Chapter 74
The lab gave out a feeling somewhat different from that of our lab, it was equally white, equally aspetically clean, but the ceiling was lower and the sound of the Italian words spoken between the researchers made the whole setting seem somewhat more relaxed.
Mori nodded to few people, “Buon giorno, come va?”, he said, placing a hand on their shoulder, “Bene, bene…”, they nodded back.
“So, what we should do is test if the polymer slows down the functioning of essential organs, or interferes with it, or stops it altogether”, Mori said
“How will we do this?”, I asked
“Let me show you something”, he said, and walked to a machine that looked somewhat like an autoclave but not quite.
There were tubes coming out of it and going to what resembled a dialysis machine. And there was another bulky device hooked up to it that, with a screen showing what looked like an electrocardiogram.
“We have a heart in here, and it’s alive”, he told us, and then paused, observing our reactions
I wondered how the heart was kept alive, looked at Jack, and he seemed pensive and intrigued too
“So do you pump blood into it to keep it alive?”, Jack asked, his words echoing my thoughts
“We do, and continuously purify the blood that flows through it. But circulating blood in it is not enough to keep it alive. We also keep it pulsing by providing electric stimuli”, he said, pulling up a lever and opening the lid of the machine for us to see.
The heart was contracting, expanding, contracting and the tubes connected to it were pulsing with blood. The scene was fascinating and revolting at the same time. What I was seeing seemed unbelievable, more like a sci-fi movie than reality.
Mori closed the lid and locked it down tight, then looked at us and grinned with pride for the shortest moment, before recomposing his features in a unassuming, calm expression
“There’s only another place in the world where they have achieved similar results. We also recreated a part of the intestinal tract, and we are working on developing lungs now”, he explained
I nodded, stunned by what I was seeing and hearing. Mori had given us an anticipation of this the first time we had met him in the office, but I had not expected anything of the sort
“This is unbelievable, it makes the biological research I was doing seem a kid’s game”, said Jack
I looked at him surprised, and realized I he had never told me the details of what he had been studying. It was strange how I knew who Jack was, how I felt the core of him, without knowing any or very few details about his past.
“But of course this is the fruit of a joint effort”, Mori replied, waving off the compliment
“Sure, but it’s great”, I insisted
“So here’s my plan”, said Mori, diverting the topic, “I think we can continuously inject small amounts of the polymer in the blood that goes to the heart for half an hour time period. After that we’ll stop, and the machine will gradually remove the polymer from the blood much the same way kidneys would. Some of the polymer may be retained from the heart’s tissue though, and have an effect on the way it pulsates. We’ll provide the same electric stimuli, and see if the heart’s reaction to them varies after it is “contaminated” with the polymer”, he said
Jack and I nodded, “Thank you, this is really much beyond what I could have ever done or expected to do”, I said, meaning it
“And if we rule out effects on the heart we will move on to analyzing if it acts on the intestinal tract. Let’s get started”, Mori said, suddenly pacing fast and gathering what was necessary for the test on a bench close to the machine, while Jack and I stood there waiting.
I was tired, but the scientific excitement mingled with the anxiousness of what we would see had swept away the worries of being hunted down by people who were able and willing to kill.
Mori diluted down the polymer from the stock solution, and began injecting it in the blood from a port in the tubing.
“I’ll inject 10 microliters every minute”, he said, holding a stopwatch in one hand and a gastight syringe in the other.
Our eyes were magnetized by the electrocardiogram, punctuated by a blipping sound. First shot. Blip, blip, blip. Regular sound, slower than the beat of my own heart. Second, third, fourth shot, and the blip was unchanged, the electrocardiogram too. My jaw was locked down painfully tight. Fifth shot. The slightest change in the electrocardiogram, just one peak slipping off its perfect position, just a tiny shift in the regular blipping sound. Sixth shot, and there was another shift.
“Something is happening here”, Mori said
“I know…”, I replied faintly
Seventh shot. The blipping sound got fast, slow, fast again, the peaks of the electrocardiogram were far from regular now.
Eighth shot, my heart beating fast, the artificial heart running wild, fading off, racing crazily again like a dying animal in its last struggle.
“Oh my God…”, I said in a whisper
I caught a glimpse of Jack, his expression was tense too, his tired eyes bugged and he seemed pale, although it could have been the light.
“What have I done”, I said, placing my hands on my face
“You’ve produced something you never meant to circulate, and that someone else did probably out of greed”, Mori said, but I shook my head no.
“No…I did it. I…”, I whispered
I felt crashed, had I killed someone? Or were the deaths in the hospital unrelated to the polymer? I tried to ponder the possibility but couldn’t believe it.
“Anyways, let’s stop here and let’s see if the heart will recover if we stop injecting the polymer”, Mori said, “I have other tests in mind but you are too shaken now. Why don’t we take a break?”
I nodded yes.