The zenith angle by Bruce Sterling

Author:Bruce Sterling [Sterling, Bruce]
Format: epub
Tags: Science fiction, General, Fiction, High Tech, Computers, Suspense, Thrillers, Mystery & Detective, Science Fiction - High Tech, Fiction - Espionage, thriller, Government investigators, Married people, Espionage, Popular American Fiction, Technological, Intrigue, Political, Political fiction, Computer security, Space surveillance, Security, Colorado, Washington (D.C.), Women astronomers
ISBN: 9780345460615
Publisher: New York : Del Rey/Ballantine Books, 2004.
Published: 2004-04-26T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

TEN

PINECREST RANCH, COLORADO, FEBRUARY 2002

Dottie prodded him flirtatiously with her bare toes. “Well, hero, now you know what you were fighting for!”

Van nodded, breathing hot steam. He balanced his cold German beer on the edge of the hot tub. To judge by his surroundings, he was fighting for the right of eccentric rich guys to buy the whole planet. Thomas DeFanti’s “cottage” had once been a pioneer Colorado farmstead, all hard rock and tough gray timber. Then some pet architect had transformed the place into a billionaire’s secret love nest. It was all done-up inside in black-and-chrome, high 1980s style. It was like Hugh Hefner seducing The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

Pinecrest Ranch, to judge by what Van had seen of it, was a mix of Hong Kong and Hollywood Western. Mrs. DeFanti, the zillionaire’s fourth or fifth wife, was the guardian of the old man and his big spread. Mrs. DeFanti was turning his Ponderosa into a bonsai Chinese ranchero. She was dusting the buffalo, she was grooming the antelope . . . She was a chip mogul’s daughter from Taiwan, and she was re-creating Colorado as a Pacific Rim luxury spa.

Guest meals were served up in the main ranch house, in a sunny conservatory with a stunning mountain view. Van had started his day with Russian eggs Benedict with spinach and caviar, plus pineapple juice and an inch-thick buffalo breakfast steak. His altitude sickness was banished. The protein, vitamins, and half a gallon of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee had definitely gotten his motor running. Dottie, who was off the pill, had surprised him with a condom, which they promptly broke. Van was shocked to see her shrug off this mishap, and even laugh about it. She was in a mood he had never seen. The cottage’s hot tub was like a little amphitheater, surrounded by black solar-water heaters. The tub gave off a volcanic Jacuzzi sizzling in the crisp winter air. Van had never made love in a hot tub before. As the pulsing currents beat and sizzled against his naked flesh, he got it about the appeal there. It was like having more sex without even needing to move.

Dottie sampled her glass of white wine, and tucked her cold hand back in the hot water. “Honey, that was too long apart, okay? I don’t wanna be a computer-security widow.”

“We can meet again at that big to-do in Virginia. And after that, Tony has invited me to a Joint Techs conference up here.”

Unhappiness crossed her face. He’d given her the wrong answer. She didn’t want him to just make some dates.

He couldn’t tell her the simple thing that she needed to hear. Even though he knew what that was, more or less. It was something like: “Honey, I missed you just as much as you missed me.” But that wasn’t quite true, and he knew it.

Those months apart had brought him an ugly self-wisdom, Van thought as his floating feet bobbed in the sizzling water. There was something wrong with him as a man, a husband, a father, and a human being.

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