—I know how to get up! I’m the one who showed you. I just know there is a way to do this. She can teleport herself and destroy cities. She should be able to get back on her feet without rolling over.
—She can’t scratch her back.
—Fair enough. But I’m not giving up.
—You do that. Just not with me.
—Hey, Alex, can I ask you something?
—Yes.
—Do you really want to do this?
—Shoot at rocks? Yes. It’s fun.
—The whole thing. You know we’re not just gonna shoot at rocks. At some point, they’ll send us out against real people, and things will go bad for everybody. Do you really want that?
—I volunteered.
—Why?
—It’s better than prison.
—Is it?
—I have a wife, three kids.
—You do? I’ve never seen them.
—I have not seen them in four years. But as long as I do what I’m told, they will be taken care of. They will be safe.
—Is their blood like ours?
—No, they are all A2s. My youngest, Lily, is a pureblood.
—I don’t understand. Why do they need to be protected?
—They don’t if I do what I’m told.
—They threatened you after you volunteered?
—They call it insurance. You look surprised.
—Not at that. From what I’ve seen, that’s just par for the course. I’m surprised you volunteered. You don’t strike me as the war type.
—I will do what needs—
—Alex, stop. That was a compliment. It’s why I agreed to pilot with you.
—You did not have a choice.
—I didn’t, that’s right, but I agreed anyway. I know you’ll do what you have to do. I just like that you’re not eager to do it.
—I love my country.
—You do? Still?
—I hate the people running my country. But I love Russia. Always will. Like my children. They do things I don’t like, but they are still my children. Besides, everyone is doing bad things now. You can’t hate everyone.
—No, but close.
—What about you? Do you just not care about your country?
—My country doesn’t really exist anymore.
—You know what I mean. You are piloting a Russian war machine.
—Themis isn’t Russian. And yeah, I do care. Like I said, my country doesn’t exist anymore, but the people in it do. I lived in Chicago when this all started, and I also care about Americans, deeply.
—They will call you a traitor.
—Oh yes. They will. They’ll be right, sorta. If a traitor is the opposite of a patriot, then that’s what I am.
—You don’t like patriots?
—I like the concept. It sounds good. To love the place where you’re from, nothing wrong with that, right? It’s all good. But is it love, really? Or is it pride?
—I don’t understand.
—Well, you can love something that’s flawed. It’s harder to be proud of it. Can you love something you’re not proud of? Much easier if you can do both. That’s where it gets messy because you need a reason. You have to have something to be proud of. Is it quality of life, education? How would you know? It has to be something much simpler. You, and people just like you. You start believing you’re better than everyone else. Other people, well, their culture is messed up, they have the wrong values, they’re not as good, not as smart, or they’re just plain evil. You can hate them or pretend you’re a good person and just be condescending. Everyone else is just as proud as you are for the exact same reasons, but they’re wrong, and you’re right.
That’d be just fine—you can buy more tanks and go to war with the guy next door—but then you look around and you see those same people inside your country. More than that, they want the same rights, the same opportunities, as everyone else. Shit, they could be in charge! So you start taking things away from them, making sure they’ll stay where they belong, and let the real citizens make the decisions. You step on your own people, you keep them down, because you’re proud of your country, because you’re a patriot.
—You are a cynical man, Vincent Couture.
—Maybe. Look around, Alex. Do you see anything to rejoice over?
—Yes. There is no one here. We can shoot at things.
—All right, let’s do it. Let’s practice your aim first. I’ll give you the sword. Huh, you’ll want to raise your arm. It’ll go through the ground with your arm down.
—Whoa.
—Yeah. I know. Just rai—What are you doing?
—Woooo! I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m a Jedi, like my father before me.
—Ha! Let me get us closer to that boulder so you can swing at something real. There, young Padawan.
—That. Is. So. Cool.
—All right, all right. Look to your right. See that boulder wayyyy over there?
—The tall one?
—Yep. The sword is at its longest, that’ll give a really narrow beam when we fire. Just aim at the boulder. The sphere we’re inside is about the same height as Themis’s arm but slightly to the left. That means you need to aim a bit to the right of where you think it’ll go. Are you ready?
—Yes! Fire!
—See. Like I told you, a bit more to the right. Lower. No, not that low. That’s good. A tiny tiny bit to the right. That’s it! Don’t move. Firing.
—Whoa. It’s just … gone.
—That’s the idea.
—I thought there would be some kind of explosion. Where did it go?
—The boulder? It didn’t go anywhere. Most of it turned into energy. Some of it is in a gaseous state. Technically, nothing was lost … I know. Crazy.
—Can we make a wider beam?
—Yeah. I’m setting it to forty-eight. That’s 75 percent of the length. The beam will be about twice as wide. Aim at the same spot.
—There is nothing there anymore.
—Well, that nothing will be a hole in a sec. Boom.
—That is a big hole. Do we just leave it there?
—No, we’ll fill it up. Oh, wait. Did you forget to bring the giant shovel?
—Very funny. What happens if we make the sword shorter? How large can the beam get?
—At the shortest, too large.
—Let’s try it.
—No. Just trust me on this. It’s not good.
—Please.
—No … There’s nothing big enough. Well …
—Well what?
—Oh what the hell. Aim over there.
—At what? The mountain?
—I wouldn’t call that a mountain, but yeah. There. Ready? Aaaand firing.
— …
—Alex, say something.
—I didn’t think …
—You thought this would be like driving a really big tank, like having the baddest muscle car on the block.
—We could—
—Yes. We could. Do you understand now? Themis was meant to protect us all, not for us to use against one another. She’s not a weapon. She’s a god.
—Can I ask you a question, Vincent? Why do you do this? You know what she can do. Why are you in here with me?
—Because if I’m not in here, someone else is. Someone who thinks Themis is just a really cool car. Because if I’m not, maybe my daughter is, and I can’t have that.
—Have you heard from her?
—Not a thing. They haven’t told me anything.
—What is it they say? No news is good news?
—Well, they do say that, but it’s bullshit. No news is just the absence of news. And in this case, I don’t think they’d tell me if something had happened to her.
—Are you sure?
—Oh yeah. They’d be too afraid of what it would do to my “motivation.”
FILE NO. 2174
INTERVIEW BETWEEN DR. ROSE FRANKLIN AND EVA REYES
Location: Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland
—Hi, Eva! No, please, don’t get up!
—Hey, Rose. What are you doing here?
—What do you think I’m doing here? I came as soon as I heard. You scared us for a while.
—Us?
—OK, you scared me.
—I swallowed some water.
—Your heart stopped. Your heart stopped for thirty minutes!
—OK, so I died a little. You were dead for years!
—Technically, you didn’t die.
—You just said my heart stopped for a half hour!
—I’m just saying you weren’t pronounced dead. You were too cold. Doctors can’t declare a patient dead while they’re in hypothermia. They need to be rewarmed first. I think the saying is: “They’re not dead until they’re warm and dead.”
—Still, thirty minutes. Is that a record?
—Sorry. You almost died. You came this close. You scared the hell out of me. But you won’t make the Guinness Book of Records.
—Yokits.