Collin had just paid the pizza delivery guy and set himself up with the pizza, a beer and the TV when the doorbell rang again. Collin turned off the TV and went to open the door. It wasn’t the pizza guy. It was a tall gaunt man and a petite woman.
“May I help you?”
The woman said, “Mister Carter? Collin Carter?”
“Yes. That’s me.”
“We’re from Gene Search. May we come in?”
Collin was shocked. He was expecting an information packet in the mail, not visitors.
“Certainly.” He stepped back so they could enter. He grabbed the pizza and his beer and took them to the kitchen. When he returned the people from Gene Search were seated in his living room.
Collin sat down.
“I wasn’t expecting a visit.”
The man answered, “Nobody does. We’re here to see if you qualify for the Gene Search project.”
“Exactly what is the Gene Search project?”
“Mister Carter, that will only be explained to you if you qualify.”
The woman from Gene Search got up and put a duffle bag on Collin’s coffee table. She pulled out a lab coat which she put on. Then some latex gloves, a plastic baggie, some tubes with green tops, some gauze, adhesive tape, a tourniquet, a swab encased in a plastic tube, a small plastic cup with a screw top lid, a Styrofoam box and a roll of masking tape.
The man explained, “We need some samples from you to send away to our lab to see if you qualify for the project. Terrie will draw your blood and take a few samples of your hair and a cheek swab. Then you will provide a urine sample.”
Collin didn’t like their strong arm techniques. But he wanted information about this place so he figured he’d have to play along.
The man handed him a release form for him to sign saying, “Just sign here.”
Collin read the short paragraph: “I hereby grant Gene Search the authority to take bodily samples for the express purpose of determining my eligibility for the Gene Search project.” Collin signed.
Terrie put on the latex gloves and pulled three hairs from Collin’s head. She put them in the plastic baggie and sealed it. She pulled the swab from its plastic tube and asked him to open his mouth. She vigorously swabbed the inside of his cheek. Then she put a tourniquet around his arm and filled the three green top tubes with his blood. After she taped a piece of gauze over the phlebotomy site she handed him the cup.
Terrie told him, “Please fill it to the line.”
Collin took the cup and walked down the hallway. There was a bathroom in the master suite and one in the hall but he entered the second bedroom instead. There was no bathroom in the second bedroom but that was where he kept expensive surveillance equipment such as tiny GPS transmitters. He opened a small glass jar from the shelf over the desk. He took a tiny probe out of the tray on the desk and activated the transmitter. He would be able to track the device anywhere it went. The problem was that as small as it was it was not invisible. He couldn’t conceal it in the urine cup. He’d have to drop it on one of the Gene Search people. Collin filled the cup as instructed, using the closet for privacy, and returned to the living room.
As he handed the urine cup to Terrie he reached over the top of the duffle bag. He dropped the GPS transmitter into the duffle just as she was reaching for the sample cup. Terrie stored the urine cup in another plastic baggie and put it away with the other samples in the Styrofoam box. She sealed the box with tape and placed it into the duffle bag. She took off the lab coat, stuffed it into the duffle bag then pulled the zipper of the duffle bag closed and turned to leave. The man with no name stood and followed her to the door. Collin tried to ask when he would hear from them again but they ignored him and went out the door. Collin watched them from the door walk to a black SUV waiting out front. Terrie and the man got into the SUV and it drove off. Collin took a mental note of the license plate and went back inside. He wrote down the license plate number.
Collin could barely believe what had just happened but he was hungry. He washed his hands in the kitchen sink, grabbed a fresh beer and took the lukewarm pizza back into the living room. Wrestling was on. Lily didn’t like wrestling so this was his time to watch.