Parasite Eve (39 page)

    Eve 1 must have known from
the outset that she wouldn’t have all the time in the world to let her egg grow
in a womb. She must have predicted that Doctor Yoshizumi, Anzai, and ultimately
Toshiaki himself would try to stop the growth of her egg at all costs. Despite
her unique abilities, it would be difficult for Eve 1 to protect Mariko until
removal of the fetus became impossible. Even then, the newborn would have to be
protected. It would likely take months, if not years for such a child to
exhibit the abilities Eve 1 foresaw.

    And yet Eve 1 was certain of
victory?

    The daring smile she flashed
just before she ran away came back to Toshiaki, because of the sheer confidence
it expressed.

    Eve 1 had something else up
her sleeve. If not, she wouldn’t have revealed herself during her speech.

    His heart fluttered.

    Eve 1 had probably mapped out
everything beyond all his possible moves.

    Was there no way to stop her?
Were humans just meaningless objects to be exterminated in her path?

    Toshiaki refused to accept
this. No matter how exhaustive her plans were, she had to have a weak point.
There had to be some way to bring down Eve 1 and her offspring. Some way.

    But nothing came to mind.
Toshiaki bit his lip impatiently.

18

    SHE ran at full speed. She
had to find a place where She could keep Mariko quiet, where She could deposit
the fertilized egg into her womb before Toshiaki and the others arrived.

    She had no reason to doubt
Her success. Before long, a new Eve would be born. A daughter who possessed
both human and mitochondrial abilities in a single body.

    She had to hurry. Her host
cells were beginning to weaken. Though She controlled its movements and energy,
these were cultured cells that could not be exposed to the air for too long. If
She entered into this girl, She could probably survive for a few more days, but
sooner or later She’d be rejected, and eventually eradicated. The fact that Her
erstwhile host Kiyomi and this young girl had similar antigens did not mean
that the two were identical. Unless She obtained immuno-suppressants, She would
be destroyed. While manipulating Asakura’s body, She had had to inject a fresh
rotation of cells into the woman daily to cope with the rejection mechanism.
She was aware of Her own fragility. That is why She had prepared for a
recipient who could bear a child, by sending out a sister.

    And in that girl’s body, Her
sister had slowly but surely accomplished her task, by altering the girl’s womb
to accept Her egg, by ensuring that the placenta of mother and child would be
consistent in composition. Her sister had simply followed Her instructions and
worked on the girl’s womb. Unbeknownst to anyone, Her sister had altered the
womb towards the borderline between the species. Now, Her egg could be planted
without hindrance.

    Soon, this life form to which
Toshiaki had given the name “Eve 1” would be no more. Her life of parasitism
would soon be over. But, before that, She had to set the stage for Eve’s birth
at all costs.

    When Eve was born into this
world, she would have the body of a human being. There’d be no need to control
the host form like Eve 1 was doing now. She’d be able to utilize all of her
abilities for more productive ends. Eve would create energy at will and pour it
into action and thought. She would be able to guide every last one of her
genes, replicating them or programming them to die at will.
[35]
She’d be able to evolve freely into any form she
desired.

    No life form had ever existed
on earth that could do this. Nuclear genomes lacked this most essential
attribute for ensuring survival. All living things simply entrusted their fate
to ambiguities such as Time and Chance. She had parasitized them all, having no
choice but to wait with utter impatience. But Eve would be different. She would
be able to mould her own future, accessing nuclear genomes at will and setting
her own evolutionary course. Adaptation to environment, perfection and
rationalization of faculties, all performed effortlessly. She would be free to
occasion mutations. The speed of her evolution would be astronomical. She would
be the ultimate life form.

    She passed through the
shadows along the wall, happening upon a flight of stairs leading underground,
then descended them to a damp, narrow space. She continued from there, running
down an incline just wide enough to let a car through, at the bottom of which
was a sturdy door in a wall.

    The door was locked, but She
stretched a tentacle through the keyhole and undid the latch. With a rusty
creak, the door opened slowly, and She slipped inside with the girl.

    It was a gloomy space, lit
only by the pallid glow of a single ceiling light. She heard the dull sounds of
a boiler room. On the left was an elevator door and on the right was another
door. Light poured out from frosted glass in the latter.

    A sign on it read “Autopsy
Room.”

    There was no handle. Thinking
what to do, She looked down and noticed a square indentation on the wall next
to the door. A small red light glowed in its center. She put a foot into the
indentation.

    With an electronic whine, the
door slid open sideways.

    A man in an operating gown
turned around.

    “What are you do—”

    She killed him instantly.

19

    Yoshizumi and Anzai stared in
surprise as Toshiaki summarized all the events leading up to now. Some of what
he said they had experienced already, so they believed him. Yoshizumi told of
the mitochondrial anomalies in Mariko’s post-op biopsy. He also admitted to«
the mysterious heat he had felt during the operation itself.

    “I’ve felt that heat as
well,” Toshiaki said. “I think she has the ability to make contact with other
people’s mitochondria through something akin to telepathy. The mitochondria in
all our bodies differ from hers and have yet to evolve fully, which is why we’re
only capable of ‘normal’ acts.”

    “Even so, why can she summon
fire?” said Anzai, stating the most obvious question.

    “I don’t know for sure, but I
have a theory. Mitochondria exist in every cell of the body. Imagine if they
started to produce ATP all at once. If the conversion into energy was total,
that means a lot of heat. Ignition is another matter, but it’s possible that
she makes cells vibrate at an intense speed to create friction. Our having felt
hot probably owes to a similar mechanism.”

    “Incredible,” Yoshizumi said,
his eyes opened wide.

    Five minutes after Eve 1’s
escape, the fire alarm was finally deactivated. The head guard was now guiding
the others via the PA system. But still no news of discovery.

    “Let’s go, we’ve got to help
them,” said Toshiaki.

    “My thoughts exactly,” the
doctor concurred.

    The three men exited the room
and proceeded to the elevator. Anzai called out his daughter’s name repeatedly,
nothing but sadness in his voice.

    As he ran, Toshiaki said,
“She’s probably still in the building. Eve 1 needs to keep Mariko subdued, so
she can’t have gone far. Doctor Yoshizumi, where do you think would be the best
place if she wanted to hide?”

    “There are plenty. Offices,
wards, examinations rooms, too many for just us and the guards to search.”

    “I’m worried about something.
Mitochondria has the function of speeding up a cell’s division. That monster
may have further evolved that ability.”

    “What are you getting at?”

    “Just recently, there was a
report of a certain Drosophila
[36]
experiment. When the ribosomal RNA of these flies’ mitochondria was infused
into the zygote, specifically in those cells that were going to become
reproductive organs, it caused the division of those cells to accelerate. Not
only that, but during spawning, the rRNA actually entered into the cytoplasm to
induce division in the reproductive cells.”

    This was over Yoshizumi’s
head.

    “What I’m saying is that
mitochondria hold the key to reproductive division. It has yet to be reported
in human beings, but the possibility is still there.”

    “So in other words...she can
grow a fertilized egg at whatever rate she chooses?”

    “That’s what I’m worried
about. She has total control over the propagation of her host cells, which
leads me to believe she can develop a fertilized egg in a very short period of
time.”

    “So if we don’t find her
soon, the child might already...?”

    “Stop it, you two!” shouted
Anzai, tears streaming down his tired face. “There’s no reason Mariko should
have to give birth to a monster! She’s only fourteen years old!”

    They reached the elevator in
silence and Toshiaki pushed the button. The floor numbers lit up slowly.

    Short of breath, he asked
Yoshizumi where the guards were searching.

    “The wards. They’re checking
every single room to see if any of the other patients have been harmed.”

    Anzai shouted, “But that
thing already has what she came for! I thought she was taking her someplace out
of sight?”

    “She’s probably looking for
somewhere to complete what she came for. It’d have to be a place where there’s
no one else around. Somewhere where she can lay Mariko down in preparation for
the birth itself,” Toshiaki agreed.

    “That still doesn’t narrow it
down much. Let’s see...there are couches in all the offices, CT scanning beds,
stretchers in the storehouse, brain wave exam rooms, operating rooms, the
morgue, the autopsy room...”

    At those last words, the
three of them looked up suddenly.

    Just then, they heard a chime
and the elevator doors opened.

20

    SHE looked around.

    The place had the feel of an
operating room, but differed slightly from where Kiyomi or Mariko had been
operated on. The space was narrow and a total mess. The floor was heavily
discolored. Three stainless steel operating tables were lined up in a row. A
naked man was laid out on the central one. There were two men in green coats,
one on either side of the table, gazing at Her with shock in their eyes.

    “He-hey, we’re in the middle
of an au...topsy...” said one of them, from behind his mask. She couldn’t set
them on fire. If the alarm went off again, it would alert everyone to Her
whereabouts. She scowled at the man, then made his heart stop like She had done
to the last one.
[37]
This was almost too
easy.

    The other doctor blinked his
eyes and backed up. His mask was moving, as if he was trying to say something,
but no words issued. Dragging Mariko alongside Her, She advanced slowly into
the room. She looked at the man on the operating table. He couldn’t have been
more dead. His abdomen was spread open down the middle, revealing milk-white
fat and gnarled entrails. She grabbed one of the corpse’s arms to pull him onto
the floor.

    But Her hand suddenly became
deformed. She looked at it in surprise, sending signals to make the hand
reform. The cells did not respond.

    Necrosis had at last begun to
take over Her host cells. Kiyomi’s form began to drip down like jam. Her life
as Eve 1 was drawing to a close. She didn’t have much time.

    Using both arms, She pushed
the dead body off the table. It rolled over and fell to the floor with a dull
thud. Her shoulders distorted; Her arms began to break away from Her torso.

    The remaining doctor was flat
against the wall, his mouth moving in wordless wonder. The man was already
becoming an eyesore, so She disposed of him as well.

    She managed to shoulder
Mariko up onto the table and lay her out flat. She tore off the remaining
clothing from Mariko’s body and gazed upon it.

    Such a small body. The chest
was still undeveloped and the pubic hair faint, revealing a tight crevice
beneath. But the body was female. The womb had to be handled with the utmost
discretion, for it would perhaps become the birthplace of many Eves to come. It
would need to serve its role as incubator. It was good then to have obtained
such a young girl.

    A smile came to Her melting
face as She crawled on top of Mariko.

    At that moment, one of Her
arms fell off, hitting the floor with a splat. The severed flesh writhed
around, seeming to yearn for the body from which it fell, but She ignored it.
Her only purpose now was to implant the egg.

    She opened Mariko’s legs and
lifted her waist to get a better view of her reproductive organs, then pressed
the lower half of Her body onto them.