Page 29 of Inceptive (Ingenious #3)

29

ZACH

Z ach watched Quiggs’s fuel paste flash-burn the basin within a minute like a chain of lightning strikes. When the steam cleared, the walkways, soil, and swamp had vanished, leaving behind a barren desert. All lifeforms perished. The surface of the basin’s walls didn’t melt like wax or crack but did conduct heat that burned the interiors of caves to ashes and evaporated the sludge inside the rim around the basin.

Days later, when the basin cooled, the surfaces tested clean. Drones would gradually fill the basin with megatons of fertile soil.

Agricultural engineers had designed a dam and pumps for flood control that would allow planting a wider variety of crops, orchards, and even acres of cane. If farmers wanted to establish trade with the Triangle, only bioengineered self-sustainable crops in the basin would be considered. Land outside the basin remained contaminated. Botanical nanos could clean farms, but the process was slow, controlled, and costly. With Dante’s help, the rampart would supply power to small incinerators to dispose of the nanos’ wastes, an acre at a time. Eventually, Fort Hope would be clean, but its people weren’t interested in trading with the Triangle and its outlands.

The majority of voters believed that resuming traditions and adhering to pure ways would improve fertility. They celebrated that the perverted Islanders were leaving and the Island Federation would be incinerated and leveled after the last transport left. The basin’s farmers were given the protected fields inside the sanctuary to grow clean crops.

Though Zach campaigned for a surgical clinic staffed by bots from the Triangle, the voters rejected the proposal, arguing the bots would secretly turn the women into breeders for the Triangle. They were considering a clinic staffed by bots from Dante’s hospital, but such a clinic still required help from the Triangle, which the women distrusted.

Zach wrestled with traditions as immovable as the stone walls of the basin, which had survived the lightning strikes.

Zach sat in his mayoral chair, listening to Astrid criticize his leadership. It was the same argument every session, with the council determined to wear him down. A hospital jeopardized the women. The crops that the Triangle wanted them to grow in the sanctuary were probably bioengineered with mind-altering substances to condition Fort Hope’s women into accepting a role as breeders. A bachelor mayor had no understanding of the true danger ahead.

Her tirade was interrupted by a matronly figure gliding down the aisle of the closed session. A lacy headpiece covered her hair. Her face was rosy and plump, with large, wide-spaced blue eyes and a sweet, upturned nose. A white apron covered her black dress.

“The council is in a closed session,” Astrid said. “Who are you?”

“Addie. I thought you’d prefer a female form.” The pleasant voice had a familiar metallic undertone.

Zach gaped. “Dante?”

“Hello, Zach. You’re looking well.”

“But… how?”

“Jagger imported an android to house me. A gift from the Triangle’s guardian. I have always been configured for an android. Alas, there were no materials for me after my creations migrated to the coast.”

“A trick to abduct us,” Astrid hissed to the council. “Don’t listen to it.”

Addie merely smiled at her. “The Triangle’s men aren’t interested in breeding you, my dear Astrid. They’ll court the fertile single Island women transported to the outland. My creations can’t conceive unless a sperm and egg are perfectly matched without mutations. It’s not what I planned. Had I not slept all those centuries, I might have halted the problem with genetic remapping. However, the damage is done unless you permit conception in an artificial womb, then implantation in the mother.” She folded her hands over her waist and waited for the backlash to subside.

“Outrageous!”

“Lies”

“Trickery!”

“Call the guards!”

“Mayor Zach, evict her!” the voices cried in unison.

Addie glided to the middle of the table and slammed her fists down. The table broke in half. Teacups slid to the floor.

“I suggest we listen to Addie,” Zach said.