“Analyze its DNA,” I replied. “The illumination is on skin. I’d like to know how old the skin is— and the type of creature it came from.”
“I just read about this kind of research,” Jonathan said. “They’re doing mtDNA analysis on medieval books. They hope it will help to date them and determine where they were made.”
Mitochondrial DNA recorded what an organism had inherited from all its maternal ancestors.
“Maybe you could pull those articles for your colleagues, in case they’re not as well read as you are.” Matthew looked pleased that Jonathan was up to date on the literature. “But we’ll be extracting nuclear DNA as well as mtDNA.”
“That’s impossible,” Shotgun protested. “The parchment has gone through a chemical process to turn skin into a writing surface. Both its age and the changes it underwent during manufacture would damage the DNA—if you could even extract enough to work with.”
“It’s difficult, but not impossible,” Matthew corrected. “I’ve worked extensively with old, fragile, and damaged DNA. My methods should work with this sample, too.”
There were excited looks around the room as the implications of the two research plans sank in.
Both projects represented the kind of work that all scientists hoped to do, no matter what stage of their career they were in.
“You don’t think cows or goats gave their hide for that page, do you, Dr. Bishop?” Beaker’s uneasy voice quieted the room.
“No. I think it was a daemon, a human, a vampire, or a witch.” I was pretty sure it wasn’t human skin but couldn’t rule it out entirely.
“Human?” Scully’s eyes popped at the idea. The prospect of other creatures being flayed to make a book didn’t seem to alarm her.
“Anthropodermic bibliopegy,” Mulder whispered. “I thought it was a myth.”
“Technically it’s not anthropodermic bibliopegy,” I said. “The book this came from isn’t just bound in creature remains—it’s completely constructed from it.”
“Why?” Bones asked. “Why not?” Daisy replied enigmatically. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Matthew said, plucking the page from my fingers. “We’re scientists. The whys come after the whats.”
“I think that’s enough for today,” Chris said. “You all look like you need a break.”
“I need a beer,” Jonathan muttered.
“It’s a bit early in the day, but I completely understand. Just remember—you talk, you walk,” Chris said sternly. “That means no talking to each other outside these walls either. I don’t want anyone to overhear.”
“If someone did overhear us talking about witches and vampires, they’d just think we were playing D&D,” Xbox said. Game Boy nodded.
“No. Talking,” Chris repeated.
The door swooshed open. A tiny woman in a purple miniskirt, red boots, and a black T-shirt that read STAND BACK—I’M GOING TO TRY SCIENCE walked through. Miriam Shephard had arrived.
“Who are you?” Chris demanded.
“Your worst nightmare—and new lab manager. Hi, Diana.” Miriam pointed to the can of soda.
“Whose is that?”
“Mine,” Chris said.
“No food or drink in the lab. That goes double for you, Roberts,” Miriam said, jabbing her finger in Chris’s direction.
“Human Resources didn’t tell me they were sending an applicant,” Beaker said, confused.