young, when a woman had lowered her camera and pointed at the forest and told her she could save it all. Suyana hadnât believed it even then, but it was something to fight for, and that had been enough.
âLet me know when we need to move,â sheâd said. âIâll work on Ethan. Weâll get over there. Then Iâll meet whoever I need to meet. No other promises.â
Columbina grinned. âAfter your premiere, then. Weâll talk about Sotalia. See you soon.â
After she was gone, Suyana stood a long time just at the edge of the stalls under the shade of a tree, where no one could tell what she was looking at. Daniel was across the street. He had looked very carefully at Suyana all the time Columbina was leaving, like he was trying to make sure Columbina wouldnât register to anyone checking the feed. Some girl had excused herself to walk past Danielâs mark, and that was all.
When Magnus came to pick her up, sheâd been sitting on a bench, looking at the dot of green the park made among the towers of cement.
âDidnât you buy anything?â Magnus asked as he opened the door for her, an edge in his voice.
She didnât look for Daniel then; if he was worrying for her, it wouldnât do her any good.
âNothingâs worth it,â she said.
ÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ Ã
She left the white jacket in the car. Her earringsâsilver, purchased in Limaâbrushed her shoulders, and as they walked from the car up the dirt path to the facility, her heels sank a little into the ground with every step.
It was ridiculous, but it worked enough as cover; grumbling about the soil gave her the chance to lean close to Ethanâs side for a moment, so he couldnât see herlooking around like there was some better path, so she could mark where the perimeter cameras were and see where the brush was deepest around them.
The canopy rose up behind the squat, bulging facility like it was trying to wave her over; the tops of the trees were swaying slightly from monkeys or the wind, and there were so many insects on the trunks that out of the corner of your eye it looked like the forest was breathing.
It was just as sheâd remembered it, a long time ago.
âHowâd they get this place so deep into the jungle?â Ethan wondered, frowning at the pile of lumber beside the facility (made of the interlocking-pod system ecologists usually used on uneven terrain, lumps of unrisen bread dough three stories high).
âThe lumber roads were probably already here,â she said. âOr the path for the gas pipeline.â
Ethan glanced at her sidelong, just keenly enough to worry her, and she bristled and shrugged and said, âWhat? Magnus tells me the news!â as if she was offended and not terrified, and he cracked a smile a second too late.
Their guides were waiting just inside the doors. He was a politician, you could tell from a hundred feet, and she was an administrator in the genetics division who looked like she hated them being there and was afraid of saying something she shouldnât. The photographer, who had a site pass but nonational badge, took four or five pictures that wouldnât come close to print quality and then vanished into the open hatch between two pods.
As they went inside, Suyana messaged Magnus: Are you trying to get here?
Both of the guides were very helpful and very enthusiastic, and talked at great length about their plans for seed preservation, and steered Suyana and Ethan away from any of the pods where people were working and any meeting room that had a whiteboard in it. Windows opened onto the forest everywhere you looked. In three directions it felt like the green had walked up and pressed its face against the glass, the plants were so crowded. In the fourth, the mud flat sat outside the window like an accusation.
âSo, uh, you guys piggyback this location off the