The Last Day (21 page)

“Excuse me, Anne,” Anke interrupted, “but how could the same hormones and artificial gestation methods developed for cattle be used on human embryos? And wouldn't the laboratory personnel detect the difference between human and bovine fetuses?”

“Jozef had all that figured out, Anke. For his special vessels, he altered the endocrinology, changed the growth hormones from bovine to human, adjusted the nutrients, proteins and medicine contents accordingly. He substituted new computer programs modified specifically for human subjects.

“With his authority as a director of the institute, he was able to restrict access to the vessels. We knew we'd have to be extremely calculating to gestate even one of our developing daughters—or granddaughters perhaps—to adulthood without detection. But we were willing to take that chance.”

Feldman stopped her again. “Did I understand you correctly that your husband used growth hormones and intended to artificially gestate your daughter's fetuses all the way to adulthood?”

“Correct.”

“But why? Why not simply remove the healthiest baby at the equivalent of nine months and raise her normally?”

“We were prepared to do that, if necessary, but we faced a problem that even Jozef's resourcefulness couldn't solve: time.

“I was thirty-seven years old and Jozef a year older when we had Marie in 1968. We were sixty-two when she was injured and sixty-six by the time Jozef introduced Marie's embryos into the gestation vessels. Jozef was not in the best of health. We were simply too old. There was not time enough left for us to raise a child safely to adulthood in the conventional manner.”

“But I should think,” Feldman persisted, “you'd be faced with raising an infant in an adult's body.”

“That brings us to the next, most complicated aspect of Jozef's strategy. And here, we enter again into proprietary research areas that must be kept in confidence.”

Feldman set aside his pen and pad once more.

“This is where Jozef drew upon his greatest expertise. Not only did he wish to accelerate Marie's physical growth, he wanted to do the same for her mind.

“The idea and mechanism for doing this came to Jozef several years earlier from a series of experiments at the university. As I mentioned before, Jozef had been working with a team of researchers developing biomicrochip circuitry, a type of artificial bridge to carry nerve impulses across severed areas of the central nervous system, helping to restore limb movement in the treatment of paralysis.

“Independently, he'd also conducted tests on some alternative applications of this neurochip technology. Instead of neuromuscular cells, he focused on brain tissue, which is also a form of nerve tissue. However, he knew that regular brain cells—unlike nerve cells—would not grow onto the artificial chip surface because, after birth, brain cells soon lose their ability to multiply.

“So, Jozef began experimenting with fetal subjects. Sheep. And the receptivity of fetal brain tissue proved to be even better than with neuromuscular applications. By implanting the chip early during fetal development, Jozef found that the brain cells would readily grow onto the surface and integrate with its circuitry.

“More interestingly, he found that the neural brain cells would actually adapt to the circuitry and learn how to respond to it. The mesh of neural cells that formed on the chip would act like an informational placenta, allowing input to permeate between the chip and the neural passages of the brain. The brain could incorporate input from the chips as if they were a natural, organic, sensory element of the nervous system.

“All the circuitry of the neural chips was hardwired. Micro-fine wires from the chip would extend from inside the brain and out the skull, gather into one strand, exit through a port in the back of the fetus's head, and then out through the mother ewe's abdomen. By sending mild electrical impulses into select circuits in the neurochip, Jozef could artificially stimulate and precisely identify which areas of the brain were connected to each specific circuit.

“Depending on where the chip had been inserted, the electrical impulses could create, for example, isolated muscle responses in the tail, or the right forelimb. Through trial and error, Jozef would eventually learn exactly which nerves controlled what functions.

“Once, in a whimsical effort to demonstrate his results to me, Jozef played a tape of a John Philip Sousa march he dearly loved and made one poor little lamb dance a silly, repetitive step across his mother's womb.” Mrs. Leveque hummed a few bars and the familiar tune was immediately recognizable to Feldman, if not by name.

“Wouldn't this type of procedure,” Feldman inquired, “implanting a foreign object in the brain and shooting electricity through it, damage the brain?”

“Not that we could determine. The brain is very tolerant to intrusive procedures during the fetal stage. Also, the brain functions on electrochemical impulses any way, you see, as its natural means of transmitting messages. Sheep embryos that were allowed to go to term after the implantation seemed perfectly normal, healthy and active after birth.”

“What became of the experiments?” Anke asked.

“Sadly, it was just at this time that Marie's accident happened and Jozef abruptly discontinued his work. Of course, you can see how he would have hoped to use this wonderful science to help Marie. But even if it were possible for her adult brain cells to integrate with the neurochip, so much of her brain tissue had been destroyed that, mentally, it was very unlikely she could ever be normal.”

Once more, the emotions welled in Mrs. Leveque and her eyes brimmed with tears. “But, God forgive him, my husband was an incredibly stubborn man, and simply wouldn't believe Marie was lost to us. He wouldn't allow her to be disconnected from feeding tubes. And he wouldn't give up on his obsession that somehow, he, with all his resourceful ingenuity and miraculous technologies, would someday devise a way to reverse our tragedy.

“It was this obsession that drove him to implant the neurochip devices into our daughter embryos. That was his answer to our time limitations. He would use these neurochips to transmit information from computer cyber-systems directly into their developing brains. ‘Intelligence infusion’ he called it.

“Jozef would build their knowledge as they gestated. Accelerate their minds to keep pace with the growth of their bodies. This was our best and only hope for preparing our girls in time to cope with a world that, in a manner of speaking, had already victimized them once before.”

“I'm a little fuzzy on how the artificial learning process works,” Feldman confessed.

“Unlike in his sheep experiments earlier,” Mrs. Leveque explained, “Jozef had devised new, far more sophisticated neurochips. When our daughter fetuses grew large enough, Jozef selected three of the four and implanted a dozen neurochips into the audio, visual, spatial and thought-processing centers of each child's brain.

“And in one of the girls, he also implanted a different type of neurochip into a separate, cognitive receptor site. This was a brand-new chip he'd developed. It included a unique microtransmitter-receiver, capable of both receiving and sending communication signals. The device was completely untested and was conceived as almost an afterthought. Jozef's intent was to provide this one, special child with a continuing source of communication, input and output, even after birth. Through this chip, her intellectual capacities would be unlimited, powered by the unending source of natural chemical electricity of her brain.

“With the two daughters who had only the regular neurochips, you see, their input wiring would have had to be disconnected during the birth process. After which, their neurochips would no longer function.

“The last remaining embryo we decided to leave completely unaltered so that if anything went wrong with the highly risky procedures, we would still, God willing, be blessed with one, healthy adult daughter. Infantile of mind, perhaps, but nevertheless healthy.

“In that way, we allowed the unaltered fetus to serve as a control in the experiment. Except for the intelligence infusion, she went through the entire process with her sisters. She wore the monitoring helmet and electrodes on her scalp—everything. Everything but the neurochips.

“Even though she would have been born infantile in intelligence, her brain would not have been infantile in its physical development. Hers would have been a full-grown, mature, adult brain, with far more capacity to learn than an infant's. Especially with the help of her artificially educated sisters, who could assist her even if Jozef and I were no longer able.

“But almost immediately, there was a problem. Shortly after the implantation procedures, one of our embryos suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. That night the monitors recorded internal bleeding in the occipital center of her brain, and by morning, we'd lost her. Fortunately, however, our two other girls tolerated the procedures well and all three continued their incredible growth, at about seven times the normal rate.”

“Excuse me, Anne,” Anke broke in, “but how could Jozef have possibly expected to infuse decades of normal, day-to-day learning through these—these computer signals. Knowledge isn't just quantitative. It's qualitative. And it's tempered with things like emotion, interpretation and a host of cross-pollinated experiences too complex for me to even imagine.”

“That's true, my dear. We didn't expect the artificial education process to give them comprehensive knowledge about life and the world. There would be many gaps to be filled in after birth. Jozef's diary does a better job of explaining all this than I can, but, unfortunately, the diary contains none of his scientific records. They were all lost in the explosion.

“In any event, the multiple neurochips gave us the ability to synchronize input to many different brain centers at the same time—hearing, vision, thought-processing and so forth. That way, our daughters could experience things three-dimensionally. Understanding how to crawl and walk, for example. And then we built upon that knowledge, training and instructing them bit by bit to understand speech and language. To identify images and spatial orientations. To grasp mathematics, geometry and so forth.”

“Like virtual reality?” Feldman decided.

“Except that with virtual reality, you have actual, physical stimuli working in concert with tactile, visual and audio cues. With Jozef's system, it all occurs in the mind. Probably much like having a very vivid dream. After birth, all these prelearned capabilities would allow the girls to relate much more easily and faster to the real world.”

“Did you include religious instruction in your intelligence infusions?” Feldman asked.

“Yes,” the widow replied. “The Bible, the Talmud and New Testament, of course. But also the books of the other great religions—the Koran, the Torah, the Avesta and so forth. Realizing that it was religious intolerance behind the attack that injured our first Marie, we felt it important that our new Maries have an understanding of all the major theological doctrines.”

Feldman was about to ask Mrs. Leveque another question when she raised a hand in the air to signal a hiatus. She placed the other hand to her heart and closed her eyes.

Alarmed, Feldman and Anke sprang up and moved toward her.

“Anne, are you feeling ill?” Feldman asked.

She waved her hand slightly in the air. “Just—just a little tired, I think.”

“Can I get you some water?” Feldman offered.

“Perhaps a little something to eat,” Anke suggested.

The widow opened her eyes. “Today has been a little stressful for me,” she recognized. “I've never spoken of this to anyone before. Maybe if I could lie down for a moment. But only for a moment. It's important that you hear everything as soon as possible, so the world can know the truth. Before this tragedy grows far worse.”

44

Nordau Towers, Tel Aviv, Israel 10:00
A.M
., Saturday, January 22, 2000

I
t was an ill-humored Bollinger taking Feldman's call. “Where the hell have you been?” the bureau chief railed. “We've been looking all over for you. Why weren't you at this morning's meeting?”

“I'm in Tel Aviv with Anke,” Feldman tried to explain, “I’ m—”

“Dammit Feldman!” Bollinger exploded. “You're off recreating while the rest of us are busting our humps trying to scare up leads!”

“Calm down, Arnie,” Feldman pleaded, “it's not what you think. I'm on to something really big down here. You won't believe it. Something that just might vault us right back into the spotlight!”

Bollinger's tone switched instantly to one of apologetic curiosity. “Oh yeah? Seriously? What have you got, Jon?”

“I've got the inside scoop on that Negev installation,” Feldman said. “And it's mind-boggling.”

“Jesus Christ! No kidding! Wonderful! Well, damn, let's hear it!”

“I don't have the whole story yet, Arnie. I'm still working on it. But I'll get back with you directly.”

“But—”

“Trust me. Gotta go!”

“But—”

Hanging up, Feldman left the phone off the cradle to ensure Mrs. Leveque's rest would be undisturbed. But it was unnecessary. At that moment she emerged from the bedroom, looking more composed, to rejoin the reporter and Anke in the living room.

“Are you sure you feel up to this, Anne?” Feldman asked. “We can postpone things to a better time.”

“No, no.” Mrs. Leveque smiled slightly and patted his hand. “I'm feeling better. Besides, it's vital that I tell you the rest of this now, for reasons you'll soon understand.”

Settling back in her chair, the widow picked up where she left off.

“For a little more than a year, Jozef was able to continue the gestation process with our daughters, undisturbed, in a restricted section of the Negev Research Institute. Over time, however, Jozef began borrowing more and more heavily on the laboratory's enormous computer capacity. To develop and control the increasingly complicated and delicate infusion process properly, Jozef was forced to pirate increasing amounts of time and memory from the central computer system.

“Ultimately, this began interfering with the service platforms regulating the bovine gestation program. And that as a consequence, attracted the curiosity of Giyam Karmi. Giyam naturally wanted to learn what powerful addendums to the bovine procedures Jozef was working on.