Bodyguard Lockdown Read Online Free PDF Page A

to be treated and healed at an accelerated rate. With the help of nanite technology.”
    “Nanites?” Jarek frowned.
    “Miniscule sensory vessels, no more than a nanometer in size and composed of carbon,” Cain explained. “These particular nanites weremade specifically to have a compatible, yet invasive, accessibility to the human body.”
    “How accelerated?” Jarek asked, his frown deepening.
    “Twenty-four hours. Hence CIRCADIAN. It’s Latin for consecutive twenty-four hours.” Cain reached over and grabbed his briefcase. “The nanites are inhaled, flushed into the bloodstream through the lungs and delivered directly to the injured or sickcells through hundreds of DNA programmed sensors that blanket the carbon. Given the nanites are smaller than a single cell, they can treat each cell individually.”
    He thumbed the combination on the briefcase lock and popped open the lid. “Treated with the serum, most humans with an illness or injury healed at supernatural speeds. It was a viable concept,” he explained, then pulled out a thickmanila envelope and handed it to Jarek. “Within the first year of research, Trygg heard about it and used his clout to be the military liaison on the project.”
    Jarek opened the file and glanced over its contents. “These are Sandra’s research notes.”
    “I thought they were destroyed,” Quamar inserted.
    “We very rarely destroy files. Especially the projects that show promise,” Cain repliedwryly. “We just let people believe they’re destroyed.”
    “So Sandra was close,” Jarek commented, his eyes still on the documents. “How does that help us now?”
    “CIRCADIAN falls in the scope of the Super Soldier image that Trygg was known to promote,” Cain clarified. “Heal a soldier faster. Get him back out in the field.”
    “Kate was originally assigned as the lead on the research.”
    “Kate?” Quamar asked. Kate MacAlister-D’Amato was the head of the Labyrinth Technology division and a leading scientist in antimatter energy.
    She was also Cain’s sister, and a good friend of Quamar’s.
    Cain nodded. “President Mercer’s idea. But within a few months Kate and Trygg clashed. Mercer pulled Kate and Trygg brought in another nanite specialist and made Sandra the team leader.She worked tirelessly for the general. Eventually he found her a private lab and isolated her from the outside world. Including his superiors.”
    Jarek glanced at Cain, surprised. “You’re saying she was a prisoner?”
    “No. She loved her work,” Cain corrected. “And she worked for two years, pouring her soul into the research. But in the end, the results were unsuccessful. The serum attackedhealthy tissue at an accelerated rate, damaging internal organs until they hemorrhaged.”
    “A painful death,” Quamar commented, his brow furrowed.
    “Yes,” Cain agreed. “Sandra tried for months but she couldn’t find a way to correct the problem. Eventually, word came down from the Hill that Mercer wanted the project shut down. The serum posed too much of a threat as a weapon of mass destruction.”
    “And Trygg?” Jarek asked him.
    “Trygg disagreed with Mercer,” Cain answered. “He believed CIRCADIAN needed more funding.”
    “When Mercer refused, Trygg stole the formula?” Jarek prompted.
    “No,” Cain replied. “He didn’t need the formula, he had Sandra’s loyalty by then. What he needed was money to finance further research.”
    “He had lost his American backing.”
    “Exactly,”Cain explained. “Trygg understood marketing CIRCADIAN as a weapon would prove profitable. Enough that he could stake more research on correcting the formula.”
    “But Sandra stopped Trygg,” Quamar stated.
    “Dead,” Cain replied solemnly. “Trygg is driven by his ego. Sandra worshipped the man. But toward the end of the research he made a major tactical error. His ego got in the way. He decidedher hero worship would make her an easy recruit into his Super Soldier project.