Coleman held up a small white packet about half the size of a business card and less than half an inch thick. “According to their clinical records, something like this is intended to be surgically implanted just beneath the skin of each Fixer. And this is an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene pouch that contains hundreds of millions of cells.”

“What type of cells?” asked Church.

“Well, you see, boss, that’s the really interesting part. RNA-Seq showed that they were most likely chromaffin cells. Those are the cells in the adrenal cortex that are responsible for the release of catecholamines.”

“Cate…?” began Wilson, fumbling with it. Coleman stepped right in.

“Catecholamines are the molecules responsible for the body’s fight-or-flight response, which was interesting by itself. But when we dug down and did whole genome sequencing, we found a number of genetically inserted tet-on promoters. Specifically, they were attached to inserted versions of DOPA decarboxylase, dopamine β-hydroxylase, and phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase.”

“I have no idea what that means.”

Coleman, who was in gear and very excited, tried to scale it down, but he was a lab rat and very rarely had to explain these things to ordinary mortals. “Tet-on promoters are a little bit of DNA that can be used to control when a gene is expressed. Think of it as a light switch for a gene. But this switch is flipped by adding tetracycline. It has been used in biotechnology for a long time, but this isn’t just some off-the-shelf version. This is highly specialized to turn on very fast and make huge amounts of the genes. And the genes they control are the genes in the synthetic pathway to turn L-Dopa into norepinephrine and adrenaline.”

“But … but…,” fumbled Nikki, “why put the cells in the pouches? Why not just inject them somewhere into the PMC?”

“Because the pouch protects the cells from the immune system of the person it is implanted into, so there is no rejection,” explained Coleman. “The pouch lets small molecules and liquid back and forth, but it doesn’t allow cells in or out. There is a clinical trial underway right now where similar technology is being used to encapsulate insulin-secreting cells to treat type 1 diabetes. However, in this case, they are using the pouches as small bioreactors to make huge amounts of norepinephrine and adrenaline but only in the presence of tetracycline. L-Dopa is a synthetic precursor for those hormones, so that makes sense, too.”

“Okay,” Nikki said. “I think I actually understood that part.”

“Still clinging on by my fingernails,” Wilson said under his breath.

“So the capsules under the skin are filled with cells that have been engineered so that the presence of this antibiotic causes them to create huge amounts of norepinephrine and adrenaline. The combination of those two hormones is what is believed to cause hysterical strength. That’s the kind of thing where a mom lifts a car off her baby or whatever.”