Only Human (Themis Files #3)(54)
—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.
—Good news is they say you’ll recover completely. How are you feeling?
—I’m high as a kite, so not bad. I don’t know what they gave me. I still hurt. My entire body hurts, like I’ve been dipped in boiling water. I just don’t care. Good pills.
—You’ll get better.
—How are you, Rose? What have you been doing?