The Genesis Flaw

by L. A. Larkin

  ‘My name’s Serena and I want to talk to you about Project New Dawn.’

  ‘Go away. Now.’

  ‘I saw you confront Bukowski in the Rooneys building. I heard what you said and I …’

  ‘Go away. This is private property!’ he bellowed.

  She took a few steps nearer. He stood squarely behind the flyscreen, blocking the entrance, his hand on the door handle.

  ‘You’re Dr McPherson, aren’t you?’

  ‘Leave me alone. Haven’t you people tormented me enough?’

  ‘No, you don’t understand. I need your help …’

  A car rumbled up the track towards the house and, through the gathering dust cloud, Serena saw a police car. The man immediately disappeared into the dark recesses of his house.

  ‘No, wait, please; I just want to talk.’

  Two policemen got out of the car and she recognised the big-bellied one. The other was younger, with a rugby player’s build. Neither approached the house.

  ‘Can you come down here, please, ma’am?’ the rotund one called, arms folded across his chest.

  Serena did as she was asked.

  ‘Can I see your ID?’

  She handed him her driver’s licence, which the younger one took and placed in his scanner. He looked at the screen.

  ‘So, Serena Swift, what’re you doing on this here private property?’

  Instinctively, she knew that to tell the truth would be unwise. They must have followed her all the way from the town. Why would they do that?

  ‘I’m an old student of Dr McPherson’s, on vacation, and wanted to look him up for old time’s sake.’

  ‘See here,’ said the older cop, as he leaned forward and pushed his pug-like face into hers, ‘this is Constable Bob Grimes and I’m Senior Constable Anthony Heffernan. You’re trespassing on private property, so we are asking you to leave.’

  ‘But I’m a guest. I’m not trespassing.’

  ‘Don’t seem like an invited guest to me. So, be a good girl and get in your car and drive away,’ said Heffernan.

  Serena saw red but bit her tongue. Now was not a good time to have an argument.

  ‘Look, I’ve flown a long way to see him. He probably doesn’t recognise me, it’s been such a long time. Just let me have another word with him. I’m sure he’ll invite me …’

  Grimes looked at Heffernan and grinned.

  ‘Sounds like she’s refusing to leave.’

  ‘Yup, sounds like it to me,’ responded Heffernan.

  Grimes stepped forward. She caught a whiff of his sweat and noticed the damp stains under his armpits.

  ‘I’m asking you nicely to leave the professor’s private property. If you refuse, you’ll be coming with us to the station. Choice is yours.’

  Serena looked from one to the other.

  ‘I’m going, officers. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.’

  ‘And,’ chimed in Heffernan, his breath a pungent mix of bad eggs and cigarettes, ‘I don’t want you coming near the prof again. He wants to be left alone. If I hear about you hassling him, I’ll be on your back so fast you won’t know what’s hit you.’

  ‘I’m going now,’ she replied and hurried to her car. As she turned the key in the ignition, she saw the cops amble back to their car and get in. Serena scanned the house windows for any sign of the professor. He’d disappeared. The cops tailed her all the way back to her accommodation in Shelleyman Bay.

  Chapter 15

  Serena locked the apartment door behind her. The heat and humidity were stifling, so she opened the balcony doors. A blistering wind engulfed her, even hotter than the interior of the room. She scanned the walls for any sign of air conditioning and realised there was none. Beads of sweat trickled down the back of her neck as she removed her sodden T-shirt and shorts, hoping to feel a little cooler. It didn’t help.

  She took a bottle of sparkling mineral water from the fridge and gulped it down, leaving the fridge door open. Serena crouched in front of it, enjoying the feeling of the cool air on her body. The little fridge’s motor clicked in and rattled loudly as it tried to generate its programmed temperature. She closed the fridge door and leaned against the balcony doorframe as she stared out to sea.

  The cops’ behaviour was really odd. Excessive, in fact. What was it all about? Why did they want to keep her away from the professor? Who were they protecting? The professor or someone else?

  She finished off the water, but continued to hold the bottle in her hand, not moving. She watched people swimming and surfing, and heard squeals of delight from children on the beach.

  Well, she sure as hell wasn’t going to let some small-town thugs push her around. One thing her dad had always taught her was to stand up to bullies. But how could she speak to McPherson without Grimes and Heffernan knowing? The town folk appeared to act as their spies. Serena ambled to the bed and lay, arms and legs splayed, trying to stop hot skin rubbing against hot skin. She was too overheated to think clearly. So, she donned her bikini and headed for the invitingly cool waves.

  It was seven in the evening. As she retraced the route along the tree-lined roads to the professor’s house, she kept an eager eye on her rearview mirror. Nervous, she’d been unable to eat anything all day and her empty stomach growled. There hadn’t been a police car outside her apartment when she’d snuck out, and she’d taken care to find a back road through the town. On seeing the ‘Private Property’ sign, she accelerated hard and skidded up the track.

  As it dipped, she entered a thick canopy of trees. She only had to turn the corner and she would see the professor’s house. Her mouth dry as rice paper, she sped around the blind corner. Hurtling towards her was a dirty green Land Rover. She swung to the left, the Land Rover to the right. Her wing mirror cracked. She slammed on her brakes and screeched to a halt. The front of her car was buried in lantana bushes. The Land Rover stopped a bit further down the track in a dust cloud and McPherson got out. He was incredibly thin; his chest concave, his ribs protruding like xylophone keys. He wore only a faded pair of blue denim shorts. He strode barefoot towards her.

  ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ he shouted, waving his arms in the air.

  Serena got shakily out of her car.

  ‘It’s you!’ he said. He was barely a metre from her. ‘Leave me alone. Do you understand?’ he yelled and stomped back to his car.

  ‘No. Please wait.’

  She chased after him until she touched his bare shoulder. He swung around, furious.

  ‘Who the hell do you think you are? Get off my property or I’ll call the police.’

  ‘I’m not a journalist. I just want to talk to you about Gene-Asis.’

  ‘I’m calling the cops.’

  ‘Please don’t do that. Please.’

  He turned away from her but she managed to grab his arm. He wrenched it away.

  ‘Did Gene-Asis’ products kill your wife?’

  Desperate to hold his attention, she took a punt that the woman Gene-Asis had supposedly ‘killed’ was his wife. If she’d slapped him, he couldn’t have looked more startled.

  ‘I have nothing to say.’

  She looked into a pair of sunken blue eyes and sensed his desolation.

  ‘Please help me. I’ve lost my job because I believed what you said about New Dawn. I think Gene-Asis’ products are unsafe. I think you think so too. Please talk to me.’

  ‘I know nothing about it,’ he growled.

  The professor got into his Land Rover and turned the ignition. It fired up loudly and, shutting his door, he jammed the gear into first and began to move away from her. She hung onto the door handle.

  ‘Yes, you do. You said it will make things “worse.” I heard you. What will get worse?’

  He accelerated and Serena ran faster.

  ‘Let go, you idiot!’ he shouted.

  The dust was blinding her. She coughed up dirt. But she wouldn’t let go.

  ‘They killed my dad,’ she screamed, as she slip
ped and tumbled to the side of the road. The Land Rover continued down the track. She had fallen hard and cut her knee, the blood trickling down her dirty shin. She didn’t move, her head in her hands. She felt a complete fool. She had lost her job for nothing. He wouldn’t even talk to her. She stared at the ground in disbelief. The bush went quiet, save for the wind in the trees. Head bowed over her knees, she was not aware of his presence until she noticed a pair of dirty feet, one toenail black with bruising. His hand touched her shoulder gently.

  ‘What happened to your dad?’

  She looked into the professor’s eyes again.

  ‘Lung cancer. He was a farmer. Used T-Speed canola, and I know it killed him.’

  He leaned down, his skeletal hand still on her shoulder.

  ‘I’m so sorry. When someone you love dies, it’s like a part of you dies too.’

  ‘Please help me. You gave me hope. Hope you know something, anything ...’

  ‘Don’t let your guilt take over your life. Let it go. I know. I lived and breathed my guilt, wallowing in my own self-pity. And look what I’ve become.’

  She watched a dark shadow pass across his face, as if he were reliving some horror.

  ‘Why won’t you talk to me?’

  ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Serena Swift.’

  ‘Serena, I can’t talk to you. Please go home and forget what I said to Bukowski.’

  ‘But why won’t you talk to me?’ she persisted.

  ‘Because I’m a coward.’

  He stood up and offered his hand to help her stand. Hobbling up, she winced at her painful knee.

  ‘Are you able to drive?’

  She had to have one more go. ‘Project New Dawn is the code name for Supercrop Ultra. Did you work on it?’

  ‘You need to get out of here, quickly,’ he said looking around.

  ‘Professor, I am not going anywhere until you tell me why nobody wants me to talk to you.’

  He shook his head.

  ‘Serena, don’t ask questions, for your own sake. These are powerful people. They discredited me and destroyed my life. Even in this tiny town, where I hoped to disappear, they control my every move. Those two mongrels you met are paid to keep an eye on me.’

  He stopped speaking; listening to the sound of a far-off car engine. ‘Don’t do this, Serena. Take it from me. The price you’ll pay is too high.’

  He looked around nervously. Serena noticed his long Roman nose was bent. It had clearly been badly broken.

  ‘Hurry. Let’s get you in your car. They mustn’t know you spoke to me.’

  He took her arm and helped her back to her Beetle.

  ‘Professor, if Gene-Asis are selling products that hurt people, you have to stop it.’

  ‘I tried once and paid for it dearly. Too dearly. And to this day, I wish I never had.’

  He let go of her arm and walked away.

  ‘Don’t ever contact me again. For your own sake.’

  Serena went after him, wincing as she hobbled.

  ‘What do you mean, “paid for it”?’

  He turned sharply.

  ‘We were treated like pariahs. Even colleagues turned on us. The stress of it brought on her stroke. My poor wife … my poor wife never recovered.’

  ‘I’m so sorry for your loss. What you’ve been through is terrible. But I have to know what’s going on. Please tell me, why were you treated so badly?’

  He looked at her intently through his grubby glasses.

  ‘You never give up, do you?’ He paused and she waited. ‘I’ll meet you tomorrow if only to persuade you to drop this. You have no idea of the danger you’re in.’

  ‘Where and when?’

  ‘You mustn’t tell anyone, or call anyone, or email anyone about this. No one. If you suspect you’re being followed, don’t meet me. Turn around and never call on me again. Do I make myself clear?’

  Chapter 16

  The white sand was cool and caked her feet as she left lonely footprints on a near-deserted beach. A solitary surfer rested on his board way out to sea. She had driven slowly to the rendezvous, checking for any signs of a tail. When she’d arrived at the designated beach, some ten kilometres out of town, the sun had just risen.

  As the professor had directed, she walked two kilometres along the beach and then turned away from the sea and followed a stream’s winding path inland. The meandering stream had cut sharp-edged banks into the sand, which crumbled as she passed by. Soon she could barely hear the sound of crashing waves. As she neared the bush, the sound of the sea was drowned out by the birds’ early morning chorus. The stream doglegged to the right and became wide and murky, stained by something dark.

  McPherson had said she would find a path. All Serena could see was a wall of dense vegetation. She searched along the thick foliage, holding back branches to peer into the trees. The grass next to a large gum tree appeared flattened. She ducked under several branches and found a line of crushed vegetation, which formed a rough path.

  Stepping gingerly, she ducked and wove her way along the barely visible track. Twigs cracked behind her. She looked around. The bush was so dense she couldn’t see the stream any more and could barely see a few metres behind her. A bird above her guffawed loudly and then she heard a splash to her right. She moved forwards, each step softly placed to make as little noise as possible. The crushed grasses became a more defined track of dirt and twigs and, to her right, the trees gave way to tall reeds. A mist hung suspended among them, ebbing and flowing. She caught glimpses of water. Then she stumbled upon a gap, and the ground gently sloped to the edge of an enormous lake, the likes of which she had never seen before.

  It was completely surrounded by impenetrable bush. A halo of mist floated between the reeds at its edges but never ventured out into the open water. The reeds were dense and spiky, and acted like the walls of a fortress, barring entry. The only access point was where she stood. But it was the lake’s colour, like black tea, that amazed her most. Ripples broke the smooth surface of the water; the professor was swimming towards her. He rose from the water, beard wet and glistening, his eyes scanning the bush behind her.

  ‘You found it, then.’

  ‘It wasn’t easy.’

  ‘I know. Are you sure you’re alone?’

  He stood knee deep, his feet totally obscured by the dark stain of the water.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Let’s swim to the lake’s centre. There’s no way we can be overheard there.’

  She hesitated.

  ‘What’s with the water?’

  ‘It’s tea-tree oil. It’s good for you.’

  He began to swim away from her with jerky strokes. She followed, expecting the water to be cold but was surprised to find both the sandy mud of the bank and the water very warm. The professor trod water for a while, waiting for her to catch up.

  ‘This lake is surrounded by tea-trees, which release their oil into the water. It’s believed to have amazing healing properties. There’s a story that a local man who was dying of skin cancer was brought here by a healer and told to bathe in it every day. It’s said he’s now cancer free.’

  He swam off again towards the lake’s centre. The professor was a fast swimmer and Serena was not. He glided through the water easily; she followed awkwardly. As she swam, she noticed the silence of the lake. No bird sang. It was eerie.

  Still ahead of her, he stopped swimming and raised himself out of the water until he was walking on its surface. Was she hallucinating? She trod water, open-mouthed. He was beckoning her towards him, like a bearded holy man walking on water. Serena swam and, as she kicked, began to feel mud beneath her feet. She was touching the bottom, which sloped upwards. The professor was standing on a sandbank in the middle of the lake that was just wide enough for the two of them. They both sat silently for a moment, taking in the mystical tranquility of the place. Then he spoke in hushed tones, his eyes constantly searching the lake’s leafy perimeter.

  ‘Way before w
hite men arrived, this place was an ancient Aboriginal birthing lake. Sadly, no more. Aboriginal women used to come here when it was their time. They would bathe their newborns in the cleansing water. No men were allowed here then. Even to this day, this lake is a well-kept secret. That’s why I come here. It’s one of the few places I can be alone. You see, Serena, there is always someone watching me.’

  ‘Who is watching you, Dr McPherson?’

  ‘You know the answer to that question.’

  ‘Okay, so why is Gene-Asis watching you?’

  He sat crossed-legged.

  ‘I hoped my work would lead to great things. I was adamant that genetically engineered foods could save the world from starvation. You have to believe me, Serena. I thought I could solve world hunger.’

  He looked at her imploringly. It was the first time he had looked directly into her eyes since arriving at the sand bank.

  ‘I do believe you.’

  ‘When the world’s leading biotech company approached me and promised to fund my research if I worked at Arthur Phillip University, I was overjoyed. The research facility was the best I’d ever seen.’

  ‘It looked pretty shabby to me.’

  ‘You’ve been? No, that’s a façade. Inside, the equipment is state of the art. The deal was they would direct my work, and I agreed because they said their mission was to solve the problem of world hunger. I thought we had one and the same goal. After a number of breakthroughs, which they then launched onto the market, I was sent to Zimbabwe. I managed the largest and most in-depth human food trials ever conducted. We tested newly developed genetically engineered plants. For five years, I subjected those innocent people to...’

  He paused and looked down at the water lapping at their feet.

  ‘Oh God,’ he whispered.

  Serena waited for him to continue and when he didn’t, she prompted him.

  ‘What happened?’

  He removed his wire-rimmed glasses, smudged with lake water, and rubbed his eyes. A scar ran along his cheekbone where the rim of his glasses had rested.

  ‘I’ll never forgive myself.’

  He shook his head and then suddenly grabbed her arms.