It was almost two a.m. before she and Neely located a sequencer in a location that was still open. Most businesses in Puerto Rico closed much earlier than in the States, so she considered it nothing short of a miracle when they found an available machine in San Juan at the Axilio Mutuo, the largest civilian hospital in Puerto Rico. After a few phone calls, a tired and disheveled technician appeared in the parking lot to escort them to the Genetics Lab.
The process of sequencing was not fast, which was why Neely had sent her out to get some sleep. Now, in the hospital’s main waiting room, Alison sat up and rubbed her eyes while a small ten-year-old girl watched curiously from another chair, next to her father.
Alison checked her watch and smiled at the girl, who smiled back. It was just past six. She was just about to stand up when someone spoke from behind her.
“Good morning.”
She turned to see Neely approaching from behind a row of chairs.
“Were you up all night?”
“I couldn’t sleep,” Neely replied. “Besides, it feels good to get back into work.”
“I can understand that. Did you find anything?”
“I did,” a tired Neely nodded. “And I have good news and bad news.”
Alison frowned. “Bad first.”
“I don’t see the base order we found in the plants in Sally’s DNA. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not there. It’s possible they mutated somewhere else in the dolphin’s genetic code. But finding them will take time.”
“Or…it’s not there at all.”
“Well, that was my first thought.”
Alison sighed and slumped back down in her chair. “I guess I got ahead of myself on this one.”
“Under the circumstances, I’d probably feel the same way.” Neely eased herself into a chair across from Alison. “But…I don’t think you have.”
Alison did a double-take back at Neely, who was now grinning. “What?”
“We haven’t talked about the good news yet.”
“What’s the good news?”
“I may not have found the DNA order we discovered on the Bowditch…but I did find some other cells acting very differently. And it wasn’t in the blood. Very small amounts of collagen cells appear to be replicating much faster than even the RBCs.”
“Collagen cells are one of the primary components in blubber!”
“Exactly.”
“I thought you said the DNA wasn’t there.”
“Well, I was speaking of the blood cells. That was the majority of the sample. But the same is true for the collagen cells. No base markers.”
“But if their DNA hasn’t changed, how are they replicating faster?”
“I have no idea. But normally, cell behavior is influenced by one of two triggers, either an internal or external influence. The internal stimulus would be its core DNA or something else contained within its nucleus. External stimulus, on the other hand, would be some kind of catalyst acting upon the cell’s existing biologic or genetic code, perhaps something in its membrane. In other words, another compound that causes a reaction.”
“So then there’s something in the cells?”
“That’s my guess. Perhaps something they have absorbed.”
Alison almost jumped out of her seat. “I knew it!”
Even as tired as she was, Neely laughed. It was exactly the reaction she was expecting. “Now, the big question is,” she said, “what is that compound?”
“And why is it in their blubber?”
“I have a theory on that, actually. Both blubber and human fat share two very similar functions. Storage and absorption.”
“Absorption!” Alison’s eyes shot open. “That’s it! They absorbed it! They absorbed whatever is in that water near Trinidad!”
This time Neely looked surprised. “That fits, Alison.”
Alison gasped. “Oh my God!”
“What?”
Alison stared at her in silence with a look of shock. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “It was right in front of me the whole time. All these years, and I had no idea.”
“What are you talking about?”
She leaned forward with her hands outstretched. “It’s the blubber, Neely. The blubber!” Excitedly, Alison jumped out of her chair. “Listen, a few years ago, a researcher at Georgetown University submitted a paper on some studies he’d done on dolphin blubber. His name was Mike Zasloff. I exchanged emails with him afterward. In his paper he showed there was something unique in the healing properties of dolphin blubber, allowing them to recover from injury much faster than other mammals. At the time, he didn’t know why. The last time I talked to him, he was searching for unseen compounds in the blubber. But what if he’d already discovered the same thing we just did, without realizing it?”