**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.**96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKhLZFiWC0I
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 vessel96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2mPZcj7fim
bearing the crest of a private medical foundation. Officially, it was96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYxfLMzTPFs
conducting a search-and-rescue operation for missing technical personnel in the96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOATwCyKCzM
South Atlantic. On board were two medics, three crates of emergency supplies, a96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJBUwGaJIcW
portable communication tower, and twelve containers which looked, with96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEofnGKDdtZ
admirable innocence, like medical refrigeration units.
They were in fact filled with unregistered energy96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcpErBWmnZ6
cartridges.
A distinction only the law would have found meaningful.
When Zorina descended from the direction of the volcano, the96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYaEusEY2he
rescue team stared at her.
She was still wearing the torn flight suit. There was dried96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhx2sUyf6km
blood at her temple, evidence of injury, though no injury impressive enough to96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDg1kdGWxrS
satisfy the expectations of people who had been sent to retrieve a crash96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡojNDk1kSYp
survivor. Her expression did not belong to someone recently rescued from96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDImpi0o7qw
disaster.
She was too calm.
So calm, in fact, that she looked less like a woman awaiting96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB6JMJuLdma
rescue and more like a supervisor watching a shipment of tools arrive late.
“Miss Li,” one of the medics said carefully, “please allow96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjFOTsQEB38
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. They96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOSnZoOA7ox
will not make you redundant.” She looked at him. “The tower.”
The medic, having encountered the sort of woman whom even96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHIIBABLamv
trauma had failed to render decorative, sensibly stopped speaking.
The communication tower was assembled inside the temporary96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYpypWPefdv
shelter. A few minutes later, Robin Shen’s holographic image appeared above the96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS0d8TQOoi9
projection unit.
He wore a silver-grey suit that was offensively expensive.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGWQYj6ZGHB
Behind him, there seemed to be a banquet terrace: laughter, music, the soft96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0EEScWQwn6
chime of champagne glasses, and the well-bred murmur of people who had never96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKLXh3Gev7j
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 with96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGPaimdZgzo
anyone’s survival unless it affected the seating arrangement.
But his eyes were different.
His eyes, when they rested on Zorina, contained no trace of96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBx9XXkMKwU
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 must96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡykMAiorIRR
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 can96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3MX3zR2QTe
see exile has improved your manners.”
Zorina ignored him and placed the first energy crystal on96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Nuv1lj59e
the scanning table.
It was a tiny thing.
Almost unimpressive.
Robin looked at it.
“What is that?”
“An energy crystal formed from converted human waste96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8F3I4zaOnD
biomass.”
He considered her.
“Human language, please.”
“Fat, viral remnants, necrotic cells, metabolic waste.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyPsqCpJcFZ
Converted into stable energy.”
The lazy expression on Robin Shen’s face slowly disappeared.
He did not understand the world as Atlas did. Atlas read96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf18oIHZCWM
systems through data, structure, and pattern. Robin read them through price,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp3R39hIyhA
leverage, appetite, fear, and the speed at which people became murderous when96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfO25WRhpEW
ownership was in dispute.
Which meant he understood the crystal faster than almost96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡknQyqQ3HW2
anyone else would have.
“Efficiency?”
“Unknown at scale. The device I found is only a96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6KgaC7E2Pu
first-generation interface.”
“Side effects?”
“Low-grade operation appears painless. It also produces96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTZnQrqbmSL
medical repair.”
“Reproducible?”
Zorina paused.
“The equipment can be generated. But the core activation96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ccqBMmicS
currently requires me.”
Robin heard the important part and smiled, charmingly enough96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs3j6OR2GQc
to suggest that civilisation had been invented only to give him places to be96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXfyN1BKx6J
forgiven.
“So if someone steals the machine, they may not be able to96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvHjkkTqWiJ
use it.”
“Correct.”
“Can it be scaled to city level?”
“With time, materials, space, a legal shell, and a large96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL0j60rPdrQ
number of willing participants.”
Robin laughed softly.
“Willing participants? Zori, you underestimate human96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZTpmKM70UG
vanity. Tell the Second Tier you can reduce fat, repair damaged cells, lower96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG2Jaj0Upcp
viral residue, and slow visible ageing, and they’ll queue into the sea. You96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB1JKXJFRqf
needn’t mention energy at all.”
“I reached the same conclusion.”
“Medical aesthetics as the shell. Healthcare as the flag.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwtGuvQpqhE
Plutocratic bodies as the first raw supply.” Robin’s voice grew slower as he96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9jNzdMmmRN
assembled the idea. “Charge them money, extract their waste, convert it into96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡknq7NpEqgK
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 behind96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSD4bdKbv6z
him seemed, all at once, unrelated to him.
“But you must understand something. This is not starting a96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfUcAIsdOvT
company. This is declaring war on Quota Civilisation. The moment energy is no96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzJWhy7qOd1
longer something regimes alone can distribute, the Five Tier system begins to96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD9VB1i8YSQ
loosen. The First Tier will want to control you. The Second Tier will want96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡckEexc8y16
shares in you. The Third Tier will want to reverse-engineer you. The Fourth96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnx9XZ1KRmw
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 what96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3zEqes3EZ5
women wanted to be called?”
Zorina did not answer.
His voice lowered.
“You have always been like this. Since we were children. The96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNToDAxIcvH
instant you see someone drowning, you reach for them. Have you considered that96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ750RdEDvRJ
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, the96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5AuHsVfFS9
plutocratic mask, all of it slipped. He looked almost like the boy from a Hong96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ89BiH3UPzn
Kong kindergarten playground, placing sweets in her hand with the solemn96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6YK1TzxLiW
generosity of a child who had not yet learned that kindness was dangerous.
Back then, whenever she had needed something, Robin had96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBpoWs0Rfxq
appeared with money, access, excuses, and an astonishing talent for making96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIgKGr2RwHI
consequences lose interest in her. Always at precisely the right moment. Always96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaS6W0c8Tdb
from behind the curtain.
Then his parents died in a political purge dressed very96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5pJJ4phdiX
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 everyone96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQZ2fVCglMN
underestimated, because the powerful were always more comfortable around vice96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoAYQGXhysV
than intelligence.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll help you.”
“Conditions?”
“Conditions?” Robin looked almost offended. “What conditions96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ88asg53edI
do you imagine I require?”
Zorina was silent.
He looked at her with a stubbornness that had not changed96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnsdv1Pxz9j
since childhood.
“I am not helping you because I believe the world deserves96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoYo164l0Up
saving.”
He smiled as he said it, but his voice was gentler than the96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAUREQCcX4Y
expression allowed.
“I am helping you because you believe it does.”
Outside the tent, sea wind dragged black volcanic ash across96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Ne7aSMHxh
the ground.
Zorina lowered her gaze to the energy crystal.
It was small.
Yet it looked more like dawn than all the white light in96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiMQoY2p8Bs
Britain’s government domes.
“First step,” she said. “I need Britain to recognise my96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ow9gtSqPa
control of this island.”
Robin’s smile thinned into something more professional.
“Tristan da Cunha remains within Britain’s residual overseas96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8WvgpRGr5B
control sequence. Britain will not simply hand over sovereignty because a96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1kV57S26QM
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.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpRJAKiY6vx
Energy special zone.”
“And one more clause,” Zorina said. “All subterranean96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ROj7y0pVQ
discoveries on the island are to be administered by me.”
“Britain will ask what it receives.”
“Priority sales rights. The legal products produced during96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhP62TIfko7
phase one of the biological energy medical system: Britain receives priority96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcF2oZz56XN
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 to96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsGu75qPJM4
make them greedy.” She paused. “And they should understand that even if the96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt1DQbZffsZ
devices are exposed, they will only operate under my instruction. If they kill96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUNW52pPPgq
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 think96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4oNAHiDWbF
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.**
ns216.73.216.66da2
and then Add to home screen.