Out Through the Attic Read Online Free PDF Page A

etched themselves into his consciousness. The uneven texture of the underside and glossy smoothness of the tops of each leaf were filed away. He sniffed each blossom, taking an inventory of each and comparing the slight variances between them. He nodded once, satisfied that the entirety of the plant was available to his memory, and then poured the remaining water into the rich soil. He set the glass on the desk, turned and walked up to the glass wall, standing close enough to the window for his breath to fog the surface.
    The wide, glowing ribbon of the Yukon River to the south was covered with an endless flotilla of traffic: barges and mobile homes mostly, with a massive, glittering flotsam of military and domicile ships looming over the rest. In all directions the air was filled with arteries of glowing repulsor traffic, and the heavens were split by a dotted, flowing ribbon of shuttle lift-offs and landings between Galena spaceport to the east and the cherry-sized glowing pinwheel of Omikami space station anchored in fixed orbit over Sapporo, Japan.
    The ceaseless, acid-etched glow of the northern hemisphere poured into his chamber, casting him in shifting patterns of orange-yellow brilliance almost as bright as the steady internal lighting had been. After only the briefest crisis of faith, he nodded to himself once, resolved to perform his duty as he had always done.
    “Emily, could you have the gardenia shipped to the botanical gardens in Vancouver?”
    “Of course.”
    “The Vancouver gardens are self-sustaining, aren’t they?” he asked. “Not climate controlled?”
    “That’s correct, Mathew. The climate in Vancouver will be ideal for gardenias for the foreseeable future.”
    “Do it tomorrow, please. Now, connect Adrienne Yudius.” Mathew walked over to the holoterm and settled himself easily into the repulsor field of the chair. As he sat down, a perfect holographic image of Adrienne Yudius hovered above the desk.
    “Stiggs?” Adrienne’s bare shoulders, un-powdered Euro-Asian features, and disheveled hair indicated he had disturbed her sleep. “It’s a bit late, isn’t it?” There was only the mildest irritation in her voice.
    “Something woke me up,” he said simply.
    “A dream ?” Her tone immediately changed to that of unadulterated enterprise. “Was it another blueprint, Stiggs?” she asked enthusiastically.
    “Adrienne, can you have a full lab set up in this building?”
    “It was a blueprint!” She grinned greedily. “What have you got for us this time, Stiggs?”
    Mathew cocked his head to the side and explored Adrienne’s seventy-year-old face, easily mistaken for a twenty-five-year-old woman. She had taken over the family business—a multi-quadrillion-dollar conglomerate—five years prior when her father retired to live on Europa. Her Machiavellian nature and inherent business savvy were well-suited to running the largest corporation on the planet (behind the Energy Simplex and the Transport Union, of course).
    For the first time he saw Adrienne for what she was: ambition incarnate. She was the personification of unilateral, unwavering drive towards profit in the absence of all other consideration.
    “Brainstorm, Adrienne. But this one will be a surprise. Can you have the lab set up?”
    “Consider it done,” she said crisply. Adrienne was as efficient as Mathew was brilliant. “Can you at least give me a clue about what it is?” she asked.
    “It will touch every human on Earth … and in space.”
    Adrienne didn’t notice that Mathew’s smile was just a little bit sad. She didn’t see that he wasn’t showing the normal enthusiasm he possessed in the aftermath of one of his dreams. All she saw was money.
    The only thing she seemed concerned with was the notion of a Mathew Stiggs blueprint touching every human on earth: a thirty-billion-strong captive market. And the colonies added another four billion.
    “Good night, Adrienne. I’m sorry to have woken