CHAPTER 6

THE BAKER CONNECTION

"This is some sort of joke, right? He's involved in the project??"

"Who?"

"If this profile is right, Mark Baker is the head biologist on the Stella project."

"The Mark Baker? You've gotta be shitting me."

"Wait, who the hell is Mark Baker? And why do you guys all look like you've seen a ghost?"

Tamara again. Like I said, I liked her and everything, she just didn't have two brain cells to rub together. Graham spoke up to explain just who Mark Baker was.

"Mark Baker, and Rick Allen, were the developers of the cold fusion power plant. You remember all the hoopla over the new power plant a few years back? They designed it. The accident there was what sparked this whole neo-mitochondria mess in the first place. I thought these guys were pure physicists, turns out at least one of them has a biology background instead."

"Wait."

Daniel was sitting quietly on the couch, obviously thinking rapidly. I could practically hear the gears turning as he thought.

"So the same guy who accidentally creates neo-mitochondria shows up years later working on modifying the exact same substance?"

"No, that's not how it went."

I was like the walking encyclopaedia on the history of neo-mitochondria, and it was fair enough too, seeing as I owned a set of them.

"Baker designed the plant, but it was Talleja that caused the accident, creating neo-mitochondria."

"Was it?"

Larry was staring at me, one eyebrow raised. I fumbled to find the right words to explain.

"JC monitored Talleja for two years after the accident. He was the primary carrier of the neo-mitochondria, claimed he was the "chosen one", chosen to bear the burden of restarting the human race along the aligned path, using the gift of neo-mitochondria. Some mumbo-jumbo like that anyway, I can't remember the exact wording."

"But think about this one carefully. Did he ever specifically admit to causing the accident?"

I thought about it carefully. I thought about it for a long time. Eventually I gave the only answer I could.

"No."

Larry sat back in his chair, satisfied with my answer, still smirking like a Cheshire cat.

"Soooo, what you're saying is, for all you and JC knew back then, Baker designed the power plant to break down."

"What?"

"If Baker has a biology background, maybe he knew exactly what he was doing when he designed the plant. Maybe he knew, if it broke down at any stage, what the potential consequences would be, ie. the birth of neo-mitochondria."

Graham was nodding.

"That makes sense. Everything seems to be falling into place, and everything seems to be contradicting the norm. For seven years, everyone's been saying it was Talleja, Talleja, Talleja that started this whole mess. Now it seems it was Baker all along. Since the war, the official word is that JC were dead and buried. Now we know they're alive. When is it all going to stop??"

I glanced around the room. My gaze settled on Daniel, who was staring off into space, jaw set. I noticed he had one arm around Tamara, who was still protectively clutching Daniel's cushion.

"It's only gonna stop when we expose everyone and everything corrupt. When we take down the government, stop Celgro and the Stella project, find out the truth about what started the entire neo-mitochondria debacle once and for all. And we're going to do it, I know we are. We're going to work together with a team presumed dead, and we're gonna expose everything."

Just the sort of right motivational speech to set us all cheering. I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I sure as hell felt better about the whole thing.

"Now, what are we gonna do next?"

"Go to Pomborneit!"

"Yep, and check out the headquarters of the Stella project."

"Man, I can't believe JC are planning on breaking into Celgro."

"They did always have a slightly crazy streak."

"Slightly suicidal streak sounds more like it."

"Yeah, well, we'll hear from them soon, find out how their mission went."

How I wished I could take my words back. Because we did hear from them, and we heard all about their mission, far too soon…