James Rollins - Altar Of Eden

“What did they find?” Lorna asked hoarsely, her throat sore.

Malik answered. “All the children in the village had been born strangely regressed during the prior year.”

Lorna pictured the hominids and could guess what the doctor meant by regressed.

“The children were kept hidden by the superstitious villagers, believing their lands to be cursed. This certainty also grew after similar genetic abnormalities appeared in the village’s goats and camels. Eventually word spread, especially when the adult villagers began to get sick, succumbing to strange fevers that left them hypersensitive to light and noise.”

Lorna recalled Malik describing a toxic protein.

“I was called in to investigate. I did DNA tests and found all the children bore a chromosomal defect.”

“An extra chromosome.”

“That’s right. But it wasn’t a chromosome. It was an invader. A virus that injected its own DNA into a cell nucleus and took up residence there.”

Lorna finally sat up. This time the room only spun a little. The nausea was also quickly receding, though a cramping ache had begun to throb in her lower back, likely rising from her drug-assaulted ovaries.

“A virus?” she asked.

“That’s right. And from what we’ve been able to tell of its evolutionary origin, we’ve encountered it before.”

As proof, Malik went on to describe how remnants of this code still existed in our DNA, buried and dormant, just a fragment of junk DNA.

“In fact, this ancient exposure may be why all animal species carry some level of magnetite crystals in their brain. Like broken pieces of a mirror stuck in our head, a remnant left behind from this previous encounter millennia ago.”

Malik continued: “But these villagers exposed themselves anew, along with their livestock, when they dug a new well, far deeper than they’d ever gone due to a decade-long drought. Once the water was flowing, they quickly contaminated themselves and their livestock with this virus.”

She understood. “And this virus inserted its DNA, spreading through their cells.”

“It seems to concentrate in very active cells. Lymph, gastrointestinal cells, bone marrow. But also germ cells in ovaries and testicles.”

“And in doing so, it passed its DNA to their offspring.”

“Exactly right. But in the cells of adult animals, it remained dormant, inactive. It only switched on inside a fertilized egg. The virus began to express itself as the embryo grew, changing the architecture of the brain to meet its ends. In early embryonic development, it triggered the brain to form those magnetite deposits, and then it grew in a fractal manner in tandem with the developing brain.”

Lorna pictured again that fractal tree, spreading ever outward.

“The viral DNA also continues to produce proteins as an offspring grows. We believe the protein acts as a neurostimulator, basically keeping the neurons more excited, generating additional energy to power and maintain this fractal antenna. But it’s this same protein that kills those who don’t have the neurological capacity to handle it, those who don’t have this magnetic architecture in their brains. Truly insidious when you think about it.”

“How do you mean?” Lorna asked.

“Maybe this deadly feature also serves an evolutionary advantage. A way for the new generation to wipe out the old.”

Lorna went cold at this possibility.

“Either way,” Malik said, “we do know another effect of these proteins. Under electron microscopy, we studied the rest of the host’s DNA. Specifically we examined the region of our junk DNA that corresponded to the virus’s genetic code. This region was puffy and unbundled, suggesting active transcription and translation.”

“And what does that mean?” Bennett asked, scrunching his brow.

Lorna knew the answer. Her stomach churned-but not from the injected drugs this time.

Malik explained. “Such an appearance suggests that ancient region of DNA had become active again. In other words, what was junk was no longer junk.”

“How could that happen?” Lorna pressed.

“I could go into detail about messenger RNA, reverse transcriptase, but suffice it to say that these proteins stimulated and awakened this ancient DNA. I believe that awakening this old code is one of the reasons these animals end up being genetic throwbacks. That by turning on the DNA carried in the genome for millennia, it somehow also dredged up each animal’s genetic past, reawakening evolutionary features locked for millennia within that junk DNA.”

“Like some sort of genetic trade-off,” Lorna said.

Malik crinkled his brow at her, not understanding.

She laid it out. “The virus triggers a leap forward neurologically, but to balance it out, there’s also a corresponding evolutionary leap backward.”

Malik’s eyebrows rose on his forehead. “I’d never considered that.” Bennett nodded. “Hassan, maybe you were right about Dr. Polk. She might bring a fresh outlook to your problem.”

“I agree.”

They both faced her.

“If you’re feeling settled enough to walk,” Bennett said, “it’s time you truly got a taste of Eden. And the serpent that plagues us.”

Lorna followed Malik back to his office. Her legs wobbled with each step, and she came close to falling on her face after first sliding off the exam table. Bennett caught her and offered her his arm. She hated to take it, but the only other choice was to be carried there.

At least moving helped clear her head.

By the time she reached the chair in front of his desk, she felt strong enough to let go of Bennett’s arm and move to the seat. The burning ache in her lower back had also dulled to a low throb. She sank to the chair as Malik took a remote and pointed it at the wall of screens.

“This is a live high-definition camera feed from the habitat we set up on the neighboring island. The animal reserve is connected to ours by a land bridge, but we’ve set up an electric fence between the two islands and maintain around-the-clock guards. The other island is a perfect test field for evaluating how this new intelligence manifests in a real-world setting.”

The center plasma monitor bloomed to life. The clarity was such that it looked more like a window into another world-and perhaps it was. The view opened into a clearing in a primeval forest. Crude, palm-thatched huts circled the edges, and in the center, a fire pit glowed with embers.

A pair of naked figures crouched near the pit. They were the size of large children, naked but covered mostly in fur. The male rose to his feet as if sensing their observation. He searched around. His nose was broad and flat, his forehead high and prominent, shadowing his eyes. His jaw protruded, looking like it had been crudely sculpted, halfway between ape and man.

Despite her weakness, Lorna rose again to her feet, fascinated despite her personal repugnance concerning the research here. She recognized the creature. Here was a living example of the body she’d seen earlier. A hominid-like version of early man. As if wary, the male helped the female to her feet. Her breasts hung heavy. She held a hand to her belly, which bulged.

“She’s pregnant,” Lorna said, surprised.

“Due any day,” Malik agreed. “We’re lucky to catch a view of the female. She normally stays hidden and only comes out at night.”

“I named her Eve,” Bennett said with a vague note of fatherly pride in his voice.

Malik rolled his eyes a bit at the conceit of his choice of names. “She’s the first of them to conceive in the wild. We’ve normally orchestrated all breeding via artificial insemination in the lab. We’re very curious what sort of offspring she’ll give birth to.”