A Thousand Small Explosions

by John Marrs

  ‘Your mum was a lab assistant - one of many, many lab assistants and she very rarely worked with me. Do you remember every person you worked with more than ten years ago?’

  ‘I remember everything.’

  ‘Well good for you.’

  ‘Do you recall what the results of her Match Your DNA were?’

  ‘Of course not, because it was very early on so I can only presume that she had no confirmed Match back then.’

  ‘And what about my dad?’

  ‘Your dad? I didn’t even know he existed until two hours ago.’

  ‘My dad was one of your early test subjects too. And when Mum did a test on his DNA it turned out they weren’t a Match. Then as the ball started rolling and you made the test available to the public, Dad discovered he had a Match out there. And at a time when my parents should have been thinking ahead to their retirement, he was packing his bags to move to Scotland with a complete stranger.’

  ‘Matthew, I am not responsible for…’

  Matthew placed his finger on his lips to shush her. ‘I’m not interested in hearing the corporate line or your usual bullshit about how you are not to blame for destroying people’s lives.’

  Ellie became visibly agitated at not being heard when she tried to defend herself and her discovery. However, she let Matthew continue.

  ‘In the space of a few months,’ he recalled, ‘Dad had sold the family home, Mum was forced to move into a flat and eventually she lost her job because of her alcohol dependency. Do you have any idea what it’s like for a son to have to change his mother’s knickers because she shat them when she was paralytic? Or to pick her up from the police station because she’d been arrested for being drunk and disorderly in a supermarket?’

  Ellie wanted to shake her head but refused to give him the gratification.

  ‘Of course you don’t,’ he said. ‘Then just when she reached her lowest ebb, she was Matched with somebody.’

  Ellie paused then placed her drink on the table. ‘Well what’s your complaint then? Everything worked out for her in the end.’

  ‘You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Bobby Hughes was his name,’ Matthew continued. ‘He seemed like a good guy at first and she fell for him hook, line and sinker like Matches are supposed to. But he was a manipulative bastard and she was so desperate not to be alone that she agreed to do anything he asked of her including turning a blind eye to the fact he liked underage girls. Very underage girls, judging by the three thousand photographs police found when they seized his laptop. He tried to claim they were already on the computer when he bought it from eBay and Mum believed him – she paid his legal bills and took out loans for him right through his court case. But when he was banged up behind bars, she was left with nothing but final demands she couldn’t pay back. And all this was because of a test that you’re responsible for.’

  It would have taken someone with a much thicker skin than Ellie not to feel pity towards Matthew’s unfortunate mother.

  ‘You, sitting here in your ivory tower, have no idea what it’s like watching someone you love transform into something else right before your eyes, do you?’ he asked.

  Ellie shot him a withering glance. ‘You think?’

  ‘I’m not talking about me, this is different,’ he continued dismissively. ‘I’m talking about watching a strong, intelligent woman disintegrate into a physical and emotional mess. She was passed out drunk when she set herself on fire with a cigarette, she burned alive… she was so badly burned that I couldn’t even identify her body.’

  Matthew folded his arms defiantly while Ellie took a sip from her drink then cleared her throat.

  ‘There are millions of couples across the world who have taken the test and found they aren’t Matched,’ she began, ‘but they’ve stayed together because they’re in love. I didn’t force your mother to test her DNA, I asked for volunteers and she was one of many. We always have and always will warn volunteers of the risks of taking the test and tell them that if they have any doubts whatsoever then they shouldn’t do it.’

  ‘And millions of people are told how dangerous sugar is but they’re still obese, aren’t they?’

  ‘By that logic, everyone who suffers a diet-related heart attack, stroke or high cholesterol could claim compensation from the estates of Henry Nestle. Anyone hit by a car should be able to sue the family of Henry Ford or Karl Benz. Where does it end? At some point, people have to take responsibility for their own actions.’

  ‘And at what point do you take responsibility for your actions, Ellie?’

  ‘My actions have put homophobia, racism and religious hatred on the edge of extinction because a Match doesn’t recognise sexuality, colour or whatever God you choose to celebrate. It has united people of all faiths and persuasions in a way we never thought possible.’

  ‘But you’ve divided just as many people by creating a ‘them’ and ‘us’ scenario; those who are loved by design and the rest who’ve been made to feel their relationships are less worthy. Do you not see a parallel between what you have done and what the Nazis did to the Jews? The Nazis eroded them, piece by piece until they were a ravaged minority and treated like vermin. Is that your aim for un-Matched people?’

  ‘You’re more deluded than I thought.’

  ‘Or is it just about making money? You don’t care what chaos you cause just as long as your vintage Alexander McQueen coat pockets are lined?’

  ‘Are you kidding me?’ Ellie replied in disbelief. ‘Since when have I been motivated by money?’

  ‘There are plenty of people making and saving money because of you. Matched couples get bigger tax breaks, better life insurance deals, they’re more productive at work because they’re happier at home so they’re offered better jobs. For the un-Matched, suicide rates are higher, as are divorces and depression…’

  ‘…both of which actually began to fall last year as more and more people find happiness with the person they were designed for. Domestic violence against both men and women has also dropped.’

  ‘Only because people are too scared to report those kind of crimes and to risk never finding a love as powerful as the one they have with their physically and mentally abusive Match.’

  ‘You can throw as many figures at me as you want, but you cannot deny one thing. Match Your DNA exists, whether you like it or not.’

  ‘I don’t, and it’s not going to be around for very much longer.’

  ‘That’s not your decision to make.’

  ‘I know. That judgement belongs to the people. And the people always prevail.’

  ‘What are you talking about Matthew?’

  He stood up and stretched his arms behind him. ‘Another drink?’ Ellie shook her head. She watched as he helped himself to a second whisky, then brought the decanter with him and placed it on the table. She followed his every move, unable to recognise the man before her as the man she loved. Everything about Matthew was different from Tim, from his arrogance to his facial mannerisms and even the way he sat. She wondered how hard it must have been to maintain this façade in her presence for so long.

  ‘Even now that you know what kind of person I am, you’re still in love with me, aren’t you?’ Matthew said, standing with his back to her, the ice cubes crackling as the whisky oozed over them. Ellie didn’t respond. ‘I thought so. It’s not much fun having someone play God with your life, is it?’

  ‘Don’t kid yourself, you’re not playing God. You’re being just as manipulative as the man who conned your mother. Only I’m not weak like her and I’m not going to let you destroy me. I’m always going to love you because it’s in my DNA to, but I’m never going to like you and after today, we will never see each other again.’

  ‘With all the contempt you have for me, you still have all your faith we’re a Match, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes, of course we are, and Christ knows I wish we weren’t.’

  ‘You see, that’s the funny thing, Ells. Because we aren’t Matched and we never have bee
n.’

  Ellie narrowed her eyes. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You’re a woman of science yet you were so desperate to be coupled that not for a single moment did you doubt your results.’

  ‘I was not “desperate to be coupled”. I had a perfectly happy life before you.’

  ‘You dated a series of wealthy tossers, you made up excuses not to see your family and all you had to keep you company was your work. With me, you had everything which is ironic because in reality, I am nothing to you.’

  ‘Of the 1.7 billion people who’ve been tested, there hasn’t been one reported mis-Match...’

  ‘… until now. You and I are a mis-Match because I hacked into your servers and security programmes to manipulate our results.’

  ‘Rubbish,’ Ellie replied, baulking at the notion and folding her arms indignantly. ‘Our servers are more secure than almost every major international company across the world. We receive so many attempts at hacking that we have the best software and team money can buy to protect our interests.’

  ‘You’re right about some of that. But what your system didn’t take into account was your own vanity. Do you remember receiving an email some eighteen months ago with the subject “Businesswoman Of The Year Award”? You couldn’t help but open it.’

  Ellie did remember reading the email because it had been sent to her private account that only a few people had access to.

  ‘Attached to it was a link you clicked on and that opened to nothing,’ Matthew continued. ‘Well, it wasn’t nothing to me, because your click released a tiny, undetectable piece of brand new tailor-made malware that allowed me to remotely access your computer and work my way around your files. Everything you had access to, I had access to. Then I simply replicated my strand of DNA to mirror image yours and sat back and waited for you to get in touch. That’s why I came for a job interview a year ago, to learn a little more about the programming and systems you use. Please thank your Head Of Personnel, Kat, for leaving me alone in the room for a few moments with her laptop while she searched for a working camera take my headshot. That was a huge help in accessing your network. Oh and tell her to frisk interviewees for CCDs next time – they’re pocket sized gadgets that, when turned on, render digital cameras useless.’

  Ellie wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. She felt her cheeks glow red, a combination of embarrassment for allowing him into her life without question and anger for trusting him.

  ‘You fell in love with me through your own free will,’ Matthew continued. ‘You can’t blame your DNA for getting you into this mess – you can only blame yourself.’

  Ellie took a moment to regulate her shallow breaths.

  ‘There are several reasons I spent the last twelve months poking around and then immersing myself inside your servers,’ Matthew continued, sinking deeper into his sofa. ‘Humiliating you was one of them. But I also wanted to demonstrate how greedy we are as human beings. How willing we are to give up everything and anyone we hold dear on the suggestion there might be something better around the corner. What you felt for me wasn’t a DNA Match; we weren’t designed for each other, we weren’t written in the stars. It was mind over matter that made you fall in love, not science. It was a good old-fashioned boy-meets-girl relationship, nothing more and nothing less. And once I tell everyone how I fooled the woman who “discovered” Match, you’ll be a laughing stock and your credibility will be ruined.’

  Ellie gripped the arms of the sofa as her temper got the better of her. ‘So what now, you’ll go public with it? Go ahead, be my guest, I’ll survive it. In the end, plenty of others have found a true happiness they never thought possible because of me.’

  ‘But you’re not the only one to have the rug pulled from under your feet, Ells. Half a million of your subscribers are about to have their lives turned upside down too.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Ellie, hesitantly.

  ‘Did you think I’d just Match you and me? Of course not. I re-wrote your own computer coding so that over the space of the last twelve months, two million people on your database were Matched with someone completely at random.’

  Ellie swallowed hard and her heart beat so fast, she thought it might break her chest bone.

  ‘My Matches are so completely random, I don’t even know who’s been switched,’ Matthew continued. ‘Anyone signed up and Matched in the last year - which by your company’s growth rate is around twenty-five million people – could be one of my randoms. Thanks to me, your business has just become completely worthless. Nobody will know if their Match is for real or if they’ve just talked themselves into it.’

  CHAPTER 96

  AMANDA

  ‘Stay in the car until I know what’s happening, all right?’

  Amanda’s Police Liaison Officer Lorraine was firm in her demand and didn’t wait for a reply before jumping from the driver’s seat and hurrying towards the front door of the cottage.

  Two other police cars and a van were already on the scene, parked on a cobbled driveway along with two ambulances on the road outside. Amanda hunched forward in the rear of the car, barely breathing and craning her neck to see past the headrests and gain a clearer view of what was happening in the house. For the next few minutes, uniformed police officers came and went, speaking into walkie-talkies and mobile phones.

  Finally a frustrated Amanda couldn’t wait any longer for Lorraine to return, so she clasped her fingers around the door frame and pulled herself out.

  The journey from Northamptonshire to the Lake District had taken three hours and on occasion, the vehicle’s motion made her so uncomfortable that Lorraine was forced to pull onto the hard shoulder so that Amanda could vomit into the grass verge. Her head was spinning with adrenaline and with the number of painkillers floating around her system but nothing was going to prevent her from reaching her destination and being reunited with her child if he were being kept in the house ahead.

  It was during her return to Jenny’s house when she was examining the photographs pinned to Richard’s wall that one image jumped out at her. It took her back to a conversation she’d had with Jenny some months earlier, the day she’d taken Amanda to a local hill where she claimed to have scattered her dead son’s ashes. Jenny had recalled how her family had spent many a happy summer in Mount Pleasant, the name given to their Lake District cottage. It was a name Amanda remembered as it was also the name of a television drama she enjoyed watching.

  Lorraine immediately contacted the detective leading the case and his team discovered the title deeds to the home had been transferred to Richard’s name some months earlier, hence it not being flagged up during their earlier investigation. An immediate operation was launched, beginning with officers inside an unmarked police car stationed close to Mount Pleasant. When they confirmed a woman matching Emma’s description had entered the home, the rescue plan began in earnest.

  Lorraine announced her plan to drive to Cumbria immediately and Amanda insisted on joining her. She’d already spent too much enforced time apart from her son to wait for him to be brought back to her, no matter how physically uncomfortable the journey might be.

  ‘Where is he?’ shouted a panic-stricken Amanda as she made her way towards the front door from which Lorraine was exiting.

  ‘Amanda, I need you to stay calm,’ she began and took hold of her arms. ‘Emma has been arrested and taken away from the scene for questioning. However your baby is with Jenny but she’s barricaded herself in the bathroom.’

  ‘What’s she doing to him in there?’

  ‘Nothing as far as we can ascertain, but she wants to talk to you before she unlocks the door and gives him to us.’

  ‘I don’t have anything to say to her, I just want my baby back.’

  ‘It goes without saying that we want a positive outcome from this, so let’s give it a try. I’ll be by your side so please don’t worry.’

  Amanda wiped her eyes with the back of her hands and was led inside the sm
all, thatched cottage, up a narrow carpeted stairway and towards a panelled wooden door. Dusty, framed photographs of Richard and his family hung from the walls, partially hidden by half a dozen police officers crowding the corridor. One held a black metal battering ram, ready to break down the door if necessary.

  ‘Relax, take deep breaths and talk to Jenny in the same way you used to before all this happened,’ Lorraine began. ‘Nice and calm, okay? Don’t get involved in any arguments or lose your temper with her. Do you understand me?’ Amanda nodded, unsure how she was going keep a lid on her emotions when she’d spent so much of the last month hating her baby’s grandmother.

  ‘Jenny, I have someone here who wants to talk to you,’ Lorraine spoke to the woman behind the door, and nodded at Amanda.

  Amanda paused and took a few breaths before she spoke. ‘Hello Jenny, it’s Amanda.’

  She could hear movement - a shuffling sound - in the bathroom and for the very first time, she also heard her baby make a noise, like a delicate whimper. She closed her eyes and wanted to cry because suddenly her son was real and all that separated them was a few feet of wood and plaster. It was all she could do to stop herself from tearing down the door with her bare hands.

  ‘Is my baby okay Jenny? Can you tell me he’s safe?’

  ‘He’s fine,’ a voice inside replied. She sounded exhausted, Amanda thought.

  ‘Jenny, I need to see my son.’

  ‘I know you do, I just need a little bit longer with him.’

  ‘You’ve had long enough Jenny, I haven’t seen him at all.’

  ‘He looks like his daddy don’t you, Son? You have the same eyes and the same colouring.’

  ‘I can’t wait to meet him.’

  ‘I’m sorry for what happened on the stairs but I couldn’t let you walk out of my house with him.’

  ‘It’s okay.’

  Amanda looked towards Lorraine for validation that she was saying the right things and Lorraine nodded encouragingly.

  ‘Why did you take him Jenny? Why did you run away with him? We’ve all been so worried.’