Читать книгу Chimera - Wendy Lill - Страница 16

ROY is drinking heavily. EDDIE LLOYD joins him.

EDDIE:

Roy Boy. I’ve missed your sour puss. (slaps him on the back) First things first, (pulls out a little album) Got some pictures of the grandchildren. Aren’t they the cutest little runts?

ROY:

Cute.

EDDIE:

New job, I hear.

ROY:

(shrugs) See you’re working the room.

EDDIE:

I’m in town for the big science shindig. Doing some work for the university.

ROY:

The high life of an overzealous corporate mouthpiece.

EDDIE:

(leans in) Heard you got a bit overzealous yourself on your buggered-boys story. Heard you got tossed from the Whig Standard.

ROY:

Piss off.

EDDIE:

Hey, it happens to the best of us! (slaps him on the shoulder) Let me give you The Pitch. The short form. I start with a question. How many of us would be alive today if it weren’t for science? Not me. I’d be dead ten times. I’ve got that peanut thing. Ten close calls. Keep my salvation right here in my jacket pocket. Say a prayer to science every night. Little men and women in white coats. Thank you. That’s why I am honoured to be here representing Capital U. Anything I can do to help, I jump right up to the plate. It’s a personal thing.

ROY:

Money’s probably not bad either.

EDDIE:

True enough. (pulls out a hand-held TV) See that? That’s an eyeball. They’re doing an operation inside an eyeball.

ROY:

Jesus.

EDDIE:

Nanotechnology. Capital University has pioneered techniques in nanotechnology that are used around the world. And they’re developing a method—get this—to create new body parts: legs, arms, teeth ...

ROY:

Have you got your order in for a bigger dick?

EDDIE:

That’s rich. Actually, no. Doing all right in that department. But they could probably make you up a new liver. Bottom line, Roy, science never sleeps. It never stops working. It’s not about meeting rinky-dink deadlines. It’s not about shilling for every two-bit interest group wanting face time on the Hill. It’s bigger than you and me, Roy. It’s working twenty-four seven. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year. It’s micro. It’s macro. It’s leapfrogging ahead five years, ten years, twenty years. It’s the long haul driver. It’s The Big Bopper. It’s the bop in the bop-she-bop and the ram in the ram-a-dam-a-ding-dong.

ROY:

You’re nuts.

EDDIE:

Hey, don’t knock it! You’d be surprised how stupid things like that can break the ice. Anyway, that’s The Pitch. I gotta shitload of info if you want it. (tips his glass) Cheers. It’s been a good day.

ROY:

So, what do you know about Nell Harrier?

EDDIE:

Who?

ROY:

Harrier. The only scientist at Capital U. with a primate lab in Nepean.

EDDIE:

Nell Harrier? The monkey lady. Ornery as hell. Brilliant researcher. Taught for forty years.

ROY:

She’s gotta be ancient.

EDDIE:

Scientists don’t grow old—they just get younger grad students.

ROY:

I called the University. Harrier’s doing primate research but no mention of embryonic stem cells in gorillas. Any truth to it?

EDDIE:

(shrugs) Well, let’s just say sometimes work gets refocused. The road to knowledge takes many twists and turns. Nobody wants to stand in the way of a Nobel Prize. And the new Minister of Justice? Whaddya think of her?

ROY shrugs, says nothing.

EDDIE:

She likes feathers. Think she must have been a bird in an earlier life.

ROY:

What were you? A skunk?

EDDIE:

Ms. McGuire’s progressive, presentable. A damn sight better looking than Duckworth. Doesn’t know the file, but how much damage can she do? Her Deputy Minister, Pierre Guy, keeps a tight lid on the department. Help me, Roy. It’s always good to know what you’re up against when you’re going to government.

ROY:

Sounds like you know it all. Why are you asking me?

EDDIE:

Heard you knew her way back when. Thought you might have some tales to tell out of school. (he sees ROY preparing to leave) Hey, I gave you stuff on Harrier. Don’t get all haughty. We’re here to help each other out. I mean we’re not that different. I package it, you shovel it. (enjoying this) Or vice versa. Where are you going?

ROY:

You’re the only guy in town who can drive me out of a bar.

EDDIE:

I’d say you were a porcupine! (turns back to the bar) Another soda water, please.