Spy Thriller: An Involuntary Spy: An espionage thriller (Involuntary Spy Espionage Thriller Series Book 1) (6 page)

     Yuri was hanging around Seth’s apartment again.  Seth had no reason to complain because, as limited as his social life was, it was good to have someone he could call a friend, but tonight he was expecting Natasha and had to get rid of Yuri.

     “Yuri, Natasha’s coming over tonight.”

     “You gonna get lucky tonight?”

     “Is that all you think about?”

     “Well, did you fuck her yet?”

     “Yuri…just because she’s a woman does that mean I have to fuck her to enjoy her company?”

    “Well, yeah.  I don’t know.  I don’t think I ever enjoyed the company of any woman without fucking her.”

     “Well, I do.  For now, she satisfies my every need.

     “How can she satisfy your every need if you don’t fuck her?”

     “When it happens, it will happen.  Until then, I’m not going to obsess on it.”

     “Whatever.  But what you should obsess on is to stop calling attention to yourself,” said Yuri.

     “I’m the foreigner, I don’t have to call attention to myself; it comes naturally.”

     Foreigners are kind of like freaks.  They look funny, talk funny, and always seem out of place.  Seth constantly felt like the odd man out everywhere he went.

     “Well, if you want to continue to have such freedom, don’t abuse it.”

     “Sorry, I won’t.”

     “And stop taking that fucking briefcase everywhere with you.  It looks suspicious.  You did turn over all reports, didn’t you?”

     “Of course I did.”

     “Good, because if you held out on them at all, they will not be as friendly as Americans are to you.”

     “You think the Americans have been friendly with me?”

     “Well, you pissed off some very important people, Seth.  That can be expected.”

     “At least I’m not in the news anymore.  Thank God.  What horseshit they dreamed up to say about me.  That I stole sensitive government secrets.  I guess that’s what happens when your boss leaves the company and becomes one of the most powerful men in the world.”

     Bill Penner had been appointed head of the FDA by the president.  And Robin’s boss, Ted Peters, was appointed to head the EPA.  Not bad for a company whose mainstay were pesticides and genetically engineered seeds.  Germinat had been quietly buying up all the seed companies in the world since the late 80’s.  Their aim was control the world’s food supply.  The seed supply business alone was a $32 billion per year enterprise.  But the pesticide business was even better – predicted to reach $65 billion per year by 2017.

     “Look,” said Yuri.  “I know you think I’m some kind of super spy, but I can’t be around to protect you all the time.  Just always watch out.  It only takes two seconds for someone to come up and put a bullet in your head.”

     “I’ll be careful.  But I still have to live.”

     “Exactly.  If you want to
live
, do like I say.”

     “Okay, Mr. Super Spy.”

     “Very funny.  You don’t have to kick me out because I have to go now anyway.  But I will be watching,” said Yuri as he walked toward the door, reaching for his coat and then his hat, and slipping into his boots.

     “You’ll be watching.  That’s really a fine idea to have in my head for romance.”

     “I didn’t mean I will be watching you have sex.”

     “I hope not.  Take care.”

     “You too, public enemy number one,” said Yuri.

     Seth chuckled.  What else could he do?  Seth did qualify as public enemy number one; especially since the U.S. was not being run by the public anymore.  They didn’t even know what they were eating, and he had become the bad guy, and all because he was trying to warn them.  As Yuri was opening the door to leave, Natasha was just arriving.

     “Ah, George, look, beautiful girl is here.”  Yuri smiled from ear to ear at Natasha.  “Privet.”

     “Privet.”

     “Okay kids, don’t get into any trouble.  Papa is watching,” Yuri quipped.

     “Good night Yuri,” said Seth.

     “Do svidanya,” said Natasha, as she unbuttoned her coat and placed her hat on the hat rack while kicking off her shoes.  Seth closed the door and latched it.

     “Who is that guy Yuri? He’s always hanging around,” she asked.

     “He’s a spy.”

    “No, seriously.”

     “He’s just a friend.  Just another guy who speaks English.”

     “I guess you need your practice.”

     “Of course, I am an English teacher, after all.”

     “He just seems so unlike you.  So unsophisticated.”

     “Well, everybody is different.  And I don’t have the chance to make very many friends here.”

     “That’s true.” 

     Natasha and Seth sat down on the couch.  “Can I get you something?” he asked.

     “No, I’m good,” said Natasha, pulling some DVDs out of her purse.  “I got us some movies to watch.”

     “Oh, cool.  Now we need something to snack on while we watch.”

     “Popcorn?”

     “No, too American.  I’m Canadian, remember? How about wine and cheese?”

     “Sounds great.”  Natasha started to get up, but Seth beat her to it.

     “I’ll get it, you put in the DVD and figure out how to set it to English,” Seth said, going into the kitchen for the cheese.

     “You don’t know?”

     “I’m impatient.”

     “So, you never told me – whether you have a girlfriend back home.”

     “Not really a girlfriend.  It’s over anyway,” Seth said, returning with the cheese.  “She was just someone I worked with.”

     “What happened?”

     “She married her boss, actually.”

     “Really, and he was also your boss?”

     “No, we had different bosses.  She was from a different department.”

     “Yeah, what did she teach?”

     “Botany.”

     “Sounds boring.  Was she pretty?”

     “Yes, of course, that’s a pre-requisite,” he said.  Natasha smiled.

     “I see.  But you never got married?”

     “Never fell in love.  Not really.  I thought I was once, but it was just infatuation.  That intense feeling that feels so good at its peak and then you realize that there’s nothing else to it.”

     “That’s nothing to base a marriage on.”

     “Nope, they say that getting married for sex is like buying an airline for the peanuts.”   Seth laughed and Natasha caught it.

     “You always laugh at your own jokes?”

     “Only when they’re funny.”

     That started another pleasant dose of cortisol and endorphins.

     They settled in, drank wine, watched the movie, and Natasha cuddled up to Seth.  It felt good.  After the movie was over, she stayed close to him and Seth finally made his move.  Actually, it came quite naturally.  He stroked her hair as she rested her head on his shoulder.  When she moved to look at him, he took her face gently in his hands and kissed her on the forehead, cheeks, and then on the mouth, tasting her tender lips as they parted to receive him.  The sensation was an explosion of feelings, leaving in its place a pleasured memory of that moment.  That, thought Seth, was pure heaven.

   
After only two months, the rats that had been fed the GM soy in the second controlled experiment started showing signs of infertility.  There were sets of male rats who were sterile, and the females that did produce offspring produced smaller sized rats.

     Seth and Robin were at their usual dinner break, just kicking back, and of course the conversation turned to work.  What else did either of them have in their lives?  They had been sipping on wine for the whole meal and were both getting a little tipsy.

     “Now I’m getting blue testicles instead of pink,” said Seth.  “Bill’s really gonna love this.”

   “I can hear him now,” Robin said, mimicking Bill. “Seth, it’s gonna take a lot more than your blue balls to convince me of anything.”

     Suddenly, they both started laughing uncontrollably.  The neighboring couple scowled at them, and they toned it down to snickering.

     “Well you must have them, right?” she asked.

     “What?”

     “Blue balls.”

     “I don’t have blue balls.”

     “Well, I don’t see any girls around.”

     “I have girls around – I have you.  Speaking of that, don’t you have a life to go home to?” said Seth.

     “You’re just asking me now?” Robin asked, annoyed.  “How long have we been doing this Seth, two months?  Don’t you think if I had a boyfriend, he’d be wondering why I was hanging out with you every night and coming home at two in the morning?  What would you expect him to think?  That I’m a vampire?”

     “Yeah, I guess so.”

     “You guess so?”  Robin laughed.  “You men are really unbelievable.”

    “Yeah, I suppose we are.”  Seth looked around and the restaurant had cleared out.  “What time is it?”

     “Shit, it’s midnight already.  I’m surprised they haven’t kicked us out of here.”

     “I’d better take you home.”

     “You trying to take advantage of me?”

     “Maybe.”

     The thought of it had actually crossed Seth’s mind, and more than once.  Robin had nice green eyes and, without the lab wear, she was even sexier.  And she always smelled good.  Seth was surprised she hadn’t been taken by now.  But of course, she was always working, and he was the only man around.  Cock block works every time.  Seth had been so hard at work, he had forgotten how horny he was.  He had always been horny, and now he was shocked to come to the realization that he had actually forgotten.

    They paid the check and Seth offered his arm to Robin, walking her to his car.  They had left hers in the company parking lot.

     Seth could see that the alcohol had more than lowered Robin’s inhibitions.  She was deliberately flirting with him.  Normally charming and innocent, when she got into the car, she slowly slinked in, and glanced at Seth with inciting eyes that must have just seen their awakening.  The way she looked at him, like he was a piece of candy that she wanted to put in her mouth, made him so nervous he almost lost control of the car, swerving off to the shoulder.

     “Whoa, cowboy, watch it,” she said as Seth swerved back into the center of the lane.

     “You just made me kind of nervous, that’s all.”

     “Well, do you like what you see?”  Robin smiled and playfully tinkered with the fringe of her dress, exposing some of her bare leg.

     “Yes I do.”

     “Didn’t you ever notice before?”

     “I did.”

     “But what?”  Robin giggled.  This was definitely an invitation, and not one to be refused.

    “Just waiting for the right time.”

     “And that would be…”

     “How about right now?”

     “Here?”

     “If you want.”

     “Slow down, why don’t you just take me home and we’ll talk about it there?”

     “Okay.”  Seth could feel his heart beating faster and, well, other things tingling too.

Robin’s apartment was clean and cozy.  Unlike the apartment of a scientist – more like an artist’s place. She had collected little knick knacks from her travels and, of course, she had plants – lots of plants.  There were green leafy plants and ferns and flowering plants all over.  And her balcony was a rose garden.  She also had a collection of orchids – Seth’s favorite flower.  Robin entered the living room with a drink in each hand, the ice gently tinkling like little wind chimes.

     “So you like orchids?” she asked, handing him his drink, then sat down next to him closely.

     “Love them.”

     “What do they remind you of?”

     “Well, they’re very feminine.”

     “You’re very observant.  You know, orchids are very delicate and need special care, just like all feminine things.”

    “I know all about orchids, and feminine things.”

     Seth took his cue and reached over to stroke her hair, gently pulling her face closer to his.  Their lips met with a tender and powerful force.  At that point, they melted into each other and Seth felt a flush of sensations over his entire being.  Hands wandered naturally, and each caress became more exciting and pleasurable.  Where the body ended and the soul began was a mystery in this ancient game of combinations.

     Back at the lab, Seth and Robin switched back to their “working relationship.”

     Robin was bent over her microscope, examining slides from a sample of Bt soy.

     “Seth, I don’t get this,” said Robin.

     “What’s going on?”

     “Well, there is supposed to be just one gene in this soybean plant, along with the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus promoter, of course.”

     “Yeah, that CaMV virus thing always freaks me out.”

     “Well, that viral gene has to be there or the plant can’t produce the proteins from the engineered gene.”

     A genetic sequence from the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (similar to the HIV virus in humans) was the “promoter” that was used in every GMO food, whether it be the gene for artificial insecticide, or the herbicide resistant gene, to “turn on” the gene, so it would produce the proteins that gave the desired effect.

     This was discovered by independent researchers in Europe in 1993 after GMOs had already been approved by the European Food Safety Authority, and it caused a big controversy.  Why?  Because Germinat didn’t tell the regulators of the existence of the viral gene.  They were unaware of it when they approved the genetically engineered foods.

     Bacteria and viruses were the materials of choice in engineering GMOs because they are natural cell invaders, and that, after all, is what genetic engineering is all about – forcing something into a cell that didn’t belong there naturally.  The researchers in Europe were concerned about the safety of the viral gene because it produced several proteins instead of just one; each protein having its own function or trait. 

     One shut off the plant’s ability to protect itself from viruses.  Another produced random proteins in cells, the effect of which nobody would know for years or maybe even centuries.  Another suppressed the plant’s anti-pathogen defenses, making it unable to naturally defend itself and making it highly susceptible to certain pathogens. 

     The researchers concluded that the viral gene promoter was a toxin, leading to the question of whether it would express itself in the food products made from the plants...

     “Seth, are you dreaming?  I said look at this.”  Robin seemed both surprised and upset.

     Seth shook himself from his thoughts and looked at the slide.

     “What am I looking at?”

     “That’s just it.  See those two other DNA fragments?”

     “Yeah.  I do.”

     There were two foreign gene fragments unrelated to the cleanup gene or the natural genes in the soybean plant.

     “How do you think they got there?”

     “It could be that the DNA was scrambled when they inserted the gene.  Or…”

     “Or what?”

     “Or the soybean’s own DNA could have rearranged the sequence to try to correct the errors in its DNA.  Jurassic Park again – nature finding a way.  And this DNA strand is large enough to produce its own protein.  This could be the reason we are seeing tumors develop in the rats.”

     Seth’s neck was aching from hunching over the scope.  When he straightened out to rub it, he saw his lab assistant, George, looking right at him in a strange way, like Seth had caught him masturbating.

     “George, do you need something?” 

     “Uh, no.”

     “Did you run those sequences I asked you to yet?”

     “Uh, not yet.”

     “Okay man, get to it, I need those.

     “I will, Seth, sorry.”  George trotted off to comply with the request.

     “It’s alright, George.”  Seth turned back to Robin.  “We have to figure out what’s going on here.  I’ll try to get in touch with those guys from Europe and discuss their findings.”

     “Okay,” said Robin.  “I’ll move on to the other studies.”

     “Yeah, it’s crunch time.  Let me have a report on this finding before you leave tonight.”

     “I thought we were going out tonight?”

     “Oh, shit, I’m sorry.  We are.  Just got a lot on my mind.”

     “I know.  Me too.”  George and Shirley, of course, left at 5:00 p.m. on the nose.  Time slipping away the way it does, it was 8 p.m. before they knew it.

     “We’d better go before they shut down every restaurant in town,” said Seth.  The small cities in the outer reaches of St Louis, Missouri rolled up the sidewalks at 10:00 p.m.

     It had been a while since Seth had a real girlfriend and it was nice to be around Robin.  Dating had always been an annoying aspect of life.  It was more like a series of job interviews than shopping.  If it lasted after four dates (“Sex and the City” rules) that meant the girl was not considered a “slut” if you had sex with her, but it usually it never went far enough for him to find out if the sex was going to be really good or just a “relief pitch.”  Consequently, when he reached a point with a girl where the sex was pretty good, that’s when the relationship ended, and most of Seth’s relationships were based on the sexual aspect so, of course, they disintegrated.  If you’re not looking for the right thing, you can’t be disappointed if you don’t get it.