Page 23 of The Champion
“Yes.”
“I objected to being trapped. My comment about drinking radioactive water is a French saying. It’s like when you people say shit a shark.”
“It’s shit a sheep,” I corrected him.
“Fine, but you get the idea.”
“Yes.” I didn’t want to enter another round of frustrating arguing about his harsh rejection when I offered to move to France.
“Tell me about the project.”
Victor brushed his brown hair back. It was cut short on the sides but the longer part on top was thick and had a tendency to fall into his eyes. “All right, in order for you to understand what we’re trying to achieve, I’m thinking we need to start with the basics. How much do you know about radiation and the challenges we face because of the pollution from the Toxic War?”
“I went over the interviews you gave on the subject with journalists from the Motherlands and I understand that the biggest problem is water.”
“That’s right, groundwater from mountains seeps through the war-torn ruins before spilling into the ocean. Over the years we tried a number of different approaches to try to slow the incursion, but so far efforts to stop it have been partially successful at most.”
“I read about the giant underground ice wall that you built.”
“Mm-hmm, but that didn’t solve the problem. Today, we rely on massive and very complex filtration systems to clean radioactivity from our groundwater.”
“I know that much, but from what I understood, you’re not happy.”
Victor shook his head. “No. I’m still mad at our ancestors for starting that damn war. With the filtration system we can remove some of the most dangerous elements, but there’s still the issue of one isotope of hydrogen called tritium.”
No matter how much we argued and how frustrated I was with him, his accent was an aphrodisiac to me, and hearing him discuss complicated science stuff with passion triggered my strong desire for him that I had tried to suppress these past days.
“Tritium can't be removed because it's literally embedded in the H2O of the water molecules. That means it’s part of the water itself. If you can tell me how to filter water out of water, then you’re a greater genius than me.”
I thought about it for a moment. “If you can’t remove it, can you at least dilute the radioactive groundwater before it’s released into the ocean?”
“That’s what we’ve been doing. The four hundred years at least since the war has given nature time to break down a lot of the harmful things. We know that iodine-131 takes around three months to decay while other limiting isotopes like cesium-137 and strontium-90 need at least three hundred years. It’s the heavy metal fuel, steel, and rust isotopes that we’re battling now. If we do nothing they’ll be hanging around in the environment for thousands or millions of years. That’s why I’ve optimized nature to work faster. We use a plant called Nuclea. It’s gene-modified from plants that all have the ability to absorb radiation. Mainly amaranthus, cockscomb, cactus, sunflowers, field mustard, and the rubber plant.”
“Impressive.”
“Thank you. Cleaning the earth is hard work that requires patience. Unfortunately, we have more issues to deal with. We’ve lost more species than we care to think about while other species are dominating and bringing an imbalance in their natural habitat.”
“I see.”
Victor powered up an impressive visual presentation and I focused on all the details he threw at me. Much of it was so technical that my brain hurt from trying to keep up. I had never doubted Victor’s brilliance but seeing him delve into science was fascinating. The fact that he was communicating all this complicated information in a second language impressed me. I had studied French since I came back from the first summit fourteen years ago. At first it had been a strategic move to even out the advantage the French had of speaking a different language among themselves that the rest of us didn’t understand.
It hadn’t taken me long to realize that the French that I had access to via the internet was old and outdated compared to the French the delegation members spoke. It was natural that a language developed, and once Belle moved to the Northlands, she had helped me fine tune my understanding.
Never had I told Victor and the other French delegation members that I understood most of their internal dialogue. It amused me to hear them strategize in French assuming that none of us understood. I could listen to Victor speak for hours. His sexy accent and his good looks made it hard to focus on the content, though. I had always loved his features, from his nose, cheekbones, and strong jaw to the shape of his eyebrows and lips. Victor was handsome and confidence shone from his gorgeous brown eyes.
“Is this too technical for you?”
Blinking my eyes, I refocused from my current thoughts on Victor’s looks and sexy accent. “Ehm, I got a bit distracted, but I’ll pay attention now. Sorry.”
He frowned. “Maybe it’s better if I show you around instead. Tomorrow this building will be filled with scientists, technicians, and assistants. It might be overwhelming then but if I show you everything now, at least you’ll have an overview of the physical premises.”
“Sure.”
“Let’s start with the greenhouse where we work to strengthen the abilities of Nuclea.” Victor held the door open for me. As I exited the room, I caught a whiff of his cologne. Inhaling deeply, I filled my lungs with the delicious scent that always brought butterflies to my stomach.
Victor and I had never spent much time alone. It was much easier to keep up my shield in public.
“I imagine you attract many sapiosexuals?” The second I said it, I regretted bringing up sex when I had no one as a buffer between us.
