Genesis Code, (Book 1, Genesis Series)

Chapter 11

At 6am, Bill Taggart crawled out of bed after another sleepless night. Saturday had arrived, the day of the second meeting between the Indigene and Ben Watson. Last week, his team on the ground had tracked the alien to one of the underground station entrances before they lost it.

'Fuck this job.' He flung his legs over the side of the bed, sick of the same routine and the feeling that his body belonged to someone else. Somehow he made it to the bathroom.

He splashed icy cold water on his face; the drastic temperature change shocked his sluggish system back into life. In the mirror he still looked half asleep, despite his overactive brain that just wouldn't shut off. Two years of sleep deprivation and a manic diet had left him with permanent black circles around his eyes. The Glamour package could fix that; all age reversing genetic treatments were widely available to the public. But Bill preferred to see his real face every morning, not a modified version of himself. It was what Isla had preferred, too. In his own way, he honoured her memory by staying true to his original self.

'There are far too many people walking around with the same face,' she said to him when Bill told her he was considering using one of the manipulation clinics. 'Wouldn't you prefer to look unique?' Isla was five years older than him, and a little wiser.

'It wouldn't be much,' he said. 'Just a little skin lift to rejuvenate my face.'

'That's what they all say, and then people find they can't stop fiddling with their genetics. A little skin lift turns into a telomere injection. Before you know it, you've turned back time so much you're a teenager again.'

Twenty-second-century geneticists could now isolate the gene that controlled the body's natural ageing process. While the telomeres within the body's chromosomes naturally shortened, they could lengthen them by injecting a growth hormone into the telomere. This halted the ageing process and dramatically reversed the outward signs of those advancing years.

'I would never go that far. Okay, maybe if I was fifty,' said Bill, teasing. 'Then I could snag a younger woman.'

'Try to look past the exterior, Bill,' said Isla. 'So many people still judge others by how they look. Complexities exist beneath the surface.' Her words brought Charles Deighton to mind, and he had to agree with her.

In the six months before her disappearance, Isla's personality had changed drastically. After one of her trips to Exilon 5, she had become suspicious about everything and lost her carefree attitude. When Bill had tried to talk to her about it, she became defensive.

'You're all the same. Why can't you leave well enough alone? Why are you trying to mess up things that don't concern you?'

He raised an eyebrow. 'Is that aimed at me specifically?'

'Not specifically. Well, yes. Maybe.' Isla sighed.

'Love, what are you talking about?'

'Just leave it, Bill. I can't talk about it.' She turned away, but then turned back with a serious expression on her face that worried Bill. 'Don't jump to obvious conclusions. It's an easy out. Never stop searching for the truth.'

He hadn't thought too much about her lecture at the time. But with her gone, Bill had combed over every conversation they'd had. His heart sank when he'd first realised her lecture had actually been warning.

Bill stayed at the mirror remembering other conversations that followed after that night.

'Have you ever heard of Morse code?' Isla asked him one evening over dinner in their private apartment in Nottingham back on Earth.