Tokyo Cancelled

‘Oh, Rajiv–you’re on television! Can you hear?’

Rajiv’s microphoned voice crackled through his mobile phone.

‘India’s new wealth will come not from any natural resource but from an entirely fortuitous fact: its one billion people slap bang on the opposite side of the world from America.’

‘–they told me I would change the future–’

‘A billion people awake while America’s three hundred million sleep. Awake in their droves, ten and a half time zones from New York, thirteen and a half from San Francisco.’

‘He’s been on this call for four and a half minutes already.’

‘You look so nice. Nice smile. And people are applauding.’

‘In the electronic age it doesn’t matter where anyone is anymore.’

‘Is anyone apart from me remotely conscious of the value of time, for God’s sake?’

‘And Indians can fit in a whole day of work between the time that Americans swipe out in the evening and the time they set their double mocha down on their desk the next morning. It’s an unbeatable formula.’

‘Kurt, Laurie–I have it.’

‘Thanks to us, the sun need never set on the American working day.’

‘OK, I have that delayed flight on my screen here. And the other ticket you purchased. American Airlines. Paid for at 2.24 p.m. Central Time last Thursday. We’re very sorry for the delay and the inconvenience.’

‘India’s new asset is its time zone. Indian Standard Time is its new pepper, its new steel!’

‘We’ll credit one thousand eight hundred fifteen dollars and forty-seven cents to the American Express card you paid with.’

‘That’s the end of that news item. But you did look nice.’

‘Thank you very much. You have an accent. Where are you from?’

‘He’s out of here.’

‘I’m from India.’

‘Now listen. Protesters–cloning–undermining society–yes: “These technologies mean dramatic new possibilities for medical therapy and for bringing children to infertile couples, and when people realize that their world view can continue unthreatened by what people like me do–and that previously incurable conditions can now be treated–they’ll stop making all this fuss.”’

Mira’s voice began to quiver with the massage. Rajiv could hear the smack of palms on oily skin.

‘India! I would so love to go to India. I believe Americans have so much to learn from India. What do you think of the US?’

‘It goes on: Chief Executive Robert Mills confirmed that human cloning was not on the company’s agenda. “It’s illegal in this country anyway,” he said. “But the mandate we have been given by our investors is very precise: to develop a patent portfolio of world-class sheep and cattle genetic material, and the techniques to exploit that material in the global agricultural marketplace.”’

‘America is–fine! Great!’

‘Time!’

‘“The gorilla experiment was part of our investigation into these techniques, but Bios Laboratories will not be pursuing its work in primate production.”’

‘Where are you based?’

‘Madam, I’m getting another call. I really ought to go.’

‘OK. Thanks for your help.’

‘Time’s up? What do you mean time’s up?’

‘You have to make sure these people understand that there is only one thing that is important here and that’s efficiency.’

‘My massage is over. Can’t believe an hour is up already.’

‘You have to make sure they know how to avoid this kind of chitchat. And deal with that guy. This isn’t a chat line we’re running.’

‘So what do you think?’

‘I’m sorry, Mira, I’m doing something here.’

‘Were you listening to the article?’

‘Yes. In fact I know Stephen Hall. He was at Cambridge with me. We played squash.’

‘Don’t you see? This is our chance! We can have a child! Why don’t you go and see him?’

‘OK, Mira. I will.’

A few days later, Dr Stephen Hall showed Rajiv into the living room of a large old house whose Victorian lattice windows filtered out most of the scant light of the Cambridge afternoon. They sat down on armchairs that were crowded into the tiny space left by the grand piano and outsized television that dominated the room.

‘Now. Tell me what can I do for you?’

Stephen poured cream into his coffee and stirred intently.

‘I need you to make my wife and I a child. We will pay, of course.’ Rajiv narrated the history of his ill-fated attempts at reproduction.

Dr Hall considered deeply. He looked anxious.

‘Have you thought of adopting?’

‘I haven’t come here for your bloodless European solutions. I don’t need to visit one of the world’s leading biotechnology experts to get advice on adoption. I want a child whose flesh and blood is my wife’s and my own. That is why I am here.’

‘How much would you pay?’

‘Five million pounds.’

‘I see.’ He took a gulp from his coffee cup with just-perceptible agitation.

‘You realize that we’d need to do the work outside the country. It’s illegal here. I’d probably set up a lab in the Bahamas. We’d need to ship a lot of equipment and people. It could–’