searching.
“The Lilicytes are primed to do their job, which is to seek out cancer cells. Once they find their targets, they begin the process of replicating, which delays the immediate coalescing that we see in the normal mice. So the OM-1s are cured first and then when they are cancer free, seven days later, the Lilicytes begin to coalesce and cause the same death as the control NM-1s within 24 to 48 hours. I’ve tried several experiments and the result is always the same.”
William sighed heavily. “So where does this leave us?”
“Up shit’s creek, frankly!” Manny tried not to sound as somber as he felt, but it was impossible. All of their years of painstaking work had resulted in a bio-synthetic organism that cured cancer, but the cure was fatal! “What she giveth, she taketh away!”
“We need to prevent the coalescence, or at least delay it long enough, within the host, so that Lilith can work on the cancer and then either be excreted naturally by the body or targeted by us for extraction.” William knew that he was grasping at straws.
Manny looked up at the ceiling, avoiding eye contact with his distraught mentor. He felt like an abject failure for having let William down. William had noticed his brilliance and taken a chance on him and at his most desperate moment, Manny could do nothing for him. His brilliance was extinguished by the enigma that lay on the dissection table before them.
CHAPTER 9
The silver sedan slowed as the driver’s window rolled down.
“Hey, bro!” The words, almost imperceptible in the night-covered alley, swirled away in the wind that twisted against the crumbling brick of the boarded-up bodega on one side and the adult novelty store on the other.
A hooded man emerged from the darkness of a covered stairwell, which hung suspended just out of view of the main thoroughfare, and whose joists cried eerily in the wind. The man walked with a confident pace assured that no one but God would stand witness. He approached the driver in the silver, late-model, inconspicuous sedan. Bone , knew that the driver was definitely a player, from the way that the driver had circled the neighborhood and the meeting spot before he had rolled up slowly.
“What you need, Cuz ? Bone pulled back his hood and shot a quick glance around the inside of the vehicle. It was bare, stripped down for a quick burn. The driver looked straight, too. His game was tight. He was a typical cracka-looking G, with some Latino features, unrecognizable to people not from his streets, but there nonetheless.
“I need some heat. What you got?” the driver responded.
“What are you looking for, Cuz ?
“Something clean. A lot of firepower.”
“What, you got beef? Need to handle a little business?”
“Something like that.”
“It’s that, not like that!”
“ That then. What you got?”
Bone , didn’t sense any bit of hesitation from the driver. He’d been in the game long enough to smell when pork was cooking. “I got a couple deuce-deuce-tres!”
“Not that. Something a little more low key.”
“Got a Glock extended mag and all.”
“Sounds right. How much?”
“For you, Cuz , three fifty.” The driver looked uninterested. This guy was legit. “Aight, Cuz , aight. Three flat.” The driver nodded his approval, drove down the long alley, and disappeared around the block.
- - - - - - -
John drove the car around the back corner of the adult novelty store, taking a few laps to make sure that his hooded friend wasn’t being staked out. He met up with Bone twenty minutes later, behind another bodega, just as abandoned as the first, in a second alley about a mile from the original meeting point. This was the counter : a black-market merchant’s point of sale.
Bone was accompanied by another thug this time. He was there to make sure that things went down as planned: a quick exchange of money for
“The Lilicytes are primed to do their job, which is to seek out cancer cells. Once they find their targets, they begin the process of replicating, which delays the immediate coalescing that we see in the normal mice. So the OM-1s are cured first and then when they are cancer free, seven days later, the Lilicytes begin to coalesce and cause the same death as the control NM-1s within 24 to 48 hours. I’ve tried several experiments and the result is always the same.”
William sighed heavily. “So where does this leave us?”
“Up shit’s creek, frankly!” Manny tried not to sound as somber as he felt, but it was impossible. All of their years of painstaking work had resulted in a bio-synthetic organism that cured cancer, but the cure was fatal! “What she giveth, she taketh away!”
“We need to prevent the coalescence, or at least delay it long enough, within the host, so that Lilith can work on the cancer and then either be excreted naturally by the body or targeted by us for extraction.” William knew that he was grasping at straws.
Manny looked up at the ceiling, avoiding eye contact with his distraught mentor. He felt like an abject failure for having let William down. William had noticed his brilliance and taken a chance on him and at his most desperate moment, Manny could do nothing for him. His brilliance was extinguished by the enigma that lay on the dissection table before them.
CHAPTER 9
The silver sedan slowed as the driver’s window rolled down.
“Hey, bro!” The words, almost imperceptible in the night-covered alley, swirled away in the wind that twisted against the crumbling brick of the boarded-up bodega on one side and the adult novelty store on the other.
A hooded man emerged from the darkness of a covered stairwell, which hung suspended just out of view of the main thoroughfare, and whose joists cried eerily in the wind. The man walked with a confident pace assured that no one but God would stand witness. He approached the driver in the silver, late-model, inconspicuous sedan. Bone , knew that the driver was definitely a player, from the way that the driver had circled the neighborhood and the meeting spot before he had rolled up slowly.
“What you need, Cuz ? Bone pulled back his hood and shot a quick glance around the inside of the vehicle. It was bare, stripped down for a quick burn. The driver looked straight, too. His game was tight. He was a typical cracka-looking G, with some Latino features, unrecognizable to people not from his streets, but there nonetheless.
“I need some heat. What you got?” the driver responded.
“What are you looking for, Cuz ?
“Something clean. A lot of firepower.”
“What, you got beef? Need to handle a little business?”
“Something like that.”
“It’s that, not like that!”
“ That then. What you got?”
Bone , didn’t sense any bit of hesitation from the driver. He’d been in the game long enough to smell when pork was cooking. “I got a couple deuce-deuce-tres!”
“Not that. Something a little more low key.”
“Got a Glock extended mag and all.”
“Sounds right. How much?”
“For you, Cuz , three fifty.” The driver looked uninterested. This guy was legit. “Aight, Cuz , aight. Three flat.” The driver nodded his approval, drove down the long alley, and disappeared around the block.
- - - - - - -
John drove the car around the back corner of the adult novelty store, taking a few laps to make sure that his hooded friend wasn’t being staked out. He met up with Bone twenty minutes later, behind another bodega, just as abandoned as the first, in a second alley about a mile from the original meeting point. This was the counter : a black-market merchant’s point of sale.
Bone was accompanied by another thug this time. He was there to make sure that things went down as planned: a quick exchange of money for
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