Chapter 17 - Fat Lewis' Watch

The doorbell rang precisely on time and Andy motioned for Tracy to get it. Andy had installed a microphone in the door frame to see if he could hear any give away whispers between these two. Tracy opened the door. "Hello, come into the lounge. I'll announce your presence to Mr Corbin who will be with you shortly." It was a formality designed to intimidate a school girl, which it didn't. "I'm sure Andy will only be too eager to put his paranoia to rest so he can get on with a more productive dialog."

Fuck it, thought Andy. Hit her hard and fast. He came to the lounge immediately. Tracy did a quick introduction, Imogen offered her hand, which Andy shook and all three were seated. Andy had to remind himself that he was dealing with a minor and so couldn't make things too heavy. "Imogen, I run several businesses and confidentiality is a big deal to me. Tracy has told me that you knew of the Acacia saligna experiment on my homestead. While the experiment itself is not such a big deal privacy wise, the fact that it leaked and I don't know how it leaked is. Before we can discuss any involvement with your father's business, I need a plausible explanation as to how you came by that information."

Imogen smiled casually. "Plausible is the key word here. What if I told you that you were the one that stole Fat Lewis' watch. It was a Rolex I believe."

Andy couldn't believe what he was hearing. In late primary school Fat Lewis was calling him names, he was also a boastful child who brought in his fathers Rolex to school. Andy got his revenge by stealing the watch. It was a big deal at the time, the local police were called in who gave a talk to the class about the wrongness of stealing. However Andy was never caught, he had hidden the watch in the contents of a vegemite jar and placed it in the bin. That week the garbage truck came on time and that was the end of it. He had never told a soul about it. No one saw. He had never written of the experience. No one knew. No one could have known. Until now. He brought Tracy up to speed about the incident. You're exonerated he concluded.

"Will you kindly tell me how you know about this?"

"Search your own mind Andy. Clearly I didn't find out by any ordinary means. It's by biological information leakage. Nothing supernatural, no magic, no crystals or earth fields or any shit like that. Just unusual biology. That is unusual biology at my end, not yours. You don't have to worry about losing information to everyone. Some quick biology 101 for you. You, and everyone else in the world, are not just a collection of human cells. You are an ecosystem of human, bacteria, viruses and fungi. Whatever I say about you applies to everyone else. Information doesn't just stop in your brain. There is no barrier to prevent it from moving about in your body. In fact organ transplantees often have the memories / likes / dislikes of their donor. In truth information also travels to the bacterial cells and you leave your bacterial fingerprints everywhere. Put simply I have the ability to listen in. I am not unique but like those who can touch an object and know a story behind it."

It's the kind of explanation he would have dismissed instantly had she not known about Fat Lewis. No one else knew about that. He had a simple choice believe the new age bullshit or believe the bacteria bullshit. If he couldn't keep the watch from her then what could he keep from her, probably nothing and nor could anyone else. He sensed his vulnerability. "Lets just say at this stage, Imogen, that I will be considering your explanation for quite sometime. In the meantime what are you seeking for your father."

"My father, Roger, is a hard working man who takes pride in putting bread and butter on the table. I have recently begun working behind the scenes to covertly expand his opportunities. I do not wish him to know of my abilities. An approach from you to repair the homestead would be most welcome. Oh by the way, while on the subject of expanding opportunities there have been recent scientific articles which dispute the United Nations publications that tannins reduce the digestibility of fodder. In fact in moderate amounts its the reverse. So you have all these farmers out there not following the obvious path to productivity because of authoritarian bullshit. It's a good bit of news for your Acacia saligna as it gives you the upper hand in acquiring marginal land and making big bucks. I shall get Daniel, a friend of mine, to email you the link to the article."

To say Andy felt unsettled about this was an understatement. What did a school girl know about builders. Then again what did he. He only got onto Sillix Constructions because he overhead a conversation at one of the office parties, by someone who also wouldn't know a good builder from a bad one. Andy liked to deal with facts. The only other way that Imogen could have known about Fat Lewis' watch was if he had spoken about it in his sleep and someone had overheard him and told Imogen. Yeah, right? That sounded just as bad as the information leakage stuff. But the fact was Imogen could get her hands on difficult to find information. That could make her a very useful member of the team in a couple of years. What was she asking for really? One unknown builder in preference for another unknown builder. Fuck it ... Go with it.