**Thank you for reading my novel. If you enjoyed the story, please give it a like and leave a comment — your support really encourages me to keep writing and sharing more chapters.**74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeAz4xhl9mb
Robin Shen saw Zorina again forty-six hours later.
He did not set foot on the island himself.
At least, not publicly.
The first arrival was a low-consumption supply vessel74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHqZMvPLRxk
bearing the crest of a private medical foundation. Officially, it was74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdrtxMthCVC
conducting a search-and-rescue operation for missing technical personnel in the74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ftNppuIlQ
South Atlantic. On board were two medics, three crates of emergency supplies, a74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRLvl9tdyU3
portable communication tower, and twelve containers which looked, with74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsQd9qMUbkJ
admirable innocence, like medical refrigeration units.
They were in fact filled with unregistered energy74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO4jlflDR5i
cartridges.
A distinction only the law would have found meaningful.
When Zorina descended from the direction of the volcano, the74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfxmQninnb2
rescue team stared at her.
She was still wearing the torn flight suit. There was dried74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIREy84858C
blood at her temple, evidence of injury, though no injury impressive enough to74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBigJUugmxN
satisfy the expectations of people who had been sent to retrieve a crash74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ2sfKRXrCd
survivor. Her expression did not belong to someone recently rescued from74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEizcv304tr
disaster.
She was too calm.
So calm, in fact, that she looked less like a woman awaiting74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYlOhEZ9Vt1
rescue and more like a supervisor watching a shipment of tools arrive late.
“Miss Li,” one of the medics said carefully, “please allow74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5fYg75CfR0
us to conduct a medical examination.”
“Set up the communication tower first.”
“But your injuries—”
“My injuries are not your occupation, so you may relax. They74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKlJUFy4gsf
will not make you redundant.” She looked at him. “The tower.”
The medic, having encountered the sort of woman whom even74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrmKXS9XhfY
trauma had failed to render decorative, sensibly stopped speaking.
The communication tower was assembled inside the temporary74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzIXKzubg9s
shelter. A few minutes later, Robin Shen’s holographic image appeared above the74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs2k02MutHJ
projection unit.
He wore a silver-grey suit that was offensively expensive.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCbSPXMrZfQ
Behind him, there seemed to be a banquet terrace: laughter, music, the soft74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZLc65i45TH
chime of champagne glasses, and the well-bred murmur of people who had never74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA0Cdc5nlZd
once been inconvenienced by the truth without making staff handle it.
He looked exactly like any young plutocratic heir of 3911.
Beautiful.
Careless.
Irritating.
A man who appeared to have never concerned himself with74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBzcZsWVlZt
anyone’s survival unless it affected the seating arrangement.
But his eyes were different.
His eyes, when they rested on Zorina, contained no trace of74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0kGTb9M4x6
wine.
“You’ve lost weight,” he said.
Zorina sat in the folding chair opposite the projection.
“You’ve gained some.”
Robin sighed. “Plutocratic life is brutal. One must74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhVB1KXoNNf
accumulate spare fat for warmth.”
“Good,” she said. “Your fat may soon become useful.”
One of his eyebrows lifted.
“After all these years, and not a single tender word. I can74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT0fhfExATI
see exile has improved your manners.”
Zorina ignored him and placed the first energy crystal on74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUAo043sH4z
the scanning table.
It was a tiny thing.
Almost unimpressive.
Robin looked at it.
“What is that?”
“An energy crystal formed from converted human waste74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtPquB6apFD
biomass.”
He considered her.
“Human language, please.”
“Fat, viral remnants, necrotic cells, metabolic waste.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ratPjNnZi
Converted into stable energy.”
The lazy expression on Robin Shen’s face slowly disappeared.
He did not understand the world as Atlas did. Atlas read74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTrT6EcKCEL
systems through data, structure, and pattern. Robin read them through price,74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmHc61MeCd2
leverage, appetite, fear, and the speed at which people became murderous when74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrsS5qsiBXG
ownership was in dispute.
Which meant he understood the crystal faster than almost74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0LggHjSuCW
anyone else would have.
“Efficiency?”
“Unknown at scale. The device I found is only a74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvUkg4iVDaC
first-generation interface.”
“Side effects?”
“Low-grade operation appears painless. It also produces74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg4SJrxVpgm
medical repair.”
“Reproducible?”
Zorina paused.
“The equipment can be generated. But the core activation74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFhHl1xxWwV
currently requires me.”
Robin heard the important part and smiled, charmingly enough74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6k38BiVAuU
to suggest that civilisation had been invented only to give him places to be74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfWklYMkmoo
forgiven.
“So if someone steals the machine, they may not be able to74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpnoZYp3FzM
use it.”
“Correct.”
“Can it be scaled to city level?”
“With time, materials, space, a legal shell, and a large74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGRPbez6uq
number of willing participants.”
Robin laughed softly.
“Willing participants? Zori, you underestimate human74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCtSr71BYjC
vanity. Tell the Second Tier you can reduce fat, repair damaged cells, lower74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6hHYis2l0j
viral residue, and slow visible ageing, and they’ll queue into the sea. You74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMktWtbgo1b
needn’t mention energy at all.”
“I reached the same conclusion.”
“Medical aesthetics as the shell. Healthcare as the flag.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVJTgrFZQds
Plutocratic bodies as the first raw supply.” Robin’s voice grew slower as he74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHElJpnkmha
assembled the idea. “Charge them money, extract their waste, convert it into74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxJZLjWXDGc
energy, then use that energy to expand the system.”
Zorina watched him.
“Would it work?”
“Perfectly.”
He sat a little straighter. The laughter and music behind74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsGweuAgEvZ
him seemed, all at once, unrelated to him.
“But you must understand something. This is not starting a74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiUmj3mXK63
company. This is declaring war on Quota Civilisation. The moment energy is no74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4zy7cnQblF
longer something regimes alone can distribute, the Five Tier system begins to74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ48RfGmtdMo
loosen. The First Tier will want to control you. The Second Tier will want74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDJLxzVsDFT
shares in you. The Third Tier will want to reverse-engineer you. The Fourth74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo2ltFcrh1R
Tier will call you hope. The Fifth Tier may call you a god.”
“I do not want to be a god.”
Robin looked at her.
“My dear, when has history ever troubled itself with what74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM7EYkSt6xf
women wanted to be called?”
Zorina did not answer.
His voice lowered.
“You have always been like this. Since we were children. The74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5uQBtXS39I
instant you see someone drowning, you reach for them. Have you considered that74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoRqJQAWVV6
this time the entire world may be underwater and holding on to your wrist?”
“That is why I called you.”
“Because I am charming?”
“Because you know how to bribe lifeguards.”
Robin paused.
Then he laughed.
For one brief moment, the expensive suit, the banquet, the74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡilZW4rWDSn
plutocratic mask, all of it slipped. He looked almost like the boy from a Hong74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz10n54pd9n
Kong kindergarten playground, placing sweets in her hand with the solemn74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmEzjAVR3YC
generosity of a child who had not yet learned that kindness was dangerous.
Back then, whenever she had needed something, Robin had74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCDjk7N1OkE
appeared with money, access, excuses, and an astonishing talent for making74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYbR7VYmOf8
consequences lose interest in her. Always at precisely the right moment. Always74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIQrsQ36vN4
from behind the curtain.
Then his parents died in a political purge dressed very74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaOfqavHRaY
neatly as a traffic accident.
After that, he learned to play the fool.
To be stupid.
To be rotten.
To become the sort of decorative wastrel everyone74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Tjd8s6DWu
underestimated, because the powerful were always more comfortable around vice74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxgWEzBchdX
than intelligence.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll help you.”
“Conditions?”
“Conditions?” Robin looked almost offended. “What conditions74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwUWLENEChZ
do you imagine I require?”
Zorina was silent.
He looked at her with a stubbornness that had not changed74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC2OKl3MmYT
since childhood.
“I am not helping you because I believe the world deserves74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡniQwCKZ7me
saving.”
He smiled as he said it, but his voice was gentler than the74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXNB1xPtKPz
expression allowed.
“I am helping you because you believe it does.”
Outside the tent, sea wind dragged black volcanic ash across74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiBhUCa1qpM
the ground.
Zorina lowered her gaze to the energy crystal.
It was small.
Yet it looked more like dawn than all the white light in74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Ch6j1wnnv
Britain’s government domes.
“First step,” she said. “I need Britain to recognise my74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5JN0LdWUvg
control of this island.”
Robin’s smile thinned into something more professional.
“Tristan da Cunha remains within Britain’s residual overseas74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9DwKvlBnJ0
control sequence. Britain will not simply hand over sovereignty because a74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ75GzkPNj8e
missing analyst has had an eventful weekend.”
“Then we do not ask for sovereignty at first.”
His eyes brightened.
“Development rights. Scientific autonomy. Long-term lease.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Hj2C12Qcx
Energy special zone.”
“And one more clause,” Zorina said. “All subterranean74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRH3ZKb8bp1
discoveries on the island are to be administered by me.”
“Britain will ask what it receives.”
“Priority sales rights. The legal products produced during74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHY2aatDRIQ
phase one of the biological energy medical system: Britain receives priority74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcnMEkNv14l
procurement and agency rights.”
Robin touched his chin.
“They will want control of the technology.”
“They can control distribution. Not the core.”
“They will be displeased.”
“Then let them be shown a demonstration first. Enough to74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0UBsSievtN
make them greedy.” She paused. “And they should understand that even if the74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡouk43IwozE
devices are exposed, they will only operate under my instruction. If they kill74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyvfBNufk5A
me, they inherit nothing.”
Robin studied her for a moment.
“How much are you prepared to show them?”
Zorina closed her fingers around the energy crystal.
“Enough to make them want it. Not enough to make them think74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXjj6z9iFl0
they can murder me and take it.”
Robin’s smile returned slowly.
“Starling,” he said, “you have grown up.”
She looked past the tent flap towards the black volcano.
“No,” she said. “I finally have tools.”
**Thank you for reading my novel. If you enjoyed the story, please give it a like and leave a comment — your support really encourages me to keep writing and sharing more chapters.**
ns216.73.216.86da2
and then Add to home screen.