RENAISSANCE 2.0/Book 4 - Sample Chapters

Chapter 163

Drew watched the plane circle the mansion a few more times, then pried himself away from the window. "You'd think the thing would have to refuel itself some time," he grumbled. 

"It's being refueled in midair," Toby explained from the seat of the convertible roadster parked in the second story bedroom. Dragging it up the stairs was more manageable than one of the 1930s limousines. Whoever came up with the "live and let live" concept was from a family of addicts, Drew thought, regarding him. For anyone else it was just too exhausting.  

Robin, in the thick of the latest meltdown, droned on, her tone betraying how morbidly depressed she was. "They're mining space to give them a leg up on the rest of the Milky Way. Already they have outposts on every planet in the solar system. They're using self-assembling robots for everything, from harvesting asteroids and comets to habitat construction and expansion of the colonies." 

"Is she being psychic, paranoid and delusional, or just suicidally depressed with schizoid features?" Toby asked. 

"Rest assured, it's all of the above," Drew said. "She's probably having to economize on time by multitasking the wackos clamoring for space inside her head. Best way to keep up with the pressure of psychoanalyzing Mother."  

Toby clutched the steering wheel as a security blanket. "I never had room in my head for more than two neuroses at a time." 

"What she's describing, it's a good twenty, thirty years into the future. It has to be." Drew paced, unraveled his cigarettes, and just chewed on the tobacco inside. "She's got to be gazing into the future." 

"It does sound precocious by European Union standards. But I'll look into it." Toby grabbed his iPhone, keyed away. "You never know. It's possible-" 

Robin filled in the rest for him, speaking in a morbid monotone, as she picked away at the wallpaper. "They're keeping the entire operation out of the media for fear of igniting still more civil unrest. The People's Movement protests have spread to every city in the world; they're not looking to swell the crowds further." She continued to pick absently at the flaking floral design. "Too many are upset the funds aren't being spent on the half of the world that is starving, and they're just not high functioning enough to grasp the technologies needed to save them will come from the space program." The rift in the wall she'd opened up was starting to look eerily symbolic of the tear in reality she was creating in Drew's mind. "They also don't want widespread panic. Their reason for jumping the gun with the space program, after all, is the number crunchers have already determined the likelihood of Earth surviving any number of calamities earmarked to befall it even a few years out is vanishingly small."  

As Drew diverted Robin away from the wall, she continued to talk as if from a trance, not blinking, her eyes focused on some invisible horizon. Like any good séance mediator between this world and the netherworlds, she remained entirely responsive to the questions placed before her by the "seekers" themselves. "Last but not least is the fact that there's only time to construct lifeboats for the rich and famous that-once launched-will be supplied by the outposts scattered throughout the solar system." She stroked the bedpost as if only by exciting Satan's phallus could she expect the flow of information to continue to be this good. "There won't be enough time to save the multitudes before the next calamity strikes. Elitist agendas are the last thing the top one percent needs to advertise now that the ninety-nine percent is reaching for their throats." 

"You're right about one thing," Toby said, "the crazier she sounds, the saner she sounds, like she's the only one who really gets it." 

"It's a gift handed down only to tenth generation addicts, who've amassed sufficient inertia to keep justifying their insanity through End Times."