The Third Clone

By Robby Graham

Two brothers, who grew up in Boston, competed with each other in their respected fields of expertise. Myers, the older brother, was a genius in genetic engineering, and Phillip, the younger brother, was an archaeological genius in his own right. Each had two doctorate degrees from two different universities in Massachusetts. But Myers lost his job for improperly experimenting with special genetic engineering for which his university disapproved. And he just couldn’t stand the idea that his little brother was getting all the media attention after a discovery in Israel that could turn the entire religious world upside down. Although significant, Phillip decided to hide the proof of his discovery from the world. After all, he, too, wanted more proof so he would know for sure. Myers desperately wanted to prove to the world his genetic discovery was revolutionary. So he decided to try his genetic engineering theory out if only he could grab some of the fragments of proof Phillip secretly brought back from Israel.

What happened next was a fictional adventure of what might happen if the world of science crosses paths with the world of the spiritual realm. What if indeed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781662400223

Book preview

Chapter 1

The Background

Phillip was very meticulous in brushing the sand away from the area. It was extremely hot, and his clothes were soaked with sweat. He had been working on this one section for over four hours now, and the intense concentration had given him a headache. It was getting late, and all the other workers had retired for the evening except Claire, Jez, and himself. But they pressed on and refused to quit until they knew for sure. They felt that somehow they were getting close. It seemed Phillip had been working for this moment his entire life. His eyes started burning as the sweat poured down his face. Just as he felt he had discovered something, he heard Jez yell, Dr. Wilson, I found something! I found something!

Dr. Phillip Wilson had grown up in Boston as the son of a very ambitious and highly successful local businessman. He had an older brother named Myers, who had also become a doctor but in a completely different field. Although they considered themselves reasonably close as brothers, there always seemed to be a bit of silent competition between them.

Phillip’s father grew up as a poor country boy from a small town in the Deep South known as Pascagoula, Mississippi, but his mother was of prim and proper Bostonian origin. Phillip’s mother and father were both in the Marine Corp during the Vietnam War. It was in 1966, and they were stationed together in Saigon. Bob Wilson and Lois Stapleton met at the officer’s club when a mutual service buddy, Robert Wright, introduced them. After dating a few times and discovering the dangers of free travel within the city, they loved to go dance the jitterbug their parents had taught them to Glen Miller’s big band sound at the officer’s club. Between Bob’s thick Southern drawl and Lois’s Boston Pac the caa accent, it was a wonder they could even understand each other. But it wasn’t long before they knew they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. After the war, they got married and moved back to Boston.

Lois Mary Stapleton had grown up in Everett, Massachusetts, a little suburb of Boston, where her father owned and operated a small ice cream parlor. She lost her mother during her early teenage years, and her father soon remarried. Lois was very spiritual and kind, but the loss of her mother and the adjustments of a new stepmother made her somewhat bitter. Her first opportunity to leave home came when she turned eighteen and decided to join the Marines, where she eventually met Bob Wilson.

Bob and Lois were married in 1967, and after being discharged from the Marines, they returned to the Boston area. Bob worked his way up in the corrugated box business, starting first as a salesman. He was a natural but quickly moved up to supervisor and finally president. Bob drove the business to new heights and new sales records as the owner promised partnership was just around the corner. Eight years had come and gone before Bob realized partnership would never happen. He mortgaged everything he had and borrowed additional money from friends to start his own business. It wasn’t very long before Bob had become so successful that he was able to build, own, and operate six corrugated box businesses throughout the New England area. He was well thought of in the community and was on the board of directors at one of the local banks. He always had the attitude that if you’re going to work hard, then you should also play hard. He had a bit of a drinking problem, but it never seemed to interfere with his work or business sense. He was always the center of attention at parties where people loved to hear him talk. He never lost his thick Southern accent, and their circle of friends always joked that Lois was the only person in Boston that actually knew how to cook grits. Bob loved to poke fun too and would always fire back, saying, Yeah, but by the sound of it, who in their right mind would ever order a frappé?

The Wilsons were not married long before their first child, Myers, was born in 1968 and then their second child, Phillip, in 1970. The Wilsons were a typical family, attending all the normal family functions, such as school plays, baseball games, and band concerts. Phillip had always been the one with both feet firmly planted on the ground while Myers walked around with his head in the clouds most of the time. Needless to say, they were very different, as are most siblings. Phillip always seemed to have his head buried deep into history books and loved to visit museums while Myers seemed to be fascinated with all areas of the scientific world. Boston was a wonderful place to allow both boys the opportunity to excel in these two areas.

Myers was not much of a people person and acted a bit withdrawn. This caused his parents to worry and often think there was something wrong. During his high school years, he spent much of his time in his room, working on math problems and reading chemistry books. He always made excellent grades, and although selected valedictorian, he refused to write a speech. Needless to say, the honor was taken away and given to someone else. After graduation, he attended Boston College, where he pursued his love for chemistry and received his BS and MS degrees in only four years. Later, he went on to Harvard University, where he worked very hard in the areas of chemistry and physics in which he received two doctorate degrees.

Phillip was a delightful child, always happy, and never in any trouble. He was much closer to his mother than his father. Perhaps this was because he never liked to see his father drink.

When the brothers were fairly young, Mrs. Wilson developed asthma and just couldn’t breathe. One time, her breathing was so bad she ended up in the hospital. Lois was in and out of the hospital a number of times during the brothers’ youth. One afternoon, Bob and Phillip went to pay a visit to Lois, but this was at a time when they would not let children go up to the hospital rooms. So Phillip had to remain in the lobby or walk around out on the lawn somewhere. While he was out on the lawn, a tall dark thin man with sunken cheeks approached Phillip and asked if he had any spare change. The man was dressed in all black and almost looked like a replica of Abraham Lincoln. Phillip dug into his pocket and pulled out two quarters. Phillip handed the coins to the stranger, and all of a sudden, the stranger fell to his knees, shook Phillip’s hands, and thanked him profusely. This startled Phillip, but he knew the stranger meant no harm. Finally, Phillip was able to walk away from the stranger toward the hospital. When Phillip looked back at the stranger, he noticed a tear running down his cheek while he stared at his hands. He looked up and noticed his mother waving at him from her hospital window. Then, she blew him a kiss. Later in life, Phillip would often remember this moment. Two quarters and a blown kiss—worth almost nothing to anyone but him.

When Mrs. Wilson wasn’t having trouble with her asthma, she and Phillip would attend church every Sunday while his father and Myers seemed to be too exhausted from the efforts of the previous week to join them. Mr. Wilson said this was his day of rest, and that’s what God wanted too. It had become too much of a fight for Mrs. Wilson to get them to go with her and Phillip to church. One day, she simply stopped trying. Phillip had a true and deep abiding love for God, and, of course, the aspects of the Bible only satisfied his hunger for history even more.

Phillip was heavily involved in all areas of his school projects, which made him very popular with both the teachers and fellow students. Following Myers by only two years, Phillip had often been told how different he was from his brother as if he didn’t already know. He was elected class president every year. Although his grades were excellent too, he had to work at almost everything he did. The only subject he truly excelled in without trying was history. Perhaps this was because he loved it so much. Phillip’s ability to retain such obscure facts seemed to make his father very proud because he could just imagine Phillip continuing on and becoming an attorney. Mr. Wilson often said how great it would be to have both a doctor and a lawyer in the family. Perhaps this was because he could also imagine one day needing both.

After graduation, Phillip also attended Boston College and majored in history. He later attended the University of Massachusetts, where he received two doctorates as well, one in history and one in archaeology. This did not sit well with Mr. Wilson since he knew he’d lost his family lawyer, but he knew it was probably best for Phillip. Phillip was also extremely involved in a local church and became quite a biblical scholar. He even taught Sunday school and seemed to have a good rapport with the youth of the church. When Phillip and Myers were home from college to visit their parents, they would occasionally get into a great debate over the origin of man. Myers, being the older brother and the scientist in the family, would argue just for the fun of seeing Phillip get angry. Phillip felt he could handle anyone who didn’t believe, but he had no defense for someone who just didn’t care.

Myers eventually became a staff professor at Harvard University and specialized in genealogy, biotechnology, and DNA testing. Again, Mr. Wilson was not happy after spending all that money just for a guy to look through a microscope. Myers quickly became one of the most sought-after authorities on DNA forensic examinations and headed up a laboratory staff of eight fellow scientists. The FBI would often call on Myers to help solve some of the most bazaar murder mysteries on record. It was not unusual to have half his staff working on criminal cases for the government all at once rather than research for the university. The school really didn’t mind this because they viewed the laboratory as a profit center funding some of the less fortunate parts of the university. But Myers was not driven by money or motivated by fame but rather the science itself. He could often be found working on his pet projects until late evening or early morning with little regard for sleep.

One day, an overtired Myers was just walking around campus and ran into an extremely shy girl named Jane. Plain Jane. There’s just no other way to describe her. Jane was the librarian at the university. It’s a wonder, but somehow Myers and Jane found the time and normality to get married. It was easy to see, however, that his work was Myers’s true love. To Jane, an exciting evening was curling up with a good book or watching old reruns of Hawaii Five-O. Perhaps that’s not so bad; however, maybe that’s how someone could remain married to another person who was most likely married to his work.

One of the pet projects Myers kept very secret was regarding a new and revolutionary science called genetic engineering. Myers was fascinated by the concept that a perfect human duplicate could be produced genetically over and over again. From his point of view, he could only see good things coming from this new science, such as cloning the great minds of the world or creating human spare parts factories or, of course, immortality. Perhaps the lack of spirituality and the belief that when you die, you just simply turn into worm food gave Myers an incentive to find a solution to this problem. Although he was unable to see the concerns of others, the process of cloning was very controversial and often referred to as witchcraft or ungodly. The morals and ethics surrounding these issues were of great debate within the universities, the country, and the rest of the world. Legislation had not yet been established that provided acceptable guidelines for scientists interested in this new and exciting technology. A mutually agreed-upon five-year waiting period was established throughout the world, whereby no one was to create a human clone. Research was allowed to continue, but most of the scientific community kept their results hidden. The public was not to be aware of just how far along this new technology had advanced. As a matter of fact, whatever the public knew about this subject was actually extremely old news.

The possibilities relating to biotechnology and genetic engineering were enormous, but so were the pitfalls. Parents of diseased children were begging for increased research in this area in order to save their children from almost certain death. Others could see the possibilities of recreating the world’s most dangerous tyrants, such as Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, to mention only a few. What were we to do if several Hitlers were scattered throughout the world at the same time with the same sick mindset of the original? Myers couldn’t view this as a problem because he thought if ten Hitlers were let loose on the world, there could also be eleven General Pattons to take care of the problem. Never mind those of us caught in the middle. Myers never stopped to think that if this new science had to be kept behind closed doors, could it also be possible that it was wrong?

Like his brother, Phillip became a staff professor at the University of Massachusetts and started teaching classes in archaeology. He received grants to go on expeditions all around the world in search of the treasures of the past. While on an expedition somewhere in Turkey, looking for Noah’s ark, he fell in love with a girl named Claire, who also shared his interests in archaeology. Claire was also a biblical scholar, so she and Phillip seemed perfect for each other. After they were married, both were able to work and teach at the university.

Also, like Myers, they buried themselves in their work, but somehow it was different. They never excluded each other from their day and often would schedule a little midday picnic somewhere on campus. They were deeply in love and given their common interests would sometimes stay up all night, discussing the things their research had revealed. To Phillip and Claire, every day presented a new and different angle on some kind of historical event. Their pursuit of the truth often conflicted with the public’s idea and memories concerning what was understood as a historical event embedded in concrete. It didn’t matter whether they were researching past presidents, world leaders, conquerors, or mysteries of the Bible. Phillip and Claire seemed to have the uncanny ability to uncover something new and different about the situation. They were not however very interested in current events except when it somehow interfered with their travel to some obscure part of the world.

Phillip was one who did not like conflict at all. He always wanted to smooth things over and make everyone happy. He often used the phrase Live and let live and was concerned about the rights of others more than himself. While driving, he was the kind of person who would go out of his way and make four right turns to get to a traffic light, rather than crossing traffic to make one left turn.

Claire, on the other hand, was a true scrapper. Their common interest in historical events was where it seemed to stop. She was always ready for a dogfight, and even though she had strong spiritual convictions, she had a little problem with her mouth. She would say to Phillip, What the hell are you doing? Just make the damn left turn!

Watch your mouth! God is listening! Phillip would say.

Hey, nobody’s perfect, just forgiven! Claire would fire back.

She had to use this phrase fairly often, given the spicy nature of her mouth. Phillip would always try to make her