The Emergent by Nadia Afifi

Author:Nadia Afifi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: scifi; gothic fantasy; flame tree press; creepy stories; science fiction; cloning; SF; The Windup Girl; Peter Watts
Publisher: Flame Tree Publishing
Published: 2022-04-13T15:14:54+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Shadow World

The car drove toward Baja overnight while the passengers slept. All except for Reznik, who had been forcibly sedated and Amira, who clung the backpack to her chest like a newborn baby. She opened it from time to time, checking to ensure its contents were intact.

Her reaction to those tiny glass vials veered between fierce protectiveness and revulsion. More than once, she considered hurling the contents out the window or breaking each glass one by one. The world’s last supply of Tiresia, catastrophic in the wrong hands.

But whose were the wrong hands? Reznik’s, without question. The Trinity Elder lay unconscious in the backseat between Eleanor and Barlow, who both kept as much distance from the man as possible. What would Barlow do with the Tiresia? Would he hand it to Lucia Morgan and the Cosmics, or keep it in his possession, to finish the experiment he started with Rozene? But perhaps, with the Tiresia, he would find a way to understand whatever existed between Rozene and Nova, and perhaps undo the damage. Would it be a mistake to let the Tiresia go, especially if they just turned around and created more of it?

Above them, stars salted the black desert sky. Lights on the horizon marked a row of water turbines along the Californian coast. Amira traced the row of lights with her finger along the car window, imagining a tether between Baja and Westport.

“Such sadness.”

Amira jerked at the low voice from the backseat. Reznik had woken up, blinking slowly. His heavy eyes fixed on Amira.

“What did you say to me?” Amira asked.

“You’re unhappy, despite all of your so-called freedom,” Reznik continued in his deep drawl. “Or maybe because of it. You have no higher purpose to drive you. Just the false reward of your career, which is costing you more each day. If you lose it, what else do you have?”

“For someone who knows nothing about me, you’re making a lot of assumptions,” Amira said. Her head lolled against the car window and she yawned. “But your concern for me is touching, Elder.”

“I’m familiar with women like you,” Reznik said. “They sometimes come back, you know. The girls who left in the night. The cities lure them away with false promises. Then they discover that a life devoted to pleasure and excitement becomes hollow. You’ve proven yourself clever… but is that enough to be happy?”

“Happier than when I was getting whipped and tied up on a leash outside to spend the night in the cold,” Amira snapped back. “Your sermons don’t work on me. You don’t even believe them yourself. How’s your wife, by the way? She seemed to enjoy having work to do in the city. I wonder if she’ll prefer her jail cell to the ‘happiness’ of life in the Trinity.”

Reznik’s mouth twitched when she threw his crisis of faith back at him, and his smirk extended at the mention of his wife.

“Some of you are suited for more than motherhood, it’s true,” he said. “My primary wife is clever, and uses her talents to advance her people.

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