It was simply wonderful to wake up somewhere else than in her home in Seattle! She"d been cooped up in there for many weeks. Without electricity and later also without food, it had become to feel like one of those blood-soaked, haunted mansions in horror movies. The worst moment was when they had to kill the dogs. They"d all cried, and the Wailing Sisters went into outright hysterics. It was a day before they could bring themselves to start eating the dog meat, even though they had been close to starving for quite a while.

Standing at the window and admiring the sunlit view, Amanda raised her hand to turn on the signal and find out what was happening in the New World. But at the last moment she changed her mind, and scratched her neck instead. She knew that the moment she connected with the New World, she"d be faced with new problems, new difficulties, new worries. She didn"t need any of that. She"d come to Skykomish on an important mission; she needed to focus on it without extra distractions.

She dressed and pulled her towel and soap out of her backpack and left her room just as Sharon was leaving hers. Sharon was looking great; the dark circles under her eyes were gone. Skykomish was doing them both a world of good.

Jeffrey was in the kitchen, pondering something by the window with a big mug of coffee in his hand.

His breath smelled faintly of brandy when he told Sharon and Amanda he"d heated the water for the shower to give them a special treat.

Amanda insisted Sharon went first. Jeffrey invited her to help herself to a coffee, so she poured herself some from the jug and looked at him expectantly. After a while, he grinned and opened a cupboard and got out the brandy, and poured a slug into her coffee. It spelled well for the coming negotiations, and Amanda didn"t mind the fact her coffee was barely warm.

So was the shower; Sharon had used most of the hot water. Once again, Amanda didn"t mind. Jeffrey was indeed turning out to be a nice man, just as advertised by Sharon. Amanda still balked at cla.s.sifying him as a sweetie, though: that wig of his made it impossible.

She knew Sharon and Jeffrey had been talking about her the moment she returned to the kitchen. There was a guilty air around them, even though they"d rustled up a great breakfast in the meantime: scrambled eggs and real smoked bacon and genuine-to-G.o.d baked beans in tomato sauce. Baked beans were an item that had disappeared from all the stores in Seattle within a week of the catastrophe. Same applied to bacon and eggs.

"This is so good," Amanda said to Jeffrey, halfway through her meal. He smiled and said:

"Nice to hear. Anyway, I also heard something else. Sharon says you guys are running a colony in the New World."

"And?" said Amanda. She concealed her shock with a forkful of baked beans, and bit into her toast. Jeffrey said:

"Thing is, I"ve got one too."

Amanda and Sharon both stopped eating and looked at him. Jeffrey smiled at them and raised a hand to his head and said:

"Tda!"

He pulled the wig off his head and Amanda saw the blue glow among the bristle of his own hair. He"d implanted himself directly above his left ear. Most likely he did it himself, that was the favored placement when self-implanting with the kit in the right hand. Natural, and within easy reach.

Amanda could see from Sharon"s face that Jeffrey hadn"t told her anything about owning a colony. But she was going to grill Sharon all the same to find out what she"d been talking about with Jeffrey while Amanda took her shower. Maybe she"d have to smack her down a little, too. A lot depended on how things would turn out in the next few minutes. A lot rode on what she"d say next.

She took her time, chewing her food while looking Jeffrey in the eye. She swallowed, followed up with a couple of sips of coffee, and said:

"Well, in this case, I take it you"re interested in what I have in mind."

It was his turn to chew on something, and it wasn"t anything in his mouth. Eventually he said:

"And what do you have in mind?"

She told him. She knew she was speaking to a man who had ready access to supermarket supplies. She knew she was talking to a guy who turned intruding grizzlies into steak. She remembered she was dealing with someone who had a police cruiser parked in his front yard, had it parked there for a while. Jeffrey clearly was someone with good friends in the local police force. It wasn"t impossible that they were partners in his colonial scheme.

She knew that it would be an uphill battle to convince someone like that to join the Amazon Empire. His colony could well be both bigger and better developed than her own. But she wasn"t the Amazon leader in both worlds for nothing, and she gave it a d.a.m.ned good try.

She spoke to Jeffrey about the advantages of a single colony stretching all the way to the coast. A colony the size of many independent Old World countries, given the tenfold difference in scale. She reminded him that brand new, undiscovered lands lay in the New World"s Pacific ocean: access to the coast would let him have a crack at those! With any luck, they would dominate New World America"s northwestern coast. A hop, skip and jump from Asia. The possibilities were endless.

Jeffrey listened to her with a smile that she increasingly found condescending. So she lied and told him the Amazons were already coming his way: they"d founded a second settlement east of Seattle, and were preparing for a third. That knocked the smile off his face all right. It was fortunate he didn"t glance at Sharon, who had completely forgotten about her breakfast and was watching Amanda with eyes like saucers.

Jeffrey said:

"Everything you just said makes sense. I like to plan big, too. Why plan small when you can plan big, hey? But plans are plans. So let me ask you very plainly: what do I get out of this?"

"You get access to the coast."

"That"s very nice, but it still belongs to the realm of plans. What do I get out of this right away? And let me tell you, it has to be something I can"t get on my own."

Amanda smiled at him and put a forkful of eggs in her mouth, buying time. She looked at the table in front of her and had a sudden flash of inspiration.

She looked back at Jeffrey and said:

"You get salt."

"Salt?" repeated Jeffrey, and his tone told Amanda that she"d scored a hit.

"Salt. Lovely ocean salt of unparalleled taste."

Jeffrey was silent for a while. Then he said:

"You know, I"d best bring in my partners on this. The guys I"m running the colony with."

"How many, and who are they?"

"Just two. The sheriff and his deputy."

"That the sheriff"s car in front?"

"No, the deputy"s. He came by to wish us happy new year and stayed the night and next day, all that s.h.i.t came crashing down. Following that, one thing kinda led to another."

"Wow," Amanda said. She put down her fork, and added:

"I think it"s time you sat down, and told us how you came to be running a colony in the New World."

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