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Flash: Bounty or Bother

Erin Penn

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“Argh!” Talsin yelled as he enter the slapwood and ceramic-crete house, kicking the stool by the door they normally used to remove their boots across the mudroom. “I hate that woman.”

“It’s okay boss, we’ll get her the next time,” said a member of his gang, coming in after him. Larrie always sucked up. “Kill her good.”

After securing the airlock, Maizee and Adman looked at each other before dropping their eyes, the woman in question had cost them a quarter million in rustling today after nearly four day’s work to get everything in place but killing women carried a steep price if anyone found out. Not a conversation they wanted to butt into, and with that quick look, they agreed to let Larrie calm the boss down, bless his bootlicker soul.

They dropped to the floor to remove their boots. Prairie kept a lot of critters in its mud, and everyone knew, no matter how stomping-mad they got, to not bring no dirt into the sleeping quarters. A single earbitter egg could wreck a day worse than a dove on her monthly.

Talsin righted the stool and sat, pulling off his deep treaded boots with his pleaky-leather gloves. “The bitch is worth more to us alive than dead.”

“Fine then, we get her and the bounty too!” Larrie smiled through his breather and scraggly beard. “Upgrade the pass-thru with that kind-of coin.”

“Nah, you don’t get it.”

Everyone slid the boots into the lower decon area, then dropped their hats, breathers, and gloves into the upper area before heading to the pass-thru. The unit was built to handle a family of four, meaning a grown man, woman and their gov-approved knee-biting offspring, so four sturdy bullmen didn’t fit none too well, but running it twice in a day-cycle strained the batteries and usually meant the air conditioning wouldn’t kick in until mid-day after the batteries got replenished from Prairie’s white star. Meanwhile the house would bake like a tin can, making it impossible to get a good day’s sleep. Upgrading the pass-thru, or at least the energy storage, would be as welcomed as the fall rains.

“We need her to keep running around.” The boss snapped the controls on and they all breathed deep as the green mist and gas filled the pass-thru chamber. Each in turn shook their pants and jacket as best they could in the tight quarters. The lights cycled purple, yellow, and red. Finally natural white, imitating Earth-light showed overhead at the end of twelve minutes. Ain’t no one talked during the double-handful of minutes as the sensors had broken from a leak during the spring rains and registered any sounds after the cycles started as distress and would stop and toss them back into the mudroom and ain’t no one wanted to fill their mouths and lungs with Scheele’s Green more than they had to.

The stripping room hamper in the center filled with denim, pleaky-leather chaps, flannel, and mint-thread shirts as the men undressed. Maizee tapped it to start the cleaning and infusion process once everyone was down to their BD suits. Prairie manners, and as rough riding as Talsin and his crew were, they abided by manners, said no one talked to each other, or really looked at each other while starkers.  The pass-thru shower could only handle one full-grown man at a time, but the final decon only took a quick rub to get the oil everywhere. Adman went through first as he had dinner chores. Bossman oiled down second, Maizee with the dishes, setup and washing, third. And finally Larrie, since tonight was his night off chores.

He came through, stroking the oil through his beard as best he could, envious of Maizee’s genes which kept his chin clean even after a week outside, to find the boss combing extra oil through his hair, shaping it. All of them needed time with razors and scissors after the past week outside except Maizee who braided his straight black hair like his ancestors did back on Earth and kept it under a skullcap while outside. The doves back in town loved playing with his waist length hair when they had extra coin to spend. After Larrie pulled on his houserobe, he asked, “Why do we need Silver around? We should just collect the bounty and let her be sent polar.”

“As annoying at that bitch is to me, she is three times as annoying to the sheriff and his kin. Equal rights for the doves and catalog women and all that.”

Larrie grunted.

Talsin tilted his head one side to the other in the mirror, checking out his pompadour. He switched to the pick and worked out the matting the breather had knotted into his goatee. “We just need to figure out how to keep her out of our business, while she does her business and distracts the sheriff from our business.”

(words 820; written 5/18/2024; first published 7/21/2024)

Geeking Science: Clean Water

Erin Penn

Image From the Internet Hive Mind

The order of human survival need is air, water, food … with shelter being mixed in depending on temperature, weather, and danger. I’ve created a little mnemonic for need to help me: three minutes air, three days water, three weeks food.

Just three days without water on a water planet, but the water available is mostly salt water. Fresh water is very limited. Only 2-3% of planetary water is freshwater, with half of that locked up in ice and snow and another chunk running underground accessible only through technology like wells. (Better Meets Reality) Then we need to limit that clean water total more by what humanity has contaminated. We need to clean our water cycle before that three-day window becomes too cloudy to see us through to healthy lives.

One of the places in need of cleanup is the ocean. For years humanity dumped trash into the rivers and ocean, and now we are paying the consequences. A lot of our trash floats – especially the plastics. And sun and time breaks it down on the surface of the ocean into microplastics. Why is the microplastics important? Needs One and Three mentioned above – air: ocean photosynthesis provides for 50% of the oxygen our planet needs for the planetary animal life to breathe (Conversation, The) and – food – 17% of our meat (Costello) and 2% of the calorie intake from all food sources (FAO). If the air (oxygen) goes away in the ocean, humans can continue to breathe on land just fine thanks to land plants, but all food sources in the oceans will go away.

And with microplastics being consumed by plants and animals in the ocean, those plastics are hitting our dinner plates now. Last year’s water bottle is this year’s tuna fish salad sandwich – yum!

We need to fix the mess we made in the oceans, in the rivers which run to the oceans (and provide ground water for humanity’s cities to drink), and in our streets – which wash into our storm water systems which dump into our rivers which run into our oceans. You remember my litter saga, something that I continue to participate in daily? Yeah, part of the reason I collect all the trash is to keep the bottles and plastic out of the storm water systems. My little part in keeping our water cycle clean.

(If you are not familiar with the difference between storm water systems and sewer systems, a good source is here: https://h2oc.org/blog/storm-drain-vs-sewer-whats-the-difference/ but the TL/DR version is sewer water is in a closed system from house to sewer plant, where the hazardous materials are reduced to “acceptable” levels, and a storm water system takes the rain water (and any containments it picks up in the lawns, streets, and parking lots) and dumps it into the nearest stream/water source to be carried to the ocean untreated. – sorry about this Rabbit Hole, but after working on the Soil and Water Board storm water is very dear to my heart.)

Humanity managed to clean up most of the air problems. Smog no longer is dissolving buildings with acid rain; people can travel through city streets without struggling for breath.

Next up on the Earth-cleaning list, water. That honey-do list includes the superfund sites, ground contamination, river cleanup, and ocean cleanup, especially the five ocean garbage patches. The Ocean Cleanup is working on both rivers and oceans. The initial thought was cleaning the oceans, but they quickly realized that if trash continued to run into the oceans, they were fighting a Sisyphus battle. Trash flowing from the rivers needed to stop too. Now the attack is two-prong: keep new trash from entering the ocean and removing the trash already in the ocean.

Water cleanup requires global assistance. The Ocean Cleanup thinks, with support, they can remove 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040.

I spent a couple hours exploring The Ocean Cleanup website, and I think, if they get the help they need, they might succeed. Won’t that be something?

Explore this project of humanity at its best (by way of the Dutch) here: https://theoceancleanup.com/

Remember the Earth is our home and we don’t have another. Sure we might-can “Geoform” other planets some day, but, guess what, we could practice for that by geo-forming where we are right now. If we can’t fix it, when we know most of the basics of this environmental system, then why do we think we will do better with a blank slate.

Ah, that is it – we are comparing planetary environmental systems to a painted picture where a blank slate is easier to deal with than an penciled and inked piece by someone else. But that is a very poor comparison, better would be we are dealing with a running engine. Starting from a “blank slate” for an engine means we have to create all the parts, then assemble them, while each part is moving. Using our own Earth to practice on, troubleshooting an engine that we know the sound of … that is much easier. At this time, there is no Planet B.

We are better off Geeking the Science to keep this one humming along a little longer. Let’s get this “water hose” fixed in our planetary engine.

Biography

Better Meets Reality. “How Much Water is There on Earth? (Ocean, Fresh & Drinkable Water.” 18 August 2018, last updated 27 July 2022. – last viewed 11/10/2023)

Costello, Chrisopher, etal. “The future of food from the sea.” Nature. 19 August 2020. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2616-y – last viewed 11/10/2023)

The Conversation. “Humans will always have oxygen to breathe, but we can’t say the same for ocean life.” 12 August 2021. (https://theconversation.com/humans-will-always-have-oxygen-to-breathe-but-we-cant-say-the-same-for-ocean-life-165148 – last viewed 11/10/2023)

FAO.org. “Food from the Oceans.” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2017. – last viewed 11/10/2023)

The Ocean Cleanup. “The Largest Cleanup in History.” (https://theoceancleanup.com/ – last viewed 11/10/2023)

H2OC Stormwater Program. “Storm Drain vs. Sewer: What’s the Difference?” 30 September 2020. (https://h2oc.org/blog/storm-drain-vs-sewer-whats-the-difference/ – last viewed 11/10/2023)

Book Review (SERIES): The Murderbot Diaries

Erin Penn

My book club introduced me to The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Her website indicates she is a NYT bestselling author, and believe me, she deserves it.

An example – after reading All Systems Red, my book club talked about it, as one does with book clubs, and half of us (I think there were eight in attendance that night) assigned the “she” pronoun to the main character – the self-named Murderbot and the other half referred to the Murderbot with the “he” pronoun set. The result made me go looking during the meeting, because my editing brain went a little bonkers – how could anyone, let alone a bunch of women and man (singular) I respect as excellent readers, get the pronouns wrong?

Um, Murderbot never uses a gendered pronoun to refer to themselves. And everyone else refers to the SecUnit cyborg as an “it.” Sooooo. There is that. Takes some serious writing skill to have a main character without a gender AND HAVE NO ONE NOTICE THAT NO GENDER IS INDICATED. I mean, that is some mad skills. The book club conversation then turned to WHY did each person decide the gender was male or female. That told us more about ourselves, our assumptions, and our reading habits than about the book, but was very interesting.

The whole series is well-written, with amazing worldbuilding. I consistently give it five stars on Goodreads as well as Amazon and BookBud.

Bonus: Autistic-coded; asexual; non-gender being.

The Murderbot Diaries series

  1. All Systems Red
  2. Artificial Condition
  3. Rogue Protocol
  4. Exit Strategy
  5. Network Effect
  6. Fugitive Telemetry (A Novella flashback)
  7. System Collapse – Immediately follows Network Effect and the first book that does not work as a stand alone. You must read #5 first.

extra short story: Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory: A Tor.com Original Murderbot Diaries Short Story. (Link leads to the free on-line short story printed at tor.com – April 19, 2021) Set before Fugitive Telemetry

extra short short: Compulsory – appeared in Wired Magazine, January 2019, set before All Systems Red (NOT REVIEWED)

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for ALL SYSTEMS RED

A New York Times and USA Today Bestseller; Winner: 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella; Winner: 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novella; Winner: 2018 Alex Award; Winner: 2018 Locus Award; One of the Verge’s Best Books of 2017

A murderous android discovers itself in All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

MY REVIEW for ALL SYSTEMS RED

A wonderful novella about Murderbot (self-named), an android contracted to protect a group of scientists investigating a world for possible purchase for resources and colonization. His group is one of two on the planet. Typical of most corporation-lowest-bidder situations, things break, … a lot of things break at inopportune times. Except, is this job just typical breakage?

Murderbot usually doesn’t care. He is just a contracted construct – self-aware, sure, but who has time to go become a murderous robot or obedient automaton when the entertainment channel is so good? But if his present humans all die, he will get investigated and might get cut off from his soaps.

A fun romp.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for ARTIFICIAL CONDITION

It has a dark past—one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…

MY REVIEW for ARTIFICIAL CONDITION

Another fun quick entry in the Murderbot Diaries. Finally free-free, Murderbot decides to investigate one of the black holes of his memory wipes.

The first book is a teenager getting cranky about being pulled away from his media entertainment. But also discovering not every family is dysfunctional. The second is his first time away from home / supervision. Basically Murderbot is learning about adulting. He has to figure out how to make friends (ART) – BTW ART is a great first friend who is both vastly better at some things and not-so-much at others – they make a good mix. Get to places instead of his owners/renters taking him there. Have a job because he wants/needs it instead of just chores & duties. And discovering even when adults get answers to their questions, they aren’t always satisfying.

A good second part of a coming-of-age series. I think that is the theme of the series – watching Murderbot going for teenage sentience-awareness to an adulter-adult.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for ROGUE PROTOCOL

Starring a human-like android who keeps getting sucked back into adventure after adventure, though it just wants to be left alone, away from humanity and small talk.

Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas?

Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah’s SecUnit is.

And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

MY REVIEW for ROGUE PROTOCOL

At the end of book 2, Murderbot left the site of their defining birth and chosen name by making friends with a Transport a LOT dumber than ART. (Which is practically every bot in existence, and I pretty sure Murderbot will like never to meet anything SMARTER than ART.)

(Oh, by the way, my book club finished their discussion of Murderbot #1 and I was referring to Murderbot as “he” and someone else a “she” – so that ended up part of the discussion … and then I had to go looking. Ms. Wells has done an INCREDIBLE job of keeping the android gender neutral. Not once is gender stated or implied in books one or two. Ms. Wells has done this TIGHT.)

Anyway, onto book 3. The Transport out roped Murderbot into being a security consultant again – keeping a bunch of tense people in line. Reading the internal commentary of the android is worth the price of admission. Murderbot has no patience with bickering beings cutting into their screen time.

Once they escape that nightmare of social interaction (for a shy, introverted killing machine) upon arrival at a spaceport, Murderbot goes on to investigate another site of where GrayCris may have done things out-of-line, even by corporate standards.

They follow some humans to what should have been a terraforming station, using them to gain access to the remote platform. GrayCris has been a bad boi, and the corporation doesn’t want to leave any evidence behind. Can Murderbot do what it does second best and save the people?

A fun novella that keeps you guessing.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for EXIT STRATEGY

Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever showed it respect must be a system glitch, right?

Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.

But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?

And what will become of it when it’s caught?

MY REVIEW for EXIT STRATEGY

The fourth novella installment of the Murderbot Diaries has our favorite entertainment-feed loving android discovering GrayCris has kidnapped the doctor who had freed it.

There are certain things one should not do – Most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well known is don’t mess with Murderbot’s humans. (Well, okay, this is completely unknown at this time … but boy-o-boy is it one of the certain things corporations should NOT do).

While Murderbot is not happy about going into the heart of corporation territory, the corporations will be even less happy unless them give it back its human.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for NETWORK EFFECT

You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you’re a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you’re Murderbot.

Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you’ll read this century.
—
I’m usually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are.

When Murderbot’s human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.

MY REVIEW for NETWORK EFFECT

Fifth installment of the Murderbot diaries is a full novel, giving time for a complex story to develop. ART returns, and he continues to live up to the name our favorite entertainment-feed-addicted android gave him – stealing some of Murderbots favorite people.

A story unfolds of old colony tragedy, overly optimistic second attempts, and cooperate greed. Murderbot has to fight on a variety of platforms while unearthing what mistakes humans had committed yet again. Action packed fun ensues.

Oh, and Murderbot and ART may have made a baby.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for FUGITIVE TELEMETRY

Having captured the hearts of readers across the globe (Annalee Newitz says it’s “one of the most humane portraits of a nonhuman I’ve ever read”) Murderbot has also established Martha Wells as one of the great SF writers of today.

No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall.

When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!

Again!

MY REVIEW for FUGITIVE TELEMETRY

After the long novel (Network Effect), Fugitive Telemetry returns to the quick novella format of the other Murderbot Diaries. This time the mystery is an actual murder and our favorite entertainment-feed loving android has to work with human security instead of running rings around them.

The problem is the murderer seems to be able to run rings around Murderbot.

Is it a corporate villain, or something even worse?

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for SYSTEM COLLAPSE

Am I making it worse? I think I’m making it worse.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

Yeah, this plan is… not going to work.

MY REVIEW for SYSTEM COLLAPSE

Unlike most of this series, System Collapse (book 7) does NOT work as a stand-alone. You should at least read book 5 of the series, Network Effect. (Note book 6 – Fugitive Telemetry is a novella stand-alone flashback.) I read book 5 about 10 months ago and struggled.

That said, another excellent addition to the Murderbot series. Our snarky hero continues to grow in maturity, basically teenage level now with pouts and shutdown and continue struggles with “why are supposedly emotionally mature sentients like this?” It has taken over observing and assisting with the emotional growth of those who are “younger” than it. I adore watching the SecUnit change over time and take on new skills outside of being a construct built to Secure & Protect.

The specific story for this one mixes politics and exploration, at least for Murderbot’s humans. It has to keep them safe while they do unsafe things.

If you are unsure about whether this series is a good fit for you, check out the bookquotes.

Checked out through the local library. Support Libraries!

***
So one of the other reviewers say that Murderbot now reads as a teenager and that was bad.
I think it is great. It shows maturity. I would place it about 13 or 14 – still respecting some adults it has grown to trust, liking people for their own sake, growing its personal circle of friends, but also melting down and needing prodding because the brain is just … braining.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for HOME (SHORT STORY)

“Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory” is a short story set in the world of Martha Well’s Murderbot Diaries. This story was originally given free to readers who pre-ordered Network Effect, the fifth entry in the series. The events of “Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory” occur just after the fourth novella, Exit Strategy.

MY REVIEW for HOME (SHORT STORY)

More a vignette or character exploration than a short story, Home is told from Mensah’s POV between stories 4 and 5.

Very little new information is brought to the table – you don’t need to read this. But I do like discovering how Murderbot and Mensah interact, tease, and support each other from the human standpoint.

Flash: Exhibit

Erin Penn

Photo by Oliver Sherwin on Unsplash

“Seok, just the man I’ve been looking for.”

I turn to find someone my size standing too close, but not unexpediently close in the crush of people at the exhibit opening. I just have a larger space than my Korean heritage would indicate around Americans, especially Americans with an open bar. “How can I help you?”

“You shack up with the artist, Xanadu, right?” The man extended a hand to me, “Eric.”

“We are flatmates.” I use the European term for roommates since Americans add sexual connotations to nearly everything they absorb into their culture including words. Bracing myself, I take his hand. Years working in political circles keep my politeness front and center when all I want to do is walk away. He pumps my hand like he is trying to find oil, and also applies more pressure than needed. A slight twist relieved the excess pressure on my hand.

“That is one way to call it, am I right?”

He nudged me. Actually nudged me.

“Anyway, I was wondering are they a girl or a boy?”

“Excuse me.” I drop the inflections I usually add to keep my accent minimal.

“You know, are they a spoon or a fork?” They supplied hand motions with the hand not holding a tumbler filled with brown liquid.

“I wouldn’t know. If you would excuse me.” I tried to move away.

Eric stepped closer. “Don’t be like that, do you know who I am?”

A breath escaped when I couldn’t. “Enlighten me.”

“Eric Kingster. My dad is Michael Kingster, one of the Manyard partners.” He leaned in and the stink on his breath indicated he hadn’t been drinking only the free champagne. “Now, I swing both ways. I just want to know to get my approach right. You guys are both artists so you got to have an open relationship, so … open up.”

“Mr. Kingster. Our relationship does not work that way, but Xanadu Georgladis and I do have an agreement not to allow people within our residence without the approval of the other.” I smiled like my mother taught me. “Let me assure you, that should such approval be requested I will immediately respond with dissent in your case.”

“Thanks, …” The too-handsome face froze and then scrunched ugly. “…wait.”

“Oh, Georgio is waving at me. Someone must be interested in one of my pieces.” Moving away while Eric worked out if I insulted him, which I hadn’t unless the man took ‘no’ as an insult, (I believe he was the type who would), I eased toward the gallery branch set aside for some of my pictures from May this year. My special American had insisted I get room for at least three photos in her exhibit, and once Georgio had seen my work he gave me room for fifteen. The man liked to make money, so I was flattered to know he thought my pictures could make money in art circles as well as in journalism. The added advantage as far as he was concern, my absorbing some of the gallery’s space meant Xanadu could show that much sooner, not needing to make as many things.

He wasn’t waving, of course. The art salesman would never need me. All of my pictures were fixed prices; they either sold or they didn’t. And Georgio assured me they would all sell before the end of the night. Or, more accurately, tomorrow after all the assistants showed up with their boss’ money.

On the other hand, Xanadu’s stained-glass piece contract fell through, with Georgio pocketing the earnest money after the investor had a bad week speculating, so that was back out for bid. Before the party opened, the bidding war had already doubled what the original contract had been.

“Nice turnout,” said someone behind me.

Not again. As I turned, I realized the person was talking in Korean. And I recognized the voice. “Brother!” I responded in the same language. “You were able to make it.” In his case, the close press in the crowd felt perfect. In his hand was the same mostly-filled glass of champagne matching my own levels. One doesn’t drink and work.

“Father sends his apologies. Something came up, but he did want you to know you have the full family support.”

“I appreciate that. And so does Xanadu.” I twitched my lips just enough to indicate full amusement. “As does our agent. He was surprised at the list of people we expected him to invite tonight, and I believe a bit shocked at how many accepted.”

“Anything for your American.”

I nod accepting the promise. The family had said the same thing when the middle brother had brought home Talora from his time in the mid-East. Seong-Min married traditionally, as expected of the eldest, granting the rest of us, especially me as the youngest, a lot of freedom. “While I have you, I was wondering if you could check something for me. I may have made a misstep.”

“Ji-ho, I doubt that my tiger brother. But how can I help?”

I pointed out the man I had escaped from, using less than flattering terms but still within the polite realm. Basically a native speaker would know how badly I thought of Eric Kingster’s character but a second generation would be unsure. I gave my oldest brother his name and relation to Xanadu’s present main source of income. Seong-Min pulled his phone out of his pocket and took a picture and sent a text to someone. Likely father’s and his assistant back at the embassy.

“You managed to bring a phone in,” I said while we waited, “I thought they were collecting all of those by the door.”

“Diplomatic immunity let me keep the phone. And being on the short list for Xanadu’s special friends and family prevented them from turning me away on principle.” My brother’s eyes twinkled; he loved it when he could use politeness against his political opponents. And everyone who wasn’t family, and a few who were, were political opponents. “Ah, so the man in question does indeed have the relationship he is claiming. He forgot to mention he is a child by the second wife. The first wife had money and her prenuptial set up for her children to get everything even if her husband remarry after death or divorce. Second and third wife, and the present mistress, and their children may get up to the gift tax limits thanks to a special rider added after the second wife had this gentleman.”

“That isn’t enough funds to get in the door, even with the Manyard association.”

“Ah, but he works for his father as an executive and usually gets sent to functions where alcohol is available but little in the way of business deals. His younger brothers by wife number three likely will get similar jobs once they are through high school. And all of them will be cut off and kicked out once the first wife and eldest brother has full control of the family purse strings.”

“Saying no to him likely will have little impact on the contract Xanadu has.”

“According to the profile, he has no say in family business matters at all. And the few times he tried to throw his weight around at a stockholder meeting, everyone went with the opposite option.”

I tip my flute toward my brother in a toast. “That was very fast and skillful work by Kuk.”

“We are in trade negations with the Manyard Associates.”

“Ah. I thank you for letting me benefit from your information.”

Seong-Min tapped a few quick lines to send off before turning off his phone and returning it to his pocket. “Now, my turn for a request.”

“My eldest brother, I am at your disposal.”

“Grandmother would like a visit.”

Since I started college, the matriarch’s health kept her limited to the family’s holdings in South Korea, not that she traveled much before then. “My visa doesn’t allow travel outside of school.”

“Your visa expired four days ago,” my brother said dryly.

I stood stiffly, my drink sloshing the sides of the glass. I had been so caught up in graduating, in job hunting and finding a living arrangement, in getting the exhibit opened. The last month and a half had been completely crazy. And before then I was escaping … I pulled my brain back from what happened in May. The pictures in the gallery were a sanitized, curated version of reality. I would need to share details with father at some point soon; dead bodies can circle back unexpectedly.

“We took care of it,” he assured me after he let the panic hang a moment.

What is family for if not to create emotional scars? I guess also to prevent similar scars from being inflicted by anyone else.

He touched the champagne flute to his lips before continuing. “A carrier from the embassy will deliver the paperwork to you on Sunday.”

“Thank you.”

“And Grandmother?”

“I…I just started a new job last week, I can’t—”

“Quit it. We will get you better.”

I bite back the growl in the back of my throat. I had worked years getting a job in international journalism on my own. “Of course, thank you.”

“Father said to pick up one of your pieces while I am here to display in his outer office, which would you recommend.”

I run the fifteen on display through my head, and drop the ones which have already sold. None of them would work. Embassies are about aid, succor, and politics, not revealing truth and uncovering the dark corners. “Let me arrange for one.”

“Father wished to buy one.”

“I have kept a few personal ones back. I would prefer my family and my nation have something worthy of their contemplation. Please.” Stepping back, I let a woman walk between us. “It will be ready for the carrier when they arrive Sunday.” It would take a miracle to get out of bed before noon tomorrow, but I would find a way and get it done.

“There you are,” said a voice behind me.

Not again, this time the words were French. I turn to find Georgio in his green velvet jacket behind me. I switch to French since they both were fluent in the language. “Ah, Georgio, may I introduce my brother, Ambassador Seok’s personal assistant? Mr. Seok, this is my agent, Georgio.”

“Yes, yes, wonderful to have you here,” the agent nodded to my brother. “Come with me, someone wants to buy everything.”

“Everything?” I stumbled behind him.

“Yes, they are training an AI for creating disaster scenes in movies and want all your before and after shots. They don’t require exclusivity like the displays, but they are offering $10 per picture no matter how grainy just so long as they have all the data and $100 for shots of structures, up to $1 million and I think we can get that to $2 million. You said you had tens of thousands of shots, right?”

Well, this conversation would be unpleasant for everyone. For a moment, I imagine what I could do with a quarter million dollars, the amount leftover after agent fees and taxes between here and Korea. Then I lit the check on fire in my mind and watched it blow away in ashes.

(1,893 words, first published 7/14/2024)

Capturing the Tiger and Dragon Series

  1. X is for Xenophile (4/28/2024)
  2. X is for Xylotomous (5/19/2024)
  3. X is for Xanthic (6/9/2024)
  4. Exhibit (7/14/24)
  5. Exit Strategy (9/1/2024)