That Elusive Cure 34

We woke to the sound of the phone ringing. Squinting at the clock, I realised it was only four in the morning. I threw the covers off and ran for the phone. I could only think of one reason why the phone would ring at such an early hour, bad news.

“Yes?” I stood on the landing, out of breath. Through the open door I could see Jimmy sat up in bed looking worried.

“I’ve got news!”

A second passed before I could figure out who was on the line, and why I’d want news in the middle of the night.

“I think I might be able to produce more. At first I thought I’d be able to using radiation chemistry. Oh, and it has a polymeric coating. This is good, it’s highly stable.”

It was Bob on the phone, tripping over his words in effort to get them out as fast as possible. I let out a sigh of relief. No one was injured or dying. I waved Jimmy over. “Hold on Bob, I’m putting you on speaker phone.”

He didn’t pause to even acknowledge me. “More rudimentary coatings have been developed already, but nothing as advanced as this.” Bob sounded very excited. “The coating suggests this nanoparticle is being used for an organic reaction. I was right, this is for a medicinal application.”

“We did tell you that when you were here,” I said.

“Yes, yes you did. But my first rule of unknown substances is not to give credence to any information given.” He barely paused for breath. “But that’s not the exciting part. I’ll give you a little background. Common address tags are monoclonal antibodies, aptamers, streptavidin or peptides. What we normally like to see is these targeting agents covalently linked to the nanoparticle.”

“Hang on, I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Bob sighed, “Which bit?”

I didn’t like to say all of it, so I picked the last part. “Look, you woke us up and my brain is only partially functioning, you have to give us a little leeway here, okay? And it was that part about the links, what does that mean?”

“A covalent link is when there is a chemical bond shared between the particles…”

“Okay, that’s enough for me. You’ll just confuse me if you say more. Continue.” I ignored Jimmy as he suppressed a laugh.

Bob started speaking again, a slight hurt tone to voice. “Where was I… right, the targeting agents should be present in a controlled number per nanoparticle. The particles you sent me are multivalent nanoparticles. That means they have multiple targeting groups. This is important as they can cluster receptors and activate cellular signaling pathways.”

Christ, I didn’t understand a word he was saying. Jimmy shrugged and gave me an equally confused look.

Bob forged on. “This gives them stronger anchoring. The particles also have a red blood cell coating. This helps the nanoparticles evade the immune system.”

Jimmy cleared his throat and said, “So you’re getting closer to figuring our little baby out?”

“Oh, definitely. But that’s not the reason I phoned. Do you have any idea how much research is going on in this field right now? It’s where all the big money is being spent. But the results haven’t been terrific and the particles tend to be cytotoxic.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Like chemotherapy, it poisons the patient while making them better.”

“Oh…”

“But I don’t think that’s the case with my beautiful little particle.”

Jimmy and I exchanged a look, both of us picking up on his sudden ownership of our nanoparticle.

“Then I discovered it is a grey goo replicator.”

“Grey goo…?” Jimmy echoed.

“Yes, this is so exciting. Grey goo is like the bogeyman to scientists. It’s long been feared by us. Think of that old movie The Blob. A carbon eating nanoparticle escapes and slowly eats up all the carbon in the world as it replicates.”

“And that’s what grey goo is?” I asked.

“It’s when a particle uses carbon as a food source to replicate. The resulting mass, if you like, is called grey goo.”

“Aren’t we made of carbon?” Jimmy said.

I glanced at him, thinking excellent point. A thought crossed my mind; this particle was presumably made in the future. Maybe they had ways of controlling it that Bob didn’t know about of simply hadn’t been invented yet. Visions of very healthy people being eaten up infestations of my escaped particle flashed through my mind.

“Oh yes, but that’s the beauty of this particle.” He paused as if for effect. “And this is the reason I’m calling now. My discovery just couldn’t wait. It took me all night, but I found the only way it will replicate is with a very specific electrical charge being applied, and only for a very specific amount of time. If it could replicate freely what you end up with is the nightmare scenario of grey goo, as large quantities of the nanoparticles they consume the world.”

For a moment no one said anything.

Then Jimmy said, “Does that mean you can make more?”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, I’m not there yet, but my initial estimate of six months is way off. Give me a few more weeks. And I think I’ll be making endless supplies of this stuff. At the moment I can only make it reproduce in a very limited fashion.”

“This is wonderful,” I said quietly.

“Fantastic work, Bob. Let us know if you make any more discoveries,” Jimmy added.

I put the phone down, feeling numb. Maybe this would all work out. I crossed my fingers and toes and looked up to see Jimmy beaming widely.

“This is amazing,” he said. “He’s actually figuring it out.”

I nodded, tears in my eyes. Words wouldn’t come, just a sob that came from deep inside of me. Jimmy wrapped me up in his arms.

“Shush, shush. See, I told you it would all be okay.” He rubbed my back, rocking me as the tears fell.

I pulled back, and still unable to speak I gave him a thumbs up and a weak smile.

“The machine will work again. I promise you,” Jimmy said and pulled me tighter.

I pictured the last tumours left inside me. Was their time up? Yes, I decided. The countdown had begun.