[Last time we almost died.]
Then not like last time. Look, there’s nothing I can do. If I knew how to speed this up, believe me I would.
—Go talk to Ekim, Eva. You have some time. You should talk to him. You might not see him again after he’s gone.
[I hate you, Dad. I really hate you.]
—I know.
—She’ll get over it, Vincent. Just give her time.
—I don’t know, Rose. What we did, it’s…Anyway, she’s home, that’s all that matters. Now we just need to get Ekim home safe.
—He could stay here.
—No, he couldn’t. They’d put him in a cage, stick needles in him all day. A hundred million of us died the last time his people were on Earth. It’s been a while, but I don’t think folks here would’ve forgotten.
—What will happen to him when he gets back home?
—Well, he’ll tell them we kidnapped him—we did. Hopefully, they’ll end it at that.
—Do you think they’ll believe him?
—I don’t know, Rose. What would you have me do? Write him a note?
—He looks scared.
—He’s a kid! He’s millions of miles away from home, and he may have just committed treason. I’d be scared too.
—You put a gun to his head.
—Like I said, I’d be scared too.
—We just traveled millions of miles ourselves, you know.
—Weird, isn’t it? We’ve waited all this time, then, boom. We’re here.
—Our…friend once told me it took ten days to get from there to here. It just feels instantaneous. I’m not sure how they’d know.
—Know what, Rose?
—How long it takes to get from there to here.
—They’d probably check the date?
—How? We can get the date here, but what we’d need to know is the date over there, now. How do you get that? You go back, divide by two?
—I have no idea. I…
—You did what you had to do, Vincent.
—Did I? Did I have to do this?
—Don’t go there, Vincent. Don’t.
—What’s worse is I don’t feel nearly as bad as I think I should. Shit.
—What?
—Can’t be. Not that soon.
—What’s happening?
—Lights. There are a bunch of vehicles coming our way. Trucks, maybe. Ekim, eket eyyots apt aks.
[Who’s coming, Dad?]
I don’t know, but they seem to be in a hurry to get here.
[Yokits! Now what? We can’t do anything!]
Well, if it’s just trucks, neither can they. We’re fifteen floors high.
[They can bring a crane.]
It takes days to put together a crane this high. A crane isn’t what I’m worried about.
[What then?]
They might just be locals in some pickup trucks. If they are, we’re still good. We can just transport Themis when she’s charged and disembark somewhere else.
[And if they’re not?]
Well, if they’re military, they won’t just bring trucks. They’ll come with…
[With what?]
That.
[What?! We can’t see, remember?]
A helicopter.
—Is it military?
—It’s big, Rose. It’s not a TV helicopter. Nothing you fly tourists in either.
—What’s it doing?
—It’s coming…Hovering above us now…Side door is opening. Shit. Shit. Shit.
—They’re coming in?
—Two guys on ropes.
—Vincent, who are they?
—I don’t know, but they have guns. One’s at the hatch.
—They might be happy to see us.
—They might be ecstatic. Eva, you should stand in front of Ekim, just in case they’re not. Whoever this is, he’s in the shaft between the hatches.
—The inner hatch is opening.
<Derzhite ruki na vidu>
Vincent, what did he say?
—I have no idea, but I’m pretty sure he said it in Russian.
FILE NO. 2106
INTERVIEW BETWEEN MAJOR KATHERINE LEBEDEV, RUSSIAN MAIN INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (GRU), AND DR. ROSE FRANKLIN, PH.D.
Location: GRU building, Saint Petersburg, Russia
—Good morning, Dr. Franklin. I trust you had a good night’s sleep. I’m sure you did. We have really good drugs…Don’t tell anyone, but I take some from time to time when I need the rest. I never thought I’d get to do this, but on behalf of the Russian Federation, and the entire planet, I suppose, welcome back! And welcome to Russia!
—We’re in Russia?
—Yeah! You are! Sit down, Dr. Franklin. You’re making me nervous.
—I’m sorry. I am a bit nervous. I don’t know what I’m doing here.
—Oh, you have every right to be nervous, Dr. Franklin. I said you were making me nervous. I’m supposed to look superconfident. That’s hard to do if I’m fidgeting in my seat. But this is so exciting! Please sit!
—I don’t suppose you’ll tell me who you are, or where I am.
—Who I am? Doesn’t it say on…Where is it? There’s a little plaque with my name on it…Oh, here it is. I’m Katherine Lebedev.
—You don’t sound Russian.
—I hope not. I spent most of my life in New Hampshire. I went to Brown. Law school.
—You were a spy.
—I wa…No! I was a kid. I was born there. I played with dolls. My parents were spies. I didn’t find out about any of it until it was time to leave. I moved back here eleven years ago, and here we are! I was saying something. Oh yes. I’m Katherine Lebedev. I’m a major in the GRU.
—…
—You don’t know what that is, do you? The Main Intelligence Agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Mouthful, I know.
—It sounds like the KGB.
—The KGB—it’s called the SVR nowadays, by the way—is for kids. Don’t tell them I said that. We’re ten times bigger than the SVR. OK, maybe not ten times, but we’re it. This is where the fun is. We have six times the numbers of agents, spy satellites, James Bond stuff. What else did you wanna know? Oh yes, you’re in—we’re in Saint Petersburg. Government office. Big grey building.