2019
Friday, July 12, 1112 hours
Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, Dover AFB, Delaware
Air Force Capt. Bryan Lockwood, M.D., looked up at his research partner, Navy Lt. Evelyn Chan, D.O., as he slowly hung up the old-school black bakelite telephone in its cradle on the wall by the fire extinguisher.
“Well, it’s not every day the surgeon general herself calls.”
Lt. Chan tilted her head in expectation, then pointed out, “Well, the surgeon general does hold a civilian rank of vice admiral in the Public Health Service — three stars are still three stars.”
“Meh — forget the stars. She said this comes straight from the Oval Office. Best get those mystery tissue samples back out of storage, we’ve got more tests to run.”
Lockwood went to his computer and opened his email client, typing in his password. He printed out the lab request forms from the surgeon general as Chan looked over his shoulder. Both sets of eyes widened as they looked at the form: Stray RNA in the cellular cytoplasm? Lockwood started preparing for the tests, but kept wondering: Just what was the government investigating?
Friday, July 12, 1938 hours
Vice President’s Office, The White House
“Ma’am?” The vice president looked up from her desk; her chief of staff had popped his head into the office. “The surgeon general is on the line for you. Says it’s urgent.”
The vice president picked up the phone from her desk.
“What do you have for me, Doc?”
“I don’t know who the source was for your idea that we look for stray RNA, but they were spot on. Every sample from all 12 men has unusual RNA strands in the cytoplasm. It is not the normal RNA used to replicate proteins - that is there, too, but there is also genetically distinct RNA that seems nonfunctional.”
“Tell me what you mean by nonfunctional.”
“DNA and RNA are both biological data storage — RNA usually carries data from the DNA out to the ribosomes, where new proteins for the cell are manufactured. This RNA? Well, I have no idea what information it’s storing — but it’s not on how to build new proteins.”
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