The Last Peak (Book 2): The Darwin Collapse Read Online Free Page A

hormones. Maybe that was the one up side. Rationing was a clear necessity. But that wouldn’t make things last forever. Which brought up the question of what to do next.  
    There was no way to know without more intel first. It was just that he wasn’t looking forward to confirming what he already knew in his gut.
    Things were fucked.  
    It wasn’t the inconvenience of rolling blackouts in the middle of the day that had become common in recent summers.
    It wasn’t the widespread power outage that took down most of the Northeast for a week in August of 2003.
    It wasn’t even the abject failure of local, state, and federal government in the response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.  
    Those were problems.  
    They had solutions, even if the powers that be were slow to implement them.
    This was a predicament.
    There were no solutions, per se. Only adjustments. Only hard choices that burned in the kiln of an unforgiving new world. And every choice was another round in the fire.
    Another chance to crack apart and fall to ruin.
    The apple slices came up a plate short. He’d go without. In another time and country, he’d lived on far worse and far less.
    Iridia Reshenko sidled up next to him. She eyed a plate and Mason gritted his teeth, willing himself to be calm while she registered her complaint.
    “I can’t eat that many carbs!” she said.
    That wasn’t the complaint he expected.
    Though he should have. A Ukrainian supermodel that had appeared multiple times in Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue (if he could believe Miro, at least) had somehow ended up in his care, in his house, in his space.
    She was the job that never ended. The one that wouldn’t die. And it was his job to keep her that way. But, it had gone way beyond a job. Over the last week, she had done her best (which was generally terrible) to integrate into the West household.
    Mason appreciated that she tried to be helpful, which for a supermodel accustomed to the world waiting on her every whim, meant she tried not to whine and complain every time Beth asked her to do something around the house.
    This new reality wasn’t easy for any of them. But it was probably the hardest for Iridia. She’d had the furthest to fall.
    Still, Mason wished she’d fallen onto that plane that would’ve taken her out of his life. But, it wasn’t meant to be.
    He’d done his best to do the job as directed. But factors beyond his control ended up making that impossible. The federal government closing down the airspace above Los Angeles was one thing. His daughter’s life in danger yet another.
    It should’ve been simple. Get her on a plane back to her father, some genius scientist. It was the first job he’d ever not completed. The first in almost a decade as a close protection officer.
    He didn’t like it.
    But the world didn’t turn according to his preferences.
    He scraped away half a cup of rice and beans and put the recovered half back into the lidded glass bowl.
    Iridia picked up the slice of bread from her plate and peered at it. “Is this gluten-free bread?”
    Mason rolled his eyes. “It’s packed with glutens. I specifically picked up the one with extra-gluten.”
    She tilted her head away like the inert slice of baked flour might bite her.
    “Eat it,” Mason said. “You’re too skinny.”
    Iridia lifted the long, loose-fitting shirt that she’d borrowed from Beth, exposing her waist and lack of clothing to cover her minimally functional underwear. She twisted around and her sandy blonde hair trailed across her shoulder. She patted and squeezed an exposed buttcheek.
    “ This is a disaster,” she said.
    “Tell me something I don’t know,” Mason replied as he stared off into the backyard thinking of what might be beyond.
    She turned back to Mason as if stricken. Her crystal green eyes wide and worried. “You see it, don’t you?”
    “What?”
    “Just say it. It’s there.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    Iridia squeezed the