You Knew the Price by Susan Kaye Quinn

Author:Susan Kaye Quinn [Quinn, Susan Kaye]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Twisted Space LLC

Six

Zuri was hiding in her executive bathroom.

Hiding probably wasn’t the right word—she’d legitimately needed to use the facilities—but now she stood, hyperventilating at the sink, hand pressed to the mirror… and she couldn’t move. A face she barely recognized stared back at her. Eyes wide. Lips parted and gasping. A flush in her cheeks which darkened them even further. She had Amani’s hair, but the rest was pure, panicked Zuri.

“Breathe,” she commanded her reflection. Then she closed her eyes and obeyed. One breath, two, three. A half dozen before it felt safe to open them again. “You can do this.” The determination in her eyes brought Amani back to the mirror. The fiery passion she always had, especially for things like this. Injustice. Corruption. Amani would be clamoring for investigations and indictments, no matter how long the odds. Compassion isn’t being nice, she would say. It’s fighting like hell for the people who would get trampled otherwise.

Zuri was doing that—the grid’s AI was compromised, but that didn’t mean there weren’t backstops. Ways to manually reroute and restore power, which were seldom used, only in extreme events which lay outside the AI’s ability to predict and manage. Zuri had quickly gotten authorization to bring backup supplies online, then managed the scramble to identify each and every outage and get it restored as quickly as possible.

When she’d finally taken a break to use the restroom, they were back to 95% power restored, with the average outage only fifteen minutes long. Still enough to incite a hell of a lot of panic. And that left a million people without power in small pockets around the 20 million households and businesses in the greater Los Angeles Metro area.

An audio-only call from Jeevika buzzed her display.

Zuri pulled in a breath and flicked to answer it.

Her assistant jumped in without preamble. “I’ve got Governor Kipo’mo on the line, Zuri. How are you holding up? Should I tell her you’re still working the situation?” Jeevika had been managing the flood of calls, everyone from LA Mayor Booker Johnson to the Chairman of the state Public Utility Commission wanting an update on the “situation.”

“No, put her through.”

“You okay?” Jeevika checked again.

“Not really.”

“Putting her through.”

Zuri waited until Kirsten Kipo’mo’s serious portrait flashed upon her display. Southern California’s first indigenous Governor was known for her straight talk, so Zuri kept to the facts. “Governor Kipo’mo, thank you for calling. We’ve got 95% containment here in the LA Basin—my people tell me we’ll have the last 5% within a half-hour.”

“Containment of what, Director Hill-Gray?”

“That’s what we’re figuring out, ma’am. Right now, we’re focused on restoring power, but I promise: you’ll have a full report as soon as we diagnose the situation.” Zuri rubbed her forehead and checked the mirror—and gave thanks the Governor hadn’t insisted on a face-to-face video call. She was a wreck.

“I’ll want more than a report. I want to see an action plan on how USEC will prevent this from ever happening again. Our citizens rely on our power—and the pact we’ve made with them to provide it.

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