Since Daniel starts out as such a selfish person, you will need a very powerful emotional scene to make it believable. It might be difficult, but it can be done.
Have you seen the movie Schindler's List? In one scene, Schindler is looking over a city being ravaged by German troops. Amongst the sea of black and white faces, there is one little girl--probably four to six years old--wearing a bright red coat. Schindler watches her, tracking her progress through the troops, gunshots, and smoke of the town. He loses track of her, and we don't find out what happened to her until later, when Schindler spots a bright red coat amidst a pile of dead bodies. This scene marks the turning point for Schindler, and it was done simply by humanizing the war.
Now back to your Daniel. If he views the conflict between the two factions of mankind as some distant battle, he probably won't hesitate to help the geneticists. But if you give the conflict a face--such as news images of the bombs aftermath, complete with dead or scarred men, women, and children--he'll have a much harder time ignoring it. Perhaps you could even let him witness it first hand, returning to the scene of the blast after the bomb has gone off.
It really won't take much. You won't need pages and pages of prose. Just a simple image will do the trick. Imagine Daniel coming upon (or viewing on the news) a little girl lying on the sidewalk. She's curled-up, crying, and clutching a teddy bear--and also missing both of her legs from shrapnel. Just make him realize that he is partially responsible for this--even if only indirectly. Guilt can be a great catalyst for change.
As for your second question, I'm afraid I can't help much there. I don't know Kate's character. Play around with it. Imagine the scene both ways--one in which she sees his condition and offers to let him escape, and one in which she turns a blind eye for the sake of the mission. Which one feels right for her character? Also, which one fits better with your plot?
As for the last question, guilt can not only be a catalyst for change, it can also be a powerful motivator. If you've made the reader understand that Daniel is truly sorry for his part in the explosion and that he will do anything in his power to make things right again, then yes--it would be natural for him to risk his life.
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Have you seen the movie Schindler's List? In one scene, Schindler is looking over a city being ravaged by German troops. Amongst the sea of black and white faces, there is one little girl--probably four to six years old--wearing a bright red coat. Schindler watches her, tracking her progress through the troops, gunshots, and smoke of the town. He loses track of her, and we don't find out what happened to her until later, when Schindler spots a bright red coat amidst a pile of dead bodies. This scene marks the turning point for Schindler, and it was done simply by humanizing the war.
Now back to your Daniel. If he views the conflict between the two factions of mankind as some distant battle, he probably won't hesitate to help the geneticists. But if you give the conflict a face--such as news images of the bombs aftermath, complete with dead or scarred men, women, and children--he'll have a much harder time ignoring it. Perhaps you could even let him witness it first hand, returning to the scene of the blast after the bomb has gone off.
It really won't take much. You won't need pages and pages of prose. Just a simple image will do the trick. Imagine Daniel coming upon (or viewing on the news) a little girl lying on the sidewalk. She's curled-up, crying, and clutching a teddy bear--and also missing both of her legs from shrapnel. Just make him realize that he is partially responsible for this--even if only indirectly. Guilt can be a great catalyst for change.
As for your second question, I'm afraid I can't help much there. I don't know Kate's character. Play around with it. Imagine the scene both ways--one in which she sees his condition and offers to let him escape, and one in which she turns a blind eye for the sake of the mission. Which one feels right for her character? Also, which one fits better with your plot?
As for the last question, guilt can not only be a catalyst for change, it can also be a powerful motivator. If you've made the reader understand that Daniel is truly sorry for his part in the explosion and that he will do anything in his power to make things right again, then yes--it would be natural for him to risk his life.