The first human patient was a ninety-three-year-old billionaire named Silas Vane, who had more money than arteries. He died of a massive stroke on a Tuesday. By Thursday, he was walking. By Friday, he was giving a press conference. His skin had the faint, oily sheen of a bowling ball. His smile was a fraction of a second too slow. But he was here .
“Dr. Thorne. The contemporary era does not fear death. It fears irrelevance. You have made us the most relevant thing on this planet. Do not be afraid. You are not being destroyed.” contemporary polymer chemistry
Aris locked himself in his sub-basement, the same room where Rat 47 had taken its first synthetic breath. He held a single vial of the original solvent—a depolymerization agent he’d designed as a fail-safe. But as he raised the syringe to his own neck, the lights flickered. By Friday, he was giving a press conference