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.”Other kids? Luke felt surprised, then realized that of course plenty of the personnel on this base would have their families with them.He just hadn’t paid any attention to that, until now.Lenore left her suitcase by the door and went out with Del to find their daughter.Left standing there, Luke debated going after them, but decided not to.Leave them alone with Angie; no sense butting in.Besides, I’ve got plenty of work to do here.* * *THAT EVENING, THOUGH, they had a family reunion dinner in the base’s mess hall.Angela sat between her parents, laughing happily as she gobbled her dinner.Her face still looked gaunt, with wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, but Lenore didn’t seem to notice.Or maybe she doesn’t care, Luke thought.At least Angie’s hair is growing back in.He and Tamara spent most of the dinner explaining the child’s condition to his daughter, with Del listening intently.“But the cancer’s gone?” Lenore asked, over and again.Sitting beside Luke, Tamara assured her each time she repeated the question that the tumors were gone.“And we’ve inserted a second p53 gene,” Luke added.“That’ll help her immune system fight off any new cancerous cells that might arise in her.”Del summed it up.“She’s going to live, hon.Our little Angie’s going to be all right.”In that instant, Luke forgave all his son-in-law’s anger and insults.It was fear, he realized.Del was frightened that Angie was going to die.“And she’ll be … normal again?” Lenore asked.Tamara said, “The progeria symptoms are fading.”“Her telomeres are coming back to normal,” Luke explained.“She’s going to be fine.”Lenore’s eyes went misty.She turned to Angela and hugged the child.Angie put up with it, but was more interested in the peach pie dessert that the camp’s cook had personally carried to the table.Across the mess hall, Novack sat alone, picking at the lousy Army food while watching Luke and his family.And Tamara.* * *LUKE WALKED WITH Tamara through the chilly darkness back to their building, watching his daughter and her family strolling contentedly several paces ahead of them.“We’ll have to change our sleeping arrangements now that Norrie’s here,” he said.“She can bunk with Angela tonight,” Tamara said.“Then tomorrow your son-in-law can move to my room and I’ll move to his.”Luke felt his eyebrows go up a notch.“We’ll have to share the bathroom.”In the darkness, Tamara’s silky voice sounded amused.“Does that bother you?”“Norrie and Del might get the wrong impression.”“Or maybe the right impression.”Luke’s brows hiked up toward his scalp.But then Tamara said, more seriously, “Your PSA count is still rising.”“Yeah, I know,” he replied, feeling almost nettled at being forced back to reality.“You really should have your prostate removed.”“No,” he said flatly.“I’ll treat it the same way we knocked out Angie’s tumors.”“With telomere inhibitors? Luke, that can be dangerous for you.”Thinking of the incontinence and impotence that often followed prostate surgery, Luke muttered, “Not as dangerous as the side effects from surgery.”“Do you have the tissue samples that they took back in Portland?”He nodded.“I packed them in with our other stuff when they moved us here.”She hesitated, then said, “Luke, I don’t like it.You’re taking telomerase accelerators, and now you want to take inhibitors?”“Just for the prostate.”“But you have no idea what the results will be.You’ll be messing with your cellular chemistry too much.”Luke said flatly, “No surgery.Surgery is an admission that you don’t know how to cure the condition.”“Your ‘cure’ could be worse than the disease.”Still thinking of impotence, Luke replied in his best John Wayne intonation.“Not hardly.”Welcome to the GulagONCE HIS LABORATORY was up and running, Luke settled into a happy routine.Gunnerson and Holmes were top-notch researchers, and although neither of them seemed totally happy working under Luke’s direction, rather than independently, they got along together without too much friction.God knows how much Fisk is paying them to work under me, he mused.They’re both giving up a lot to stay here.His PSA count was still climbing, despite the telomerase inhibitors Luke had one of the camp medics inject into his prostate.No discernable reaction after nearly two weeks.Luke tried to shake off his concern.Needs more time, he told himself.The effect of the accelerators is still dominant.At least, he thought, I’ve got plenty of material for a paper.He spent most of his evenings writing a research report for Fisk’s people.As it took shape, he began to think of publishing it in American Cellular Biology.But when he tried to query ACB, which had published most of his earlier papers, he found that neither his laptop nor his cell phone could send a message out of the base.Luke marched off to see Colonel Dennis.Sitting behind his Army-issue steel desk, the colonel listened patiently to Luke’s complaint, then spread his arms in a gesture of helplessness.“No one can communicate with the world outside this base,” he said, “unless it’s through our monitored landlines.Army security, you know.What we’re doing here is top-secret work.”“But that’s not what I’m doing,” Luke protested.“My work has nothing to do with what the rest of you are doing.”Another spread of arms.“My orders are that you’re not allowed to communicate with anyone except Mr.Fisk,” said the colonel.The freaking privacy agreement, Luke realized.“But this is a scientific research paper,” he countered.“The Fisk Foundation will be fully credited as the funding agency for my work.”Dennis shook his chubby head.“You can ask Mr.Fisk to allow you to publish,” he suggested.“How can I ask anybody anything if my phone and my laptop can’t get through?”“You can place authorized messages through the base communications center.”“Authorized?” Luke snapped, feeling nettled.“Who gives the authorization?”“I do.”“And you won’t authorize my query to American Cellular Biology?”“I’m afraid I can’t.Orders.”“Orders? From who, Fisk?”The colonel stiffened.“I don’t take orders from Mr.Fisk.My orders come from my superior officers.”“Who take orders from the White House, eh?”“Ultimately,” said Colonel Dennis.Rossov, Luke thought [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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