Escape from Baghdad! (30 page)

“Guys, we should really try to find this OM cat,” Hoffman said. “I can't believe I've actually found some weapons of mass destruction.”

“You'll probably get a promotion for this,” Behruse said. “They'll make you general or something. I'll have to salute you probably.”
The Dog Boy moaned in the background, promising sexual favors to anyone who would let him out of the cell.

Log 15, Day 34, Al-Rashid, Parking Lot.
Office bugged. New male nurse and security guard surely Mukhabarat spies. Must warn Mazra. We must prepare to remove Taha from here. I can continue research on my own, perhaps with Dr. J's help. Will contact Nur, if necessary. This is too big for one person. Nobel Prizes for everyone! Except Mazra of course. I need some other human subjects to experiment on.

Log 19, Day 38, Al-Rashid, Parking Lot.
Long discussion with OM. Pretending to be his lackey. Need to make a move soon. Taha growing increasingly resistant to heavy tranks. He is recovering somewhat from earlier partial lobotomies. Incredible. OM offers key insights into telomerase creation enzymes. He has given me many notebooks. Appears to be translations. Medical notations are strange, even archaic. Annotations from some third person Geber. Also sections written entirely by Geber. A collaborative effort, clearly. OM is almost certainly a biomedical professional of no small power. He is finally taking me into his confidence, I think. Today he told me that he thinks of me like a son.

Log 21, Day 41, Al-Rashid, Bathroom.
Geber might be THE GEBER. Jabir Ibn Hayyan of Egypt, the ALCHEMIST. How old is this formula?? The notation matches alchemy notation of eighth century Cairo. How old is OM then?? This is incredible. Might be a hoax. But OM vouched for by the service. And Taha is living proof? PS librarian was very helpful. Must remember to thank him for references.

“Did you dudes know anything about this Geber guy?” Hoffman asked.

Behruse, who had stopped reading and was trying to make some coffee, did not answer.

“Geber lived in the eighth century AD, in Kufa,” Sabeen said absently. “He was reputedly the first and foremost alchemist, the Father of Alchemy. He also invented almost all of the alchemical instruments used throughout.”

“You think this is the same guy?”

“One of Geber's root interests was ‘
Tawkin
': the creation of artificial life. He was particularly renowned for trying to prolong a scorpion's life or to recreate one artificially. He probably succeeded,” Sabeen said. “Incidentally, there is another scientist called Pseudo-Geber, who anonymously published a lot of alchemical papers in Latin some 500 years after Geber's purported death. So perhaps he
did
manage to live for so long.”

“That's incredible!” Hoffman said. “How can you be so calm?”

“Hush, dear, I'm trying to read.”

Log 23, Day 44, Al-Rashid, Bathroom.
Geber notes are amazing. The man is a genius. I wonder if he still lives. He might have succeeded. This is the initial work done on this project, nearly 13 centuries ago. How old is Taha then? Who exactly is OM? Desperate to get OM blood sample, but no chance of that I fear. Do not want to tip him off about this line of speculation. Taha and OM both likely 13 centuries old. Could OM be original collaborator of Geber in development of telomerase project? OM also very interested in something called the Druze watch. Keeps wanting me to interrogate Taha on this subject. He has grown increasingly unhinged for results. Am certain OM plans to kill me after he gets what he wants.

“Woah, guys, this dude knows about the watch,” Hoffman said, “He's like the mastermind of the whole thing. We got to show this shit to Avi. Speaking of which, did Avi say anything about helping my boys?”

“Yes, I forgot to tell you,” Sabeen said. “He's gotten in touch with Salemi. Things should be taken care of soon.”

Log 29, Day 53, Al-Rashid, Public Ward 2.
Recovering from superficial injuries during break in. Remarkable luck! We were not ready to move, Mazra in particular was very reluctant. But what great luck! So many patients escaped! We smuggled Taha out, sedated, and then destroyed all his papers. I am the only man alive now who knows the full extent of this experiment. It is the greatest single scientific endeavor of human history, stretching over 14 centuries!

Log 29, Day 53, Safe House 1, Office.
Ahhh, finally I can write in peace. Met OM, explained breakout by Taha. Told him about the resistance to tranks and other drugs (which is true!). OM was very agitated. He almost smashed the little olive tree. I am on pain of death now. Have to be very careful. Am sending notes to Nur so that some aspect of my research survives. But not the deep end of it, of course. Dr. J knows now. Need his help for the more complex genetic work. How did Geber perform these tests without modern technology?? What a mind! I am no longer sure about Nobel Prizes. This work should not be revealed to the public, maybe. Is it possible to live forever? Geber, at least, added a few hundred years to his life, if not more. Same for Taha. OM, I am sure, is old as sin. I can feel it. The truth is at my fingertips. If Geber and the OM discovered this through alchemy, surely modern
science can reverse engineer it. Imagine the work I could achieve with 200 years more?