“You dislike him,” Livvy said mildly.
“A slight prejudice. I admit it.”
“It was your case? What did he do?”
“It was mine and Chris’,” Meg said. “In 2052, everyone was an LLE rookie, although Chris had been in Enforcement for twenty years and in LLE for one. Karen and the baby had been killed less than a year earlier…
“I met her once, when she came to the Academy to lecture on the Laws, and of course I’d listened to her at some of the peace rallies during the Riots. Karen DeVoe was… amazing. Passionate, eloquent. Brilliant, really. And ultimately optimistic, which we badly needed at the time. A huge loss.
“But back to Josephson, who is a totally different animal.” Meg paused and then laughed and took a sip of coffee. It had grown cold, and she set the mug down on the bench. “All these years and it’s still difficult to talk about it. Sara Ann Torkelson. Sound familiar?”
“Vaguely,” Livvy said.
“Try this. The Right of Maturity Law.”
“Hell and damnation,” Livvy said after a moment. “That was Sara?”
“Yes. We worked it as diligently as we could, trying to find an angle, but in the end, the sick bastard walked away with nary a black mark on his name to match the gaping hole in his soul.”
“Tell me.”
People, moving at every speed between a stroll and a jog, passed within three meters of their bench. A few entered and left the stream at the bank of els, and some diverted into the hall.
“Sara’s parent’s had lost two children already. Sara was their third, which of course meant they had given up any chance of resets after the age of fifty. I suppose one has to be able to imagine what that was like, and to be fair, I think losing the children was a huge grief compared to losing the years.
“A son in his late teens drowned in a boating accident about 10 years earlier. Then their daughter was hit by a malfunctioning car while she was walking to work and died instantly. The Torkelsons had the resources to have resets for life, but they had chosen to have a family and accept the minimal allotment. In 2052 they were 50 chrono and 35 biol. Sara was 11 chrono. And 4 biol.”
Livvy swallowed. “How could they? Living with her day to day, watching her achieve awareness of what they were doing. And what doctor steps into a situation like that and doesn’t consider the moral implications of what they’ve asked him to do?”
“One who’s mining a strong vein of egoism, I imagine. I think he was considering it an interesting experiment. Longevity wasn’t a process meant to be used on children, so there were lots of…kinks… to work out.”
“I understand they may have had some compulsion to keep her safe, but…” Livvy shook her head slowly.
“They’d already lost the two, and there was a complication with Sara’s birth. They couldn’t have any more children.”
“So they tried to keep Sara a child forever.”
“No, not forever. I can still remember sitting there while Sara’s mother, Julie, I think her name was, earnestly showed McGregor the timeline they had worked out.
“’See,’” she told him. “’When we were fifty we couldn’t get any more resets, so we started aging naturally. Biologically we’re still 35 years old. Sara will be 4 and can stay there until we are 45, and we can let her grow and go to school. We’ll have a natural family from then on, just like people used to have. We’ll live to see our grandchildren.’ She expected us to understand. It was pathological, her need to keep Sara a child that she could keep at home and sheltered.”
“It had to be more than just kinks. Sara was supposed to be growing, not aging. Even I – and molebiol is largely Cantonese to me – even I know that it’s a whole other thing. Whatever happened to her?” Livvy asked.
“At the time I first met her, she was excessively quiet, and… sickly, I think we could say. I’m not sure that didn’t suit her mother’s plans for her, because they had no notion of enrolling her in school with other children. Once Family Welfare got her away from Josephson and several of his hormonal manipulations were reversed, she started to age normally. I followed her progress for a while. Physically, she seemed okay. I think psychologically it was more difficult, until she had a child of her own, and then she could understand a little more. When I last met her, she wasn’t doing resets.”
“I don’t understand. Josephson is a doctor. Setting aside what it says about his moral compass, how did he get away with it?”
“He’s not only an M.D., but also a PhD with a molebiol license. His lawyer, and the Torkelson’s lawyer, both argued that Sara was ill and Josephson was trying to help her. He had some medical records to back it up. Molebiol Forensics never could get a handle on it, and Chris’ interview with the Torkelsons wasn’t enough to support prosecution. I suspect their lawyer could have argued for insanity as well.”
“That poor baby. At least the law was created,” Livvy said. “No resets before 21. I’ve always thought that was a little young to start, but I suppose they had to pick an age.”
“Yes. Something you’d think we’d take for granted, wouldn’t you? When the Laws were originally written, no one even thought of that one.” For a moment she seemed lost in pensive memories. “Not even Karen DeVoe, who did a good job thinking of everything else.”
She shook it off and said finally, “I really hate to say this because of what it implies about how well we’re doing with the Laws, but I think Josephson… I think he just likes to tinker with people. He’s been out there still doing research and clinical work for decades, and until now we haven’t had a lead on anything irregular in his work. Maybe he’s been clean, or maybe we just haven’t had a whiff because he’s learned more discretion.”
Meg stood up. “We’d better get back. You’ll want to meet McGregor in the motor pool so you can go from there.”
As they were walking back, Meg was still looking thoughtful. “Look, there are things about LLE work the Chief can’t actually tell you and McGregor won’t. If you do have questions, feel free to come to me.”
“I appreciate that. I’m not complaining, but my new partner… not a training officer.”
Meg smiled briefly. “You know, he’s never been a training officer.”
“Been said.”
Chp. 5 Engagement (Tuesday)
“Hey, McGregor!”
Chris spun around. He’d just gotten off the Paceway coming from the clinic and was heading for the LLE swift-el. It was Livvy leaning against a car door, and when he spotted her and started to walk over, she tossed a ball straight up, grabbed it out of the air, and then threw it into the depths of an underground corridor.
Louie, who’d been sitting at her feet, intensely focused on the ball, gave her a brief “That’s all you’ve got?” look and bounded after it.
“What’s this?” Chris asked.
“He needs exercise,” she said. “I think we’re going to find that chasing a ball is a bit simplistic for him, but there must be some canine Olympics or something.”
“No good. They’d test him. No, I mean why are you here waiting for me?”
“Saving time. We have a missing doctor. The Chief told me how to find you, and I’ve already arranged an interview with the girlfriend.”
“Fill me in while you drive. Louie!” Chris said.
The tennis ball came bouncing back towards them, with Louie in full pursuit. He made an exaggerated leap and caught it out of the air just as it reached the car.
“Good boy,” Livvy said as he climbed into the backseat. “You see, I think he’s going to be a wiz at this stuff. I’ll bet he’s a shark with a Frisbee.”