AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know, but I have news for you. I’ve been keeping this under wraps for a while, but since we’re closer to finishing the reactor, I figured it’s fine to talk about it. Just don’t tell anyone but the managers. Workers tend to run their mouths in places they’re not supposed to.”
Ivan nods. “I don’t discuss our conversations with anyone.”
“I figured,” I reply, sitting down in one of the plastic chairs at the control station and motioning for Ivan to join me.
He remains standing, gripping his tablet like it’s a child that might jump from his arms at any moment.
I swivel my chair to face him. “I’ve taken a wife, the daughter of an American uranium tycoon,” I say.
I get another eyebrow raise from Ivan, but nothing more.
“We will be wed on Saturday, and then I will be bringing her here to show her around. I want to make sure that everything is in good shape and suitable for a woman of her class,” I explain.
He nods along.
“And once she has seen the settlement and understands its purpose, the next phase of my plan will be underway. I will obtain the uranium mines in the United States and scrape what we need from their production. That way, we will not draw attention from ourselves by buying large amounts from black market dealers in Russia. We will be self-sustaining and capable of mining our diamond supply until we drown in money.”
I pause for a moment, allowing Ivan to take in the new information. I can see his mind working to process what I’ve just told him. Up until now, he’s believed that we would be turning on the nuclear power plant in a few years. Now, it’s looking more like a few months.
“I will not be able to complete the reactor until Spring,” he finally says.
I shrug. “That’s not an issue. We will be ramping up construction of the settlement in the meantime, bringing people and equipment on the submarine over the next few weeks.”
Ivan looks down at his tablet, taps it a few times, and then looks back up at me. “We will need to complete the underground rail system in order to get that much equipment to the settlement in such a short amount of time.”
“Don’t worry about that. I have already informed Antonov to speed things up.”
“Then all is as it should be,” he says, pressing a button on the top of his tablet and finally setting it down on a table beside the control panel. “Perhaps you are interested in joining me for lunch.”
I’m not a huge fan of the rehydrated rations they eat here, but anything is better than what I’ve been choking down on the submarine for the past two days. I’d love to have a hot meal and a cigar.
I follow Ivan to a large, empty room, a placeholder until there are more people here to warrant building an actual dining hall. We’ll have an entire cafeteria complete with cooks and dishwashers when business is in full swing, but until then, it’s crates for seats and dried up microwaved rations.
Ivan doesn’t seem the least bit bothered by this, though. He tears open a packed of instant soup and dumps it into a cup. He makes both of our food without asking, handing me my cup and a few nutritional crackers.
“Can I smoke in here?” I ask, looking around for ventilation. I can’t remember if we built this place for chimneys like me.
“Officially, no, but you’re the boss,” Ivan replies.
I light up a cigar, puffing on it a few times to get it going, then letting it rest in my mouth as I eat my soup and crackers. The taste of tobacco is almost strong enough to cover the weird onion flavor of the soup. The crackers taste like nothing, but they’d be difficult to eat without the soup.
“We’re going to make this place a lot nicer,” I say, looking around the empty room. “I figure there will be about five-hundred people working here when we begin, and that’s enough to have a mutiny on our hands if we don’t serve something better than this.”
I’m only partially joking. The soup is garbage, and this room looks worse than a prison dining hall. I spent enough time behind bars as a teenager to know what that’s like, and I don’t care to repeat the experience.
Ivan frowns, and I already know he sees nothing wrong with his current living arrangements. He might be a robot or an alien, but that’s why he’s so good at his job. The only thing he asks for is a paycheck and a bunk to catch a few hours of sleep in every night.
“We will have guards to keep the workers in check,” he says.
“Right, but we shouldn’t need to,” I clarify. “They’re not going to be locked in here like a prison.”
“It’s not a prison.”
“Likea prison. I know it’s not a prison, but it’s not exactly pleasant, is it?” I reply, trying to get through to him. I doubt it’s going to work.
Ivan shrugs, taking a bite of his cracker and swallowing it without water. Whatever he is, it’s not human. I think we’ve established that now.
I sigh. “Okay, anyway, we’re going to make some improvements around here before we bring in the engineers. They have higher standards.”
