I’m starving.”
Selena looked like she was about to say no. Then she blinked suddenly. “I wouldn’t mind that, actually. I’ve barely eaten anything.”
“I have an apple in my bag.”
“I’ve got some instant oatmeal packets in my office. And soda crackers.”
“That sounds amazing.”
7
When we got to the serology lab, we saw Linus standing over a gas chromatograph, his back turned to us. He placed something in the injector port and switched on the heat. The chemicals grew volatile as they were heated, separating from one another. Then a rush of carrier gas swept them away in a stream. When they reached the chromatography oven inside the heart of the machine, they would enter their own steel capillary column and begin to simmer.
Linus turned to face us. His blond hair was getting longer, and I wondered if he was growing it out, or if he’d just forgotten to cut it. Sometimes I liked shoulder-length hair on guys. It was tricky, though. It had to be well kept. And Linus obviously took care of his hair. It was so shiny that I wanted to touch it.
“Liking the jeans,” I said.
He didn’t quite smile, but I saw the pleasure in his face. “Thank you.”
“Did you process that last round of samples?” Selena asked.
“Nearly.”
“ ‘Nearly,’ as in, you’ll be done in the next hour?”
“No. Each test has its own quirks. If you want a detailed restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, you have to deal with the time-consuming process of electrifying a plate of gel and plotting out the numbers yourself. It’s not fast food.”
“The STRs must be almost done, though. Short tandem repeat testing is always a lot faster than—”
“I know that it’s faster. It’s faster because it’s not as detailed. You can’t have detailed and fast at the same time; you have to pick one.”
“I need both.”
“Then you need to buy me better equipment.”
“The next budget meeting isn’t for a week. You can put in a requisition form.”
“The last time I did that, you claimed that my form was lost.”
She blinked. “I promise that won’t happen again. Let’s just see what results you have so far from the serology panel.”
Linus opened up a folder. “Results. That’s all anyone ever talks about around here. I feel like I’m working at Walmart sometimes.”
“Uh-huh.”
He scanned the STR data. “These samples gave our machines a bit of trouble. They’re calibrated to process demon epithelials, but we don’t have many pureblood profiles in our archive.”
“They don’t tend to submit to needles,” Selena said.
“Exactly. So we had to cobble together a few different profiles to use as an exemplar. But even that didn’t make the job much easier. Most demons have double helices, like us, and a few purebloods have extra RNA helices that we can barely decipher. But these epithelials have a completely different shape. Take a look.”
I leaned over the Fourier-transform microscope, adjusting the focus. It looked like I was staring at a cluster of pins, all squeezed very close together. As I looked closer, I realized that the “head” of each pin was actually a tiny chain composed of links. Each link was a collection of scales, and even the scales had a kind of chemical engraving on them.
“The human genome has about three billion base pairs of DNA, which are the chemical building blocks of life,” Linus said. “Plants have a lot more, sometimes up to ten times more, but most of that space is empty. Their genomes are like abandoned rooms with a lot of cupboard space. But these strands are packed full. There must be close to one hundred million base pairs here. Imagine that as one hundred million drawers, and each one of them is full.”
“The helices look more like chain mail.” I stepped away from the microscope. “I’m not even sure what we’re looking for inside of it.”
“We need to figure out what has the Ferid so interested.”
“We still have no evidence
Selena looked like she was about to say no. Then she blinked suddenly. “I wouldn’t mind that, actually. I’ve barely eaten anything.”
“I have an apple in my bag.”
“I’ve got some instant oatmeal packets in my office. And soda crackers.”
“That sounds amazing.”
7
When we got to the serology lab, we saw Linus standing over a gas chromatograph, his back turned to us. He placed something in the injector port and switched on the heat. The chemicals grew volatile as they were heated, separating from one another. Then a rush of carrier gas swept them away in a stream. When they reached the chromatography oven inside the heart of the machine, they would enter their own steel capillary column and begin to simmer.
Linus turned to face us. His blond hair was getting longer, and I wondered if he was growing it out, or if he’d just forgotten to cut it. Sometimes I liked shoulder-length hair on guys. It was tricky, though. It had to be well kept. And Linus obviously took care of his hair. It was so shiny that I wanted to touch it.
“Liking the jeans,” I said.
He didn’t quite smile, but I saw the pleasure in his face. “Thank you.”
“Did you process that last round of samples?” Selena asked.
“Nearly.”
“ ‘Nearly,’ as in, you’ll be done in the next hour?”
“No. Each test has its own quirks. If you want a detailed restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, you have to deal with the time-consuming process of electrifying a plate of gel and plotting out the numbers yourself. It’s not fast food.”
“The STRs must be almost done, though. Short tandem repeat testing is always a lot faster than—”
“I know that it’s faster. It’s faster because it’s not as detailed. You can’t have detailed and fast at the same time; you have to pick one.”
“I need both.”
“Then you need to buy me better equipment.”
“The next budget meeting isn’t for a week. You can put in a requisition form.”
“The last time I did that, you claimed that my form was lost.”
She blinked. “I promise that won’t happen again. Let’s just see what results you have so far from the serology panel.”
Linus opened up a folder. “Results. That’s all anyone ever talks about around here. I feel like I’m working at Walmart sometimes.”
“Uh-huh.”
He scanned the STR data. “These samples gave our machines a bit of trouble. They’re calibrated to process demon epithelials, but we don’t have many pureblood profiles in our archive.”
“They don’t tend to submit to needles,” Selena said.
“Exactly. So we had to cobble together a few different profiles to use as an exemplar. But even that didn’t make the job much easier. Most demons have double helices, like us, and a few purebloods have extra RNA helices that we can barely decipher. But these epithelials have a completely different shape. Take a look.”
I leaned over the Fourier-transform microscope, adjusting the focus. It looked like I was staring at a cluster of pins, all squeezed very close together. As I looked closer, I realized that the “head” of each pin was actually a tiny chain composed of links. Each link was a collection of scales, and even the scales had a kind of chemical engraving on them.
“The human genome has about three billion base pairs of DNA, which are the chemical building blocks of life,” Linus said. “Plants have a lot more, sometimes up to ten times more, but most of that space is empty. Their genomes are like abandoned rooms with a lot of cupboard space. But these strands are packed full. There must be close to one hundred million base pairs here. Imagine that as one hundred million drawers, and each one of them is full.”
“The helices look more like chain mail.” I stepped away from the microscope. “I’m not even sure what we’re looking for inside of it.”
“We need to figure out what has the Ferid so interested.”
“We still have no evidence
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