Chapter 7

“What has you smiling?” Nora asked me, while I rubbed her feet.

“It’s Adele. I’m pretty sure that she has shark in her dna, she can sense money from miles away,” I told her.

“What has she done now?”

“She’s partnered with GE to build a prototype graphene based wind turbine. It’ll give us a huge tax break, use up old stock, and potentially create a whole new production facility dedicated to building giant towers and blades.”

“How big is giant?” she asked, as she relaxed into my touch.

“The prototype is 800 meters, with 100 meter blades.”

Her eyes opened wide, “That’s going to be the tallest structure in Europe.”

I nodded in agreement, “About 200 meters higher than the previous record.”

“That’s going to be a tourist attraction, where is it going to be built?”

“Somewhere north of here I think.”

“Will you offer tours, or put in an elevator?”

“Do you think people would want to do that?” I asked incredulously.

“Adam, this thing is going to be taller than the Burj Khalifa, you might want to either make it shorter, or plan on an observation deck.”

My discussion with Adele continued simultaneously, “Does the purchase of the site include the land around it?” I asked Adele.

“Just the footprint, but that’s actually just a 100 year lease from a local farmer, why?”

“I was just considering that the combined total height, rotor plus tower will make it the tallest structure on Earth. If I expand the size of the tower, we can add elevators, stairs, and a viewing platform. Originally I just intended a maintenance elevator and filling the interior with supercapacitors so it could self balance the grid.”

“Could you go higher?”

“Sure, but there would be no benefit, the air velocity would remain the same.”

“People would pay to go up it if it was a kilometer high.” she said.

“Would you really pay to go up high and look out?” I asked.

“You just described three quarters of the Swiss tourist sites,” she said giggling.

I conceded the point, “If we do a national monument scale tourist attraction it needs to be somewhere that the local populous hasn’t already spent a decade deliberating on.”

“I agree, I’ve been looking over the planning documents and they go back even farther. Keinburg is not a hotbed of innovation.”

“Then let’s buy the spot, put up a normal sized tower and blades, and talk to GE about a demonstration site for a 1km tall wind turbine. Once the little one is up to show proof of concept, we shop the 1km turbine around to see who wants it. Who knows, maybe they will pay us to put it up.”

“Where do we get the generator for the little one?” she asked.

“Leave it to ZZ Erwerbung. I’m sure I can source it.” I said.

“You and your mysterious connections. If we weren’t paying full price for the equipment ZZ E finds for us, I’d be worried you were stealing them.”

I just smiled, as my conversation with Nora continued, “Adam, why isn’t Adele a member of the brotherhood?”

“I tried. She freaked out, and I had to replace her with a copy, and then made her think she had a bad flu that kept her in bed asleep all weekend. She’s got some weird ideas about God, magic powers, and burning witches at the stake.”

“Really?” she said eyes wide.

“No, I just checked her memories, and she’s not super loyal, just determined to earn every penny that can be earned. There’s no good, in her worldview, greater than her own pocketbook. I can trust her to be honest, but never her loyalty beyond how far I can throw a franc.”

Nora threw a pillow at me, but my power caught it, and put it back on the couch, as I continued the foot massage. Em handed us drinks and scooted in next to Nora, putting her feet up to be done next.

I sat back to enjoy my drink while I conjured another me to start working on Em’s feet. They were one of the few things that remained of her original Nora body, and I found them perfect. The original Emelia had not had nice feet. Really there had been little nice about her.

It was turning into a blissful day at home with my girls, one of hundreds since replicating myself. Elsewhere I was having a bit of trouble.

“Camellia, please come out from under the bed!” I said as Robert Diaz. Lucy had brought her to stay with me when she and her mom had left to stay with relatives when covid had been at its height in the city. With Thomas in college, or at least the dorms, but taking classes online, she had decided she wasn’t coming back, and I was now the proud servant of my own cat again.

Camellia, even after months of living in my apartment, refused to do anything I said, so no real change. I cajoled her out from under the bed by opening a can of food, I used a new brand that didn’t smell so terrible to me, and she immediately hopped up on the pub table where she liked to eat. Dinner and a view, I didn’t bother fighting her, she’d snuggle up to me later during the nightly news, which was enough appreciation for me.

Thomas’s graduation had been held online, and I had attended, and even shipped him a new laptop for school, along with a note apologizing for past behavior, and explaining that I had gotten help for my temper. I didn’t beg for a relationship, just let him know that I was willing.

It felt odd having adopted an entire broken family, but now that Lucy was gone I had less to worry about. My phone rang and I picked it up.

“Hello?”

“Mr Diaz?”

“That’s me!” I said.

“This is officer Monroe. I’m sorry to say that your wife and daughter have been in an automobile accident.”

“Are they ok?”

“Your daughter is ok, but the vehicle was hit in the driver’s side by a drunk who ran a red light. I’m sorry but your wife didn’t make it to the hospital.”

“Can you put Lucy on?”

“Daddy?” she said sniffling.

“Hey baby girl. Are you ok, do you need anything?”

“Come get me daddy. I don’t want to be here anymore. Aunt JoAnn is a freak, and cousin Bobby keeps trying to walk into the bathroom on me.”