Genosimulation (A Teen & Young Adult Science Fiction): A Young Adult Science Fiction Thriller by L.L. Fine

in a time window of three
minutes when all the hotel's surveillance cameras mysteriously stopped working.
    He also told her when to escape the room. "If I'm not
functioning by then, you take yourself and run out. You won’t have a second
chance."
    She looked at the clock. She needed to move in a few
minutes.
    So she couldn’t even get him to the hospital in time.
Anyway, there was no doctor in the world, not even she, that could save him.
Now he was alone with his battle. Alone, alone.
    Cause of death, she knew, would be something like 'sudden
respiratory failure’.
    And no physician in the world would know why.
     
    *
     
    "Listen, there is a certain probability that it will
work!" she remembered herself shouting to him a few months before.
    "What’s a certain probability!?" he demanded to
know. Both of them were on the beach of Rishon Lezion, enjoying the cool,
strong breeze, which prevented the possibility of anyone eavesdropping on them.
Despite the winter, they were dressed only in the minimum necessary.
    "A few percent!"
    "How many?"
    They already knew what the problem was with him.
Genetically, at least. One of the sections of the DNA, designed to grow young
tissue where cells died, failed to get a stop command after completing the
restoration work. Following this, the cells continued to build. Without a
break. Without limit. Without restraint. And to no avail.
    A more interesting definition of cancer, she could not think
of.
    And just the night before, she had found a new Australian
study report after a frantic search for all the knowledge in the world on the
subject.
    Zomy's defective intron, the piece of DNA that controls the
“tissue engine” was losing exactly 15 layers, and going out of action. The
result was lung cancer. Particularly violent. Incurable.
    "So how do you think to cure it!?" he shouted into
the wind.
    "Not to cure! To vaccinate!"
    "What?!"
    "Before it starts! Fix your DNA!"
    "How?"
    The wind whistled intensely and Zomy drank it deeply,
enjoying the salt water crispness, feeling free, feeling power that only the
wind can give. Lia, however, had suffered enough. It was too cold and too hard
to scream into the wind.
    "We'll replace the damned part!"
    "Yes, how?" he repeated the question.
    "Well, there's only one thing in the world that can get
into the DNA and replace the defective part."
    "A virus!?"
    "Exactly!"
    Viruses, he knew, were no more than pieces of pure DNA,
wrapped in a protective coating of protein. No metabolism, no trace of 'meat'. Pure
pieces of information of genetic blueprint just waiting to stick to a living
engine, and control it.
    A simple and a deadly act. Once the contact is made between
a virus and a suitable living cell, the virus sheds its protective protein
capsule and infiltrates the cell. Now, without physical defenses in front of
it, everything is open. The virus enters the cell nucleus, taking over the DNA,
modifies it and starts producing copies of itself.
    Of course, such an invasion of a virus that changes the DNA
sequence impairs the functioning of the cell. Usually irreversibly.
    The wind whistled with less intensity, and they both walked
on the beach, waiting in silence for the next increase of its static noise.
Without realizing it, Zomy's hand found that of Lia, putting their fingers
together.
    The wind accelerated and their hands parted.
    "So you mean to engineer a virus that will replace the
intron that’s fucking me up!?"
    "In theory it could work!" she shouted back.
    The wind accelerated more and more, freezing them, stabbing
them with the shards of cold water and salt. They both wished separately for a
hot shower.
    "I think I'll stay with radiation and
chemotherapy," he said more quietly.
    "What!"
    This time it was Zomy’s turn to fight a particularly strong
gust. The wind penetrated his mouth and lungs, and for a moment prevented him
from speaking. Finally, after a second breath, he blurted out, "I said
I'll try chemotherapy!"
    "It won’t work! Not