Only Human (Themis Files, #3)(85)
—God help us all.
—She already has an offer from the EDC.
—What does the EDC need with helicopter pilots?
—They’re putting together a…conventional strike force, developing new tech. State-of-the-art experimental stuff.
—Who’s running it? Don’t tell me they got Alyssa to run it?
—Ha! No, but she does work there.
—I…Who did they put in charge?
—You’re going to love this. Remember Katherine from Russia?
—No! Really?
—Yep.
—Wow. They’re building weapons.
—Well, yeah. Just in case harsh language fails to stop an alien invasion.
—I don’t like this at all, Vincent.
—Then you’re really not going to like this. There’s someone here who’d like to say hello…Come in!
—Mr. Burns!
[You seem surprised, Dr. Franklin!]
I saw you. I saw you board the Ekt ship and leave. You and everyone else.
[I did. As far as the me on that ship is concerned, I’ve been gone over a year…I suppose I’ve been dead over a year.]
But—
[Oh, come on, Dr. Franklin! I said I was willing to die. I didn’t say I was stupid. I couldn’t watch thousands of people—my family, my closest friends, me!—vanish into nothingness for no good reason.]
How did you—?
[Same way we brought you back, of course! Before we left, we each scanned ourselves with the device we used on you—when was that?—nineteen years ago! Wow! We’re not getting any younger. We scanned ourselves and stored the information. That was…mindlessly boring. You should have seen the line for the machine! I asked a friend of ours—your daughter met him, Mr. Couture!—to make us whole again when it was safe. I guess it was safe!]
—Was it—What was his name?—Bob?
[Yes! Bob! He sends Eva his best. He says…let’s see if I can remember. Oh yes! Artél’nyj gorshók gúshhe kipít. Something like that.]
What does it mean?
[How should I know? It’s in Russian.]
I’ll tell her he said hi.
[You do that. It’s funny, all my life, I wanted to visit the planet of my ancestors, and I finally did! But I don’t remember anything about it because I wasn’t even there. Ironic, isn’t it?]
—I don’t know what to say. I don’t— [What, Dr. Franklin? You don’t what? I know you’re happy to see me, even if you’re making that face right now. Seriously, you look like you just drank a whole glass of sour milk.]
—I think Rose is worried the Ekt will find out you’re alive and come back.
—No, Vincent. They won’t. The Council just needed a victory of sorts after all that happened. I don’t think they could care less about what goes on here.
[That’s the spirit. And who knows? The universe isn’t the most friendly place. You might need some old fool with stories to tell someday.]
I’m sure we will, Mr. Burns. I’m sure we will.
[Speaking of stories, you never told me about the time you fell into that giant metal hand.]
Of course I have! You know all about it. You even told me you played a part in all that.
[No, no, no! I told you we made sure you’d be the one studying that hand when you were older, but we didn’t know anything about you until you fell into that hole. I’d love to hear that story.]
Some other time, maybe?
[Do you have anything better to do right now? Don’t answer that, I already know the answer.]
—I’ve never heard that story either, Rose.
[See! Everyone wants to hear it. Please!]
—All right…It was my eleventh birthday. I’d gotten a new bike from my father…
Eyaktept eket ontyask atakt oyansot ot.
Eyantsant eps.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It’s over. I wrote a yokits trilogy. I’m not quite sure what emotion I’ll settle on in the end. For now, I’m happy. I’m sad. I’m proud. I want to thank Seth, my agent, Will, Rebecca and everyone at Gernert. I owe all of you drinks for the rest of your lives. Jon Cassir at CAA. My editors—I’ve had a few. Mark, thank you for giving this series a home. Mike, who is now being chased by zombies all day—killing a hundred million people with you was a lot of fun. Mouahaha! Sarah! You’re amazing. I’m still in awe at your work on this. You get it. You truly get it. I hope we get to do this again. Everyone else at Del Rey, Alex, David, Emily, Erika, Keith, Scott, Tricia, I love you all. You’re family to me. To the entire PRH audio team, you’ve made something truly special. Let’s not forget my three UK editors—like I said, I’ve had a few. Alex, Emad, Jillian, thank you for putting that big face in the UK sky. Thanks to my nineteen other editors around the world. Thank you, Dave Kaiser, for helping with Bob’s Russian. He says: “Bolshoe spasibo!” To everyone who’s worked on that series in one way or another, thank you.
To Barbara, former president of Bot Bot publishing, can you believe how far we’ve come? This is the thing I started writing on my iPhone while you were reading. I wouldn’t be here without you. To my son, Theodore. You’re the inspiration for all this, so keep asking questions, lots of questions. And don’t worry, we’ll get you more Themis toys.