Yes, I used you when you were only a boy. I was desperate. I’m sorry. And I’m still grateful for the help you gave me.
Oliver thought Five was pouring it on a little thick. He could barely reconcile this warm, grateful beast with the slick son of a bitch he’d known back in the day. He suspected he was still a slick son of a bitch, manipulating them the way he’d manipulated both Oliver and Kai years before.
Five turned back to Oliver. You’re right. I was intentionally cruel to you. I hated you all the more because you treated me well, and made it harder for me to see you as a bug whose life wasn’t worth much. Killing something while simultaneously feeling her pain is truly indescribable. I think it drove us a little mad.
“You’re just bursting with sincerity, aren’t you?” Lila said. “I’m getting all misty-eyed.”
Five made a gurgling noise. We’re not all in agreement, either. Many of my kind are against this. You’re not sure you can trust us? Imagine if you knew with absolute certainty that nearly all of your potential allies hated and feared you, that they wished you dead. Imagine proposing an alliance with people who, after signing a peace treaty with you, immediately handed you over to monsters to be exterminated.
Oliver swallowed hard. How easy it was to remember all the atrocities the Luyten had committed, but forget the betrayal they’d perpetrated on the Luyten.
He had the urge to clap his hands over his ears and hum. Five’s arguments were compelling, but Oliver didn’t want to be convinced—he wanted to hold on to his certainty that the Luyten couldn’t be trusted.
We can be petty, just like humans. Can’t you allow that we might also share more noble human qualities, like remorse, kindness, integrity? I don’t want to be your enemy. I don’t want to stand by while two billion of your people are killed. I’m ready to fight at your side.
Oliver’s throat tightened. He turned away, took a few steps down the path. “Get out of here. I need to talk to my family.”
Without another word, Five left. None of them spoke until Five was out of sight, although they knew Five could hear them regardless of where he was.
“I think our first step is to confirm defenders are in fact evacuating some densely populated areas,” Oliver said.
Karachi, Shanghai, São Paulo, Jakarta, Calcutta, Tehran, Chicago—
“All right,” Oliver said, clenching his eyes shut. He pinched his temples, already sick of hearing that voice in his head. He looked at Lila and Kai. “I’ll find out if it’s true. It’s less risky for me to do it. Let’s meet back here in two days.”
Lila and Kai nodded. Oliver looked off through the woods, toward the spot where Five had disappeared. Was he lingering just out of sight? Was he going to stay within telepathic range of Oliver for the duration? Surely he was; that’s why he’d come. The thought made Oliver queasy.
“So, how are you, Dad?” Kai asked.
Oliver looked at him, thrown by the question. “I’m sorry I don’t get to see you and Lila as often as I’d like. I know it’s not ideal to have to meet like this—”
“No, Dad, it’s not about that. If I was in your position, I’d do the same thing. I’m just asking. How are you?” Kai started to say more, then stopped, folded his arms across his chest. “Isn’t that why we’re fighting them, so we can stay human? Talk to each other about nothing? We’re so boxed in. So blocked off. We don’t talk to each other anymore.” He shook his head sadly. “We’ve gotten so screwed up from all of this.”
Oliver wasn’t sure how to respond. Kai was right, but Oliver didn’t know if he remembered how to talk about nothing, how to relax and just be a family. All he could think to do was give Kai a hug, so that’s what he did. Kai hugged him back, nodded as they separated.
Oliver turned to find Lila waiting, arms open. He held her, blinked back tears, Kai’s words echoing in his mind. He was right, they needed to stay human. As human as they could, anyway.
“I’m okay,” Oliver said as he let go of Lila. “I’m still collecting my comics. DC now. I’m working on a complete run of Superman.”
She smiled. “That’s a tough run to complete.”
“How about you?” Oliver asked. “You finding any games to play in? Besides the fiascos with the defenders, I mean.”
As Kai ran through the players in his regular games, Oliver felt relieved to discover he could still have a conversation.
75
Oliver Bowen
October 23, 2047. Washington, D.C.
He was standing in the shower, drying himself off, when he heard the sound of a coin dropping into a vending machine. It was the sound his phone made when he had an incoming text message. He dropped the towel and rushed into the living room, dripping wet and cold.
Peter—
Here are the statistics for the products you’re interested in. Good luck with your business venture!
Diane
He opened the attachment, scanned the numbers. His heart sank as he read down the columns. Shipments of filet mignon, jumbo shrimp, and leg of lamb coming into Karachi, Shanghai, São Paulo, and the other cities Five had listed had dropped precipitously. They were the foods only defenders could afford, the ones defenders favored. Shipments of those foods to major cities not on Five’s list had actually increased somewhat.
A human inquiring about defender troop movement was a dead human, but there were many ways to determine if a specific population was on the move.
“Oh, Christ,” he said under his breath.
Oliver began typing a quick note of thanks to Alissa Valeri, who’d been a top-notch data hound at the CIA.
The doorbell rang. Almost no one knew he lived there; the door hadn’t rung in a month. He went to the window.
For a moment he didn’t recognize the woman standing at his door, then it registered.
It was Vanessa.
Fingers trembling, Oliver flipped the lock and opened the door. “Hi. How did you find me?” She looked older than when he’d last seen her. That had been almost ten years earlier, when he bumped into her at a Nationals game. She was still beautiful. Oliver pulled the door open wider so Vanessa could come in, but she stayed where she was.
“Will you please get that thing out of my head?” she said.
“What? What thing?”
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t know about it? Honestly?”
“Vanessa, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Vanessa closed her eyes, spoke very slowly. “The alien is trying to convince me to reconcile with you.”
“What? Oh, no. You’ve got to be kidding.” It made sense. Five was trying to fix what it had done, to prove his sincerity.
Vanessa was studying him carefully. “You had nothing to do with it? You didn’t ask it to do this?”
“God, no. I wouldn’t inflict that monster on my worst enemy.” He reached out as if to touch Vanessa, but hesitated. “I’m so sorry about this, Vanessa. Believe me, I know what it’s like to have that monster in your head.”
She gave Oliver a sarcastic smile. “You’ll be happy to know it takes full responsibility for the misunderstanding between us.”
Even her indirect reference to his tragic blunder made him cringe. What an idiot he’d been back then. “Well, that’s big of him.”
“Can you get it to leave me alone? I’m going to jump off a bridge if it doesn’t stop.”
Oliver heaved a big sigh. “I’ll try. He has to be within telepathic range to hear me, and he has to be willing to speak to me. Although lately, the latter’s been less of a challenge than it used to be.”