The Naked World: Book Two of the Jubilee Cycle by Eli K. P. William

Author:Eli K. P. William
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Talos
Published: 2017-11-21T07:00:00+00:00

12

THE RESORT, THE GIFTED TRIANGLE

1

Beneath a clear, late-morning autumn sky, Amon crept along a curving rooftop ledge behind Rick and Ty, looking up at a cylindrical glass building that loomed before them. The ledge was the upper edge of disposcrapers built of cream-colored, brand name shelters that circumscribed the lip of a huge crater in the roofscape sprawling endlessly around them. It was a drop of about thirty meters to the bottom of the crater and only about ten meters from the uneven wall atop which they stood to the sheer, see-through surface of the fifty-story structure that rose from it. Inside the cylinder were thin walls of what looked like plaster that divided its interior into high-ceilinged suites. These were shaped like triangles with a rounded outer face, resembling deep-dish pie slices viewed from the crust side. There were eight such slices on each floor, and the building rose far over their heads, making for hundreds of suites, each with a Jacuzzi by the floor-to-ceiling window and then plush rugs leading to a king-sized bed.

On a mission to settle a dispute with upstart Opportunity Scientists, Amon, Rick, and Ty were passing through a brandclan enclave built around a slum resort.

“Those rooms aren’t much to look at for a resort,” said Rick, when Ty halted to survey the crater.

“Maybe not to you crashdead,” said Ty, “but I wouldn’t mind grabbing a few winks in one of those beds.”

“You don’t think they’re meant to be seen with an overlay?” Amon said to Rick.

To Amon’s naked eyes, the interior of the rooms definitely appeared more shabby and plain than their size would suggest, with carpet stains, patches of discoloration on the walls, glass smudging, and a total lack of patterning. Though as Ty had implied, they were still lavishly furnished compared to what camp denizens were used too.

“Oh, for sure. I’m just calling it like it looks. You’d agree?”

“Um yeah, but—”

“I don’t think this one is for looking at anyways,” cut in Ty. “More for looking out, like peeping.”

“You mean people come here just to stare at a wall?” said Rick.

While the upper suites above them looked out over the slumscape, the lower ones faced straight at the disposcrapers encircling the resort. There were no curtains on the windows or barriers of any kind between the hotel and the shelters, though a murmuration of glassy butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, bats, and other CareBots sparkled churning formations in the sky above its roof, their fragile beauty and grace somehow only emphasizing the threat they posed.

“Not just walls. Take a look at the sand garden.” Ty pointed down below to the floor of the gap between them and the glass façade where it was ringed by a thin patch of sand. “At the other resorts you’ll see a wider space with grassy golf hills, gardens, sculptures, maybe some hedges. Usually big walls for privacy too. But I don’t think this one’s designed to be pretty or exclusive. It’s designed so the guests can get a view of who’s living here.

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