Relic

anything was happening. It was a special, hardwired model designed for sequencing DNA and mapping genes. Turow had come to the lab six months before specifically because of this machine.

He fetched the paper out of the bin and scanned it. The first page was a summary of the results, followed by a sequence of nucleic acids found in the sample. Next to those were columns of letters that identified primer sequences and mapped genes from the target group.

The target group, in this case, was unusual: big cats. They had asked for gene matches with Asiatic tiger, jaguar, leopard, bobcat. Turow had thrown in the cheetah, since its genetics were so well known. The outgroup chosen was, as usual, Homo sapiens, a control to check that the genetic matching process had been accurate and the sample sound.

He scanned the summary.

Run 3349A5 990

SAMPLE: NYC Crime Lab LA-33

SUMMARY

 

TARGET GROUP

 

                                                % matches            degree of confidence

Panthera leo                         5.5                           4%

Panthera onca                      7.1                           5%

Felis lynx                              4.0                           3%

Felis rufa                               5.2                           4%

Acinonyx jubatus                6.6                           4%

 

OUTGROUP CONTROL

 

Homo sapiens                      45.2                         33%

 

Well, this is complete bullshit, thought Turow. The sample matched the outgroup a lot more than it matched the target group—the opposite of what should have [103] happened. Only a 4 percent chance that the genetic material was from a big cat, but a 33 percent chance it was from a human being.

Thirty-three percent. Still low, but within the realm of possibility.

So that meant trying GenLab for a match. GenLab was an enormous international DNA database—two hundred gigs and growing—that contained DNA sequences, primers, and mapped genes for thousands of organisms, from the Escherichia coli bacterium to Homo sapiens. He would run the data against the GenLab database, and see just what this DNA was from. Something close to Homo sapiens, it looked like. Not high enough to be an ape, but maybe something like a lemur.

Turow’s curiosity was piqued. Till now, he didn’t even know that his laboratory did work for the police department. What the hell made them think this sample came from a big cat? he wondered.

The results ran to a hefty eighty pages. The DNA sequencer printed out the identified nucleotides in columnar format, indicating species, identified genes, and unidentified sequences. Turow knew that most of the sequences would be unidentified, since the only organism with a complete genetic map was E. coli.

C-G                                                         G-C         Unidentified

G-C                                                         G-C         *

G-C         Homo sapiens                      T-A         *

C-G                                                         T-A         *

A-T         A-1 allele                               T-A         *

T-A         marker                                   T-A         *

C-G                                                         G-C         *

A-T         Al                                            C-G         *

A-T         Polymorphism                     C-G         *

A-T         begin                                      C-G         *

A-T         *                                              T-A         *

G-C         *                                              G-C         *

T-A         *                                              T-A         *

G-C         *                                              T-A         *

T-A         -