just overheard a conversation between the Director of the Secret Service Novak and a general. I’m sure the President is aware of what’s going on!”
Is she crazy?
Barkov grasped the girl’s arm. “Go to the car!”
“Andrew, wait!” his mother exclaimed suddenly in a harsh tone.
He turned his head to her in bewilderment. “What’s the matter?”
Nellie asked the girl, “What’s your name?”
“Emily.”
“And your surname?”
“Housman.”
His mother’s eyes widened. “I see. And how could you overhear the conversation between the Director and the general?”
“I’ve told you, I have special abilities. I can tune to any electromagnetic waves. E-vision, mindphones, the Internet… This time the sound reached me from above. I think that the general flew over our city by plane, that’s why I could hear them so well.”
“What a load of bull!” Andrew said.
“No,” Nellie retorted. “Scientists from BioTech had made successful experiments with rats for them to react to electromagnetic signals.”
Emily nodded. “That’s how I knew about my father’s fate. I heard the transmissions between you and your captain. Then I read your appointment calendar on your mindphone and went to your lesson ahead of time so I could find some way to make you release my father.”
Nellie made a gesture to her son. “Let’s talk in private. I want to tell you something.”
After a short hesitation, Andrew released the girl’s hand. “Wait here.”
He followed his mother. She approached the farthest window and stared at a bush of roses growing in front of the house. At last, she took Andrew’s hand and said quietly, “This girl might not be lying. I don’t want to see my son dying. I’ll tell you everything.”
“What do you mean, Mom?”
“I took part in the BioTech Corporation tests. My genetic code was changed.”
Andrew could scarcely believe his ears. For several years, he had been searching for criminals using BioTech technologies while his mother had participated in the corporation program! That was impossible!
As if reading his thoughts, she whispered, “I did it before I met your father. I was young and silly. They promised that when I got married and delivered a baby, it would be better fitted to life… And they paid good money for that. The harm of BioTech products was not well known then. The Corporation boasted its charity. It helped orphans, built schools, hospitals… I didn’t know it would lead to problems or that GMO people would be shunned, marked as outcasts!”
She stopped talking as she stared at the roses again. He was keeping silence, too, trying to digest the information. Nellie gave a deep sigh and continued even quieter – so that he could barely make out the words with difficulty. “Son, I am a GMO. A genetically modified organism. You are a GMO, too. Later on, I thought that I’d made a mistake. So when your DNA was tested, I swapped the results. But now… I’m not sure that it was a mistake. It has kept you safe all these years as a policeman.”
Barkov was shocked with her confession more than with the news about the next “end of the world’. He had always considered himself to be an ordinary guy – a Normal. There seemed to be nothing special in his good reaction – it was like an ability of other people to waggle their ears or to reach the tip of their nose with their tongue. He’d just been grateful to be fast enough to evade harm in a job that was dangerous every day. He’d thought it was luck and training, but now… Is my mother a criminal? Does this mean I should not have children? That I can’t work in the police? That I’m a Deviant and a criminal myself? No! She has to be wrong.
“It’s not possible to swap the test results. Every lab has a protection system.”
“It was not so good then. I was lucky.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“I wanted you to lead a normal life, not in a reservation for freaks. Will you forgive me?”
Nellie looked at her son with pleading eyes. His heart withered.
Yes, she was a criminal. She delivered a son knowing about her genetic deviations. For that, she could be sentenced to 20-year imprisonment. And substitution of the test results could yield imprisonment for life.
I must not allow that.
Andrew embraced her, trying to look calm. “Mom, don’t worry. I don’t blame you.”
“Thank God! Prison is not the worst thing. I was afraid that you wouldn’t forgive me. Let others condemn me, but not you! Don’t tell anybody anything, son. If the disaster doesn’t happen, you can keep working in the police just as before.”
Andrew still didn’t believe in the near doomsday, but his career was already finished. How could he catch lawbreakers knowing that he was an offender himself? It’s high time for me to change professions anyway. Suddenly a thought crossed his mind, even though it seemed far-fetched: I’ll try to get a job as a singer at a restaurant!
Barkov had loved music from his childhood. He remembered from his mother’s stories that he had inherited it from his father. George used to sing Russian folk songs often, especially in a local group that played at festivities. But that was just a hobby. Neither he nor his son had outstanding voice qualities.
“I’ll quit anyway. And I’ll find another job.”
At that moment, Barkov realized he’d pronounced the last phrase too loudly. But it was too late.
“Another job?” Emily asked. “So, am I right? You’ve got modified genes?”
Andrew turned to the girl. She was looking at him with a provocative smile, her head up. Of course, he was not obliged to answer her. She was under arrest and he was still a policeman. But what if Emily started to ask the same questions during the court proceedings? What if the judge scheduled an expert examination?
“It’s none of your business,” he gave a brusque answer.
The smile disappeared from her face. “Really? The charge against my father has been put forward based on your words. There are no more witnesses. Maybe it was not him who fired a shot at you from the grenade launcher but someone else who you failed to catch!”
Nellie Barkov moaned in terror. “Grenade launcher?”
Emily continued. “Our attorney will claim that you accused an innocent man! Your oath will be void because you are a GMO.”
There was nothing to say against that. As soon as the court had the expert results, Andrew would turn from a policeman to a suspect himself and a criminal as well. Besides, expert examination of his mother’s DNA would be scheduled for sure, which he could never allow.
“What
