Read Online No Time to Die by Kira Peikoff - Free Book Online Page B

neither do you,” he shot back, standing up. “You want to be one of their lab rats? You want to undergo tests and procedures you won’t understand, just so they can get a bunch of statistics and cold hard cash from new grants? They don’t care about you, the human being—only you, the DNA!” He tugged at his stiff white collar and sat back down with a sigh.
    â€œYour dad has a point,” her mother remarked. She rubbed a fraying thread on her blue cotton dress. “We just want to protect you, sweetie. Who knows what you’d be getting yourself into?”
    Zoe shook her head at the room’s soft Oriental area rug, the rug that had padded many a fall during her earliest years. “But I don’t believe it. I can’t believe Dr. Carlyle and his colleagues are bad.”
    â€œYou’re still so innocent,” her father said. “Just like a child. You don’t know any better.”
    A cold sweat came over her. She looked at Gramps.
    â€œI don’t think you’re hearing her,” he cut in. “What did Dr. Carlyle tell you, dear? What would the next steps be?”
    â€œHe said they would sequence my genome,” she whispered. “That they could maybe figure out the cause of aging once and for all, and then possibly be able to control it at will.”
    Gramps raised his eyebrows at her parents. “That’s a pretty solemn statement. Are you prepared to turn your nose up at it?”
    â€œSilas,” Stephen said. “Cut the hype. Zoe can’t be trusted to make these kinds of decisions for herself. Our job is to protect her.”
    â€œYour job,” Gramps corrected, “is to respect her. She may still biologically be a child, but she has more years under her belt than any fourteen-year-old I know. She’s not disabled. She should be allowed to make up her own mind.”
    â€œThank you,” Zoe muttered, looking to her parents. “Are you going to physically restrain me?”
    â€œLook, it’s not that we want to stop you from being independent,” her father said, getting up again to pace. “We just want you to be safe. Who knows what will happen if all the wackos out there find out about this?”
    â€œI’ll be fine!”
    â€œI wish we could believe that. And I’m sorry this is happening to you. It must be terrifying. Your mother’s right. The money doesn’t matter. You do.”
    â€œMy health matters, but so does my happiness. Please, Dad. All I want is to grow up and be normal. This research is my only chance.”
    â€œBut do you realize what a can of worms you’d be opening? You’re talking about scientists trying to fundamentally alter our genetic makeup. Like Frankenstein. This isn’t something to mess around with.”
    â€œBut don’t you see it could be a good thing? Maybe you could live longer, postpone your old age—”
    Her mother shook her head. “We’re supposed to get old and die, to clear out for the next generation. That’s the natural order of life.”
    â€œSo you’d choose death over life, just because living longer is unnatural? So is chemo, but that saved your ovaries!”
    â€œThat’s different,” her mother said sharply. “Cancer is a pathology. Aging is normal.”
    â€œAging is the leading cause of death in the civilized world,” Gramps interjected. “Just because it’s always been that way doesn’t make it desirable.”
    â€œThe way I see it, nature made you special,” her father declared, ignoring him. “It’s not up to us to go against it, or to question why.”
    â€œBut it is, Dad. Otherwise how can we ever make any progress?”
    â€œSmart girl.” Gramps patted her hand and Zoe noticed the pained look in her mother’s eyes, which had nothing to do with nature and everything to do with a jealousy she would never admit. Gramps noticed it,