“Something about time to go,” Khan answered, and we all listened carefully when Pearl placed her hand on Christina’s arm.
“Are you sure?”
“The university is large, and I’ll admit that I would like to keep digging to see what buried treasures we could find, but it would take me years to uncover the whole thing and I’m not sure it’s healthy for me to stay.”
“Is it Boulder?”
Christina lifted her gaze and gave a small nod. “He wants me to stay.”
“And you, do you want to stay?”
“No,” she said and looked down. “Of course not.”
In Khan’s office, I fisted my hands and closed my eyes, exhaling deeply.
“Then we should start planning for your return,” Pearl said softly. “There are messages I need you to deliver to the council and you need to copy everything from the flash drive. What is found in the Northlands remains in the Northlands; it’s part of our agreement. We can learn from our findings and bring home electronic information, but the books have to stay.
Christina tensed up. “You know they have lots of books already, right?”
“So?”
“Even in this mansion there are plenty of antique books. Maybe they wouldn’t mind if I bring back a few and study them.”
“Maybe,” Pearl said thoughtfully. “But you would need to let a librarian classify them first.”
“I could classify them,” Christina suggested.
“No, Christina, you’re still young and impressionable. Reading of violence or passion could bring out unwanted emotions in you.”
“You mean like longings?” she asked.
Pearl squeezed both her hands. “Yes, Christina, like longings.”
“Those books aren’t forbidden here,” Christina said softly.
“I know.” Pearl let go of Christina’s hand and looked out the window. “They didn’t used to be forbidden in the Motherlands either.”
“So what changed?”
Pearl’s shoulders lifted in a shrug. “It’s confidential, but since I sense that it hasn’t happened to you and you already declared that you’re going home, I’ll tell you.”
“Turn up the volume,” I instructed Khan.
“In the beginning of the twenty-third century a young woman wrote a series about the Nmen. It was pure fiction of course, but she made them sound like amazing, virile heroes and had millions of women starting to swoon at the idea of being with one of them.” Pearl shook her head. “Of course, the council back then tried to spread the word that it wasn’t true and nothing but a fairytale, but women made their way to the borders trying to get across.”
Khan, Magni, and I exchanged glances. “What the fuck,” Magni muttered. “I didn’t know that.”
“And then what?” Christina asked.
Pearl let out a deep breath. “Obviously, the council couldn’t allow it and needed to take radical measures to protect the women. All of them were sent back home, and after that laws were made to prohibit people from speaking about the Nmen and sharing pictures or stories about them. Not only were the books that had started this dangerous situation banned but so were all books that involved sexual passion or violence. It’s been that way for more than two centuries now and we still enforce those laws to prevent something similar from happening again.”
“But if someone wanted to come here and stay voluntarily, why couldn’t they?” Christina asked with her head tilted.
“It’s not safe here. What do you think would happen to us if we weren’t protected in this mansion? Nmen are not like our men. They have high levels of testosterone and are prone to violence.”
“True.” Christina looked down. “But Boulder has been very kind to me.”
“That’s good, but for all we know, he might be an anomaly, Christina; we can’t know for sure. And there’s the obvious concern.”
