Read Online Perfectible Animals: A Post Apocalyptic Technothriller (EidoGenesis Book 1) by Thomas Norwood - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Thomas Norwood
Ads: Link
sugar-and-fat-loving taste buds, Sophie’s name flashed in the top-right corner of my visual overlay with a call sign next to it.
“Sophie,” I answered.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch. I was waiting to hear back from Rowen.”
“What did he say?”
“He’s overseas at the moment. They’re setting up a New Church in San Francisco. He’ll be back late next week and he can’t consider it until then.”
“That could be too late.”
“That’s the best I can do. Shall I set up a meeting?”
“Okay.”
“He usually only takes meetings at the gatherings. Will that be alright?”
“That’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“No reason. I’ll let you know.”
C HAPTER S EVEN
MY CAR HEADLIGHTS forged a tunnel in the night, illuminating tight knit cypress on either side of the driveway. A song that Sophie had put on my stereo was playing at full volume. The whining melancholy of the music, the dark clouds passing across the full moon behind the trees, and not knowing exactly what Sophie was getting me into made my heart accelerate and my mind alert as if I had just taken a mixture of amphetamines and hallucinogens and was waiting to find out what the effect would be: heaven or hell.
I had heard a lot about Rowen Boone and about the New Church “gatherings” but I had never expected to go to one. Rowen was one of the country’s wealthiest men, and his cult was one of the country’s most popular spiritual organizations. As science and technology failed them, people were turning again to religion for answers. Not that the New Church appeared to have too many religious doctrines – unless polyamorous, communal living could be called a religion. Dylan liked to call it a practical religion.
At the end of the driveway we came to a white gravel turning circle leading up to a heavily illuminated Italianate mansion. We stepped out of the car while a robot attendant transferred auto-park data to the car’s computer.
“Are you ready?” Sophie took my arm.
“I hope so.”
Sophie and I walked across to the house together. Others were arriving at the same time, and we joined the throngs going up the stone stairs to the main entrance where a wooden door stood wide.
Inside, pillars in the foyer led up to a double-story cupola. A stone fountain contained a bowl held high by a sculpture of a naked couple.
“That’s mine.” Sophie pointed towards the sculpture.
“It’s beautiful.” I admired the ring of intertwined bodies at its base, all finely detailed.
Underwater lamps threw rippling light across the walls. Jazz music floated into the room like a flock of butterflies, notes dipping, seemingly randomly, this way then that, almost colliding, stalling, holding, continuing on again in new displays of virtuosity.
An archway on one side led to a corridor which ended in a hall full of people dancing to some throbbing electronic music. Sophie guided me around the edge of the spinning, rising, falling masses to where a terrace overlooked a lake behind the house, nodding at two security guards as we walked between them.
Upon a four-poster day bed draped in brightly colored tapestries sat a tall, thin, handsome man of about sixty, with bloodshot eyes and a well-trimmed beard. Next to him were two young women wrapped in dresses accentuating their voluptuous figures. They looked up at me out of two sets of dark-brown eyes and smiled.
Sophie slipped her shoes off and knelt on the bed and leaned across to kiss the man on the cheek.
“Rowen. Lovely to see you.”
“The pleasure’s all mine,” Rowen replied. They embraced briefly and Sophie kissed the two women.
“Rowen, Suni and Sam. Let me introduce to you my friend, Michael.”
Rowen held out his hand for me to shake and I was forced to lean forward onto the bed in order to reach him. Rowen’s hand was large but I felt a weakness and fragility in his grip. “It’s a pleasure,” he
“Sophie,” I answered.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch. I was waiting to hear back from Rowen.”
“What did he say?”
“He’s overseas at the moment. They’re setting up a New Church in San Francisco. He’ll be back late next week and he can’t consider it until then.”
“That could be too late.”
“That’s the best I can do. Shall I set up a meeting?”
“Okay.”
“He usually only takes meetings at the gatherings. Will that be alright?”
“That’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“No reason. I’ll let you know.”
C HAPTER S EVEN
MY CAR HEADLIGHTS forged a tunnel in the night, illuminating tight knit cypress on either side of the driveway. A song that Sophie had put on my stereo was playing at full volume. The whining melancholy of the music, the dark clouds passing across the full moon behind the trees, and not knowing exactly what Sophie was getting me into made my heart accelerate and my mind alert as if I had just taken a mixture of amphetamines and hallucinogens and was waiting to find out what the effect would be: heaven or hell.
I had heard a lot about Rowen Boone and about the New Church “gatherings” but I had never expected to go to one. Rowen was one of the country’s wealthiest men, and his cult was one of the country’s most popular spiritual organizations. As science and technology failed them, people were turning again to religion for answers. Not that the New Church appeared to have too many religious doctrines – unless polyamorous, communal living could be called a religion. Dylan liked to call it a practical religion.
At the end of the driveway we came to a white gravel turning circle leading up to a heavily illuminated Italianate mansion. We stepped out of the car while a robot attendant transferred auto-park data to the car’s computer.
“Are you ready?” Sophie took my arm.
“I hope so.”
Sophie and I walked across to the house together. Others were arriving at the same time, and we joined the throngs going up the stone stairs to the main entrance where a wooden door stood wide.
Inside, pillars in the foyer led up to a double-story cupola. A stone fountain contained a bowl held high by a sculpture of a naked couple.
“That’s mine.” Sophie pointed towards the sculpture.
“It’s beautiful.” I admired the ring of intertwined bodies at its base, all finely detailed.
Underwater lamps threw rippling light across the walls. Jazz music floated into the room like a flock of butterflies, notes dipping, seemingly randomly, this way then that, almost colliding, stalling, holding, continuing on again in new displays of virtuosity.
An archway on one side led to a corridor which ended in a hall full of people dancing to some throbbing electronic music. Sophie guided me around the edge of the spinning, rising, falling masses to where a terrace overlooked a lake behind the house, nodding at two security guards as we walked between them.
Upon a four-poster day bed draped in brightly colored tapestries sat a tall, thin, handsome man of about sixty, with bloodshot eyes and a well-trimmed beard. Next to him were two young women wrapped in dresses accentuating their voluptuous figures. They looked up at me out of two sets of dark-brown eyes and smiled.
Sophie slipped her shoes off and knelt on the bed and leaned across to kiss the man on the cheek.
“Rowen. Lovely to see you.”
“The pleasure’s all mine,” Rowen replied. They embraced briefly and Sophie kissed the two women.
“Rowen, Suni and Sam. Let me introduce to you my friend, Michael.”
Rowen held out his hand for me to shake and I was forced to lean forward onto the bed in order to reach him. Rowen’s hand was large but I felt a weakness and fragility in his grip. “It’s a pleasure,” he
Similar Books
Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus "Notch" Persson and the Game that Changed Everything
Daniel Goldberg, Linus Larsson
