The Man Who Sold His Son (Lanarkshire Strays)

by Mark Wilson

  Ennis turned to Sarah, throwing her his best smile. “Good morning, Mrs Kinsella. I’m terribly sorry to disturb you both on a Sunday morning.”

  “Not at all,” Sarah waved him off. “And please, call me Sarah.”

  The smile broadened.

  “Would you like a coffee?” Sarah asked, flashing an accusing glance at Alex.

  “No, thank you, Sarah. Perhaps we could sit and have a little chat.”

  Alex’s right cheek twitched. “Perhaps we could get to the point?”

  Ennis laughed outright in amusement at Alex’s bluntness. His reaction did nothing to endear him to his host.

  “Alex!” Sarah looked affronted.

  “It’s quite all right, Sarah,” Ennis placated. “Dr Kinsella is quite right.” Ennis sat on the main sofa and continued. “I’m here with a…” he searched for a second for the right term, “a job offer, I suppose.”

  Sarah’s eyes lit up. She knew who Ennis was and how well he paid his employees. Alex merely raised his eyebrows a fraction. Ennis caught both reactions and didn’t miss a beat.

  “I have to ask that you keep whatever I disclose here confidential.”

  Alex nodded and made a gesture for him to continue. Ennis turned to Sarah. “Is that acceptable, Sarah?”

  Sarah sat in a spot on the couch directly opposite Ennis.

  “Of course,” she smiled.

  Ennis gave a curt nod of thanks, cleared his throat and continued.

  “All right. As you’re no doubt aware, the Synthi-sperm my company developed has become the primary method globally of reproduction.”

  “Not in Africa, or most other Third World countries,” Alex interrupted.

  Ennis, calm as ever, replied, “Quite right, Dr Kinsella. The company hasn’t made a significant impact in the developing world, but we’re hoping that’s about to change.”

  Ennis didn’t elaborate, instead returning to his initial line.

  “With this almost global uptake of our product and the nature of our business, we have the opportunity to constantly analyse and react to data from the thousands of clinics we run and the millions of patients we’ve assisted.”

  Alex shrugged.

  “As you should. Synthi-sperm is a totally new step in human reproduction – a necessary one for sure, but one that we simply need more data for to properly examine and assess its effectiveness and its future.”

  Ennis beamed. “Quite so, Dr Kinsella. A responsibility we take very seriously. Tell me, are you familiar with Professor Robertson?”

  “Who in reproductive genetics isn’t? She’s the foremost expert in the field.”

  “That she is,” Ennis replied. “And she currently works for me.”

  Alex found to his surprise that this disclosure made his frostiness towards Ennis thaw a little. Gayle Robertson wasn’t just an authority in reproductive genetics, she had invented many of the techniques and treatments he and thousands of other doctors used every day. She also had a reputation for integrity. If Professor Robertson was working with Ennis, it said a lot about his company’s ethics.

  Ennis clearly noticed Alex’s reaction at learning of Robertson’s involvement.

  “Well, as I said, Professor Robertson has taken the lead in analysing and interpreting the data.” Ennis paused for a second before continuing. “I’m assuming that you’ve heard the rumours that there are some improvements required in the Synthi-sperm production?”

  Alex nodded.

  “Yes, well, nothing dangerous, it’s important that you understand that, Dr Kinsella.”

  Alex motioned for him to continue.

  “It’s well known that children conceived using our product are generally less spirited, a little more content than previous generations. Recent data is telling us that that trait has amplified in the most recent generation of school-age children. A certain apathy is creeping in to our genetics.”

  “What sort of numbers are you dealing with?” Alex asked.

  “The data is almost globally sourced, maybe around three billion individuals in number. From that rather reliably large sample we’ve observed an almost one hundred percent presence of the genes we’ve identified as contributing to the apathy.”

  “So what?” Alex said. “Resort to wild type, isn’t that the phrase you guys use? Or genetic storehouses? It should be straightforward enough to re-insert genes from the older generation into your future product. Perhaps even utilize them for gene therapy for the existing children?”

  “Yes, quite right, Dr Kinsella. We have investigated that method but we’ve encountered a bit of a problem. The specific genes we need to replace and discourage prospective parents from selecting diminish in vigour as a person ages.”

  Alex’s lips thinned as the reason for Ennis’s visit suddenly dawned on him. Ennis, ever observant, noticed immediately.

  “At what age do the genes become non-viable?” Alex asked.

  “At forty years old.”

  Alex stood. “So, it’s my DNA you need rather than my expertise in the lab?”

  Ennis ignored Alex’s anger and rose to his feet, mirroring Alex’s posture.

  “My offer is not for you at all, Dr Kinsella. It’s for your son.”

  Alex launched himself straight at Ennis. Taking the lapels of his suit in both hands, he dragged the smaller man to the door.

  “Alex!” Sarah shouted after him as he released one hand to open the door and shove Ennis roughly onto the carpet outside.

  Ennis rose to his feet slowly, calmly. “Quite a temper you have there, Doctor.” He straightened his suit methodically as Alex glowered at him. Ennis wasn’t the least intimidated by the bigger man, and offered him his smile once again.

  Sarah had come to the door and had placed herself between the men.

  “Mr Ennis, I’m so terribly sorry.”

  “Don’t apologise to him, Sarah. He just asked to use our son as stock material to fix his faulty product.”

  Sarah turned back to Gavin Ennis.

  “Is that what you meant, Mr Ennis,” she asked.

  Gavin sighed.

  “Not exactly. Yes, we could use the DNA from your son; any DNA harvested from a child of Thomas’s age would be much more… viable than Alex’s. So very few people exist now of Thomas’s age with natural genetics, less than 0.03 percent of the world’s population.”

  “It doesn’t make him a fucking commodity, you arrogant bastard,” Alex yelled.

  Ennis’s eye twitched a little and his smile wavered for a split second.

  “Of course not, but it does make him very special. You are aware of what the UK government are planning for special people, for Randoms?”

  Alex and Sarah both winced at the term and glared at him.

  Ennis ignored their reaction. “I have reliable information that the World Government will offer special accommodation to Randoms in the next few months. It’ll be under the guise of ‘best interests’ of course. So many of our Random minority have been abused or attacked in recent months. Somewhere safe seems a reasonable offer.”

  Sarah and Alex stole a worried glance at each other.

  “I can give your son true safety before this law is passed. And I can give him a purpose. He’ll be contributing to the next stage in the evolution of reproductive genetics.”

  “As a guinea-pig?” Alex asked, moving towards him again but found Sarah in his path. She motioned at him to calm down and turned back to Ennis to listen to what else he had to say.

  The irritating perma-smile suddenly vanished, replaced by what looked like sincerity.

  “Absolutely not. As I said, I could use Thomas’s DNA; its longevity for purpose makes it almost ideal. Unfortunately, Thomas is most likely just as reproductively sterile as the rest of the global population. You are not, Dr Kinsella. I want much more from your family than just some DNA, although that’s certainly the deciding factor. I want you to leave your family and come to work with Professor Robertson in China. Permanently, without your family.”
>
  The Kinsellas were stunned. Eventually Alex spoke. “Are you so full of your own self-importance that you think that I’d leave my wife and my child to take a job with you? You’re insane.”

  The smile returned. Reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket, Gavin produced a piece of paper and handed it to Sarah. She looked at the paper in her hand. It was a cheque for ten billion pounds.

  “I do have quite an incentive. That money will certainly take care of your family,” Ennis said.

  Sarah threw the cheque back at him. “Time for you to leave, Mr Ennis.”

  Gavin kicked the cheque back over the threshold into the apartment.

  “Quite right, Sarah. Although I have one further incentive for your husband to consider my offer of employment.”

  Alex took a step towards him, eyes blazing, but found Sarah’s arm across the door, blocking his path.

  Ennis gave a little shrug. “I’m chairman of the committee that will decide where and how these Randoms will live from now on. Do keep that in mind when considering my offer.”

  The smile returned to his face for all of a second until Sarah’s fist made contact, knocking him against the adjacent wall. Launching herself through the doorway, Sarah delivered a vicious kick to the businessman’s groin. Ennis hit the blue carpet hard and vomited across it.

  “Go fuck yourself… if you still can.” Spinning around she marched back into their apartment. Alex cocked an eyebrow and allowed a smile to pull at the corner of his mouth. He shook his head at Ennis, who was wiping at his mouth with the sleeve of his very expensive suit.

  Wincing, Ennis rose to his full height, spat a mouthful of bile onto the carpet and did his best to smooth his face into its regular passive mask. “I’ll give you until tomorrow morning to give me an answer. After that, you can expect an announcement on the new legislation.” Ennis retrieved a business card from his jacket pocket. Tossing it on top of the cheque, he sneered at Alex, “Call me.”

  Alex closed the door and followed his wife into the living room.

  Sarah was pacing furiously. Her head whipped around upon hearing Alex enter.

  “That sadistic, bastard.” She rushed towards Alex. “Do you think that he’ll follow through on his threat? Do you think our son’s in danger?”

  Alex wanted to say no, but he’d worked with people like Ennis before. They were focused on the balance sheet, on future profits and new markets. People meant nothing to them. That Ennis had ended up in healthcare was most likely an accident of circumstance and opportunity rather than as a result of any real desire to improve people’s lives. All of the misgivings he’d had about the man were now filling his head.

  “Yes. I do,” he said simply.

  Sarah started pacing again. “Why not simply offer you a job, or pay you for your DNA, like a donor? Why this?”

  Alex shook his head. “I don’t know, Sarah.” It was the truth.

  Sweeping around again, she jabbed a finger at the door as though Ennis still stood behind it.

  “I do,” she snarled. “Men like him. All they do is use people. All they want is control. It’s not enough for men like that to have access to something, to someone; they want to own, they want to control, they want to humiliate.”

  Sarah’s eyes flashed with the painful memories of her childhood – of her father.

  “I’m not letting that bastard take either one of you away from me.”

  Alex walked towards his wife, wrapping his arms around her. Sarah leaned into his chest, wrapped her own arms around his waist and soaked his shirt with mascara-blackened tears.

  “I’m not sure we’re going to have a choice,” Alex said softly.

  10

  “I simply don’t see how we can continue to produce new stock, Mr Hale.” Gayle had been trying in vain for forty minutes to make the middle-manager accept the reality of his situation. Hale was either choosing to ignore her advice or simply didn’t understand the facts she’d presented to him.

  Hale’s Holo-Image flickered, as if in response to the man’s annoyance.

  “I’ve got targets to meet, Professor. The Japanese division is by far the largest outlet for Synthi-sperm, year in, year out. I can’t have a complete cessation of product flow.” Hale jabbed his index finger at the ground to punctuate.

  Gayle’s patience had finally run dry.

  “You’ll get whatever I say you get, Hale. You’re not the only regional manager affected by this. We’ve a serious concern and I simply won’t allow production to continue at this time.”

  Hale’s Holo-self came angrily to his feet. “We’ll see what Mr Ennis has to say about this.”

  “He thinks that you should listen to Professor Robertson and do as you’re told.” Gavin Ennis swept into the lab-office and into the Holo-Cam’s field of view. “Stop wasting her time, Hale.”

  With a gesture, Ennis flicked off the communication and turned his eyes to Gayle, throwing her a warm smile.

  Gayle made a little gesture with her head, indicating the space Hale’s Holo-Image had stood moments ago.

  “Bit of a dick, isn’t he?” she asked.

  Gavin gave a gentle laugh. “He is, but he’s a good administrator.”

  Gavin sat on the edge of the desk and gestured to Gayle that she should take a seat.

  “I didn’t expect to see you in China, Mr Ennis. Eventful journey?” she asked, taking in the fresh bruises on his face.

  Ennis touched the marks. “Oh, these? I had a little fall yesterday whilst interviewing your new colleague.”

  Gayle smiled at the news. “Oh, that’s wonderful. Not the fall, of course, but that you’ve a fresh brain coming in.” She indicated the data she’d been working on at her workstation. “Anyone I know?”

  Ennis stood. “I wouldn’t have thought so. He’s a reproductive geneticist working at the Bellshill Headquarters. Very experienced. Very bright. He should be with you in a day or two.”

  Gayle looked puzzled. “Another geneticist? You think that… sorry, what’s his name?”

  “Alex Kinsella,” Ennis replied.

  “You think that Dr Kinsella has some new insight to offer my team?”

  Ennis raised an eyebrow and allowed a smile to form.

  “Dr Kinsella is your team from now on. The other geneticists will be leaving tomorrow morning, as well as the lab technicians.”

  “You can’t be serious, Mr Ennis. I need these people, especially now with the problems we’re having with the line.”

  Ennis sat back against the desk again. “Dr Kinsella has a solution to our problem. We have our wild type.”

  Shock registered on Gayle’s face for a second, before she wiped it away again. Ennis nodded.

  “Yes. He’s a fertile man who has fathered a child and happens to be a reproductive geneticist.”

  Gayle’s face broke into a huge smile and her eyes danced with calculations and with joy. “And Dr Kinsella is happy to come work here, long term? To donate his DNA to the project?”

  Ennis gave her a single curt nod. “What man in his position wouldn’t be happy to do so? Besides, I made certain that he’s fully committed to assisting before recruiting him.”

  Gayle turned away from Ennis, her mind racing with the possibilities Dr Kinsella’s employment offered her. She could isolate maybe a dozen key genes from a blood sample. Within hours she could have the genes inserted into the main product progenitor line. In less than a week, this whole mess could be fixed, and with Dr Kinsella’s on-going input, they could continuously improve the Synthi-sperm. They could enhance and expand the gene pool available for the product. Finding this man was simply a miracle. Finally, she would be able to ensure that humans could continue to reproduce. Together they could keep their species alive and thriving.

  “How old is he, Mr Ennis?”

  Gavin grinned broadly again. “Twenty-nine years old.”

  Gayle positively beamed at how perfect it all was. “How did you find him, Mr Ennis? His genome, his situation… he must
be one in a billion.”

  “More like one in seven billion,” Ennis allowed a little smirk to appear. “I met his son on a beach last year. A spirited lad. He was so obviously not a product of Synthi-sperm. I waited until the correct moment came along and made Dr Kinsella an offer.”

  Gayle kept the happiness on her face but sneered inwardly. Gavin Ennis never waited for the correct moment to come. He manipulated and engineered events and people to whichever outcome he required. It was his gift and why he was such a successful businessman. A thought stabbed at her brain.

  “Dr Kinsella is willing to leave his son indefinitely to take the post?”

  Ennis shrugged. “You know what the parents of these Randoms are like. So embarrassed by their children. He and the boy aren’t close. Dr Kinsella jumped at the chance.”

  Gayle bristled. She hated discrimination and poor parenting made her blood boil. She herself had had a terrible upbringing. Neglected and abused at the hands of her parents for years. She’d been the youngest of seven children, an unplanned-for complication. A mistake. As a result, she’d committed herself to education and research for a lifetime. Initially an escape route from a household that didn’t want her, eventually her work became a way of accommodating her desire to assist people who desperately wanted to be good parents to achieve their goal. Parenthood was a privilege in Gayle’s view, a child was a gift.

  The deciding factor in her choosing to give her life over to Mr Ennis’s research had been discovering his own tragic past. Losing his wife so young and his only son had clearly driven her employer to throw his resources into helping other families. Dr Kinsella’s type enraged her.

  Ennis watched her prickle, and then offered, “The boy has a lovely mother. They won’t miss him as a husband or as a father.”

  “No,” Gayle said. “I’m sure they won’t.”

  As he left Gayle’s office, Ennis felt a little pulse in his pocket. Retrieving his Comm, he noted that a message had been left. Activating the memory, he watched as a Holo-image of Alex Kinsella popped into existence. The young doctor looked tired; he’d clearly had no sleep. No doubt stressing the night through, trying to decide his best course of action.