Chapter Thirty-Five
In the lab, the three scientists had been secured with zip ties and were seated on the floor. August and Caspian were hovering uncertainly behind Delilah as she stared at the lab table, her fists clenched and her chest heaving.
“Delilah?” Vivian ventured. “I think you’ve seen enough. Won’t you come away from here?”
Ignoring her own advice, she moved to her sister’s side and looked down.
There wasn’t much to see. A small dot in the middle of a petri dish, under a large white microscope.
A nearby screen displayed a magnified image of a curved shape where Vivian could almost detect the beginnings of a head. There was no heartbeat.
“It’s so small, Viv,” Delilah murmured. “Such a fuss over a pinprick.” She raised blurred eyes and turned to the scientists. “Have you figured it out yet? Did you crack the genetic code?”
“We’re close,” one said eagerly. “We just hit a snag.”
“What snag?”
“The calcium treatments you described, we don’t understand their purpose. They would have no impact on the fetus’s genetic material and won’t be hereditary. Is the intention to perform the treatments in every generation?”
Vivian jerked her head back. “Intelligence, I thought we were breaking the cycle in a single generation.”
From its position between August and Caspian, the orb moved from side to side. “We had a minimally viable product and wanted to begin as soon as possible.”
“A minimally viable product?” Vivian spat. “What the hell does that mean?”
“We’ll perfect the tech in future years, right?” The orb moved closer to Vivian. “Innovation has to start somewhere. Perfect is the enemy of done, you know.”
“This isn’t tech, Intelligence,” Caspian objected. “It’s medicine.”
“The genetic modification alone will still produce a fetus with stronger bones than the average Martian,” the talkative scientist offered.
The orb gave a loud beep. “We don’t have the data yet to know if the genetic modifications are enough. The calcium treatments are critical at this stage to ensure success. We’ll adjust as we go. This was always intended to be an iterative process.”
“You aren’t running experiments in a lab,” Xavier snapped from the doorway. “This is happening to the bodies of women.”
“ ‘First do no harm,’ ” Caspian added. He looked a little ill.
The Intelligence beeped again. “Disruption to the status quo always has winners and losers, right?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Vivian snarled.
Delilah put a hand on her arm. “Viv, not now. I can’t let Catena have the sample.
They ripped my b—my genetic material from my body.
Against my will. They don’t get to benefit from hurting me.
” She limped closer to the scientist who’d been speaking.
“Have you recorded your data electronically? Have you sent it to anyone?”
He looked uncertainly at his companions.
Delilah knelt and grabbed his neck with one hand. “Tell me.”
“No,” he choked out. “Not yet.”
Delilah let him go with a flick of her hand, and his head banged against the wall. From a nearby workstation, she picked up a Bunsen burner and turned the handle. Her blank, pale face shone against the blue flame. She walked with slow, deliberate steps back to where Vivian stood at the table.
“Don’t!” shouted the scientist. He made a jerky attempt to stand that August stopped with a sword pressed to his chest.
Delilah placed the Bunsen burner on the table. Her blank face morphed into anger as she gathered the used vials, syringes, and slides the scientists had used to study the fetus. “I want it destroyed. All of it.” Vivian picked up a bottle labeled acetone and handed it silently to her sister.
Delilah poured it on the pile. “Stand back.” She lifted the Bunsen burner and brought the blue flame to the pile. It was immediately engulfed in flames, and a horrible smell of burning chemicals filled the room. Firelight glittered in Deliah’s hard stare.
Caspian moved to stand a step behind Delilah, a fire extinguisher in one hand. Vivian could detect a hint of pride and affection on his sober face.
Delilah picked up the petri dish and looked down at it. She let out a shuddering sob. “Goodbye,” she whispered. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death …” She looked at Vivian with tear-filled eyes. “What’s the rest of it? I don’t remember.”
Vivian squeezed her sister around the shoulders.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” They didn’t pray as a family.
Not since the storm. But Delilah was right to remember the words of comfort here.
When Delilah picked up the Bunsen burner again, Vivian murmured, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Delilah lit the tiny dot with the flame and in a matter of seconds, it was reduced to ash.
Nearby, the flaming pile of materials had burned out on its own, leaving the white table blackened and warped.
Delilah turned in Vivian’s arms and hugged her tightly. “Let’s go.”