Free Slimer by Harry Adam Knight Page B

She gestured around her. 'It cost millions of dollars to convert this disused rig into a secret laboratory complex. It had to be secret because we would be using genetic engineering techniques currently proscribed by most countries. The advantage of using the platform was that we could easily quarantine the labs if anything went wrong.'
        'And something did go wrong,' said Paul.
        'I'm coming to that. The project was designated The Phoenix Project and from the beginning things went well. We made some marvellous breakthroughs and soon realised that we might actually be able to achieve what Brinkstone wanted. To be honest, most of us scientists were just humouring him at the start and looked upon the project as an opportunity to carry out experiments we couldn't do anywhere else.
        'What we came up with was an artificial gene - a genetically engineered, all-purpose package of DNA capable of overriding the genetic code of the host body and enabling it to adapt suddenly to drastic changes in the environment. We called it the Phoenix unit. Basically you could describe it as a genetic repair kit. The idea was that people carrying Phoenix within their cells would survive a lethal dose of radiation because the unit would alter their metabolism accordingly. In a sense it would provide instant evolution…'
        'And you actually made this new gene?' asked Mark.
        'Yes. In fact, that was the easy part. The difficult bit was in finding a way of incorporating it into a host body. The plan was for it to spread through a body from cell to cell like a virus but, of course, there was the problem of rejection. Like any virus the Phoenix unit set off the host organism's immune system. Somehow we had to build into Phoenix an adaptable set of antigens which would keep changing and not allow the host's antibodies to bind onto Phoenix and destroy it.
        'This shouldn't have been an insurmountable problem as some viruses possess this ability naturally but it began to seem as if we would never solve it. We made countless versions of Phoenix and tested it on different species of animal and in every case Phoenix was either rejected or provoked the host's auto-immune system into such a violent reaction it died before Phoenix could complete its attachment to the nucleus of each cell…
        'It began to look as if the project was going to be a failure but then, unexpectedly, we found a species where everything worked as planned. Phoenix was able to overcome the creature's simple immune system and incorporate itself into the chromosomes. This meant we would be able to study Phoenix in action and move onto the next stage, which was to devise a version suitable for use in humans. But then… then…'
        A shadow passed across her face and her voice died away. Mark was reminded of the way Shelley had looked the previous night.
        'Something went wrong?' prompted Paul.
       'Wrong?' she repeated dazedly. 'Yes. Wrong. Very wrong.'
        'This creature, the one that accepted Phoenix. What was it?'
        She didn't answer. Instead she turned and stared fearfully at the door. 'It's coming,' she whispered.
        Both men automatically looked at the door. Mark couldn't hear anything but the tone of her voice made his skin crawl with atavistic fear.
        'What's coming?' asked Paul urgently.
        She stood up quickly. 'I've got to get away. You stay here. You'll be safe here. It's me it's after…' She began to hurry towards the door. Paul leapt to his feet, snatched up the M16 and followed her.
        'Wait, don't go!' he cried, making a grab for her arm. What happened next was totally unexpected. The girl spun round, grabbed the M16 out of Paul's hand and then gave him a shove in the chest. It didn't look a very hard shove to Mark but to his amazement Paul literally flew backwards through the air. He landed on the rack of video tapes which tipped over and hit the floor with a loud noise.