Sleeping Giants (Themis Files #1)(48)

Three hundred eleven people in total, three hundred twelve with your scientist. One hundred nineteen Americans, about two hundred Ice…people from Iceland, two dozen Canadians, and a few people from nine more countries whose governments are publicly blaming us—rightfully so, I might add—and demanding an explanation. Some of them will get over it, but you can definitely add Iceland to the list of countries that want bad things to happen to us.

—Do we really need Iceland on our side?

—Well, we need someone on our side.

—Perhaps.

—That’s it? One snide remark about Iceland? No expression of remorse, no apology, not one word about the people you killed?

—Could I erase 312 deaths with a few heartfelt words?…Then, no, I do not see the point.

—It might make you at least appear like a human being. In any case, you’re probably the only person on the planet who doesn’t want to talk about it.

There’s pretty much nothing else on television anywhere in the world. Strangely, most channels are going the human-interest route.

—Why is that so strange?

—Giant robot magically dematerializes everything for half a mile. I just thought…

—People will not understand that part. Crying mothers are accessible. I find it rather typical.

—Maybe you’re right. Heartbreaking stories though, you should hear some of them.

Husband surprised his wife and three kids with tickets to Paris for their anniversary. There is a fourteen-year-old girl in Memphis who will die in the next few hours because the heart she needed was on the Dash 8 that vanished. Lots of twin stories, both twins on the plane, one twin on the plane. There was a young couple, coming home from Thailand, with the daughter they’d been waiting for…

—You can stop. What are they saying about the robot?

—Anything and everything. Speculations range from a giant Mayan statue to…well, to pretty much what it really is, but everyone is completely baffled by whatever made that hole. The best explanation they came up with so far is some amazingly fast cover-up on our part. The press is suggesting we somehow got rid of all the debris from a large explosion, in less than ten minutes.

Regardless, we’re gonna have to come up with something. I’ll meet with the president this afternoon and figure out the best course of action.

—That will not be necessary. The president already knows what he will do.

—What are you talking about?

—He and I met this morning and we are in agreement.

—How dare you talk to the president without speaking to me first! I tell you what he wants, not the other way around.

—You can take it up with him if you want. He was not, in any way, obligated to talk to me.

—I will. As soon as this meeting’s over.

—That will not be possible, I am sorry to say. He is in New York, meeting with the Security Council. He will make a public announcement this afternoon.

—What’s the cover story?

—There is no cover story. He is going to tell them exactly what they saw.

—You mean he’s gonna tell the world that aliens left giant robot parts on Earth thousands of years ago, and that we’ve been secretly assembling them in an underground base, all in the hopes of keeping it to ourselves?

—He will probably want to reformulate the last part, but if you turn on CNN at 3:00 P.M., that is more or less what you will hear.

—He’s completely lost his mind.

—He seemed coherent enough when I met him this morning.

—He’s gonna sound like a goddamn lunatic!

—Seventy-two hours ago, a giant robotic figure, about twenty stories tall, was seen by just about every living soul on this planet after it created a half-mile-wide perfectly spherical crater, obliterating part of Denver International Airport. What would you suggest? Routine military exercise? Weather balloons? I should also point out that the leaders of several countries already know that we did not build it ourselves since we had to steal the pieces from them.

—He’s going to end his political career.

—He is trying to prevent World War III.

—Do you really think the other governments are just gonna say: “Oh! It’s an alien thing! Never mind, then. Carry on!”?

—They will have questions, I have no doubt. They will want reassurances. But they will also have to come to terms with the idea that we are not alone in the universe. The president is hoping that realization is enough to bring everyone to some sort of agreement.

—OK, so we tell the Russians, the Chinese, the French government. Why go the extra mile and tell the whole world? Don’t you think the population might react, let’s say, unfavorably to aliens and a giant government conspiracy to boot?

—I do not believe the election is foremost in his mind at this juncture.

—I wasn’t suggesting he might lose votes. I was thinking of something more along the lines of mass hysteria.

—That will not happen. People have been sufficiently desensitized.

—What?

—Desensitized. Made less sensitive. People have seen too many alien movies to be completely shocked by their existence. You expose someone to something long enough and they become…desensitized.

—We’re talking about the real McCoy here, not some guy in a rubber suit on television.