Aurora(26)

Jimmy frowned, noticing Beth and her daughter, and looked down at a clipboard on the stand in front of him, scanning the list of names there. “Do we have a change in the guest list?”

“We do. I chose to include some friends. Let’s treat them well.”

“You got it, boss.”

“Who else is here?”

“All active guards reported within an hour of your call. Dr. Bordwell lives in Provo, so he was one of the first resident staff to arrive.” He gestured to the nearby grassy slope, where a middle-aged man in khakis and an untucked blue shirt sat staring out at the desolate landscape. Jimmy leaned in and lowered his voice, for Thom’s ears only. “Dr. B. could use a little bit of a charm offensive. I think we’re dealing with some shell shock.”

Thom frowned and glanced over at the figure sitting on the grass, who did indeed look bereft.

“What’s the matter?” Thom asked. “Our dentist didn’t like his room?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about it. Situation’s got everybody on tilt. He’ll settle in.” He continued. “We’ve had contact from nearly all the other contract hires, in one form or another. Dr. Rahman is ten minutes behind you, and the Friedmans and Ms. Hyland should be touching down at Provo as we speak. The others are in various phases of transit. All in all, everybody seems to have mobilized on the double.”

Thom nodded. Marques, he noticed, had gotten out of the car and joined them, overhearing that last part. Thom glanced at him, annoyed all over again, and looked back to Jimmy. “Please get our bags into the main house and show our guests to, let’s see, I’m thinking number nine. That sound good?”

“Sounds like a good plan today, sir, and that is the best kind of plan.” Jimmy turned to Marques. “I’ll be back in five”—for some reason he felt the need to hold up a gloved hand, fingers spread to denote the exact number of minutes he was talking about—“and will show you to your quarters.”

With that, he spun on his bootheel and headed for the gatehouse. Marques turned back to Thom, confused. “Exactly how many people are going to be living here?”

“Exactly as many as are necessary for the successful long-term functioning of a community. We have a dentist, an internist, two chefs, a trainer, two schoolteachers, a physical therapist, a yoga instructor, an agriculturalist, a spiritualist, and you, an airline pilot. They should all be here by dark. What can Beth do?”

“Sorry?”

“For a living, what does she do? Everybody has to contribute.”

“Oh, right. She’s a real estate broker.”

Thom stared at him for a long moment. “I’ll keep that in mind if we sell.” He turned and started walking toward the big house, gesturing to the entrance to the silo itself. “Jimmy will show you to your place. Ask him to see the gym, the movie theatre, the hydroponics, the works. He likes to give the tour. I think you’ll see you bet on the right pony.”

He walked away, up the hill, and Marques looked around. The scale of the place, the degree of planning and building, the armed militia guards, the imposing landscape—he’d known Thom was rich, and he thought he knew what that meant, but build-your-own-society rich? That had never occurred to him.

He walked up the short hill to where Beth and Kearie were playing. He smiled and circled his arm around Beth’s waist, pulling her in close.

She looked up, into his eyes, and spoke quietly. “How is it going?”

“It’s going how it’s going. It’ll be fine.”

“I’m sorry I got you into this,” she said.

“Don’t be. It was my idea.”

He kissed her. It was awkward, and she hadn’t been expecting it.

He pulled back, tucking her hair behind one ear. “I’m sorry. I won’t do that again. He was watching us, though.”

Beth looked over his shoulder and saw Thom, who was indeed eyeballing them. She turned back to Marques and smiled. “It’s OK.” She leaned up and pressed her lips into his, the feeling more familiar this time, and she minded less when she was the one initiating it. She made it good, counting to five in her mind, then pulled back and rested her forehead on his chest. “I have to admit, I was wondering about that. Like if you were going to—you know, expect anything.”

“It’s not like that. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“Thank you.”

He smiled. “Tell Kearie she’s gotta try to be more affectionate with me.”

“She’s kind of freaked out.”

“Who isn’t?”



Thom walked into the big aboveground house and looked around. The living room was stunning, with enormous, angled plate-glass windows that looked out on the stark badlands and snowcapped mountains in the distance. The place had been built all on one level, bedrooms radiating off the great room and kitchen like spokes on a wheel. Everything else was underground, starting with the playroom, family area, library, and gym, and eventually leading to the emergency exit tunnel. The tunnel opened onto the private elevator down into the main complex, where all other residents were housed in a series of stacked apartments ranging from eighteen hundred square feet for singles all the way up to the bunker penthouse, which was about twice as large. It was to there the family would retreat if and when things got rough. Until then, they’d live above ground, the lords of the manor, the only ones not confined to the lower depths.