Chapter 2
AIN’T NO FORTUNATE SON
Manhattan in winter carried no snow on its streets between the seawalls encircling the island.
The wind hadn’t been icy for decades, and blizzards were stories told in high school history classes.
Megatall skyscrapers that seemed to touch the clouds crowded the island, linked by aerial pedestrian walkways buttressed between restricted routes in the air and on the ground for automated cabs, cars, and buses.
New York City had erected walls against the rising ocean across all Five Boroughs generations ago and sealed off its ancient subway in metal tubes.
Humanity could live on the coasts so long as the seawalls never fell, surrounded by waterways that hadn’t existed even a century ago.
The archaic bridges that used to link the Five Boroughs of the megacity were swallowed by rising sea waters and replaced over a century ago.
Their iconic towers were salvaged from the sea and placed in a transportation museum located inland, within New York State proper, far from the waters they used to span.
Manhattan was the jewel of New York City, its beating cultural heart a place all Americans dreamed of living one day.
If you could make it there, you could make it anywhere.
With a population of forty million packed into the sprawling urban megacity, dreams of a better life came crashing down daily.
Manhattan was home to the inherently wealthy, offered a workplace to the half-forgotten tiny middle class, and had displaced the poor and working poor through gentrification several generations ago.
Jamie was well aware of the history that came with his birthplace.
Belonging to an extremely wealthy and politically prestigious Manhattan family meant he’d never questioned his place in life until he put on a uniform.
Money, he knew from extensive experience, could buy literally anything in this day and age.
What it couldn’t buy was family peace.
He stepped through the sliding black doors of Sakura, the premier Japanese sushi restaurant in New York City, with grim determination to see the night through.
Reservations were fought for a year in advance, and the resale market for them was just as hot.
Most people would never make it inside to Sakura’s elegant, sexy interior.
Jamie’s family, like most other wealthy elites, had other avenues for claiming a table on short notice.
Located on one of the highest levels in a downtown skyscraper, the restaurant took up the entire floor in an open-plan setting surrounding the central kitchen and support columns.
A silk ink painting of an ancient feudal Japanese village spanned the entire wall of the waiting area to Jamie’s left.
The crimson, gold, and black interior of the restaurant was softly lit, while the murmur of water flowing through the koi pond that snaked around the private dining areas was a soothing background noise.
Each table was separated by silk-screen walls and living plants, which created a quasi-private environment for every party.
The tables were either situated under a small mock-up of a pagoda roof or the recreated boughs of living cherry blossom trees.
What Sakura was known for beyond the décor was how each table was set.
Chairs were situated around a black marble table whose highlight was the naked young man or woman that lay on it, their bodies absolute toned perfection that lines of freshly made sushi and sashimi were delicately draped over to cover every inch of skin.
A thin strip of black silk was draped over their hips only, while their faces were made up in the style of Japanese geishas or traditional opera masks.
The food at Sakura was exquisite, but Jamie could have done without the pageantry.
Jamie made his way to the hostess, who was checking in several parties, deftly handling their need to be attended to first. The next group in line was whisked away to their table, and Jamie stepped up to the small dais, smiling at the hostess. “Reservation for Callahan.”
The woman glanced down at the information coming up between her fingers and the data rings she wore on her left hand. She quickly tapped out a command on the holographic display before folding her fingers together in a loose fist to close it out.
“Of course, sir. Your party is waiting.”
A kimono-garbed young woman stepped forward and smoothly gestured for him to follow her.
They took a meandering path around private dining nooks and small bridges set over the koi pond bubbling underfoot.
Jamie glanced down at the brightly colored koi fish that swam lazily beneath the lights and glass flooring in certain areas, drifting through the bends of the pond.
The woman bowed him into the dining area his mother had reserved beneath the outstretched branches of a cherry blossom tree in constant full bloom.
The silk-screen walls were woven through with nanotech fibers to better employ electronic jammers for privacy.
Patrons were free to use their own tech, but the layers of security ensured a private conversation would remain private within each dining nook.
Knowing his father, Jamie was sure those precautions were already being utilized.
Three of the four low-backed seats were taken while the young woman lying on the table with her eyes closed remained absolutely still as Jamie’s family picked pieces of sushi off her body.
Jamie glanced at her ears, noting the silencing plugs that would keep her deaf for the duration of their dinner and ignorant of anything discussed in her presence.
She was beautiful, because the restaurant only provided beautiful people for its customers’ enjoyment, but Jamie couldn’t help but think he’d have a better time eating off Kyle than a complete stranger.
“Sorry I’m late,” Jamie said as he took a seat at the table beside his younger sister.
“Glad to see you actually made it out this time,” Leah Callahan said with a quick smile that mostly took the sting out of her words.
At twenty-five, Leah Callahan had grown into a gorgeous young woman Jamie hardly recognized.
Having spent a dozen years away in the military with little extended leave, he’d missed his little sister’s transition from child to adult.
Holopics on society and celebrity gossip sites didn’t do her justice, in his humble opinion.
Her long blonde hair fell in loose curls down her back, the ends dyed a shimmering pale pink that changed color depending on how the light hit it.
Her formfitting cobalt blue dress with discreet cutouts was the height of current fashion.
Her blue eyes were surrounded by smoky shadow that helped emphasize the color.
Good genes could be designed, and most families they knew tweaked something in their children while in utero, but the Callahans had never done so for their generation. They hadn’t needed to.
Jamie pressed a kiss to his sister’s cheek. “Good to see you, too, Leah.”
“You look well,” his mother said from the opposite side of the table as she peeled a piece of tuna sashimi off the young woman’s collarbone. “Was the flight over very long?”
“Not any longer than usual.”
“It’s a wonder we never see you more often, then.”
Charlotte Jacqueline Callahan, née Montgomery, was a woman who knew how to make her words hurt without even trying. Jamie really shouldn’t have been surprised dinner was starting out this way.
Jamie looked across the table and met his mother’s cool gaze with unblinking eyes.
Charlotte was gorgeous and looked more like a woman in her early forties than one in her mid-fifties.
No wrinkles marred her face, her pale, smooth skin the only enhancement she ever allowed herself.
In her day and age, she’d been a beauty who had broken hearts across continents before falling for his father.
They made a striking couple even now. Jamie had her hair coloring, whereas his glacial blue eyes came from his father, and he seemed to have acquired both their senses of stubbornness, much to their displeasure.
Charlotte wore a black-and-white, off-the-shoulder silk brocade dress that complemented his father’s suit perfectly.
Her blonde hair was swept up in a sleek chignon, revealing a choker of diamonds wrapped around her throat that sparkled in the light.
Jamie let his gaze drift from her to his father, unsurprised to see Richard Callahan studying him just as intently.
“You should be more punctual,” Richard said after a brief, tense pause.
“Work ran long,” Jamie replied evenly. “I couldn’t very well leave before everything was finished. My job will always take precedence over everything else, Father. You know that.”
“Is that so?”
Jamie bit back a sigh as he poured himself a glass of nigori sake, resigned to an acrimonious meal.
Jamie was reminded of the stark difference between meals with his family and meals with his team.
He never seemed to be short of words with the people who were his teammates and friends, but when it came to his family, Jamie was finding himself at a loss more and more these days.
It wasn’t that he didn’t love his family, but the friction his choices in life had created between them always made it difficult for everyone to come together without fighting.
Things had become worse since his father officially announced his campaign to run for president back in early December.