Anger Management
"No word from Utah?" Chantry asked weakly from his wheelchair, as Maria pushed him through the garden in the hot morning sun.
"No, but you know he's under orders not to contact us unless he has something solid to go on."
Chantry nodded, but he continued to fret inside over the delay. Perhaps he should have asked Flint to do the mission. No, that wouldn't have been good. The traitors would have known he was on to them if he'd sent Flint.
No he would just have to trust the young man to accomplish the task he'd assigned him. He hoped he hadn't put too much on Utah's shoulders to accomplish by himself.
"Stop worrying!" Maria intoned into his thoughts.
Chantry sighed, "I know, but it's my nature to worry."
Maria parked him and walked on to a clump of flowering daylilies that were Chantry's favorite. She picked one and returned to give it to him.
"Thank you my dear." He said, as he admired the beauty of the flower in his hand that sparkled in the warm morning sunlight.
Chantry was grateful for the warmth of the sun that helped to take away the chill from his bones. It seemed like he could never get warm anymore.
All of Elon's healing touch was gone, as if it had never been. Chantry knew he didn't have long, which was why he was so anxious for this situation of betrayal within the Agency to be resolved.
He with great effort calmed down his racing thoughts tinged with anxiety and focused on the flower in his lap and the warmth of the sun. It really was going to be another beautiful day.
Chantry glanced up from his inspection of the blossom to the flower of feminine appeal showcased in the form of Maria. He looked at her out of a frank appreciation for beauty without any lust behind the focus of his thoughts.
Beauty can be defined in many different forms and persuasions, as varied as the eyes of the beholder, but Maria in Chantry's opinion showcased the most foundational form of beauty that a woman could possess. Her beauty could be evoked or summed up in just two words, good genes.
Society has gone far from its humble origins of one man and one woman, but society at its barest level still relies on the ability to procreate and continue the species despite the cover story that beauty has many important purposes and diversions other than procreating and the responsibility that follows of raising one's own offspring.
In Chantry's opinion many of the other masks or interpretations of beauty were simply that, a mask to cover up what many now lacked, which was good genes. Good genes were at a premium, as evidenced by the price of black-market organs and gene therapies on high demand the world around.