Читать книгу ARN, The Forbidden Fruit - Frank Pedreno - Страница 6

Archbishop William O’Brien of the Archdiocese of Boston had just arrived from a whirlwind trip to the See of Rome. He had been urgently summoned by the Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals, Cardinal Julian McEvory. Everything seemed to indicate that he would soon be appointed cardinal by the Holy Father to replace the recently deceased archbishop Cardinal Angelo Marcelo Martino. Soon he would begin to prepare for his entry into the College of Cardinals, and therefore would not be available to anyone for anything. However, when his secretary told him that the person on the line was Dr. Bacon he accepted the call with his customary cordiality.

“Hi, Donald, what can I do for you?”

“I’m sorry to bother you Will, but it is imperative that you convene the Council,” said Bacon, going straight to the issue that preoccupied him.

“My friend, the problem is that I’m busy for the next few weeks. Is it something urgent?”

“Nothing urgent – just a matter of life or death,” Bacon snapped sarcastically.

“I understand. How many days will we need?”

“At the moment I think that one afternoon should do it. That should make it easier to convene the meeting, don’t you think?”

“Undoubtedly. Give me a couple of days and I’ll call you, alright Donald? But seriously, is it that urgent?” he repeated.

“You won’t be asking that when we explain the matter at hand to you,” was Dr. Bacon’s laconic reply.”

Just four days after Jimmy’s presentation, the Council was set to meet in an extraordinary session at its usual place. The six members had postponed all family or professional appointments, even those that had long since been scheduled, for when the Council was convened, no one dared miss it and no one was afforded the luxury of not attending.

Discretion was the golden rule above everything and everyone. Nobody, including family members, could know of the existence of the Council. They could never meet in a public place, however discreet, nor anywhere near any of their companies or organizations. No one could see them together.

It was Archbishop O’Brien who had devised this perfect plan some time ago by creating a system allowing him the complete control necessary to keep these types of meetings anonymous. He had ordered the Archdiocese to acquire a small refuge, presumably for the use and enjoyment of those in high ecclesiastical positions, in order to provide an environment most favorable for the times when they might need a spiritual retreat. A modest-sized mansion was purchased in the small town of Concord, in Middlesex County, a few short miles outside of Boston yet far enough away from that urban nucleus to ensure total discretion. The place was perfect because of the scenic charms of the area such as Walden Pond, and was just as famous for having been the site of the marvelous, unique and unrepeatable literary community of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and the famous author of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott. Those three great geniuses of literature and United States thought had developed their artistic activities to such a degree of mastery as to convert a small town into a place of pilgrimage for many tourists. It was perfect for the Council because nobody would suspect they would meet there, so close to a very crowded and public place.

Furthermore, Archbishop O’Brien had set up a truly subtle system for accessing the refuge. When a bishop or other important senior official in the Archdiocese required a time of spiritual retreat, they had only to place a piece of paper with the Archdiocese of Boston’s Coat of Arms in a special mailbox that Archbishop O’Brien himself had ordered built at the entrance to the offices of the Archdiocese. No more than a date should be written on the paper – the date the refuge was requested. The existence of the mailbox was no secret, but no one other than high ecclesiastical officials knew its specific purpose. The mailbox would either be left ajar within three days containing the same piece of paper as well as an envelope containing the keys to the mansion or else it would remain closed, indicating that the refuge was occupied. In the latter case it could not be used by the applicant, who would necessarily have to reinitiate the process after another three days if they persisted in their idea of enjoying their spiritual retreat. This simple, practical and useful system permitted total anonymity for the applicant. The one condition for gaining access to use the refuge was that cleaning or food service would be impossible during the period of usage, making everything the responsibility of the applicant. Consequently, that same applicant was required to leave it in perfect condition for the next user at the end of their period of enjoyment. No one knew whom that would be, nor cared if they would be alone or accompanied, by whom, or for what purpose. The rule prohibiting domestic service did not apply when the archbishop himself used the mansion; in that situation the cleaning staff and a cook attended to his needs, although naturally they acted with complete discretion and confidentiality. When the Council was convened, however, Archbishop O’Brien did not allow any Archdiocesan employee anywhere near the shelter, preferring that the Council members clean and cook for themselves rather than be seen together. That weekend the mailbox at the Archbishopric remained completely closed. The shelter was in use.

…

Eager to have everything in perfect condition, Archbishop O’Brien was the first to arrive. It was March 2004 and snowing intensely. The Council members arrived one by one in the middle of the afternoon in their luxurious cars, which they left discreetly in the private parking lot he had commissioned behind the mansion so that it would not be visible from the road.

Alongside Archbishop O’Brien, Massachusetts Senator Timothy McNamara, Executive Director of Clerk Pharmaceuticals Dr. John Bohr and the three members of MIT’s Holy Trinity were seated around a beautiful oval table carved from Canadian red oak that occupied almost the entire living room of the old mansion that had been constructed at the beginning of the nineteenth century. A modest glass of water was the only thing in front of each seat; nobody expected anything else, either.

“Welcome, my dear friends, to what is, as always, your home. I have summoned you at the request of Donald, and although I do not know how long our meeting will last, everything is prepared, as always, so that if circumstances should require we can rest adequately for the days necessary. Having said that, I won’t go any further; I’ll cede the floor to Donald to officially commence our one hundred and thirty-fifth meeting.” O’Brien made this introduction as Bohr jotted down the minutes on his laptop.

“If I may, I will delegate that task to Dr. Damon, as she is the one who suggested having this meeting,” clarified Bacon.

The archbishop immediately took the floor again to ask Dr. Damon about her family.

“My dear Ina, before starting in on the topic that has brought us here, allow me to ask how your son Noel is? His father’s death must have affected him a lot, I imagine?” The archbishop took her hand.

“Thank you, thank you very much, Your Most Reverend Eminence. Noel is better! He is performing well in medical school at Boston University, now in his third year. It’s been almost a year since Todd had his heart attack. It happened last year around this time, a very tough time for the both of us. Noel has been a bit up and down due to his hypercholesterolemia. We’ve known for some time that he has the genetic family form, the same as his father had, but luckily he’s fine now.”

“Yes, I remember. You are already aware that anything you need, whatever it is, you have but to ask me. You do know that, don’t you my dear Ina?” insisted the archbishop.

“I’ll venture to speak on behalf of the rest of us, my dear, that we all echo these statements,” said Senator McNamara, looking at her understandingly while the rest nodded.

“You are all very kind. I thank you with all of my heart.”

Ina felt a lump in her throat. She began speaking again, but this time decisively.

“Gentlemen, I proposed this meeting because an extremely serious situation is occurring. If what I foresee happens, human beings will soon have to deal with grave problems.” She was direct in her statements as always, which caused a change in the countenance of everyone present.

“You are alarming us, Ina! What do you mean when you say human beings will ‘have to deal with grave problems?’” inquired the archbishop.

“I am so sorry, Your Most Reverend Eminence, but that is my humble opinion.”

“Please, Ina, do not treat me as if we were in the Archbishopric. Call me Will.”

“I have a hard time calling you Will, Your Most Reverend Eminence, but I’ll give it a try.

“Let me repeat, we are facing a problem that could have disastrous consequences for all of humanity, and when I say all of humanity I am not exaggerating,” she emphatically stressed.

“Having heard what the three of us heard just a few days ago, I agree with the degree of alarm that Dr. Damon is transmitting to us. That is why I officially asked Will to convene the Council,” intervened Dr. Bacon.

“Please don’t circle the matter any longer, and tell us what’s going on,” Senator McNamara impatiently requested.

“Four days ago Dr. James Andersen, a researcher at our Institute, presented some preliminary data that suggest that our species Homo sapiens is mutating and that another species will probably appear soon or, even worse, is already amongst us,” said Ina, direct and concise as always.

“What’s so serious about that?” asked the archbishop.

“Well, Will, this new species could apparently pose a danger to ours, just as ours did for the rest of the species that coexisted with us tens of thousands of years ago – species that we sent into extinction, as everyone knows,” said Bacon, this time not adding a euphemism, but asserting as fact that Homo sapiens had eliminated the other Homo species.

“Imagine for a moment that the common person finds out that another species of human lives amongst them, a species that seems to be much more intelligent. Panic will seize our civilization and we do not know what will happen,” intervened Dr. Erans with visible alarm.

“But why do you say they are much smarter than us? How do you know that?” asked Archbishop O’Brien.

Ina answered him. “Dr. Andersen asserts that he is in the process of showing that this mutation exerts its biological effects exclusively in the brain, and is the very thing responsible for the fact that for the past four hundred years, or we could say with more precision since about two hundred years ago, human beings have been suffering from something in our brains that has made us take off like never before on a technological journey. The list of discoveries and inventions that we have achieved and are achieving has grown exponentially and everything seems to indicate that the slope will become more and more vertical. In addition to that, he presented surprising results through which he clearly demonstrated that this mutation is associated with a higher score on the IQ intelligence test.”

“Oh yes, the IQ, I remember that I was tested once and they said I had a very high score! If I’m not wrong it was a hundred and three points,” said the archbishop with a smile.

“Yes, Will, a hundred and three points is very good!” answered Ina, showing off her ability to disguise a lie. “Now if I may,” she continued, “I want you to keep in mind that this new being only seems to be interested in facts – not at all in words, and much less in beliefs. It is, we could say, a new species of the genus Homo that is heading towards a new evolutionary line based solely on technological knowledge and on the systematic use of the precepts of the scientific method, which are the following: hypothesis, observation, experimentation, thesis, publication of results, and verification and refutation by third parties. We could call this the sublimation of human intelligence. This exponential technological progress undoubtedly runs parallel with an increasingly significant lack of religious beliefs and here it seems that the new mutation that Dr. Andersen has discovered has an important and prominent role in the genesis of the decrease in religiosity and the augmentation of scientism of the new human being.”

“Tell me something I don’t know! The current period is the worst moment in the history of religions, and specifically in that of Christianity, the only true religion. All over the world religious indices are falling, not to mention faith and new vocations in the church, above all in Europe and Asia, where there are countries with up to fifty percent atheism and agnosticism amongst the citizenries. What will happen in the next thirty or forty years?” wondered Archbishop O’Brien in a plaintive tone.

“You’ve put it masterfully, Will,” agreed Ina. “In probably thirty or forty years in old Europe and in what we may call the technological countries, nobody will believe in any kind of religion. Only a few faithful will remain in non-technological countries.”

“Do you mean, Ina, that only idiots are going to believe in God?” asked the archbishop with a sour note in his voice.

“Not at all, Your Most Reverend Eminence! God help me, I don’t mean to say that at all!” she clarified. “I simply mean that over the next few years, technological advances will run in parallel with an increase in the rate of atheism and agnosticism, and since science is unstoppable, the consequences are obvious. In other words, we are inexorably moving towards the disappearance of religious beliefs. When will it happen? We do not know, but if there is a new species of humans amongst us that is eminently more technological and intelligent, it will be soon, very soon.”

“Always the same. Science is always the same! How right the Holy Father was when he alerted us to the dangers of science! Have I ever recounted to you what Moses told us in the Old Testament, specifically in the Book of Genesis 2: 9, 2: 16-17, and 3: 4-5?”

“Quite naturally you’ve told us several times, but we’d love to hear it from you again, please, Will,” Dr. Bohr said kindly.

“In Genesis 2: 9, the Word of God tells us this:

And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

“In Genesis 2: 16-17, it speaks thus:

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

“The words of our Creator were quite clear, don’t you think?” he asked them vigorously. “Later on, in Genesis 3: 4-5, our Creator spoke through the mouth of Moses thus:

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

“I truly do not understand scientists who move away from the Word of God for the love of science; verily I do not understand them. They will usher in the apocalypse, you will see,” he finished, fatigued by his dissertation.

“Strongly agree,” the three members of the Holy Trinity from MIT, the CEO of Clerck Pharmaceuticals, and the Massachusetts Senator responded in unison.

“Is it really that difficult to just do science in the way that you four do?” asked the senator, addressing the scientific members of the Council.

“Exactly, Tim! That’s precisely my point, that it is not so difficult to practice science following the precepts of God. That’s what I believe and what our Holy Church does, too,” insisted the archbishop.

They all nodded, although Dr. Damon secretly disagreed with the statements, and thus had to use her best dark arts to ensure no one suspected her doubts in the slightest.

“Well, have you already come up with an idea?” asked the senator.

“Dr. Erans will now present the plan that we suggest implementing immediately, as long as we all agree on it and it is unanimously accepted,” Dr. Bacon said.

“Go ahead then, Michael, enlighten us, but first tell me who this Dr. Andersen is. Is he trustworthy?”

“You see, Will, it’s difficult to explain who Dr. Andersen is,” Michael replied. “What we can say is that he is an extremely intelligent and innovative researcher, and when he sets out to demonstrate an idea he will never be dissuaded, no matter how far-fetched it may be. We might say he’s like a crazed pit bull with its jaws clamped on its prey. Forget about just striking him to make him let go – you’ll have to split his head open and break his jaw for him to release the thing. As to whether he is trustworthy or not, I would lean towards the latter.”

“Well that reassures us, Dr. Erans, that really reassures us,” interjected Bohr.

“Nevertheless, if you’ll allow me, I will detail the plan we have devised,” continued the Scourge of MIT. “The first thing we propose is to limit the funding of Dr. Andersen’s group as much as possible. For that purpose we are moving very actively in our circles, and we do not foresee having any problems completely blocking his access to both public and private funds for at least the next eight years. Second is to prevent him from accessing any more human brain samples. Ah! Forgive me, we have not explained to you that Dr. Andersen demonstrates the presence of the new mutation using postmortem human brain donations.”

“Very typical of a heretic, profaning the bodies and minds of human beings with the intention of demonstrating the non-existence of God,” interrupted the archbishop.

Ina pretended not to have heard his comment, and when he turned his gaze upon her she smiled at him, scrupulously following her playbook and nodding her head.

“And the third thing is to be cautious and patient,” continued Erans. “We believe that he will not advance very significantly in his research if we block his funding and his access to samples for his experiments. We will track him very closely; every three months our professors and researchers must present their results, so we will closely observe how his experiments progress.”

“On top of that, I would like to let you know that I’ll have direct access to Dr. Andersen’s research,” offered Ina. “I have known him personally for many years and I’ve led him to believe that I am his only friend at the Institute. This strategy is working quite well for me. I couldn’t get him to explain his preliminary results to me in detail, but I know that when he has something solid he will immediately come to me to present it. He needs my help and collaboration, of that I am completely sure.”

“Perfect. Do I therefore understand that you have this Andersen under control?” asked the senator.

“Let’s just say we’ve got it nearly under control,” Ina assured him. “But I repeat that we will be monitoring him very closely at all times. Even so, we must be aware that we are dealing with a researcher who has access to many resources and who may even be able to establish contacts abroad. So we will have to be very aware of this option as well.”

“And if in the end he gets away with everything and publishes the results or presents them at a conference or, I don’t know, talks to another colleague?” asked Bohr.

“I don’t think that will happen,” said Erans. “He has a reputation for being a megalomaniac and quite frankly, this topic is the craziest thing he could have thought of. I don’t believe there is any other mind on our planet capable of brooding upon such madness. That being the case, he will think twice before submitting it if he doesn’t have much stronger – I should say, conclusive – results.”

“And yet this man will have collaborators, right? Might we have problems with his group of investigators?” Archbishop O’Brien did not want to leave any loose ends.

Ina answered him. “Look, to this point he has always been alone and has always had problems obtaining capital for his projects. Three months ago, however, he procured funding for the next eight years from the National Institutes of Health – five million in order to investigate junk DNA – and his first act was to hire a post-doctoral student from King’s College, London.”

“What did you say?” Bohr jumped out of his seat. “Five million dollars through early 2013? That’s a serious problem. How the hell are we going to be able to control what that crazy megalomaniac spends it on?”

“That’s the only problem we haven’t been able to solve as of yet, but Michael is working on it, aren’t you Michael?” Bacon turned to Erans.

“Keep in mind that five million over the next eight years is not that much. Subtracting his salary and that of his collaborator, taxes included, only two and a half million will be spent on the concept. That leaves barely two and a half million over the eight years for reagents, which comes out to about three hundred thousand a year.” The Scourge of MIT had calculated every last penny of Jimmy’s funding.

“Fine, I understand that half the money will go to salaries and taxes, but I’m sure you’ll agree with me that you’ll have to be very much on top of things, controlling those three hundred thousand dollars a year and, obviously, not allowing him to use the remainder for anything other than salary and taxes.”

“We’ve already made arrangements, Senator, don’t worry,” Ina replied.

Archbishop O’Brien wanted to close the meeting on that point, thinking that with any luck he could arrive at the headquarters of the Archdiocese before 6 p.m. In this cold, he would very much like a hot dinner in front of the television.

“Very good then! I think we should convene the Council every three months so that you can give us an update on how everything is going, don’t you my friends?”

“I think Will is right, but if I find out anything new I’ll propose calling an emergency meeting,” said Ina.

Bohr closed his computer after saving the minutes of the meeting and they all made ready to leave, but the old archbishop had one last thing to say, as always.

“I must admit that you were correct to alert us that we are potentially facing a very grave situation for humanity. We cannot allow human beings to drift away from God. Our entire way of life is based on the family, on the economy as this great country understands it, on the armed forces that protect us from our enemies and, above all, on our deep religious beliefs. We do not need science at all and have lived very well for thousands of years without it; so should it continue to be. Our deep-rooted, solid foundations as human beings have been sustained for more than two thousand years of history by the belief that after death God awaits us with open arms. But obviously this is reserved only for those of us who have followed His precepts. The rest – that is, the heretics – will suffer eternal punishment in the fires of Hell. Nobody should take away our way of living and, above all, our way of thinking. So, my friends, this thing about a new species of human beings appearing among us who are much more intelligent because they follow the precepts of science – it can never see the light of day.

“By the way, just out of curiosity, find out what name he wants to give to this new species of human beings.”

“He has already christened it Homo scientificus,” said Dr. Bacon, eyebrows raised.

“My God! Do you realize that this cannot ever see the light of day?” exclaimed the deeply concerned archbishop and future member of the Sacred College of Cardinals.

They all nodded and got up slowly. Each one picked up their glass, properly replaced their chair under the beautiful oval table of Canadian red oak, and without attracting attention, departed the mansion that the archbishop had acquired for the spiritual well-being of those of his congregation with elevated ecclesiastical positions. They were to meet again in the beautiful town of Concord in only three months.