Drought Read Free Page A

Out of the windows she enjoyed a view of orange-tiled rooftops and gleaming new office buildings and scaffolding and tower cranes, and the distant San Bernardino mountains, hazy and wavering in the afternoon heat, like mountains seen in a dream.
    â€˜Ah, Martin!’ Arlene shrilled at him. ‘At last! Didn’t you get my text?’
    â€˜
Text
?’ Martin blinked at her.
    Arlene was short and bulky, with close-cropped gingery-brown hair and an oddly cherubic face for a fifty-five-year-old woman, with bright blue eyes and a bulbous nose. She was wearing a mustard-colored nylon blouse and a gingery-brown pleated skirt which matched her hair, and a necklace of shiny green beads which looked like olives.
    â€˜Well, anyhow. You’re here now. This is Saskia Vane, from the water department, and her associate—’
    â€˜Lem Kunicki,’ said a pale, thirtyish man sitting in the corner. In his pale lemon polo shirt and pale gray linen pants he was almost invisible, like a chameleon. He even had bulging eyes like a chameleon.
    Saskia Vane, however, was far from invisible. She was sitting cross-legged beside Arlene’s desk, dressed in a scarlet suit with a short matador jacket and a very short skirt, and high-heeled Louboutin shoes with bright red soles. Her hair was black and glossy and cut in a severe geometric bob, which emphasized the sharp angles of her cheekbones and her slanting, catlike eyes. She had full, pouting lips, which had been glossed in scarlet to match her suit. Underneath her jacket she was wearing a black scoop-neck T-shirt which revealed a deep suntanned cleavage. Between her breasts dangled a necklace which looked like a shark’s tooth set in gold.
    She raised her hand toward Martin in an undulating motion, as if she were trying to demonstrate to him how dolphin swim. He took it, and briefly shook it, and smiled at her. She didn’t take her eyes off him as he pulled up a chair and sat next to her, but she didn’t smile back. She was wearing a strong jasmine perfume with musky undertones, the sort of perfume a woman wears to mask the smell of recent sex.
    Martin said, ‘So, Ms Vane, you’re from the water department? That’s a lucky coincidence. You’re just the person I wanted to talk to.’
    â€˜Please, Martin, call me Saskia. And I don’t actually represent the water department itself. I’m a member of a special emergency team which Governor Smiley has put together. Our brief is to advise local government officers on how to deal with the ongoing drought situation.’
    â€˜Oh! In that case, I think you’re
exactly
the person I want to talk to. My wife just called me from Fullerton Drive to say that her water’s been cut off. And this morning, when I was dealing with a case on East Julia Street, there was no water supply there, either. So what gives?’
    Saskia gave him one of those queasy smiles that politicians give when faced with a question they don’t really want to answer. ‘I’m afraid I’m not personally familiar with those particular locations, Martin, so I couldn’t possibly give you a specific response to that. But I can answer you in more general terms.’
    Martin glanced across at Arlene but Arlene simply nodded toward Saskia as if she were telling him to let her have her say, because this was critical.
    Saskia said, ‘The reason I’ve come here today to talk to you is because we’re faced with having to consider rotational hiatuses in service.’
    â€˜Excuse me? “Rotational hiatuses”? That sounds like some kind of skin complaint.’
    Saskia kept on smiling that slightly nauseated smile. ‘Let me tell you this, Martin. Water reserves nationwide are lower than they have been in almost fifty years.’
    â€˜Sure, I know that. But I can’t see
this
city running dry, can you? We’re sitting right on top of more underground water than we know what to