**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.**98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8FFl01uCKe
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 vessel98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxEJ5vr3240
bearing the crest of a private medical foundation. Officially, it was98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvTl1msweRR
conducting a search-and-rescue operation for missing technical personnel in the98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcsQtXKDl0m
South Atlantic. On board were two medics, three crates of emergency supplies, a98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCpUeNk75va
portable communication tower, and twelve containers which looked, with98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVxhOttLRr4
admirable innocence, like medical refrigeration units.
They were in fact filled with unregistered energy98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXWZm6urXDS
cartridges.
A distinction only the law would have found meaningful.
When Zorina descended from the direction of the volcano, the98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb0qB29eCdS
rescue team stared at her.
She was still wearing the torn flight suit. There was dried98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpr7wMJOoUb
blood at her temple, evidence of injury, though no injury impressive enough to98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlZPSaw3V0X
satisfy the expectations of people who had been sent to retrieve a crash98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Bcpy9rvP8
survivor. Her expression did not belong to someone recently rescued from98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8oQBAtSHOH
disaster.
She was too calm.
So calm, in fact, that she looked less like a woman awaiting98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQcqCTd99E2
rescue and more like a supervisor watching a shipment of tools arrive late.
“Miss Li,” one of the medics said carefully, “please allow98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGrwQBQtxqJ
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. They98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa9DxfMl3eY
will not make you redundant.” She looked at him. “The tower.”
The medic, having encountered the sort of woman whom even98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYjh2LpC6nB
trauma had failed to render decorative, sensibly stopped speaking.
The communication tower was assembled inside the temporary98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgvKETsdiMd
shelter. A few minutes later, Robin Shen’s holographic image appeared above the98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr00V3P8Com
projection unit.
He wore a silver-grey suit that was offensively expensive.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5VZsquD806
Behind him, there seemed to be a banquet terrace: laughter, music, the soft98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsdCCPSM3T4
chime of champagne glasses, and the well-bred murmur of people who had never98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuwld9DwhYI
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 with98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFIg7Klmmoz
anyone’s survival unless it affected the seating arrangement.
But his eyes were different.
His eyes, when they rested on Zorina, contained no trace of98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8WFfRjX8JP
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 must98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM8iSMuabGE
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 can98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPmsxScOe78
see exile has improved your manners.”
Zorina ignored him and placed the first energy crystal on98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7RC2xFbeKI
the scanning table.
It was a tiny thing.
Almost unimpressive.
Robin looked at it.
“What is that?”
“An energy crystal formed from converted human waste98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNVm1Db9Tvv
biomass.”
He considered her.
“Human language, please.”
“Fat, viral remnants, necrotic cells, metabolic waste.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMXGZia1oLt
Converted into stable energy.”
The lazy expression on Robin Shen’s face slowly disappeared.
He did not understand the world as Atlas did. Atlas read98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJD19seskiV
systems through data, structure, and pattern. Robin read them through price,98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtj47Kj2ghJ
leverage, appetite, fear, and the speed at which people became murderous when98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjrWKSbYRiH
ownership was in dispute.
Which meant he understood the crystal faster than almost98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl2c1Y3Fg3z
anyone else would have.
“Efficiency?”
“Unknown at scale. The device I found is only a98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoqRjrivnpI
first-generation interface.”
“Side effects?”
“Low-grade operation appears painless. It also produces98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbeiOk2yVJc
medical repair.”
“Reproducible?”
Zorina paused.
“The equipment can be generated. But the core activation98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAMcod26dmw
currently requires me.”
Robin heard the important part and smiled, charmingly enough98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBWi64QoH3B
to suggest that civilisation had been invented only to give him places to be98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaEzIVZLXfd
forgiven.
“So if someone steals the machine, they may not be able to98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAkMseIxkZY
use it.”
“Correct.”
“Can it be scaled to city level?”
“With time, materials, space, a legal shell, and a large98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuX8k3KgR3Z
number of willing participants.”
Robin laughed softly.
“Willing participants? Zori, you underestimate human98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5wrhd0nQTw
vanity. Tell the Second Tier you can reduce fat, repair damaged cells, lower98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd3pHzEK5NC
viral residue, and slow visible ageing, and they’ll queue into the sea. You98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCL19DS3GnS
needn’t mention energy at all.”
“I reached the same conclusion.”
“Medical aesthetics as the shell. Healthcare as the flag.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9MZxOtjfVt
Plutocratic bodies as the first raw supply.” Robin’s voice grew slower as he98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlcDiVqXarR
assembled the idea. “Charge them money, extract their waste, convert it into98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgfcmj9Wkrd
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 behind98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsa7mb2fIWh
him seemed, all at once, unrelated to him.
“But you must understand something. This is not starting a98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqQTdgQHads
company. This is declaring war on Quota Civilisation. The moment energy is no98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl6nMVj2Ytj
longer something regimes alone can distribute, the Five Tier system begins to98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvcJUazmK3H
loosen. The First Tier will want to control you. The Second Tier will want98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQgJdYC2Alh
shares in you. The Third Tier will want to reverse-engineer you. The Fourth98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEgcSFDjjIz
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 what98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc1l2E1azSs
women wanted to be called?”
Zorina did not answer.
His voice lowered.
“You have always been like this. Since we were children. The98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMoqgcIAH9I
instant you see someone drowning, you reach for them. Have you considered that98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcyGWPtwpLL
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, the98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrIeaq0p0BE
plutocratic mask, all of it slipped. He looked almost like the boy from a Hong98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6CJm1ZDHUo
Kong kindergarten playground, placing sweets in her hand with the solemn98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf7YuDH5ILe
generosity of a child who had not yet learned that kindness was dangerous.
Back then, whenever she had needed something, Robin had98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH6uzgqrolG
appeared with money, access, excuses, and an astonishing talent for making98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCjVBohKMj6
consequences lose interest in her. Always at precisely the right moment. Always98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeaYgkXpNCB
from behind the curtain.
Then his parents died in a political purge dressed very98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKX5YdijGG1
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 everyone98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMaJre1eUUY
underestimated, because the powerful were always more comfortable around vice98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQeKbvK65S7
than intelligence.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll help you.”
“Conditions?”
“Conditions?” Robin looked almost offended. “What conditions98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmSo3rPK25U
do you imagine I require?”
Zorina was silent.
He looked at her with a stubbornness that had not changed98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ14cbxwMKEE
since childhood.
“I am not helping you because I believe the world deserves98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKk4vEVi5Bq
saving.”
He smiled as he said it, but his voice was gentler than the98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuv3RDIhEGc
expression allowed.
“I am helping you because you believe it does.”
Outside the tent, sea wind dragged black volcanic ash across98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwySIobP5yt
the ground.
Zorina lowered her gaze to the energy crystal.
It was small.
Yet it looked more like dawn than all the white light in98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUKsIqINwfc
Britain’s government domes.
“First step,” she said. “I need Britain to recognise my98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNPZdMiz831
control of this island.”
Robin’s smile thinned into something more professional.
“Tristan da Cunha remains within Britain’s residual overseas98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4RPvxogDrM
control sequence. Britain will not simply hand over sovereignty because a98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrTL0CU516B
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.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4IAp6lI9jG
Energy special zone.”
“And one more clause,” Zorina said. “All subterranean98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO2jvMMq5q4
discoveries on the island are to be administered by me.”
“Britain will ask what it receives.”
“Priority sales rights. The legal products produced during98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuKaXjZrj5L
phase one of the biological energy medical system: Britain receives priority98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ69di2ieAYo
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 to98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEBe2AIngJY
make them greedy.” She paused. “And they should understand that even if the98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2yc6Pyd6dX
devices are exposed, they will only operate under my instruction. If they kill98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg47LUVwd6H
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 think98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOjfrmOiL5i
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.**
ns216.73.217.39da2
and then Add to home screen.