Daughters - Eve, Ch. 03

"And even if we DID convert every woman to our way of loving, we STILL need men to get ourselves pregnant, or else this 'evolution' would die out in a generation...wouldn't it?"

"Sure, but think about this. The ratio of male to female at birth is around 50-50. It's actually a little bit more 'boys' than 'girls,' but close enough. What if we were able to somehow affect the sex determination of pregnancies among our 'converted' women, to skew that ratio in our favor?" Eve asked.

"Well, eventually, there'd be fewer men," Adana said. "And I guess that you don't need THAT many men if you just want to get women pregnant....but is that possible?"

"I don't know," Eve admitted. "I'm no expert in that field. But it's something to keep in mind"

"IF we could figure out some way to convert women without spitting in their food. I don't think that method is going to work."

"Yuck, definitely not," Eve agreed. "Maybe we can duplicate that contamination that Ben came up with."

"So, you definitely think it was Ben?" Adana asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Eve said, her look certain.

"The police are after him. But that means we'll also have to be careful. Whatever motivation he had - and I doubt it was the same as ours would be - the government doesn't care, they'd just want to stop us."

"I guess," Adana said. "But why aren't they interviewing us, or at least you?" Adana asked.

"At the very least, you worked with him, and if the police are THAT smart, they'd somehow know that you were infected..."

"I don't know," Eve admitted. "In any case, we're hardly in a position to go around changing other women into lesbians in any sizeable numbers, even if the government wasn't looking into it." She hesitated.

"I should probably fill Andrew in on this - at least some of it. If Ben caused this contamination, Andrew needs to know about it, though he doesn't have to know about its effect on us, nor what might come of it later, don't you think?" Eve said, her expression uncertain.

"I'll go along with whatever you decide," Adana said, patting Eve's hand.

"Can I use your phone?" Eve asked. "I'm going to call Andrew."

"Sure," Adana said. Adana busied herself with some files while Eve spoke to her boss, but sensed something wrong in her tone. When Eve hung up, Adana immediately asked what was wrong.

"He asked me to come over - to his house. He said he had something he wanted to show me..."

"Yes, so?" Adana said.

"...then he said I should bring you along." Eve looked confused.

"Do you suppose he knows about us...I mean, everything about us?" Eve asked.

"I don't see how he could know anything about us," Adana said. "You haven't told him anything, have you?"

"Of course not," Eve replied irritably.

"He might have seen us doing things together, maybe even on weekends, but we haven't 'done' anything in public that would give away our relationship, other than as a friendship."

"Maybe he was hiding in a sack of flour when we went to the bakery," Adana giggled.

"Well, what do you think of us both going together? Is it some kind of a trap, or something?" Eve asked.

"For goodness' sake, Eve, you're starting to become very paranoid," Adana replied, exasperated.

"I'm sure it's nothing. When did he want to see us?"

"As soon as this police thing was wrapped up. He asked me to find out what it was about," Eve replied.

Her timing was good. Adana's phone rang a few seconds later.

It was Brenda, telling her that the police wanted to see Eve, "If she has a few minutes." Eve looked at Adana and shrugged.

"Here goes nothing," she said. She left the executive suite and headed to the reception area.

"Hullo, Miss Butler, um, I mean, Doctor Butler, I'm sorry for our abrupt entry earlier. I'm Senior Constable Mulwray, this is Constable Alice Hargraves," with the plainclothes officer waving brusquely at the female cop, also in a business suit. She looked much more relaxed than previously. She smiled at Eve and nodded.

"I just wanted to ask you a few questions about your lab mate, Doctor Benjamin Marker." The officer now looked as meek as milktoast, and Eve wondered how well such an appearance served him. The female officer looked sweet, her black hair cut short in a pixie cut. She stopped smiling, and Eve wondered if this was going to be an example of the 'good cop, bad cop' ploy.

"We were wondering how well you know the Doctor," Detective Mulwray asked, his expression giving away little.

"Not well at all," Eve said. "I only know him here at work, where our duties intersected, which so far hasn't been very much."

"You're American, aren't you?" the detective asked.

"Yes, I've been here in Australia for a few months on a work visa," Eve replied, nervous that the conversation was straying in her direction.

"Yes, I thought I detected an accent. Northwestern United States, isn't it? The detective asked.

"Yes, I spent most of my life in the Seattle area," Eve said.

"Ever have much cause to venture over to Vancouver, BC?" he asked.

"Well, of course. Vancouver and Victoria are some of my favorite place on earth," Eve answered, honestly.

"Were you aware that Doctor Marker was from Vancouver?" the detective asked.

"Yes, he mentioned it when we were first introduced, and we'd chat about the area occasionally," Eve answered.

"Did you know the Doctor when you lived in that area?" The detective's eyes were intent, studying Eve.

"No, as I said, we were first introduced here," Eve answered, brushing away a stray lock of blonde hair from over one eye. The female detective's eyes were on her as she did so.

"Oh, right," the male detective answered.

"Can you tell me what this is about?" Eve asked.

"Well, not until we're a bit further along, but I can tell you certain er, 'materials,'are missing from Devonshire Analytical, and we've been asked to look into the matter," the detective replied, blandly.

"Materials?" Eve asked.

"As I said, I can't tell you more until we're a bit further along," the detective replied smoothly.

"Well, can you tell me who has 'asked you to look into the matter'?" Eve asked.

"No, sorry," Senior Constable Mulwray answered blandly.

"I believe that will be all for now - thank you for taking the time to answer my questions."

"Certainly," Eve replied.

She watched the detective and his female partner leave. She sighed, then returned to the lab. She was surprised to find the lab looking much like she'd left it, having expected to find papers tossed to and fro about the floor. Nothing looked out of place, but she wasn't about to check either Cynthia or Ben's work stations without permission from the police, or from Andrew Holstead.

Eve shook her head absently, then called Adana.

"I'm ready to go. I'm locking the lab up for today, and leaving orders with Brenda, for Cynthia to go home for the day. Ben is missing, and Andrew's at home. I'll make sure the rats have food and water, I'll meet you in the lobby in five, okay? Love you..."

Hearing Adana echo her sentiment, Eve smiled, then replaced the phone on its hook, and checked the rat cages, then closed up the lab. She met Adana by the front door, then the two women hurried out to the bus stop.

"Do you know where Dr. Holstead lives?" Adana said.

"Yes, he's right off the main bus line about ten miles from here."

After a twenty minute wait, the two women were rewarded with an express bus. A half hour later they arrived at Andrew Holstead's house, a surprisingly large manse in the St. Ives section of Sydney.

"Whoo, nice," Eve said.

"Indeed, yes," Adana echoed. "I guess being a scientist pays well."

"Or he has rich relatives...like someone else I know..."

"I always say, that it's very wise to choose wealthy parents," Adana teased.

They walked up to the gate that appeared to be the only accessible entrance to the walled grounds. Eve pushed the button at the intercom.

"Andrew, it's me, Eve, from the labs. I have Adana with me. May we come in?"

Andrew's voice came back at her, sounding tinny. "Go up to the front entrance, the butler will show you in," followed by a buzzing sound, and a loud click as the gate lock disengaged. The two women walked through the ornate copper gate, then a hundred feet or so through a lovely garden, to the front door, seemingly as wide as two entire normal doors, and finished in a rich teak.

Eve rang the bell, hearing rich melodic tones, as if the bell were connected to a church tower.

Adana and Eve looked at each other and giggled. "Sheesh," Eve said.

The door was opened slowly and ponderously, and the liveried butler ushered them in. He indicated that they should follow him to the library.

"Aren't 'libraries' in mansions always spooky in the movies?" Adana asked. Eve smiled.

The butler ushered them into the massive, shadowy room, lined with books, smelling of old leather and furniture polish. One section of the room contained a large, wooden table with green shaded lamps - Eve was reminded of a photograph of a New York City Public Library reading room that she'd seen once.

In another section, overstuffed leather chairs faced a large sofa, upholstered in tapestry fabric, so masculine and heavy.

"Please, come in," Andrew's voice summoned the two women, as the double doors shut behind them, the butler honoring his master's privacy. Andrew stood at one of the chairs looking a little older than the last time Eve had seen him in the lab, and a great deal smaller. But perhaps it was just the large chairs that made him seem small, thought Eve.

"Andrew...what is it?" Eve asked, worried about her friend and boss, and maybe even a little bit of father figure.

"I thought it was time...to tell you a story," he said, wryly. "One that you and, I suspect Adana, would appreciate." He gestured toward the sofa.

"Please, make yourselves comfortable. I have some wine, it's from my family's winery here, a pleasant Riesling. I hope that you'll like it."

Eve and Adana looked at each other and then shrugged slightly, seating themselves on the front edge of the large and heavy floral cushions. Andrew handed each a glass with a pale yellow liquid, clear and crisp. They tasted it, finding it delightful.

"It's very good, Andrew," Eve said. Adana chimed in, "Yes, quite."

Andrew nodded, pleased that his guests found his offering acceptable. He began speaking.

"The story starts with a young girl, as so many tragedies do," Andrew said. "The young girl was the daughter of a well-to-do, and modestly famous scientist living in Sydney, his only child, much doted upon. The girl was very beautiful, with long, flaxen hair, a sunny disposition, and one who excelled at school, and told her father, who loved her so incredibly deeply, that she wanted to major in college in his field of work. The father, of course, was very thrilled to hear of her interest in his field, particularly since he had made a point of not pushing her into his field."

"The father agreed to take her on a tour of universities that lead the world in his field. Universities in Germany, England, Sweden and the United States. Along the way, his love for his daughter grew ever more strong, as he viewed his daughter through different lens - not as the small child he would always see if he never let her go - but as the strong, young woman she had become, and he thought that he even saw glimpses of the mature matron and matriarch she would someday be."

"It was the day of their arrival in the United States, father and daughter. She told her father that she wanted to roam the campus 'on my own, to get a feel for it' as they would go on the formal tour the following day. 'Be careful,' he said."

"'Oh, daddy,' she replied. 'Oh, daddy'. Those words would echo through his mind for years to come until he thought he would go mad. But that would be in a future hell - when she said them on that occasion, he just smiled, perhaps a little tightly. What father would not?"

"The father was writing a letter to a friend when he heard police sirens. He thought little of it at the time, it was the United States, after all, but nonetheless, it set a tiny nettle under his skin, and the irritation of it moved him to go see the campus himself."

"'If I run into her, I'll just tell her I grew bored with the room,' he thought. 'I don't want her to think that I think she's a defenseless child.'"

"It was the flashing blue and red lights that attracted his attention - as humans, we are conditioned to respond to moving things. Then, the growing crowd of students and local residents drew him in closer."

"It was her scarf that caught his eye. There couldn't be that many green silk scarves with tiny koalas on them, not in America."

"Responding to some unknown intuition, some subconscious cue that his hind brain recognized, though he was not consciously aware, he called out into the crowd and the lights, 'Lucille!'"

"As though he were Moses parting the Red Sea, the crowd drew apart at the sound of his voice...and he found his Lucille."

Andrew paused, almost frozen, then sighed deeply, and continued.

"She was there, but gone, of course. Two men who were described by the various 'eyewitnesses' as being big, small, medium, black, white, asian, tall, short, hairy and I believe, bald, had raped and then murdered her in the space between a garden shed and a vine-covered chain link fence, I suppose no wider than two feet and no longer than six feet, the size of a coffin."

"The father knew that Lucille had always had a fear of enclosed spaces - that's what the father focused on for so long afterward, the terror she must have felt - unable to escape, unable to see any chance at freedom, brutalized to death."

"He knew the only thing he could do, and remain a man, was to find those men, and punish them. The first two years after her death, he haunted the offices of the detectives assigned to the case. They're good men - he wouldn't pretend that they're not - but they couldn't help his pain, and they most certainly couldn't help ease Lucille's.

Then he hired private detectives to find them - merciless men, unscrupulous men, but they, too, failed. They never found the men who did it, but the father knew that he would punish the perpetrators, one way or the other."

"His wife couldn't take the pain. She died from grief, or its constant, grinding pressure on her. It's all the same, really."

"He began experimenting, trying to find some organism that would punish men - any men. All men. Something that would punish every man. He was testing it on some rats -"

"When I was infected," Eve said, her voice subdued.

"Yes," Andrew said. "It wasn't what I wanted, but it happened."

"What were you trying to do?" Eve asked.

"I wanted to create an infectious organism that would kill all males, with no effect on females," he said, suddenly overtaken by a fit of coughing. "I got it half right, anyway." Eve and Adana looked at each other, alarmed, a sudden fear growing inside them.

"Are we going to die?" Adana asked. Andrew looked at them, his eyes haunted, but didn't answer. Eve felt Adana's hand squeezing hers, foreboding filling them both.

"A protozoan...a parasite? THAT was your killer, Andrew?" Eve asked.

Andrew laughed bleakly. "The Toxoplasma? No, that wasn't the agent...that was only the initial carrier. I minored in parasitology in university, I knew that the organism would make a suitable primary carrier for the true infectious agent."

"A virus, Eve. The agent is a virus, carried on the Toxoplasma - you know that a virus needs a living host to survive. It is the virus that kills. It kills males - I got that right - but I had no idea of the effect it would have on females, that was unexpected."

"And, I apologize to you both...and to Lucille."

"Why to Lucille?" Eve asked.

"Because she's still with me, in a small way," Andrew whispered. "You received her kidneys, two other girls received her liver and her heart. Unfortunately, they died shortly afterward. You were my last link with a living Lucille."

She saw his eyes then, and knew that he was seeing Lucille in her place, not Eve.

Perhaps he'd never seen Eve. She thought back to some of the looks he'd given her over the year.

"That's why I was offered a job here...you wanted me here because of Lucille," Eve said tonelessly.

"Yes," Andrew said. "I'm weak, and mean, and ultimately evil, like every other male. I wish I had succeeded, but the only male I managed to infect was myself - it looks like other men are off the hook, eh?"

"The virus is deadly to males when administered directly. If a man drinks a solution with the virus-infected Toxoplasma, he'll die, most likely within a week, but perhaps as quickly as a few hours. If he acquires the virus secondarily, say, from a woman's saliva, he'll feel no effects."

"But women..." Adana said.

"Yes, I'm so sorry. A woman will become infected whether she acquires the virus directly, or through an infected person's bodily fluids. She won't die, but the virus has mutagenic effects - changing the geography of the female brain in only very slight ways. I think you two have experienced the effects, yes?" Eve and Adana said nothing, but their silence spoke for them.

"My research notes are comprehensive, and locked in my safe, along with the videotapes I made of the processes. It's surprisingly simple to tweak a specific common virus into my 'concoction,' if you will."

"I also made a will...I'm leaving all I have to you, Eve...it's quite a bit...to recompense you for what I did...and for my failure,"Andrew said, sitting heavily in the overstuffed chair, his eyelids lowering involuntarily, as though he were falling asleep.

"Don't be sorry...and don't think that you failed," Eve said, quietly and gently.

"But I did fail...I wanted a wave of retribution to sweep the world free of all men," he whispered faintly, but fiercely.

"You men," Eve said, smiling faintly. "You always want what you want, when you want it."

"You succeeded, Andrew. You succeeded. Just not on the time scale that you expected, or in the way that you expected. But you succeeded."

Adana and Eve watched the old man die, and a new world be born.

* * * *

One week later, Eve walked out of the bathroom of their apartment early in the morning, and showed the slim, plastic object to Adana.

"See, I told you," she said.

Adana smiled, the same smile that a parent-to-be acquires on hearing of her new status, then hugged Eve within an inch of her life.

* * * *

This is not the end of Eve's story. But it IS the end of this chapter of her life.