**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.**73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiR7lNOzjQX
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 vessel73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXr9pd5d1fU
bearing the crest of a private medical foundation. Officially, it was73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡORh36C71L6
conducting a search-and-rescue operation for missing technical personnel in the73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIOPN4U4KlH
South Atlantic. On board were two medics, three crates of emergency supplies, a73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfs487hbVgD
portable communication tower, and twelve containers which looked, with73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmy2C3IHj6g
admirable innocence, like medical refrigeration units.
They were in fact filled with unregistered energy73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLXJWokoW3E
cartridges.
A distinction only the law would have found meaningful.
When Zorina descended from the direction of the volcano, the73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7CMeJncoaN
rescue team stared at her.
She was still wearing the torn flight suit. There was dried73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgTCndaLeh5
blood at her temple, evidence of injury, though no injury impressive enough to73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPyw5POrweq
satisfy the expectations of people who had been sent to retrieve a crash73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSZEwF8PiDz
survivor. Her expression did not belong to someone recently rescued from73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ50XaBYG5pu
disaster.
She was too calm.
So calm, in fact, that she looked less like a woman awaiting73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcqfA0LnnMK
rescue and more like a supervisor watching a shipment of tools arrive late.
“Miss Li,” one of the medics said carefully, “please allow73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZI2tCcxx1C
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. They73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG5zdqhYQ58
will not make you redundant.” She looked at him. “The tower.”
The medic, having encountered the sort of woman whom even73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRNtwcYAGuv
trauma had failed to render decorative, sensibly stopped speaking.
The communication tower was assembled inside the temporary73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsHMylpxysE
shelter. A few minutes later, Robin Shen’s holographic image appeared above the73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1RkjMUTSi4
projection unit.
He wore a silver-grey suit that was offensively expensive.73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7BOtXsGos0
Behind him, there seemed to be a banquet terrace: laughter, music, the soft73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡopLIsLVmeW
chime of champagne glasses, and the well-bred murmur of people who had never73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjJMMtMsHCw
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 with73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡohDyas5pqI
anyone’s survival unless it affected the seating arrangement.
But his eyes were different.
His eyes, when they rested on Zorina, contained no trace of73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOWdzArzhgX
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 must73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNAGF8raLtx
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 can73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlZiE9OBJIP
see exile has improved your manners.”
Zorina ignored him and placed the first energy crystal on73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO0aQR35EPK
the scanning table.
It was a tiny thing.
Almost unimpressive.
Robin looked at it.
“What is that?”
“An energy crystal formed from converted human waste73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb8l2etYdfP
biomass.”
He considered her.
“Human language, please.”
“Fat, viral remnants, necrotic cells, metabolic waste.73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd8EdfaTl2T
Converted into stable energy.”
The lazy expression on Robin Shen’s face slowly disappeared.
He did not understand the world as Atlas did. Atlas read73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX4GLT6varJ
systems through data, structure, and pattern. Robin read them through price,73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzfmjL19N9T
leverage, appetite, fear, and the speed at which people became murderous when73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqhnsPOZaS3
ownership was in dispute.
Which meant he understood the crystal faster than almost73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxSHG7RRmOK
anyone else would have.
“Efficiency?”
“Unknown at scale. The device I found is only a73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8rIcpNTYAv
first-generation interface.”
“Side effects?”
“Low-grade operation appears painless. It also produces73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaGW6WkNgAc
medical repair.”
“Reproducible?”
Zorina paused.
“The equipment can be generated. But the core activation73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnufFzZ43C6
currently requires me.”
Robin heard the important part and smiled, charmingly enough73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ79rrlABYnQ
to suggest that civilisation had been invented only to give him places to be73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd4HJrl2ban
forgiven.
“So if someone steals the machine, they may not be able to73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNXGpqzB8N9
use it.”
“Correct.”
“Can it be scaled to city level?”
“With time, materials, space, a legal shell, and a large73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfz5VYAYCDf
number of willing participants.”
Robin laughed softly.
“Willing participants? Zori, you underestimate human73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw8E9Va81v7
vanity. Tell the Second Tier you can reduce fat, repair damaged cells, lower73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh4MCiSJkBs
viral residue, and slow visible ageing, and they’ll queue into the sea. You73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡneigKzyoH8
needn’t mention energy at all.”
“I reached the same conclusion.”
“Medical aesthetics as the shell. Healthcare as the flag.73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhxd6kwMKNq
Plutocratic bodies as the first raw supply.” Robin’s voice grew slower as he73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsVYVhq8WdH
assembled the idea. “Charge them money, extract their waste, convert it into73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbd6KNacMP3
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 behind73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbzOpzvyqN8
him seemed, all at once, unrelated to him.
“But you must understand something. This is not starting a73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡonikXgfsJi
company. This is declaring war on Quota Civilisation. The moment energy is no73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDTTvWclcRj
longer something regimes alone can distribute, the Five Tier system begins to73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcy8Oj6jvzM
loosen. The First Tier will want to control you. The Second Tier will want73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF4lTSCe8nn
shares in you. The Third Tier will want to reverse-engineer you. The Fourth73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWzt72NlchH
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 what73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5hx7SFJUAv
women wanted to be called?”
Zorina did not answer.
His voice lowered.
“You have always been like this. Since we were children. The73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj8b6iSTRhj
instant you see someone drowning, you reach for them. Have you considered that73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2xGnS0QyWN
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, the73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfdbcsivjk3
plutocratic mask, all of it slipped. He looked almost like the boy from a Hong73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7wkJhBNk9W
Kong kindergarten playground, placing sweets in her hand with the solemn73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvZ9XghKd4v
generosity of a child who had not yet learned that kindness was dangerous.
Back then, whenever she had needed something, Robin had73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡztH3ASo6HJ
appeared with money, access, excuses, and an astonishing talent for making73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5YN4DZOApw
consequences lose interest in her. Always at precisely the right moment. Always73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe0ODehuxRS
from behind the curtain.
Then his parents died in a political purge dressed very73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsslThHYE1x
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 everyone73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT3isAafcq9
underestimated, because the powerful were always more comfortable around vice73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkxyw3WxL7s
than intelligence.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll help you.”
“Conditions?”
“Conditions?” Robin looked almost offended. “What conditions73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3EjE8HKwo7
do you imagine I require?”
Zorina was silent.
He looked at her with a stubbornness that had not changed73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpnqQ937TfD
since childhood.
“I am not helping you because I believe the world deserves73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFRvzCKCy1k
saving.”
He smiled as he said it, but his voice was gentler than the73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfY1MGXlzit
expression allowed.
“I am helping you because you believe it does.”
Outside the tent, sea wind dragged black volcanic ash across73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2oGKPtjjxY
the ground.
Zorina lowered her gaze to the energy crystal.
It was small.
Yet it looked more like dawn than all the white light in73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAQs4jVa1PW
Britain’s government domes.
“First step,” she said. “I need Britain to recognise my73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk4ttL9dNu8
control of this island.”
Robin’s smile thinned into something more professional.
“Tristan da Cunha remains within Britain’s residual overseas73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1tugeJ919a
control sequence. Britain will not simply hand over sovereignty because a73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3ZVKxK2jPm
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.73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBHs7B8N2tD
Energy special zone.”
“And one more clause,” Zorina said. “All subterranean73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Jo32bIAGa
discoveries on the island are to be administered by me.”
“Britain will ask what it receives.”
“Priority sales rights. The legal products produced during73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTILpwSuFXt
phase one of the biological energy medical system: Britain receives priority73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsM2QHcs6hk
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 to73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsrxjvB72is
make them greedy.” She paused. “And they should understand that even if the73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOZRwkFn2VN
devices are exposed, they will only operate under my instruction. If they kill73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9AAWV3cKEK
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 think73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGZum0Lm8wa
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.**
ns216.73.216.134da2
and then Add to home screen.