The Deathless Trilogy

1.10. Comebacks (Part 1)

"How was training today?" Mom asks, sitting down with a tray full of food.

"It was amazing," I say mid-chew, my mouth full of asparagus. It's seasoned with garlic and tangy lemon juice, and the combination sends a thousand savory particles dancing over my taste buds.

"Weren't you just reading?" she asks. "That's all I did in the morning. Then I saw Dr. Patel."

"What did he say?" I ask, setting my fork down.

She takes a bite of food. "I'm fine. I just need some minor procedures."

Declan sits down with his dinner, and takes a sip of his coffee, even though it's evening. "Alright, Declan," Mom says, more brightly now. She's trying to change the subject. "We've both been reading all day, so now we get a break. Story time."

He smiles. "You're determined."

"Take a few more sips of coffee," she says, "and then I want to know how you survived without a scratch or even a year's wrinkle." His smile slips and he looks away in shame. Mom does the same. "Sorry, did I say something wrong? I didn't mean to be offensive."

"No, you didn't," he says, taking another sip of coffee. Black, strong. It carries on his breath as he exhales. He looks up at me over the frames of his glasses, and the corner of his mouth lifts. "Stories are important. Friends share stories."

I smile.

"So thirty some years ago, Winston, Alexander, Phoebe, and Gunther Quail were all close friends and colleagues at Harvard University."

"Gunther Quail?" I ask. "I know that name. How do I— He's the one the soldiers said wanted to find me."

"That makes sense. He is the head scientist at the bunker. I was a student at Harvard and actually roomed with Gunther's younger brother, Hugh. That's how I met them, and then I TA'd with Gunther when I was getting my Doctorate in Botany."

"If Daniel is with him, could he be a scientist?" I ask. "Do you think he would keep our family alive?"

"If Daniel is anything like you," Declan chuckles, "then yeah, he could very well be a scientist. The others too. Gunther loves collaborations. That is, until he has to accept partial credit. While the leaders and Gunther worked there, they collaborated on a project, which would allow them to cryogenically freeze living things indefinitely without any cellular damage. Gunther extracted a compound from the kidneys of the Western painted turtle which allows the animal to freeze through hibernation without any cellular damage and reanimate come spring. He and Alexander worked closely together to create a synthetic replica of the compound that would be strong enough and effective enough to work on mammalian species, even humans. While they worked on the compound, Phoebe and Winston created a chamber to keep the organisms frozen indefinitely. They claimed they weren't having an affair, but watch them, tell me what you think. It was quite the topic of conversation among us. Hugh said he saw them once, but I don't know."

"Anyway," Mom says, shifting in her seat.

"Right, so, they wanted to create something that could outlive us all, should anything happen to our species. After some tests, they were able to successfully freeze and reanimate our test subject rats. They published the results in a scientific journal, and not even a day after publication, the Department of Defense called them and basically told them they would provide all of us with the money and space we needed to complete the research if the whole team came down to DC.

"Before we knew it, we were basically handed a blank check, and given a lab in a top secret underground bunker just outside of the capitol. The D.O.D. had other scientists and professionals on contract, because by the time we arrived in Washington, the connections between the instruments and the geothermal energy sources were already hooked up. The scientist who did that, Dr. O'Neill, is still with the government, too.