, it appears to be “reactionary” nanotech. It’s too soon to understand the trigger mechanism, but it seems they had created an inorganic microscopic delivery method.’

‘You’re saying it can’t seek out cancer, but it could react if it ever encountered it? Not so much a guided missile as a landmine.’

‘Theoretically, yes. That’s a very good analogy. But of course, there’s nothing that limits its target.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Programmed differently, it could just as easily be used to destroy healthy cells.’

Dial furrowed his brow. ‘It would attack healthy cells? Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t people mostly made up of healthy cells?’

‘Yes,’ Hedman said. ‘Theoretically, if you were to introduce a device like that into a human body, the result would be less like a landmine and more like a nuclear bomb.’