Antiphon

by B. L. Roberts

  Georgio could not tell his wife. Maria already had put together snippets from what he had let slip. He had to watch her, be careful what he said.

  “Maria, I have told you before, I am not supposed to tell you. It is secret. I am a part of a big experiment, and where it will end up, I am not sure.”

  “Well, it must be pretty important. No one buys an island, and builds the sort of laboratory you have described, and hired so many important scientists, including Professor Wong himself, without having an objective. Do you think he is developing a super weapon, perhaps a deadly virus he could use, to blackmail the world?”

  “Maria, you are mad. I have met Mr. Sorensen, many times. He is a very nice man. I am sure whatever it is he hopes to get out of this, will be good.”

  “Hmm. Then why won’t they let you talk about it? Why the great secrecy?”

  “I am not sure why he wants it kept secret. It is probably to stop others trying to do the same thing. What we are trying to do has never been done before. Maybe there will be money to be made from it all, at the end, Mr. Sorensen certainly knows how to make money, and he doesn’t want anything leaked, that would compromise it.”

  “Georgio, I think sometimes you are too simple. From what you have told me, you are trying to develop a virus to stop babies from happening?”

  Georgio was shocked. How had Maria worked that out?

  “I am doing no such thing.”

  “No, then what would you call it. You work on a virus. For more than a year now, you work on this virus, and you tell me, others are also working on ways to stop reproduction cells working. Put them together, Georgio.”

  Georgio thought, Maria is too smart for her own good. How on earth did she deduce that?

  Maria had nailed it. He hadn’t told her anything of substance, or so he thought, but she had somehow worked it out. He mustn’t let her think so.

  “I think that is rubbish Maria, we are doing all sorts of work on viruses, and I am sure it will be about stopping outbreaks of things like Aids, Malaria, the ‘flu. There are so many human diseases spread by viruses, and we are looking for answers. Wait and see, we will find out soon enough.”

  “Hmm. You are hiding something from me, and I am your wife. You should be able to trust me. Why won’t you tell me?”

  “I do trust you, but I have signed a paper to promise I will not discuss it with anyone, and that includes you. I am sorry Maria.”

  Maria pouted, and sulked for the next fifteen minutes. She was right, she knew she was, but what did it mean? What was the point of this work her husband was doing.

  Their conversation had set Georgio thinking, and he speculated on how the virus he was developing could be used. If it did work, and was introduced into communities, it would have an incredible effect, he could see that. He decided to ask Dr. Wong. When he returned to the island the following Monday, he sort out the professor.

  “Professor, could you to explain to me what is going to happen, if this virus we are working on does what we hope, and causes infected people to stop having babies. How will it be used?”

  Wong looked at his young scientist, quizzically.

  “Georgio, I thought you would have worked that out, by now. Why else would we want a means to reduce childbirth, unless it was to reduce child births? This world we are living in, is finite. It has just so much space, just so much in the way of ability to grow food, just so much, and no more. But the way people are being born in so many parts of the world, we are already turning our planet into a desert.” He repeated the arguments put to him by Frederik Sorensen, then said,

  “Georgio, this virus could be the answer. It might be a way to bring the world’s population under control.”

  Georgia’s head buzzed with the enormity of what he had just been told. This was huge. Maria had been correct, amazingly so. The laboratory was working on a virus, intended to be spread around the world, to curtail population growth. People would stop having babies. Would they stop wanting to have sex? Later that week, as Maria undressed for bed in front of him, he could barely restrain himself, and it was difficult to imagine being indifferent to that lovely young body, lying next to his. How could people stop wanting to have sex?

  A virus meant it was going to be imposed on people; they would not know they were being infected. Wong was right of course, there were too many people being born in the world. But to take away the right to have babies? Georgio was confused about that. He thought about himself and Maria. If she could not have a baby because of the virus, she would probably kill him. Or leave him! Maria, who so desperately wanted a child, and doing everything she knew to make it happen. He wanted a son as well, someone to share their life with. A daughter would do, but a son would be better. How would Maria react, if this happened to them? How would he?

  Wong made it clear. What he had told Georgio was not to leave the room.

  “We do not want speculation about this, Georgio. Until we have the answer, we just keep on working. But think about the impact this can have on the world. The human race is like a bunch of lemmings, running to the cliff edge, and jumping off. We humans are breeding ourselves into extinction, by being too successful as a species. Our ability to govern ourselves properly, manage resources fairly, has not kept up with our ability to have babies. Unless something drastic is done, the world will implode within the next one hundred years.

  “That can be changed, Georgio. You can play a part in changing that. Our work is vital, perhaps the most important thing that is happening in the world today, but for now, we have to keep it under wraps. If word was to get out what we are trying to do here, all hell would break loose. Think about the vested interests who want populations to keep growing. Take, for instance, the Muslims. Their religion is spreading quickly, and why? It’s because they have so many babies, and they would want this to continue. That is just one group who would try to shut us down. Think of the large companies that make their money from selling to big populations.

  “There are many others with the same motivation, who would not want our work to succeed, who do not care about the long term survival of the earth, just their own short term interests. So we must keep it quiet.”

  Georgio agreed, and he had already signed the agreement that promised he would keep his mouth shut. With Maria, however, that was easier said, than done.

  “So, what did you do this week? Still working on that thing that will kill babies?”

  “Maria, I have explained to you before, I am sworn to secrecy. I have promised not to discuss my work, not even with you.”

  If Georgio hoped that would be the end of it, he was wrong. Maria’s curiosity was aroused, and she knew she was right. Her husband was up to no good, looking for ways to stop babies. That was wrong, the church had said so, and she wanted to know more. Like a lawyer attacking a witness in the witness box, she kept after her husband, coming at him from different angles, trying to build up, in her mind, a picture of what was going on in that laboratory of his.

  Georgio fielded the questions as best he could, but he found it difficult to lie to his wife. Piece by piece, snippets of information slipped out, small discoveries made by his team, work he was involved in, manipulating viruses. She again confronted him.

  “That is it, isn’t it! You are trying to invent a contraceptive! You are looking for a way to stop babies being born!”

  Georgio shook his head, but said nothing, and Maria knew she was correct. Maria was stunned. Her church forbade contraceptives, it was a teaching that had caused her great angst before she and Georgio were married. Many of her girl friends were on the pill, and that would have been so easy, but the church forbade it, so she and Georgio just had to be careful. Looking back now, after more than a year of trying for a baby without success, she could laugh at her anxiety back then, the worry, each month, that her period would come, but, at that time, she spent many sleepless nights, fretting
.

  At confessional back then, her priest had wanted to know about their lovemaking details, and she wondered why he needed to know all that, but he had forgiven her, many times, and the penance had been easy. It was a relief, after their marriage, that she no longer had that worry.

  Now, she had something else to think about. Georgio was working to develop a monstrous contraceptive, something that would stop babies being born, something her church said, was a sin.

  All of her husband’s explanations of why such a thing was necessary, of how there were too many babies being born for the world to support, didn’t alter that one fact. The church said it was a sin. It was against God’s will. Her husband, Georgio, was doing the work of the devil.

  Yes, she understand how countries, burdened with too many people, could not function well, how it led to people starving, fighting to survive, causing wars and turmoil. Despite her intelligence, Maria did not have an answer to those problems. People should pray more, and trust in God to find a solution, it was God’s world, it was God’s will. To do what Georgio was attempting, was to pre-empt God, to play at being God. Who did he think he was? What he was doing, was a sin.

  Georgio had sworn her to secrecy, and Maria could see the danger he might be in if word got out of what the laboratory was attempting, and she agreed to keep her mouth shut. She agonised over her dilemma. Her husband was committing a grievous sin, using his skills to cause people to stop having children! She herself had been trying for a child for more than a year now, and nagging in her brain, was the thought that maybe she was infertile, not able to have a baby. That thought was like a knife through her heart. More than anything, Maria wanted to be a mother.

  Three weeks went by. Maria wrestled with her conscience, not sure what she should do, or whether there was anything she could do. She could not agree with Georgio. Their arguments had been long, and, at times, very loud. He had reiterated all his reasons why his work was essential. She had reminded him, again and again, that it did not matter how much he argued, it didn’t alter the fact that it was a sin. The church had said so, and if God did not want this to happen, then he, Georgio, should not be a part of it.

  “For heavens sake Maria, it is not God who says it is a sin, it is the church!”

  “That is the same thing.”

  “Just look at how much money we have saved in the bank since I started. I could never earn this much anywhere else. And you do not have to feed me through the week, we save money there, too, and our rent here, that is also paid by Mr. Sorensen. I have the best job in the world, and what I am doing cannot be a sin, if it is going to save the world.”

  It had ended acrimoniously, and for the first time since their wedding, Georgio had left their home for work, without kissing his wife. That was week one. By the weekend she had softened, as had he, and they agreed not to discuss the laboratory, but underneath, Maria was in turmoil. It was a monstrous sin, Georgio’s work, it would impact on so many people. Surely God would not want it to happen? Maybe God didn’t even know what they were up to?

  Why did God allow the world to get into the mess it was in? That was a hard one. Perhaps it was a challenge for people to sort out, find His way, learn to live by His rules. If everyone did this, there wouldn’t be the mess.

  Throughout the next two weeks, while her husband was away, Maria tossed around in her head the implications of it all. At night she was troubled, and found it difficult to sleep.

  Worst of all, was the confessional.

  Maria’s weekly routine included a visit to the priest in the confessional. It made her feel better to have her sins forgiven, not that they were notable, and as well, she needed God’s blessing to help her fall pregnant. Bottling up the knowledge of her husband’s ongoing sinning when she sat in that little booth, was a nightmare. She felt she needed guidance from the priest, as to what she should do, how she should act, but her promise to Georgio to be quiet, constrained her. After three weeks, it became too much.

  Maria wondered if she could confess Georgio’s sin to the priest, on his behalf. After all, father would not tell anyone, what was said in confessional was sacrosanct. The priest was bound to respect the confessional, so she was still keeping Georgio’s secret. Her confessing for him would not be quite the same as Georgio, she understood that, but it might be of some help to him.

  Georgio was supposed to repent himself, and stop sinning, that was part of the confessional, and that would be a problem, but perhaps the priest could give some advice she could pass on to her husband. Maria laboured over her dilemma for another week, then came to a decision.

  13

  Father Oriordan shuffled into his little office squeezed in beside the nave, and flopped onto his armchair. He kicked off his slippers, and stretched his short legs to rest his feet on the padded footrest.

  There were many times the father returned from confessional, worrying about what he had just heard. Some of those things had been horrendous, to the point he wondered at the capacity of his flock to do what had just been poured into his ears, and he had had to castigate the offender. Finding a suitable penance was not always easy. It was not his roll to be judge, that was up to God, but the church did decree there should be recompense for sins, so in a way, he had to be a temporary judge, and mete out a mortal punishment.

  Not infrequently, the father wondered how God could forgive some of those sins, especially when they were repeated, and there was no genuine repentance. Oriordan thought he wouldn’t want God’s job for all the tea in China.

  Today however, what he heard was so outrageous he had become angry as he listened, and he had great difficulty in knowing how to respond. He had been told of a great sin, a monstrous sin, but not from the lips of the sinner. Maria had confessed on behalf of her husband, and it was obvious from what she had said, he was not repentant at all. Her husband was doing the work of the devil himself, and from what she said, was showing no guilt or remorse about it.

  Oriordan had been shocked, as some of the implications of what she was saying were absorbed. At first, as Maria began talking about Georgio and his work at that secret laboratory on an island somewhere, the priest had been only mildly interested, listening politely, and waiting for the opportunity to say his usual response. But as the nature of the work of this laboratory unfolded, and what it could mean for the world began to sink in, he was first horrified, then angry.

  No one had the right to meddle with God’s earth, and God’s plan for mankind! He asked Maria for more information, but she really did not know all that much about what was going on at the island laboratory. She had told him enough to paint the big picture, enough for him to understand the implications. They were planning a large scale contraceptive, that much was clear. Their intention was to attack society with this evil, to stop babies being born, to shrink the number of God’s children on the planet, reduce the world’s population, dramatically.

  Father Oriordan decided he needed a cup of tea, and got up to make it. As he sat sipping from the fine china cup, he asked himself what should he do. He was bound by the oath of the confessional not to divulge what he had been told, and it was a sacred trust. Maria had said she had been bound to secrecy, and had only told him, because she was so worried about what it might mean, and knew that saying it in the confessional meant he would not tell.

  The confessional was holy, and he had sworn to uphold its secrets, but this? He had to do something! He could not allow such wicked work to continue, if there was anything he could do to stop it, but what could he do? He decided he needed to pray. The decision he came to, to consult the monseigneur, was surely the answer to that prayer.

  As he kissed the Monseigneur’s ring two weeks later, he felt better. A load was lifted from his shoulders, he could now relax, it was no longer his responsibility. He had passed the problem upstairs. The good father had recognised the momentous nature of what Maria had told him, and the threat it could po
se to the church, and its beliefs. No one should be allowed to interfere with God’s plan for mankind, the way those devilish scientists were obviously trying to do, and they should be stopped. A universal contraceptive, imposed on an entire population, without their knowledge? That it was the work of the devil was clear, but his dilemma had been how to warn the church, without breaking his sacred oath of the confessional.

  Asking the Monseigneur for guidance was his answer, and it had been forthcoming immediately. It had been necessary to tell the Monseigneur a little of what Maria had said, sufficient for him to be able to grasp the seriousness of the threat, but after a few prodding questions by Monseigneur, came the clear directive.

  “Father, you must tell me all. This is so important, it transcends the oath of the confessional. The very future of the church could be implicated, so you must tell me everything that you know about this fiendish plot.”

  Which was what Father Oriordan thought he should do anyway, and he was relieved to be able to repeat it, with a clear conscience, to Monseigneur. Now, back home in his office, his feet again resting on his beloved footrest, he let out a deep breath, and stretched. He was in the clear, he did not have to do penance for breaking the confessional, the church was warned, and Monseigneur would know what to do.

  If father Oriordan had been troubled by breaking the oath of the confessional, Monseigneur Findlay had no such qualms. He had not heard the confession, he would not be breaking any rules, but now he was in possession of information that was truly momentous, that could have enormous implications for the church, and without doubt, God had given this information to him so he could act on it.

  But how? What could he do to stop this evil?

  The monseigneur pondered over the problem for several hours, and the more he thought about the ramifications of what he had learned, the more worried he became. He decided to do some homework. He spent hours on his computer, and the telephone, and he had many contacts.