The Sand Men Read Online Free PDF Page B

attempting is unprecedented. It’s kind of like terraforming a new planet. You saw Star Trek , Cara, right?’
    Cara had overfilled her mouth with chicken, and didn’t respond. She looked past Davenport to the horizon. The PR officer was clearly thrilled to be part of such a project, and was seized by the excitement of rising to the challenge. But they were doing the manual labour, those hordes of stripped brown figures out there in the sun. They were carrying out the really punishing work with drills and jackhammers, like slaves building pyramids.
    Davenport finished describing the technicalities of geothermal cooling structures, then sensed that he should change the subject. ‘Have you met many of the other residents yet?’ he asked Lea.
    ‘We haven’t seen a soul, except at the school.’
    ‘Ah—you’re enrolled at Albion, aren’t you? How was your induction day?’
    ‘Okay,’ said Cara. The Albion was attended by nearly four hundred English-speaking pupils from all over the world. The place was as quiet and orderly as a private hospital. Some of the other kids had led interesting lives in different countries, unlike Cara’s classmates back in Chiswick, who had only ever gone to Provence and the Algarve with their parents, or had stayed shut in their bedrooms on spliffs and Playstations.
    ‘We work late during the week,’ Davenport warned. ‘Hopefully Milo will come to the residents’ party. He’s on the welcoming committee. He lives just across the road from you. He’s a real character, the last of the original architects.’
    ‘I think I’ve seen him at the window,’ said Lea, recalling the glowering old man who watched her unapologetically when she went to the carport on their first day.
    ‘Milo doesn’t like the heat so you won’t see him outside much.’ Davenport dabbed at his mouth with a linen napkin, then pushed back his chair. ‘I must get on. I know it must seem strange to you, Mrs Brook. But most of our regular staff do this for a living.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘They go from one construction project to the next in different countries on two-to-five year contracts. I came here from Cambodia, and before that, Korea. But I gather you’ve always been in London. This is an odd place at first, not quite Arabic, not quite Western.’
    ‘So how would you describe it?’ Lea asked.
    ‘International. The way all cities will be one day.’
    ‘But it’s not, is it?’ said Cara. ‘The Arabs are at home, the Europeans are in offices and the Indians are out there in the sun. How can it be truly international if they don’t socialise with each other?’
    Lea looked at her daughter in surprise. It was unlike her to ask a virtual stranger such a question.
    ‘Oh, that’ll come in time, I’m sure,’ said Davenport good-naturedly. ‘It’s a balancing act, and has to be recalibrated all the time. Rome wasn’t built in a day. I’m sure you’ll get to like the life here. We’re a testing ground for the future. And who doesn’t want to be part of the future, eh?’ He glanced over at Roy. ‘You must excuse me, I’ve got the senior directors’ team coming in for an update.’
    ‘Well, he seems happy in his work,’ said Lea, watching Davenport stride out of the canteen.
    ‘Why shouldn’t he be?’ asked Roy defensively. ‘It’s one of the most advanced construction projects in the world.’
    ‘You think it’s sustainable? I mean, something like this relies on continuous growth. Look what happened after 9/11. Tourists stopped visiting Muslim territories overnight. Most of those places were perfectly safe. The locals abandoned their traditional skills to cater to tourism and ended up suffering. Whole towns were obliterated. It could happen again if the global downturn deepens.’
    ‘The credit crunch doesn’t affect the super-rich half as much as it affects us,’ said Roy. ‘There are over seven billion people on the planet, Lea. Do you think some of those will be wealthy