It was an apt name, albeit a bit more ominous in the hands of the Horsemen, I grant you. But I didn't know that then. I called it that because I didn't understand how it worked, I only knew it could bring about the end of the world. That, and that I could make a boatload of money if I wanted to peddle it as a germ-warfare weapon. (The Beast I'd ride the back of, if I were more desperate.)
I knew it was immoral to maintain my notes...didn't matter. The greed was there. And also a touch of pride at having created something so destructive... notwithstanding the rows of lab animals I had to burn and discard...regardless of the thought that if it existed, it might someday be used.
But after its creation, I never wanted to enter a lab again. I never wanted to work on a cure, because I realized it was beyond me to undo what I had done. I wiped my files except for one disk, which I gave to Kronos. And, except for reading with interest any news items about disease outbreaks in foreign parts of the world, some part of me always suspected that he wouldn't be the one to unleash it. I couldn't tell you why.
"What I do know," I finished, "is that it is nearly indestructible. No known cure."
"None?" MacLeod asked, his face grim.
"It is....Immortal. It was created with my own tissue. The secret lies in the twelfth chromosome...the genetic clock. It programs the telomeres...the telomeres of our cells never decay. We never grow old...the virus never dies. The idea was...gene therapy. To....add to the human gene pool."
"But you never counted on immune response," Methos said, as if anyone would have simply picked up on it.
I winced. "No. I never did. Anymore than I counted on it's being used...especially by him....he knew...."
I could remember him almost ensuring me it would never come to this. How did I believe him? How did I trust him? Simple. I cared for him, and I thought I understood him. Pride again.
But the thought was in my head now...to try to understand. To put myself in the moment. Methos had said it when he related the story--his contribution, "Start small, and build." Which meant there would be another device, and another potential payload of the disease.
"The fountain," I said, hoping I could focus..."You said one was put in the fountain...yours...the one MacLeod diffused?"
"Yes, but..." Methos was startled, as if the same thought was crossing his mind.
"And the next one? The water system, you said?"
"OH,----."
Which I took to mean that there was another one.
Posted on Jul 6, 1999, 4:09 PM from IP address 216.164.197.139