Shivering World by Kathy Tyers

Author:Kathy Tyers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gilead Publishing
Published: 2018-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

In Conference

Lindon knocked on the door of an aboveground dwelling, then thrust his hand back into his warm pocket. While waiting, he gazed out into the Sunday cold. Heavy machinery was operating somewhere. Grinding and pummeling noises competed from two directions. Shimmering breath condensed near his face. Across the track, which would be a street one day, two more rows of yellow-­tan brick houses stretched north and south. A blockhouse at the end of this row provided tunnel access.

The door behind him opened with a pressurized whoosh.

He spun around. “Mrs. TollHeyer?”

She reminded him of his mother, with a halo of salt-­and-­pepper braids and a straight-­shouldered poise that suggested she, too, had left behind a prosperous life. “Come in,” she said, “please. I’ll have tea for you and Vice-­Chair MaiJidda in a moment.”

“Thank you.” He pulled off his coat. His hostess seized it and vanished into another room.

Her living room measured about three meters by four. Windows of Goddard-­made, nonpolarized triple-­pane glass provided a view of open sky. No pictures hung on the room’s white walls, but the floor, swept clean of pervasive upside dust and sand, attested to Mrs. TollHeyer’s industry—and reminded him he owed his own parents a visit now, though he had lain unconscious most of the time they were visiting.

“I didn’t mean to rush you,” he called.

The woman hurried back out of her kitchen. She’d fastened on a white-­bow choker, and her work clothes had the stiff, unwrinkled look of new browncloth. How small the notions they considered nicety now.

Lindon sat down on her blocky couch of darkly dyed linen over synthetic foam, and he stretched up one knee. He and Ari could have thrashed out their differences over the net, but even with privacy circuits, neither liked that notion. He also could have met her in the hub or at the co-­op or in a vacant office. Still, at a randomly chosen private house, there would be someone within call if either needed a witness for binding agreements. As it turned out, Mrs. TollHeyer was even a notary.

Crystal’s accusation niggled at the back of his mind. He rubbed his chin, wishing he’d never heard it. His sister had been unable to prove her accusations, so he couldn’t believe them 100 percent.

Still, Graysha Brady-­Phillips had risen considerably in his sympathy. “Ari tried to crush her, Lin,” Crys had claimed. “She nearly got me, too.”

Through a window, he watched Ari stride up the lane, holding her shoulders stiffly forward under her coat. “Shall I let Coordinator MaiJidda in?” he called toward the kitchen door.

“I’m coming.” Mrs. TollHeyer carried a brown pot steaming between two fine china cups on a ceramic tray. She set it down, then unsealed the narrow metal door.

As Lindon rose, Ari stepped through, already tugging at her parka sleeves. She stretched out a slender arm to clasp his hand, then sat down in a chair close to his couch. Mrs. TollHeyer poured. “This is the last of my real tea. I’m honored to share it with you.

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