New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Author:Kim Stanley Robinson
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Fiction / Science Fiction / Space Opera, Fiction / Science Fiction / Hard Science Fiction, Fiction / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2017-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

On the way back down to the Twenty-sixth dock, they all stood around in the wheelhouse talking excitedly about the discovery. Mr. Hexter inspected some of the coins and declared them the right kind for the Hussar to be carrying, as only made sense. They were usually half coated with a greenish-black crud, but where they had been touching they were a dull gold color, and Hexter brushed a few clean with a wire brush and declared they were mostly guineas, with a few examples of other kinds of coins. They gleamed in the bridge’s light like something intruding from another universe, one where the gravity was heavier. When they held a coin in their fingers and rubbed it, it felt like something twice as big at least, more like four times as big; the heaviness was very palpable.

“So whose are they?” Roberto asked, looking at Vlade.

Vlade saw the nature of his look and laughed. “They’re Mr. Hexter’s, right?”

“I guess so.” Roberto did not have a poker face, and his crestfallen expression made the others laugh.

“It’s right,” Stefan pointed out. “He’s the one who figured out where it was.”

“But you’re the ones who found it,” the old man said quickly. “And these fine people here dug it up. I think that makes us a consortium.”

“There’s a legal routine for this kind of thing,” Idelba said, frowning. “We use it sometimes down at the beach. We have to report certain kinds of finds to keep our permits good.”

None of the others looked happy about this, not that Idelba did either. Stefan and Roberto were appalled. “They’ll just take it away from us!” Roberto objected.

The adults considered this. It was obviously not unlikely.

“I could ask Charlotte,” Vlade said. “I would trust her to be on our side.”

The boys and Hexter nodded at this thought. As they slowed down to approach the dock, they were all frowning thoughtfully.

Before they reached Twenty-sixth, Thabo said something to Idelba, who called Vlade over to the scanning screens.

“Look, Thabo saw this while we were digging.” She tapped around and pulled up the screen shot she wanted. “This is our infrared, on one of the cables that we sent down with the dredger tube, so it’s seeing hot spots on the bottom. And look here—on our way back from where we were digging, there was a rectangular hot spot on the bottom.”

“Subway entry?” Vlade asked. “Those are still hot.”

“Yeah, it could be Cypress Avenue, right? That’s where it maps. But it’s hotter than most subway holes, and rectangular. It’s about the size and shape of a container from the old container ships. And see, the radar shows there’s a whole parking lot full of those containers a few blocks away, behind the old loading docks. It just makes me wonder if this is one of those. But down in the subway hole? And hot as it is?”

“Radioactive contents, maybe?”

“Christ, I hope not.”

“You don’t have a radiation detector on board?”

“Shit no.”

“You should. There’s a lot of crazy stuff in this harbor, you know that.

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