Dr. Narcejac-Boileau explained that while the strong form of the gene produced dictators, the milder heterozygous form produced a "moderate, quasi-totalitarian urge" to tell other people how to run their lives, generally for their own good or for their own safety.
"Significantly, on psychological testing, individuals with the mild form will express the view that other people need their insights, and are unable to manage their own lives without their guidance. This form of the gene exists among politicians, policy advocates, religious fundamentalists, and celebrities. The belief complex is manifested by a strong feeling of certainty, coupled with a powerful sense of entitlement - and a carefully nurtured sense of resentment toward those who don't listen to them."
At the same time, he urged caution in interpreting the results. "Many people who are driven to control others merely want everybody to be the same as they are. They can't tolerate difference."
This explained the team's paradoxical finding that individuals with the mild form of the gene were also the most tolerant of authoritarian environments with strict and invasive social rules. "Our study shows that the gene produces not only a bossy person, but also a person willing to be bossed. They have a distinct attraction to totalitarian states." He noted that these people are especially responsive to fashions of all kinds, and suppress opinions and preferences not shared by their group.
Josh said, "'Especially responsive to fashions'...Is this a joke?"
"No, they're serious. It's marketing," Tom Weller said. "Today everything is marketing. Read the rest."
Although the French team stopped short of claiming that the mild form of the master gene represented a genetic disease - an "addiction to belonging," as Narcejac-Boileau phrased it - they nevertheless suggested that evolutionary pressures were moving the human race toward ever-greater conformity.
"Unbelievable," Josh said. "These guys in Toulouse hold a press conference and the whole world runs their story about the 'master gene'? Have they published in a journal anywhere?"
"Nope, they just held a press conference. No publication, and no mention of publication."
"What's next, the slave gene? Looks like crap to me," Josh said. He glanced at his watch.
"You mean, we hope it's crap."
"Yeah, that's what I mean. We hope it's crap. Because it gets in the way of what BioGen's announcing, that's for sure."
"You think Diehl will delay the announcement?" Tom Weller asked.
"Maybe. But Diehl doesn't like waiting. And he's been nervous ever since he got back from Vegas."
Josh tugged on his rubber gloves, put on safety goggles and his paper face-mask, then picked up the six-inch-long compressed-air cylinder, and screwed on the vial of retrovirus. The whole apparatus was the size of a cigar tube. Next, he fitted a tiny plastic cone on top of that, pushing it in place with his thumb. "Grab your PDA."
And they pushed through the swinging door, into the animal quarters.
The strong,slightly sweet odor of the rats was a familiar smell. There were five or six hundred rats here, all neatly labeled in cages stacked six feet high, on both sides of an aisle that ran down the center of the room.
"What're we dosing today?" Tom Weller said.
Josh read off a string of numbers. Tom checked his PDA listing of numerical locations. They walked down the aisle until they found the cages with that day's numbers. Five rats in five cages. The animals were white, plump, moving normally. "They look okay. This is the second dose?"
"Right."
"Okay, boys," Josh said. "Let's be nice for Daddy." He opened the first cage, and quickly grabbed the rat inside. He held the animal by the body, forefingers expertly gripping the neck, and quickly fitted the small plastic cone over the rat's snout. The animal's breath clouded the cone. A brief hiss as the virus was released; Josh held the mask in place for ten seconds, while the rat inhaled. Then he released the animal back into the cage.
"One down."
Tom Weller tapped his stylus on the PDA, then moved to the next cage.
The retrovirushad been bioengineered to carry a gene known asACMPD 3N7, one of the family of genes controlling aminocarboxymuconate paraldehyde decarboxylase. Within BioGen they called it the maturity gene. When activated,ACMPD 3N7 seemed to modify responses of the amygdala and cingulate gyrus in the brain. The result was an acceleration of maturational behavior - at least in rats. Infant female rats, for example, would show precursors of maternal behavior, such as rolling feces in their cages, far earlier than usual. And BioGen had preliminary evidence for the maturational gene action in rhesus monkeys, as well.
Interest in the gene centered on a potential link to neurodegenerative disease. One school of thought argued that neurodegenerative illnesses were a result of disruptions of maturational pathways in the brain.
If that were true - ifACMPD 3N7 were involved in, say, Alzheimer's disease, or another form of senility - then the commercial value of the gene would be enormous.
Josh had moved on to the next cage and was holding the mask over the second rat when his cell phone went off. He gestured for Tom to pull it from his shirt pocket.
Weller looked at the screen. "It's your mother," he said.
"Ah hell," Josh said. "Take over for a minute, would you?"
"Joshua, whatare you doing?"
"I'm working, Mom."
"Well, can you stop?"
"Not really - "
"Because we have an emergency."
Josh sighed. "What did he do this time, Mom?"
"I don't know," she said, "but he's in jail, downtown."