After Mind Read Free Page A

the world in a plane. He held the clear screen up to the windshield as it registered their location. A photo journal from Tungatinah’s brochure appeared, which he flicked larger and read aloud:
    “‘After its third overhaul in seventy-five years, Tungatinah had a weathered dignity and resolve. Five penstocks dropped water nine hundred fifty feet from the head lagoon.’”
    He looked out his window and found the long pipes. They were orange.
    He continued: “‘The latest upgrade was a transition to superconducting coils and zero-resistance transmission lines that delivered a hundredfold benefit to life. The old clearances that were cut two hundred feet wide through centuries of conifers for the run of overhead power lines could now grow back to the welcome width of a family walking side-by-side on the grass. Once complete, the new buried run of conduit will have a hidden width of only six feet underground.’” He looked up from the screen. “Hey, Dad. They’re burying cables six feet under. What if they hit a few dead people?”
    “I don’t know. I guess a few of them would wake up with a shock,” Daniel said with a whistling haunt as he brought the Jeep to a halt in the Tungatinah lot.
    Cessini chuckled, got out, and stretched his legs. The metal transmission towers that crowded the paved lot were covered in rust. They looked far older than the brochure’s enticing photo. Robin hesitated and stayed in her seat, her fingers pinched over her brows.
    Cessini read on: “‘Three decades earlier, the mainland over the strait to the north was the largest net exporter of coal in the world. Then the people voted to have the greatest proportion of renewable energy per capita on a world-leading par with Norway and Iceland.’”
    Robin relented and came out of the car. Meg stood at her side on the curb.
    Cessini scrolled down to two bulleted highlights: “‘The islander’s first phase initiative was the superconductor upgrade to the heritage site of Tungatinah and also to her five sister plants in the lowland western catchment. The second phase was the upgrade of the remaining fifty hydroelectric power stations throughout the five remaining northern and eastern catchment generation systems.’” But the second bullet was best: “‘The target of the entire system was fifteen thousand gigawatts of clean, deliverable power to the whole of the greater island grid. Any excess would be routed to feed the new Basslink-B undersea power cable to the mainland.’”
    Cessini stopped reading as a man limped to greet them curbside. He figured it was the man his dad had called earlier about coming out to see the place, and he watched him.
    Gerald Aiden stepped with an oddly stiff-sided gait that punctuated his walk, ruined the drape of his uniform, and twitched his pile of under-eye wrinkles.
    The ScrollFlex snapped back into its windup capsule case.
    “I hear you’re the one with all the power around here,” Daniel said.
    “Good one,” Gerald Aiden said, his voice hoarse. He secured his cordial shake with a hand to Daniel’s shoulder. “Haven’t heard that one before.”
    Cessini held out his hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
    Gerald Aiden took it. “And you are?”
    “Cessini—spelled with a ‘C’ and ‘e’ so you say it like the water. Like sea. Not the astronomer. He’s a hard ‘C’ and ‘a’ as in Ka—Cassini, but I’m ‘Cee’ like the sea. Cessini.”
    “Okay, steady there, kiddo, you’re way too quick for me.” Aiden laughed and pivoted for another introduction. “Mrs. Madden?”
    “Blackwell,” Robin said. “I still go by Blackwell.”
    “Okay, then.” Aiden winked at Daniel. “Your problem, champ, not mine.”
    Meg offered a wave, but received no notice in return.
    “Well, all right, then,” Aiden said to Daniel, “shall we go have a look?”
    Meg stepped up, insistent and loud: “Why are the big pipes orange? Those ones coming down from the hill.”
    Aiden stopped. “Name of