Goliath

You are a rogue, traveling in a vacuum of misery. Like a magnet to steel, the victims of oppression seem to find you wherever you go. The Albanian physician, Tafili, introduces you to the Chinese dissident, Chau, who brings you to a group of genetic scientists in Toronto, Canada—the forefathers of immunology. The team is an oasis to your desert of despair, allowing you to focus your brain on finding cures for disease, instead of the black hole of rage tearing at the pit of your existence. Finally freed from the intellectual bonds of Communism, you spend days and nights in the lab, dissecting the secrets of the human genome, one excruciating gene at a time. You are fighting battles on two planes now, making inroads in the war against one cancer, while the disease of hatred that threatens to destroy humanity continues to grow stronger all around you.

It is a hypocrisy that eats you up inside—literally—when you are diagnosed with cancer several years later.

Gunnar enters the lab, startling him. “Nice hobby room.”

Covah nods. “The latest in genome-based technology.” He points to a large boxlike machine connected to a computer terminal at the center of the chamber. “Let’s say you were interested in finding a cure for some disease … for instance—cancer. The first step would be to have Sorceress access its genome database for snippets of DNA that resemble the enzymes of the specific disease we’re targeting. Once the search is completed, the computer extracts the actual DNA fragments cataloged in the lab’s freezer.” He points to the eight-foot-high walk-in. “The freezer is stocked with more than 8 million samples of frozen DNA fragments, human, animal, and vegetable. The lab’s drone selects the identified samples, snippets of which are placed in tiny wells on these plastic sheets and fed into this machine here.”

Covah pats the top of a rectangular-framed device. Situated on its horizontal work desk are dozens of square plates, each containing hundreds of wells designed to hold DNA samples. Positioned above the first plate is a device resembling a giant rubber stamp, only its underside contains tiny needles aligned to the wells of the DNA sample plate.

“This is Zeus, one of the workhorses of genome research. Zeus uses its needles to extract microscopic droplets of our DNA samples, then adheres these extractions onto sheets of nylon paper, creating a microarray. Sorceress slips the microarray sheets into small test tubes and washes them with genetic materials containing radioactive dye. The computer then uses its ultraviolet sensors to scan for the type of cancerous activity we want to treat. By isolating the cancerous activity, we can take the next step in finding a drug designed to inhibit the disease.”

“You went to sea with a completely stocked lab and pharmacy?”

“Far from complete, but we have more than most.” Covah turns to Gunnar, the genius suddenly looking lost and frail. “I’m dying, Gunnar, cell by cell, a final, everlasting gift from the United States Army.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I think you do. Your Army was using ammunition containing depleted uranium, fifty percent denser than lead. Gave it extra penetrating power, according to DoD reports, specifically in its ability to pierce armored vehicles. Bosnia and Yugoslavia are polluted with its radiation. It contaminates their soil, poisons the groundwater, and concentrates as it moves through the food chain. Worse, my wife’s people inhale it as dust in the air.”

“The cancer … how long have you known?”

“Ironically, I found out a week before I was dismissed from the immunology lab in Toronto.”

“Chemo?”