**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.**78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsL3hX9Ybuh
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 vessel78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2e6oIzwtIg
bearing the crest of a private medical foundation. Officially, it was78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ7aBAtZv7t
conducting a search-and-rescue operation for missing technical personnel in the78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ31xXfNTKZV
South Atlantic. On board were two medics, three crates of emergency supplies, a78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs5CGcfMN8w
portable communication tower, and twelve containers which looked, with78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvk8836uxT6
admirable innocence, like medical refrigeration units.
They were in fact filled with unregistered energy78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4WpNG99fxh
cartridges.
A distinction only the law would have found meaningful.
When Zorina descended from the direction of the volcano, the78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrNpqWhgo3f
rescue team stared at her.
She was still wearing the torn flight suit. There was dried78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNQiXU5pQQW
blood at her temple, evidence of injury, though no injury impressive enough to78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1TWfY4wcQm
satisfy the expectations of people who had been sent to retrieve a crash78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzEgWh2DS0D
survivor. Her expression did not belong to someone recently rescued from78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwYJBuJXC8j
disaster.
She was too calm.
So calm, in fact, that she looked less like a woman awaiting78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzaZT9rvoIM
rescue and more like a supervisor watching a shipment of tools arrive late.
“Miss Li,” one of the medics said carefully, “please allow78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWaqkQeYtFN
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. They78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRO84uiisoV
will not make you redundant.” She looked at him. “The tower.”
The medic, having encountered the sort of woman whom even78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpDvPhKybOq
trauma had failed to render decorative, sensibly stopped speaking.
The communication tower was assembled inside the temporary78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCRZ6733ymC
shelter. A few minutes later, Robin Shen’s holographic image appeared above the78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlzM2xOvDzv
projection unit.
He wore a silver-grey suit that was offensively expensive.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ35fNgnckbt
Behind him, there seemed to be a banquet terrace: laughter, music, the soft78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGu4pBD7Z3E
chime of champagne glasses, and the well-bred murmur of people who had never78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOLT2zBunjP
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 with78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnLuVSALomO
anyone’s survival unless it affected the seating arrangement.
But his eyes were different.
His eyes, when they rested on Zorina, contained no trace of78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtqhVAtvQXz
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 must78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1kiv5WCFnl
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 can78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVao6shxdyh
see exile has improved your manners.”
Zorina ignored him and placed the first energy crystal on78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdnpVCvBDtI
the scanning table.
It was a tiny thing.
Almost unimpressive.
Robin looked at it.
“What is that?”
“An energy crystal formed from converted human waste78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwJB5YPBQLv
biomass.”
He considered her.
“Human language, please.”
“Fat, viral remnants, necrotic cells, metabolic waste.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgrXnXIoJXy
Converted into stable energy.”
The lazy expression on Robin Shen’s face slowly disappeared.
He did not understand the world as Atlas did. Atlas read78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXHAg5GuZqI
systems through data, structure, and pattern. Robin read them through price,78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMK73RtxJXT
leverage, appetite, fear, and the speed at which people became murderous when78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcTj52JnkZd
ownership was in dispute.
Which meant he understood the crystal faster than almost78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvoNb0YPZxN
anyone else would have.
“Efficiency?”
“Unknown at scale. The device I found is only a78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgz0tUQQvAy
first-generation interface.”
“Side effects?”
“Low-grade operation appears painless. It also produces78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpk0iREHnG6
medical repair.”
“Reproducible?”
Zorina paused.
“The equipment can be generated. But the core activation78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSpGOM8SBBk
currently requires me.”
Robin heard the important part and smiled, charmingly enough78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaTB6Pcjncl
to suggest that civilisation had been invented only to give him places to be78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVKjAoNHDqf
forgiven.
“So if someone steals the machine, they may not be able to78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKB1ph584yi
use it.”
“Correct.”
“Can it be scaled to city level?”
“With time, materials, space, a legal shell, and a large78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjWfmiMivhW
number of willing participants.”
Robin laughed softly.
“Willing participants? Zori, you underestimate human78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmp79YmxJ9p
vanity. Tell the Second Tier you can reduce fat, repair damaged cells, lower78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs50XVfejvf
viral residue, and slow visible ageing, and they’ll queue into the sea. You78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOZiq8HCHv7
needn’t mention energy at all.”
“I reached the same conclusion.”
“Medical aesthetics as the shell. Healthcare as the flag.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNi5QfMWjFL
Plutocratic bodies as the first raw supply.” Robin’s voice grew slower as he78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPIbunaHiqc
assembled the idea. “Charge them money, extract their waste, convert it into78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ43oG50hoMg
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 behind78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsPS6dwoFPZ
him seemed, all at once, unrelated to him.
“But you must understand something. This is not starting a78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBh6BRqlYq5
company. This is declaring war on Quota Civilisation. The moment energy is no78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT8MXE5jeWq
longer something regimes alone can distribute, the Five Tier system begins to78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN7Kcp0snRW
loosen. The First Tier will want to control you. The Second Tier will want78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTuFblrzYfU
shares in you. The Third Tier will want to reverse-engineer you. The Fourth78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVMrj5IKlXL
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 what78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOpFyNDsmIp
women wanted to be called?”
Zorina did not answer.
His voice lowered.
“You have always been like this. Since we were children. The78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7HLirmJyLH
instant you see someone drowning, you reach for them. Have you considered that78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzzgQdAxg35
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, the78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHxDeiQDz0T
plutocratic mask, all of it slipped. He looked almost like the boy from a Hong78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmE32IFKJ0R
Kong kindergarten playground, placing sweets in her hand with the solemn78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO50DvUy9yo
generosity of a child who had not yet learned that kindness was dangerous.
Back then, whenever she had needed something, Robin had78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgcHotSWH0B
appeared with money, access, excuses, and an astonishing talent for making78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVEIWuq0xNO
consequences lose interest in her. Always at precisely the right moment. Always78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgERdjHhMZb
from behind the curtain.
Then his parents died in a political purge dressed very78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKkjoKr0SEx
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 everyone78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZfPSUVeohN
underestimated, because the powerful were always more comfortable around vice78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Vst9Q0eSb
than intelligence.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll help you.”
“Conditions?”
“Conditions?” Robin looked almost offended. “What conditions78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW2RsDLivzp
do you imagine I require?”
Zorina was silent.
He looked at her with a stubbornness that had not changed78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡROgd31zmTn
since childhood.
“I am not helping you because I believe the world deserves78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4uot58P9Hv
saving.”
He smiled as he said it, but his voice was gentler than the78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡschvpOrFvP
expression allowed.
“I am helping you because you believe it does.”
Outside the tent, sea wind dragged black volcanic ash across78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡifmgWnyASf
the ground.
Zorina lowered her gaze to the energy crystal.
It was small.
Yet it looked more like dawn than all the white light in78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtdqluNXfGV
Britain’s government domes.
“First step,” she said. “I need Britain to recognise my78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡspWaBX0R2u
control of this island.”
Robin’s smile thinned into something more professional.
“Tristan da Cunha remains within Britain’s residual overseas78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxj1LPSJg9r
control sequence. Britain will not simply hand over sovereignty because a78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIKLeKFrBR8
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.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfnuxglVfaO
Energy special zone.”
“And one more clause,” Zorina said. “All subterranean78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU7oa7wrBbo
discoveries on the island are to be administered by me.”
“Britain will ask what it receives.”
“Priority sales rights. The legal products produced during78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuvTjksB8GG
phase one of the biological energy medical system: Britain receives priority78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjbuLmhgpxs
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 to78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGfMzP1mBks
make them greedy.” She paused. “And they should understand that even if the78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgBfFawOTiQ
devices are exposed, they will only operate under my instruction. If they kill78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBdWyZlUuM6
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 think78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFlOHuTtn4c
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.**
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