The Methuselarity Transformation by Rick Moskovitz Page B

meat industry.
    Marcus’s discovery also brought an unanticipated bonus. The scientific community soon realized that his technique could spur the growth of all kinds of vegetation. Deforested areas were planted with genetically modified trees that grew many times faster than their native variants. New growth forests sprung up everywhere and the tropical rain forests approached strength not seen for nearly a century.
    Between the spread of Takana Grass and the resurgence of forested land, huge amounts of carbon dioxide were sequestered and the tide began to turn on global warming. Reforestation also helped restore natural cycles of evaporation and rain. Excessive rainfall over the next several years was welcomed by the populace as fresh water supplies were replenished.
    Other scientists working with the genetic potion from Marcus’s bamboo used it to revive kelp populations in areas of the seas where it had died out because of global warming and pollution. The resulting extraction of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere pulled the world further back from the tipping point. An additional benefit was the proliferation of sea urchins that fed on kelp. Harvested sea urchins providedanother needed boost to the human food supply, one that even the animal rights proponents could appreciate.
    Takana Grass brought Marcus fame and fortune. His status as a hero exceeded any that Ray Mettler had enjoyed even at the height of popularity of HibernaTurf. Marcus’s work not only improved the quality of life on the planet, but may have been responsible for preventing an ultimate environmental catastrophe. He got to see what it felt like to be as famous as Mozart, Lennon, or Kennedy, but unlike him, they were mercifully ignorant of how short their lives would be cut.
    Marcus didn’t need the money. He was already wealthy enough from the money he got in exchange for his life as part of the contract that Terra had convinced him to sign. But he’d hidden that wealth from Corinne. What his new fortune provided him was cover for his terrible secret. He would now be able to share his wealth openly with her. And if they were to spend the rest of his life together, it would work best if she were also to undergo the Methuselarity Transformation.

8
    THE MOVE TO the penthouse was Lena’s first step toward reclaiming her life. Now that she tasted freedom, she wanted more. What she wanted most of all was to work again, which would mean spending extended times away from home and out from under Ray’s watchful eye. She had no idea how she would present it to him, but quietly let her professional contacts know that she might be receptive to an assignment if something worthwhile came up.
    A couple of months later, she was asked to interview a man newly thrust into the public spotlight. Marcus Takana was the biologist who figured out how to rid the world of HibernaTurf. He lived on the east coast just outside of the capital. Doing this story would take her away from home for nearly two weeks, but it was a juicy story that she desperately wanted to cover.
    Lena’s imagination was also captured by the poetic arc that connected her portrait of Ray on the heels of his invention of HibernaTurf with the man who would later undo his creation once it had turned into a monster. Of course, Ray would not likely see it the same way. Her coverage of this story would more likely strike him as traitorous. She couldn’t think of away to avoid infuriating him with the truth. So she decided to lie. Once the piece was published, she’d deal with the fallout.
    “I’m planning a trip,” Lena told him over dinner.
    “A trip? what kind of trip?”
    “It’s work, Ray...an assignment.”
    “But you don’t need to work. We have everything we need.” Lena saw his head jerk ever so slightly to the left.
    “I miss it, Ray...the writing, the research. It was once a big part of who I was. It was how we met.”
    Ray put down his fork and placed both hands on the edge of the