The Fall: Victim Zero Read Online Free Page A

to continue.
    “Chimera,” Kell said, “is the strangest thing I've ever seen. We don't understand how it could have evolved. It's a single-celled parasite that contains vital sequences of DNA from hundreds of species of plant and animal. When it doesn't have a host, it's just this inert, lifeless cell. Sort of like a virus. It attaches to a host and grows, like a bacteria, but the structures it builds inside the host are closer to fungal growths.”
    “ Jesus Christ,” David said, his voice cracking. “That's inside me right now? Why the hell would my dad do this to me?”
    Kell raised his hands to calm the other man. “It's not quite as bad as it sounds. Chimera acts like a pathogen, but in most of our experiments the results are positive. We're pretty good at splicing and altering Chimera to do very specific things. When we first discovered it, the host it was attached to was algae. The algae in question were healthier than they should have been. They processed carbon dioxide at increased levels, were resistant to drying when we took them out of the water.
    “After studying Chimera we learned how to alter it. In some animals it showed a remarkable inclination to increasing muscle mass, brain function, and in the case of our recent primate trials, nerve conduction.” Kell gave his patient a significant look.
    “ There are risks, however. Chimera mutates and spreads to other bodily systems at random, but more often than I've been comfortable with. In the primate trials, a dozen rhesus monkeys with various types of nerve damage or central nervous system disorders were treated with a Chimera variant of my own design. All twelve of them resumed full and normal function within two months. The organism didn't repair the damage, precisely; it copied the function of the remaining normal nerve tissue and took over the job in the places where normal function wasn't possible.”
    Realization dawned on David's face. “You're saying that if you clear this stuff out of my system, you'll be putting me back to where I was. That this Chimera stuff is doing the job of my nervous system for me?”
    Kell nodded. “Yes. It's possible the organism has actually repaired the damage, but I wouldn't bet on it. I assume the people in charge of your treatment didn't explain your symptoms to you at all?”
    David shook his head. “No. I told them what was going on. My breathing felt different all of a sudden, I was breaking things I tried to pick up, I stumbled more and seemed to lose coordination. A day later they'd scanned and poked every inch of me, and I was on my way here.”
    Kell sighed again and scrubbed his hands across his face. “I don't want to scare you, David, but you need to understand why those things are happening. Cramer and his people sent you here because they don't know how to deal with what's happening to you. Chimera gave you normal function again, but it didn't stop there. The version you were treated with wasn't the latest iteration of my design. It was an older copy, one that was known to mutate. The reason you're feeling so different is because Chimera has spread through your entire body. Your muscles are functioning at a higher level, as is your breathing. You keep breaking things and falling because you're trying to do things at your old level of strength and function. Your body is capable of more, now.
    “ I know that sounds like a good thing, but you should be aware the last time I saw these results, the test subject eventually turned uncontrollably violent and infectious, and killed every other subject in its community.”
    Kell stood, stretching his back. “I can show you the video if you like. It's fairly gruesome, seeing that mouse and his little mouse friends murder each other. But one way or another, I need to know what you want me to do. Because this could end badly either way. Think about it, David. Think about it very hard.”
     

Chapter Three
    Five weeks later, Kell stumbled on the way to the