Escape to New Atlantis

21 Mahalo

Sawyer

The Yuan's Hawaiian party happens tonight, so there was no one to hang out with after school. Catalina and Saanvi said they needed a huge, long time to get ready. Benedict said he had had to go straight home, because "a Vivien Woo soirée means all hands on deck." I'm not sure why he didn't just call her "Mom," but then I'm not a billionaire.

I do have a tad of homework: an article to read about cumulonimbus clouds and a sonnet to dissect. But I won't be going back to either of those classes for two days, so I blow off thunderclouds and Shakespeare, going straight to my Ingenuity and Invention assignment to formulate a plan for putting cameras in the catwalks. OK, I'm jumping ahead of myself if I assume cameras are the best solution. I just know that down under the streets the city has a security problem. Maybe it will turn out we need cameras or maybe, I don't know, roving monkeys.

Hm. Not monkeys, of course, but how about robots? Stealthy robots tirelessly on patrol in the shadows below. Actually, if we could repurpose obsolete domestic 'bots for the task, it might be pretty cheap. Good old Nemo would have been up to the job for sure. Ah, but here again I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, I need to keep asking "why?" so I can fully define the problem. Only then should I start coming up with solutions. Still, the robots could even carry life preservers on their backs in case someone fell in...

I've been working on my project for an hour or so and stop to review my progress. I've made two lists on my tablet: one titled Root Issues, the other Potential Solutions. There's only one item on the first list, "catwalk security bad," while the second goes on for some twenty lines, all about robots and charging stations and deployable drones. Maybe I need to work on my focusing skills.

I hear Mom come in, so I go to hear about her first day as a lab assistant. Whoa—she has a smile on her face that could light up this entire city. She gives me a big hug and I ask, "So you like the lab assistant gig?"

"We'll never know, honey—I'm the new chemical engineer at Chau Pharmaceuticals! I arrived this morning at the lab but never got past the front desk. I was handed a note directing me to report to a certain address, which turned out to be Chau Pharma. It has been a whirlwind of a day, but I've been interviewed, hired, oriented, provided with a desk with a window, and given a sneak peek of my next six months." She rolls her eyes. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you much about the project I'm assigned to. It's so hush-hush they've been running understaffed rather than risk tipping their hand with a recruiting campaign. That's why Millie didn't know about it."

I flop down on the couch. "Then how did they find you now?"

Mom's too wound up to sit. "There's an old, cynical saying, 'It's not what you know but who you know.' Well, Anucha Suta, the man we met who runs BakeThreads, is on the Chau Pharma board of directors. You came to his attention, to say the least, discovering the BakeThreads hack. When he learned your mom was a chemical engineer posing as a lab assistant, he passed that tidbit on to the Chau CEO, and here we are." With a flourish, she presents me her new business card.

She nearly sits, then heads off to her bedroom. "But there's no time to dawdle—a party beckons!"

Once we're properly decked out, Mom and I take a rideshare to the Yuan's mansion. I'll be honest, I look good. Really good. But Mom? She looks like someone stepping onto the red carpet at the Oscars. Wandee did a magnificent job with our Hawaiian outfits, and apparently Mom's a natural for a muumuu.

The police chief's car pulls up right behind us, so we wait. Surprisingly, the first one out is Catalina and... wow! She's ready to win an Oscar. The girl is drop-dead gorgeous in an outfit that, however Wandee did it, hints that we're looking at a mermaid. And, like Mom, her clothes only serve to accentuate the real beauty—her smile.