Immortality Read Free

military surveillance birds. His work with the satellite data had led him to over fifty possible sites, eight of which had already turned out golden, and heavy with mats of COBIC-3.7. That he had found any mats at all was remarkable. His bacterium was a free-swimming creature that resembled a capsule with a tail on it. Why had they ended up tightly packed into clumps of floating dead? In some cases, the mats were dozens of feet long with populations reaching into the countless trillions.
    His fieldwork had uncovered the additional surprise that COBIC-3.7 was not as rare as originally theorized. His evidence showed that at one time COBIC had been a dominant species which had almost died out during the same extinction event as the dinosaurs. Mark was certain this line of investigation would earn him his second Nobel Prize. He was convinced the bacteria held an important clue to the mass extinctions of the Cretaceous period. He had formulated a theory that the dying off of his bacteria could have been one of the triggers of the extinction events . The tiny bugs could have been a vital link in ancient food chains; and without them, the greatest beasts of all had perished. By comparing fossil samples from different periods, his investigation had shown the bacteria were going through long cycles of population growth and decay, cycles measured in hundreds of millions of years. Mark believed that during the final cycle, it was the combined environmental strain of huge animals and climatic shifts that pushed COBIC-3.7 and other bacteria over the edge and took the dinosaurs with them.
    Up ahead of Mark, a student named Marie stopped walking to take a drink from her canteen. The weather was far too hot for October, but this had been an odd year of fires and floods and droughts. Global warming was catching up with them. Mark stared at her, imagining the flawless body he knew was hidden beneath her loose-fitting clothes. Marie was one of those blonde haired, blue eyed flowers that grew wild on the beaches of Southern California – in her case, Venice Beach. He had once seen her at the beach in a small bikini and roller-skates, and he’d never forgotten that heart stopping image.
    A mild shove came from behind. Mark stumbled half a step forward. Another of the gals had pushed him. “Get going, you dirty old man,” she said.
    Mark turned and stared at her. She had her hands on her hips and appeared stern, but there was a hint of a smile on her lips and in the corners of her eyes. The smile was contagious. Mark fought to keep a neutral expression.
    “You made me into what I am,” he said.
    “Don’t rub it in,” she said.
    “Love to... Your place or mine?”
    The girl puckered her lips into an air-kiss that said, not a chance. Her name was Gracy, and Mark was certain he was madly in love with her. They had shared his condo in Marina Del Rey for more than a year. Their relationship had been anything but simple. Gracy was strong-headed and wanted her way in everything. Mark was the same, except stronger and more stubborn.
    In the beginning, their relationship had been overheated. He was wild about her looks, and she was in lust with his mind and his fame. A year later, she had moved into his place. Gracy had made it clear that she wanted their living arrangement kept a secret at UCLA as much as Mark did. The sneaking around had been fun and had lasted for several months. But inevitably the word had spread, and now everyone in the department knew their secret. Gracy had been embarrassed by her newfound whispered notoriety. She was the grad-student who had bagged the infamous Professor, the most desirable faculty member on campus. She had tried to blame Mark for the leak, but they both knew the gossip had been spread by her girlfriends whom she’d sworn to secrecy.
    Some of the students were straggling behind. Mark slowed, giving them the opportunity to catch up. Gracy continued to walk at her own pace which was taking her out into the