Chapter 286: FRB (14)

“TALENs are gene scissors that were used before the development of Cas9. While investigating why patients in Nicaragua had such a high rate of genetic mutations, I deduced that artificial genetic mutations by TALENs had occurred.”

Young-Joon’s attack was brutal.

“Naturally, DNA double-stranded break events occur at a much lower frequency than what was found in patients with genetic conditions in Nicaragua. There were a minimum of one hundred eight double-stranded break events, 2117.6 events on average, and a maximum of three thousand two hundred forty-six events

“In cells, the frequency of DNA double-stranded break events is significantly low, but in the bodies of patients, these events occurred at least one hundred eighty times at the embryonic stage, with an average of 2117.6 occurrences. In the case of the patients with the most genetic mutations, there were as many as three thousand two hundred forty-six breaks. This can be proven through indel pattern analysis.”

Young-Joon began to literally bombard the courtroom with vast amounts of data. He tried to avoid technical jargon as much as possible, but there were some words that he couldn’t translate or simplify, which required lengthy explanations.

The judges had studied the written reports submitted extensively in advance for this trial, which was one of its kind. They had a fairly good understanding, but Young-Joon’s explanation was still hard to digest.

“After the double strands of DNA are cut, a DNA break repair system called non-homologous end joining is triggered at that location. This system results in random insertions or deletions of DNA bases called indels.

“I traced all of those patterns and identified thousands of mutations that were all caused by double-stranded breaks in the DNA. I believe the Nicaraguan government submitted all the indel data as evidence. It is certainly not a natural event to have such a high concentration of indels in the embryo stage,” Young-Joon said.

“I believe that someone genetically modified the patients when they were embryos, and I speculate that TALENs were used to cut and manipulate the double strand of DNA because it was the most effective genetic scissors available at the time.

“And if the DNA that expresses TALENs was introduced into the patient, I thought it could be extracted now. The Nicaraguan government would have submitted the TALEN DNA information extracted from each patient’s blood sample.”

Young-Joon explained the data regarding TALENs that was submitted.

“The DNA sequence that codes for TALENs is the entire motif that occurs below the three hundredth base pair. The DNA sequence that precedes it is a promoter called pCMV, a sequence that is artificially put in to activate certain DNA sequences. This means that TALENs were artificially introduced into the embryo and used to manipulate certain genes, resulting in thousands of mutations caused by the induced DNA breaks,” Young-Joon said.

“But there’s no evidence that the gene manipulation by TALENs occurred at Groom Lake!” Alphonse shouted from his seat, even though it wasn’t his turn to speak.

Cold sweat was trickling down his cheeks.

“Yes, there is,” Young-Joon replied. “There were only a few biology labs in Nicaragua sophisticated enough to use TALENs, and they all had no record of purchasing it from outside sources. Groom Lake Air Force Base’s purchases were all eliminated, but...”

Young-Joon picked up a plasmid transportation record from Professor George Thompson’s lab.

“This data was sent to me by Professor George Thompson’s lab at Harvard Medical School. TALENs have only been sent to Nicaragua once, and it was personally donated by Professor Thompson. It says that he donated three types of plasmids for research purposes to Groom Lake Air Force Base in the northeastern part of Nicaragua. These plasmids are used to create TALENs and to package them into viruses.”

Young-Joon went on.

“And this virus is used to infect animal cells. It works just as well on human embryos. If Groom Lake purchased TALENs, which is the only record of TALENs coming into Nicaragua, and there are so many patients born in Nicaragua who were genetically engineered by TALENs, is there any other possibility here besides the fact that Groom Lake engineered their genes?”

“...”

Alphonse’s expression hardened.

“If this was the UFC, the referee would have stopped him...” Campbell whispered to Harris.

But Young-Joon’s attack wasn't done yet.

“Also, another common factor between these patients is that they are all orphans. Why? When the high concentrations of random genetic manipulation accumulate, the biomolecules released from their body during development act as antigens, posing a risk to their own health as well as their mothers.

“As Groom Lake would have wanted to obtain genetically engineered humans for research purposes, they probably chose to kill the mother and spare the fetus, and then abandoned them in an orphanage.”

“That is ridiculous!”

“At Kukra Hill right now, about twenty percent of the Nicaraguan population have come in to be examined or have sent their blood to be tested remotely. We’ve compared the number of short tandem repeats in their blood samples to trace back family relationships and build a family tree with the orphaned patients.”

“...”

“I wasn’t able to finish this work, but my colleagues notified me that they had finished it. Was this data also submitted by the Nicaraguan government?”

“It was received and admitted as evidence,” said Judge Pèter.

“Thank you. If you look at that material, the patients are all children out of wedlock, and there are no records of obstetric care at the time the patients were born. But the fact that the patients were born and survived in such a critical situation means that someone provided the mothers with a fairly high level of medical care until the babies developed,” Young-Joon said.

Then, the Nicaraguan defense counsel stepped forward.

“Our government located and spoke to the families of the deceased mothers, and we have confirmed that the mothers were last seen traveling to Groom Lake Air Force Base.”

“...”

Alphonse now realized that it was impossible to safely remove himself from this fight.

His only option was to at least acknowledge it. He had to retreat, appealing to the historical context of the Cold War and arguing that, at the very least, he didn’t kill those babies but entrusted them to orphanages to be raised. The only way to reduce the punishment was to say they did everything they could to save the mothers, although it was inevitable, and that they were not brutal mass murderers.

“...”

But when his thinking got to this, Alphonse realized that this was impossible, as he did become a brutal mass murderer in the end. Isaiah Franklin and her mother, who were the only people to escape the lab, were here.

“I’m one of the children born through genetic engineering. I am not an orphan, and I’m one of the few witnesses who remember the end of that lab,” said Isaiah on the stand. “On the day the Cold War ended, soldiers from Groom Lake Air Force Base stormed the lab, killed everyone left there, and burned the evidence to get rid of it.”

“This is a CIA document from that time. It’s only partially written, and it’s not very detailed, but it outlines the research at Groom Lake Air Force Base and describes the termination of the research,” said U.S. defense counsel. “This is not just a medical scandal; it's an actual murder. It was an organized act of murder carried out by the U.S. administration, which has a duty to protect its citizens, against its own people and the people of Nicaragua.”

After being pummeled by Isaiah and the U.S. government’s defense counsel, it was finally Alphonse’s turn to speak. He barely made it to the witness stand after persuading the judges and coaxing the defense counsel. His original intention was to argue that Groom Lake had nothing to do with the genetic manipulation by TALENs and that he wasn’t responsible.

“Mr. Lofair, you were the director of the genomics lab at Groom Lake Air Force Base. Please testify about the case,” said the judge.

“...”

But Alphonse couldn’t say anything. It was like his mind had gone blank.

*

While the trial was going on in the Netherlands, there were two huge things that were going on in Washington.

One was the U.S. prosecution indicting officials of the Heagan administration. Although not many of them were still alive, there were still quite a few key figures, such as Congressman Norton. The other was dealing with the President’s proposed amendments to the Federal Reserve Act in Congress.

There were three key issues. The first was to make all operating profits of the Federal Reserve a part of the Treasury Department; the second was for the board of directors of the Federal Reserve to serve a four-year term and be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate; the third was to transfer the authority to set interest rates and issue dollars, previously held by the Federal Reserve, to the Treasury Department.

In effect, it stripped the Federal Bank of its power, essentially leaving them only the title. Lofair’s banks, including Chenover Bank, still owned the Federal Bank, but they couldn’t make any profits from it and had to go through Congress to participate in the management.

There were a lot of politicians in both Congress and the Senate who Lofair had an influence on, but they were quickly aligning themselves up differently. They all knew what was happening in the Netherlands.

‘Alphonse is going to serve time.’

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

It didn’t matter if he was more powerful than the president; he wasn’t going to be able to get out of this. He was a civilian and had no way to avoid responsibility. Chenover Bank, which funded most of the initial costs of creating and running Groom Lake Air Force Base, could be fined an astronomical amount.

Lofair’s power would be severely diminished, and if the Federal Bank was taken away from them, they were bound to fall.

While the first trial was going on and Young-Joon was treating Isaiah, Campbell was busy meeting with congressmen. He appealed for financial independence, arguing that this was America’s miraculous opportunity to become a capitalist democracy. Or, he blackmailed certain members of Congress for their association with the Heagan administration.

The results of this were now coming to light. The amendment to the Federal Reserve Act was going to pass. Almost all the senators had sided with Campbell.

*

“This grand slam is amazing...” Park Joo-Hyuk exclaimed as he watched the news of the International Criminal Court’s ruling on TV. “I can’t believe he got Lofair...”

“Mr. Park, why don’t you stop watching TV and get to work?” said Kim In-Young, an attorney in A-GenBio’s legal team.

She held out a stack of papers.

“Oh, yes, I should, but I have something else to do.”

Park Joo-Hyuk took out his phone and reread the text message. It was from Young-Joon in the morning.

[I’m adopting a kid. She’s nine years old and will have Swedish citizenship. Can you find out how I can obtain a foreigner registration card and visa for her to live in Korea?]