Madison chuckled. “Come now. I did clean your apartment from time to time. And quite frankly I wasn’t expecting money but rather other.. magazines under your mattress” She stated with an exaggerated shrug. “I’m not bothered. But it is good to surprise you once in a while Byron. Turn the tables as it were” another easy shrug, and a hint of a smirk, her eyes twinkling as she rose to the occasion.
Then the penny fell. Or rather, her phone fell.
Madison looked in dismay as Byron deliberately didn’t attempt to catch it, and it clattered to the floor. Ignoring it for the moment, her eyebrow raised.”I very much doubt you WOULD be able to replace that telephone, should it be broken Byron.” Madison found herself commenting dryly. “I know how much you make, and roughly how much your property is worth. Let’s just say you’d probably have to take a sizeable bank loan out to cover the phone.” A slow, cat’s grin spread across her face.
“It doesn’t look like much, does it? Hmm? But that phone is worth more then some cars that are brand new over here.”
“Fifteen thousand pounds to be precise” she yawned. “And working that from pounds sterling into dollars at the exchange rate of one to two, that works out to just over thirty thousand dollars you dropped. It’s.. special”
“Not only is it custom made, but I had a special mould taken to ensure it exactly fit my palm, in my choice of colours, was made by Swiss master craftsman, in the same way as fine Swiss watches are put together. It runs off of kinetic energy, solar power and alternatively, special rechargeable batteries.”
Madison wasn’t finished yet, and continued on..
“It has a built in worldwide concierge service, so at a touch of the button, I can order something, anything, anywhere” Her eyes rolled at the thought. “You want caviar brought to you right now, even in the middle of the snow? I push this button and in just over an hour’s time some will arrive. You want some obscure thing, it will of course take longer to source, but it will arrive.”
“Oh.. and my phone is Quad band, it will work in any country, and anyone else having a model in this particular line, it will double up as a two-way walkie-talkie. Integrates with MP3 players and ‘pods, has around 5 gig of storage, ability to playback music, video, and even a pencil-projector attachment for it. It can receive email and integrate with my appliances at home, so if I boot it up, and check, it can tell you exactly what food is in all of my fridges in my various flats in London. It has GPS so I can be located anywhere in the world within one meter of my actual location. Simple. Easy. Smart.”
Her eyes flickered down to the phone, inert on the ground. “You see Byron, not only is it a custom range for the elite of society, but the numbers that it contains within are just as precious and invaluable as well.. I have a direct line to different supermodels, actors and actresses, fashion houses, perfumeries, makeup artists, film makers, great authors, and other assortment of glitterati. Oh. And royalty” she added belated and bemusedly. “Names that I am sure even you have heard of Byron.”
Another small, but effective riposte and parry. She did sometimes enjoy verbal sparring. A small smile tugged at her lips as she bent to retrieve the telephone.
“It’s got my initials, carefully etched here” She showed him the cover of the phone, where a beautiful artisan had engraved the initials M.D. “And yes. Those ~are~ diamonds for the points.” She couldn’t help it, she was being sarky now.
“Oh. And there is a built in shock absorbers, and titanium casing, so should it get dropped..” She flicked it open, where it came to life again with a whirrrrr and a bing! “It wont dent, scratch, or break.” Madison couldn’t suppress the smirk now. She then changed the subject, having ~firmly~ won that round. ”I think, quite honestly it is brilliant. You’ve done a thorough job of addressing most of the needs. I noted a few small failings however, that only a woman’s eye might get, or a reporter’s mind might capture. We are currently below ground, yet when that is sealed off, there is no oxygen filtration and buffering. If there were to be a chemi or bio then there would be of course problems with air quality. You should consider adding a special air purifier / buffer for that purpose. Alternatively, if everything does go to heck and a hand basket, then you can bet that sewage facilities will also go unmaintained. In which case, so many people create so much waste by-products that your stack might not e able to cope with. You should consider an alternative tank or process.”Chewing on her lips thoughtfully she had a few more ideas. “Also, do not forget the importance of sunlight. You should have an artificial sunlight lamp somewhere. Humans require sunlight, and if they are kept from it for long periods of time, then their immune systems break down, they become depressed and disorientated. Adding in a lamp that people can sit under a couple of times a week would greatly improve morale and health of your inhabitants.”“There is of course also the idea of communication with whatever is left of the outside world; what will happen after the food starts to run out? You will need to obtain more. You should also have ways of monitoring the outside world, just in case. Perhaps disaster becomes averted. Do you really wish to lock yourself away for seven years, to come back to find your house has been demolished and your now on a parking lot above you? Or if something goes wrong and you need emergency services. And finally, what about waste storage? Ie Cans, wrappers, tissues, just the general detrius that we as humans tend to discard on a daily basis? What happens to that? And..” She added thoughtfully, but slightly shamedly for thinking along that line “what happens if someone actually.. you know.. doesn’t make it? How will you store them?”
Posted by locknestra 
Where books & soap operas meet... 