“Because he has a criminal record,” said Lyle. “And my DNA.” Lyle identified Sunny’s Mercedes and walked toward it. He stopped at the curb and looked back; Sunny was still standing by the police station doors. “I need your help on this, Sunny. You know they don’t listen to me.”
“Who has your DNA?” asked Sunny. “And how?”
“It’s the lotion,” said Lyle, “it’s ReBirth.” Lyle lowered his voice, glancing nervously at the police station. “We killed Jon Ford, do you realize that? The allegations of chemical weapons testing are not far off. Do you have any idea what ReBirth is doing?”
“I might,” said Sunny, walking toward the car, “if you’d cut the histrionics and just tell me.”
They climbed in the car, and Lyle scanned the parking lot nervously before saying it out loud for the first time. “It clones people.”
Sunny raised an eyebrow. “You’re joking.”
“I’m deadly serious,” said Lyle. “Somehow the plasmids in the lotion are getting into the test subjects’ DNA and changing it, literally overwriting it, so that your DNA becomes my DNA. You become a clone of me.”
“Why you?”
“I don’t know,” said Lyle, “obviously it has to get the DNA from somewhere, I guess it just got it from me because I was the first person to touch it.”
Sunny started the car. “You’re insane, Lyle. You’re talking about this lotion like it’s alive.”
“It is alive, in a way—it has self-replicating genetic matter, so it’s just as alive as any virus or bacteria.”
“But it’s not sentient,” said Sunny, pulling onto the street, “it’s not some kind of blobby lotion monster that’s going to eat everyone.”
“I’m not saying that,” said Lyle, frustrated. “I’m saying that it is cloning people—right now it’s cloning me. By my count there are currently six people who share my DNA, walking around right now in New York City.”
“Probably not walking,” said Sunny, “it’s six in the morning.”
“You’re not taking this seriously.”
“That’s because it’s ridiculous! You can’t expect me to believe something like this, Lyle, it’s … it’s unbelievable. It is not mentally possible to believe it.”
“I’ll prove it to you,” said Lyle, pulling out his cell phone. “I’m going to call the hospital.”
“Whoa,” said Sunny, catching Lyle’s hand in his own, “let’s not involve any hospitals just yet, okay? The last thing we need is for this story to go public, whether it’s true or not.”
“Don’t worry,” said Lyle, pulling his hand free, “that’s exactly why I’m calling.” He dialed Bellevue and hit send.
“Bellevue Hospital, how may I direct your call?”
“I need to reach a patient admitted last night,” said Lyle. “Pedro Trujillo.”
13
Wednesday, May 2
8:01 A.M.
NewYew headquarters, Manhattan
226 DAYS TO THE END OF THE WORLD
“I don’t believe it,” Kerry whispered.
The full executive staff sat in the conference room, staring slack jawed at Lyle and Pedro standing side by side. They were almost indistinguishable.
“I don’t believe it,” Kerry said again.
“I haven’t fully figured out how it happened,” said Lyle, “but I’m working on it.”
“So he looks like you,” said Cynthia, dismissing the idea with a wave of her hand. “That doesn’t prove anything. He could be wearing a disguise, trying to bilk us out of a few million in fake damages.”
“He’s not the first one I’ve seen,” said Lyle. “Plus, look at this.” He leaned forward, opening his eyes as wide as he could. “See this, in my right eye? That’s called a partial heterochromia—a patch of one color in an iris of a different color. It’s a genetic trait, encoded in my DNA, and look at Pedro’s eyes”—Lyle pulled Pedro forward, pointing at his face—“he has the same thing. He doesn’t just look like me, he is me, genetically speaking.”
“But what are you going to do about it?” Pedro demanded, pulling away.
Carl frowned. “You say the lotion did this? Your lotion?”
“It’s hard to believe, but yes,” said Lyle. “It didn’t start happening until the most recent formulation, 14G. My best guess is … well, I honestly have no idea. We added a retrovirus in that batch, but they’re supposed to regulate the plasmid activity, and this is exactly the opposite of that.” Lyle shrugged. “ReBirth is supposed to be producing collagen, and I don’t know why or even how it started doing this instead. I don’t even know what it’s doing instead.”
“I don’t care why it happened,” said Pedro, “I want to know what you’re going to do about it!”
“Obviously we’ll make what reparations we can,” said Sunny, “but we’re going to have to work together on this—this is new territory for all of us—”
Carl leaned forward, and everyone stopped to look at him. Even Pedro grew hushed.
“Get Marcus in here,” Carl rumbled.
