Chapter 5

The note under it was two lines long.

Keep pushing for a mental guardianship and the complete recording goes to the prosecutors and every outlet in the state.

You can bet that this is the only piece I have.

Seven minutes later the bank called to apologize. The fuel payment went through.

Selena did not reply. Her silence said she did not dare take the bet.

That afternoon I went to Northridge Estate.

It sat in the hills north of the Bay Area, under two hours from the city. Above ground stood a dated stone-and-timber mansion, with paint peeling from the window frames and a pool long since drained. Most bidders balked at the upkeep, and the auction house had set the opening price at only seven million dollars.

Emma Wilson was waiting at the door. She was the structural engineer the previous owner had employed, and she was carrying a thick stack of drawings.

"If you are shopping for a vacation house, I would look somewhere else." She skipped the pleasantries. "The roof leaks, the west wall needs reinforcement, and the underground systems have not had a full service in at least five years."

"Take me down."

She glanced at me, then turned and badged open a steel door hidden behind the wine cellar.

Three levels down, the temperature dropped hard. The concrete walls were thick enough to stop most impacts, the ventilation ran through two stages of filtration, and at the very bottom there was a fallout shelter left over from the Cold War. A private deep well bypassed the municipal water main, and an old cistern up the slope could feed the house by gravity if the power died. A separate service tunnel ran out to an abandoned station on the far side of the hill.

"The diesel generators have never been commissioned, and the solar batteries have degraded," Emma said. "This place is not some storybook doomsday fortress. If a real disaster hits, the people living here will still die."

"What if the intake were relocated, the deep well repaired, and another isolation layer added?"

She finally looked at me properly.

"Then they live a while longer. But why are you asking?"

I did not answer.

Last time Northridge took in close to a hundred people after the war. It had water, it had power, it had thick walls, and in the second month someone broke in through the old vent shaft. The people inside fought over storeroom access, and in the end they opened the outer door themselves and let the monsters and the raiders in together.

I walked over to the sheet marked DISUSED CISTERN.

"Is the cistern included in the lot?"

"Included. Along with the service tunnel and twenty acres behind the hill."

"Then I will be at the auction tomorrow."

Emma closed the drawings. "The auction house was willing to take private offers, but they changed the rules half an hour ago. Someone insisted on open bidding."

An engine sounded outside.

Damian walked into the preview hall with Selena, an auction agent and two press photographers behind him. He had clearly known in advance that I would be here.

"Noah, still not done buying canned food?" He swept a look around the basement. "I heard you had your eye on this place, so I came to see it. Selena and I will be living next door. Buying this wreck means I get to watch you lose your mind every day."

Selena held his arm and smiled just so.

"Do not be like that. Noah just needs somewhere quiet. The hilltop is peaceful. Good for recovery."

The cameras turned on me. They were waiting for me to explain myself, ideally to admit in public that I was preparing for the end of the world.

I only asked the auction agent, "What time tomorrow?"

"Ten in the morning, private saleroom."

Damian raised his champagne glass.

"I am going to make you spend your last dollar on this wreck."

I took a bidder paddle and wrote twenty-eight million on the back.

Last time, when ten thousand people in the Bay Area were killing each other over a mouthful of clean water, that price would not have bought a single bucket.

"See you tomorrow," I said.

Northridge Estate opened at seven million dollars.

There were only about twenty invited bidders in the room. Damian sat diagonally across from me, and Selena had a livestream rig set up behind her. She wore a white suit, as if she were already dressing for the wedding.