The Book of Lies by Melissa McShane

Author:Melissa McShane [McShane, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Night Harbor Publishing

11

I picked up the plastic bottle of water in front of me and turned it around, reading the label. It was expensive, as everything associated with this conference seemed to be, and I couldn’t help thinking it was a waste of money. They’d given us those really nice metal water bottles, but every presentation I’d attended had had these disposable bottles set out for the presenters. And now I had one of my own.

The Rainier room was more dimly lit than the other conference rooms, probably why they’d shown movies in it earlier. The sconces lighting the room were of orange glass, mottled to look like translucent marble, though I’d never seen marble that color before. It made the gray Berber carpet look brownish and gave everyone with skin lighter than Nimisha Rai’s an orange tan. All the chairs were occupied, and more men and women stood against the walls. It was the fullest I’d seen any room at the conference to date.

I took a drink from my own heavy water bottle and surreptitiously looked at my fellow panelists. I’d met a couple of them at the bar the first evening, but didn’t remember their names. We each had little placards with our names on them, but of course they faced the audience and were no help to me. I was near the middle of the table, with three panelists to the left of me and two to the right. I accidentally caught the eye of the man immediately to my right and had to smile in a friendly way, though my insides were knotted up with nervousness.

“First time?” he said. He spoke English with an Indian accent I liked. I nodded. “It’s not so hard,” he continued. “Answer the moderator’s questions and speak out when someone says something you disagree with.”

“That sounds like it could start a fight.”

He laughed. “It can. But sometimes that’s more interesting than when everyone agrees. You’re the custodian of Abernathy’s, right? Where do you stand on the issue?”

“I’m opposed to it.”

“Well, I’m in favor, so we should have a good strong discussion.” The man extended his hand to me. “Vijay Chowdhury of the Devarakonda Node.”

I took it hesitantly. Chowdhury laughed and clasped my hand tightly. “Just because we disagree doesn’t mean we can’t be friends,” he said. “I’ve just seen tremendous benefits—oh, it looks like we’re starting.”

I took another drink of water to calm my nervousness. Chowdhury seemed nice enough, but he represented the possibility of Nicollien and Ambrosite never making common cause. That made him my enemy, for the next fifty-five minutes anyway.

Chukwu took a seat at the end of the table farthest from me. “Welcome,” he said. “This panel will address the issue of dividing use of the Neutralities, to restrict Ambrosites and Nicolliens from visiting at the same time. I’d like to invite our panelists to introduce themselves, starting at that end.”

The woman beyond Chowdhury said, “Maggie Tennyson of the Gilbert Node in Manchester, UK.”

“Vijay Chowdhury of the Devarakonda Node outside Kolkata, India,” Chowdhury said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.