“Or they’ve figured out how to reproduce whatever allows a Mah to control a cur. That could be anything from radio waves to something as complex as a quantum connection like entanglement.”
“Does that mean you can get the implants to shut down?”
A flush crept up Dr. Dante’s neck. “No. It doesn’t. I told you, I have no way to know what method they used. I’m neither an electrical engineer or a physicist. All I can do is guess. And guessing, especially in this case, could result in less than desirable results.”
“Worse than curs being used to kill people?”
“Try screwing up the implant and causing the kill switch to malfunction. Then you’d not only have uncontrolled curs, you’d have no way to stop them.”
Dekker pressed his lips together for a moment. “We have to come up with something or the Senate will get exactly what they want.”
A body count, just like Nox had said on the plane.
“Even if I could come up with a way, I don’t have the equipment or the time. Things like this can’t be done overnight, and they sure as hell can’t be done by one person.”
“How many people do you need?” Dekker said.
Dr. Dante glared at him. “A lot.”
“There are over twenty scientists in Manitoba and three times that many around the world, who work for my father. If you can at least give them a starting point, there’s a good chance they can figure out the rest.”
“How am I going to come up with a starting point when you don’t even know how the bite works?”
“Then don’t start with the bite,” Phillips said.
Dr. Dante looked at her. “What?”
“They restructured the VrK to work with human DNA. That would be achieved through biological means. Coming up with a way to denature those means could cause the binding agents of the VrK to break.”
Dr. Dante opened his mouth then closed it. He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I—”
Nox knelt in front of Dr. Dante, but he refused to look up. “You’re a smart man, Dr. Dante. And you understand the ichor.”
“I wish all of you would quit saying that.” He cast his gaze around the room before coming back to Nox. “No one understands it. Everything we have is based on hypotheses and guesswork.”
“Then why did Dr. Echols put you in charge of us? Why were you the one he wanted looking at our tissue, our blood, everything the ichor affected?”
“I…” Dr. Dante shrugged. “Maybe he was afraid.”
“Possibly. But you weren’t.”
“I also never questioned what he wanted to do, and I should have.”
“You’re a scientist. You’re curious, you’re—”
“What I did was wrong.” His words were barely a whisper, but they screamed with guilt. “Once I saw what the ichor could do, that it brought you back, that… what I did was immoral, it was unethical.”
“That’s why you left.” Nox made it a statement.
“Yes.”
“Why did you wait so long?”
“What?”
“You were there for years. Long after you saw what the ichor could do. If what you did was so horrible, why didn’t you leave?”
“I don’t know.” His voice trembled.