The Premise

by Andy Crossfield

  "Yes," said Walter, falling into a pupil role.

  "So, when light strikes an object of a normal color, it reflects back about 90% of the visible spectrum, the rest is lost to diffraction mostly. But a Day-Glo color not only reflects light in the visible spectrum, it converts light in the non-visible spectrum to the visible spectrum, and the result is that it reflects back about twice as much light in the visible spectrum as a normal color."

  "Okay, good to know, but how’s that apply to food?" Walter asked.

  "Well, vegetables are a great source of nutrients, right? But they are mostly fiber, which is good, but that fiber doesn’t get digested and it can’t contribute any food value. But it turns out that the fiber also contains glucose, basically sugar, in it."

  Mark paused to make sure Walter was still with him, and then started again. "If we can succeed in breaking just two of the chemical bonds in vegetable fiber, we would end up with 65% more food energy! Like the Day-Glo example, we would get greater yield not by increasing our input, but by modifying the output!"

  "Doctor, I must say it is a novel approach, but how close are you to breaking those bonds?"

  "In my opinion, very close" said Mark. "We are evaluating the data now. Ideally, the bonds would just be selectively weakened, so as to not destroy the functionality or stability of the plants, or make the feel of the fruit or vegetable any different from current varieties. No one would buy wimpy squash or carrots, now, would they? The goal is to weaken them enough so that they still keep their firmness, but normal cooking temperatures would break them apart and yield the extra energy value."

  "But I know what you’re thinking," Mark said guiding Walter through a turn in the hallway, "another cold fusion pipe dream." He put his hand on Walter’s shoulder, looked both ways down the hall and pulled him toward another hallway. "Let me show you something" he said in an almost secretive, low voice as he led him toward a secure doorway. Mark held his palm to a glass panel in the doorframe. There was a hissing sound and the door opened as the bolt slid free.

  They walked into a small lab with quietly spinning centrifuge machines lining one wall. Along the other was a machine that looked like a cross between a miniature space station and a diving bell, with tubes protruding at all angles around the sphere. It caught Walter’s attention.

  "Oh, that’s Oscar, our scanning tunneling microscope… allows us to actually see the chemical bonds," Mark said proudly. "It’s the reason I can be confident we are close.

  "Come over here to the stove, Walter. I think you are going to be amazed." He poured a thick green mass into a pan sitting on the stove. "This is kenaf, a plant that looks a lot like marijuana but without any of the good stuff," Mark said with a smile that morphed into a frown. This stuff is a weed’s weed. Doesn’t deplete the soil– holds it together in fact because it deters erosion. Add a bit of fertilizer and it grows fast enough to put bamboo in the shade. What a plant!

  "Anyway, we just took a foot of a sample plant here and ran it through the food processor." Mark said as he reached for a spoon and dipped it into the slime. "Have a taste of this Walter. Come on, that’s a good boy."

  Walter grimaced as he closed his lips around the goo. "Gawd, that’s awful" he said, choking and searching for a glass of anything to rinse his mouth.

  Mark offered him a glass of water, which Walter eagerly downed. "Kinda like a cross between stale mushrooms and sour milk, with the consistency of boiled okra?" Mark asked, obviously amused by Walter’s reaction.

  "Worse" sputtered Walter. "You’re trying to market this crap as food? They’d have to be freakin’ starving!"

  "No, Walter, this is just a demonstration of a crop that could be plentiful and sustain the energy needs of the community. But if I let you taste the sweet carrots, or wheat, it wouldn’t be as memorable!" Mark chuckled at the joke only he seemed to appreciate…

  "Look, I guess I should have warned you, but have you got one more experiment in you?" Mark said looking over his glasses at Walter.

  "What do you mean?" Walter said, eyeing the pot of slime on the stove nervously. Mark had turned up the heat and it was beginning to steam, filling the small lab with the smell Walter had just tasted.

  "Almost ready," Mark said rubbing his hands together. "We need to bring it to a nice rolling boil. You are not going to believe this! You are in for a treat!"

  "Ok," Mark said as he stirred the boiling green goo. "As you saw, I didn’t add anything to the pot but heat. Now…" Walter started moving away as Mark came at him with another spoonful of the now steaming slime. "Come on, Walter, here I’ll take the first taste…"

  Mark put the spoon to his lips, blew on it to cool it a bit, took a bite and then held it out to Walter.

  Again, Walter reluctantly tasted the hot slime and again his face contorted into a frown. "Agggh," he said, "I thought it was going to be better!"

  "Well, it may not win a Pillsbury bakeoff, but did you taste it?"

  "Taste what?" said Walter, downing another glass of water.

  "Sweet. It tastes sweet!" Mark asked, a bit offended that his years of work had garnered so little praise. "Didn’t you notice?"

  "I’m not so sure putting sugar on a turd is noteworthy!" Walter said as he dabbed at his tongue with a napkin. "How long does the taste last anyway?"

  "Oh, gone by tonight for sure… you’re tasting the aromatics that were released in the cooking process. They hang on a bit longer than necessary, I think is the way my assistant puts it." An impish grin returned to Mark’s face as he busied himself putting the flask away and washing out the pan at the sink.

  "You do realize I can decide not to invest in your program, don't you?" asked Walter, now rubbing his tongue more vigorously with the napkin. "I didn't exactly expect the red carpet treatment, but I never expected to be tortured either–"

  "Only way to make a point, Walter. You will remember this for the rest of your life, I’ll wager. And as far as the 'sugared turd' comment, which, by the way I intend to steal for use in my lecture, this stuff has trillion dollar potential. And when we're ready for investors, you'll already have cleared a major hurdle!

  "What you witnessed Walter, close up, so to speak, …is the solution that will change the world. Surely that is worth a bit of momentary discomfort? Face it; we can’t slow the population boom. Hell, folks are working on increasing longevity, not decreasing it. And well, abstinence just hasn’t caught on." Mark said, grinning before he continued.

  "Bioengineering this weed to produce feedstock for livestock could put an end to the starvation now going on around the globe. Imagine a village that could use their worst land to grow feed for their livestock? Another use for this weed is for fuel. Using corn to produce ethanol was crazy, but growing this weed would free up all that extra corn for people! A kind of giveback from the industrialized nations who have been gobbling resources like crazy for so many generations! In the bargain, the industrialized nations can convert our own crop waste to fuel, and slow our resource consumption even more."

  They moved down the hall while they finished their conversation. Mark walked Walter to the elevator and pushed the button for the Lobby. "Thanks for the time, Doctor." Walter said. Mark smiled and shook his hand, "Come back anytime Walter." As Mark turned to head back toward the lab, he noticed Walter seemed to be hesitating, like he had another question.

  Mark gave him a knowing glance and fished in his lab coat pocket for a stick of gum, offering it to a grateful Walter. Mark smiled and gave Walter a thumbs-up, then turned and walked back to his lab as Walter boarded the elevator.

  Mark again pressed his palm to the plate in the wall and the door opened with a hiss. He grinned. He added that feature solely to impress his visitors and it worked every time. The hiss had nothing to do with security, or maintaining a positive atmosphere, or any of the other things his guests imagined it might represent; it just sounded cool; and in this business, 'cool' was immediately converted to cold hard cash, and cash was the lifeblood of research
.

  Twenty minutes later Mark’s phone began to buzz in his pocket. He looked at it…it was Ramy. "Nope. I’m done babysitting for today," he thought.

  Mark cleaned up the kitchen demonstration, then checked the centrifuge progress and was about to take them off– line when his phone buzzed again. Ramy. Geez.

  Mark answered in his annoyed voice, "What is it Ramy? I gave him the tour and the 'save the world' pitch, even got him to taste the slime, …twice! I’ve done my j…"

  "We lost him…" Ramy said in a panicked voice.

  "What do you mean you lost him? I put him on the elevator and pushed Lobby myself!"

  "He never arrived Mark, that’s why I’m calling. One more thing, the cameras are dark on the sixth floor!"

  "Holy Christ!" Mark gasped. "The sixth floor? How did that happen? He would need clearance for that."

  "Check your badge, Mark. Records show you entered the sixth floor!"

  Chapter 3 Be Careful What You Wish For

  "Now, I’m going to let that sink in for a moment," Jack said to his stunned audience. The previous sentence still hung in the air, pregnant with possibility while generating untold questions to all who heard it. "Science can now cure crime?"

  Elevator music played softly as Jack stood smiling on stage, and gradually the level of crowd murmur increased. This was the part of his presentation that always made him feel like God. He knew what was about to happen, and they sat there wide-eyed and open to whatever came next. Jack knew from experience, they wouldn’t like it one bit.

  "Actually," Jack said quelling the growing whispers, "I should have said I have some good news and some bad news. But to tell you about the future, I really need to tell you about the past… since after all, we are nothing but products of the decisions our ancestors made and how they decided things should be.

  "I want to take you back, for just a moment to 1830 in Victorian England. Now the first thing you would notice about this time in history is that things hadn’t changed very much transportation-wise for a thousand years. People still got around pretty much like the Romans had, and nobody got in too big a hurry about anything. Most folks stayed at home in their own village, what with highwaymen roaming about and all. Anyone venturing too far afield was likely to get knocked in the head and his worldly goods taken from him.

  "But in 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened, offering passenger service between those two cities. In less than twenty years, the whole of England was crisscrossed with rail, and the population could travel without worry or care at speeds that some thought would suck the air from your lungs and leave you lifeless in just a few short minutes. Well, all it took was for the first brave passengers to disembark unharmed to put that notion to rest, and soon thousands were enjoying the newfound miracle of train travel.

  "So why am I telling you this?" Jack paused again, and took a sip of water.

  "Because of the effect revolutionary change occurring so quickly had on people. You see, folks in 1830 were so enthused with the obvious benefits of the 'technology of the day' that they ascribed all sorts of other benefits to it. Industrialization was giving everybody something unheard of up until then: leisure time. Time to read, to travel, to think, and to invent even more wonders. The scientific method and objective observation gave rise to a torrent of invention. It seemed as if there was nothing that was impossible to change for the better. Some even thought the newfound leisure time would eliminate want, and along with it, crime…

  "But then came the Great Train Robbery of 1855."

  Jack paused and took another sip of water before continuing.

  "The corrosive effect of the robbery on the Victorian optimism toward technology is difficult to overstate. Not only had someone brazenly plotted to steal a breathtakingly large amount of gold bullion– gold destined to pay the troops fighting in the Crimean War no less– and not only had technology not prevented this type of avarice– the criminals actually used the new technology to pull off the heist! Shocking!

  "Almost from that day forward, technology has been seen for what it is, a double-edged sword containing both good and bad outcomes.

  "The list is long, of course. From electricity to nuclear power, advancements bring with them the ability to make our lives easier, or to end them horribly. In the 1990’s the Internet and the World Wide Web offered huge gains in productivity, knowledge, and commerce, but it also fostered and enabled a new crop of criminals and crazies, now able to pick pockets and plant fabrications in gullible minds without leaving the comfort of their homes.

  "Today, while so many technical advances have been made, many even more incredible discoveries lie just on the horizon, ready to be developed. Many people, for example, talk about someday eradicating cancer, or MS, or achieving time travel. Yet the notion of curing crime is not even thought about; the possibility seems akin to controlling the weather, it just seems too far-fetched. Instead, society has invested trillions to shield us from the harmful effects of crime and to lock away the perpetrators. If you think about it for just a moment, you will no doubt realize that a crime cure would be a staggering accomplishment.

  "Now," said Jack as he paced the stage, "back to my news tonight. For those of you who have been victims of crime, rejoice! Your experiences are not likely to be repeated, and chances are good that you will be repaid the financial aspect of what was taken from you. For those of you who have family members in prison, jail, or on parole, begin the celebration! Your loved one can now be inoculated so that they will not offend society any longer and begin again to contribute to the betterment of the community and family."

  Jack took a deep breath and steeled himself for what was to come next.

  "Here is the irony folks," Jack paused for an instant relishing the drama he'd created. "For everyone out there who depends on the business of crime fighting for a living… criminal lawyers and judges, prison and jail employees, police, deputies, US Marshals, FBI investigators, court reporters, bailiffs, bail bondsmen, constables, game wardens, immigration officials, meter maids, IRS agents, parole and truant officers, network security analysts, burglar alarm installers, private investigators, postal inspectors, night watchmen, arson investigators, safe and vault installers, correctional officers, prison chaplains, Secret Service agents, military police, dispatchers, armored car companies and their employees, sky marshals, TSA employees, locksmiths, rehabilitation counselors, security guards, and yes, even criminologists like myself…"

  Jack paused again for the maximum effect–

  "We’re fired!

  "And it gets worse for us, I’m afraid. Not only will we need to look for another line of work, we’ll now have to compete with all sorts of criminals, …er, rather ex-criminals, for the remaining jobs. Economists who have looked at the situation estimate 12% of the workforce is now involved in crime-related work, or a derivation of it to a great enough degree that their jobs would be eliminated. Another 8% have aspects of their jobs in areas that would require them to agree to retraining or a loss in hours worked per week."

  Jack could feel the rising angst in the room as the audience began to process the implication of a cure for crime in their own lives.

  "But, back to the good news for a moment", Jack said quickly, swerving the audience's emotions back and forth. "Society in general, and the economy in particular, is about to take off! Get ready for prices on just about everything to fall by 15 to 25%! That is the effect of pilferage, payola, graft, and good old corruption on prices we pay on everything…all along the way from raw materials to the store shelf.

  "Government is about to get more responsive also, better run, and more efficient too! No more 'use it or lose it' mentality when it comes to budgets… no more padding expense accounts, no more graft and corruption, or good ole boy networks, or 'go-along to get-along' kinds of thinking that hampered getting services to the people at reasonable prices. Now here's a big one, no more Medicare fraud! And tax rates are about to drop too… no more cheating on taxes me
ans most of us will pay less while governments do more with lower revenues!

  "Because the inoculation increases the activity in the brain responsible for what many call the 'conscience', people in this new society become more concerned with one another’s well being, not just their own. And in response to the effects of the vaccine, it is probable that each individual will eliminate non-productive habits, like slacking off, lying, and cheating… supposed attributes that caused societal resentment toward helping the poor or disabled in the first place."

  Jack was just about to launch into the next portion of his talk when a well-dressed man stood up in the audience.

  "Is this for real? I haven’t heard anything on the news about it!" said the man waiting for an answer.

  "Yes," Jack replied, "my sources are solid. The news will be released tomorrow."