Hope Street

by Jennifer J Henderson

Adam and Zane had arranged to meet at their favourite restaurant on Hope Street at noon. Because of the recently changed pandemic rules, they have to reschedule, zooming and supping different flavours of soup in their respective residences.  Carrot and coriander for Adam, minestrone for Zane.
  
“Did you get my emails?” asks Adam, trying to read the spines of the books on the shelf behind Zane’s unruly mop of dark hair.
“Every last one of them,” replies Zane, trying to hide his dismay at the stark white walls in Adam’s background.
“Fortune favours the brave, we need to go for this!” says Adam.
“Gene therapy for truth telling – really?  How’s that going to work, exactly? I know you’ve got a genetics PhD, but it sounds bloody ambitious to me.”
“Just you wait and see; all I need is for you to fund the lab and the marketing, I’ll do the rest.”
“Knowledge is power, eh?  Let me tell you something, Adam, money is even more powerful.”
“Maybe so, sometimes, but in this case I hold all the cards. No-one is going to be telling lies in three generations’ time once I’ve got this treatment rolled out. Of course, we won’t be around to know if it’s completely successful, but that’s part of the beauty of it.”
“Part of the beauty – so what’s the other part?”
“Quite simply, it’s just added to the atmosphere, so we all breathe it in. Release it in batches at certain points all over the world, simultaneously, and wait for it to circulate in the air.”
“So what’s the downside?”
“There is no downside, unless you take into account the fact that there’s no legislation that covers this kind of thing, so it all has to be done below the radar.”
“Unlike you, to be doing something illegal, Adam.”
“Very unlike me, I know, but I just can’t stomach all the horrific lying that has become so prevalent in recent times.  Why not do something about it – make the world a better place?
“Exciting times ahead then, Adam, when do you want to start work in the lab?”
“You won’t regret this, Zane; if anyone finds out about it we might even be nominated posthumously for a Nobel Prize!”
Zane sups the last of his soup and makes a very significant online bank transfer to his friend’s account.