shook himself fully awake and Sam could see the strength in his face and eyes. The guy was tough. As soon as they were able, they planned to move him to a large hospital in Rio.
'You're looking better,' Sam said, putting a hand on his shoulder. 'Much better. How do you feel?'
'Depressed, and like a caiman bit three times as he swal lowed me. I was very fond of Marita, the girl, and I'm going to miss her. Did we get the bastard who shot her?
'I don't think so. There were a few guys in the jungle around there and we didn't get them all. We didn't get the leader yet.'
Michael looked dejected.
'Well, you're alive and we're going to take good care of you. That's a promise.'
'You never told me how you happened along,' Michael said, amazingly coherent.
Michael knew Sam as 'Robert Chase.' Grady and Yodo had so far managed to keep the name straight when Michael was present, but Sam knew that soon he would have to lose a little of his anonymity where Michael was concerned.
'We were looking for you,' Sam said. 'We knew that Devan Gaudet was looking for you as well.'
'What does he want with me?'
'We hoped you had some idea.'
'My work, maybe.'
'We think Gaudet wants information about something called Chaperone.'
'Never heard of it.'
'It's one part of an advanced technology that he stole.'
'How does it work?'
'Well, the technology itself genetically alters targeted brain cells in a living human being. It works quickly, in a matter of minutes or hours.'
'That's pretty hard to imagine. How did it come about?'
'A company called Grace Technologies took a herpes virus from a monkey, pulled off the outer protein layer, broke apart the DNA, and discarded the portion of the DNA that made it infectious. Then they spliced in their own engi neered DNA. Specifically there were two strands, a promoter sequence and the coding sequence. The promoter sequence ensures that only the correct brain cell types are altered. The coding sequence does the actual alteration of the DNA in the brain cell. Then they gave this new string of DNA a protein coat.' Sam stopped.
Michael seemed to be following him fine, narcotics or not. 'How exactly does this technology alter brain cells?'
'It installs DNA that adds an extra receptor to the dendrite, thus making them hypersensitive.'
'I would think it's complicated to alter brain cells to achieve a particular effect.'
'They were looking for generalized emotional effects, like increases or decreases in anxiety or aggression.'
'How do they suppress the immune response?' Michael wondered aloud.
'How did you think to ask that?'
'lama biologist. If you are changing the DNA in a body cell, the immune system may reject that cell if it is producing proteins that are foreign. It may also reject the vector, just like it would a virus. Basic biology. And I might add that I think there is no known way around that. Only immuno- suppressant drugs, and they don't do such a good job. I can't imagine the brain functioning well after such a transformation.'
'You're right. It doesn't. Except in Grace's initial trials. They were using something called Chaperone, which we think alters the immune system. We believe that you have discovered organic material that Chaperone came from. Some thing you sent to Northern Lights Pharmaceuticals,' Sam suggested.
Bowden only nodded.
'Whatever the case, you won't be safe unless Gaudet be lieves you're dead. It is extremely important that we con vince him that you are. So we've put out a story.'
'What do you mean?'
'An account of your death. Not in the States. Just locally in Peru and Brazil. We told your publisher confidentially that you are not dead, but that you needed to appear so for your protection. They told your agent. Their publicity people will refuse to confirm it at least for the moment.'
'I don't want my readers to think I'm dead.'
'You'd be a lot safer if they did,' Sam explained.
'I'd rather take my chances. I don't understand why Gaudet would want me dead.'
'He wouldn't until after he had tortured you and gotten the information he needs. So at least don't screw up the scut tlebutt in South America. It'll be much easier to keep you safe. With two bullets in you it's easy for Gaudet to believe you're a dead man. Let's not change that.'
'From what you're saying, Gaudet would need my jour nals. They're gone. The Matses have taken them to my scien tist friends in Pacaya-Samiria. I hope that by now they'll have shipped them to New York.'
'That will piss him off, all right.' Sam smiled at the good feeling it created. 'We know about Professor Lyman at Cornell. One of my associates will be ensuring the journals get there safely.'
'I'd rather pick up my journals personally. I doubt Richard would release them to anyone else anyway. It looks like I've got to go to the U.S. Who is going to believe I'm dead when I'm walking around New York?'
'Well, that's a point I wanted to make. You have to hide, not be public at all. Go out in a disguise.'
'Hide? I would think you'd want him to chase me so you could get him yourself.'
'Gaudet isn't the kind of person you bait. Not unless you're willing to run a terrible risk. I tried. My friend is dead,' Sam answered.
'Well, I'm not cowering.'
'I'm sure Grady would be happy to go to New York with you… It isn't that you could never go out…'
'I appreciate what you're suggesting, Mr. Chase, but I'll take whatever risk I have to.'
Sam could tell Michael needed to rest. He nodded and led Grady into the hallway.
'He seems to like you, and he's a nice guy… I was hop ing you wouldn't mind staying with him and the men.'
'And maybe convincing him to lie low?'
Sam nodded and dialed Jill on the sat phone to learn what Big Brain was uncovering.
'For reasons that are typically convoluted, after hacking into the Hertz car rental company in Sydney and a nearby hotel, we think we have a recent Gaudet alias-Jean Valjean- a character out of Les Miserables. The hotel that we hacked was his last watering hole before the Amazon. We also ran the parcel delivery database and looked at all the packages from that hotel.'
'And?'
'Somebody sent an express package on that date from Gaudet's hotel to a woman in Manhattan by the name of Claudia Roche,' Jill revealed.
'Who's she?'
'She's Georges Raval's aunt. He's now the highest name on our list of ex-Grace scientists that might be alive and not be working for Gaudet.'
'Has somebody talked with this aunt?'
'Oh yeah. Our locals in Manhattan. Raval is supposedly in the U.S. and they're wondering if he's in Manhattan near his aunt.'
'What do you suppose Gaudet sent to Raval's aunt?'
'When our locals paid their first visit, she didn't admit to receiving any package. But they won her confidence to some degree and finally she said she received a promotional cell phone from some company. It had five hundred free min utes-supposedly a trial gift,' Jill outlined.
'Clever. No doubt it has a very extended memory for the call log. So Gaudet knows about Georges Raval and is look ing for him just like we are.'
'Sure looks that way.'
'Had she used the cell?'
'Yes, but she gave it to us. We looked at the call log and found nothing that helps us find Raval. And the aunt is very tight-lipped. Claims she hasn't seen him in years. We think she's lying, but what can you do? We're watching her. We don't have a great ID on Georges Raval yet. He's blond, ap parently,' Jill offered.
