Only Human (Themis Files #3)(73)

—They’re rolling us over! Grab his leg and throw him to the ground! Alex! Grab his leg before he can pin us down!

Oh shit!

—I can’t move my arms!

—Eva, don’t do this!

[Did you stop when I told you not to drag Ekim into this? Now take this you yokits ass! UGH! How’s that feel?]

—AAAAGH! What do I do?

—I have no fu—AAAAAGH! Stop it, Eva! AAAAAARGH!

—MY ARM!

—Alex?

—I think I dislocated my shoulder.

—You broke his arm, Eva, now stop this!

[Tough luck. He shouldn’t have come with you if he didn’t want to get hurt.]

AAARGH! Screw this! I’m beaming us out of here!

—We’re on our back, Vincent! Where can we—AAARGH!

—UP, ALEX! WE’RE GOING UP!

…

—Where are we?

—About five hundred feet in the air.

—You’re insane!

—Maybe. We’re falling. Brace yourself, this is gonna leave a mark!

—FUUUUUUCK MEEEEEE!!!!





FILE NO. 2196 (CONTINUED)


MISSION LOG—WARRANT OFFICER EVA REYES AND LT. BARBARA BALL, U.S. MARINE CORPS, MECHA DIVISION


Location: Aboard Lapetus. Seoul, South Korea


—MOVE, BARBARA! THEY’RE ABOVE US!

—Abo—AAAAAAARRGH!

— …

—Eva, I need help.

—Aagh …

—Eva?

—My … My left arm’s broken.

—Eva, I need help. I—

—I’m here, Barbara.

—I don’t know what happened. My legs …

—They fell on top of us, Barbara. They beamed into the yokits sky. Are you OK?

—I can’t move my legs.

—Get out of your station, Barbara. I’ll come down and beam us away.

—I can’t get out. That machine I’m in. I think it broke, crushed my legs inside it. I can’t feel them. I can’t feel anything from the waist down.

—I’ll come help you!

—No, don’t. You’ll do more harm than good. They’ll need to take this thing apart to get me out of it.

—Your face is bleeding.

—Oh … I might have broken my nose on the console. Where’s Themis?

—She’s on her back right next to us.

—What are you doing, Eva?

—I’m dragging us on top of her.

—I won’t be able to get up, Eva. It’s over.

—Give me the weapon.

—Eva. No.

—Fine. I’ll hit with my hands. I’m not giving up, Barbara.

—Jesus Christ, Eva.

[Eva, are you there?]

—Fuck you, Dad.

[Eva, you have to stop! We have to stop!]

I won’t stop! I won’t do what you want.

<Lapetus, this is Central. What’s your status?> I’m done listening to you.

<Lapetus, do you copy? Over.> My whole life, you tried to tell me what to do. Yokits, that hurts! Well, not anymore, Dad. You’re done ruining my life. You’re— <Lapetus, do you co—> WHAT, Central? What do you want?

<What is your current status, Lapetus?> Good question, Central. What is our status? That contraption of yours crushed the lieutenant’s legs. We can’t walk. I have one good arm.

<Lapetus, are you able to retreat?> Retreat? I’m losing you, Central. The signal’s bad. Real bad.

[Eva, my copilot’s unconscious, maybe dead. I’d leave if I could, but you have to stop.]

You stole my yokits life, Vincent!





FILE NO. 2195 (CONTINUED)


MISSION LOG—VINCENT COUTURE AND SERGEANT ALEXANDER VASILIEV


Location: Aboard Themis. Sinuiju, North Korea


—Eva, my copilot’s unconscious, maybe dead. I’d leave if I could, but you have to stop.

[You stole my yokits life, Vincent!]

Eva, I’m sorry.

[You stole my life just so you could get back here! To your life in this … cesspool!]

Oh God, Eva. You don’t know what I did, what we had to do to get you back here. You have no idea.

[Who is we? What did you do?]

Rose and I, after Eugene died, we swore to each other we would get you back home safe. We thought we could do it, find a way home, but we didn’t. We couldn’t. We … I gave up everything, Eva. I gave up everyone.

[What does that mean? What did you do, Vincent?! WHAT DID YOU DO!]

The empress, she offered us a way home. But she … She wanted to take over, she needed to make arrests.

[Oh, no! No! No! No!]

I did it, Eva. I gave up everyone, all our friends.

[YOU MOTHERFUCKER!]

AAAARGH! I did it Eva! I killed them. I gave her Esok’s name. She’s dead because of me.

[I’LL KILL YOU!!!]

DO IT! Do it, Eva! If that’s what you want, keep punching! AAARRRGH!!!!

…

[They didn’t do anything, you stupid yokits asshole! They didn’t do it! We didn’t do it! There was no Hand of Yetskots!]

I know!

[What?]

We knew, Eva. We knew from the beginning it was all a sham. We knew the minute the empress told us about the Hand, the minute she said she wanted to swoop in and save the day.