—I don’t think they can.
—It doesn’t make any sense, Rose. The empress can put up signs, blow up a few buildings, but I can’t imagine the Imperial Guard fighting against itself just to put on a show.
—I don’t know, Vincent. All I know is we have to leave before this turns into a full-blown civil war.
—All right, I’ll go get Eva. Then we grab Ekim and go. I know where we can find him.
—Do you think he’ll do it?
—He doesn’t have a choice. I can’t fly Themis through space, and I wouldn’t know where to go if I did. We’re not going anywhere without him.
—This is it, Vincent. It’s really happening. Are you OK with all this?
—I don’t regret anything if that’s what you’re asking. Are you OK?
—I’m scared. I’ll be honest, I’m having second thoughts. I’m not so sure we’re doing the right thing. Maybe we could have stopped this.
—You know what, Rose? We didn’t start it. We couldn’t stop it, but we didn’t start it. That’ll have to be enough. I’m sure the Ekt will forgive us for not trying to intervene.
—Haha! Must be really nervous. That’s not funny at all. What is that?
—It’s a gun. One of the guards gave it to me.
FILE NO. 2195 (CONTINUED)
MISSION LOG—VINCENT COUTURE AND SERGEANT ALEXANDER VASILIEV
Location: Aboard Themis. Sinuiju, North Korea
—Finish it, Eva! Just keep hitting if you hate me so much.
…
[I can’t hit you anymore, Dad.]
Eva, I love you. You have no idea how much I—
[I said hit, Dad, not hate.]
I know, Eva.
[I mean I literally can’t hit you. I can’t lift my arm anymore.]
That’s a start, Eva. That’s a start. Can you get up?
[No. My copilot’s legs are gone.]
Mine’s unconscious. Does that mean we’re done killing each other?
[Dad, I … Yes, we’re done killing each other.]
Good.
[We’re in trouble. I’m in trouble. The—]
<Vincent, what the fuck is going on?>
Hold on a sec, Eva. I gotta talk to Moscow.
We’re on our back, Katherine. Lapetus is lying on top of us. I think that about sums it up.
<We can see that, Vincent.>
Then why are you asking me?
<Jeez, Vincent, I don’t know. Oh! Yes, I remember now. There are a million Chinese crossing the bridge right now, and the North Korean Army is marching on your location with a few hundred tanks. What else? Oh, the Chinese aren’t taking my calls, so … If you’re not too busy, I’d like to know … what the fuck is going on!>
Well, like I said, we’re on our back.
<Can you, maybe, not be on your back?>
Maybe, if Alex ever wakes up. He looks pretty banged up.
<Wake him up!>
I’m not even sure he’s alive, Katherine.
<Well, you better find a way to get up on your own then, because if the Chinese, or the Koreans for that matter, get to you while you’re lying down, they’ll take Lapetus, kill your daughter, then they’ll come in and shoot you. They’ll shoot each other. Yada yada yada, they have two robots and pretty soon all our kids are singing the Chinese national anthem, watching the red flag go up on Mondays.>
That’s sweet of you to worry about me, I—
<Oh, I forgot. Just in case they don’t shoot you, I’ll have to kill you. You know how much I’d hate to do that. That would be so unpleasant.>
Poor you.
<Yeah, poor me. You’ll puke your insides out for a minute or two, then you’ll be dead. I’m the one who’ll have to live with the guilt—oh, Vincent, the guilt—and all the paperwork. There’ll be so. Much. Paperwork, Vincent. You can’t even imagine. Also, I’d have lost our one robot on its very first mission, and that won’t go too well with my boss. I’m telling you. Bad things will happen to me. Very bad things. Like I said, you need to—>
I can’t get up, Katherine. You need a new plan.
<I need! You’re the one lying on the ground in North Korea. Can you hold them off?>
Hold them off? You mean kill them?
<No! I meant hold them off. We won’t start a war with China for the fun of it, especially if they end up with the robots anyway.>
Not helpful. I can’t aim from here without Alex. I can fire a blast all around us, but that’s pretty indiscriminate. Let me see if Lapetus can do anything.
<Lapetus? I know your daughter’s in there, but they’re kind of the enemy, you know.>
Well, I doubt they’re looking forward to whatever is in store for them if they get caught, and I don’t think the US will be too happy to lose Lapetus either. Right now, I’d say we’re allies. You said Beijing wouldn’t talk to you. Try Washington. I’m sure they’d be happy to carpet bomb this place for you if they have planes nearby. For that matter, why don’t you? Warn the Chinese beforehand, they’ll leave, and we can all have dinner together. I’m starving.
<Why do you think the Chinese won’t take my call? Besides, it wouldn’t work. We couldn’t bomb the place forever, and they know we can’t send ground troops. They’d just wait and grab the robots afterwards. You need to find a way out of there, Vincent. It’s the only way you survive.>
I’m disappointed in you, Katherine. Now I feel like I picked the wrong country to be blackmailed by.
<Ooooh. That hurts.>
Gotta go. I can see the Chinese Army.
Eva?
[What took you so long?]
Meh, just Moscow telling me the Chinese are coming, so are the Koreans, and that they’ll kill us the minute either of them reaches Themis. How’s your day?
[They just told me the same thing. The US did. They’ll blow my head up, Dad. Can you get us out of this?]
I’m gonna try and send a small blast around us without killing everyone. Maybe they’ll keep their distance.
[You’re worried about the Chinese Army?]
I’m not going to kill a million people just to save the two of us, Eva. Sorry.
[I get that. But I can learn to live with myself if a dozen of them don’t make it and my head doesn’t explode. Yokits! The North Koreans are closing in too. I don’t think we can save everyone, Dad.]
No, we’ll both burst if they start shooting at us. We need to take the Koreans out. Can your robot fire at all? Those big bolts of light would come in pretty handy right about now.
[My copilot’s passed out. I’ll get out and see if I can wake her up.]
All right. I’ll send a small blast. Maybe they’ll get spooked.
[Whoa!]
What?
[Our leg’s gone. You obliterated our leg.]
I’ll buy you a new one. That thing was ugly as hell anyway.
[She won’t wake up, Dad. There’s a pool of blood under her legs. She needs help.]
There’s nothing you can do for her, Eva. Not right now. Look at the console. Find the button that looks like an equal sign with a dot above it.
[There isn’t one. They’re coming, Dad. The Koreans are coming.]
I’ll send out another burst. There. Did they stop?
[I don’t think so, no.]
You need to find that button, Eva. Themis hasn’t had a lot of time to recharge. She’ll run out of energy real quick. You’ll have to do it after that.
[There’s no equal sign!]
Look closer, Eva. It should be on the right.
[It’s not! There isn’t one, Dad!]
There has to be!
[The console’s different! I see the numbers you showed me, but there’s no yokits equal sign! Dot, or no dot.]
<Vincent, we’re showing the Chinese and Koreans closing in on your location.>
Yes, Katherine, we can see them too.
<Are they firing at each other?>
No, they’re not. I could be wrong, but I’d say you just lost a friend. It looks like the Koreans are going for Lapetus. They’re bringing in a bunch of trucks. I see large spools of cable.
<They want to tow Lapetus out of here?>
Best guess is they want to drag him away from Themis.
<Why?>
So they can get to us. Themis is on her back. They can’t access the hatch unless they flip us over. They can’t do that with Lapetus on top of us.
<Vincent, you know I can’t let them take you.>
You mean alive, right? Because they’ll “take me” regardless. I can slow them down, but you need to do something.
<There’s nothing we can do, Vincent. You’re on your own.>