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“Why?” asked Brax.

“She was also a patient. We have a research clinic that looks into the rare diseases that we spoke of. She’s been seeing the clinicians and researchers there for two years. The problem has always been that Ines is very vague about where she came from, her disease, that sort of thing.”

“Jesus,” muttered Saint.

“That’s not the worst of it,” said Asa. “She was getting worse right before our eyes. That’s why I was trying to give her some grace. As I said, she’s a brilliant researcher, but she’s obsessed with her own disease, not all the ones we’re working on.”

“Just what is her disease?” asked Saint.

“That’s a great question. We’ve yet to be able to identify it or put a name to it. It was yet another reason we were so tolerant of her behavior and outbursts. She was valuable to the research and was willing to do anything to find a cure.

“There is no name for it. None. We’ve never seen anyone with her deformities before, and as I said, she’s getting worse. When she first arrived, we noticed that her bones seemed to be twisting in on themselves, like a tree limb.”

“Jesus,” muttered Brax. “She must have been in extraordinary pain.”

“You have no idea. I’m not sure how she was able to walk or even drive. Her organs were slowly calcifying, causing repeated shutdown and repeated hospitalizations. Her shoulders have started to twist, and poor woman, her facial features. I don’t mean this to be cruel, but she resembles images of the hunchback.”

“Are the outbursts a side effect of this?” asked Saint.

“The research team believes so. Since the rest of her organs are calcifying, we decided to do scans of her brain to see if that was affected. Pockets of calcification are everywhere.”

“Will she survive?” asked Brax.

“No. Not without an identical donor to give her genetic material. Blood, bone, marrow, proteins, enzymes, hell, even DNA.”

The men stood, silently staring from one person to the next.

“I know this is a lot to ask,” said Brax, “but is there any way that you would allow us to see her files?”

“That violates everything we’re about. The HIPPA laws are very clear about patient records.”

“We know that, but we have a research team that might be able to help this person and, in the process, help someone in our family.”

“Are you telling me you have someone with this same disease?” he asked.

“No. I think we might have her clone.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Dear God,” muttered Gabi, looking over Suzette and Riley’s shoulders. The entire medical staff was in the conference room of the clinic reviewing the data. Kennedy, Cruz, Doc, Wilson, Lena, Ajei, Kelsey, Lucinda, and even the medical techs.

“Look at that poor woman,” whispered Ajei. “I don’t know how she’s moving her body is twisted so unnaturally.”

“Can you imagine the scrutiny she receives when out in public?” asked Kelsey. “Just the people walking by her every day either sneering at her, avoiding her, or laughing at her. I’m not condoning what she did, but if she has calcifications on the brain, she’s probably not thinking clearly.”

“It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” frowned Doc. “It looks like a cross between Proteus syndrome and neurofibromatosis.”

“Isn’t Proteus what Joseph Merrick, the elephant man, had?” asked Kennedy.

“It is. Poor man lived an awful life,” said Gabi. “But they checked for all of these things and didn’t see those markers. This is something else.”

“When we tested all of the geniuses, including Stephanie, we saw increased levels of certain proteins and enzymes. Their DNA was in unusual strands but relatively normal. Stephanie’s was the only one evident to be a clone,” said Suzette.

“What are you thinking?” asked Riley.

“What if this poor woman was the DNA donor for all the clones? What if, in order for him to get just the right mix of DNA, tissue samples, all of it, he was using this one person and, in the process, robbed her of her own body?”

“Jesus, you could be right,” whispered Gabi. “If she has a defect that doesn’t allow for the reproduction of those things, the recovery, this might be the end result.”

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