Revolution World (5 page)

"Your chamber of commerce group graciously offered to arrange for us to stay at your local inn. I am sure it is charming, but we really wanted to get started with our survey of the area. We also wanted to test out the tent. It's made out of solar fabric. It generates enough electricity to run the fans and some of the equipment," he smiled like a kid with a new toy. She couldn't be sure in the dim light of the tent, but he looked kind of cute.

"You know old Farmer Dan thought you were aliens come to scare his goats?" she said, taking in Seth's longish dark hair and generous smile. He seemed just as interested in her flyaway curls and generous curves.

"Imagine what a fright we will give them if we buy this land and install our server farm," Seth replied. "We have plans for simply huge solar installations. The goats will think we've taken away the sun." He pulled up a map of the property on one of the screens and overlaid it with building plans to show her what they had in mind. She whistled low in appreciation. As she stepped forward to study the plans, he studied her backside with appreciation.

Clio turned and caught his look. She arched an eyebrow. Seth blushed and turned to fumble with some equipment.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" she asked, turning towards his uncle. Her attention was captured by the images and data streaming across the large screens while Max's hands flew over the touchpad.

"Yes actually, there is," replied Max. "We wanted to get started with our survey as soon as possible. However, while we are getting excellent transmissions through the globenet, we can't seem to get the local satellites to do a deep scan of the area. Everything else seems to work fine, but the satellites aren't able to take a picture of the ground here. It's very strange. And the maps we were able to pull from the globenet were rather old and not particularly high quality."

It was Clio's turn to blush and stammer. "Ah well, it's Texas, you know. Since The Troubles, we don't have the most reliable equipment here, especially out in the sticks like we are. Most of our satellites are maintained by a company out of Houston and they have been known to have a few problems." Seth looked at her. She seemed nervous just now. He decided she was probably just embarrassed to admit that they were technologically behind.

Some people referred to The Troubles as "The Global Crap Out" or "The Big Screw Up" but the government frowned on that sort of negativity. Frowning meant they'd lock you in a torture prison until you saw the error of your ways. Or you died. They weren't picky.

The effects of dumping tons of chemicals into the soil to produce vast swaths of monoculture corn and cows finally combined with the effects of dumping garbage in the water, air and everywhere else. The result made the old hype about Global Warming seem like worrying about getting gray hair and then finding out you've got lung cancer. The environment couldn't have gotten more messed up if God himself grabbed the earth and gave it a good hard shake. But people muddled through like people always do.

It probably would have been fine if the governments of the world hadn't started viciously fighting over the last of the world's natural resources like oil. The U.S. had been at war for so long that most people couldn't remember who we were fighting now and which war this was anymore.

The environment couldn't take all the side effects of a world at war on top of everything else. The sea levels went up. The Sahara desert became a swamp and Europe hadn't seen rain in years. Most places couldn't support large cities anymore, so everyone spread out over the land, hunkered down and hoped the weather would stop acting so crazy. It made for interesting times.

"I'm sure you've heard all about our little terrorist problem?" asked Clio. "I think the Texas government is trying to make it more difficult for them to target places by keeping things like satellite images off the globenet. Not that we've ever had a problem with terrorists out here! I really think the media is just over-hyping what must be a few crazies with too many matches. Anyway, we have detailed geological maps in town that I'll be happy to supply you with. Is there anything in particular you were looking for?"

"Caves," Max abruptly joined the conversation from behind a large screen. "One of the attractions of this area is the limestone bedrock and it's high propensity to form caves. If we could find caves large enough, they would be ideal for storing the servers. Also we have some ideas for using caves to store compressed air from the wind farm we'd like to install."

"Well peachy keen. That's something I can help you with," said Clio. "I know the county agriculture department did deep scans of this area when they were planning out local reservoirs sixty years ago, but probably nobody ever cared enough to put them on globenet. They'll be pretty old, but caves system aren't exactly a highly changeable thing. I'll call Beth." She'd already tapped it out on her handheld and was chatting away as she walked outside.

*****

Seth listened with amusement to about fifteen minutes of "How's your mama doing?" and "Well, have you tried giving him some hot peppers?" Eventually she wandered back in to tell them that Beth had located the needed maps and would upload and send them over as soon as she could.

"Which could be a while. She says her computer seemed plumb tuckered out and she was giving it a rest," Clio cautioned.

Max looked horrified. Clio shrugged, "The Ag Office isn't exactly high on the list for new equipment and you know the government, always ten years behind at least. I can tell you that there is an extensive cave system over to the north if you just want to take a look."

"That is very kind, but I know that you are a very busy woman. You are the lead scientist of one of the foremost genetic engineering companies in the world. I must say your work is very impressive." Seth privately thought that her work was one of the many impressive things about this woman and wished he'd looked up her age when he'd researched Floracopia. Surely someone with such an extensive list of achievements must be older. Clio didn't look a day over twenty-five.

"Besides these caves will probably be dirty," muttered Max. "If we have maps there is no need to actually go crawling through them."

"Ah, well, Texas is a tricky place. The locals say that the land here laughs at maps. I've been elected to roll out Ambrosia Springs's welcome mat for you, so I'd be more than happy to feed you and take you to look at some caves," Clio offered amiably. "Besides, I'm stumped on a project at work and need a distraction."

"Thank you, that would be lovely," Seth stammered. He liked the idea of distracting this woman. "We have much to do today so I think we will decline to look at these caves. But we'd love to join you for dinner this evening. Perhaps after dark?"

She shot him a slow smile that sent shivers up his spine. "Hope you like it hot," she drawled as she swept out the door. She didn't see the handheld clatter to the floor, ignored in the wake of her exit.

Seth stared after her for a full minute before his uncle laughed. "You are lucky the food is so good here. Even though the heat here is repulsive, I will visit you often," Max smirked.

"We haven't confirmed this site, even if it is promising. It was not part of the plan for me to move here for the satellite office," Seth replied absently, bending to pick up his handheld. He tried to remember what he had been doing before she walked in.

"Oh, I think we will have our energy farm here and you will stay," Max said firmly. Seth thought of several retorts, but didn't bother. Seth knew his uncle too well to think he'd ever get the last word. Besides, moving to Texas really wasn't such a bad idea.

Although he wrote cutting edge software that catered to the rich and powerful, he was getting bored with his life. As glamorous as it might sound to guard the secrets of every major organization in the world, the reality was long lonely days with his computer. Part of the reason he came on this trip was the thirst for new experiences and this little town definitely seemed to have plenty of those.

CHAPTER FIVE

"J
ust so I'm clear, why exactly are we having a meeting with our evil arch nemeses?" Thalia asked the other members of the Floracopia Cooperative Board of Directors.

Her mother, Harmony, sighed. "They asked for a meeting. We want to know what they want. So here we are." Harmony stirred her coffee casually, but her eyes had a pinched, worried look.

For a moment, Thalia realized that her beautiful mother was getting older. She'd have known her mother was stressed out without looking at her, though. Her Texas twang always got worse when she was worried. Thalia was happy to have inherited her mother's green eyes and curvy body, but wished she could have gotten her height and shiny bronze hair as well.
Well, you can't have everything,
Thalia sighed inwardly and smoothed the skirt on her Chinese-style suit. She'd made sure it exactly matched her green eyes. She wasn't going to let one little meeting ruin one of the rare weeks she had at home.

Her position as site evaluator and sample collector for their gene mod projects meant she was one of the few people on the planet who traveled extensively. Since The Troubles, only a very few could afford the luxury of travel. It was nice to be back home in Texas though, at least for a little while. She checked to make sure her long blond curls were still carefully arranged and sipped her coffee.

"But why did I have to come? And why are we wearing these stupid suits?" asked Kalliope plaintively. She felt more at home in overalls and a baseball cap. She'd much rather be knee-deep in tractor engines or hammering on the water recapture system from their mini-nuke generator.

She tugged on her tie mournfully as she thought of the temperature system in Greenhouse Five that needed work. They were testing a tobacco-like plant for use in the Alaskan desert and the refrigerators were running overtime to simulate that environment. Of course, it was hot everywhere now, but the trick with Alaska was the extreme highs in the summers and the lows in the winters.

Kalliope meditated on the problem of reproducing an icy sandstorm in Greenhouse Five while the others worried about their impending meeting with the largest gene warfare company on the planet.

Harmony straightened Kalliope's tie for her and smiled soothingly. "Honey, you are a Board Member for the Co-op and although we try to keep you from too many official duties, we thought we'd like to see you today."

"Is that the suit we made you buy for Terpsi's wedding, Kalli?" Thalia asked with an encouraging smile.

"Yep. That was a real fine shindig," Kalliope replied. She rubbed the laser tattoo on her forearm thoughtfully and seemed to unwind a bit.

Thalia helped herself to a breakfast taco left over from the morning, trying not to get any on her new dress. Privately she hoped she looked as competent and professional as Joanna and her mother did, but she rather doubted it. Then she remembered to freak out about this meeting again.

"So, are we thinking the new wallscreen is going to impress them? It's big enough to drive a truck through." Thalia asked the room, in awe of the huge screen that could be rolled up and moved almost anywhere. She briefly wondered if their tech guys would watch porn or action flicks on this monstrosity at night after they all went home. She winced at that mental image and tried to think of something else.

This time, Joanna Guerrero looking every inch the power broker, answered without looking up. "Yes. And I know they won't see it because we'll be looking at them through it. But we've been needing to upgrade our connectivity for a while." She never paused tapping away at her handheld. She'd had its view screen enlarged so she could run more applications simultaneously.

Thalia was in awe of Joanna. She managed the business aspects of the Co-op, a task they were all thankful to give to the dynamic woman. Not content to manage a cutting edge genetech company, Joanna also ruled the local Junior League with an iron fist and was practically the local Chamber of Commerce all by herself. Really, they took this meeting with Malsanto today because Joanna said they had to and she further threatened them with dire consequences if they failed to show up in anything less than their finest business wear.

Joanna's suit was obviously tailored to hug her well-toned curves and highlight her lovely Mexican coloring. It did a remarkable job. It was all the more amazing since they were located in a very small town in the middle of Texas, and there really wasn't anywhere to go that required a suit. People here were mostly concerned with fashion choices that would keep them cool and protect them from the sun and bugs.

The bugs had gotten to be a huge problem since The Troubles, but Harmony was working on a few solutions of her own. It was the sort of side project she liked.

Kalliope finally asked the question Thalia was dying to. "Seriously, what's the deal here? We hate these guys. Right? They stand for everything that's wrong with the world. They crank out cheap, crappy gene mods that strip the local flora and make the buyers forever dependent on Malsanto for upgrades and resplices. And that's not even considering all the gene warfare products they churn out for any government that asks nicely. If any of their junky splices actually worked, the whole world would have been an empty rock years ago. Why are we suddenly having a cozy little chat with them in our most uncomfortable shoes?"

Bob Breun, AKA Bob the Money Guy, finally breezed into the room and replied, "They wanted to chat. That means they either want to buy us out or they want to buy some of our cool stuff or they want to do something evil and nefarious to us. Aren't you curious which it is? Personally I'm rooting for buy some of our cool stuff, but I could go for evil and nefarious too. It's been a slow week."

He grinned confidently at Kalliope and winked lecherously at Thalia, even though he was closer to their mother's age than theirs. Thalia had always wondered what a smart frat boy from Texas Tech would grow up to be and in Bob they had the answer. She couldn't help but return his smile.

She noticed that his short brown hair had gotten thicker and more stylish since his latest divorce. The rest of him was looking more toned and buff too. It was wonderful what you could do with your looks these days. Fruit from India was a thing of the past, but if you wanted lush hair and shiny teeth no matter your age, you could have it, for a price. She didn't realize that the Co-op paid him that well. Thalia hoped that when Bob went trolling for a new lady friend, he would do it outside the office. But this was not a high hope.