Will Hill - Darkest Night

Ten minutes later Turner’s mind was spinning, and he was glad he had taken the Professor’s advice.

“Does it work?” he said, gripping the arms of his chair. “Does it actually work?”

Karlsson looked at Browning, who took a step forward.

“It works in the computers, sir,” said Matt. “And it works in a test tube. We’ve carried out a thousand data runs in the last two days, using living vampire tissue. Every single sample has been clear of the vampire virus after we introduced our engineered gene.”

Turner looked at the young Lieutenant. Matt’s face was still flushed from his encounter with Operator Gregg in the hallway, but his eyes were clear, and his mouth was a straight line of determination. The Director had often dreamt of this moment, of a day when his scientists would walk into his quarters and tell him they had found a cure, but, now that it was happening, he found himself unable to fully process it. The scale of the Lazarus Project’s discovery – if it’s real , he reminded himself, don’t get carried away, for God’s sake, not yet – was scarcely comprehensible; if it did prove to be real, it would quite literally change the world forever. He ordered himself to stay calm, when what he really wanted to do was jump up from his desk and wrap Karlsson and Browning in a bear hug of sheer gratitude.

“And you can produce it?” he asked. “On a mass scale?”

Matt nodded. “The genetic structure is stable, sir. We can synthesise it as fast as the labs can churn it out.”

“So what’s the next step?”

“Under normal circumstances, we would schedule at least two years of rodent and primate testing before we even considered a human trial,” said Professor Karlsson. “But these are not normal circumstances, sir.”

“Indeed they are not,” said Turner. “So what’s our alternative?”

“Test it on a vampire,” said Karlsson. “A live vampire. But there are ethical—”

“Do it,” said Turner. “Immediately. I’ll get the Operational Squads to bring you subjects. Test it as soon as there are vampires in the cells.”

“Once we have their agreement, sir?” asked Browning.

Turner shook his head. “Test it whether they agree or not, Lieutenant Browning,” he said. “My suggestion would be that you don’t waste time asking them. Bring the results straight here, whatever time of day it is, whatever my schedule says I’m supposed to be doing. The very minute you have them. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” said Karlsson.

“Yes, sir,” repeated Matt.

“Good,” said Turner. “If this works, if this is what you say it is, I’ll make sure the world knows what you and your colleagues did. I promise you that. I want you to pass my profound gratitude on to every single member of the Lazarus Project. Will you do that for me?”

“Of course,” said Karlsson, an expression of pride rising on to his face. “Thank you, sir.”

“Thank you , Professor,” said Turner. “And you , Lieutenant Browning. Now get back to the labs. Go and find out whether you really have just saved the world.”

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