Page 166 of The Bone Code
“It does. Do you know who the caller was trying to reach?”
“Nope. I used to make every outgoing connection and take every incoming message. Now it’s all autodial and voice mail. Before long, I’ll lose my job to Roxie the Robot. I swear, the world’s going to hell in a hand basket. Soon folks won’t engage in even the tiniest smidgen of personal interaction.”
After listening to further lamentations and emitting a series of sympathetic sounds, I thanked Abilene and disconnected.
I sat in the dark, adrenaline firing through me like shot from a twelve-gauge. Fresh questions swirling.
Other than Lena, the calls from InovoVax to GeneFree were the first concrete tie between Montreal and Charleston. What was their purpose?
Was Sullie Huger in contact with someone at the pharmaceutical company in Laval? Arlo Murray?
Huger and Murray were employed by the HGP at the same time. Had they met at MIT?
Huger was the more senior of the two scientists. Had he arranged for Murray’s position at InovoVax?
Mélanie Chalamet/Melanie Chalmers was with the HGP at MIT. Was Huger or Murray the “hotshot colleague” who’d gotten her hired at InovoVax?
Lena went to Murray to gain information about her mother and sister. He’d shut down her efforts. Had Lena then approached Huger?
Was Huger involved in Murray’s misconduct at InovoVax? Whatwasthat misconduct? Had Mélanie Chalamet/Melanie Chalmers discovered what Murray was up to? Were she and Ella murdered because of that discovery? Silenced by bullets?
Fired by whom?
Did that same shooter kill Lena and Harmony fifteen years later? Were they getting too close to the same secret?
Silence hummed around me. Suddenly, Anne’s house seemed very big. And very unpeopled.
I opened the glass doors and stepped onto the deck.Note to self: remind Anne that the lock still doesn’t engage properly.
Out beyond the aqua glow of the pool, the tide was high and boisterously slamming the beach. Gulls were engaged in heated conversation. Though normally an effective tranq, the Low Country concert failed to calm.
Closing the panels behind me, I moved to the kitchen and turnedon the tiny countertop TV. A local news channel came to life. Whatever. At that moment, talking heads trumped no company at all.
I was opening a Kraft dinner when one of the heads snagged my attention. A familiar voice. I turned.
The actor-scientist was again hawking GeneFree, his expression sincere as a prayer-meeting preacher’s.
While I listened to the pitch, several flyaway bytes collided in my brain, casting off the first murky particles of an idea.
Ah, Jesus.
I felt a sudden coldness at the base of my skull.
No way.
But the theory would explain so much.
I guzzled my mac and cheese and opened my laptop, aware that it would be an internet night.
Unaware of the horror lying in wait.
36
Friday, November 19
Vaccines. Viruses. CRISPR. mRNA. GeneFree. InovoVax. Murray. Huger. Chalamet/Chalmers.
I started with GeneFree.
