by Sandra Elsa
"I have a couple books. Kept the best, but had to dump some to make space for other things."
"Your mother said one of your hobbies was bio-engineering?"
He nodded. "I've looked into the methods, never tried to grow anything because the domes won't support large animals once they exist."
"Not even a preserve like Eighty-Six?"
"I didn't know Eighty-Six existed until yesterday. But even so, it's still an enclosed space. Large animals breed; herds expand."
"So while you engineer them you choose to raise all males or all females."
He smiled like I’d just surpassed his highest expectations. "The thought crossed my mind. But like I said I didn't know there were large areas already in trees, with grass and all the other natural things we'll need to start our own colony. Kind of figured we'd be starting from scratch, growing trees and shrubs from genetic material."
"District Seven doesn't have trees, or shrubs?
"Grass and flowers. I think maybe trees and shrubs are too flammable to have around a bunch of temperamental mages." He didn’t join me in laughter and I tapered my own off as I realized he was serious.
"Most districts have vegetation fairly heavy around the source."
"And there's another valid use of flowers."
"What's that?"
"It makes sense that all the districts have plant life. Plants put out oxygen. Helps decrease reliance on recyclers."
I batted my eyelashes at him. "You're so pretty how can you be smart too?"
His grin brought warm feelings to my abdomen. "Back at you. Maybe we should get married, populate the new world with beautiful, intelligent, people."
The absurdity of the suggestion surprised a sharp bark of laughter from me. "Do I seem like the motherly type to you?"
"Just joking. Can't help but appreciate how it would irritate my father."
I swirled the dregs of water in my cup before swallowing them down and responding, "Yeah, I imagine the look on his face would be priceless when that notice entered his handheld."
He ran his hand through his hair and stared down at me, lower lip held between his teeth. "Let's do it." He held his hand up to silence my outburst before it arrived, "Hear me out."
I let him continue.
"I mean the paperwork. I don't mean for you to actually commit to me for life, or even for a night, but you have to admit, it would distract him from considering what we might actually be up to. He might even put this whole thing down to hormones and back off, expecting me to come trotting home once I had it out of my system. Better yet, trotting home with my unregistered mage bride, bringing her into the fold, to be exploited for the good of the district."
"That's a plot worthy of exploring. I like the way your mind works, Harrison Kendrel. We get the licenses in one district using our real idents."
He continued cheerfully, "The moment the papers are in our hands, we get out of there and take off for another district before we can be traced. But we'd have to have a justice ready and waiting before Father can make sense of that and take steps to prevent the next logical move."
"Or…I screw up the lines of communication bad enough that we stay right in the same district, get married right away and both notices arrive in his handheld at the precise same moment. Don't suppose he has any big speaking engagements planned?"
"It's easy enough finding out his public schedule. I've been out too long to know things like that."
"So we see if there's something big going on and arrange for him to get the news just before. Just to see if we can mess up his game face."
"Where have you been all my life?"
I grinned at him. "Saving the world, one case at a time. Not that my clients were always happy with the outcome."
"Why not?"
"Took on a lot of domestic cases. Pretty much soured me on the whole idea of marriage. There are only so many couples who’ve pledged their lives to each other that you can watch cheat, before marriage doesn't seem like something worth pursuing. And just so you know, you'll have no problem annulling this farce should you find somebody you care for enough to want to have a real marriage."
"That would depend on how long we stay married. But I’ll sign a prenup if you want me to."
I shrugged, "Up to you." I wasn't about to argue with him. If I did he'd want to know how I could be certain an annulment would be an option. I wasn't about to tell him that consummation is part of marriage, and if I was still a virgin after one month of marriage or ten years of marriage it could be annulled.
"I'm going to the source. See if I can grab some seeds from the grass on the lakeshore. I think I'll ask the owner of this house if we can take some of the plants. They're all in canisters; make a good start to a new world. Like you said; some trees. Hopefully we can get the plant life started this year. If the tempests don’t destroy it all, next year we introduce some caterpillars or a bird--"
"This is going to be a slow process, isn't it?"
"Yes, but it will be worth it. Having second thoughts?"
"No. Things just hit me at different times. This wasn't a plan that sprang into my head just because you happened to mention the possibility. It's something that I've wished could happen most of my life. I just never before considered the work that it would take. It's going to be years before we can populate it, isn't it? Sorry, I was never big on patience."
He frowned. "I understand...better than you can possibly know."
"Do you mind leaving your handheld so I can do some reading?"
"Not at all." He gave it to me without hesitation and I marveled at his innocence. Or was it possible he trusted me that much?
My handheld pretty much contained my life. I didn't think I could hand it over to anybody so easily. "Thank you." I decided to be worthy of his trust by not snooping beyond the downloaded books.
The book I started on listed many plants I was familiar with, but even more I’d never seen or heard of. No big surprise since the copyright placed the book at over a thousand years old. Well back before the remaining water sources had been trapped under domes, and underground rivers blocked to keep it in place. We'd lost a lot of plants, animals, and people, when the world shrank to somewhere around four thousand populated and another two thousand agriculture, recreational and industrial domes.
It hadn't happened overnight, no grand panic. The people moving into the domes were called nutcases, and harbingers of doom. Only towards the end, did the general population acknowledge that it was the end and attemplt to squeeze into already populated domes. They'd been met with armed resistance. Their bodies carted away from the domes to keep the predators and scavengers alive just a little longer. We'd never regain everything. There couldn't be enough genetic material to reclaim every plant and animal ever alive. Even if there was, it would take more than one man who could make it rain to bring the world back to life.
I'd always been accused of trying to save the world. Guess I never really expected to find myself in a position to make that literal.
Chapter 17
The afternoon sun coming through the dome sank into my bones and between that and the pain meds, I fell asleep. I woke up to find Harrison leaning over me, with a black-eyed-susan in his hand. This plant had a ball of dirt attached. "Sorry, didn't mean to wake you. You were just so still, guess I was worried. I've never seen that before. I'm going to put this in a container," he held the flower up, "and water it. District mayor gave me permission to use what water I needed. Apparently there'd been some concern about this garden so they're happy to have somebody take care of it."
"You never did tell me what plants we already have growing over there."
"Vegetables mostly. Seems like the dome is mostly self-sufficient. Every roof has a garden of sorts. Mayor said ours grows the best tomatoes, but there's also corn and carrots already started."
"I've never had the patience to grow things."
"I've never had the leisure to do something Father deemed beneath me. It'll be fun.
"
"He seems to have ruled your life. Why didn't he ever marry your mother and make you his to control legally?"
"Because Mom was way too smart to marry him. He might have been able to pay her for sex and impregnate her. Even move her to Seven, because the law says all mages must live there. But he couldn't force her to sign her name on a marriage license. For all his powers of persuasion, she wouldn't do it. I always wondered why she hated him so much, I guess now I know. He told me how he rescued her from a life of prostitution. Guess I never figured she would have wanted that over marriage to a powerful mage."
"There are plenty of women in Eleven who enjoy what they do.” Cindy’s blond layered locks and magically enhanced bosom floated through my mind. And April who I had let down by not responding fast enough to her information. Dee, Honey, about seventy percent of them were in District Eleven because they wanted to be. The other thirty percent were unskilled and homeless people. The mage run government did a poor job of helping the destitute. District Eleven was willing to pick up the government’s slack. “And nearly everybody there detests mages for their heavy-handed ways. Most of the residents of Eleven are really good people."
"I believe you. All I have as an example is Mom and she's been in Seven for thirty-three years, but she still sometimes talks about old friends."
"Wonder if she knew my mother?"
"What was her name?"
"Celeste. Actually, she was born as Star. Took Celeste when we changed our names."
"So what was your name?"
"Aren't we curious?" I shut him out.
"A man should know the true name of the woman he's about to marry."
"My legal name is Francesca Leone. That's all you need for a sham marriage. That's all you need for a real marriage." Alarms went off in my head when somebody got curious about my background.
"Sorry. I'll figure it out." His eyes widened. "No. Not your name. I'll leave that alone. Just meant I'll figure out when to shut my mouth. And what's not my business."
"No. I'm sorry. It's really no big deal. I get touchy about anybody wanting to know anything about me. Seems like most of my secrets are in the wind now. I clutch at the few left to me. I was born Angela Landis.” I paused when he laughed, squinting at him lips pressed tight.
“Sorry,” he belly laughed not allowing my frown to slow down his laughter. “Sorry it’s just…Angela seriously?”
“What the hell is wrong with ‘Angela’?”
“Nothing,” he hiccupped as he reined in his hilarity. “It’s just-- you’re an angel from a star.
“Like I never heard that one growing up. Not original. And now you see why I didn’t want to mention it. No big deal. No secret key to anything. In fact life was pretty mundane when I had that name. Never did anything wrong, so, precious little record of it at all. You could probably look up my school records and find out all about the fourteen years I spent there."
"Only fourteen? What'd you do, drop out?"
"Spoken like a mage. I finished early."
"Two years?"
"Don't cry. Not everybody outside District Seven is as stupid as you're led to believe."
"I'm learning."
I brought his laughter to a cease by turning the questions on him. "So what about you? Homeschooled? Or brainchild top of the class?"
"I'm afraid to tell you for fear of being labeled a conceited mage yet again."
"So…brainchild top of the class."
"Yes. But it took me sixteen years to do it."
"What'd you major in your last four years?"
"Bio-genetics."
"More than a hobby then."
"It's the career I would have pursued if I'd been the son of anybody but Jordan Drover. Do I dare to ask what you majored in?"
"Criminology."
"So how did you not end up on the watch? Or a lawyer?"
I rolled my eyes at him. "Hello? Unregistered mage here. I knew when I was in school I’d never work for anybody else. So it was either start my own business or go into a life of crime."
"Well it seems you were quite successful at running your own business. Let's see about that life of crime."
"Being wanted by the president is not a crime. I haven't done anything wrong except refuse him."
He took his turn at rolling his eyes. "Hello? Unregistered mage?"
"Well OK. That makes you a criminal too then, Daniel Bromer. At least I don't have a forged ident."
"Yet," He grinned. "I don't know how you can be so calm about this. In your shoes I’d be ready to kick my ass. And my temper is better than yours."
"I'm not sure it's all sunk in yet. The pain meds are making it easy to keep thoughts at bay."
"So I have a week to convince you I'm worth the hassle."
"Do you really think I didn't know I was about to descend into the nine rings of hell when I took you on?"
"Then why'd you do it?" He pulled his chair over to sit beside me.
"Seemed like a good idea at the time. Still does. I didn't plan on working for your father and he was already too interested. Figured I might as well take your money."
"And now I have your money."
"Daniel Bromer has my money. If he's not forthcoming when I need it, a note to the watch, and Daniel Bromer will come to an ignominious end, while Harrison Kendrel returns to District Seven. I've been broke before. Probably will be again."
"So do you have any questions you want to ask me?"
"If I do, you'll be the first to know." I held up my water glass and without question he took it and filled it. "Actually I do have one question. When you turn yourself liquid, what happens if you lose cohesion? What if somebody WetVacs half of you?"
"My molecules don't separate."
"What if some bitchy PI tasers you in that form?"
"I really wish you wouldn't work so hard on ways to kill or disable me."
"Keeps you on your toes. I've lived every day of my life trying to be ahead of what could go wrong. If you know the possibilities, you try to make sure they never become reality."
"So, are you plotting to kill me, or is this part of what I paid you for."
"You got it."
"I take it none of your planning prepared you to go on the run with the president's son?"
"There is simply no way I could plan for that eventuality. Nobody outside your god-forsaken secretive district knew the president had a son. Now answer my question. What happens if somebody tasers puddle Harrison?"
He shuddered. "Never thought about it. I rather imagine that would be rather devastating, not only to my magic but to my physical body."
"There you go. Never transform where you can be seen, or around anyone who knows you can."
"OK tell me about the other districts."
I talked long into the evening. Harrison was a sponge soaking up every word as I talked about the recreational districts like Eighty-Six and the Ski slope in Ninety-four. The traveling circus, which had the tattered, taxidermied, remains of animals that no longer existed. One dome had been erected on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, District Two-Three-Seven existed near a place historians named Savannah. It was a popular vacation site. The dome actually extended into the ocean. It was only lightly populated because as large as the domes were, the salinity had increased and moved inland over the years. The cleaned up swamp that had been the source no longer produced potable water without expensive treatment.
"Sounds like a place to start." Harrison interrupted my monologue. We'll be close to the ocean. But we can drive up the coast and experiment out of sight of people and Father's monitor's."
"You don't sound like it's one of the places you'd consider for anything more than experiments. If we're going to experiment why not get close to somewhere we want to be."
"Dad was looking at mountainous areas. Places where the terrain might naturally hold some water. For logistical reasons few domes were erected around mountains. In fact I can't believe any were."
"OK. I see you're no
t going to be happy until you see Eighty-Six. I'll be honest, I've never really seen a mountain, so to me, Eighty-six is one. It's bigger than what's outside Fifty-five, but most like it's just a really big hill."
"Well, you've seen more than me."
"Just don't be too disappointed if it's not what you're imagining."
"Doesn't matter. Within the next two weeks we'll both see mountains. Unless the annuals have scoured them to sea level."
"Does your father travel?"
"So he claims."
"And he never told you about other domes?"
"He kept me wrapped up reading history. It never occurred to me that I was missing the real world until I left the one he kept me in. It's getting late, we should head downstairs. You still haven't seen the rest of the house."
"Not much point when I can't get around. The only reason I don't plan to spend the next week right here is because I really gotta pee."
"Should have said something earlier."
"I wasn't ready to stay inside and there's only so often I'm going to make you move me up and down the steps."
"I don't mind." He leaned down and scooped me off the lounge chair.
"Well, I mind."
"Do you mind, because you don't like being dependent on anybody? Or do you mind because I have to touch you to carry you?"
If I was honest I didn't mind him touching me nearly as much as I should. In fact I didn't want him toting me around. My walls against personal closeness were falling and no good would come of that.
"No answer? What do I have to do to prove I'm not a threat?"
I threw out my main suspicion of him. "For somebody who's not a threat, you insinuated yourself in my life rather completely. I don't like relying on anybody."
A slight grin crossed his face. "As long as it's not me touching you, I can live with your disgruntlement."
Knew I should have lied.
He carried me straight to the bathroom. It was spacious, almost cavernous in its emptiness. I'd never owned a bathroom that was more than a shower, toilet, and sink with a couple of towel racks and a closet in a corner where you had to shut one door to open the other. He set me down gently, upright, beside the toilet. I noted happily there was some paper. He stood watching, hands outstretched as though he expected me to tilt as I balanced gingerly on my good foot, afraid to put weight on the injured one.
