Regeneration Read Online Free

kit organized and within easy reach underwater, and then clapped Gabriel on the shoulder. “So how does it feel to be seventeen? We heard it was quite a party.”
    “A lot like sixteen so far. The party was great, though.”
    “Agwé was there,” Eve announced, without looking around.
    Gabriel could think of no response except to glare at his sister; his mother would probably disapprove of him strangling her.
    “She had a great time,” said Lapsa, watching him with amusement. “Ready to get back to work?”
    “Very ready,” he replied. Then, to Pilan, with a sideways glance at Eve, “Anything I need to know?”
    “It can wait until we get back.”
    Lapsa slid her tablet into a pocket. Through the clear wall they could see a shuttle-boat preparing to head out to the estuary, and Gabriel blinked in surprise at the sight of Agwé, wearing a cherry-red bodysuit, leaping lightly on board with her vidcam slung over one shoulder.
    “Just keep us looking good on the streams,” Pilan went on, following his gaze. “Topsider attention’s going to spike in the next few days.”
    They all knew this; Gabriel could not imagine why Pilan felt it necessary to remind him. The look on his boss’s face was unreadable.“Thanks, Gaela,” Pilan added as the flame-haired woman started chivvying a reluctant Eve away from the monitor. “I’ll message you if there’s anything else.”
    And then he and Lapsa and his mother and Eve were gone, leaving Gabriel with the impression that deep and unseen currents had washed through the conversation.
    There were enough messages waiting for him that he was able, for an hour or so, to push aside his curiosity. With the switch from storage- to supply-phase less than a week away, there was a rush on to make sure everything was done and checked and double-checked. A few months earlier, when installation of the turbines and battery banks was in full swing and the carping from rival firms, Trad politicians, and random trolls had become increasingly frequent and frantic, Gabriel had feared that their opponents might succeed in delaying the launch, if not derailing it completely. Now a quick glance at the infographic that had captured Eve’s attention confirmed that every indicator was green or, at worst, tinged with amber. The project looked to be right on target.
    And that meant that while the engineers and technicians could expect to settle into a routine as they moved from the varied tasks of developing the plant to the regular rhythms of operation, his own workload was likely to increase in both volume and unpredictability—another good reason to have taken a few days off before the launch.
    As he pulled up feeds and opened the bespoke monitoring apps Herran had helped him write, he could see that the constant murmur of stream chatter about Thames Tidal Power was already picking up. It was no more than he’d expected. He remembered Agwé’s surprise, when the plan to extend the tidal turbine arrays that powered Sinkat and the Squats had first begun to leak out onto news and socialstreams, that the prospect of a cheaper source of cleanly generated, easily stored, and infinitely sustainable energy had not been universally welcomed. That led to his mother consulting on security, especially for the two quantum-battery banks where vast energies were stored on either shore of the estuary, and to him having a seriesof increasingly intense discussions, first with Agwé herself, and then with Lapsa and Pilan, about how to manage the streams and deal with blowback from the public.
    A year later and here he was, responsible for monitoring the random, usually ill-informed, frequently conspiracy-laden and sometimes hilarious socialstream commentary on Thames Tidal Power, while a publicity service managed the more sedate platforms of professional news coverage and planning-committee infostreams. He relished his role, enjoying the camaraderie of the largely gillung team and the sense of significance to