Genesis Code, (Book 1, Genesis Series)

Chapter 36

Laura barely managed an hour of sleep in her apartment in Haymarket, Sydney. What she had in her possession could get her into a lot of trouble. The time projection on the wall read midday. She lay in bed unsure if she should even look at the contents of the micro file. She'd been dead on her feet the day before, but now, even with just an hour's rest, her mind and body were unusually alert.

All morning she wondered what might be on the file, whether ESC were remotely monitoring her Light Box, or if there was a chance that they'd followed her home. She scrapped the last idea; she'd been home almost three hours and nobody had tried to break in yet. As for the monitoring of the Light Box, it was impossible for her to know.

Laura ran her fingers across the unopened letters on her side table, the ones addressed to Bill Taggart. She brought the paper up to her nose and thought she could smell perfume. While she'd wanted to tear the letters open minutes after getting them, all she could do now was look and wonder. They weren't meant for her; she sensed they were personal.

Viewing the contents of the micro file would be easier, but Sixteen's warning repeated in her head: 'If you want to help, you need to know what this place has become involved in. It's not what you think.'

She never said she wanted to help.

While Chris and Janine both believed the ESC was involved in foul play, Laura was less influenced by gossip. It terrified her to think she might have actual proof of that foul play in her hands. If she looked at the micro file, there would be no turning back, no pretending the contents didn't exist. She could be risking her lottery chances. But her curiosity pushed her on.

Laura pulled the covers up to her neck. Maybe if she stayed long enough, her mind would quieten. She had been so tired all week, yet rest wouldn't come.

No such luck. She gave in and got up.

Her apartment on the tenth floor gave her a clear view of the street below. She reached for a pair of magnification glasses that had once belonged to her father. Then she increased the tint on her bedroom window just a little.

Without reason to use them before, she put them on and checked the street below and the block across the street; the rooms were dark, and she saw nothing. She removed the glasses and decreased the tint on her window again.

Slipping into her robe, she tied the straps securely around her waist, as if the action would somehow protect her more. She retrieved the micro file from its hiding place and studied it in her palm.

How could something so small be so dangerous?

The Light Box's virtual display hummed into life when Laura stepped into the living room. It waited for a first command. She prised open the cover to the hardware control unit below the virtual display and inserted the file's tendril into one of six openings. The opening swallowed it and the two temporarily merged into one. The display changed and a new screen filled the wall, illuminating her apartment. On the left-hand side, a yellow icon flashed.

'Open icon,' said Laura, and the screen listed the contents of the micro file. There were ten documents, each one identifiable by a security code, followed by the date; the files were arranged in chronological order. The information spanned several years. There was no indication of the contents of each document.

'Open first document'.

Her heart thumped in her ears as she spoke. She would start at the beginning and work her way through to the last.

The display changed and a report filled the screen. Laura checked over her shoulder—a new habit—but she was still alone in the room. She perched on the edge of her dining chair. Its lacquered edge bit into her skin—a reminder not to get too comfortable.

The on-screen report had been issued from Daphne Gilchrist to Charles Deighton. At the time of correspondence, Gilchrist was Head of Operations at the ESC—a position that Suzanne Brett now filled—and was in charge of Level Five. The document centred around the indigenous race on Exilon 5, something Laura had read about in one of Bill Taggart's reports. The report had been written twenty-five years earlier, five years after the controlled explosions that had transformed Exilon 5 into its current state.

Bill Taggart's reports had contained information about the same events of thirty years ago, which gave her a basic understanding of what was being discussed. She ventured further into the new report, and noted the first mention of the experiments on the indigenous race. It wasn't clear when humans had carried out the experiments, but she assumed it had been during their ​ discovery.

The graphic details forced her to stop reading.

'What the hell is this?'

She sat back in her chair and breathed hard, as a sudden bout of nausea hit her. She looked at the report again. Curiosity overruled her disgust and compelled her to continue. As she did, the details of how humans had interfered in the lives of the Indigenes were laid bare for her to see; the recent World Government experiments on them, the planned terraforming, the knowledge of their underground tunnels, but not the precise location.

Laura closed the first document and stood, then paced across her living-room floor. Was any of it even real? It had to be; why would the woman from booth sixteen risk her job, and her life, to give her false data? She sat back down and forced her voice to issue the next command.

The second and third documents opened and she read the content. The experiments on the Indigenes weren't mentioned again until the fourth document: a recent one, just three months old. It tied in with the ongoing investigations on Exilon 5, mentioning the investigator Bill Taggart, who had headed up the mission. The story made sense.

But she wasn't prepared for what came next. Around three-quarters of the way into the fourth report, it gave an outline reason behind the World Government's obsession with the Indigenes. It was enough to explain their motives and expose their lies and secrets. Then there was the ESC's involvement. Neither organisation had experimented so they could discover more about the aliens; they already knew everything about them.

Humans had not just discovered this race. Humans had put them on Exilon 5.

When Laura read the fifth document, she gasped.

Her eyes shot over to her bedside table where she had left the unopened letters addressed to the investigator.