Free ROMULUS (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 1) by Marilyn Campbell Page B

in particular, she was decades older.
    In spite of or because of their differences, they became friends the first day they met at The Mackenzie Foundation in San Francisco. Aster's grandmother had set up the organization as an endowment fund to keep her money circulating. Cherry had just been hired there as a receptionist when Aster started as a prospectus analyst. At that time Aster's job was to review applications for grants and determine whether the agency or individual was worthy of receiving funds for their project. Now, ten years later, she was the director of the board of trustees and Cherry was her unorthodox, but efficient, executive assistant.
    Her stomach clenched at the thought of what would happen to the foundation now. Aster had never gotten around to writing a will after her grandmother's death, nor had she left proxy instructions for her vote in the event of her absence. She had had no intention of ever being absent. She had battled to turn the foundation away from advancing technology and certain private interests and toward environmental and humanitarian concerns. Now, without her presence, her opponents on the board had a better than fifty percent chance of swinging it back again. There had to be something she could do to prevent that from happening.
    When she returned to her cot, Aster reopened the notebook. The words on the inside front cover jumped out at her—"Compiled by Romulus Locke". Her heart did a little double step. She wished it would quit doing that. At least now she knew Romulus was his first name.
    The first page was an itinerary covering the next several days, but Karl had apparently changed the schedule. She wondered how long they would be kept here.
    A quick read through the Clothing section did not answer her question about the different colored uniforms. So Aster went to the bookshelf Cherry had mentioned and found a manual entitled Clothing. It was well-organized, like the notebook and it was easy to verify her assumptions. Turquoise denoted a caretaker, gray was assigned to low-level functionaries and dark green was reserved for top administrative positions. There was no category for dark blue. Oona had indeed made up a uniform to match Aster's eye color.
    She started to close the book when the same four words on the inside cover caught her attention. Aster returned the book to the shelf and opened the covers on several more. The name Romulus Locke shouted at her from the pages. Obviously, Outerworlders were his personal domain. That had to be the reason he had observed her so closely. Some sparks! In his eyes, she was just a specimen or more likely, as Karl had suggested, a lower life form.
    Aster shoved the books back on the shelf and returned to the bed. Her eyes closed but her mind would not go to sleep. She was tired and irritable and she was angry with Cherry for talking her into the cruise and angry with herself for accepting the invitation.
    Cherry had decided it was her duty to break Aster's mundane routine of working, eating and sleeping. The little nag had fretted about her being a workaholic, had harassed her about being devoted to a dead man and had threatened her with the dangers of celibacy. Aster had declined every social invitation Cherry had issued. Recently, Cherry had gotten desperate enough to resort to deceit and trickery by setting Aster up with several coincidental meetings with nice, eligible men.
    To put an end to Cherry's good-intentioned harassment, Aster had finally agreed to go along on the Feinsteins' four-day fishing trip. She had even tolerated the flight from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale. Between battling her own fear of flying and tolerating Cherry's garrulous companion, Harold, Aster had started regretting her decision before they ever boarded the ill-fated yacht.
    How ironic that she had made Cherry swear that the long, quiet weekend was not another elaborate ploy to introduce her to yet another perfect playmate. Aster had thought being stuck on