The Eternal World Read Online Free Page A

know any other way to do what I do,” he said. “You knew the kind of schedule I kept when we met.”
    She gave him a hard stare. “You don’t get to be the angry one here, David. I know you want someone around when you get lonely. But that is not just a one-way street.”
    She was right, and he knew it. But he felt some obligation to try to make her see. This wasn’t about getting a good grade or even a good job; it was a search for answers.
    “This isn’t about what I want,” he said. “This is about what I can do. We’re talking about finding a cure for everything. I mean everything. Cancer. Dementia. Alzheimer’s. Heart disease. If I get this right, I could turn back the clock on everything that makes us get old and sick. Do you know how many lives that would save?”
    “And you’re the only one who can do it,” Bethany said flatly.
    “Yes,” David said. “I know how arrogant it sounds. But it’s true. There’s maybe ten people in the world who are working at my level, and none of them have made the progress I have. Nobody else is even close. I could really do it. I could find the answer to everything that goes bad or rotten inside our bodies and I could actually fix it. That’s what I can do. And I will not apologize for trying.”
    “I wasn’t being sarcastic, David. I know how smart you are. I believe you could find it. But you should really think about this: You can carry all that weight on your shoulders. But do you really have to? What kind of life do you get, while you’re busy finding a solution for death?”
    David shrugged. “This is what I have to do. I don’t know what else to tell you.”
    “No,” she said. “I think there’s more to it. You never told me what it was, but I know there’s more.”
    David didn’t reply. He wasn’t about to open that wound again. Not here. Not now.
    Bethany was done waiting for him. “I hope you do find someone who can share this with you. But it’s not going to be me.”
    David understood, finally, that this wasn’t an argument. Bethany wasn’t asking him to fix something or fight his way back to her side. She was reporting on something that had already happened.
    He picked up the spare key to his apartment and put it in his pocket.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “Maybe when I get back, we could—”
    Bethany shook her head. “It would end the same way.”
    “You don’t know that.”
    “Yes, I do. You know why I’m telling you this, David? Because I have to. I don’t think you would have even noticed I was gone otherwise.”
    “That’s not fair,” he said.
    She gave him a sad smile. “But is it true?”
    David looked away from her. And then couldn’t help himself. He looked at the cells on the screen again.
    “That’s what I thought,” she said. “You’re a good guy, David. I hope you find whatever it is you’re looking for.”
    Then she left.
    David checked his watch again. His flight to Miami wasn’t until later in the afternoon, and the lab was free until eight, when the first students would come in.
    He might as well work straight through.
    It wasn’t like anyone was waiting for him now.
    DAVID SAT ON THE plane in the deep leather seat in first class and reviewed the package of materials the company had sent him. Lots of glossy pictures, lots of quietly assured boasting, couched in the usual corporate terms. “Unprecedented innovation,” “world-class facilities,” “global leader in the industry,” and so on.
    Well, he thought. At least they didn’t use the phrase “fountain of youth.” That would have put them right into late-night infomercial territory.
    That was the problem with working in this field, David thought, not for the first time. People were desperate to turn back the clock, and sometimes it felt like all of the advances being offered were nothing more than twenty-first-century versions of health tonics and patent medicines. It smelled a lot like a con game.
    Which was not to say that Conquest