Only Human (Themis Files #3)(70)

—Not now, Katherine. Oh, thank God, Alex is coming to. Hey there! Nice of you to join us!

—Where are we?

—Same place we were five minutes ago.

—My head hurts. Where are the Koreans?

—They’re gone for now. It’s just us and Lapetus.

—Are we fighting?

—No, Alex, we’re not fighting. We can’t move. They can’t either.

—How do you know?

—They haven’t moved an inch. They haven’t shifted their weight. They haven’t moved their arms one bit. No one can stay that still for five minutes. I know my daughter can’t. It won’t last, though. You should get ready.

—Ready for what?

—Eva’s pissed. She’s getting herself worked up. Watch her fingers.

—What?

—Her fingers. Lapetus’s fingers. Whatever. She won’t make any big moves. She won’t want to lose the element of surprise. She’s probably trying to move her pinky, tap her fingers on her leg, something subtle. When it works …

—She’ll attack us? She’s that pissed off at you?

—She doesn’t know the half of it.

—That bad, huh?

—I don’t know what to tell you, Alex. Have you ever wanted something … so bad? Nothing but that one thing means anything to you. You’d give … anything, your life, other people’s lives. It doesn’t matter. You work at it and you work at it and after a while you can’t see anything else. You can’t see the people around you. You can’t hear them. Then one day, out of the blue, you get it. It finally happens. You’re happy. You feel that great sense of accomplishment. Then you start wondering what you’ve missed along the way while you were chasing that one thing. Would it have meant this much in the end if you’d paid attention to what was around you the whole time?

[Vincent, if you don’t answer me now, I’ll fill Themis with VX gas and listen to you twitch and gargle for a minute or two while I eat lunch. I swear, I’ll put you on speaker, so I can hold my knish with both hands.]

Relax, Katherine. We’re—Wait. Is that what’s bothering you? Having to hold the phone? I’m pretty sure you can put us on speaker without killing us. That has to be its own button. One for twitch and gargle, one that says “speaker.” If you’re not sure, though, don’t press anything.

[Vincent, I have a million Chinese soldiers just itching to shoot at something.]

I wouldn’t come anywhere near us if I were them. This place is about to get ugly.

[You’re going to fight Lapetus?]

More like Lapetus is going to fight us. As soon as they recharge, I’m pretty sure they’ll take a swing at us. You sound worried. I thought that’s what you wanted.

[You’re gonna win, right?]

Well, one of us will.

[You better win. I want Lapetus.]

Now you’re just being delusional. They’re going to beam as far away from here as they can if they feel they’re losing. We’ll do the exact same thing. No one is going to “win” if that’s what you mean by winning. No one is getting a second robot out of this, Katherine.

[A girl can dream, Vincent.]

A girl can dream and eat her knish with both hands.

[I was serious about the VX gas, you know.]

No you weren’t. You only think you were.

[Dear God. I sense some serious mansplaining coming.]

Not really. I’d use the same slightly condescending tone if your name was—is there a male version of Katherine? No, really! I can be condescending to everyone. Come on, Katherine. You just threatened to kill me! You, and the Americans for that matter, just didn’t think it through. I told you you’re not getting a second robot out of this. Why? Because they’ll leave before you can get your hands on it. They can only do that if they’re alive. That’s why this completely insane fail-safe they have in place is useless. They won’t kill their pilots because if they do, you’ll grab Lapetus. Same reason you won’t use that gas. It would mean turning Themis over to them. You’re not gonna do that because you’re intelligent, incredibly smart, and wise. Did I say smart?

[You and I are gonna have a talk when you get back here.]

I have to go now; my daughter is about to punch me in the face.

[I don’t mean to rush you or anything, but Pyongyang isn’t going to sit still all day, even if you are.]

Alex, are you ready for this?

—No.

—Good. Overconfidence is bad.

—Then I’m doing great.

—That makes two of us.

—Didn’t you beat that robot before?

—No, that was another one. This one was kicking the living shit out of me and Eva. It came this close. Rose stopped it from killing us.

—That is not particularly reassuring.

—Well, Eva couldn’t handle it either.

—How old was she?

—Ten, but that’s not the point.

—What is the point?

—I—

—Wait! I think I saw her finger move.

—She’ll come at us soon. I wish I knew how. Eugene—General Govender—taught her military tactics.

—Was she any good?

—Apparently. What was that move he said she liked so much? Blitzkrieg? No, that’s not it. Flanking maneuvers!