Read Online Reaping The Harvest (Harvest Trilogy, Book 3) by Michael R. Hicks - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Michael R. Hicks
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legitimate.”
“What did they find?”
“The CDC concluded that it was a psychological disorder, but another study published by a dermatology research group determined that it wasn’t, that there was clinical validation that it was a real disease based on analysis of one of Morgellons’ hallmark symptoms. Look at this.” Naomi brought up a web browser with images that, to Morgan, looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
“Patients often suffer some clinical symptoms like chronic fatigue or mood swings, which are typical of a wide range of ailments,” Naomi explained, “along with a sensation of bugs crawling or biting under the skin, which has been associated with some skin conditions. But these skin lesions are a unique symptom.” She pointed to a few of the images, which showed areas of skin on different patients that ranged from small lesions, as if the patient had scratched open bad mosquito bites, to large ulcerated patches.
“That’s horrific,” Morgan said.
“It is, but this is the strangest thing.” She called up another set of images that showed strange, twisted fibers in a variety of colors. Some were in single strands, while others were clustered together. Some looked like fuzzy cotton balls. Others were individual twisted threads. “These tiny fibrous structures are found in the lesions. There’s been a lot of research to figure out what they are, but the dermatological study demonstrated that they aren’t implanted or embedded. The fibers originate from the skin’s epithelial cells.”
“So it’s growing out of the skin of the patients?”
“Exactly.” Naomi sat back. “The interesting coincidence is that there’s a lot of anecdotal evidence that Morgellons is related to or caused by genetically modified organisms. No one’s been able to conclusively prove it, but in the context of what’s going on around us, it’s not so easy to dismiss a possible link. But this,” she tapped a few keys, and another pair of images came up on the screen, “is no coincidence. On the left is what’s alleged to be an electron microscope image of a cross-section of one of these Morgellons fibers from a young female patient. The one on the right is from a fiber bundle in a harvesters’s skeletal structure.”
“My God.” Morgan leaned closer, staring at the two images. His heart began to pound in his chest. “These are identical. Go back to the gene sequences.”
Naomi flipped back to the windows showing the two sets of DNA sequences. “Unfortunately,” she said, “this is the only data I’ve come across where the electron microscope image and the gene sequence data are correlated to a specific patient, and in my mind that correlation isn’t a hundred percent certain, because so many of these records aren’t properly sourced. But if it pans out…”
“This could be it,” Morgan said, his voice barely a whisper. Their greatest challenge in exploiting the harvester DNA was its complexity, with hundreds of times more base pairs than human DNA. Aside from the breakthrough Harmony Bates had made in identifying a sequence associated with harvester reproduction, the SEAL labs had been unsuccessful in their efforts to tie specific traits to the harvester genes. Even if the reproductive gene could somehow be disrupted, it still wouldn’t kill the current generation, only inhibit or, at best, prevent the reproduction of more. That was a vital goal, but it wasn’t what the president was hoping for. “If we were able to disrupt their skeletal structure…”
“It would change everything,” Naomi finished for him.
“But how did Morgellons come about?” He asked. “Was this an attempt by the harvesters to infect us directly, before they came up with the ploy to do it through our food?”
“There’s really no way of knowing,” Naomi told him. “Genes can be transferred from one organism to another. It’s quite common among bacteria, although not so much in
“What did they find?”
“The CDC concluded that it was a psychological disorder, but another study published by a dermatology research group determined that it wasn’t, that there was clinical validation that it was a real disease based on analysis of one of Morgellons’ hallmark symptoms. Look at this.” Naomi brought up a web browser with images that, to Morgan, looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
“Patients often suffer some clinical symptoms like chronic fatigue or mood swings, which are typical of a wide range of ailments,” Naomi explained, “along with a sensation of bugs crawling or biting under the skin, which has been associated with some skin conditions. But these skin lesions are a unique symptom.” She pointed to a few of the images, which showed areas of skin on different patients that ranged from small lesions, as if the patient had scratched open bad mosquito bites, to large ulcerated patches.
“That’s horrific,” Morgan said.
“It is, but this is the strangest thing.” She called up another set of images that showed strange, twisted fibers in a variety of colors. Some were in single strands, while others were clustered together. Some looked like fuzzy cotton balls. Others were individual twisted threads. “These tiny fibrous structures are found in the lesions. There’s been a lot of research to figure out what they are, but the dermatological study demonstrated that they aren’t implanted or embedded. The fibers originate from the skin’s epithelial cells.”
“So it’s growing out of the skin of the patients?”
“Exactly.” Naomi sat back. “The interesting coincidence is that there’s a lot of anecdotal evidence that Morgellons is related to or caused by genetically modified organisms. No one’s been able to conclusively prove it, but in the context of what’s going on around us, it’s not so easy to dismiss a possible link. But this,” she tapped a few keys, and another pair of images came up on the screen, “is no coincidence. On the left is what’s alleged to be an electron microscope image of a cross-section of one of these Morgellons fibers from a young female patient. The one on the right is from a fiber bundle in a harvesters’s skeletal structure.”
“My God.” Morgan leaned closer, staring at the two images. His heart began to pound in his chest. “These are identical. Go back to the gene sequences.”
Naomi flipped back to the windows showing the two sets of DNA sequences. “Unfortunately,” she said, “this is the only data I’ve come across where the electron microscope image and the gene sequence data are correlated to a specific patient, and in my mind that correlation isn’t a hundred percent certain, because so many of these records aren’t properly sourced. But if it pans out…”
“This could be it,” Morgan said, his voice barely a whisper. Their greatest challenge in exploiting the harvester DNA was its complexity, with hundreds of times more base pairs than human DNA. Aside from the breakthrough Harmony Bates had made in identifying a sequence associated with harvester reproduction, the SEAL labs had been unsuccessful in their efforts to tie specific traits to the harvester genes. Even if the reproductive gene could somehow be disrupted, it still wouldn’t kill the current generation, only inhibit or, at best, prevent the reproduction of more. That was a vital goal, but it wasn’t what the president was hoping for. “If we were able to disrupt their skeletal structure…”
“It would change everything,” Naomi finished for him.
“But how did Morgellons come about?” He asked. “Was this an attempt by the harvesters to infect us directly, before they came up with the ploy to do it through our food?”
“There’s really no way of knowing,” Naomi told him. “Genes can be transferred from one organism to another. It’s quite common among bacteria, although not so much in