by Stan Mason
’That may be so,’ she rattled angrily, her temper rising quickly. ’But what about the human rights issue? Why should an inmate in prison serving a life sentence have his life cut by thirty or forty years just to satisfy an experiment operated by the Government. There’s no real reason to take life away from them.’
’They’re prisoner in jail for life,’ stated the government agent firmly. ’There’s no chance of remission or parole. They’re probably more than willing to die a natural death much faster. It releases them from the pain of incarceration.’
’Do they have a choice?’ she returned sharply. ’It seems that we have two elements of the same story but on different sides... both in contention with each other.’
He reached across the table to take her hand warmly. ‘Hey! How did we get into this?’ he cooed, hoping to pour oil on troubled waters.
She relaxed and smiled at him pulling her hand away, She knew that they had arrived at a watershed. On the one hand, she wanted to feel a kind of warm love for him; on the other hand, she intended to get to the root of the exchange programme which she believed ought to be presented to the television viewers. The diversification of her mind caused her to feel schizophrenic as she tried to focus on both sides at the same time.
They finished their meal, drank a couple more glasses of wine, and then left the restaurant.
‘Where are we going?’ she asked as he hailed a taxi.
‘To your place,’ he told her frankly. ‘I want to see where you live.’
She stared at him reluctantly for a few moments before climbing into the taxi. ‘Okay,’ she said whimsically, slightly affected by the volume of wine she had imbibed. ‘If you really want to see how I live you’re welcome. I’ve some good Columbian coffee that’ll help finish off the evening.’
They alighted outside her apartment and went inside. Before she could go into the kitchen to fill up the kettle, he moved closely behind her and took her in his arms.
‘There’s no hurry,’ she told him, steeling herself from his amorous approach. ‘We don’t have to rush things!’
‘You’re right,’ he responded easily. ‘There’s no hurry.’ He kissed her on the ear and stroked the back of her neck with his open hand.
She hesitated for a few seconds wondering how to react and then the adrenalin surged through her veins in a torrent, and she found herself kissing Jordan on the lips for a long time, his tongue touching the roof of her mouth in a solid French kiss.
‘This is ridiculous!’ she managed to say the moment that they parted. ‘You and me... ’
He silenced her with another long kiss and she could hardly believe that she found herself undoing the buttons on his shirt in rapid quick time and loosening the belt which held up his trousers. For the first time in her life her body ached with desire. She wanted, beyond all reason, to be seduced by the man she had mostly hated. They staggered together towards the bedroom leaving a trail of clothes behind them on the floor, landing heavily on the bed. Within a few moments, she found herself on top of him in the nude before they turned and their positions were reversed. Nothing in the world seemed to matter any more. Her mind had lost its reason... there was no more logic to be found!
Jordan’s hands ran smoothly over her breasts, touching the nipples gently and stroking them lightly. Her back arched as the foreplay began to excite her. It was the first time that anyone had ever got to this point in her brief relationships in the past with any man before but now she felt uninhibited. He began to kiss her repeatedly all over her smooth slender body and shortly she ran her hands over her lover’s chest before moving them down between his legs. He halted for a moment, enjoying the sensuous touch of her fingers. Then he did the same thing, placing his fingers in her clitoris, rubbing it smoothly and rapidly. Sky’s body was entirely relaxed. Contrary to any situation in her previous life, she was putty in the man’s hands. The feeling that she experienced was far different to anything she had felt before and, as soon as she became moist, he penetrated her body in a moment of unguarded sex, thrusting himself up and down with insistent regularity. She quickly joined in with the rhythm, working her body in harmony with him, enjoying every second of the ecstasy on which she found herself. After a short while, the adrenalin in her body roared with sexual excitement and she obtained a long-lasting orgasm at the same time as her partner. Both fo them had experienced a perfect session of co-ordinated love-making. It was one which she would never forget in the whole of her life!
They lay on the bed puffing and panting like two tired seals on a platform in the harbour, and she began to laugh although she didn’t know the reason why she should do so.
‘That was really brilliant,’ she managed to say, searching for some clothing nearby to cover her naked body. ‘Absolutely brilliant!’
‘I thought so too,’ he uttered, regaining his breath. ‘It was terrific!’
‘How many women have you had sex with?’ she enquired as she returned to her role as a television presenter.
‘You’re the first!’ he lied to her.
‘The first this month I should imagine,’ she chided gently. ‘You realise that I could be pregnant. You didn’t use a contraceptive. We had unsafe sex!’
‘But it was worth it!’ he returned uncaringly. ‘I have to admit that I’ve always been in love with you, from the moment I first saw you. Seducing you was one of my main ambitions in life.’
She turned to him unrepentantly as the adrenalin still remained in her body. ‘Let’s do it again!’ she invited without shame.
He moved closely towards her and stroked her breasts gently once again. However one sexual session was sufficient to reduce him to impotency,... he had nothing more to offer her. Nonetheless, she enjoyed the touch of his hands on her even though he was unable to perform again in the same way.’
Later that evening, after a few more glasses of wine, her romantic spirit began to disappear like the mist. Ambition rose strongly within her soul again and her body language changed substantially which tended to baffle the government agent. He had expected her to warm to him, kissing, touching, and embracing him. Instead, she became as cold as ice and it soon became apparent that she wanted him to leave. It was the end of a pleasant experience that he hoped would be repeated but Sky’s intention was to remain a senior presenter at the television studio. She would brook no interference from any source if it looked like endangering her career. Subsequently, despite the amorous incident that had taken place, which had moved her on to a much higher plane which she had never experienced before, she was determined never to find herself in his arms again. One moment of romantic madness was enough to satisfy her for the present time. Her work demanded total commitment and she could not afford to lower her guard, for any reason whatsoever! There was no way by which she would form a serious relationship with Jordan... or any other man... not until later in life when she had achieved her ambition!
***
There is a concept which enters into the realms of the paranormal, believed by some people, of the existence of a mischievous spirit by the name of the ‘Cosmic Joker’. They consider that the malicious entity which remains supreme with regard to influencing the direction of people’s lives, and creating havoc on regular occasions, to be a spirit or a paranormal being of some outrageous kind which inhabit cosmic space way beyond Planet Earth, yet it is conscious of everything that happens to each individual. It plagues the lives of ordinary people on a daily basis by causing them to achieve something triumphant or to misdirect their path, or make fools of themselves according to its whim. Typical examples of its actions relates to the problems caused to married couples. It seems to delight in influencing one of the partners to stray by having an affair with another person, leading ultimately to separation and, perhaps, divorce. It is believed to persuade workers to change their employment most unwisely to their detriment. Equally it affects the minds of i
ndividuals who lose their money by gambling wantonly, or by investing their hard-earned cash in some unknown company that has no change of succeeding. The games it plays with people are intolerable, leaving havoc, misery and despair in its wake for its own satisfaction. However there is another side to the coin with some fortunate people who gain in his clandestine plans. They win the lottery or come to a large inheritance although he often wreaks vengeance on some of them in a real cruel way by laying bare their lives.
Eventually, the Cosmic Joker came to interfere with the body exchange programme by a most unusual method. At Broadmead Asylum in the West Midlands, there was a dour chemist by the name of Ian Pendleton who was employed there to dispense drugs in small doses to the patients which kept them for the most part under sedation. They were all mentally ill people, many of them relatively young, who could not be allowed into the community for fear of resorting to violence indiscriminately against others which they often did in the asylum. Pendleton was fairly well paid by the County Council for his work although he was too intelligent to be based in such a small asylum. However, being a phlegmatic type of man, he was less than ambition and extremely conscientious but that didn’t rescue him from being a target of the Cosmic Joker.
When Jordan contacted the Controller of Broadmead Asylum, it fell to Pendleton to chaperone two mental patients to the Government laboratory at Lytham St. Annes. It was an order that he was forced to obey but he had no idea what was in store for him.
When he arrived at his destination, he was taken into the chamber and was surprised to find himself starting at the two cubicles. Without delay, documentation was thrust in front of him which demanded that he sign a declaration of secrecy under the Official Secrets Act. He did so and was even more surprised to note that the two mental patients received an injection in turn before being placed inside the cubicles. He could hardly believe what was happening as the body exchanges took place before his eyes. The scientist involved seemed to be completely innocuous at the process without any inhumane intention. Hey acted as though they had the right to swap bodies of mentally disturbed patients with aged folk whose role in life had been commended in the past. Pendleton fully understood the reason why the programme had been put into place but he failed to agree with it on the grounds of humanity. As far as he was concerned, any advance in science was to be heralded as a success but there were boundaries which couldn’t, or shouldn’t., be crossed. The body exchange programme was one that went well beyond those parameters and he strongly resented it.
After the exercise was finished, he approached the Chief Scientist to ask him a question which he considered to be vital to the future of the programme.
‘What’s in the hypodermic needle that’s injected into the bodies before they put them into the cubicles?’ he asked politely.
‘Why do you want to know?’ The question was fired at him like an arrow from a cross-bow.
‘Because the two people I brought here were under heavy medication for quite a while. I don’t want them to be endangered in any way as a result of the serum injected into them.’
The Chief Scientist conceded as he weighed up the situation quickly. ‘It’s sulcolithacide,’ he stated bluntly. ‘Do you know of it?’
‘Yes I do,’ returned Pendleton sagely. ‘It’s a very strong sedative. Strong enough to knock out a horse!’
‘That’s right. Anyone injected with it will go out like a light,’ declared the other man. ‘It’s quick and extremely effective.’
‘I know,’ concurred the chemist curtly, satisfied with the information.
He returned to Broadmead Asylum with his two charges who continued to stagger around like old men due to the fact they now had ageing bodies. In his opinion, it was a sad day to see two relatively young people being hastened to their deaths. He went to his pharmacy, picking up a list which identified all the drugs on offer and ran his finger down the names. Sulcolithacide was a blend of a number of different drugs designed to comatose a patient almost instantly. The time involved from injection to complete sedation was signified in terms of five to ten seconds. It was an extremely powerful drug but Pendleton was too good a chemist not to be able to find an antidote. In fact he intended to go much further by discovering a serum that denied body-swaps by means of a chemical reaction. He worked on the project for five days before coming up with a serum that not only denied a reaction from sulcolithacide but was likely to prevent any body exchange taking place.
He was due to take another two patients to Lytham St. Annes before the end of the week but this time he was ready for the boffins who worked there. Just before entering the laboratory, he injected his subjects with his antidote continuing with another one which he believed would prevent the body exchange from taking place. Inside the laboratory, one of the scientists injected the first subject with sulcolithacide and he was placed inside the right-hand cubicle. An old wealthy industrialist was subsequently injected and put into the left-hand cubicle The metal coats were placed around their bodies and the current was switched on. Within seconds, the laboratory was flooded with a very bright light as usual, watched by Pendleton and the scientists wearing dark glasses to protect them from the glare.
After the current was turned off, the two men were removed from the cubicles and directed to sit on the chairs nearby. Pendleton stared at the body of the man he had brought with him from the asylum and a frown appeared on his face. He could not believe what had happened! Half the man’s body was the same as when he had first arrived, the other half had been changed with the industrialist. The exchange had clearly failed due to the serum created by Pendleton but the ultimate result was hardly one to be desired.
The Chief Scientist stared at the body of the industrialist with dismay. The recipient was eighty-nine years of age and he had half the body that he came with and half of that of a much younger man. For the first time since it was started, the process had failed to transfer the complete bodies of those involved in the programme. The two men had finally succumbed to a fault in the system and no one could tell whether they would live for many years more or simply die within a short period of time. How was it possible only to achieve a fifty-fifty success? What had gone so seriously wrong? And how would it affect future exchanges. It was inconceivable to the boffins that only part of the exchange procedure had taken place which firmly set the cat among the pigeons. Much to Pendleton’s delight, the programme was suspended immediately while the scientists spent the best part of the night and day checking the apparatus. However, despite taking everything apart that could be dismantled, they could find nothing wrong that might have interfered with the process.
In the meantime, Pendleton took his subject back to the asylum wondering whether he had done the right thing by injecting the man with his new serum. He had gone there with a person who had a wholesome young body and had returned with a man who was half-young and half-old. It was not what he had intended. When he reflected on the issue in the privacy of his own room, he realised that he had created a mutant as a result of his actions. Subsequently he could hardly forgive himself for what he had done. The incident weighed very heavily on his mind because the situation was irreversible. Within a short space of time, his work fell into decline mainly because of the blame he placed upon himself and he soon found that he was unable to sleep at night for thinking about it. In due course, he was summoned by the Controlloer of Broadmead Asylum for over-dosing two of the patients and he broke down in front of her in advance of suffering a nervous breakdown. Hisd dismissal came as a matter of necessity two days later when he over-dosed another patient. Clearly his state of mind was causing him to become careless. Three days later, with gloom and doom surging through his mind, he took an overdose of tablets, ending a modest career in an undignified manner. It was yet another round in the game with the Cosmic Joker who, in the realm in which it lived, laughed at the prank it had played on the unfortunate chemist... as well as that on the
man who was now in the pitiful irreversible and undesirable position of being n two ages at the same time.
***
Jeremy Ratcliffe, the Minister of Science, sat in his office poring over some technical papers related to another invention passed to him by a Committee. It concerned the development of a new scientific laboratory intended to deliver a specific type of chemical which could be used effectively against enemy troops at a time of war. The Committee had recommended the development at a cost of many millions of pounds and they had presented it in detail to the Minister for his final decision.
As he began to read the notes accompanying the proposal, there was a knock on his office door.
‘Come in!’ he called out and Jordan entered.
‘You wanted to see me, Minister,’ claimed the government agent with an element of concern in his voice.
Ratcliffe pointed to a chair on the other side of the desk and Jordan seated himself nervously. He had no idea why he had been summoned to the office and his mood was sombre as he anticipated that whatever it was would not be favourable to him.
‘The body exchange programme,’ advanced the Minister. ‘What’s happening with it now?’
‘I’m afraid to say it’s fallen to a trickle,’ replied Jordan with a sad expression. ‘It the result of a two-way problem, sir.’
The Minister stared at him over the rims of his reading glasses. ‘Go on!’ he pressed as though in a hurry.
The government agent swallowed hard before continuing. ‘The first problem is that we don’t have enough people. All the prisoners servicing life sentences and others with very long sentences, have all been put through the process. Most of the inmates in asylums and sanatoria are relatively too old. We’ve used up all the younger ones. The second problem is that we’re having difficulty finding recipients to accept the younger bodies. We can’t seem to find people who have made a great contribution to the nation or society any more. As far as the future of the programme’s concerned, it’s a lose-lose situation. I recommend that we close it down immediately. The details can be sent to the archives to become revealed in fifty years time. By then, all those involved in the programme will be beyond redemption.’
