The Samantha Project (39 page)

“Maybe yours went off accidentally. Your timer isn’t on those markers like mine is. Maybe it works differently.”
 

“Why didn’t my dad know about this? He’s been studying my DNA for years. How could he not see this?”

“Don’t be so hard on your dad, Erik. He only found the timer because of the markers on my DNA. It isn’t exactly something he would have been looking for.”

Erik didn’t respond. He walked out the side door, letting the screen door slam behind him. “I need to be alone,” I heard him say as he left.

I sat down at the kitchen table again, trying to figure out how to fix this. I was good at science but I didn’t know much about computer software. Maybe we could disrupt the chemical sequence that would lead to the cardiac arrest, I thought. It was a good idea. But the biochemical process would happen so quickly that it wouldn’t be possible to stop it.
 

After my parents’ deaths, I had started to think about death in general a lot more. But I hadn’t given my own death much thought. I was teenager in good health. To think that I would be dead in two years was unimaginable. And to think that Erik would be dead in just a few months? There had to be a way to stop this.
 

As I sat there, Brittany came up the stairs. “What’s going on with you guys? What’s with all the stomping around and slamming doors? Hey, is there any cereal around here? I’m hungry.”

Brittany had no idea what was going on. I figured it was best to tell her. When I was done, she looked confused.

“So there’s something in your cells? Sorry, Sam, but I don’t get all that science crap. I slept through those classes.”

“Forget that part. Bottom line is that if Jack doesn’t find a way to fix this, Erik and I will be dead. Erik’s time is running out. He has less than a year.” I found it hard to say out loud.
 

“His dad’s really smart though, right? I’m sure he’ll figure out how to fix it.” Brittany wasn’t grasping how serious this was, but I didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

“Yeah. You’re right. I’m sure he’ll find a way.” But I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t even a little bit confident. Jack was working with subpar equipment in the basement of an old farmhouse. GlobalLife had state-of-the-art equipment and technology that the public didn’t even know existed. They wouldn’t make the termination code something that could be disabled just by rewriting the software code. They wouldn’t make it simple. They would make it impossible to disable.

“I’m gonna take my breakfast downstairs.” Brittany grabbed a bowl, spoon, box of cereal, and the whole gallon of milk. “Hey, what do you think?” She looked down at her clothes. She had cut her t-shirt at the neckline, making it into a plunging v-neck and cut the sleeves to make it a tank top.
 

“It looks good, Brittany,” I lied. She had ruined a perfectly good t-shirt. But it was her style and I had told myself not to judge her anymore. And at least it was better than what she had on before.

Brittany headed downstairs and I decided to get to work on my training. The training seemed pointless now, knowing that I would be dead in a couple years. But I didn’t know what else to do.
 

Erik stayed outside all morning and then buried himself in his bedroom all afternoon.
 

By evening, I was tired of training. I went to check on Brittany, who was in the side bedroom, cutting and ripping more of our clothes.
 

“What are you doing? I have to wear some of these. Stop it.” I grabbed some shirts from the pile.

“You said they looked good.” She held up a white t-shirt that was now covered in some type of design made using permanent marker.
 

“They look good on
you
. Not me,” I clarified. “Let’s just split everything up. Take whatever you want and I’ll take what’s left over.”

“But this would look so good on you, Sam.” Brittany held up a blue shirt that had sleeves on one arm but was sleeveless on the other. “You know, I think I have a real talent for this. Maybe when we’re in California, I can sell these to celebrities. I could be like one of those stylists to the stars.”

“Yeah, maybe.” I didn’t want to ruin her dreams. And I was happy to see that she was finally accepting our plan to leave Comfort. Maybe Erik was right and I had misread Brittany. She did seem excited about leaving.

“Sam, I want to show you something.” Jack stood at the doorway.

“Okay. Hey, Brittany, while I’m gone, don’t cut up any more of these shirts. I need at least a few to wear.”

Jack glanced over at the clothes, looking confused, then turned back to me. “I built some computer models I want you to see.”

“Shouldn’t we get Erik first?”
 

“No. Leave him be. He’s really upset. I’ll talk to him later.”

Jack and I went into his computer lab, where he had a large screen displaying a double helix. On his laptop, he had the software code running across the screen.
 

“So this is the part we were talking about earlier.” He pointed to a section of the double helix. “I was able to download the software that tells the timer what to do. That’s over here.” Jack pointed to the laptop. “And in doing so I found something I didn’t expect.”

“Okay. What is it?”

“This code, the one that starts the reaction when the timer runs out? I developed it. Well, at least the idea behind it.”

“What? Why would you do that?”

“I developed it years ago, when I was at GlobalLife. It was meant for animals. Livestock. GlobalLife said it was for their agricultural division. They had invested a lot of research in bioengineered cattle for large ranching operations. And they didn’t want other farmers stealing the cattle. So if that happened, and the rancher couldn’t locate his cattle, they could enable this and it would kill the cow, filling its body with poison, making it worthless. You couldn’t eat it, couldn’t sell it.”

“Why didn’t you say something before?”

“Because it was never used. It was more theoretical—to see if it was possible. They weren’t even selling those cattle back then. They were still in the research phase. And my original model didn’t have a timer. Instead there was supposed to be a device that they would put in the cow. You would only activate it if needed, and the idea was that the owner could do that remotely.”

“What are you saying? That GlobalLife activated this once they lost track of me? What about Erik? They thought he was dead.”

“I don’t know how they turned it on, in either of you. But it doesn’t matter, Sam. It’s already on and running and we need to shut it off. So now look at this.” A new image came up on the screen with bands of dark and light lines. “This top row shows your DNA and the bottom one shows Brittany’s.”

“What does Brittany have to do with any of this?”

“Well, I was thinking that we could insert Brittany’s nonenhanced genes here to replace this section that has the timer, thereby making it inactive.”

“Jack, that’s it! You’ve figured it out!” I felt a wave of relief.

“It’s not that simple, Sam.” Jack brought up yet another screen showing a double helix. “When I tried it in this model here, Brittany’s genetic material ended up merging with yours instead of replacing it. It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure what to make of that yet. So then I linked up the software program to this new gene sequence, and it disrupted the timer, slowing it down. If it works in real life, then that’s good news. Problem is, it’s only slowing the timer by a few months. But if it continues to disrupt it even more, the cycle might slow by a year or so.”

I started to feel sick again. “So it buys us time, but it doesn’t stop it. I don’t understand. If you wrote that program, why can’t you rewrite it to disable the timer?”

“It’s not the exact same program. And I didn’t write it for humans, Sam. There’s a big difference. The theory is similar but the actual code is not the same. It’s much more complex than my original program. And as I said, I didn’t write it with the timer function.”

Jack pointed to the screen again. “What else do you see here, Sam?”
 

I looked closer at the double helix. The ladderlike rungs that would normally go across the helix were not all connected. It was like part of it was missing. Almost like there were tears in certain sections that needed to be mended.

“The helix. It’s not fully connected like it should be. The base pairs aren’t lining up right.”

“Exactly right. Again, I’ve never seen anything like this. DNA is composed of nucleobases, right? A and T. C and G. Basic genetics. Those nucleobases, or bases, should link up, filling in the rungs on the ladder. But here, it looks like there’s some type of damage. Like something is missing. I think that section is missing some other base pairs.”

“Other base pairs? That’s all there are, Jack. Adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. A, T, C, and G. There are no other base pairs.”

“Actually, I think there are. Years ago when I studied Erik’s genetic code, I noticed there were more than those four. There were two others that I couldn’t identify.”

“Did you ever tell Erik?”

“No. I didn’t know what it meant and it’s not like I could do anything about it. So why tell him? It only showed up on the enhanced genes. When I started looking at your DNA, Sam, I found that you also had these unique base pairs—again, only in your enhanced genes.”
 

“How could we have different base pairs?”

“I’m not sure. It’s like GlobalLife added something in those sections of enhanced genes. Those unique pairs, along with the software built into the gene markers, are likely what’s giving you and Erik your abilities.”
 

“I thought they had just manipulated our genes with software. To be better versions of ourselves. Stronger. To have more of a mind-body connection.”

“Initially, that was my theory as well. But when I found that strange pattern in Erik’s DNA, I considered the idea that it might be something GlobalLife added. Something they engineered. Now I’m almost certain of that.”

Jack turned away from the screen. “GlobalLife has spent trillions of dollars on bioengineering, Sam. It’s what they’re counting on to be their home run. The thing that will make them richer and more powerful than ever. So it’s conceivable that they’ve moved beyond plants and animals and are trying to bioengineer humans by developing new base codes that make new genes. Better genes. Genes that have never been in humans before. Basically, it’s a way to speed up evolution.”

“And Erik and I are the first human test subjects. Or at least the first ones who lived. I can’t believe this type of technology even exists. How are they able to keep this a secret, especially if the research has been going on for so long?”

“They’re good at hiding things, Sam. I’m guessing that a lot of people who work for GlobalLife don’t even know about this. Heck, I worked there for years and didn’t know half of what they were doing, even for some of the research in my own lab. They never tell you the whole story. Instead they have you work on bits and pieces and then someone higher up puts it all together. I bet only a handful of people at GlobalLife know about this.”

“I guess that’s why they want Erik and me dead. We’re walking around with their top-secret technology.”

“That’s why they’ve made it so hard to disable the timer.” Jack pointed to the screen again. “When I see this over here—this section that looks empty or broken? It makes me think that those unique base pairs are what’s needed to fill in these missing rungs. I think filling those in would turn off the timer and prevent the reaction from starting.”

“So could we isolate the unique base pairs from the other enhanced gene fragments and somehow try filling them in on your computer model, trying different sequence combinations until they fit?”

“That won’t work. The computer model doesn’t understand how the new base pairs work because I can’t tell it that.”

“Then what’s the answer?”

“GlobalLife. They would have the unique base pairs and the corresponding sequencing pattern needed to fill in these missing holes.” Jack looked back at me. “That way, they’re always the ones in control. They lose you, they can terminate the technology. You try to run, but they make it so that you have to come back.”
 

“We have to tell Erik this. He has to know.”

“I know. I’ll go talk to him.” Jack got up.

“Wait. Let me talk to him.”

“He’s my son. He should hear this from me.”

I grabbed Jack’s arm. “No. It’s better if I tell him. This is happening to him and me. No offense, but you can’t understand what this feels like. To know that we’re the only two people that have this—whatever it is GlobalLife put in us. And to know that our life is on a timer.”

Jack could tell that I wasn’t just doing this for Erik. I needed to do this for myself as well. I had to talk to someone who would understand what I was going through. “Okay, you talk to him. I’ll talk to him later.”

“Thank you.” I gave Jack a hug and he hugged me back, even tighter. In the short time I had known him, Jack had become my substitute for Uncle Dave. It was clear that he cared not only about his son but me, too, a complete stranger who landed at the town diner just days earlier.

I went upstairs and found Erik outside sitting on the porch steps. It was dark outside. But the lights from the kitchen gave off enough glow that I could see his face, which was staring out at the fireflies lighting up the fields.
 

“Erik, can we talk?” I sat down next to him.

He didn’t say anything, so I continued. “I missed you at training today. Kind of hard to train by myself.”

“What’s the point?” he muttered, still staring at the fireflies. “We’ll both be dead soon anyway. And why bother running from here? Might as well stay and enjoy our last few days.”

“About that. Your dad found a way to slow the timer.” I felt like a moron the minute I said it. Jack had used Brittany’s DNA to do that. Erik didn’t have a twin to get DNA from. It wouldn’t work for him.

“By how much?”
 

“A few months, maybe even a year.” Erik didn’t ask how it worked, so I didn’t tell him. “He also found that we have unique base pairs in our DNA, in addition to what everyone else has. You know, A, T, C, and G.”