Chapter 2: Developing a biological solution

        In 1969, Alberto started his bachelor’s studies majoring in biology. When he started classes at university, initially his curiosity was not just confined to science courses. One of the first lectures he sneaked into was history. His knowledge of German history was purely based on books compiled  by Third Reich. His version of history had Germany as the victim, both in first and second world wars and now he was auditing a lecture on US soil about second world war. The lecture was titled ’Hitler the leader: why he failed?’ The lecture started with Hitler’s complicated childhood and his brief stint as painter. The professor then moved onto Hitler’s oratory skills and his ability to galvanize mass audience. He then moved onto Hitler’s health conditions and his secret addiction to medications. A major source of his health condition was the detailed journals his personal physician Mr. Theodor Morell maintained. At this point, the lecturer started showing some videos of Hitler with Mr. Theodor and in one of those video clips there was a young lady who seemed quite close to Hitler. While the clip was playing, the lecturer identified people appearing in the videos and to utter disbelief of Alberto, the lecturer identified the lady as Ms. Eva Braun, long time companion of Hitler. The German people were always of view that Hitler had no personal life whatsoever and he was just single mindedly dedicated to making his country great. From the videos shot by Ms. Eva Braun, it seemed that Hitler was having a perfectly normal personal life just like any other German. Just half hour into lecture, the ideal perfectionist picture of Hitler came down crashing. Alberto realized that there was very good possibility that a significant amount of history he learnt from books during school days could be fictional propaganda concocted by Third Reich. During the lecture, the lecturer mentioned about the foiled plan of Hitler to build an atomic bomb. The process of enriching Uranium required heavy water which was produced at a dam in Norway and there were numerous attempts to ship Norwegian heavy water to Third Reich laboratory. All these attempts were foiled which kept the Nazi scientists away from making any real progress towards an atomic bomb. Alberto understood that Hitler’s scientists had failed to make an atomic bomb and if they had succeeded, the world would be very different place and Alberto would still be in Germany. The next immediate thought he had was to learn how to make a nuclear bomb.

        Unlike history lectures, learning how to make a nuclear bomb was not going to be an easy lecture to sneak into. These were very advanced courses offered only to nuclear engineering students at post graduate level. Alberto was smart enough to know that if he desperately tried to enroll himself into an advanced nuclear physics course despite being a biology major, authorities might suspect something about him and risked blowing his concealed identity. So he decided to give up this wish. There was a community of Germans in Miami who had defected to the US, these were extremely talented people whose Nazi past was wiped off from records, so as to enable them to contribute to the needs of the US. Alberto started going to this community’s youth club under the alias Hans and it was not that difficult to integrate, in fact he felt at home when he spent time with his friends. One of his friends at the club by name Herbert was a nuclear physics major. Herbert always made fun of Alberto for being a biology major, for he felt that physics was the ultimate study topic and biologists chose the subject because they were not as sharp as physicists. In that same group was Gunter who was majoring in mathematics and he was of belief that mathematicians are  greatest of academics, while physics, chemistry and biology were just applied mathematics. Alberto, Herbert and Gunter would often have arguments about whose major was better. One day it climaxed and Alberto challenged Herbert that he could get highest grade in any physics course and in reply Herbert challenged Gunter that he could do the same with any mathematics course. There it was, an ego fueled exchange program, Alberto would study a physics paper, Herbert would take up a mathematics paper and Gunter would enroll for a biology paper. They came up with a way to enable this. Herbert would enroll for a physics course at an university in a near by town as a visiting student, but Alberto would go there and finish the course on behalf of Herbert. They could not pull this off at the same universities they were already enrolled into, because the lecturers and co-students knew what they looked like. Alberto told Herbert to apply for nuclear physics course. Within few months Alberto was attending lectures on nuclear physics. It was a two semester course.  The laboratory project given for the second semester was construction of an atomic bomb. The only thing that would be missing would be the radioactive material. Alberto was part of a five member team that built an Uranium based bomb. Two other teams built hydrogen bombs which would use the Uranium based bomb as the starting point. The culmination of the laboratory project was a lecture by the professor of nuclear physics. This lecture was not about the physics behind bomb. It was about human aspect and geopolitical equation associated with nuclear weapons. For first five minutes, the lecturer showed video clips of aftermath of nuclear explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some of the students were shell shocked by the scale of death and destruction caused  by these weapons. As soon as Alberto saw these video clips, he was reminded of what his father had told and the promise he had made to never kill anyone along the path towards saving his race. The lecturer told a sentence that touched Alberto very deeply.

“These nuclear weapons never kill just your enemies, but they also kill innocent humans and more importantly they destroy an entire ecosystem with plants, animals and microbes. Nothing can justify such absolute destruction of life.”

        Before he got into this nuclear physics course, he managed to get hold of toxicology books to get an idea of what kind of options chemicals offered and if they could in some way be helpful in saving his race. One thing he understood was that toxic chemicals were quite general when it came to action. If a given toxin was causing a specific physiological response in any one member of a species, it would also affect every other member of the entire species. In fact, the toxin would also  affect most other species of the entire kingdom with three sub-levels between them. He understood at a very early stage that targeting a specific race through use of chemicals will never be a feasible solution. At the final lecture of nuclear physics course he became thoroughly convinced that nuclear weapons were far worse when it came to specificity, when compared to chemicals. He concluded at the end of this physics course that if at all there was a specific solution to his disappearing race problem, it had to be in field of biology and that too in area of genetics, just as the man in wheelchair had suggested to him.

        Towards the end of his final year of bachelor’s studies, he came across latest discovery by Prof. Fiers group in Belgium in 1972. His group was the first to identify complete nucleotide sequence of a gene, but the discovery was made in a viral genetic material. Alberto was smart enough to guess that it was just a matter of time that such genetic sequence identification would become matter of fact event in everyone’s lives. In 1973, he applied and secured a place to do master’s in biology at an university that had a very strong genetic research lab and he choose molecular biology as his major. This subject included understanding function and controlling behavior of all kinds of biomolecules such as DNA, RNA, enzymes, antibodies, lipids and also other smaller ones as well. At this stage he did know what the actual solution to his ’saving disappearing race’ problem would be, but he knew if he kept going on acquiring more and more knowledge, sooner or later a solution would conceptualize itself. It was just like deciding to make a decorative wall mount using sea shells picked from beach. Until one collects enough randomly found sea shells, it is not possible to get an accurate picture of what the actual finished item would look like. Alberto started going to big molecular biology conferences where he got to hear from world famous professors about where the field of genetics was heading. He heard speculations that the 20th century would be about understanding the relationship between DNA sequence and medical conditions in humans and the 21st century would be about developing technology to alter DNA sequence to alleviate medical problems. He finished master’s degree in 1977 and started PhD in a research group which was using fruit flies to study the relationship between specific sections of DNA and some visible properties including color of eye of these flies or the shape of their wings. At that time two most popular model systems to study genetic material were bacteria and virus. The fruit fly known in labs as Drosophila melanogaster was much further up the evolutionary tree when compared to bacteria or viruses, also they multiplied quiet rapidly under simple laboratory conditions when compared to higher model systems such as mice or macaques or bonobos which were quite complicated to work with. As he was diving deeper and deeper into area of genetics of fruit fly, tools in the field of genetics were improving exponentially. In 1977, Prof. Sanger’s group came up with a clever way of sequencing nucleotides of DNA, this way the mapping of genes in entire genome of living systems, came one step closer to reality. In quick succession, major findings were being reported across the globe wherein critical genes responsible for major physiological functions or traits were being identified. Scientists started realizing that every trait could be traced back to one or more genes. A distinct trait would imply a distinct sequence of gene or genes, but then what needed to be figured out was how small or large a difference in gene sequence was needed to cause a significantly distinct trait. Alberto was absolutely convinced that different human races had to have major genetic differences. He very strongly assumed that seeing was believing. His observations were plain and simple based on color of eye, hair, skin which were so different and distinct among different races. He assumed that if externally visible differences were so significant then there might also be internal differences, again having basis in huge significant genetic differences. That was his starting point to build a tool kit that would enable him to save his disappearing race.

        Because of his upbringing, he intuitively believed that his race had a part of Neanderthal genome in it, so it must have at least a few genes that were absent in other races and the opposite might also be true. His next fundamental assumption was that different races carried specific gene markers, at least a few genes that would be exclusive to that race. These race specific genes were what he assumed caused the differences between members of one race and the other. At that time there was huge stigma among scientists to discuss racial genetics because of what the world had gone through during the second world war, during which time millions of people were exterminated just because they belonged to a specific ethnic group. Had Hitler succeed in world domination, other ethnic groups would have suffered similar fatalities. When it came to human genetics, race was most sensitive topic to deal with, even more sensitive than gender genetics. As a result of this social stigma, scientists often kept to themselves and refrained from making speculations in field of racial genetics. Most popular lines of genetic research were studies that focused on genetic diseases such as sickle cell anemia or cancers, which were well known to be passed on from one generation to next. It was speculated at that time that there might be specific undesirable genes instead of normal genes in people who suffer from genetic disorders. The first tool Alberto choose to build was the capability to target specific gene in a genome of a member of a species. Alberto’s PhD topic involved developing genetic tool to target specific genes with an intention to silence the same. This was one of the first research projects to be funded by a pharmaceutical company. ‌He disguised the true intention of his PhD research as a potential cure for genetic disorders. He started his PhD in 1977, by this time more and more interesting findings were being discovered. The understanding of central dogma of life was becoming more and more comprehensive, information from DNA was transferred onto messenger RNA molecules which in turn are directly involved in synthesis of all kinds of proteins.

        Alberto knew very well that his path towards saving his race was very much a reality now, besides that, he had one very bizarre belief. Starting from discovery of DNA, to a fast way to sequence DNA, he unfairly, inaccurately concluded that all major genetic discoveries were being made by scientists from the so-called Aryan race spread out across the western hemisphere. ‌Based on this conclusion of his, he believed that the Aryan race was unconsciously collectively building the technologies needed to protect itself. All he had to do was to wait patiently. The biggest support for his bizarre belief was the pre-announcement during a conference that the human genome would be sequenced and samples from representative members of each race will be considered for the Human Genome Project. This project would be a truly international effort with research groups from various countries predominantly from Europe along with the USA.

        It was the year 1983, one of biggest biology conferences was being held in Baltimore, and the most anticipated event was the final announcement for the ginormous human genome project. Alberto who was in his final year of PhD, eagerly went to the conference with hopes to learn more about the project. Though the formal announcement would take two more years, in that conference Alberto got to meet a French postdoctoral researcher by name Paul, who was associated with  Pasteur Institute in Paris. On the first day of conference Alberto was deeply disappointed to hear the human genome project was not going to start immediately as the final announcement was postponed indefinitely. Just to get his mind off this bad news, he decided to attend a session on epidemic breakouts across the world. Paul and Alberto were seated next to each other during the session on  hosted by Center for Diseases Control of US. One major topic being discussed was the so called ’gay cancer’ which later became known as AIDS. The talk attended by Alberto and Paul was given by a professor who was a cancer biologist. During his talk, Prof. Nick showed photos of  AIDS patients. At that time, no one knew for sure what was causing the disease. It was thought to be mainly prevalent in gay community, but it was not uncommon to come across women and heterosexual men suffering from AIDS. Prof. Nick was of view that AIDS was caused by cancer that was capable of spreading from person to person. As soon as he started detailing his theory, Paul giggled a bit and looked towards Alberto and started a whispery conversation.

“Stupid theory, it is not caused by cancer. Just because one finds skin cancer as part of symptoms, does not mean it is caused by cancer. Perfect example of one dimensional thinking.”

        Alberto was not sure if the man seated beside him was talking to himself or was trying to have a conversation. The man had a very thick French accent and was talking about something very very exciting. So he decided to listen to what more the whispering man had to say.

“It is actually caused by a virus. Prof. Francoise and Prof. Luc’s groups from Pasteur Institute in France have already isolated the virus from human subjects and some isolated samples have been shared with Prof. Robert Gallo’s group in the US. It is definitely a virus and not a type of cancer.”

        Alberto was curious to know why this specific disease was drawing so much attention.

“Why is the scientific community panicking about this disease? Is it going to be as big as the Great Plague?”

        As soon as Paul heard this question of Alberto, he got very excited and enthusiastic. He could no longer whisper, so he wanted to get out of the conference hall.

“Come with me, lets get some coffee and I will tell you everything about this new disease.”

        Both got up from their seats without drawing much attention and quietly walked out of the conference hall. The conference organizers had put up snack stalls which served coffee and half a dozen snack items throughout the day. They both picked up coffee and started a stroll through the

 posters display hall, which was largely empty.

“My name is Paul, Dr. Paul, specializing in viral reproductive biology. How about you? ”

“Hi Dr. Paul, I am Alberto, a final year grad student specializing in gene targeting.”

“Wow, you are working on gene targeting? Amazing. You know, viruses are masters of genetic manipulation, I bet they are far more advanced than what we are capable now.”

“Really? Do they manipulate our genetic material?”

“Absolutely. Now we know a lot more about how viruses infect humans. They start by inserting their DNA into the genome of human cells, once that happens the human cells are taken over by the inserted viral DNA. The infected human cells then start making components of virus until they die. These viral cell components assemble into fully functional viral cells.”

“What? I cannot believe they insert their DNA into DNA of humans. That is awesome. Viruses are very advanced microbes. I am very impressed by what they can do.”

“You know what is special about HIV? It does not even have DNA, instead it has RNA and a protein produces DNA from the RNA. HIV specifically infects and kills a type of immune related cell, thus compromising the resistance against simple infections. That is when an infected patient goes from being HIV positive to immuno deficiency syndrome condition or AIDS. So, HIV does not kill a patient directly, but the opportunistic secondary infections do.

“Why is it so difficult to cure?”

“It is a newly discovered virus and it is just a matter of time they will figure out a cure. Luckily it is not as contagious as the plague virus. So nothing to worry.”

“Ok. Relieved to know that it is less dangerous than plague. It is really unnerving to hear that newer and more complicated threats keep turning up every now and then.”

“HIV is a very loud virus, in the sense it elicits easily noticeable symptoms. But there are others if not as deadly, they are dangerous when it comes to long term health of humans.”

“Really? Silent killers you mean?”

“Not really. Let me give you an example. There is this viral infection called Chlamydia, most infected people do not experience any obvious symptoms, but in the long run infected patients become infertile. It does not kill the host but merely incapacitates its ability to reproduce.”

        Something about the symptom caused by Chlamydia triggered an idea in Alberto. He was intensely consumed by this idea and abruptly ended his conversation with Paul to immediately reach his hotel room. At that instant, a total solution for his ’disappearing race’ problem manifested in his mind. He was yet to completely unwrap the spark of idea and he wanted to get some lone time to conceptualize the idea.

“I suddenly remembered something important, I have to leave immediately. Please excuse me.”

        As he was running towards his hotel, one sentence uttered by Paul kept coming back to him again and again. ’It does not kill the host but merely incapacitates its ability to reproduce.’ He needed a pen and paper to get more clarity on his idea. The solution involved making a synthetic virus which would contain three things, firstly a gene marker based locator, that would direct the viral DNA next to a specific gene in the host, a human being in this case. He called it the ’locator gene’. Once the viral DNA localizes itself near a specific gene, the viral DNA would insert itself into the human DNA. The viral DNA would have one gene sequence introduced synthetically, that would code for a protein capable of blocking a specific receptor on sperm cells of male hosts, consequently disabling their capability to fertilize. The viral DNA would also contain one other gene sequence, that would code for a protein which can block a specific receptor on Oocyte or egg, after which the egg cannot be located by sperms. The overall idea was that the locator gene would be specific to the race whose population growth had to be stopped and the two other genes for producing receptor blockers thereby rendering the infected male or female infertile. The same virus could incapacitate reproductive capabilities of both male and female population. His solution would not kill even a single being and still save his race from extinction. He could no longer contain his enthusiasm to get started on this new found solution, so he immediately canceled his presentation scheduled the next day, instead he took a train back to Miami.

        It was the year 1983 and the age of internet was yet to be unleashed. At that time literature search by researchers was done the old fashioned way, by going to libraries and reading from hard copies of journals. Over the past year or so, as he went to conferences, Alberto maintained detailed list of articles published by researchers related to the field of genetics. He did this in order to keep himself updated about where the entire field of genetics was heading. The procedure to get copies of specific published articles was to write to the publisher requesting a re-print. In turn the publisher would send details of payment to be made. Once the payment is done, the publisher would send copy of requested article via post. Alberto specialized in fruit fly genetics and he was not familiar with viral genetics. Viral genetics was the first and foremost prerequisite in his solution building endeavor. So, as soon as he reached Miami, he reached out to half a dozen publishers to purchase 47 research reports published recently. Publishers he had written to were all from the US, so he was expecting a quick response and estimated that his re-prints would be with him in a month or so. He posted the letters to publishers on Friday the 18th of March, 1983. Alberto was fast asleep at 5 am on Sunday the 20th. He heard a knock on his door. He was not expecting anyone at that time.

“Who is it?”

“Alberto, we are from the State Department. We would like to take you with us for questioning.”

“Questioning? Questioning regarding what? Why now? I have not done anything wrong.”

“Alberto, please stay calm and cooperate with us. At this stage we cannot tell you what the questioning is about. We have a warrant for your questioning.”

        As soon as he heard that they had a warrant for him, he realized that the re-print requests he sent to publishers might have alerted the authorities. He still had a perfect story to cover up his real agenda. In a split second, he thought if any one of the requested re-prints divulged from the cover  story he had in mind which was to develop gene silencing technology to treat genetic disorders and concluded that, all 47 research reports would fall within his story. He took a deep breath and opened his door.

“No problem sir. I will be happy to cooperate.”

“Please come with us Alberto.”

        Alberto was taken to the CIA headquarters in Miami. He was taken to the questioning room and made to wait there. Soon an officer walked into the room and closed the doors.

“Do you know why you are here?”

“No sir, I do not know.”

“Why this sudden interest in viral genetics? So sudden that you abruptly walked out of a conference which is still in progress. Can you explain why?”

“My primary research interest is in gene targeting and I was introduced to the capability of viruses to manipulate human DNA. This could also be a way to silence genes which are responsible for genetic disorders. I think I have figured out a way to cure genetic diseases.”

“I will give you one final chance to tell me what your true intentions are. If you cooperate, the treatment will be gentle. Believe me when I say I know how to make you talk.”

“There is nothing more to add sir. I have told you whatever I know.”

“Alright. Let’s start with the basics. What is your name?”

“My name is Alberto Rodriguez.”

“I am going ask one final time. What is your name?”

“Sir, my name is Alberto Rodriguez.”

“You know, a young boy by name Marcus Wagner went missing from Bariloche in 1966. His parents are still looking for him. By any chance do you know the whereabouts of that boy?”

        He realized that the officer knew a lot about his past. Alberto kept silent.

“Good. Silence is better than denial. What do I call you? Marcus or Alberto or Hans. Your name is least of our concerns. You have run out of luck. We have your Soviet contact in custody. After 3 hours of interrogation, he has revealed that you are one of their spies.”

        Alberto was shocked and his face clearly exhibited a stunned expression of disbelief. He did not even know how to respond. The officer took out an envelope from his jacket and placed it in front of Alberto.

“You know Alberto, we have been following you for quite sometime now and gathered plenty of  photographic evidence when you met with your Soviet contact. Some of those photos are in this envelope.”

        As soon as he finished speaking about photographic evidence, an alarm went off in the questioning room. At this point the officer told Alberto that he would be stepping out for few minutes and left the room. Once the officer closed doors behind him, Alberto quickly glanced through the photos in envelope. They were photos of his from the time he had gone to visit his friends Herbert and Gunter. As he went through the photos, his face exhibited tremendous frustration. He heard the door knob rotate, guessing that the officer might be coming back to the room, he quickly put back the photos into the envelope. Indeed the officer returned to the room. He continued questioning.

“Sir, those people in the photos are my friends. You have mistaken them. I am not a spy.”

“You are not supposed to look at them. I will give you one final chance to come clean. If you miss this opportunity, I will move you from questioning room to interrogation room and I will make sure your PhD is annulled. From what we gather, you specialize in fly genetics. Why this sudden interest in viral genetics after going to the conference? What happened there?

        Alberto noticed that the agent was same ethnicity as himself. So, he decided to confide the true intentions behind new found interest in viral genetics.

“Sir, I am going to save our race and the solution to this would involve viral genetics.”

        As soon as he uttered this sentence, the officer jumped out of his seat, swiftly moved towards the camera in room and unplugged it. He halted the audio and video recording. As he did this, a second officer rushed into the questioning room and started talking to the officer.

“Sir, why did you unplug the camera? He was saying something about saving race. What the hell is going on sir?”

“He was talking about a race between different research groups across the globe to find out the holy-grail of field of medicine.”

“Sir, why did you unplug the camera?”

“How dare you question a superior officer? The reasoning behind this is beyond your pay grade. So shut up and get the hell out of this room.”

“Yes sir. I am sorry.”

        Second officer immediately left the room. Alberto could guess that the officer who was questioning him was much senior to the one who tried to interrupt him. The officer continued questioning.

“Have you heard about Klaus Fuchs who worked in the project Manhattan?”

        Alberto understood that the officer had thorough knowledge of his past, including the nuclear engineering course he had taken on behalf of Herbert. Project Manhattan was a top secret project carried out at Los Alamos to develop the atomic bomb and  Klaus Fuchs was one of the chief scientists who was eventually found guilty of passing on nuclear secrets to the Soviets. Except for the people in the nuclear technology, rest of the world was not aware of Klaus Fuchs and his acts of espionage. Out of fear of being misunderstood, he decided to explain why he took the nuclear engineering course, though he was a biology major.

“I enrolled for the nuclear engineering course as part of challenge from my friends Herbert and Gunter. You can ask them and they will confirm this.”

“We now know that you are not a spy, so just answer my question.”

        The officer played a small trick to find out If he was really a spy. The test involved an envelope with alleged photographic evidence. If he was indeed a spy and the people in photos other than himself were non-spy related, he would be delighted that they did not have the correct evidence and more importantly, when the topic was changed, he would welcome the diversion. On the other hand, if he was not a spy, he would be deeply frustrated that the agency had mistaken his friends for Soviet contacts and his mind would be fixated on the photos until he could explain to officers about his innocence. There was one more trick to check the innocence of a spy. Upon being exonerated by the officer, a real spy would be relived that he was getting off scot-free and would get along with change of topic, but an innocent individual would be interested in knowing the basis of acquittal.

“Officer, how did you find out that I am not a spy.”

“It does not matter. You can relax now. Tell me if any of your professors talked about Klaus Fuchs or project Manhattan?

“They did talk about the project Manhattan, but nothing was mentioned about Klaus.”

“Kalus was one of the chief mathematical physicists who worked with  Robert Oppenheimer. He was a refugee from Germany, who fled to Great Britain, finally got to work on most powerful weapon on earth. With a misplaced sense of ideology, he believed that the Soviets should also possess nuclear weapons in order to maintain a power balance between the two superpowers. So, while working at Los Alamos, he started passing on bomb designs to the Soviets. They have already tested the 50 megaton Tsar bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested and that too a decade ago. God only knows what they got now and what it can do to us.”

        The nuclear arms race was over and it was a tie. The agency was not going to sit idle as another race was just getting started with US having a massive upper hand over every other country and this time it was a race for the genetic technology. Everyone knew that the field of genetics had tremendous potential in the fields of medicine and agriculture. After devastating failure of counterintelligence during the project Manhattan, the agency was taking measures to stem any possible leaks out of US. The officer continued the discussion.

“Always beware of spies, do not trust anyone with your research. If you come across any one suspicious, do immediately reach out to us.”

“Yes sir, I will remember.”

“You know, in your case, one reason we right away suspected an ideological motivation rather than financial motivation was your immense wealth that you ran away from. I still do not understand why you are living this precarious life when you could be richest man in south America.”

“Sir, I do not understand what you are talking about. My parents are not that rich.”

“I assumed you knew about the massive wealth you have inherited.”

“Sir, whom did I inherit this wealth from?

“One Mr. Gustav, transferred 99 percent of his wealth to you and after his death, remaining 1 percent was transferred to your name.”

        As soon as he heard the name Gustav, he recollected what the wheelchair man had told him, that he would be transferring 99 percent of wealth. At that time Alberto did not care much for the wealth, but did take Gustav’s message seriously.

“Alberto, listen to me. I know why you decided to reveal your true intentions to me. There are those of us who do not hate other races but are seriously concerned that our race is declining and one day we will be extinct. People like me cannot do anything about this, but you can. You need to be very careful. I do not want to hear what the solution is, but would advice you just one thing. Do not try to develop it covertly inside US. You will not succeed.”

        Alberto was shocked to hear that an on-duty officer was giving him advice on how to accomplish his racial rescue plan. Alberto realized that he was in inexperienced waters and he needed all the help he could get.

“Sir, why is that? I was planning to do it covertly in my lab where I work now.”

“The agency’s counterintelligence activities are just a cover for the actual reason for round-the-clock surveillance over entire body of research related to genetics, not only across the US but also across the entire west.”

“Why is this happening? Why is there so much worry?”

“Some of the top level politicians are concerned that genetic profiling of races might lead to chaos in society. Their fear is that the complete extensive correlative research into racial genetics would require at least a decade and as bits and pieces of results keep coming in, there will be contradictory conclusions that might need years to get resolved and even false conclusions. In short term, if the genetic research related to race is left unsupervised, there will be serious risk of violent chaos across multiracial societies because of false information. Communities will tear themselves apart. That is why the human genome project is being planned so extensively. They do not want anyone else to be involved in off radar genetic research related to human races. So if you abruptly deviate from your field of genetic research, you will run the risk of being detected. Do not try to develop your solution here or in labs of any of our allies, everyone is being watched. You have all the money you might need, so be smart to stay undetected.”

“I have to go back. It has to be Argentina.”

“Do not confide with anyone in the US about these plans of yours. You never know who is a rat, even among our own people. You understand?”

“Yes sir, I do. I appreciate your words of advice.”

“And one more thing. Do not run away. If you do, the agency will come looking for you. You have to do it part time. Get a personal alibi to accomplish this. Get an Argentine girlfriend and that way you can go on visits as often as you want.”

        Alberto thought the officer was crazy for suggesting him to get an Argentine girlfriend just for the sake of getting a cover to travel frequently to Argentina. He thought that there should be some other way to accomplish this. For now he was thankful that the officer was giving him some invaluable advice.

“Thank you very much for your advice sir.”

“What advice are you talking about? I did not give you any advice. Long questioning session is making you imagine things. I am done with your questioning. You can leave now.”

“Yes sir.”

        Alberto understood that the officer’s counsel was off record and he could never talk about this ever after again. Except for the advice to get an Argentine girlfriend, Alberto took every piece of advice given by the officer very seriously. His next goal was to set up a way to outsource part of his  genetic solution so that his activities evaded the surveillance of US authorities. First things first, he wanted to find out how much money was at his disposal back in Argentina. He remembered the name of the bank and also what he to do in order to activate his bank account, which was to tell his name and say that he was a dead customer. He decided not go back to Bariloche where his parents were still living. He thought that if he went back and re-established contacts, then he risked blowing his new gained identity as Alberto Rodriguez, especially now that he had applied for a US citizenship.  So, he decided to go to Cordoba, a town far away from his hometown, in north of Argentina to activate his bank account. In a month time, he flew there and walked into a branch of International South American Bank. He wrote in a piece of paper, ’dead customer, Marcus Wagner’ and handed it to the person at the front desk. As soon as the bank official saw the note, he hurriedly ran to the chairman of the bank. Immediately, Alberto’s fingerprints were taken and they were crosschecked. His identity was confirmed and a document was given to him which had details of wealth he inherited. It had two components, one was just cash and other was assets which included buildings, gold and paintings. The cash was part of a trust fund and the trust already had six board members, with inheritor as the chief executor. Upon activation of dead customer’s account, the board members would convene for a meeting with chief executor within 24 hours of activation. The bank itself would host the meeting. Alberto was given a room at a nearby hotel. He got freshened up in the morning, had breakfast and off he went to the bank to meet the board members of the trust which Mr. Gustav had set up. As he entered the bank’s lobby, he was greeted by an official of the bank.

“Good morning Mr. Marcus. I am Samual, the chairman of this branch. How was your stay at the hotel?”

“Good morning sir. The stay was very pleasant. Thank you for arranging.”

“No problem at all Mr. Marcus. Regarding the board meeting, it will start in two hours.”

“Sure sir. I met an old man on wheelchair almost a decade ago in Bariloche, I think his name is Gustav. Will he be part of the meeting with board members?”

“Mr. Gustav passed away four years ago. He suffered a cardiac arrest.”

“I am very sorry to hear that. Meeting him changed my entire life for ever. I would have loved to meet and let him know what I am up to these days.”

“I would like to talk to you privately. Can we go to a discussion room?”

“Of course sir.”

        They walked into a room with no electrical connections, not even a light bulb and no furniture. It was lit by sunlight coming through the window. Alberto walked into the room, followed by the chairman who then closed the door.

“This room is called the silent room, because no one can plant any sort of listening device to spy on conversations. Mr. Marcus, I must warn you about one of the board members. It is Mr. Gustav’s younger brother. His name is Dr. Raphael. He is a very dangerous human being. People say that he conducted ruthless human experiments at concentration camps back in eastern Europe during the second world war, before escaping from allied forces. Mr. Gustav always believed that another chance to cleanse the world would come up soon and the wealth moved to Argentina must be saved up for the next battle. Dr. Raphael on the other hand wanted to use that wealth to lead a life of luxury, for he believed that Mr. Gustav and his dream was a lost cause.”

        Alberto did not understand why the chairman was sharing with him all this information. But he very much trusted what he was being told. With the kind of money involved, he did expect some sort of complication or tussle when it came to getting access to the wealth. From the kind of introduction the director was giving about Dr. Raphael, Alberto guessed that Dr. Raphael would be the a significant obstacle. The chairman continued talking.

“Mr. Gustav never wasted any money, he lived a very modest life so that he could save as much as he could. From the day Mr. Gustav passed away, Dr. Raphael has been desperately looking for means to divert the trust’s money for his own use, but Mr. Gustav made airtight arrangements to prevent any such misappropriation of money. Only you have the power to take decisions regarding the trust.”

“Sir, what happens if I die?”

“That was going to be next part of my conversation. There are two important procedures, one to be implemented if you were to die even before inheriting the wealth that Mr. Gustav left you and the other to be implemented after you activate your ’dead customer’s account. If you died before, then the board members would get full control of the trust. One thing you will be asked to do today would be to write a will to be executed upon your death.”

“What prevents the board members from killing me before I make a will and take control of the trust’s wealth?”

“Nothing. Dr. Raphael is capable of doing just that. I do not have any idea what his plans are. I called his office and informed his secretary that the chief executor of the trust has initiated the process of account activation and the board meeting will be take place at 11 am today. Within a minute, Dr. Raphael himself called me and confirmed that he will be here. He sounded very calm and relaxed. Here keep this for your protection.”

        The chairman handed a pistol to Alberto.

“ Sir, this will not be needed. If Dr. Raphael wanted me dead, I would be already dead.”

“Ok. It is up to you. You can wait in the meeting room.”

“But, thank you for the warning sir. I appreciate that.”

“You are most welcome Mr. Marcus.”

        Alberto grabbed a cup of coffee and went to the meeting room. He waited for an hour before the board members started coming in one by one. They all said hello to Alberto, some even introduced themselves. Dr. Raphael was the last one to enter the meeting room. As soon as he entered, except one old man, everyone else stood up. Upon seeing this Alberto understood that rest of the board members at least respected him greatly if not fearing him and the old man was too old to get up. Dr. Raphael started started talking to Alberto from the moment he took his chair.

“ So you are the chosen one. I am Raphael, younger brother of Mr. Gustav.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you sir. I am sorry to hear that Mr. Gustav passed away. I would have loved to meet him.”

“You know, Mr. Gustav tried to find whereabouts of you until the day he died. You suddenly disappeared. But he did say that you would come back to put all this wealth to good use.”

“Sir, I ran away from home and ended up doing PhD in genetics in the USA.”

“Despite your sudden disappearance, he had tremendous faith in you. I would like to understand what he saw in you. Here take this.”

        Dr. Raphael handed Alberto a pistol. Alberto thought to himself, what was up with this day and pistols. Dr. Raphael then clapped twice, soon two guards carried in a tied up masked man into the discussion room and made him sit in the corner.

“Shoot this man in the head. He is one of them. Show me that you have in you what it takes and what my brother saw in you.”

“Sir, I promised my father I will not take any human life. I will not kill this person.”

“How will you wipe out 90 percent of human population if you cannot kill even one of them? I know what you are thinking, you yourself will not kill a person but your army will. That makes you a coward, Mr. Marcus.”

“Sir, I do not need any army and my solution to saving our race will not involve killing other races.”

“What are you talking about? How can you save our race without killing off other races?”

“Sir, the solution would involve depriving the other races of their ability to reproduce.”

“Is that even possible?”

“Yes sir. Scientists have discovered DNA which has the information about each of our identities. I suspect that different races must have different genes, at least a few distinct ones demarcating one race from the other. I am going to make a synthetic non-deadly virus that would infect only those humans with specific gene. Besides infecting, they would also produce blockers that would render hosts infertile.”

        Dr. Raphael understood what Alberto was talking about immediately.

“So, all you need is a list of genes that only other races possess and a virus that can target that gene. Are you sure such viruses can be made?”

“Absolutely sir.”

“I am going to let you in on something. I am not Mr. Gustav’s brother. That man who is tied up there, is not one of them and the gun in front of you has blanks. Chairman of the bank you met is actually head of my security.”

        Alberto was shocked but also relieved at the same time, because he realized that Dr. Raphael was not going to be such a big problem as he thought he would be. But he did not know what was real anymore. He was hoping to get some clarity about the trust fund, if it really existed and if yes how much was it worth. He also wondered if Dr. Raphael was really a Dr.

“Was Mr. Gustav schizophrenic or did he really leave behind wealth for me?”

“Mr. Gustav was very much sane and there is trust fund waiting for you. It is all yours.”

“Are you a real doctor?”

“I am a protege of Prof. Anders, he was my PhD supervisor. Now I know why Mr. Gustav choose you. I am the intellectual heir of Prof. Anders, but you are his genetic descendant. Mr. Gustav told me that you will come back one day with the solution and all I had to do was to wait. The entire trust fund is yours.”

“Wow, you worked with my grandfather. That is incredible sir, I have so much to ask you about him.”

“It was my honor to work with him and it will be my honor to work with you. Regarding the trust fund, we can make arrangements for immediate transfer so that you can get started with your genetic solution.”

“I do not want the money. In fact I want you to start a gene therapy based pharmaceutical company here.”

        Dr. Raphael was shocked and confused. Shocked because Alberto said, he did not care for the money. He was confused because Alberto was living in the US and instead of starting a company there, he was suggesting that the company be started in Argentina.

“Why do you want us to start a company here? Are you planning to relocate here?”

“No Dr. Raphael. I do not want to create this obvious impression that the newly formed company is doing me huge favors. The US authorities are closely watching genetics related studies, so if the company helps me out, they will figure out that I am hiding something under the guise of developing a genetic medical technology. I want a state of art synthetic biology company setup here that can supply me synthetic genes imbibed into a viral genome. This has to be done in absolute secrecy.”

        An old man among the trustees interjected and started talking. 

“What I am going to say is confidential.”

        As soon as he said this, everyone including Dr. Raphael walked out of the discussion room.

“Operation Candor is the code name for covert interaction between US intelligence agency and Latin American countries to keep any communist uprising under control. Because of this operation, the US intelligence agency turns a blind eye to a host of issues, especially in the fastest growing economy in South America, which is Chile. That would be the best place to open your synthetic biology company. The dictator of Chile has a lot of hidden dealings with US intelligence agencies. So if you establish a big company there with close ties with General Pinochet and keep them financially happy, they will shield you from any inquiry from US authorities.”

        Alberto remembered that when this old man walked into the discussion room, he just said hello, but did not introduce himself and no hand shake either. Alberto remembered this man specifically because he never smiled and had a very serious look on his face, all the time. Also, when Dr. Raphael walked in, everyone got up from their seats except this old man.

“I am sorry sir. I do not know who you are?.”

“I am General Otto, was a political adviser to the Fuhrer. I vehemently opposed the Fuhrer’s plan to invade Soviet Russia. So I was discharged from my duties just before the start of operation Barbarossa and I moved to Argentina in 1941. Chile is the best place because they are opening up to free market and their political ties with US is improving. What we can do is to setup a Chilean foundation that would fund medical research collaboration between US and Chile. You could apply for funding under the guise of medical research and once the project fund is sanctioned, you can travel back and forth between the two countries. The US intelligence will not look too deep into the activities of foundation as long as huge money is pumped into the US from Chilean foundation. On the side let us get some house representatives and senators in the US to lobby for deeper collaboration between US and Chile.”

“Sir, why would their politicians support us?”

“Money Mr. Marcus can buy you anything. Start with making some hefty donations to those politician’s election committees. After that their loyalty can be taken for granted. So there you go. Start a foundation and a pharmaceutical company in Chile. The foundation will help you connect with the company while you stay in the US and the company will make any viral bug you want.”

“Sir, I have been on this path for almost 20 years. Finally I have clarity on how to save our race from extinction. This would not be possible without your invaluable input. Thank you very much sir.”

“I am glad I could be of help. Let Dr. Raphael take care of pharmaceutical company in Chile, make him feel rich, that will keep him quiet. The remaining trust members can take care of the Chilean foundation. I will take care of reaching out to politicians in the US and also General Pinochet’s inner circle.”

“Is Dr. Raphael a problem in any way for this to go ahead?”

“Not really, just keep him busy with lots of work and money. He should be fine. He and also myself did not really believe that a non-fatal solution to our problem would be feasible up until you showed up. Now I am thoroughly convinced that you have the solution and I am sure Dr. Raphael will be convinced as well. The way he was curiously asking you questions, he seems deep into implementing your solution. So, do not worry about Dr. Raphael. You are our savior and we will do everything in our power to enable your solution.”

        As soon as he finished this sentence, General Otto clapped twice and the trustees walked back into the discussion room. Subsequently he explained everyone their roles and they all were extremely excited about the developments. But, no one was more excited than Alberto. He also told everyone to call him Alberto in all future correspondence. He signed all required documents and made arrangements for transfer of trust funds to help the trustees set up a foundation and a pharmaceutical company in Chile. Alberto was spearheading the biological part of the solution while he had outsourced the political and financial requirements to members of trust left behind by Mr. Gustav. When he was flying back to the US, he had this complete conviction that genetic solution based rescue of his race was destiny of our planet and everything in the world was falling in place to fulfill just that.