Gamay shook her head. 'You'll have to excuse my skepticism. As a marine biologist, I'm more familiar than Paul with the vents, and to be honest, I don't have a clue what you're talking about.'
MacLean's blue eyes sparkled with amusement. 'You know more than you thinly you do, lass. Please explain why scientists around the world are excited about the microbes that have been found around the vents.'
'That's easy,' Gamay said, with a shrug of her shoulders. 'Those bacteria are like nothing that's ever been found before. They're 'living fossils.' The conditions in the Lost City are similar to those that existed at the dawn of life on earth. If you figure out how life evolved around the vents, you can see how it could have started on earth, or even other planets.'
'Exactly right. My work started with a simple premise. If you had something involved in the creation of life, maybe it could extend life as well. Our company had access to samples taken on earlier expeditions to the Lost City. The enzyme these microbes produced was the key.'
'In what way?'
'Every living creature on earth is programmed for one task, to reproduce itself as many times as possible. Once its job is done, it becomes redundant, thus all organisms have a built-in self-destruct gene that dispatches them to make way for future generations. In human beings, sometimes the gene is activated prematurely and you have Werner's progeria, where an eight-year-old child looks like an eighty-year-old. We reasoned that if this gene can be switched on, it could be switched off, with the result that you slow aging.'
'How would you test something like that?' Trout said. 'You'd have to give it to test subjects and wait decades to see if they lived longer than your control group.'
'That's a good point. There would be patent issues as well. Your patent could expire before you got your product on the market. But this enzyme not only switches the gene off, it serves as a super antioxidant disarming free radicals. Not only can it retard the chemical processes that lead to aging, it can restore youth as well.' 'The Philosopher's Stone?' 'Yes. Now you understand.' 'You actually succeeded in doing this?' Trout said.
'Yes, in lab animals. We took mice that were senior citizens by human standards and restored their youth dramatically.' 'How dramatically?'
'We had mice whose age in human years was ninety and reduced it to forty-five.'
'You're saying you reversed the animal's age in half?' 'Absolutely. Muscle tone. Bone structure. Energy levels. Reproductive capacity. The mice were even more surprised by it than we were.'
'That's a remarkable achievement,' Gamay said, 'but human beings are a lot more complicated than mice.'
'Yes,' he said with a sigh. 'We know that now.' Gamay picked up on MacLean's unspoken message. 'You experimented on human beings, didn't you?' 'Not my original team. It would have been years before we conducted trials involving humans. We would have done it under the most stringent of conditions.' He gulped his drink, as if it could wash away unpleasant memories. 'My team presented its preliminary findings and we heard nothing for a while. Then we were informed that the team was being disbanded, the lab broken up. It was all quite civilized. A handshake and a smile. We even received bonuses. Some time later, while he was clearing off his computer files, a colleague came across a videotape detailing human experiments. They were being conducted on an island somewhere.'
Trout pointed to the ground at their feet. 'Here?' 'A reasonable assumption, wouldn't you say?' MacLean said. 'What happened next?'
'We made a second fatal mistake in underestimating the ruthlessness of these people. We went back to the company as a group and demanded that they stop. We were told that the subjects were all volunteers, and that it was none of our business anymore. We threatened to go public with the information. They asked us to wait. Within a week, members of my former team began to have fatal 'accidents.' Hit-and-run. Fires. Electrocuted by unwise use of home appliances and tools. A few healthy men had heart attacks. Twenty-one in all.'
Trout let out a low whistle. 'You think they were murdered?' 'I know they were murdered.' 'Did the police suspect foul play?' Gamay asked. 'Yes, in a few cases, but they could never prove anything. My colleagues had gone home to a number of different countries. And as I said, we were working in secret.' 'Yet you survived,' she said.
'Sheer luck. I was away on an archaeological dig. Hobby of mine. When I came home, I found a message from a colleague, since murdered, warning me my life was in danger. I ran off to Greece, but my former employers tracked me down and brought me here.' 'Why didn't they kill you, too?'
MacLean laughed without humor. 'They wanted me to lead a reconstituted research team. Seems they were too smart for their britches. After they killed off the original team, flaws began to surface in the formula. It was inevitable with research this complex. You saw their mistakes dancing around in their cages a little while ago.'
'You're saying that this youth elixir created those snarling beasts?'
Trout said.
MacLean smiled. 'We told the fools that more work was needed. The enzyme has a different effect on humans. We're complicated creatures, as you say. There was a delicate balance involved. In the wrong mix, the chemical simply killed the subject. In others it triggered progeria. With those poor brutes you saw, the substance reached back in time and brought out the aggressive traits that served
our ancestors well when they were reptiles or apes. Don't let their appearance deceive you. They still have human intelligence, as Strega learned.'
'What do you mean?'
'There are two types of creatures. The Alphas were part of the original experiment, which I'm told started many years ago. The Betas were created in the most recent round of experimentation. Not long ago, a number of them managed to escape. Apparently, they were led by the Alphas. They constructed a crude raft and landed on another island, where they killed a number of people. Strega hunted them down and brought them back. He subjected some of the Alphas to the most awful tortures before killing them in view of others as a lesson.'
'If they're so much trouble, why do they keep them around?' Gamay said.
'Apparently, our employers believe they have some value. A bit like us. Disposable tools. The latest test subjects were illegal immigrants from poor countries who thought they were going to Europe or America for jobs and a better life.'
Trout's jaw hardened. 'That's one of the most monstrous schemes I've ever heard of. One thing I can't figure. Why did these goons hijack the Alvin and kidnap us?'
'The enzyme has a short shelf life. They built the sub so the enzyme can be extracted as soon as it is harvested. It's separated from the microbes. Once it is stabilized, the submarine transports the finished product here for further research and development. They knew about your expedition. They must have been afraid their undersea mining project would be discovered. By chance, you were within minutes of discovering it.'
'It wasn't chance at all. We were looking for the source of Gorgonweed,' Gamay said.
'Now it's my turn to be puzzled. What is Gorgonweed?' 'It's a mutated form of a common alga,' Gamay said. 'It's been causing havoc around the world. The source of this mutation was traced back to the Lost City. We were trying to pinpoint its exact cause. We didn't advertise this part of the expedition because we didn't want to panic people. The situation is far worse than anyone has said in public.' 'In what way?'
Gamay said, 'If the weed is allowed to proliferate, the oceans would become nothing but huge soggy mats of vegetation. Ocean commerce would be impossible. Ports would be closed. Most species of fish would die, creating a huge disruption of the food chain that is bound to affect land production. The weather created by normal ocean cycles would become chaotic. Governments will fall. There will be disease and famine. Millions of people would die.' 'Dear God. I was afraid something like that could happen.' 'What do you mean?' Gamay said.
'The microbes were perfectly harmless in their natural habitat. There was always the possibility that they would migrate once we disturbed their habitat. They have evidently mutated the genes of higher organisms.' 'Can it be reversed?'
'There is a good chance we could apply the work we're doing now to the solution.'
'Do you think Colonel Strega would be open to a suggestion that we direct our energies toward saving the world from a Gorgonweed infestation?' Trout said.
MacLean laughed. 'Colonel Strega believes this camp is the world. And that he is God.'
'All the more reason to escape,' Trout said.
'These people that kidnapped us must have known that a massive search would be launched for the Alvin,' Gamay said.
