Chapter 6

Venice Headquarters

Probe after probe entered the bubble, penetrated Lord Baci’s membrane, rummaged in his genome and then left. When he had enough, he tried to evade the probes and hide in the nonexistent corners of the sphere. Or he would shake them off while they were clinging to his membrane. But this would only annoy the R&D guys in the background. The bubble ran endless scans on him. Flashes of light tortured his receptors, a palette of different chemicals used to run analytics made him nauseous. His flagella ached and he was exhausted.

Voice 1

Lord Baci, we can spot the gene snippet that was inserted into your genome, but we cannot get it out. Nothing works. This was not generated by humans. It is an inside job.

Bacterial? But how and who would have access?

Lord Baci

Voice 2

There are always attempts by rogue groups of microbes to destroy the Human Project. This time they have managed to get hold of a piece that was created with Deep Programming.

And now? Will you have to destroy this last piece?! Including myself?!

Lord Baci

Voice 1

Don’t be silly. We want to know who could have done it.There is only one more group of bacteria that could help: “The Ancients”. The oldest bacteria on earth who know the secrets of Deep Programming.

The “Ancients” holding the secret to the source code of life reside under the St. Mark’s cathedral. Only a few outsiders are ever allowed to contact them. We are lucky to have one of them in our team. Donna Mona, our best agent, will accompany you.

Voice 2

On the top of the bubble the membrane opened and a glorious Pseudomonad entered. She had a royal stance and her gilded coat stressed her status.

Donna Mona

Andiamo! Close your mouth, zip up your membrane and don’t even think lateral gene transfer!

Donna Mona rushed down the hallway and Lord Baci followed her, her fine long flagella in his face.