Longevity (5 page)

"The only reason we've made it this far is that we've got the Laws that were cobbled together in response to the Riots. Without the Longevity and Enhancement Laws, we'd be in real danger of facing the creation of a master race, all based on power and financial resources."

"No. No, we wouldn't," Livvy said soberly.

"Of course you're right." Chris glanced at her and then went back to staring straight ahead. "That is the crux. We had the Riots, but it's been so much worse everywhere else in the world. We'd claw each other apart, like they have elsewhere, until we destroyed ourselves as a civilization. But you've considered all this, or as a well-regarded Homicide detective you wouldn't have jumped into the LLE rabbit hole. This is hardly a career booster for you."

"Well-regarded?" Livvy said with mild irony. "You know I used family influence to get here."

"I've been a detective a long time."

They sat in silence for a while. Livvy suspected Chris must be remembering how close they'd come to collapse once already, and how hard Karen had worked to prevent it. He had been in the center of it all. She could only imagine what it had been like.

"Your wife was Karen DeVoe, the bioethicist who consulted on the Laws, wasn't she?" she asked, watching him.

He continued to stare out the front window at the scenery passing by. After a while, she began to wonder if he was going to answer, or if she needed to apologize for some reason.

Extending as far as she could see on one side of the highway was one of the largest Naturals ghettos in the nation. Block upon block of 20
^th
and 21
^st
century high-rise buildings, interrupted frequently by squares of the reclaimed green spaces with their gardens and playgrounds. There was no physical boundary, but the ghetto was inhabited by families and businesses functioning behind brittle socioeconomic and philosophical barriers. She knew LLE would seldom have to venture into these areas; licensed facilities were non-existent and hotlabs were rare, although sometimes a group of the less law-abiding residents got enterprising enough to highjack a shipment of Longevity supplies and kidnap a practitioner. But the way she saw it, LLE was mainly for them. LLE guarded the promise that the Laws would keep the barriers passable.

"Things were at a crisis," Chris said, interrupting her thoughts. "None of it was simple. Of course from the beginning there were those who abhorred the whole idea on principle, and others who reveled in the possibilities but understood what it would mean for society. A lot of people who couldn't afford minimally useful resets still didn't want to see Longevity totally abandoned, even if we could have put the Genie back into the bottle, because then their children would never have the chance or the choice. The protests built into the Riots, and it took the politicians a while to understand that it wasn't just about radicals who couldn't stand the concept of Longevity or the hard-core discontented who couldn't afford it, but rational people who knew what it would mean if it was unchecked... if no compromise made co-existence possible.

"It got so bad that they even tried to outlaw Longevity for a while, but the Riots didn't stop, they just changed. Everyone, including the civic leaders in the ghettos, knew the black market pressures would be overwhelming and unrelenting. The politicians finally got that they would need to work with what we had, and come up with some workable compromise. They were terrified. They finally had an issue that they couldn't just endlessly debate."

"I'll bet they still tried, for a while," Livvy said.

Chris smiled slightly again, at some memory. "They called in all kinds of experts. Karen testified and then spent hours with government officials, congressmen, and newsmen, lobbyists, anyone who asked for her help. Educating, explaining... It was the first time in her experience that they really seemed to listen. Before then, Congress had just rushed approvals through, eager to get the benefits for themselves and their families, thinking they were appeasing everyone who mattered."

There was another, shorter silence. Livvy thought about what it must have meant to him to come through all that, and come out with the Laws functioning as they were meant to, and Karen. Karen, expecting a baby, as Livvy's research had revealed. No one welcomed a baby unless they had a tenacious grasp on hope.

"I don't suppose you've had much exposure to any natural families?" Chris asked at last. "I don't anymore, myself, but that's partly because of what I've been doing for the last fifty-odd years. The stable natural families may know what we do, but they almost never encounter LLE. They're not all religious fanatics, or too poor to afford the resets. Nor do they all hate us and the choice we've made. Most choose to live in there, in some cases because they believe it is the right way to live." He nodded towards the ghetto."

"But you can remember, can't you? I mean, you grew up in one. A natural family. Your parents got old before they died?"

Chris hesitated, but then answered simply. "Old? Yes, I suppose so."

"Someday, no one will remember what it was like, before Longevity," Livvy said.

"If you are serious about trying to understand, and you stick around LLE after this week, we can arrange for you to spend some time with a family. Agnew's family is Natural."

The car pulled up to face a home slot and they climbed out so that it could drive in and elevate out of the way for the next returning vehicle. Louie didn't wait for them to open the door, but climbed into the front and out before the door slid shut. At the office, other than an occasional excursion to Livvy's side to glean some attention, he was showing a strong tendency to stay within inches of Chris' left hand.

"What do you think will happen to her? Marcy?" Livvy asked.

"It's no different here in D.C. than on the West Coast."

"Meaning, I suppose, that it probably all depends on whether she gets some media-savvy attorney," Livvy said. "For once not a bad thing. That bird already hit the window way too hard."

"Whatever happens, we can probably assume that it will be nothing she would consider worse than what has happened already," Chris agreed. "At any rate, it's a Homicide case, not an LLE case, although we still each have to prepare a report. If it were an LLE case, we'd handle it differently. But you'll find that out soon enough."

They'd reached the squad room. There was a short pause in the underlying buzz of voices when they walked in but it didn't last long. By tomorrow, she figured, they'd have moved on, and she and Louie would attract no more attention than a firefly on the Fourth. Chris reached his desk and, hooking his chair with his leg, pulled it in and sat down.

Livvy had hoped for some elaboration of his last comment, but none came. She remembered he wasn't a training officer.

He took out a muting recorder and started talking into it, and she searched her desk drawers. Whoever had used the desk before her - and it looked like it had been a while - hadn't left many useable supplies. There was no recorder, for example. There had to be a supply depot, and she looked around for a logical place to begin exploring the room.

Her nominal partner ignored her. Okay, she was a big girl and she could figure out how LLE "handled it differently" by observation. Like Louie, she supposed. Fair enough. She still had over six days. Plenty of time to get into the routine.

Chp. 4 Another Damn Doctor (Tuesday)

Chris considered reset day a pain in the ass. It took up a half a day, played tricks on his short term memory, and gave him significant philosophical qualms on the issue of whether he was living the life he should be living. He continued to go in as scheduled because he was living half the life - or truthfully far less than half the life - he and Karen had planned together. Resets were a benefit of his job, they allowed him to continue to do his work effectively, and after all, he still valued life and a useful level of fitness. That was the whole point of Longevity. It plainly beat the alternative.

The morning after meeting his new partner, he showed up for his quarterly appointment, and as often in the city employees' facility in massive City Central, he saw a new doctor - new to him that is - for his scan consultation.

Unlike most physicians, this one had chosen to keep the face of a 21 year-old. Chris, never having met him before, had no idea of his true age except to know that he had to be at least a decade younger than Chris was, even if he was from one of the extremely wealthy families that were the only ones able to afford resets before the explosion of technical achievements in 2040 made them affordable for a lot of the upper middle class as well.

"You're 101 chrono, and what? 33 biol? A pioneer," the doctor said, slightly surprised.

He had been scanning Chris' records but at that he looked up and scrutinized Chris more closely, a little like he might examine a lab specimen. "Your BMI and cardiac parameters haven't changed in the last 6 decades. According to our records, you've never had anything but departmental resets," he glanced inquiringly at Chris, "yet you look a very fit 30-35. How do you feel?"

"Like a 30-35 year old," Chris said.

"You've never had any kind of enhancement? A slight metabolic adjustment? No? That's a lot of work on your own. Very impressive." The doctor paused. "Too many people think that resets and enhancements can do it all, even though they must know that enhancements to help increase muscle strength and reflex times are illegal."

"I'm in LLE," Chris said.

"Ah, so of course you know. Well, you seem to have a regimen that keeps you fit," he said, then paused. There was obviously bad news coming.

"Unfortunately, I still need to recommend visits every 2 months from now on."

"Why?" Chris asked.

"Let me see. To put it in terms you can understand. First of all, it's a myth that the need for resets increases with a little age - you can reach your allotment without having to adjust your reset interval. Most people, other than nervous types with lots of resources, do just that. So it's not for the resets.

"It's always been a tradeoff between senescence - cell aging - and instability. Not to get too technical on you... when we learned how to manipulate telomeres and stem cells and really use engineered RNA and transcription factors with incredible precision and molebiologists started devising catalysts that could speed the processes up without stressing... well, to put it simply, we beat senescence. But when we destroyed the Hayflick Limit, we set ourselves up for an increase in instability.

"So, when you come in quarterly for your resets, we do our mapping and scans each time, because it's not senescence we're checking for, it's tumorigeneses. We've always been able to destroy a few abnormally replicating cells in situ, but if they get further along than that, it gets more difficult to destroy them without being more invasive. There is a new imaging technology that catches them sooner, that's all, and if we can catch them sooner, and locate them more precisely, we can treat them sooner. When they're just a few cells in size ... well, you get the picture. It's not your situation that's changed, it's ours. New technology. Better medicine. It's win-win really," the doctor said finally, and smiled brightly.

"Uh huh," Chris said. He's very young, Chris thought. He believes in a win-win scenario. So young that he was still enthralled with the great gift his science had given humanity, and what more could be done with it. Out of pure curiosity, when the doctor had gotten distracted by something in Chris' record, Chris took the opportunity to ask a question he asked every decade or so. It was the young physician's unabashed enthusiasm that made him curious, he supposed.

"Do they still teach history and sociology in the schools?"

"History? Sure, some," the doctor said. "If you mean specifically the Allotment Riots, of course. Sociology? No, not much. I mean, at the university level, sure, people can take all they want. But you know, it takes a lot just to keep up with all of the molebiol and other relevant science. If we could get a neuro- enhancement, now..." he added jokingly.

He looked at Chris, who had heard it so often before that he couldn't muster even a flicker of a smile. The doctor obviously had second thoughts about what he'd said, because he added seriously, "We have enough to deal with in the science. We can't control the rest of it. That's what the Laws and LLE are for, isn't it? No offense, but isn't that
your
job?"

The doctor went back to his memotab and stylus.

"No offense taken," Chris said mildly. "Right, our responsibility. So, an appointment every two months. Is that it?"

"Yes. That's based on analyses of your maps from the last three pre-reset scans. Your situation is that you have a long history of nicely modulated telomere regeneration but we have to make sure it is kept under control, and now that we have the technology to catch abnormalities even earlier... In the old days I suspect you would have had what was called a family history of cancer."

Chris' aspect radiated patience and the doctor faltered.

"Of course, it's all here in your record, with tickles: both of your parents and your sister died of cancer in the decade before Longevity was licensed. I guess you spent a lot of your time in the hospitals of the time. Surely with your family history someone explained all our concerns about tumorigenisis to you already."

"I'm sure they have. I'm probably not a good listener," Chris said. He remembered being told at some point, decades ago, that his genome handled the Longevity Process especially well, as a result of the infamous tradeoff. After Karen's death, he'd stopped listening. For the last 55 years he had kept fit and continued to come in on the recommended schedule because it helped him do his job well. He just couldn't seem to get interested in the details anymore.

Every morning, as they separated to go to their respective jobs, Chris with Enforcement and Karen as a Bioethics professor at the university, she had said "Go forth young man, and fight the good fight." Karen, who was two years younger than he was, could remember as well as he could when 'young' really meant young, so for both of them it had been a bit of a tongue-in-cheek reminder that they had chosen to live in a surreal world.

"If I understand you, I won't need a full reset every time, at least?" Chris asked, standing up. "I depend a lot on short term memory for my work."

"No. Most certainly not. As I said, that schedule is unlikely to change. We'll just be doing scans and making decisions about in situ work with med-bullets based on the results."

"That's it, then?"

"You're done."

"Thanks," Chris said politely. The doctor nodded and stared after him as he walked out of the room.

• • •

Tuesday morning Livvy, comu in hand, once again navigated the complex series of underground conveyances that took her from her hotel to LLE headquarters. After leaving her room, she subsisted without glimpsing the sun anywhere along her route on the subterranean fasttracks. Not being a vampire, she had already developed a dislike for it. Just asking her comu for the fastest route wasn't going to cut it. Tomorrow she'd start earlier so she could beat her partner to work and still get a nice walk in the morning sunshine somewhere scenic along the way.

When she got to the office, Louie was there, lying next to Chris' desk on a nice plaid blanket, but Chris was nowhere to be seen. She had a sinking feeling. He'd already come in and gone out on assignment, leaving her behind. She was going to waste a day of the week she'd been granted for proving herself. She'd either spend all day trying to catch up to him or languishing in the office - if finding him proved impossible - reading
Enhancement Law Updates
.

After their encounter with Marcy Caster yesterday, they'd spent the afternoon at their desks, Chris filing his report on Marcy and some overdue reports on old cases - that was the same, LLE or not - and Livvy struggling through
ELU
.
She'd started a decade back and was working her way to the current ones, reaching May 2098 without falling asleep more than twice. After two nights in D.C. her internal clock was still on west coast time and sleep was elusive. Melatonin enhancements were illegal but she was going to ask someone - someone other than her partner - where to find some pills.

"Hutchins, in here," the Chief called, gifting her with a small boost of adrenaline.

"Sit." She did, and he spent a few moments regarding her thoughtfully. It seemed to be a habit with him. A technique. Maybe he'd learned it from McGregor, she thought sardonically, determined not to squirm.

"McGregor isn't a training officer. Never has been."

She sat up even straighter. "So he said. I remember."

"Well, I'm afraid that's not just your problem now, it's mine as well. LLE handles a lot of things differently, and the differences are important."

"I'll pick it up," Livvy said.

"You're going to have to. McGregor knows LLE better than anyone, except maybe Dalton. Remember that. Follow his lead, and don't hesitate to ask questions."

Feeling just a little foolish, Livvy cleared her throat softly. "Got it. It's why I'm here. Uh, where is he?"

The Chief snorted. "He didn't tell you. Well, he's not used to having a partner. He has a reset appointment this morning.

"I'm giving you a new assignment. You'll get a head start if you want to impress him. There's a physician, Dr. Milo Josephson, whose clinic staff called in. He missed an appointment this morning. Get ready to check it out with McGregor when gets back. I've asked Dalton to fill you in on some background when she has a chance.

"That's all."

Livvy spent the next hour locating and calling Josephson's clinic to get the details of Josephson's schedule and the missed appointment, then arranging an interview with Josephson's girlfriend. Interestingly enough, the clinic staff not only happily supplied the girlfriend's address; they seemed to relish the idea of LLE paying her a visit. She was apparently a regular at the clinic.

It was a heady experience, having people so willing to talk to her, and not one she had been expecting. As an LLE detective, her right to requisition an individual's reset and enhancement records, and everything related to practitioners' and researchers' work, was unassailable. The clinic license and their jobs were at her disposal. The people at Josephson's clinic, though, were not just talking to her to fulfill their legal obligation, they seemed glad to be doing so. A few minutes in, she realized it was the prospect that Josephson was in trouble that was pleasing them, not any unlikely desire to make her life easier.

After checking Archives for any past Enforcement history on Josephson, Professional Licensing for the status of his licenses, and the professional associations, AAMP and AAMB, for any ethics issues, Livvy went back to her study of
ELU
.

"If you're determined to actually read those things in their original language, Manglese, you're going to need some more of this," Meg Dalton said, setting a mug of black coffee by Livvy's left hand.

Meg had brought another coffee for herself, and made it clear by dragging Chris' chair around that she was planning on staying awhile.

"Well, I was, but if you offer some excuse to tear me away for a while all I can say is, 'thank you, thank you.'"

"I think I should be able to beat that for keeping you awake," Meg said, nodding at the
ELU
. "With some help from the LLE coffee, that is."