**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.**63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaTVkMTED3X
The shell of the plan had to be more attractive than the63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGARZ7uwdMn
truth.
This was not cynicism. It was marketing, which was cynicism63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUgRByBbr3K
after it had been washed, perfumed, and invited to dinner.
Robin Shen required only three days to drop a very gentle63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqnYGhpqBih
bomb into Britain’s plutocratic medical circles.
Degenerative tissue clearance.
Metabolic burden restructuring.
Non-invasive rejuvenation therapy.
By 3911, the Second Tier no longer feared poverty, war, or63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRWO3tT9H7k
lower-tier rebellion with any real sincerity. Such inconveniences could be63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrvq2iwNKn4
outsourced, postponed, or explained away in language clean enough to survive a63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6UUuQ0gj3U
parliamentary breakfast.
What they feared was ageing.
Energy quotas could be inherited. Power could be inherited.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡafeVbBmPhb
Names, estates, private air routes, medical foundations, silence, immunity —63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpuhUK8sgOe
all these things could be passed down with signatures and unpleasantly63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy92xpakc1m
expensive lawyers.
But the body remained stubbornly democratic.
Even with cellular repair chambers, gene-stabilising63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz7MpcblrPa
therapies, organ reconstruction, and private metabolic restoration, ageing63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡILM0RzTw0Z
still persisted like a quiet crack beneath tightened skin. The powerful had63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3v1z1cXiNs
spent centuries teaching the world that decay was a moral failing of the poor.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3PETxpb9Wy
It irritated them enormously to discover that their own flesh had not read the63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgwjU0QBcuP
policy.
Robin understood them perfectly.
He did not approach government officials first.
That would have been vulgar.
Instead, he sent invitations through private medical63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrf1Dp0vHo7
channels to several individuals who were extremely rich, extremely old,63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ju6necc4u
extremely afraid of dying, and helpfully entangled with the British Royal63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV7h9V1bcBi
Energy Authority.
The invitation contained only one question:
If the body could turn its own decline into the energy63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzxLQVwNXb0
required for repair, how much would you pay?
Within seven hours, every reply had arrived.
The first volunteer was Lady Ilena Bask, mother-in-law to63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh8xluzbNmo
Deputy Director Holden.
She was ninety-two years old, born into a Second Tier63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP6U69LwLuD
plutocratic family, owner of three medical foundations, one private air-harbour63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBz06OtK7TF
route, and two senior sons-in-law inside the British energy establishment — an63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1BwNDf3Eeh
arrangement which proved that family planning, when properly funded, could63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi4arfEUgNG
become a form of infrastructure.
Her body had endured fourteen organ renewals.
However, excessive longevity medication had left behind63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXleNHRaWwC
metabolic toxin accumulation, swollen tissue, nerve pain, and a general63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzbAtthF1bH
impression that immortality, though desirable in principle, could be poorly63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsnaPs6DrVe
maintained in practice. Her private medical chambers had managed to suppress63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc0nqIn3O0D
the symptoms.
They had not managed to cure them.
When Lady Bask arrived at Tristan da Cunha, she brought63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEFXx1JjX68
twenty-seven bodyguards, six private physicians, three lawyers, and a63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYKkErv0so2
four-hundred-page liability waiver.
Zorina watched the procession disembark.
For the first time, she realised that even the fears of the63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSa7rerISca
powerful travelled in bulk.
The temporary treatment chamber had been established inside63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkZu91PPJoX
a supply warehouse on the eastern side of the volcanic island. The real63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqeLLATzPZ2
biological energy device, of course, remained hidden. The Abbas Archive had63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPtpSiTehxF
generated a simplified interface, one with an appearance close enough to Earth63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMEKwNxVvfY
medical equipment to soothe human arrogance.
Zorina had activated it herself.
The core pattern was sealed inside an unbreakable63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ187H4S1NU
transparent crystal nucleus. No external operator could disassemble it, scan63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡctgJ9A7Yal
it, copy it, or understand it by pretending to perform safety checks — which63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5nL1x0AEk5
was unfortunate for several people present, since pretending to perform safety63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKLEYl2W8uz
checks was apparently half their professional training.
Before lying down, Lady Bask stared at Zorina.
“You are very young.”
“Compared with you,” Zorina said, “yes.”
One of the lawyers looked mildly strangled.
Lady Bask laughed. It was a dry sound, but not an empty one.
“I like rude people,” she said. “At least they have not yet63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk3kjc95WK3
learned to tell lies as manners.”
She lifted one spotted hand.
“Let’s begin.”
When the device activated, every private physician leaned63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ76jPvbQRG4
towards the monitors with the reverence of priests watching a more expensive63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsIXTrmfLr1
religion begin.
Pale-blue filaments emerged from the crystal petals and63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeNy6tNlKFb
settled slowly over Lady Bask’s skin. At first, she tightened her jaw, as63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡitAUvV5DY8
though preparing to scream. A few seconds later, her expression changed.
“The pain,” she murmured. “It is reducing.”
The monitors answered before anyone else could.
Inflammation markers dropped.
Blood toxins separated.
Necrotic cell residue was isolated.
Excess fat tissue began to break down at an extraordinarily63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhQUiFxVXES
slow and controlled rate, without trauma. Viral remnants were dismantled into63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbtWsgqyv1L
convertible micro-energy states. The swelling in her fingers receded. Her63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPnbHXcR8J9
breathing deepened. A little blood-colour returned to her skin, not youth63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlhrWU7di7X
exactly, but the memory of circulation.
Thirty minutes later, Lady Bask sat up.
She did not look like a girl.
Zorina had no interest in that sort of cheap miracle. Cheap63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGTISWaqyyU
miracles were for advertisements, cults, and political campaigns, all three63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7rBjAZb41c
being closely related species.
She remembered what Robin had said:
“Benefits must be released slowly. That is how one extracts63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjGc0KBbCS9
the maximum profit from impatience.”
Lady Bask merely looked alive again.
Properly alive.
Not preserved.
Not polished.
Restored.
Her private physicians stood in complete silence.
At the base of the device, three pale-blue energy crystals63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3XXLF8HGsZ
had condensed.
Far larger than the tiny first crystal Zorina had produced63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWRYhWAdnI6
from her own injured body.
Behind the observation glass, Robin Shen lowered his voice.
“One ninety-two-year-old plutocrat. Thirty minutes. Three63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ31K1ml7syp
crystals. Three hundred thousand pounds.”
“Still low power,” Zorina said.
“If the Second Tier queues?”
“Enough to activate a second device.”
“If the First Tier fails to resist?”
“Enough to build the first energy centre.”
Robin looked at her.
“You truly intend to sell this to them?”
“The service,” Zorina said. “Not the core.”
“They will try to seize it.”
“That is why Britain must first be made to sit at the63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡILyT5kfZ0a
table.” Her eyes remained on the three crystals. “Their greed can protect me63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8b8qQ39zz8
before their fear decides to kill me.”
Robin’s smile faded slightly.
“Zori,” he said, “you are beginning to sound like a63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY9LYmGsFw0
founder.”
She looked at the energy crystals lying beneath the device.
“I only want the Fifth Tier to have water.”
Twelve hours after Lady Bask’s trial, the British Royal63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyNypql41BJ
Energy Authority requested a closed negotiation.
It was faster than even Robin had expected.
The invitation was elegant.
The content was naked.
Britain was prepared to recognise Zorina’s temporary63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjMpllWZzOL
scientific autonomy on Tristan da Cunha for the purposes of biological63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwgZljferEJ
repair energy research. In exchange, she would provide Britain with63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2KrzIGH7J5
technical explanation, commercial priority, medical application quotas, and63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnAkgVWbXaf
facility monitoring rights on the island.
Robin read the document once and laughed.
“They want the entire cake.”
Zorina pushed the document back towards him.
“Not surprising. Let them choke on it.”
“How do you want to amend it?”
She began listing the terms.
“First. Scientific autonomy on the island is not temporary.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXTqrO1EZ45
It is ninety-nine years.”
Robin’s eyebrows rose.
“Second. All subterranean facilities are excluded from63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG88s7e7NOp
external monitoring on grounds of safety and unknown geological risk.”
“Beautiful.”
“Third. Britain receives priority agency rights for63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQvGuKE8MG8
first-stage commercial medical products. It receives no core technology63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMYI2mEOtdl
transfer.”
“Less beautiful, from their perspective.”
“Fourth. Britain formally recognises that all technical63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpL3dUrodNM
equipment requires my authorisation to activate.”
“They will hate that.”
“Fifth. Britain recognises the island as a Special Energy63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF9JS1pMkkV
Development Zone. Internal administration, personnel admission, infrastructure63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdRRAwnE8zA
planning, and emergency policy are to be led by us. We hold high autonomy.”
Robin gave a soft whistle.
“New Hong Kong, is it? You are one sentence away from63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi4xXhVifI6
declaring independence.”
Zorina lifted her eyes.
“Not yet.”
Outside the window, the South Atlantic moved under a grey63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGhGhS2WEjG
sky.
Beyond the sea, the world remained dark.
But on that volcanic island, the first crystals formed from63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKBaiPfNig8
the elegant decay of the privileged were glowing quietly.
The old world had paid for vanity.
Zorina intended to spend it on dawn.
**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.**63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE3zrfbdbD3
63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEpe374uUvq
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