Stephen Leather - Once bitten

"Genetic, mainly," he said. "We're trying to isolate the gene that gives them their longevity."

"And then what? I assume it's not just sheer scientific curiosity."

Sugar grinned. "No, it's more than that. We're getting to the stage where we can manipulate genes, cure genetic defects before they happen. We can introduce genes into chromosomes before conception. Genetic engineering the press calls it."

"You want to make people live forever?"

"I just do the research, Dr Beaverbrook. I just add to our scientific knowledge."

"I don't remember seeing anything about vampires in Scientific American," I said.

"I didn't say I published. I just do the research."

"But you don't share the research?"

"There's a lot of research done by the Defence Department which isn't shared," said Sugar.

"Need to know only," I said.

"You got it." He leant back in his chair and studied me again. "Have you fallen for this girl?" he said.

"No," I lied.

He looked at me for a full ten seconds, saying nothing. I could hear the helicopter in the distance, faint like a buzzing insect trapped under a glass.

"I think there's a good chance she hoped you'd be able to tell her where we're holding the rest of her kind. I think that's why she got close to you. It's important that you believe that, Dr Beaverbrook. It's important that you realise that you have to be with us on this, not against us."

I said nothing. The helicopter noise faded and died.

"Sometimes they promise people things," he continued. "They tell people they can join them.

Become like them. Did she promise you that, Dr Beaverbrook? Did she make you an offer you couldn't refuse?"

"No," I lied again.

"If she did, and I'm not saying I don't believe you, but if she did, then it's important that you understand something. It's not like in the movies. They don't bite you on the neck and turn you into one of the living dead. That's not how it works. The mechanism that stops them aging and dying isn't carried in the blood, it's not some sort of virus or infection that can be transmitted through the blood or any other secretions. They're the way they are because of their genetic makeup, because they carry genes we don't have. We're as different as wolves and sheep. A sheep doesn't turn into a wolf when it gets bitten. And the only time the wolf goes among the sheep is when it wants something. Usually to feed. You ever see that movie The Hunger? The one with David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve?"

"I saw it," I said, knowing what he was going to say. It's not like it is in the movies. No one could accuse Sugar of being subtle.

"OK, so you'll remember that she's a 4,000-year-old vampire living in New York who chooses companions and turns them into vampires. She bites them and they live for a few hundred years.

Remember?"

I nodded. "I remember."

"It doesn't happen. Genes can't be transferred through blood, any more than you can get pregnant from a love-bite. Genetic engineering is possible, but only before conception. We can take a chromosome and alter it, we can breed new plants and animals already, we can create our own mutations, eventually we'll be able to prevent most genetic disorders, but there's nothing we can do to alter the genetic make-up of an existing organism. Maybe in the future, once we've isolated the immortality gene, we can slot it into human DNA and create a human being who'll live forever, but that's for our children or grandchildren, it won't do anything for us. Long term it might be possible, I'll be honest. Scientists are working on using viruses to carry genes into the nucleus of existing cells, hoping to cure diseases like Parkinson's disease and Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, and there's similar work being done on nerve disorders like Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases. It's starting to look as if we just might be able to modify a virus like Herpes Simplex so that it carries an enzyme-producing gene into the nuclei of nerve cells in a patient. If that proves to be possible, then the next step would be use the procedure to modify the nuclei of all the cells in the human body. We could, for instance, change a person's eyes from brown to blue. Or make them taller. Or more intelligent. Or live forever. But that's the equivalent of talking about a heart transplant during the Middle Ages. We are the way we are, and nothing is going to change that. We are born, we live, we die. That's the rules we play by, Dr Beaverbrook. Whatever she might have said to you, whatever she might have promised, they can't change those rules."

"I hear what you're saying," I said. It was true. He'd finally got through to me. It wasn't just what he was saying, it was the way he was saying it. I believed him. But I needed time to think.

He was like a life insurance salesman, smooth and slick and persuasive, holding out the pen and asking whether I wanted to make weekly or monthly payments. I wanted to see how I felt when I was on my own, when my head was clear. I had a lot to think about.

"There's something else you must know," said Sugar. "What has happened here has to remain a secret. You can understand that, I'm sure. We take a great deal of trouble to ensure that our work remains confidential. Our organisation will do everything it takes to maintain that confidentiality.

I am a scientist, as you might have gathered. Mr Hooper here is involved more on the, how should I say it, security side."

"Security," repeated Hooper, as if hearing the word for the first time. He smiled at me with the look of a tailor measuring me up for a suit.

"You are on the side of the angels, Dr Beaverbrook. You are doing good work with the LAPD.

We'd like you to stay on our side. I know the odds are against it, but maybe in the future you might come up against another of her type. We'd like to think that you'd call us if that happens. What we wouldn't like to think is that you were on their side, that you were misguided enough to think that you should help them. If we were ever to think that, Mr Hooper here or someone like him, would pay you a visit."

"Is that a threat?" I said.

"An observation," said Sugar.

"A promise," said Hooper. He seemed to be savouring the thought.

That was it, the interview was at an end. I let myself out of the office. De'Ath was at his desk and Captain Canonico was standing over him as if checking his homework. De'Ath raised his eyebrows but said nothing and I had the feeling that his boss had warned him not to speak to me. I walked by them without a word. It was only when I'd left the building that I remembered that my car was back at home. I cursed. There was precious little chance of a cab cruising past and it was too far to walk. I went back inside and asked the desk sergeant if there was any chance of a cruiser taking me home. I didn't know the guy. About as much chance as hell freezing over, he said, and nodded over at the pay phone. I wondered if Canonico had spoken to him as well. I called a taxi firm and one arrived within fifteen minutes.

I sank back in the seat and closed my eyes, rubbing my temples with the palms of my hand all the way back to the house, my thoughts in a whirl. I'd lost Terry, I'd been threatened by men in grey suits who didn't even carry ID, and been told that the US government was carrying out research on vampires and werewolves. My legs were trembling and I felt as if I was going to throw up. I managed to keep the nausea under control until the cab dropped me outside my house but by the time I'd unlocked the door and reached the bathroom my stomach lurched and I vomited again and again. I knelt down beside the toilet and rested my arms on its polished wooden seat, flushed it, and then threw up once more. When I had nothing left to vomit I got to my feet and poured myself a glass of water to get the bitter taste out of my mouth. I was splashing cold water over my face when the doorbell rang.