The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam 2)

Zeb came and went; sometimes he'd vanish for days, and when he turned up again he might be wearing pleeblander clothes: solarbiker fleather gear, groundsman's coveralls, bouncer black. At first she'd worried that he was a Blanco affiliate, come to spy her out, but no, it wasn't that. Mad Adam, the kids nicknamed him, but he appeared sane enough. A little too sane to be hanging out with this clutch of sweet but delusional eccentrics. And what was the bond between him and Lucerne? Lucerne had pampered Compound wife written all over her: every time she broke a nail she went into a pout. She was an unlikely choice of partner for a man like Zeb -- a bullet-spitter, he'd have been called in Toby's childhood, back when bullets were common.

Though maybe it was the sex, Toby thought. A mirage of the flesh, a hormone-fuelled obsession. It happened to a lot of people. She could remember a time when she herself might have been part of such a story, given the right man, but the longer she stayed with the Gardeners, the more that time receded.

She'd had no sex recently, nor did she miss it: during her immersion in the Sewage Lagoon she'd had far too much sex, though not the kind anyone would want. Freedom from Blanco was worth a lot: she was lucky she hadn't ended up fucked into a puree and battered to a pulp and poured out onto a vacant lot.

There had been one sex-linked incident at the Gardeners: old Mugi the Muscle had leapt on her when she was putting in an hour on one of the Run-For-Your-Light Treadmills in the former party room at the top of the Boulevard Condos. He'd pulled her off the treadmill and tussled her to the floor, then fallen heavily on top of her and groped under her denim skirt, wheezing like a faulty pump. But she was strong from all the soil-hauling and stair-climbing, and Mugi wasn't as fit as he must have been once, and she'd dug her elbow into him and levered him off, and left him sprawled and gasping on the floor.

She'd told Pilar about it, as she now told her everything that puzzled her. "What should I do?" she said.

"We never make a fuss about such things," said Pilar. "There's no harm in Mugi really. He's tried that on more than one of us -- even me, some years ago." She gave a dry little chuckle. "The ancient Australopithecus can come out in all of us. You must forgive him in your heart. He won't do it again, you'll see."

So that was that, as far as sex went. Maybe it's temporary, thought Toby. Maybe it's like having your arm go to sleep. My neural connections for sex are blocked. But why don't I care?

It was the afternoon of Saint Maria Sibylla Merian of Insect Metamorphosis Day, said to be a propitious time for working with bees. Toby and Pilar were extracting the honey. They had on their wide veiled hats; for the smoke they used a bellows, and a smudge of decaying wood.

"Your parents -- are they living?" said Pilar, from behind her white veil.

Toby was surprised by such a question, uncharacteristically direct for a Gardener. But Pilar wouldn't have asked such a thing without good reason. Toby couldn't bring herself to discuss her father, so instead she told Pilar about her mother's mysterious illness. What was so odd, she said, was that her mother had always been so keen on health: by weight she would have been half vitamin supplement.

"Tell me," said Pilar. "What supplements was she taking?"

"She ran a HelthWyzer franchise, so she took those."

"HelthWyzer," said Pilar. "Yes. We've heard of this before."

"Heard of what?" said Toby.

"This kind of illness, coupled with those supplements. No wonder the HelthWyzer people wanted to treat your mother themselves."

"What do you mean?" said Toby. She felt chilly, even though the morning sun was hot.

"Did it ever occur to you, my dear," said Pilar, "that your mother may have been a guinea pig?"

It hadn't occurred to Toby, but it occurred to her now. "I kind of wondered," she said. "Not about the pills, but ... I thought it was the developer who wanted Dad's land. I figured maybe they'd put something in the well."

"In that case you'd all have been ill," said Pilar. "Now, promise me that you will never take any pill made by a Corporation. Never buy such a pill, and never accept any such pill if offered, no matter what they say. They'll produce data and scientists; they'll produce doctors -- worthless, they've all been bought."

"Surely not all of them!" said Toby, shocked by Pilar's vehemence: she was usually so calm.

"No," said Pilar. "Not all. But all who are still working with any of the Corporations. The others -- some have died unexpectedly. But those still alive -- those with any shred of the old medical ethic left in them ..." She paused. "There are doctors like that, still. But not at the Corps."

"Where are they?" Toby asked.

"Some of them are here, with us," said Pilar. She smiled. "Katuro the Wrench used to be an internist. He does our plumbing now. Surya was an eye surgeon. Stuart was an oncologist. Marushka was a gynecologist."

"And the other doctors? If they aren't here?"

"Let's just say they're safe, elsewhere," said Pilar. "For the moment. But now you must promise me: those Corporation pills are the food of the dead, my dear. Not our kind of dead, the bad kind. The dead who are still alive. We must teach the children to avoid these pills -- they're evil. It's not only a rule of faith among us, it's a matter of certainty."

"But how can you be so sure?" Toby asked. "The Corps -- nobody knows what they're doing. They're locked into those Compounds of theirs, nothing gets out ..."

"You'd be surprised," said Pilar. "No boat was ever built that didn't spring a leak eventually. Now, promise me."

Toby promised.

"One day," said Pilar, "when you're an Eve, you'll understand more."

"Oh, I don't think I'll ever be an Eve," said Toby lightly. Pilar smiled.