Page 100 of Anatomy of the Immortal Species
Constantine ran a hand through his hair. “Helena, I’m lost…”
“I’ll explain right away, necromancer. Thisgene of immortalitycontrols a bunch of other genes, related to the division of cells, cell death and, most importantly, cell regeneration. When this gene is fully active – in other words, ready for battle – we have normal, speedy regeneration, like we had before 1744. When some of the nucleotides of the gene are methylated, it is half-active and we have a screwed-up regeneration. Like we’ve had since 1744. When the gene has a completely different order of nucleotides, the way it is in humans, its activity is very low, which is why humans regenerate so slowly…
“The interesting thing is that aside from affecting the speed of regeneration, this gene has tumour-suppressing properties, so it impedes the development of malignant diseases. Ergo, its altered, lower activity explains the appearance of such diseases within the immortal world. I suspect that the mass spread of such diseases among humans in the last decades is also related. Whatever is affecting us, acts on them as well. It’s just that to us, it’s more prominent.”
Constantine leaned back in his seat, pondering over the information. “So, you know which gene is responsible for the regeneration problems. And do these resultssolvethose problems?”
“They don’t solve them, but they give us valuable information…”
Constantine clenched his teeth. “Valuable enough to intrigue the entire immortal world?”
“I can’t be certain, but…”
“Valuable enough to spark Presiyan’s interest?”
“Why Presiyan’s?” Helena asked.
Constantine leaned his palms on the table and spoke with an even voice. “You deserve to be kicked off the Council for this.”
The nymph crossed her arms. “Excuse me?”
“You haven’t found squat! Damn it!”
“That’s untrue, necromancer.”
Amelia shifted in the chair to his right. “Shehasfound something. Methylated base pairs are characteristic of epigenetics, which means the regeneration issues are caused by epigenetic changes.”
Constantine squinted at her. “Did you receive that tidbit from above?”
“I received it at the medical university from which I recently graduated.”
Helena grinned. “You must have paid attention in geneticsclass, because you are correct.”
Constantine, on the other hand, still didn’t understand what could be done with this information. “Do explain in further detail, ladies who are testing my already strained nerves.”
“Epigenetic changes mean this is not a spontaneous mutation. It is not a reverse evolution of the immortal species.Somethingis causing it. An external factor,” Helena said.
“What external factor?”
“Water, air, sun…”
“In theory, it could be anything!” Alex exclaimed with inexplicable enthusiasm.
Constantine frowned as they continued to enthuse over a revelation that didn’t help him at all. However, it did shed some light on the matter. Someone knew too much about the genetic changes and had managed to counteract them.
He had no idea who that someone was.
The genetic changes were caused by the outside world.
But he didn’t know exactly how.
If he couldn’t use the information from the genetic tests to free Mikhail, whatcouldhe do with it?
He should do something with it, right? Anything at all. Mikhail hadn’t made him the head of the Council just to give him a better vantage point of the table.
38
Constantine roamed around the city in his SUV. The view outside his windows blurred into streaks of lights and shadows, but none of it registered.
