The Immortalists Read Online Free PDF Page A

of genetics was still in its infancy, and the equipment available sometimes didn’t feel much more precise than the stone tools of humanity’s ancestors. If you wanted to know what genes contributed to a particular disease, you were still forced to compare the genetic structure of healthy people with sick ones, narrowing down the differences and applying statistics until you found a possible candidate.
    What Annette was trying to do was create a Rosetta stone that would allow her to read the currently unfathomable code of life. Her ideas were still in the very early stages, but if they were correct and could be fully developed, they had the potential to revolutionize the field of biology and to cure not only progeria but virtually every genetic disease ever identified.
    “Daddy?”
    Susie was looking up at him from the chair on the other side of the desk, trying not to let her paper-thin lips curl into a smile.
    “What is it, sweetie?”
    “I won.”
    He looked down at the board and frowned. “You must have cheated.”
    “It’s checkers! How can you cheat? I won fair and square, and now you have to come and read to me so I can go to sleep.”
    “I wish I could, but I have to work.”
    “But it’s nighttime. You don’t have to work during the nighttime. And it won’t take long. We’re reading Matilda . The chapters aren’t very long.”
    He let out a long breath. “I know. You’re right. But this is really important. Let’s make a date for tomorrow. You promised to show me how to use that Kinect thing on your video game, remember?”
    “Really?”
    “Of course, really. But this time I’m going to beat the pants off you.”
    She slid off her chair and went for the hallway, her bare feet slapping the cracked wood floor. “I’m gonna go tell Mom. Maybe she’ll want to play!”
    Richard returned his gaze to the computer screen and Annette Chevalier’s ghost. “Ha! Good luck with that.”

     
    Richard jerked upright at the sound of the quiet knock, unsure where he was until he managed to focus on Carly standing in the doorway. She was wearing one of his old college T-shirts, the bottom cutting across the tops of her long legs to reveal a hint of the pink panties beneath.
    “It’s almost midnight,” she said, coming around the desk and settling onto his lap. “When are you coming to bed?”
    “Sorry, I must have fallen asleep. I was going through the data Troy gave me.”
    She pressed a little closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder and letting her long hair fall down his back. “I’ve been thinking a lot about Annette. I mean, I didn’t know her very well, but it’s hard not to wonder what was going through her mind. She had so much—a healthy son, a beautiful home, a wonderful husband.”
    The comparison was obvious and a little depressing. “You’ve got the last one, though, right?”
    She smiled up at him. “A wonderful husband? I don’t know… I suppose I could have done worse.”
    “Did you get Susie off to bed OK?”
    “Yeah, but she was disappointed you didn’t read to her. You need to play that video game tomorrow.”
    “I told her I would.”
    “Yeah, but you also said you’d spend some time with her and Matilda .”
    “You’ve got to cut me some slack on that,” he said, pointing to the screen. “This is something I might be able to use to help her. But going through it and doing the thousand other things I have to do every day isn’t a nine-to-five job. It’s all gotten really complicated.”
    She didn’t respond, and he knew she was building to something. He’d always been a little jealous of her ability to sink into philosophical calm while he was left to shout at the wind or hide in minute cellular details.
    But it also worried him. Was it really a natural talent for monklike fatalism or just a cleverly disguised version of the denial he saw in so many of the other parents?
    “I know how busy you are,” she said finally. “But you have to remember