Invisible Things by Mat Johnson

Author:Mat Johnson [Johnson, Mat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2022-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

When Chase arrived at Bob’s place, it turned out to be a vast Mediterranean mansion surrounded by a bunch of other vast Mediterranean mansions. His subdivision wasn’t as cramped as some of the others Chase drove by, ones where you could jump from one porch to the next. And it was out there, too, about a half-hour from the hospital and center of town. But talk about “worth the drive.” It had a wine cellar bigger than Chase’s living room back home. Multiple choices of guest rooms on multiple floors, providing Chase with the opportunity to choose one of each and drink until his pulse chilled out—which he did. It had been a very long day, and he felt well within his rights on that.

When Chase awoke, the alcohol was still hanging around in his bloodstream, and his body was not happy about that. Worse, aside from an extended conversation about the recent post-season results of the NFL, Chase had no idea what he and Bob had talked about the night before; his only certainty was that he had shared too much, because that’s what he always did when he got in the cups. Likely, he’d discussed what he usually did when lit: Ada Sanchez. His wife was out there on this moon, Chase could feel it. And he had to find her—if he left without her, he’d return to no life at all.

At breakfast, Chase tried not to get nauseated by his unwanted fried eggs while listening to Bob ramble on.

“Now, the economy here’s a trip. They really make nothing. Just a couple factories, nothing essential. And not a lot of local agriculture going on, either. I mean, there’s some, but when you look at the numbers, it’s basically just for show. No, everything of worth here? It comes in off that barge. Spoon-fed, basically. The real money is in who owns it the second it arrives—and the old school’s got that on lock. Once I figured that out, I knew Founders was the way to go.”

Chase listened to this and other insights Bob offered, and just waited for enough of a pause to say, “I need to find my wife.”

“We’ll get on that, we’ll get on that, trust me. But, see, what I’m trying to say here is that, if all the money and all the power comes from just one place—owning the supplies that come in constantly off that barge—and that’s controlled by the same people, the same families, over generations, then they basically own the place. The only thing that could change that would be, you know, if someone brought in something of value in some other way. Now you see what I’m saying?”

Chase, who most certainly did not see what Bob was saying, nodded yes, because Bob was getting all excited and loud as he went, and Chase’s head was killing him, and he just wanted Bob to shut up. Bob leaned forward and gave him the answer.

“The cryoship, Chase. I’m talking about the cryoship, your Ursula.

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