clean, renewable power

Terry glared at me from behind thick frames, his beady eyes magnified into normal size by what must have been a near-legendary prescription. I hadn't exactly expected him to be thrilled to see me, but I'd hoped for at least a smirk. As it was, I couldn't even say for sure if the glimmer behind his steely glare was a spark of recognition, or if I was a total stranger to him now. Or worse, a non-person, exorcised from the realm of people he would ever have to consider again. After all, I was the first one to leave the fold. To pursue a life outside the laboratory. Away from the white coats, the formulas, and the long stretches of hours hunched over diagrams spanning six tables pulled together. I looked away.

The atmosphere probably wasn't going to improve, so I just waded right in.

"Hey, Terry." I mumbled. "Good job with the matter-integrator thing. I heard the UN considers you a national-level threat."

"Yeah." He frowned. "Well, they're a bunch of pussies."

"This is my fiancée, Laura." I gestured vaguely at the area beside me, which surprised me by being entirely empty.

She had apparently been hiding behind me up to this point, but seized it upon herself now to step forward and try to ease the tension a bit. Laura was better at these things than I was. She shook his hand warmly.


"So you're the mad scientist Tim used to run around with, huh? I really like your place. It's very uh, bright. Very modern."

The foyer, if you could call it that, went far beyond bright and modern. Every surface was jet-black, spotless, and polished to a shine. The lighting, all bare and fluorescent, was somewhere between dazzling and oppressive. But Terry seemed to loosen a little anyway. That was one of Laura's specialties. If she gave you a compliment, you believed it. They just sounded sincere.

He shifted a bit. "Yeah. Well, I designed this whole place myself. The whole facility. It runs on its own power, an engine that converts my own self-loathing into electricity."


"That's... wow. That's totally incredible. That's brilliant, Terry."

The hallway dimmed. Terry's expression went cold again. "There are some limitations. It's a work in progress." He spun on his heel and motioned for us to follow as he opened a door to go deeper into the complex. The lights slowly flared up even beyond their original brightness as we fell in step behind him.