Perfect People Read Free Page B

cabin.’ He held out the envelope. ‘There’s a medical history form I need you to fill out for me, Naomi, and there’s a consent form I need you both to sign. The nurse will be along to take blood samples from you both shortly. We’ve already analysed the samples you had mailed to us and have had both your entire genomes mapped out; we’ll start looking at them in the morning. We meet in my office at ten – meantime, is there anything I can do for you?’
    Naomi had made a list of a million questions she wanted to ask, but at this moment with her whole insides spinning from motion sickness she had only one thought, which was trying to not throw up.
    Dettore pulled a small container from his pocket and handed it to Naomi. ‘I’d like you to take one of these, twice a day with food. We know they will help epigenetically modify the foetus right at the beginning of conception.’ He smiled, then continued, ‘If there’s anything you think of you want to talk through, just pick up the phone and call my extension. See you in the morning. Have a good one.’
    Then he was gone.
    Naomi looked at John. ‘Has he got great genes, or a great plastic surgeon and a great dentist?’
    ‘What did you think of him?’ John said. Then he looked at her in alarm; her face had turned grey and perspiration was rolling down her cheeks.
    She dropped the container and lunged towards the bathroom.

4
     
    Naomi’s diary
    Can barely write this. Thrown up twice now. It is three in the morning. My arm hurts from the third injection. Three lots of blood. What on earth did the nurse need three lots of blood for? She was v. sweet and apologetic, though. Everyone seems kind. John ordered a huge dinner then left it untouched, the smell of it making him sick – me too!
    The cabin is vibrating because the ship’s engines are running. The nurse – Yvonne – a pleasant black woman, said when it is calm they usually just drift or drop anchor at night, but when it’s rough like now it’s more stable if they run the engines and keep some forward motion.
    Phoned Mum earlier – very brief call (at $9 per minute!) to say we were here. Then rang Harriet. She’s really excited for us. Don’t know when we are going to be able to afford to pay back the $150,000 they lent us. John is in with a chance on one or two science awards and he’s putting together a book project for MIT press – although their advances aren’t exactly huge.
    Feel like a fugitive – which I suppose is what we are. Weighing everything up over and over. Trying to find that point where medical ethics, the acceptable boundaries of science, individual responsibility and plain common sense all meet. It is very elusive.
    John’s awake, unable to sleep, like me. We just had a long discussion about what we’re doing and how we feel about it, going over the same old stuff. And of course how we would feel if it doesn’t work – there’s a fifty per cent chance of failure. We’re both positive still. But the enormity does scare me. I guess I’m OK about it because it still hasn’t happened yet, and although we wouldn’t get our money back, there is still time to change our minds. We still have a couple of weeks in which we can do that.
    But I don’t think we will.

5
     
    On the large flat screen mounted on the wall of Dr Dettore’s stateroom office, directly facing the semi-circular leather sofa on which they were sitting, John and Naomi stared at the heading that had just appeared.
    Klaesson, Naomi. Genetic defects. Disorders.
    PAGE ONE OF 16 . . .
     
    Dettore, sitting beside Naomi, dressed as before in his white jumpsuit and plimsolls, tapped the keypad on a console mounted on the low, brushed-steel table in front of them, and instantly the first page of the list appeared.
    1.  Bipolar Mood Disorder
    2.  Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
    3.  Manic Depression
    4.  Anxiety
    5.  Glomerulosclerosis
    6.  Hypernasality
    7.  Premature Baldness/Alopecia
    8.