by Kenneth Eade
15
After only two months, the rats that had been fed the GM soy in the second controlled experiment started showing signs of infertility. There were sets of male rats who were sterile, and the females that did produce offspring produced smaller sized rats.
Seth and Robin were at their usual dinner break, just kicking back, and of course the conversation turned to work. What else did either of them have in their lives? They had been sipping on wine for the whole meal and were both getting a little tipsy.
“Now I’m getting blue testicles instead of pink,” said Seth. “Bill’s really gonna love this.”
“I can hear him now,” Robin said, mimicking Bill. “Seth, it’s gonna take a lot more than your blue balls to convince me of anything.”
Suddenly, they both started laughing uncontrollably. The neighboring couple scowled at them, and they toned it down to snickering.
“Well you must have them, right?” she asked.
“What?”
“Blue balls.”
“I don’t have blue balls.”
“Well, I don’t see any girls around.”
“I have girls around – I have you. Speaking of that, don’t you have a life to go home to?” said Seth.
“You’re just asking me now?” Robin asked, annoyed. “How long have we been doing this Seth, two months? Don’t you think if I had a boyfriend, he’d be wondering why I was hanging out with you every night and coming home at two in the morning? What would you expect him to think? That I’m a vampire?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“You guess so?” Robin laughed. “You men are really unbelievable.”
“Yeah, I suppose we are.” Seth looked around and the restaurant had cleared out. “What time is it?”
“Shit, it’s midnight already. I’m surprised they haven’t kicked us out of here.”
“I’d better take you home.”
“You trying to take advantage of me?”
“Maybe.”
The thought of it had actually crossed Seth’s mind, and more than once. Robin had nice green eyes and, without the lab wear, she was even sexier. And she always smelled good. Seth was surprised she hadn’t been taken by now. But of course, she was always working, and he was the only man around. Cock block works every time. Seth had been so hard at work, he had forgotten how horny he was. He had always been horny, and now he was shocked to come to the realization that he had actually forgotten.
They paid the check and Seth offered his arm to Robin, walking her to his car. They had left hers in the company parking lot.
Seth could see that the alcohol had more than lowered Robin’s inhibitions. She was deliberately flirting with him. Normally charming and innocent, when she got into the car, she slowly slinked in, and glanced at Seth with inciting eyes that must have just seen their awakening. The way she looked at him, like he was a piece of candy that she wanted to put in her mouth, made him so nervous he almost lost control of the car, swerving off to the shoulder.
“Whoa, cowboy, watch it,” she said as Seth swerved back into the center of the lane.
“You just made me kind of nervous, that’s all.”
“Well, do you like what you see?” Robin smiled and playfully tinkered with the fringe of her dress, exposing some of her bare leg.
“Yes I do.”
“Didn’t you ever notice before?”
“I did.”
“But what?” Robin giggled. This was definitely an invitation, and not one to be refused.
“Just waiting for the right time.”
“And that would be…”
“How about right now?”
“Here?”
“If you want.”
“Slow down, why don’t you just take me home and we’ll talk about it there?”
“Okay.” Seth could feel his heart beating faster and, well, other things tingling too.
Robin’s apartment was clean and cozy. Unlike the apartment of a scientist – more like an artist’s place. She had collected little knick knacks from her travels and, of course, she had plants – lots of plants. There were green leafy plants and ferns and flowering plants all over. And her balcony was a rose garden. She also had a collection of orchids – Seth’s favorite flower. Robin entered the living room with a drink in each hand, the ice gently tinkling like little wind chimes.
“So you like orchids?” she asked, handing him his drink, then sat down next to him closely.
“Love them.”
“What do they remind you of?”
“Well, they’re very feminine.”
“You’re very observant. You know, orchids are very delicate and need special care, just like all feminine things.”
“I know all about orchids, and feminine things.”
Seth took his cue and reached over to stroke her hair, gently pulling her face closer to his. Their lips met with a tender and powerful force. At that point, they melted into each other and Seth felt a flush of sensations over his entire being. Hands wandered naturally, and each caress became more exciting and pleasurable. Where the body ended and the soul began was a mystery in this ancient game of combinations.
16
Back at the lab, Seth and Robin switched back to their “working relationship.”
Robin was bent over her microscope, examining slides from a sample of Bt soy.
“Seth, I don’t get this,” said Robin.
“What’s going on?”
“Well, there is supposed to be just one gene in this soybean plant, along with the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus promoter, of course.”
“Yeah, that CaMV virus thing always freaks me out.”
“Well, that viral gene has to be there or the plant can’t produce the proteins from the engineered gene.”
A genetic sequence from the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (similar to the HIV virus in humans) was the “promoter” that was used in every GMO food, whether it be the gene for artificial insecticide, or the herbicide resistant gene, to “turn on” the gene, so it would produce the proteins that gave the desired effect.
This was discovered by independent researchers in Europe in 1993 after GMOs had already been approved by the European Food Safety Authority, and it caused a big controversy. Why? Because Germinat didn’t tell the regulators of the existence of the viral gene. They were unaware of it when they approved the genetically engineered foods.
Bacteria and viruses were the materials of choice in engineering GMOs because they are natural cell invaders, and that, after all, is what genetic engineering is all about – forcing something into a cell that didn’t belong there naturally. The researchers in Europe were concerned about the safety of the viral gene because it produced several proteins instead of just one; each protein having its own function or trait.
One shut off the plant’s ability to protect itself from viruses. Another produced random proteins in cells, the effect of which nobody would know for years or maybe even centuries. Another suppressed the plant’s anti-pathogen defenses, making it unable to naturally defend itself and making it highly susceptible to certain pathogens.
The researchers concluded that the viral gene promoter was a toxin, leading to the question of whether it would express itself in the food products made from the plants...
“Seth, are you dreaming? I said look at this.” Robin seemed both surprised and upset.
Seth shook himself from his thoughts and looked at the slide.
“What am I looking at?”
“That’s just it. See those two other DNA fragments?”
“Yeah. I do.”
There were two foreign gene fragments unrelated to the cleanup gene or the natural genes in the soybean plant.
“How do you think they got there?”
“It could be that the DNA was scrambled when they inserted the gene. Or…”
“Or what?”
“Or the soybean’s own DNA could have rearranged the sequence to try to correct the errors in its DNA. Jurassic Park again
– nature finding a way. And this DNA strand is large enough to produce its own protein. This could be the reason we are seeing tumors develop in the rats.”
Seth’s neck was aching from hunching over the scope. When he straightened out to rub it, he saw his lab assistant, George, looking right at him in a strange way, like Seth had caught him masturbating.
“George, do you need something?”
“Uh, no.”
“Did you run those sequences I asked you to yet?”
“Uh, not yet.”
“Okay man, get to it, I need those.
“I will, Seth, sorry.” George trotted off to comply with the request.
“It’s alright, George.” Seth turned back to Robin. “We have to figure out what’s going on here. I’ll try to get in touch with those guys from Europe and discuss their findings.”
“Okay,” said Robin. “I’ll move on to the other studies.”
“Yeah, it’s crunch time. Let me have a report on this finding before you leave tonight.”
“I thought we were going out tonight?”
“Oh, shit, I’m sorry. We are. Just got a lot on my mind.”
“I know. Me too.” George and Shirley, of course, left at 5:00 p.m. on the nose. Time slipping away the way it does, it was 8 p.m. before they knew it.
“We’d better go before they shut down every restaurant in town,” said Seth. The small cities in the outer reaches of St Louis, Missouri rolled up the sidewalks at 10:00 p.m.
It had been a while since Seth had a real girlfriend and it was nice to be around Robin. Dating had always been an annoying aspect of life. It was more like a series of job interviews than shopping. If it lasted after four dates (“Sex and the City” rules) that meant the girl was not considered a “slut” if you had sex with her, but it usually it never went far enough for him to find out if the sex was going to be really good or just a “relief pitch.” Consequently, when he reached a point with a girl where the sex was pretty good, that’s when the relationship ended, and most of Seth’s relationships were based on the sexual aspect so, of course, they disintegrated. If you’re not looking for the right thing, you can’t be disappointed if you don’t get it.
17
“We fed these rats 500 times the amount of Bt that the corn produces, and there’s no damage to their tissues. But this group ate the Bt corn and I’ve already had eight out of 40 die, and organ and tissue damage on the others, and that’s with the clean seeds,” Seth said to George.
“But tests prove the Bt toxin is destroyed by the stomach, before it gets to the intestines,” retorted George.
“I looked at those tests. They’re test tube tests, using hydrochloric acid and pepsin to simulate digestive fluids. But the rats are showing erratic cell growth in the lower part of the small intestine. That’s the last point to getting into the colon.”
That meant that either the testing was flawed, and the Bt was surviving the digestive process, or, even worse, that the unpredictable DNA sequence that was created in the process of genetic engineering was creating a toxic protein that had damaged the cells in the rats that ate the corn. Seth’s rats had lesions on their stomachs, and abnormal and accelerated cell growth in the lower part of their small intestines.
“I definitely need to talk to Bill about this,” said Seth. “Where did George go?” he asked Robin.
“I don’t know,” said Robin, “Maybe he went to the bathroom.”
George had disappeared again, as he tended to do whenever he was needed. It seemed that, after every frustrating event in the testing process, George was nowhere to be found. It was like he was running out to tattle tale on Seth and Robin.
“He must have a weak bladder,” said Seth. “He’s too young to have a prostate problem.”
***
When Seth and Robin got back to the lab after dinner, the door was ajar. Seth looked closer and saw that it had been broken open.
“Robin, call security, and stay back,” said Seth, nervously.
“What’s wrong?”
“Someone has broken into the lab.”
Seth ventured into the lab itself. It was a mess. Equipment was smashed. Chemicals were spilled all over the floors and tables. Their colors mixed together like a first grade class had been finger painting on the floor. Lab beakers and flasks were smashed, laid out in pieces like some crude mosaic. File cabinets had been ripped open and their contents spilled out. Seth quickly sat down at his computer and logged in. It had been hacked. The hard drive had been taken.
Seth turned to yell for Robin, and, just as he did, he saw a man in a ski mask, raising his arm above his head. Less than a second later, he felt a thump, the lights went out, and Seth fell to the floor like a lifeless bag of potatoes.
When he came to on the ambulance gurney, Seth was looking through a tunnel with an assortment of blurry, upside down faces at the end of it. Two EMTs began to roll him out of the lab, and he noticed that, not only were Jess and Tim, the night guards, there, but so were two members of the local police, writing reports, asking questions.
“He’s awake,” said Jess, walking along with the gurney. “Seth, hold on buddy, they’re taking you to the hospital.”
“Wait. I don’t need an ambulance. I’m fine.” The EMTs stopped rolling him for a second.
Bill Penner was also there. “Seth, when you’re done with the doctors and the police, and if you’re up to it, we need to talk,” he said.
“Bill. What the hell happened here?”
“Someone trashed the lab,” said Bill. “Probably vandals.”
“We’ve had these a couple of times. They’re usually looking for drugs or stuff to make meth with,” said Jess.
“Yeah, we always catch ‘em,” said Tim. “But these guys were good.”
“How so?” said Bill.
“They don’t show up on the security tape. At all.”
The company had one of the most sophisticated security systems in the world. Whoever did it was able to bypass that system and enter the building undetected.
“I don’t see how they could have snuck in without us seeing them,” said Jess. “Unless…”
“Unless what?” said Seth.
“Unless they were already in the building.”
“That’s just not possible,” said Bill.
“Not only that,” said Seth. They took the hard drives. And the slides. Everything.”
“The lab animals are all dead,” said Jess.
“Don’t let anyone touch them. They need to be autopsied,” said Seth. “Put them in the refrigerator, now,” said Seth.
“Can’t do that,” said Jess.
“Why not?”
“They’re all hacked up. Can’t tell which is which. Looks like the floor of a sausage factory.”
“Looks like vandalism,” said the police detective. “We’re just about done here. Should be okay to clean up in the morning.”
18
Seth’s eyes fluttered, the hammer still pounding against his head. He felt dizzy and sick. He sat up in the hospital bed, his head spinning, then swung his legs over the side of the bed. He had to get out of the hospital and get back to the lab, which was in pieces. Luckily, he had kept a copy of not only his own, but also Robin’s reports on a duplicate hard drive, and he had duplicate copies of all their slides and physical data at home. Something had told him in the very beginning of this project that it was going to be the most unusual one he had ever undertaken, and for that different precautions had to be taken.
The fact that the computer hard drives had been taken was proof that these were not thieves looking for drugs. Was it industrial espionage from a competitor? They were out to either steal or destroy their data. But why? That was something he had to find out, as well as put together the broken pieces of their experiments and finish the job.
Seth walked into Bill’s office about 10:00 a.m. the next day, his head still pounding like a pile driver.
“Seth, what are you doing here, man? You sho
uld be at the hospital or home or...”
“It’s okay Bill, I’m fine. I need to finish this job.”
“Seth, forget about it. This job is fucked. I already put Audrey Stevens and her team on an independent study.”
“No, Bill, I’ve got everything.”
Bill flashed a look like a patient who was getting a rectal examination.
“What?”
“I saved copies of everything. All our data, every slide. All we need is to clean up the lab and we can take up where we left off. Of course, we’ve lost our control groups – that sets us back time-wise.”
It was like Bill was choking on something. But then he quickly recovered.
“Smart man. That’s great.”
He patted Seth on the back and Seth winced.
“Uh, sorry. We’ll get you back to work right away.”
“Great Bill, I just need Robin.”
“Seth, Robin asked to be reassigned.”
“What?” said Seth, in consternation.
“She was very specific. Also said that she didn’t want you to try to contact her. I think this break-in really scared her.”
That was a surprise for Seth. Now he was the deer in the headlights. Seth and Robin had worked together, played together, eaten together and slept together the past four months, and now she wanted out? Why so suddenly? And why did she want out of everything, including the experiments? This was not right. There had to be more. Then again, when emotions were involved a woman didn’t really need a reason for anything, at least no reason that any man could understand.
“Alright Bill. I’ll pick a new team member. I’ll get this job done.”
“Atta boy,” said Bill, and dove for his phone.
Seth got back to his wrecked lab and office and immediately dialed up Robin.
“Yes, Seth?”
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean, Bill said you were out of the project.”
“That’s right.”
“Why?”
There was a pause, so silent that the only thing that could be heard was the static on the phone and footsteps in the corridor.