The Runaway Clock

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THE RUNAWAY CLOCK August 2034. Scientists at a research clinic in Baltimore study the aging process. Dr. George Buell, department head, has met a violent death. He and his much younger wife, Jill, collected children with progeria (premature old age) to study and treat. Jill and biologist Ray Lindsay (who tells the story) are secretly in love. Flash back a year. Ray and Buell agree to join forces, and Ray brings his research team to Buell’s lab. He and Jill meet. He isolates Senexin, a mutant protein that seems to cause the children’s progeria. Buell discovers, but doesn’t disclose, the budding love affair. Shift to Tarpon Springs, Florida, where a retired colleague donated his estate for studies on oldsters. Of special interest here is spring water that protects salamanders from x-ray. Buell thinks it might also retard aging and plans to test it on the children. He and Ray drink it to check for toxicity. Ray is deeply troubled about his love affair and Buell’s erratic, unethical behavior. They clash. Ray finds himself aging rapidly. As the year unfolds, horror and suspense mount through amazing discoveries, a vicious crime, and Buell’s shocking, tragic demise . . .