Mutation

Victor looked for Louis Kaspwicz around the malfunctioning hardware, but the problem had apparently been solved. The machine was back on line with lights blinking and tape reels running. One of the many white-coated technicians said Louis was in his office trying to figure out a glitch that had occurred in one of the accounting programs.

When Louis saw Victor, he pushed aside the thick program he was working on and took out the log sheets that he was saving to show Victor.

“I’ve checked over the last six months,” Louis said, organizing the papers for Victor to see, “and underlined the times the hacker has logged on. It seems the kid checks in every Friday night around eight. At least fifty percent of the time he stays on long enough to be traced.”

“How come you say ‘kid’?” Victor asked, straightening up from glancing at the logs.

“It’s just an expression,” Louis answered. “Somebody who breaks into a private computer system could be any age.”

“Like one of our competitors?” Victor said.

“Exactly, but historically there’s been a lot of teenagers that do it just for the challenge. It’s like some kind of computer game for them.”

“When can we try to trace him?” Victor asked.

“As soon as possible,” Louis said. “It terrifies me that this has been going on for so long. I have no idea what kind of mischief this guy has been up to. Anyway, I talked the phone company into sending over some technicians to watch tomorrow night, if it’s all right with you.”

“Fine,” Victor said.

That settled, Victor continued on to his lab. He found Robert still absorbed in sequencing the DNA of the inserted genes.

“I’ve got some more rush work,” Victor said hurriedly. “If you need to, pull one of the other techs off a project to help, but I want you to be personally responsible for this work.”

“I’ll get Harry if it’s necessary,” Robert said. “What do you have?”

Victor opened the brown paper bag and removed a small jar.

He extended it toward Robert. His hand trembled.

“It’s a piece of my son’s liver.”

“VJ’s?” Robert’s gaunt face looked shocked. His eyes seemed even more prominent.

“No, no, David’s. Remember we did DNA fingerprinting on everyone in my family?”

Robert nodded.

“I want that tumor fingerprinted, too,” Victor said. “And I want some standard H and E stains and a chromosome study.”

“Can I ask why you want all this?”

“Just do it,” Victor said sharply.

“All right,” Robert said, nervously looking down at his feet. “I wasn’t questioning your motives. I just thought that if you were looking for something in particular, I could keep an eye out for it.”

Victor ran his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry for snapping at you like that,” he said. “I’m under a lot of pressure.”

“No need to apologize,” Robert said. “I’ll start work on it right now.”

“Wait, there’s more,” Victor said. He removed the four stoppered test tubes. “I’ve got some blood and urine samples I need assayed for a cephalosporin antibiotic called cephaloclor.”

Robert took the samples, tilted them to see their consistency, then checked the grease-pencil labels. “I’ll put Harry on this. It will be pretty straightforward.”

“How is the sequencing coming?” Victor asked.

“Tedious, as usual,” Robert said.

“Any mutations pop up?”

“Not a one,” Robert said. “And the way the probes pick up the fragments, I’d guess at this point that the genes have been perfectly stable.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Victor said.

“I thought you’d be pleased with that information,” Robert said.

“Normally I would,” Victor said. He didn’t elaborate. It would have been too hard for him to explain that he was hoping to find concrete evidence that the dead children’s NGF

gene differed from VJ’s.

“So here you are!” a voice called, startling both Victor and Robert. They turned to see Colleen standing at the door, legs apart and arms akimbo. “One of the secretaries told me she saw you creeping around,” she said with a wink.

“I was just about to come over to the office,” Victor said defensively.

“Sure, and I’m about to win the lottery,” Colleen laughed.

“I suppose the office is bedlam?” Victor asked sheepishly.

“Now he thinks he’s indispensable,” Colleen joked to Robert. “Actually, things aren’t too bad. I’ve handled most of what has come up. But there is something that you should know right away.”

“What is it?” said Victor, suddenly concerned.

“Perhaps I could talk to you in private?” Colleen said.

She smiled at Robert to indicate she did not mean to be rude.

“Of course,” Victor said awkwardly. He moved across the lab to one of the benches. Colleen followed.

“It’s about Gephardt,” Colleen said. “Darryl Webster, who’s in charge of the investigation, has been trying to get you all day. He finally told me what it was all about. Seems that he has uncovered a slew of irregularities. While Gephardt was purchasing supervisor for Chimera a lot of laboratory equipment vanished.”

“Like what?” Victor questioned.

“Big-ticket items,” Colleen said. “Fast protein liquid chromatography units, DNA sequencers, mass spectrometers, things like that.”

“Good God!”