Unwelcome Bodies by Jennifer Pelland Read Free Book Online Page B

we think it’s important. I’m kind of surprised you ditched your own project, though. The field of cellular repair mechanisms seems so promising.”
    “Not as promising as your telomere project,” Alex said.
    She raised her eyebrows, one finger trailing along the lapel of her lab coat. “Oh, really? Seriously, why did you jump tracks?”
    He pulled out the carefully rehearsed answer he’d used in his interview. “I honestly believe that there’s no reason for people to suffer in old age when the technology to stave off cell death is within our reach.”
    “Oh, and I suppose you came to this conclusion because of all the old people you saw dying in the hospital and don’t have a single ulterior motive.”
    “Well…of course.” He could feel himself starting to sweat. Did she know? How could she? He’d been so careful. He’d left no forensic evidence behind. No one even knew that Cassie was dead.
    He felt the weight of God’s disapproval pressing down on him from above and struggled to breathe.
    Brenda laughed, and he startled back, rudely jolted from his panicked thoughts. “Right. It had nothing to do with your own mortality, did it?” She playfully tapped a finger on his receding hairline.
    He let out a long sigh. Good. She didn’t know.
    “Hey, don’t worry. I switched over to this line of research when my gray hair got so bad that I had to start dying it blonde instead of brown so the roots wouldn’t show.” Her hazel eyes twinkled, and he wondered what she was looking at that was so fascinating. He’d have to check his forehead for moles next time he used the men’s room. “You’re in fine company,” she continued. “We’re all middle aged ‘fraidy cats in this department.”
    And so he got to work.
    The research was tedious. There were cell lines to be developed, primate models to be worked out, and mouse dissections galore. Plus the solution for how to keep the telomerase enzymes from fueling cancer cell growth was still eluding them. But he plowed through. The price of failure was too high: his immortal soul. It kept him focused. It kept him hungry. He could feel God’s eyes on him at all times, watching, judging. There was no way He could be happy with Alex’s plan. So there was no way Alex could afford to fail.
    His colleagues had to pry him away from his work to eat lunch each day. “What’s with the rabbit food?” Sham asked. “You eat like a pathologist. Lighten up! Ham and cheese with mayonnaise won’t kill you.”
    Fat, cholesterol, food poisoning, oh yes. It could kill him. Alex carefully assembled his soy cheese, hummus, tomato, and lettuce sandwich and set out his small assortment of carrot sticks and grapes—all organic. “I’m just trying to be healthy,” he said. “I’d like to live long enough to apply our research to myself.”
    Sham shrugged. “Well, we haven’t even started primate testing, although that’s not too far off. If it goes well, and we manage to crack the cancer problem, we’ll be in phase one clinical tests in five years. Best case scenario: we’re done with phase three in what, eleven years? And then there’s still the FDA approval process, and the long-term effects studies. Face it, none of us will be benefiting from this research any time soon.”
    “I know,” Alex said. “So it would be a real shame to die of something preventable before we get FDA approval.” He had no intention of waiting for the clinical trials to be over. If phase two went well, and his research showed the procedure to be safe, he was going to administer it to himself. Yes, it would be a risk, but it would be less risky than letting his cells continue to decay with age.
    “You are so driven,” Sham said. He turned to Brenda and asked, “Has he always been like this?”
    She shook her head, her bobbed hair swinging. “He’s never been what you’d call wild and crazy, but back in med school, he was downing pizza, beer, and Chinese with the rest of us. Alison