The Genesis Key by James Barney

Author:James Barney
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins US
Published: 2011-06-30T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty

Rockville, Maryland.

Jeremy Fisher was thoroughly exhausted. He’d been awake since early Saturday morning—nearly forty hours ago. His hair was a mess, he had the beginnings of a full beard on his face, and his clothes were badly wrinkled and ripe. Earlier in the day, he’d driven to McDonald’s for a Big Mac and fries—his only meal of the day.

In his entire life, Jeremy could not remember being as tired as he was right now. Still, despite Kathleen’s admonition to go home, there were a few important things he needed to finish up in the lab before he could leave. Most important, he needed to transfer the purified DNA sample into a half dozen sterilized neoprene sample bottles for retention. After a lucky success like today’s, the last thing he wanted to do was leave his DNA sample sitting overnight at room temperature where it could decay, or worse, get contaminated.

He knew that if any bit of stray DNA got into the sample at this point—even a tiny bead of sweat from his fingers or a microscopic cell of airborne yeast—all would be lost. If any polymerase chain reaction (“PCR”) solution remained unquenched in the sample, it could amplify the invading DNA and quickly turn the entire sample into an ambiguous, multi-species DNA soup. In other words, useless. At this stage of the process, more so than at any other, contamination was the enemy. And he wasn’t about to be robbed of his breakthrough success.

Jeremy’s plan was to divide the bulk sample into six equal aliquots, each sealed in a sterilized sample bottle. He then planned to freeze five of the aliquots with liquid nitrogen for long-term storage. The remaining sample bottle would go in the laboratory’s refrigerator for Julie’s sequencing work.

He rubbed his bloodshot eyes, which were burning badly. He’d left his contact lenses in far too long, and he desperately needed to take them out. Fumbling through his tattered canvas backpack, he found his “geek glasses” and slipped them into his pants pocket. He exited the lab, being sure to close the airtight door behind him, and lumbered slowly down the hallway toward QLS’s small unisex bathroom. He entered the bathroom, flipped on the light, and closed the door with a soft ka-chunk.

Groggily, he removed his contacts and splashed cold water on his eyes, which felt great. He washed his unshaven face with soap and water and, for nearly a minute, savored the feeling of having his eyes closed. Finally, reluctantly, he dried his face with a paper towel and put his glasses on.

It took a long time for his bloodshot eyes to adjust to their new corrective lenses. As they came into focus, he stared at himself in the mirror with amazement. He looked like hell. He poked the dark, puffy circles under his eyes and wondered what, exactly, caused them. At some point, he became aware of the monotonous electrical buzz of the overhead fluorescent light . . . and something else.

Straining to hear, he detected something metallic and irregular—a rattling noise somewhere just outside the building.

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