Free Blue Genes by Val McDermid Page B

from each side of the exchange. Women have two X chromosomes and men have an X and a Y. With me so far?’
    ‘I might not have A level biology, but I do know the basics,’ I said.
    ‘Right. So you’ll know that if it’s the man’s Y chromosome that links up with the woman’s X chromosome, you get a little baby boy. And if it’s his X chromosome that does the business, you get a girl. So everybody knew that you could make babies out of two X chromosomes. Only they didn’t shout too much about it, did they? Because if they did more than mention it in passing, like, it wouldn’t take a lot of working out to understand that if all you need for baby girls is a pair of X chromosomes from two different sources, you wouldn’t need men.’
    ‘You’re telling me that after twenty-five years of feminist theory, scientists have only just noticed that?’ I couldn’t keep the irony out of my voice.
    ‘No, they’ve always known it. But certain kinds of experiments are against the law. That includes almost anything involving human embryos. Unless, of course, it’s aimed at letting men who produce crap sperm make babies. So although loads of people knew that theoretically it was possible to make babies from two women, nobody could officially do any research on it, so the technology that would make it possible science instead of fantasy just wasn’t happening.’ The journalist was in control now, and Alexis paused for effect. She couldn’t help herself.
    ‘So what happened to change that?’ I asked, responding to my cue.
    ‘There was a load of research done which showed that men didn’t react well to having their wives inseminated with donor sperm. Surprise, surprise, they didn’t feel connected to the kids and more often than not, families were breaking up because the men didn’t feel like they were proper families. Given that more men are having problems with their sperm production than ever before, the pressure was really on for doctors to find a way of helping inadequate sperm to make babies. A couple of years ago, they came up with a really thin needle that could be inserted right into the very nucleus of an egg so that they could deliver a single sperm right to the place where it would count.’
    I nodded, light dawning. ‘And somebody somewhere figured that if they could do it with a sperm, they could do it with another egg.’
    ‘Give the girl a coconut,’ Alexis said, incapable of being solemn and scared for long.
    ‘And this doctor, whatever her real name is, has been doing this in
Manchester
?’ I asked. I know they say that what Manchester does today, London does tomorrow, but this seemed to be taking things a bit far.
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Totally illegally?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘With lesbian couples?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Who are therefore technically also breaking the law?’
    ‘I suppose so.’
    We looked at each other across the table. I didn’t know about Alexis, but I couldn’t help banner headlines flashing across my mind. The thought of what the tabloids would do with a story like this was enough in itself to bring me out fighting for the women who had gone underground to make their dreams come true, let alone my feelings for Alexis and Chris. ‘And the baby Chris is carrying belongs to both of you?’ I asked.
    ‘That’s right. We both had to have a course of drugs to maximize our fertility, then Helen harvested our eggs and took them off to the lab to join them up and grow them on till she was sure they were OK. She did four altogether.’
    If I looked as aghast as I felt, Alexis’s face didn’t reflect it. ‘Chris is having
quads
?’ I gasped.
    ‘Don’t be soft. ’Course she’s not. There’s a lousy success rate. You have to transplant at least three embryos to be in with a shout, and then it’s only a seventy per cent chance that one of them’s going to do the business. Helen transplanted three, and one of them survived. Believe me, in this game, that’s a result.’
    ‘So what