April 2: Down to Earth (33 page)

"You are an evil and nasty man and will come to a bad end," Lin predicted.

April suspected it was a formula response, because he didn't even acknowledge it.

"Perhaps I shouldn't hang around too much longer," April told them. "I don't like the idea of making your household a target."

"What are you talking about? I haven't had this much fun in years. Do you have any idea how quiet things have been around here? The help is all excited about having someone that is totally clueless and they can run back and forth swapping gossip about you every day. They've extracted every nugget of new about us long ago. If you need to move on, go, but don't do it as a favor. We're tickled to have company again. You'll probably drag Adzusa off with you and we haven't had her here this long in years."

The sudden change on his face was  like a cartoon light bulb went off above his head, as he got a new thought. "In fact," he said, "this is one of the nicest areas you could find in the islands. We researched extensively before buying. If you want to find a little place of your own, to have a vacation home, why don't you take a look around here? You'd make a swell neighbor and it may stay your hand, when you bomb the crap out of North America after the election and we'll come through sweet as can be on the island."

"I take it my CNN interview has been on already?"

"Oh yeah. The talking heads are all yelling at each other. One trying to say it's a bunch of bull and another to start digging a shelter right now. You know, Kyrah posted a veracity percentage for each distinct statement you made and not a one of them fell under 95 %. I predict when you are my age your certainty will drop off a little. But it is refreshing to see right now. And the fact that the experts sitting arguing over your statements
both
ways, won't allow their statements to be run through the meter is not unnoticed by the public. They have people flooding the mail and phones saying the experts should allow verification, or shut up and go home."

"Excuse me boss, one of Papa's young men came up. We have a UPS truck at the road, wants to deliver packages for Miss Lewis. Is that expected?"

"Yes she went shopping this morning with my wife. Have him off load on a push cart and do a sniffer, a portable x-ray and MNR standard level down there and unpack them for her if it looks OK."

"See what I mean?" April said freshly alarmed. "If you have to do such extraordinary security because I'm here, that's really not good." The idea of them being in danger because of her, just made her stomach twist in knots. She had become attached to all of these people quickly. Not just the family but their help also. How would she feel if they were hurt because someone wanted to get at her?

The young man looked at her funny. "Missy, excuse me, but we do that with everything. I even do the groceries like that when they come," he went off without expecting a reply.

"Ex-spooks got enemies?" she asked.

"Ya just never know," Papa-san admitted.

They sat silent for a little, April sorting that all out and she remembered Lin's invitation to use the pool. It looked mighty inviting right now in the heat of the day.

"Do you wash off before you use the pool just like a bath?" April asked Lin.

"Yes dear, that would be nice of you," she turned to her husband and started telling him about her morning. She stopped when he had a sudden stricken look that she couldn't place.

She looked where he was looking and April had stopped at the chrome shower head that stuck out of the building on the other side of the pool and dropped her clothing in a pile. She was soaping herself up unhurried, doing a very thorough job too. Lin turned back and her husband was biting his thumb back on the big knuckle trying very hard not to smile. He was losing the battle and knew he was in a no win situation with Lin.

"This is my fault," she said quietly, chagrined. "I knew she didn't have any other clothing and never suggested she needed a swim suit and she thinks of us as Japanese, so she knows we have a history of communal bathing. I didn't even add it up when she said none of her friends wear underwear. So I should have figured it out. Damn."

"Thank you," he said simply.

She smacked him over the head with the paperback he had laying there.

"It's nothing we didn't do on the beach with our friends years ago," she admitted. "But what about the help? It can be demeaning to your help to act like it doesn't matter if they see you nude, like their feelings and sensibilities don't matter."

"Actually, the help have been skinny dipping in the pool in the wee hours of the morning, without turning the lights on for a long time. Adzusa will join them if she's home. I just never told you."

"And you didn't join them yourself?"

"I'd never do that without coming and waking you up to join in. And you get cranky when you're woke up." he accused. "They might have been uncomfortable we caught them anyway."

"Oh what the hell," she said and walked around the pool, stripped and started soaping up herself. She was very pleased to see Papa-san was smiling and watching her as much as April.

"House get me a maid on the intercom," Papa-san said.

"Yes sir?"

"Would you please bring a light change of clothing from our guest's room and a change for Mother and put them with towels on the bench by the pool?"

"Certainly," she said unsurprised.

"Thank you, dear."

Chapter 31

"This is a quaint little starter home," the Realtor, Violet, said driving up the gravel access road. "Most of the homes in this area are on large lots and the builders almost always overbuilt, thinking if someone can afford the land they must want a lot of house too. But I understand many people want a smaller, simpler house, that doesn't require a staff. Lord knows I don't want all the headaches and expense of having help. A lot of these houses built back around the turn of the century have disappeared. People would buy two or three of them and consolidate the lots, or just buy one and build a big-foot house on the lot that just leaves enough room around it to maintain the building without any real grounds. And there just aren't many come on the market fee-simple. They're almost all leases."

April had learned a new language in the last few days. She had also been insulted and furious the woman wanted proof she had funds before she would show her homes. She had a hard time believing it wasn't ugly prejudice against her, as a young person and a foreigner. Vi had invited her to call any other Realtor on the islands and ask if it wasn't standard procedure to pre-qualify, but even after she verified it she let the woman know how tacky that seemed to her, standard behavior or no. Vi had been surprised when instead of producing a mortgage commitment letter she just displayed a bank account on her pad to the woman showing she had a bit less than thirty-six million Euro and a handful of other currencies.

She still had that much, because Eddie hadn't reclaimed the funds he'd advanced her to buy Bob out. Lin had come out with her to see a couple places, but Adzusa was with her this afternoon. Quaint worried her. That usually meant obsolete. But at least it wasn't a doll house, or handyman special. She shuddered at the memory of what those had been like.

The road ended in a large looped turn around, that meant the road was a dead end wide enough to park. April didn't mind that. In fact she liked it. Someone was maintaining a landscaped island in the middle of the loop, which April admired. It had that look of a private project instead of commercial landscaping. The road was on top of a ridge and ended where the shoulder of the ridge dropped off. So the view from the mail boxes was magnificent. The houses were all down from the road and hers was right off the end, with neighbors on both sides but the curve of the hill set them back so you had a full hundred and eighty degree view.

The property was terraced, with a garage roof just below the road level, with a very short drive that curved down to it. Below was a sort of artists workshop and below that the main house. Even further, but not visible, hidden by the house was a pool. She had seen it in the photos before they drove up but it was in too close to see behind the house. There were a lot of trees and a few nice palms. The house was sixty years old, but it seemed well maintained. The roof was metal in dark strips with what looked like solar panels between the seams.

"How much is this place?" April asked again.

"It's offered at twelve, two-eighty USNA$," the lady said.

"Is there room to build another terrace below the pool?"

"She pulled a survey map out of her portfolio and looked at it. "You could get a flat of another eight or ten meters if you put a sloped retaining wall right out to the property edge, but what would you want down there, that much of a climb down and back up from the house?"

"I was thinking of a landing pad for an aircar," April told her.

That didn't produce any reaction. A well used Rutan or Daimler aircar cost about two million and flew on four ducted fans with counter rotating props. The older ones had eight engines and the new four, since they were now reliable enough. Old or new they cost a lot to operate. There were a few hundred on the island and probably no more than ten thousand in use in the whole country. If she bought one she'd have it converted to Singh power and do whatever was needed to make it quieter. She'd had a ride in one a couple days ago and it was quietly comfortable inside, but standing watching it come in to land April suspected she knew what a tornado sounded like now.

They made their way in without a bunch of chatter and found a great deal of the house was one huge room that actually hung over the end of the pool, which was larger than she expected from the pics. Adzusa and she unlocked a sliding door and leaned on the rail, looking down on the pool which someone was keeping clean. There weren't even any leaves or debris on the surrounding patio. There was a stiff breeze across the balcony she liked too.

"How long has this been empty?"

Vi checked her pad again. "The widowed lady who lived here died last year. It took awhile for the legal work to allow it on the market. It has actively been back for sale for three months."

"Why hasn't it sold?"

"Of course I don't know for sure, but the heirs want more than has been offered so far. They seem to have the idea prices never go down and that's not true. They peaked about two years ago and it may be awhile before they get back to that level again. The economy is still rather bad due to the recent unpleasantness." That was a close as she'd get to saying war. She was given to using euphemisms for everything. Not just the houses themselves.

"When the economy is doing this poorly, homes above about three or four million just sell very slowly, although the high end homes over thirty million always sell well."

"What is the really top end of the private market?" April asked, curious.

"Oh, a nice large ranch property here, or in an area with rainfall or riparian rights on the mainland can be a quarter billion. A full floor penthouse in Manhattan could be too.  I'll certainly never know such a deal. You have to be in the same social circles as the owners, for them to even know you exist. They have different concerns though. People who don't have a dynasty, who don't have
vast
wealth have different concerns. A lot of people don't want to live on an unpaved road, or this far from town, or the water, no matter what the nature of the house. Some people wouldn't care to live on the hillside. What do
you
think about the house yourself? That's what really matters, not other people's needs."

"I can see myself relaxing around the pool here, can't you Adzusa? What do you think would have to be done?"

"You have security issues here," Adzusa advised her. "Maybe not those Trillionaire level concerns, but you still need to make it secure. You could fence the pool area. Maybe roof it entirely, or a pool house with a power roof and add security systems and strengthen the doors and windows. I would go down straight under the main house and add a safe room. More than a room really. I'd add a plain old bunker, that would be safe from anything that didn't take the whole ridge down and sleep there at night. And you need a housekeeper that will always be here, instead of leaving it empty for weeks or months at a time. If you put an aircar pad in I'd put it
over
the garage, so it's almost even with the ridge. Otherwise the wind shear dropping below the ridge could make taking off and landing really hard."

"I need some active defenses too, not just passive. I'm getting a property on the Moon soon and the developer will provide defense, but down here I'll have to do something myself. I can't count on anybody else here for that."

The Realtor Vi really perked up. "I'm not familiar with any Lunar property available. How did you become aware of it?"

"A friend is developing a ranch community and she worked a complicated trade with me to supply transportation in exchange for a property. And support in a broader, well, political sense. I have an interest in space transport services."

"How big are lots on the Moon? They must be substantial if you market them as ranches."

"She is doing twenty-five kilometer square lots as a minimum size. I'm getting one four times that big as a start and may acquire more later. She's developing it as a community, setting aside land for a park, a village square, a university, a space port,  public safety and everything you'd expect a community to need and want. Would you like to have her send you information about it? We have no licensing laws that would keep you from being an Earthside agent for her if you're interested and I don't think she has anyone yet."

Vi was
very
interested.

"Let's walk next door and see if we can meet the neighbors," she told Adzusa. Their agent trotted along too.

The house to the East was similar in age but different in style. It was a traditional Japanese home with the exposed style frame, such as you'd find in the Northern isles. It was set on massive rocks as a foundation, not a man made concrete base. They rang the bell and after a delay a frail older Japanese couple came to the gate. They invited them inside the gate, but not the home. Adzusa's language skills and appearance were a great aid. She translated generalities about the neighborhood and a great deal about the weather that was experienced on the ridge.