Jozef and I shared.
“But then, in the early spring of 1992, my only child, my beautiful, bright twenty-four-year-old Marie, was nearly killed in a senseless, brutal act of terrorism by the Hezbollah near the Western Wall in Jerusalem. My Marie was never a political person. She was kind, gentle, caring. Simply out on an innocent excursion in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“A car bomb exploded. A piece of shrapnel struck Marie in the back of the head-”
Feldman felt his stomach knot.
Mrs. Leveque's eyes were misting, but she kept her composure. “Today, my beautiful Marie lies as she has for eight years. In a coma, on artificial sustenance, in a special medical room at my home.”
She exhaled deeply before continuing. “Marie was Jozef's greatest joy. He lavished his love on her and this senseless tragedy was devastating to him. But rather than let it destroy him, and rather than accept it as the will of God, he considered it a challenge. He resolved to conquer it. That was his nature.
“At first, Jozef felt he could possibly restore Marie-and now I am entering a subject that must remain proprietary.”
Feldman dutifully put down his pen and pad.
“Jozef's field of research at the university was bio-electronic circuitry, a hybrid field of science pursuing ways to integrate nerve tissues with microchip circuitry. His research team had developed a type of microchip on which nerve tissue would grow and mesh, creating artificial nerve pathways.
“Jozef's objective was to design, for lack of a better term, nervous system patches. These patches would be used to help restore motor function in cases of paralysis, such as in severe spinal column trauma. The idea was to insert the patches into damaged pathways to reconnect severed or damaged nerves.
“By activating individual, microscopic areas of the chip, the theory was, you could turn on or turn off various, random nerve pathways through the chip. Through trial and error, you would finally locate all the correct connections to unite the proper brain impulses with the proper muscles to make the limbs function normally again. It was brilliant and very promising research.
“But, as advanced as Jozef's work was, Marie's injuries proved far too extensive to benefit. There was no hope of restoring her faculties, even if she could be awakened from the coma, which was unlikely.”
She now allowed Feldman to resume his note taking.
“Prior to Marie's accident,” she continued, “a colleague and great friend of many years, Dr. Giyam Karmi, had offered Jozef a department directorship at the Israeli Negev Research Institute to conduct advanced genetic studies on livestock. For reasons that only became clear to me later, Jozef felt this position would allow him access to specialized equipment and technologies that might be of some help to Marie. So, while maintaining his fellowship and research at the university, in the fall of 1994 Jozef took the position at the institute and began working closely with Dr. Karmi.
“In merging their different fields of expertise, along with that of other brilliant scientists at the institute, Jozef and Giyam developed a number of ingenious processes for accelerating bovine growth.”
“Super cattle?” Feldman suggested.
“No, not super cattle. Not larger or stronger, necessarily. Just faster growing. Much faster growing. Reaching optimum size and weight far more efficiently and cost-effectively than with conventional animal husbandry. Their work was stunning. Light-years ahead of anyone else. You see, the cattle weren't raised in any way similar to the standard methods. No pens. No food lots. They were gestated.”
“Gestated?” Feldman questioned. “Like incubating chicken eggs?”
“Well, no. They were maturated in artificial wombs.”
Feldman and Anke exchanged questioning glances.
“The process involved surgically removing the embryos from the host mother and transplanting them individually into special nurturing vessels, complete with artificial amniotic fluids and placental systems.
“The vessels were managed by a complex network of computers that would automatically monitor the developing fetuses and administer precise dosages of nutrients, vitamins, proteins and hormones, including specialized bovine and fetal growth hormones, stimulants to promote healthy, mature muscle development, and other compounds to force rapid growth. Unbelievably rapid growth.
“The maturing cattle embryos were kept tranquilized through the process and could be induced to develop to optimum adult size in less than five months.”
“Five months!” Feldman exclaimed. “You mean two months in the mother's womb and five months in the incubator?”
“No,” she replied, with some pride in her voice. “I mean a
“Holy cow!” Feldman blurted out, despite himself.
For the first time, Anne Leveque showed a full and genuine smile. “Yes. A cow that could be raised entirely to adulthood in a virtually automated, efficient completely monitored and controlled environment Free of injury and infectious disease.
“With a little time and perfecting, Jozef and Giyam could have turned their process into a highly cost-effective operation. An ideal means for providing this country of limited pastureland with high-quality, whole-some, lean beef, at dramatically reduced production costs.”
“What happened?” Anke asked.
Mrs. Leveque's face faded back into the familiar, anguished mask. “I could never have imagined that Jozef had an ulterior motive for the relentless passion he poured into his work. To him, this great achievement was simply a means to restore our beloved Marie to us.”
“I don't understand,” Feldman interjected. “If Marie's condition was irreversible, I don't see how this artificial gestation system, as miraculous as it sounds, would be applicable.”
“And now we come to the damnation of it all,” Mrs. Leveque spoke this as if releasing a terrible burden. “Jozef's intent wasn't to cure Marie. It was to
Feldman and Anke looked flabbergasted.
Mrs. Leveque paused for a moment stared down at her tightly clasped hands, and then continued.
“You are familiar with some of the recent experiments that have resulted in the successful cloning of higher- level mammals and primates?”
The couple nodded their heads.
“Well”-she looked up, readily apparent pride showing in her eyes-”Jozef eclipsed all of these remarkable accomplishments-and by more than a full year, I might add. His methods, however, were quite different. He utilized a procedure he developed called polar body fertilization.”
Feldman wrinkled his forehead with puzzlement.
“Let me explain. If you've ever taken a biology course, you may recall that during the early stages of egg formation in the human female, the immature ovum cell undergoes a change known as diploidy. That is, it doubles from forty-six chromosomes to ninety-two. Next, the egg cell undergoes haploid division. That is, it splits into two cells of forty-six chromosomes each. Finally, in a process called meiosis, it divides for the last time into four cells of twenty-three chromosomes each, all contained within one common membrane.
‘Two of these four cells are larger, one of which will win out over the other cells and eventually become a mature egg. The two smaller cells are known as polar bodies. These smaller cells also contain twenty-three chromosomes but very little cytoplasm-the substance that surrounds the nucleus and makes up the bulk of a cell.
“Without the cytoplasm, these polar body cells are quite similar in composition to male sperm cells. Under the right conditions, it is possible to reunite the polar body with the matured egg cell, producing a complete, fertilized egg.
“It's a process known as polar body fertilization, and the resulting offspring, if the pregnancy goes to term, would be female, and always identical to its mother. That's to be expected, because obviously the baby will possess all the chromosomes, exactly the same chromosomes, as its mother. A carbon copy.
“Jozef's strategy was to perform a polar body fertilization procedure with Marie's ova, without my knowledge, because he knew I would never agree to such a thing. On certain days when I was teaching at the university, Jozef would dismiss Marie's nurse to conduct his operations. He extracted numerous ova from Marie, separated out the
