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An email from Ms. Phillips popped up on the screen with another data packet. Probably the same old shit he’d gotten a dozen times. Reese unzipped the file, opening a line of folders.
Repetitive files, junk files, unrelated files; the computer forensic people didn’t discriminate and sent everything for Reese to comb through
He cursed and shut the laptop, only to open it again.
“Will it be work reports, another vacation request, or personnel complaint? Or a picture of someone’s cat?” He stopped at a file dated before he’d left the Utah Facility. “Please let it be a picture of someone’s cat and not another photo of….” Reese clicked a random file.
A typical genetic report on the subjects regarding DNA markers connected to personality traits and metabolic differences not found in controlled samples.
“I really could have used a picture of a cat.”
He clicked a different file with more of the same.
“Still no cat.”
Another.
“Well, another miss on the cat. On the upside, also no home movies of Dr. Lemming’s bedroom escapades.”
Reese opened a new folder.
Background, military records, and death certificates. Photos of familiar faces from Koda’s team: Harvard, Able, Johnson, Kelli….
Reese’s heart sank. “Goddamn it.”
He forced himself to keep scrolling.
More names Reese didn’t recognize: Young, London, Franklin, Bradly. Except for one, Dekker.
The scar on Reese's shoulder flared.
Fuck.
Reese blinked back tears while he massaged the scar tissue. The worst of the pain eased, and he went back to reading.
Attached to each name, a reference ID for sequencing gel scans showing the number of variable tandem repeats, VNTRs, found in their genome. The VNTRs allowed the identification of individuals on a genetic level. Closer relations meant a higher incidence of similarities, but short tandem repeats, STRs, could then be used to narrow down those results.
While the subjects had been unrelated, Reese had found a higher-than-normal number of short tandem repeats in an otherwise widely diverse genome when looking for marker genes to identify suitable subjects.
But the reports on the computer screen went beyond VNTRs, STR, and even marker genes, to the transposable DNA.
Transposable DNA could change location on a gene and influence how the gene acted, even turning some genes on and others off. In organisms like maize corn, the effects were blatantly visible in the random color patterns seen in the kernels.
These transposable elements provided genetic diversity and favored repeating locations.
In the Utah Facility, Reese’s job was to break down cells to a molecular level to piece together how the ichor reanimated dead tissue and why it favored human biology. While his primary duties didn’t include gene mapping the subjects, he’d utilized more than his fair share of genetic profiles in his work.
But by the time the profiles arrived on his desk, they’d been pruned by the second-tier researchers to the important areas of focus, and he never had a reason to question their results.
Yet Echols not only repeated the sequencing, he’d focused on the ninety-eight percent of DNA that didn’t code for proteins rather than the two percent of DNA considered functioning genes.
According to the reports Reese read on the screen, Echols had located minuscule fragments of transposable elements attached to genes they shouldn’t affect.
But the data on Reese’s screen suggested the transposable DNA had done something remarkable. It used the non-coding DNA proteins and built new genes.
Echols had documented identical events in the remains found in ancient burial grounds and modern genealogy tests.
Thousands of samples, including the subjects.
