The Adoration of Jenna Fox Read Online Free PDF Page A

"How did he
die?"
    "The Aureus epidemic. We had plenty of warnings that something like that could happen and
it eventually did. It took him and twenty million people with him."
    "And that was just in this country,"
I say.
    Lily's eyebrows raise. It is her first glimpse
at the facts my brain chooses to hold on to. Her fingers tighten on the iron door
handle. "By then most antibiotics were useless," she says.
"Somewhere along the line, we took a giant step backward. When I was a
child, there were only a handful of vaccines; now there's a vaccine for nearly
everything because we've engineered ourselves right into a corner. That's
progress?" She looks at me, and a crease deepens between her brows.
"Sometimes we just don't know when we've gone too far." She opens the
door to leave, and a shaft of light cuts across the floor.
    "Is that why you gave up being a
doctor?"
    She stops and turns.
    "Because you couldn't save him?" I
add. I am only curious, but I see her transform instantly. If she was bitter
before, she is stiffness and rage now.
    "And that would be none of your
business," she answers.
    "They have laws now," I say.
    One corner of Lily's mouth turns up. It is not
a smile. "Yes. They do. Entire acts passed by Congress. Scientists can't
burp without someone forming a committee to investigate them. Some even go to
prison. That in your head, too?"
    "No."
    "Didn't think so. I don't think they'd
want you to know about that. The problem is, some people think they're above
the law. There are plenty of good reasons why we have so much regulation."
    "Like?"
    She seems almost amused by the tone of my
challenge, surprised, maybe, that I would even question her. I watch her draw
up, becoming larger than the Lily I have seen, looking like she is prepared to
take me on and a dozen others, too, if necessary.
    "Engineering corn to resist pests wiped
the original species from the face of the planet. Laws are too late for
that," she says, her eyes drilling into me. "And a simple thing like
overusing antibiotics created a strain of bacteria so deadly it killed my
husband and a quarter of the world's population. So that is —"
    "Were you?" I see the circular
thought she meant to hide from me.
    "What?"
    "Above the law. When you were a doctor.
Did you ever —"
    "Yes." I watch the stiffness of her
muscles drain away. "And I live with that every day of my life." She
turns to leave.
    "Lily," I say to stop her,
"did my grandfather — Did you— Was I
baptized?"
    "When she was two weeks old," she
says as she walks out the door. "We were her godparents." She is gone
and never looks back to see if I followed.
     
    Father Rico and Lily sit in the shade of a
pepper tree and swap stories. We have already toured the remnants of the
ancient mission garden where the two of them excitedly examined gnarled roots,
weeds, and what appear to be anemic orange trees that are bearing the tiniest
of pale fruit. Father Rico proudly proclaimed it the first nursery in
California, but the treasure for both of them lies in the seeds and DNA that
are left behind.
    Their voices rise and some words drift across
the expanse of the courtyard.
    "Pure."
    "Unadulterated."
    "Original seed."
    "Untouched DNA."
    If I strained I could hear it all, but I don't
really need more details than what Father Rico has already given me. He and
Lily are both members of the World Seed Preservation Organization, a group
committed to preserving original species of plants. Apparently there are few
pure species left, due to bio-engineering and cross-pollination. The wind, it
seems, isn't discriminatory in which kind of plant pollen it blows. Engineered
pollen blows just as easily as the original kind and infects all traditional
plants in its path. Now I know the deeper meaning to Lily's greenhouse. She and
Father Rico seem to see bioengineered plants as a time bomb, much like the Aureus epidemic. Their network of seed enthusiasts are out
to save the world. Saviors. Lily saved me once. I wonder how