'I had no idea. I've been going through my oncology books, and I haven't found anything like that.'
'Not everything is in the books, Doc. You know that. But listen, if I really wanted to give someone cancer with zero risk of being caught, I'd explore one of two avenues. The first is viruses.'
'I've considered that myself, but I don't even know enough to be dangerous.'
'You'd have to be willing to wait a while for your victim to die.'
Chris nodded to himself. 'Up to a point, time isn't a factor in these cases.'
'Well, then. You know that HTLV has been implicated in at least one form of leukemia. The Kaposi's sarcoma associated with HIV is the result of infection with herpes eight. Epstein-Barr can cause Burkitt's lymphoma, and of course, human papilloma virus is known to cause cervical cancer. Herpes eight may also be a factor in multiple myeloma. I think that over the next ten years, we're going to discover that viruses are responsible for all sorts of cancers that we don't yet suspect have a viral etiology or mediator. Other diseases as well.'
As Chris jotted down Connolly's words in the shorthand he'd invented during medical school, he talked to keep the hematologist on the line. 'I knew that one of the herpes viruses had been implicated in multiple sclerosis.'
'Herpes six,' said Connolly. 'And there are indications of a viral component in juvenile diabetes. But let's get back to cancer. There's no doubt that viruses can cause cancer. But you have to remember, getting cancer isn't a one-step process. Millions of women carry HPV, but only a few develop cervical cancer. Millions of people smoke without getting lung cancer. It wouldn't be enough to isolate and infect someone with an oncogenic retrovirus. You'd have to solve several other riddles, too. How to switch off tumor suppressor genes, how to increase cellular growth factors. It would take a massive research effort.'
Chris's thoughts were already shooting ahead. 'So we're talking about something beyond the reach of present-day technology.'
'Not at all. I've already done it myself, right here in my lab.'
Connolly's words hit him like a body blow.
'It's amazing, really, but we did. In trying to understand the cause of chronic myelogenous leukemia, my team and I basically carried out gene therapy in reverse. We attached a leukemia-inducing gene to a retrovirus, then infected a mouse with the virus. The oncogene was incorporated into the mouse's genome, and within weeks the mouse had developed the rodent version of CML.'
Chris was literally speechless. After several moments, he asked, 'Was this mouse immune- compromised?'
'No. Perfectly healthy.'
'Christ, Peter!'
'What?'
'You basically murdered this mouse by giving it cancer.'
'Absolutely. And thousands of human lives will one day be saved because of that murder.'
'You're missing my point. What I asked you about on the phone…it's
'Well, in theory, I suppose.'
'What about in the real world?'
Connolly took a few moments to consider the question. 'I suppose if you had some higher primates to test your work on-or, God forbid, human beings-then, yes, it's possible.'
Chris gripped the phone in stunned silence.
'I might be worried,' said Connolly, 'if it wouldn't cost someone millions of dollars to reach the point where they could murder someone using that method. Not to mention that they'd have to sit pretty goddamn high on the intelligence curve.'
'But if they did use that method, they could be sure of getting away with murder?'
Connolly's voice took on a clinical coldness. 'Chris, if I used this technology against a human being, I could kill whoever I wanted, and the greatest pathologist in the world wouldn't even realize that a crime had been committed. Even if I told him, he couldn't prove it with the science at his disposal.'
A deep shiver went through Chris.
'Hey,' said Connolly. 'You don't think…'
'I don't know, Pete. You mentioned two possible scenarios in this line, didn't you?'
'Right. The second scenario is far scarier to me, because it requires much less expertise. All you'd need is a hematologist or oncologist with the ethics of Dr. Mengele.'
'Go on.'
'All you do is modify the process of a certain type of bone marrow transplant. Remove marrow cells from your patient; irradiate or otherwise poison them in the lab, causing your malignancy of choice; then reinject them into the patient.'
'What would be the result?'
'A cancer factory powered by the victim's own bone marrow. Exactly the kind of thing you described to me, in fact. A spectrum of blood cancers.'
'And no one could ever prove what had been done?'
'Barring a confession, no way in hell.'
'Jesus.' Chris analyzed this scenario as rapidly as he could. 'Would you have to use marrow cells for that? Or could you use cells that are easier to get?'
'Hmm,' Connolly mused. 'I suppose you could use just about any kind of living cell, so long as it contained the patient's DNA. A hair root or a scraping from the mucosa, say. But marrow cells would be best.'
Chris had received too much information to process it efficiently. 'Pete, can you tell me anything about the hematology and oncology departments at UMC now? Do you know anything about your replacement?'
'Not much. It's been six years, you know? I left there in a hurry, so they made Alan Benson acting chairman until they recruited a new chief.'
'I remember.'
'They've got a brand-new critical-care hospital down there. The new hematology chief is named Pearson. He came down from Stanford, where he did some groundbreaking work. They've got a terrific bone marrow transplant program, but they're still a ways from getting their NCI designation, which was always a dream of mine.'
'Do you know of anyone at UMC who's working on the kind of stuff we've been talking about?'
'Which stuff? Retroviruses? Bone marrow transplant? Radiation?'
'All of it.'
'I don't know of any ongoing retrovirus trials there, but I'm not the best guy to talk to. I'd give Ajit Chandrekasar a call. First-rate virologist, and I was damned lucky to have him. There's another guy there, multiple specialties…I used him for difficult histology and culture stuff. His name was…Tarver. Eldon Tarver. I don't know if he's still around.'
'I've got it.'
Chris heard a female voice in the background. 'They're calling for me, buddy. Did I help you at all?'
'You scared the shit out of me.'
'Can't you tell me why you need this stuff?'
'Not yet. But if someone I know turns out to be right, I'll have some reportable cases you can write up for the journals.'
Connolly laughed. 'I'm always happy to do that. Keeps the research money flowing.'
Chris hung up and looked down at his notes. He'd been a fool to resist Alex's theories. She might lack medical training, but she had evolved her hypothesis by observing empirical evidence and had thus come to an improbable but quite possible conclusion. He had discounted her ideas on the basis of professional prejudice, nothing more. He felt like the pompous French physicians who had ridiculed Pasteur when the country doctor claimed anthrax was caused by a bacterium. But Chris wasn't like those doctors. Shown the error of his ways, he would become a zealous convert. After all, his life was at stake.
CHAPTER 28
