**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.**121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwN3pAtmy24
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 vessel121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtcQppeAAh7
bearing the crest of a private medical foundation. Officially, it was121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuDFSTo4N0g
conducting a search-and-rescue operation for missing technical personnel in the121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjy5gElL2N8
South Atlantic. On board were two medics, three crates of emergency supplies, a121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxXGzZ66aGF
portable communication tower, and twelve containers which looked, with121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ96y53tvjh9
admirable innocence, like medical refrigeration units.
They were in fact filled with unregistered energy121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjk606QqOnl
cartridges.
A distinction only the law would have found meaningful.
When Zorina descended from the direction of the volcano, the121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrxcY2JIo9X
rescue team stared at her.
She was still wearing the torn flight suit. There was dried121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmUTUD1iLM6
blood at her temple, evidence of injury, though no injury impressive enough to121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ4q2kQvNNc
satisfy the expectations of people who had been sent to retrieve a crash121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOK61uQtXjy
survivor. Her expression did not belong to someone recently rescued from121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbUTekHv4jj
disaster.
She was too calm.
So calm, in fact, that she looked less like a woman awaiting121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtaVxeRoUXM
rescue and more like a supervisor watching a shipment of tools arrive late.
“Miss Li,” one of the medics said carefully, “please allow121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtlFSdgPI88
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. They121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUZKXJJRsVx
will not make you redundant.” She looked at him. “The tower.”
The medic, having encountered the sort of woman whom even121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyGzmv8oloC
trauma had failed to render decorative, sensibly stopped speaking.
The communication tower was assembled inside the temporary121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLFvGwL4Ydc
shelter. A few minutes later, Robin Shen’s holographic image appeared above the121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYQpDhmAmdv
projection unit.
He wore a silver-grey suit that was offensively expensive.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIDsSvVTd0g
Behind him, there seemed to be a banquet terrace: laughter, music, the soft121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXGW8wn7hqF
chime of champagne glasses, and the well-bred murmur of people who had never121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFrNYw0pGhJ
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 with121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpyubvDFJxf
anyone’s survival unless it affected the seating arrangement.
But his eyes were different.
His eyes, when they rested on Zorina, contained no trace of121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrSQ0jndLkn
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 must121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqsWQcwnyZd
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 can121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJO2IQBc8Bu
see exile has improved your manners.”
Zorina ignored him and placed the first energy crystal on121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq7HKMI1amU
the scanning table.
It was a tiny thing.
Almost unimpressive.
Robin looked at it.
“What is that?”
“An energy crystal formed from converted human waste121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCq6YFaLtir
biomass.”
He considered her.
“Human language, please.”
“Fat, viral remnants, necrotic cells, metabolic waste.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ01FQ3StQD8
Converted into stable energy.”
The lazy expression on Robin Shen’s face slowly disappeared.
He did not understand the world as Atlas did. Atlas read121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPRFC8JCbTd
systems through data, structure, and pattern. Robin read them through price,121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHBn6tmeoDC
leverage, appetite, fear, and the speed at which people became murderous when121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuBIupoxncL
ownership was in dispute.
Which meant he understood the crystal faster than almost121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡINUBfbEVj8
anyone else would have.
“Efficiency?”
“Unknown at scale. The device I found is only a121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm5jv2BVgmw
first-generation interface.”
“Side effects?”
“Low-grade operation appears painless. It also produces121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj6fKxB6XtR
medical repair.”
“Reproducible?”
Zorina paused.
“The equipment can be generated. But the core activation121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwpaJ8dBoCo
currently requires me.”
Robin heard the important part and smiled, charmingly enough121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6aAdspzCYh
to suggest that civilisation had been invented only to give him places to be121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHIGAhKQJAe
forgiven.
“So if someone steals the machine, they may not be able to121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsDsUiXr65Y
use it.”
“Correct.”
“Can it be scaled to city level?”
“With time, materials, space, a legal shell, and a large121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIgPwzXv1Pl
number of willing participants.”
Robin laughed softly.
“Willing participants? Zori, you underestimate human121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ47sIMgecHQ
vanity. Tell the Second Tier you can reduce fat, repair damaged cells, lower121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvhD1CiRGmM
viral residue, and slow visible ageing, and they’ll queue into the sea. You121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVYcvNxOAnU
needn’t mention energy at all.”
“I reached the same conclusion.”
“Medical aesthetics as the shell. Healthcare as the flag.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ERvBPn2RS
Plutocratic bodies as the first raw supply.” Robin’s voice grew slower as he121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWdw7vkwjjI
assembled the idea. “Charge them money, extract their waste, convert it into121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBYiqltOO33
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 behind121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeOeiE25vTy
him seemed, all at once, unrelated to him.
“But you must understand something. This is not starting a121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDaWXvdmH1X
company. This is declaring war on Quota Civilisation. The moment energy is no121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM99CXbvpKS
longer something regimes alone can distribute, the Five Tier system begins to121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO23WkM8Cpi
loosen. The First Tier will want to control you. The Second Tier will want121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJUVXciI095
shares in you. The Third Tier will want to reverse-engineer you. The Fourth121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRFzkiqyjGW
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 what121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwE7yi8q4Iy
women wanted to be called?”
Zorina did not answer.
His voice lowered.
“You have always been like this. Since we were children. The121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuUeEyr2zqk
instant you see someone drowning, you reach for them. Have you considered that121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6tIWFJRMDu
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, the121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt8qfEnw0n9
plutocratic mask, all of it slipped. He looked almost like the boy from a Hong121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ8nNzEPG4L
Kong kindergarten playground, placing sweets in her hand with the solemn121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpEaStdUPeB
generosity of a child who had not yet learned that kindness was dangerous.
Back then, whenever she had needed something, Robin had121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXIJLpooMhA
appeared with money, access, excuses, and an astonishing talent for making121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2fyJrkYFED
consequences lose interest in her. Always at precisely the right moment. Always121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ6pEumQTIO
from behind the curtain.
Then his parents died in a political purge dressed very121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY2E4eHQ6SF
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 everyone121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA1riFoNJsH
underestimated, because the powerful were always more comfortable around vice121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDiQuO67CL2
than intelligence.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll help you.”
“Conditions?”
“Conditions?” Robin looked almost offended. “What conditions121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ46ENLRkRHP
do you imagine I require?”
Zorina was silent.
He looked at her with a stubbornness that had not changed121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgkQHio3R7N
since childhood.
“I am not helping you because I believe the world deserves121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCjmoVwyAsc
saving.”
He smiled as he said it, but his voice was gentler than the121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnS6Uf4EBpZ
expression allowed.
“I am helping you because you believe it does.”
Outside the tent, sea wind dragged black volcanic ash across121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYTPrkergmb
the ground.
Zorina lowered her gaze to the energy crystal.
It was small.
Yet it looked more like dawn than all the white light in121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPop3jP8Cob
Britain’s government domes.
“First step,” she said. “I need Britain to recognise my121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPeyneRIUbJ
control of this island.”
Robin’s smile thinned into something more professional.
“Tristan da Cunha remains within Britain’s residual overseas121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp6MdM1JsQQ
control sequence. Britain will not simply hand over sovereignty because a121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTgjPrRPc6Y
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.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL534ZvWPpA
Energy special zone.”
“And one more clause,” Zorina said. “All subterranean121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPEYQgvyEVu
discoveries on the island are to be administered by me.”
“Britain will ask what it receives.”
“Priority sales rights. The legal products produced during121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlurIe6QJao
phase one of the biological energy medical system: Britain receives priority121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvkyphWJ7QE
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 to121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5czIbHlNN5
make them greedy.” She paused. “And they should understand that even if the121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsoZV4ryASa
devices are exposed, they will only operate under my instruction. If they kill121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUCLeFk6jqr
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 think121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCNtdi89egW
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.**
ns216.73.216.179da2
and then Add to home screen.