“How long do we have until everyone knows about this?”
“Two months, max. Probably less, month and a half. I’m doing everything I can to stall the publication of the results- I’m having everything triple, quadruple-checked.” Shirley Tannis said. “But it’s going to come out, and when it does, the Assembly is going to freak.”
Tannis looked into the room from his spot by the window. As clinical and empty as Amari Adebowale’s office looked on the inside- a white desk, a white chair, and a white honeycomb-shaped cabinet against the wall- the view from the floor-to-ceiling windows was always striking, a streak of lush green visible far below and sunlight sparkling on the North Sea.
“Any chance those re-runs of your trials are going to disprove the previous results?” Amari asked, her tone of voice betraying that she knew the answer. “No. All our trials have come up with the same results. The strains are not just going to stop evolving.” Amari placed her fingertips below her greying hair and rubbed her temples. After a few more seconds of tense silence, she stood up, walked over to the cabinets and produced a glass bottle of something honey-coloured and two small glasses. She poured them a quarter full, took the glasses over to the window and handed Tannis one.
Amari took a sip and stared out the window, looking lost in thought. Tannis tried some of the drink, too, and recoiled the slightest bit at its potency. Whiskey. A high proof, too.
“My mother wasn’t even born when the Corruption was discovered.” Amari said. “Three generations. That’s how long we’ve known about this thing and how long we’ve been fighting it. And all that time, almost nothing we’ve learned about it has helped us make the world safer from it.” She turned to Tannis. “And now you’re telling me that it’s changing. That it’s going to get worse for us.”
Amari looked as meticulously composed as always while she talked, stoic face and military posture and all, but her voice she couldn’t hide- the weariness in it, the desperation. Tannis wished in that moment he had any comforting words for her. He took another sip instead.
“No one expected the Corruption to be evolving.” He replied. “Nothing on Earth goes from square one to such an advantageous mutation within a century.” He let out a shaky sigh. “For what it’s worth, we’re not picking up any chatter from other continents about similar findings. It seems the mutation is staying isolated in Northern Europe, for whatever reason. For now.”
“What’s this going to change, Shirley?” Amari asked. “For humanity?” Tannis stared at his drink. Didn’t want to meet Amari’s expectant gaze. “I… I don’t know. We won’t know until we find out more. Humanity… Humanity’s going to keep being what it’s been for the last century.” He downed his drink, wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
“Fucked.”
~~~
Anita shone her headlight into the the depths of the ventilation shaft, watching the light fade away with sign of reaching the bottom. “Shit.” Anita muttered into her intercom. She held on to to the rungs of the metal ladder a little tighter. “Everything alright in there?” The voice of her friend Asher replied. “Yeah, fine.” Anita said. From her belt, she unhooked a small disk-shaped device bound to her by a wire and placed it against the wall, where it snapped stuck- the electromagnet in it and the wire could support her weight even if she fell.
Asher followed her out of the metal grate in the side of the shaft, affixing his own electromagnet. “How far down did you say this shaft goes?” Anita asked as she continued to climb down the ladder, feeling the downwards draft pushing on her shoulders. “Only about twelve-hundred meters.” Asher said. “Normally, the wind speed can get up to over two hundred kilometers an hour.”
Anita looked over her shoulder to the other side of the shaft, some ten meters away. “I swear, Freya’s the only place where you have to worry about falling to your death for twenty seconds underground.” She complained. “Let’s just fix that control board and get out of here.” Asher pointed down. “The good news is, it’s right next to the ladder for once.”
Anita climbed until she was level with the broken panel. “Screwdriver.” She said, at which a mechanical arm unfolded from the large pack on her back and presented her with an electrical screwdriver. “Twenty minutes and we can go home, Asher.”
~~~
In the changing room, Anita walked out of the showers to see Asher slicking his hair back with some gel in front of the mirror. “Going out tonight?” She asked while she towelled her hair. “Yeah, I got a date, actually.” Asher replied. Anita shot him a confused look. “A date? You?” Asher winked at her. “You and Lowanna don’t have the monopoly on serious relationships, babe.” He said. “Speaking of, you two doing anything fun this weekend?”
“Uh, yeah.” Anita thought up a quick lie. “Probably just gonna clean up around the house. Staying indoors all weekend as usual.”
“I said fun.” Asher sighed. “What’s fun about doing fuck-all in your own house?” Anita shrugged. She hated lying to a friend as close to her as Asher was, but it was the only choice to make. “Don’t worry, I won’t get bored.” She replied. She thought about how in less than a day, she would be well on her way to an exciting dig.
~~~
Anita chatted idly with Asher as they walked to Sector D’s train station through the late afternoon bustle of commuters, before saying her goodbyes at the train station. She jumped into the already packed train carriage two seconds before the doors closed- living on the edge, as always, she thought.
She did what everyone else in the carriage was doing; Put a pair of wireless earbuds in her ear and put on some tunes as she stared out the large windows set into the walls. Even though she’d seen it a thousand times in her lifetime, the monorail journey around the inner expanse of the Randstad always held Anita’s attention. The titanic structure of the arcology had a sizable hollow at its core, tapering down far into the ground like an upside down raindrop, artificial sunlight streaming down from above. The monorail went in a ring along the inside of the hollow, allowing for a great view of the thousands of shops and millions of people milling about on the broad, stacked avenues along the inside.
In a few minutes, she’d made it to Station J, where she transferred to the metro that would take her through dimly lit tunnels from the core of the arcology to the outskirts. It was a journey that took longer than the central ring, due to the many stops on the line- ten in total. By the time the doors closed on the ninth stop, Anita was alone in the driverless carriage, making for an almost eerily quiet ride.
The area designated J-10 was part of the arcology’s outer shell, the large but empty station hall opening up- through metallic corridors with a few defunct lights- into one of the twelve short promenades that circled the outside of Randstad at this height, a mirror image of the inner core’s shopping district. It’d been a busy place once, an alternative hangout where people could soak up real sunlight. Despite the massive white walls that protruded away from the arcology, meant to shield citizens from the harsher winds at this height, the promenades had fallen victim to the world’s worsening climates, with storms becoming too frequent to enjoy the fresh air for most of the year.
The shops and restaurants had been shuttered for as long as Anita could remember, and mostly no one came out this far unless they were maintenance or desperate to take in the sights of the pastures and forests stretching out below and the clouds above- both seeming equally far away. Anita braved the weather every day, though; This was where she had made her home.
She walked down the empty avenue enjoying the cool breeze, until home was in sight. The white, cylindrical water tower-turned-café-turned-plant sanctuary stood out apart from the other floors of the sector, accessible only by a skybridge that still put butterflies in Anita’s stomach when she peered over the edge, down to several sectors below. It was worse in stormy weather; She’d installed a bar to secure a safety harness after a close call some years ago, but she wouldn’t need it today.
She crossed the skybridge, looking forward already to crashing on the couch with some hot, freshly made mint tea. The codepad at the side of the door made a loud buzzing sound after she entered the long string of numbers necessary to unlock it, and she entered, immediately greeted by a wave of warm air.
Of all the places Anita had seen in her life, The Green Heart would always stand out as the most beautiful to her. It was a round chamber many meters in diameter, around a wide central spire made of concrete topped with wrought iron fencing. Enormous windows covered with a wooden lattice in some oriental style covered the wall all around the central spire, apart from the space left of the entrance where an unguarded stairway rose up to the next floor. The central spire was decorated with bookcases and framed photos and featured a small, ornately carved bar and an open-faced cupboard with a selection of unopened bottles- both antiques, made out genuine wood. Meanwhile, a variety of pastel coloured diner booths took up the outer rim of the room, providing a breathtaking view over the landscape far below.
The most astounding thing about the room, however, was the sheer volume of green. Plants took up every conceivable nook and cranny of the space and then some. Potted plants stood near walls, while a blanket of ferns, ivies and other trailing green branches peeked out from between the iron fence posts. Some had even curled up towards the ceiling, covering in in a thicket of emerald, and few loose strands of ivy had wound around the lights that hung over the bar.
It was comfortingly warm and humid inside, just the way Anita liked it. After the door closed behind her, Anita hung her coat on the rack to her right and walked past the stairs, looking into the ferns below it that were lit up by a heat lamp. A green iguana the size of a dog, basking on a rock in the heat, tilted its head slightly at her appearance, then blinked slowly. “Hello, Iggy.” Anita said, scratching the flabby underside of her dear Iggy Stardust’s head.
She opened the door into the central spire, where a spiral staircase led down to the floor below, where a small circular hallway led into different rooms through six doors. Once, all these rooms had been dedicated to the amenities needed to run a café; Ever since Anita’s father had bought up the space at a low rate and turned it into a sanctuary for rare species of plant, she had turned it into her idea of a perfect home with the help of the person she was about to see.
Something slammed in the kitchen, and Anita walked through the open door to see Lowanna by the fridge door surrounded by a few empty canvas grocery bags. She noticed Anita and gave a warm smile. “Hey, babe!” She said, walking over to give Anita a tight hug. Anita hugged back and kissed her fianceé, three times on the cheeks as the old Dutch tradition dictated. “How was your day?” The beautiful Maori girl asked. “Eh, same as always.” Anita replied, thinking back to the climb in the massive ventilation shaft. “Dangerous, you mean.” Lowanna replied. “If you didn’t have those exo-suits, I wouldn’t let you have this job.” She sighed and ran her hand through Anita’s untamable curly hair.
~~~
They spent the rest of the day idly chatting over tea, until the time came for them to start preparing the meals they would be serving tonight. They’d spent some of their monthly budget on authentic seafood from the North Sea trawlers, accompanied by tasty sides like grilled vegetables, rice-filled bell peppers and a cheesy potato gratin.
It was a rare event for more than two people to be eating inside The Green Heart, but tonight two guests would be joining them at the table- two friends that Anita had made the largest part of a year ago, connecting with them over a common interest on the hidden web that spanned the arcology- a vast network of transmitters and fiberglass wired between walls, the only digital space not monitored by the Gaia Council.
They had big plans, and tonight things would be set in motion.
By the time they had set the table in the booth with the best nighttime view, looking out on moonlit clouds and the lights of towering vertical farms in the distance, the intercom at the front door buzzed. Anita walked over and looked through the spyglass, seeing two people standing in out in the cold nighttime air. One was a lean woman with straight dark brown hair, and a broader man with his reddish-brown hair tied back in a ponytail and bangs.
Anita cleared her throat, pressed the intercom button and feigned her most serious voice.
“Ilex. Hydra. What is the password?”
“Two months, max. Probably less, month and a half. I’m doing everything I can to stall the publication of the results- I’m having everything triple, quadruple-checked.” Shirley Tannis said. “But it’s going to come out, and when it does, the Assembly is going to freak.”
Tannis looked into the room from his spot by the window. As clinical and empty as Amari Adebowale’s office looked on the inside- a white desk, a white chair, and a white honeycomb-shaped cabinet against the wall- the view from the floor-to-ceiling windows was always striking, a streak of lush green visible far below and sunlight sparkling on the North Sea.
“Any chance those re-runs of your trials are going to disprove the previous results?” Amari asked, her tone of voice betraying that she knew the answer. “No. All our trials have come up with the same results. The strains are not just going to stop evolving.” Amari placed her fingertips below her greying hair and rubbed her temples. After a few more seconds of tense silence, she stood up, walked over to the cabinets and produced a glass bottle of something honey-coloured and two small glasses. She poured them a quarter full, took the glasses over to the window and handed Tannis one.
Amari took a sip and stared out the window, looking lost in thought. Tannis tried some of the drink, too, and recoiled the slightest bit at its potency. Whiskey. A high proof, too.
“My mother wasn’t even born when the Corruption was discovered.” Amari said. “Three generations. That’s how long we’ve known about this thing and how long we’ve been fighting it. And all that time, almost nothing we’ve learned about it has helped us make the world safer from it.” She turned to Tannis. “And now you’re telling me that it’s changing. That it’s going to get worse for us.”
Amari looked as meticulously composed as always while she talked, stoic face and military posture and all, but her voice she couldn’t hide- the weariness in it, the desperation. Tannis wished in that moment he had any comforting words for her. He took another sip instead.
“No one expected the Corruption to be evolving.” He replied. “Nothing on Earth goes from square one to such an advantageous mutation within a century.” He let out a shaky sigh. “For what it’s worth, we’re not picking up any chatter from other continents about similar findings. It seems the mutation is staying isolated in Northern Europe, for whatever reason. For now.”
“What’s this going to change, Shirley?” Amari asked. “For humanity?” Tannis stared at his drink. Didn’t want to meet Amari’s expectant gaze. “I… I don’t know. We won’t know until we find out more. Humanity… Humanity’s going to keep being what it’s been for the last century.” He downed his drink, wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
“Fucked.”
~~~
Anita shone her headlight into the the depths of the ventilation shaft, watching the light fade away with sign of reaching the bottom. “Shit.” Anita muttered into her intercom. She held on to to the rungs of the metal ladder a little tighter. “Everything alright in there?” The voice of her friend Asher replied. “Yeah, fine.” Anita said. From her belt, she unhooked a small disk-shaped device bound to her by a wire and placed it against the wall, where it snapped stuck- the electromagnet in it and the wire could support her weight even if she fell.
Asher followed her out of the metal grate in the side of the shaft, affixing his own electromagnet. “How far down did you say this shaft goes?” Anita asked as she continued to climb down the ladder, feeling the downwards draft pushing on her shoulders. “Only about twelve-hundred meters.” Asher said. “Normally, the wind speed can get up to over two hundred kilometers an hour.”
Anita looked over her shoulder to the other side of the shaft, some ten meters away. “I swear, Freya’s the only place where you have to worry about falling to your death for twenty seconds underground.” She complained. “Let’s just fix that control board and get out of here.” Asher pointed down. “The good news is, it’s right next to the ladder for once.”
Anita climbed until she was level with the broken panel. “Screwdriver.” She said, at which a mechanical arm unfolded from the large pack on her back and presented her with an electrical screwdriver. “Twenty minutes and we can go home, Asher.”
~~~
In the changing room, Anita walked out of the showers to see Asher slicking his hair back with some gel in front of the mirror. “Going out tonight?” She asked while she towelled her hair. “Yeah, I got a date, actually.” Asher replied. Anita shot him a confused look. “A date? You?” Asher winked at her. “You and Lowanna don’t have the monopoly on serious relationships, babe.” He said. “Speaking of, you two doing anything fun this weekend?”
“Uh, yeah.” Anita thought up a quick lie. “Probably just gonna clean up around the house. Staying indoors all weekend as usual.”
“I said fun.” Asher sighed. “What’s fun about doing fuck-all in your own house?” Anita shrugged. She hated lying to a friend as close to her as Asher was, but it was the only choice to make. “Don’t worry, I won’t get bored.” She replied. She thought about how in less than a day, she would be well on her way to an exciting dig.
~~~
Anita chatted idly with Asher as they walked to Sector D’s train station through the late afternoon bustle of commuters, before saying her goodbyes at the train station. She jumped into the already packed train carriage two seconds before the doors closed- living on the edge, as always, she thought.
She did what everyone else in the carriage was doing; Put a pair of wireless earbuds in her ear and put on some tunes as she stared out the large windows set into the walls. Even though she’d seen it a thousand times in her lifetime, the monorail journey around the inner expanse of the Randstad always held Anita’s attention. The titanic structure of the arcology had a sizable hollow at its core, tapering down far into the ground like an upside down raindrop, artificial sunlight streaming down from above. The monorail went in a ring along the inside of the hollow, allowing for a great view of the thousands of shops and millions of people milling about on the broad, stacked avenues along the inside.
In a few minutes, she’d made it to Station J, where she transferred to the metro that would take her through dimly lit tunnels from the core of the arcology to the outskirts. It was a journey that took longer than the central ring, due to the many stops on the line- ten in total. By the time the doors closed on the ninth stop, Anita was alone in the driverless carriage, making for an almost eerily quiet ride.
The area designated J-10 was part of the arcology’s outer shell, the large but empty station hall opening up- through metallic corridors with a few defunct lights- into one of the twelve short promenades that circled the outside of Randstad at this height, a mirror image of the inner core’s shopping district. It’d been a busy place once, an alternative hangout where people could soak up real sunlight. Despite the massive white walls that protruded away from the arcology, meant to shield citizens from the harsher winds at this height, the promenades had fallen victim to the world’s worsening climates, with storms becoming too frequent to enjoy the fresh air for most of the year.
The shops and restaurants had been shuttered for as long as Anita could remember, and mostly no one came out this far unless they were maintenance or desperate to take in the sights of the pastures and forests stretching out below and the clouds above- both seeming equally far away. Anita braved the weather every day, though; This was where she had made her home.
She walked down the empty avenue enjoying the cool breeze, until home was in sight. The white, cylindrical water tower-turned-café-turned-plant sanctuary stood out apart from the other floors of the sector, accessible only by a skybridge that still put butterflies in Anita’s stomach when she peered over the edge, down to several sectors below. It was worse in stormy weather; She’d installed a bar to secure a safety harness after a close call some years ago, but she wouldn’t need it today.
She crossed the skybridge, looking forward already to crashing on the couch with some hot, freshly made mint tea. The codepad at the side of the door made a loud buzzing sound after she entered the long string of numbers necessary to unlock it, and she entered, immediately greeted by a wave of warm air.
Of all the places Anita had seen in her life, The Green Heart would always stand out as the most beautiful to her. It was a round chamber many meters in diameter, around a wide central spire made of concrete topped with wrought iron fencing. Enormous windows covered with a wooden lattice in some oriental style covered the wall all around the central spire, apart from the space left of the entrance where an unguarded stairway rose up to the next floor. The central spire was decorated with bookcases and framed photos and featured a small, ornately carved bar and an open-faced cupboard with a selection of unopened bottles- both antiques, made out genuine wood. Meanwhile, a variety of pastel coloured diner booths took up the outer rim of the room, providing a breathtaking view over the landscape far below.
The most astounding thing about the room, however, was the sheer volume of green. Plants took up every conceivable nook and cranny of the space and then some. Potted plants stood near walls, while a blanket of ferns, ivies and other trailing green branches peeked out from between the iron fence posts. Some had even curled up towards the ceiling, covering in in a thicket of emerald, and few loose strands of ivy had wound around the lights that hung over the bar.
It was comfortingly warm and humid inside, just the way Anita liked it. After the door closed behind her, Anita hung her coat on the rack to her right and walked past the stairs, looking into the ferns below it that were lit up by a heat lamp. A green iguana the size of a dog, basking on a rock in the heat, tilted its head slightly at her appearance, then blinked slowly. “Hello, Iggy.” Anita said, scratching the flabby underside of her dear Iggy Stardust’s head.
She opened the door into the central spire, where a spiral staircase led down to the floor below, where a small circular hallway led into different rooms through six doors. Once, all these rooms had been dedicated to the amenities needed to run a café; Ever since Anita’s father had bought up the space at a low rate and turned it into a sanctuary for rare species of plant, she had turned it into her idea of a perfect home with the help of the person she was about to see.
Something slammed in the kitchen, and Anita walked through the open door to see Lowanna by the fridge door surrounded by a few empty canvas grocery bags. She noticed Anita and gave a warm smile. “Hey, babe!” She said, walking over to give Anita a tight hug. Anita hugged back and kissed her fianceé, three times on the cheeks as the old Dutch tradition dictated. “How was your day?” The beautiful Maori girl asked. “Eh, same as always.” Anita replied, thinking back to the climb in the massive ventilation shaft. “Dangerous, you mean.” Lowanna replied. “If you didn’t have those exo-suits, I wouldn’t let you have this job.” She sighed and ran her hand through Anita’s untamable curly hair.
~~~
They spent the rest of the day idly chatting over tea, until the time came for them to start preparing the meals they would be serving tonight. They’d spent some of their monthly budget on authentic seafood from the North Sea trawlers, accompanied by tasty sides like grilled vegetables, rice-filled bell peppers and a cheesy potato gratin.
It was a rare event for more than two people to be eating inside The Green Heart, but tonight two guests would be joining them at the table- two friends that Anita had made the largest part of a year ago, connecting with them over a common interest on the hidden web that spanned the arcology- a vast network of transmitters and fiberglass wired between walls, the only digital space not monitored by the Gaia Council.
They had big plans, and tonight things would be set in motion.
By the time they had set the table in the booth with the best nighttime view, looking out on moonlit clouds and the lights of towering vertical farms in the distance, the intercom at the front door buzzed. Anita walked over and looked through the spyglass, seeing two people standing in out in the cold nighttime air. One was a lean woman with straight dark brown hair, and a broader man with his reddish-brown hair tied back in a ponytail and bangs.
Anita cleared her throat, pressed the intercom button and feigned her most serious voice.
“Ilex. Hydra. What is the password?”
