The eye of the lion

That night, before we had dinner together at the table, as Doctor Cole had requested, I talked with Jessica in private. I asked her to sneak in my laptop computer from the van, along with my bag. Minutes later I showed her my plunder: Edward Kelly’s green note-book and...

“The CDs!” said Jessica, looking at them. I’d followed my instinct to take them when I opened the safe and I hadn’t been wrong. After the Netgen catastrophe, they were the final traces of what was left of Waiss’ investigation.

Jessica took them out of their acrylic cases and we discovered with disappointment that two of them were broken, by the fall from the window no doubt, and only one of them was still in one piece. With great care we put it in the laptop’s disk drive.

“What are you looking for, sir?” inquired Jessica.

A group of files appeared on the screen.

“I have a feeling, but...”

The mouse’s arrow pointed to a file entitled “Phase 4” and double-clicked on it.

“It would be amazing luck if the information that confirms it were here, rather than on the other CDs,” I finished. The file opened, showing various figures with their dates. I clicked on the last one.

“Feeling about what?” asked Jessica.

“It would be too big of a coincidence to be possible,” I replied, looking at it. The file opened. It was a very technical document entitled “PROJECT EYE OF THE LION”. It described the results of the previous phases of a genetic process. The process described the cloning of human cells from some samples cryptically named “Lot B”. I might have known what lot B was if I’d known more about genetical jargon, but I didn’t understand much.

Suddenly, almost at the end of the file, it appeared. My blood froze.

“Oh, my God...” I murmured.

Jessica saw me pale, and came closer.

“What is it?” she asked, looking in turn at the computer screen, which read:

“The fertilized ovum with the cells cloned from lot B was

then implanted into the uterus of the donor, subject M.C.”

Next to the text appeared the photo of subject M.C.

Marina Ciampi.

“My God...” murmured Jessica. “It’s her.”

I nodded, looking at the photo in silence. Realizing the enormous danger we were in. The blond guys dressed in black hadn’t batted an eyelid at blowing up a refinery and the Netgen factory to find her, terminating hundreds of lives. They’d killed an important businessman like Waiss to find her, and they’d maybe even assassinated a future Pope in order to cover up any information about what was going on.

“We have to leave. Tonight,” I declared.

“What? Leave? Where, why?” asked Jessica, looking at me confused. “You can’t move, sir. Your condition is...”

“If we don’t leave...” I interrupted her, “we’ll all die. Soon the men who blew up the factory and killed the guys will come... will come for her and they’ll kill us all just for having seen her.”

“I don’t understand...” said Jessica shaking her head. I grabbed her wrist.

“Listen girl, you have to trust me. I’ll explain it all, I promise. Help me get everything ready to leave tonight after dinner. We’ll all go. Your uncle too, he can’t stay or they’ll

kill him for knowing where we went.”

The girl nodded. I realized that despite all her experience with dangerous situations, she was afraid. Just like me.

“And one more thing. I need you to look into something for me as soon as you have the opportunity,” I asked.

“Of course, sir.”

“Give me a piece of paper and a pencil.”