Does it Hurt to Die (36 page)

‘
And we don’t have to worry about a white supremacist underground army?’ said Isabella.

‘
Not after what’s happened and the destruction of their laboratories and underground city. They’re finished as an organisation. Although there’ll still be groups who believe they can create a white South Africa, with the removal of the laboratories and links to terrorism there’ll be little by way of funding to maintain them as a political force. And we now have many names to add to our surveillance list,’ said Galela.

‘
So, where did our father’s research fit into all this?’ said Christian.

‘
Well,’ continued Mike, ‘in his quest to identify and block proteins that would reject a new organ such as the liver, he found by chance a gene that determined skin colour and one which produces premature ageing. He identified the DNA sequence of both genes and realised their huge potential. He’d created an antibody that would lock on to the protein sequence of the premature ageing gene possibly to see whether he could do it. Once he knew that he could, he then attached a viral enzyme, stimulated the gene and found that his laboratory mice aged rapidly. It was this experiment that he then conducted on the mice that we found the record of down in the mine.’

Mike paused, but saw he had their undivided attention, so he went on
. ‘In the second part, which was the gene sequence that determines skin colour, he hadn’t experimented as far as we can see. Again, by chance through his liver research, he’d discovered the gene that codes skin colour. Although probably out of curiosity, he’d developed an antibody that would attach itself to the cells in the body where that gene was expressed. I think he quickly realised that anybody who could produce that antibody could target those with a dark skin gene with a range of toxic substances. The code that you and your mother had was the sequence for the antibody, without which you couldn’t block or activate the gene. I believe he realised the implications quite early that it would be possible to link that antibody with a number of agents such as Ebola, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, and Cholera that would attack only people with greater than twenty per cent of the Sinopia sequence—in other words, all the people who have some pigmentation in their skin. I’m sure he soon realised what a racist government could do with it. That’s why I think he encoded the antibody to prevent that happening and, I guess, for some protection for himself if his research was ever discovered.’

‘
It seems that it would also have worked against those people with increased pigmentation in the Middle East, which is why the Israelis would have been, and possibly would still be, keen on having his research,’ said Renata.

‘
And if you’d been able to use that research to stimulate premature ageing, you could have created a docile and compliant black workforce?’ Isabella offered.

‘
Quite possibly,’ Renata replied. ‘Part of the research that we were able to examine quickly indicated that he’d already demonstrated this phenomenon in mice studies, as Mike said.’

‘
Well, I think that just confirms my decision that we should destroy not only the folder but all of our father’s research. Don’t you agree,’ said Christian, looking at Isabella, ‘that that would seem to give us complete closure and ensure that no one else suffered?’

‘
I think you’re quite right, honey, but before Isabella replies, there’s something else that you need to know.’

‘
There must be some good news amongst all this,’ said Christian hopefully.

‘
Well, this could be good news, perhaps bad news, depending on how you view it,’ said Renata, looking at Nadine. ‘When Nadine told you that you were brother and sister, she also phoned me to confess to the affair with your father. I’d always wondered and was obviously upset, but even more so when she indicated that Jannie was Isabella’s father.’

‘
I thought there was no way we would be friends unless I apologised and asked for Renata’s forgiveness,’ added Nadine. ‘We thought, especially if you were brother and sister, that you would need to see each other regularly without any emotional incumbents. We both felt that you should be able to see each other without the disapproval of either your mother or myself. Your mother being the scientific person that she is asked me whether I’d mind sending some locks of Isabella’s hair, which I did.’

Renata removed a folder from her briefcase and took out some pictures.

‘Do you recognise these, Christian?’

‘
You had lots of those lying around from work,’ said Christian. ‘They’re photomicrographs of DNA.’

‘
Now, have a look at the names on each sheet,’ said Renata.

Christian looked at them more carefully. His name was on one and Isabella’s on the other.

‘You’d better have a look at them, too, Isabella. Your name is on one of the sheets.’

Christian took the two photomicrographs and carefully placed them side-by-side as Isabella peered over his shoulder.

‘What are they exactly? And why are you smiling?’

‘
They don’t match,’ he said.

‘
What do you mean they don’t match? And why is everyone smiling now?’

‘
Those are photomicrographs of our DNA, and if they matched we’d be brother and sister.’

‘
Bright boy, that,’ said Mike.

Isabella rushed at Christian and threw her arms round him, laughing as she pushed him back on the sofa.

‘But how is that possible, Mum?’ said Isabella. ‘You said your partner at the time had had a vasectomy.’

‘
There’s a one per cent failure rate; it’s thought that one in ten don’t have the vas properly divided or the vas re-joins because too small a section was removed at surgery. Nadine’s partner must have been one of those failures,’ said Renata. ‘When we established that Jannie wasn’t Isabella’s father, Nadine tried to trace him to see if there were any other siblings, but his family reported that there weren’t and he’d died from a heart attack five years ago.’

‘
Well, it seems like we both have some other issues to deal with, and to adjust to,’ said Christian.

He looked at Isabella who nodded her agreement before moving closer to him on the sofa and saying with a mischievous smile
, ‘So now what are you going to do since I’m no longer your sister?’

‘
That could be a whole new story; but one thing I’m certain of is that we’ll both be in it,’ he said, putting his arm around her.

‘
I think we should formally burn or bury this folder. What about some symbolic place like Cape Point?’ Christian said, looking at everyone.

‘
The National Intelligence Service would agree to that, but we’d also need to be present,’ said Galela. ‘We can organise that when we all get back to Cape Town.’

‘
Christian,’ said Renata, as Isabella finally extricated herself from his embrace, ‘there was one final thing. Do you remember you asked me whether your grandfather had any genetic traits or defects?—I’m not sure why you were interested in that but I do remember your father telling me that his father, your grandfather, had a strange web between his first and big toe. I had to do a bit of research but I found that that is something that can be passed on between generations… What were you trying to find out?’

Christian sat quietly looking at his mother, suddenly remembering Marais, his fellow traveller, and his quest to find someone who could be his father with a similar weird toe defect.