Mark Talbot found Su sulking in her room. His youngest wife was sitting cross-legged on her bed, pillow clutched against her stomach in a manner reminiscent of the girl she had been not so many years ago. Her long black hair hung in silky waves down her back; a reflection of misery lay behind her eyes.
From her window, the nose of the Port Authority shuttle could just be seen where the silver monster stood on the pad.
“Hey, wife,” Talbot greeted, stepping in and closing the door behind him.
Su remained silent, not even blinking to acknowledge his presence. Damn, that was all he needed. Two catatonic women in his life.
Talbot seated himself on the bed beside her, leaning forward to brace his elbows on his knees. “It’s the blueberries, you know.”
“The what?”
“Once word spread that Rebecca had taken blueberries to Port Authority, nothing could have prevented our discovery here.”
“They’re just fucking berries. Thousands rot on the bushes every month.”
“They won’t. They will feed people. Help everyone survive. You can dole them out along with all the other treats that grow here. Heard there was a new scanning atomic microscope in the Turalon cargo. That, and some data recording and analyzing gadgets that not only collect and categorize, but collate at the same time.”
“God, Mark, what’s stuff? Gadgetry? When everything we have here is dying before our eyes? I’ve had to swallow my hatred for that Perez woman. Had to have her in my house. And now our home is swarming with strangers.”
As if in response a loud thump could be heard and felt through the floor. That had to be Hofer. The crude bastard had all the social graces of a diamond-bitted rock saw, but Talina hadn’t lied about his skills when it came to structural analysis.
“Did you really think that it would last forever, darling girl?”
“I had hoped.” Su tightened her grip on the pillow, as if to comfort an ache deep in her gut. “And then you came along, and it was all so perfect. Some of the hole Paolo’s death left inside me was filled. We had a chance for a future. All of us. Just family.”
“You got lucky, you know. The three of you and the kids. If the lift had broken six months ago with all of you in it? If that second joist had rusted through under the floor where the water’s been leaking in? If the pump had given out?”
“We’d have moved to the ground.”
“You still might have to. Depends on what Hofer finds under the floor.”
Her soft, dark gaze had gone moist on the verge of tears. “This isn’t going to end well. I can feel it. Something’s coming, Mark. And it isn’t going to be good for us.”