eyes. ‘You’re sure about that?’
She nodded. ‘We’re into our third generation, and the results are holding.’
‘This is just a recent breakthrough, then?’
‘Yeah, we’re really at the first stage. I still don’t know why it’s working, how to explain the effect. I know I can get better results, and I will…And when I do, it’s going to fire a chilli pepper up the asses of the scientific community.’
He was about to reply when his phone rang. ‘Shit. Sorry about this.’ He’d forgotten to turn it off for the interview. He took the phone out of his pocket.
‘Well? Aren’t you going to answer it?’ she asked, raising one eyebrow.
He pressed REPLY and said, ‘Hello?’
‘Loriot here. I received your message
.’
‘Thanks for calling back, Monsieur Loriot,’ Ben said, glancing apologetically at Roberta and raising a finger as if to say ‘this’ll just take a minute’. She shrugged and took a sip of her coffee, then snatched a piece of paper from her desk and started reading it.
‘
I would be interested in meeting you. Would you like to come out to my home this evening for a drink and a talk?
‘That would be great. Where do you live, Monsieur Loriot?’
Roberta threw down the sheet, sighed and exaggeratedly checked her watch.
‘
My home is the Villa Margaux, near the village of Brignancourt, on the other side of Pontoise. It is not far from Paris’
Ben noted down the details. ‘Brignancourt,’ he repeated quickly, trying to get the conversation over without being impolite to Loriot. The man might be an important contact.
But if you’re going to play the journalist, at least try to do it with a bit of professional fucking style
, he thought, irritated with himself.
‘
I will send my car to pick you up’
, said Loriot.
‘OK,’ Ben said, writing on his pad. ‘Eight forty-five tonight…Yes…Looking forward to that…Well, thanks again for calling back…Goodbye.’ He switched off the phone and dropped it back in his pocket. ‘Sorry about that,’ he said to Roberta. ‘It’s off now.’
‘Oh, don’t worry about it.’ She let him hear theedge of sarcasm in her voice. ‘Not like I have a job to go to, is it?’
He cleared his throat. ‘Anyway, this formula of yours…’
‘Yup?’
‘Have you tried it out on other species? What about humans?’
She shook her head. ‘Not yet. That’d really be something, wouldn’t it? If the results matched the fly experiment, the life expectancy of a healthy human could increase from, say, eighty years to about a hundred and eight years. And I think we could do even better.’
‘If one of your flies was sick or dying, would this thing have the power to cure whatever was wrong with it, keep it alive?’ he asked tentatively.
‘You mean, does it have medicinal properties?’ she replied. She clicked her tongue and sighed. ‘I wish I could say yes. We’ve tried giving it to dying flies in group B to see what would happen, but they still died. So far it only seems to work preventatively.’ She shrugged. ‘But who knows? We’re only getting started here. With time, we might be able to develop something that won’t just extend life in healthy specimens, but will cure illnesses in sick ones, maybe even stop one from dying indefinitely. If we could replicate that effect in humans, ultimately…’
‘Sounds like you might have discovered some kind of elixir of life?’
‘Well, let’s not pop the cork just yet,’ she said with a chuckle. ‘But I think I’m onto something, yeah. Problem is lack of funding. To really get it out thereand verified you’d have to launch some serious clinical trials. Those can take years.’
‘Why can’t you get funding from medical companies?’
She laughed. ‘Boy, you are really naïve. This is
alchemy
we’re talking about. Witchcraft, voodoo, hokum. Why do you think I’m running this operation out of a spare bedroom? Nobody takes me seriously since I wrote about this
She nodded. ‘We’re into our third generation, and the results are holding.’
‘This is just a recent breakthrough, then?’
‘Yeah, we’re really at the first stage. I still don’t know why it’s working, how to explain the effect. I know I can get better results, and I will…And when I do, it’s going to fire a chilli pepper up the asses of the scientific community.’
He was about to reply when his phone rang. ‘Shit. Sorry about this.’ He’d forgotten to turn it off for the interview. He took the phone out of his pocket.
‘Well? Aren’t you going to answer it?’ she asked, raising one eyebrow.
He pressed REPLY and said, ‘Hello?’
‘Loriot here. I received your message
.’
‘Thanks for calling back, Monsieur Loriot,’ Ben said, glancing apologetically at Roberta and raising a finger as if to say ‘this’ll just take a minute’. She shrugged and took a sip of her coffee, then snatched a piece of paper from her desk and started reading it.
‘
I would be interested in meeting you. Would you like to come out to my home this evening for a drink and a talk?
‘That would be great. Where do you live, Monsieur Loriot?’
Roberta threw down the sheet, sighed and exaggeratedly checked her watch.
‘
My home is the Villa Margaux, near the village of Brignancourt, on the other side of Pontoise. It is not far from Paris’
Ben noted down the details. ‘Brignancourt,’ he repeated quickly, trying to get the conversation over without being impolite to Loriot. The man might be an important contact.
But if you’re going to play the journalist, at least try to do it with a bit of professional fucking style
, he thought, irritated with himself.
‘
I will send my car to pick you up’
, said Loriot.
‘OK,’ Ben said, writing on his pad. ‘Eight forty-five tonight…Yes…Looking forward to that…Well, thanks again for calling back…Goodbye.’ He switched off the phone and dropped it back in his pocket. ‘Sorry about that,’ he said to Roberta. ‘It’s off now.’
‘Oh, don’t worry about it.’ She let him hear theedge of sarcasm in her voice. ‘Not like I have a job to go to, is it?’
He cleared his throat. ‘Anyway, this formula of yours…’
‘Yup?’
‘Have you tried it out on other species? What about humans?’
She shook her head. ‘Not yet. That’d really be something, wouldn’t it? If the results matched the fly experiment, the life expectancy of a healthy human could increase from, say, eighty years to about a hundred and eight years. And I think we could do even better.’
‘If one of your flies was sick or dying, would this thing have the power to cure whatever was wrong with it, keep it alive?’ he asked tentatively.
‘You mean, does it have medicinal properties?’ she replied. She clicked her tongue and sighed. ‘I wish I could say yes. We’ve tried giving it to dying flies in group B to see what would happen, but they still died. So far it only seems to work preventatively.’ She shrugged. ‘But who knows? We’re only getting started here. With time, we might be able to develop something that won’t just extend life in healthy specimens, but will cure illnesses in sick ones, maybe even stop one from dying indefinitely. If we could replicate that effect in humans, ultimately…’
‘Sounds like you might have discovered some kind of elixir of life?’
‘Well, let’s not pop the cork just yet,’ she said with a chuckle. ‘But I think I’m onto something, yeah. Problem is lack of funding. To really get it out thereand verified you’d have to launch some serious clinical trials. Those can take years.’
‘Why can’t you get funding from medical companies?’
She laughed. ‘Boy, you are really naïve. This is
alchemy
we’re talking about. Witchcraft, voodoo, hokum. Why do you think I’m running this operation out of a spare bedroom? Nobody takes me seriously since I wrote about this
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