Only Human_The Themis Files

by Sylvain Neuvel

  Barbara…get ready.

  FILE NO. EE681—PERSONAL FILE FROM ESAT EKT

  Personal Journal Entry—Vincent Couture

  I see her face everywhere. I wish it were my imagination, but they’ve plastered every alley with my daughter’s face. She’s on the small leaflets we see lying on the ground. They graffiti her name—the one they’ve given her—on anything remotely connected to the Council. An entire propaganda machine is built around Eva. Worst of all, it’s all fake. As far as I can tell, all of this is a figment of the empress’s imagination.

  The good news is I found her. Well, not exactly. I found Ekim. He’ll take me to her. The empress sent a handful of Imperial Guards to help me. I didn’t want them anywhere near me, but they were useful in the end. I don’t have anything to bribe anyone with. They have…everything, and no reservations about twisting a few arms along the way if it helps. I don’t care. I just need to find Eva. Then I give the empress what she wants, and we’re gone. That’s the deal. She promised to unlock one of the robots—we asked for Themis—and let us leave. All we need is a pilot. I have an idea about that.

  I feel like an asshole for using my daughter’s boyfriend to find her. He’s a sweet kid. But she didn’t leave me much choice. She’s quick. Eugene must have taught her a lot more than combat maneuvers. She’s really good at covering her tracks. It’s not easy. The three of us stick out like a sore thumb here. I think people just want to help her. It doesn’t mean they all embrace the cause or anything like that. They want to help her. They don’t talk because they like her, another thing she didn’t get from me. Ekim, well, he worships her. He won’t let her out of his sight. If he’s here, then my daughter can’t be too far. He’ll take us there. It would break him to know he was betraying her. Poor kid.

  That’s the thing, though. They’re both kids. Ekim is twenty-eight. That’s about, I don’t know, sixteen for these people. And Eva, well, she’s her mother’s daughter all right. I’m not sure she knows what she’s gotten herself into. This isn’t a student protest. The place is on the verge of a full-blown civil war. The bombs they blame her for killed innocent people, some from the security forces. These guys will gun her down if they get to her first. People are scared, especially in Osk. If she’s caught, and there’s a vote, they’ll put her to death. I doubt the Council will go out of its way to save the poster child for the uprising.

  I hate the rebellion, the real one, whoever they are. For all their talk about justice and equality, they’re just as power-hungry as everyone else. They want their seat at the grown-up table. They don’t want to change the system, they want to run it. They’ve been using all of us since the day we got here, just like the empress is using us now. We’re the perfect face to put on what they have to sell. We pose no threat. We look like them. It’s a whole lot easier to play the emotion card with us than with reptilians or sentient amoebas.

  If these people do exist, they’re terrorists. I hate bullies. You build a revolution on ideas. If the population doesn’t buy your ideas, it means they’re not ready, or you’re wrong. There’s this tendency for people to see any fight against the system as a fight for progress. As if the people before them couldn’t possibly have gotten anything right. If you’re using bombs instead of words, that means you’re banking on people giving you what you want out of fear instead of reason. That’s never a good sign.

  FILE NO. 2195 (CONTINUED)

  MISSION LOG—VINCENT COUTURE AND SERGEANT ALEXANDER VASILIEV

  Location: Aboard Themis. Sinuiju, North Korea

  [Vincent, are you there?]

  —Not now, Katherine. Oh, thank God, Alex is coming to. Hey there! Nice of you to join us!

  —Where are we?

  —Same place we were five minutes ago.

  —My head hurts. Where are the Koreans?

  —They’re gone for now. It’s just us and Lapetus.

  —Are we fighting?

  —No, Alex, we’re not fighting. We can’t move. They can’t either.

  —How do you know?

  —They haven’t moved an inch. They haven’t shifted their weight. They haven’t moved their arms one bit. No one can stay that still for five minutes. I know my daughter can’t. It won’t last, though. You should get ready.

  —Ready for what?

  —Eva’s pissed. She’s getting herself worked up. Watch her fingers.

  —What?

  —Her fingers. Lapetus’s fingers. Whatever. She won’t make any big moves. She won’t want to lose the element of surprise. She’s probably trying to move her pinky, tap her fingers on her leg, something subtle. When it works…

  —She’ll attack us? She’s that pissed off at you?

  —She doesn’t know the half of it.

  —That bad, huh?

  —I don’t know what to tell you, Alex. Have you ever wanted something…so bad? Nothing but that one thing means anything to you. You’d give…anything, your life, other people’s lives. It doesn’t matter. You work at it and you work at it and after a while you can’t see anything else. You can’t see the people around you. You can’t hear them. Then one day, out of the blue, you get it. It finally happens. You’re happy. You feel that great sense of accomplishment. Then you start wondering what you’ve missed along the way while you were chasing that one thing. Would it have meant this much in the end if you’d paid attention to what was around you the whole time?

  [Vincent, if you don’t answer me now, I’ll fill Themis with VX gas and listen to you twitch and gargle for a minute or two while I eat lunch. I swear, I’ll put you on speaker, so I can hold my knish with both hands.]

  Relax, Katherine. We’re—Wait. Is that what’s bothering you? Having to hold the phone? I’m pretty sure you can put us on speaker without killing us. That has to be its own button. One for twitch and gargle, one that says “speaker.” If you’re not sure, though, don’t press anything.

  [Vincent, I have a million Chinese soldiers just itching to shoot at something.]

  I wouldn’t come anywhere near us if I were them. This place is about to get ugly.

  [You’re going to fight Lapetus?]

  More like Lapetus is going to fight us. As soon as they recharge, I’m pretty sure they’ll take a swing at us. You sound worried. I thought that’s what you wanted.

  [You’re gonna win, right?]

  Well, one of us will.

  [You better win. I want Lapetus.]

  Now you’re just being delusional. They’re going to beam as far away from here as they can if they feel they’re losing. We’ll do the exact same thing. No one is going to “win” if that’s what you mean by winning. No one is getting a second robot out of this, Katherine.

  [A girl can dream, Vincent.]

  A girl can dream and eat her knish with both hands.

  [I was serious about the VX gas, you know.]

  No you weren’t. You only think you were.

  [Dear God. I sense some serious mansplaining coming.]

  Not really. I’d use the same slightly condescending tone if your name was—is there a male version of Katherine? No, really! I can be condescending to everyone. Come on, Katherine. You just threatened to kill me! You, and the Americans for that matter, just didn’t think it through. I told you you’re not getting a second robot out of this. Why? Because they’ll leave before you can get your hands on it. They can only do that if they’re alive. That’s why this completely insane fail-safe they have in place is useless. They won’t kill their pilots because if they do, you’ll grab Lapetus. Same reason you won’t use that gas. It would mean turning Themis over to them. You’re not gonna do that because you’re intelligent, incredibly smart, and wise. Did I say smart?

  [You and I are gonna have a talk when you get back here.]

  I have to go now; my daughter is about to punch me in the face.

  [I don’t
mean to rush you or anything, but Pyongyang isn’t going to sit still all day, even if you are.]

  Alex, are you ready for this?

  —No.

  —Good. Overconfidence is bad.

  —Then I’m doing great.

  —That makes two of us.

  —Didn’t you beat that robot before?

  —No, that was another one. This one was kicking the living shit out of me and Eva. It came this close. Rose stopped it from killing us.

  —That is not particularly reassuring.

  —Well, Eva couldn’t handle it either.

  —How old was she?

  —Ten, but that’s not the point.

  —What is the point?

  —I—

  —Wait! I think I saw her finger move.

  —She’ll come at us soon. I wish I knew how. Eugene—General Govender—taught her military tactics.

  —Was she any good?

  —Apparently. What was that move he said she liked so much? Blitzkrieg? No, that’s not it. Flanking maneuvers!

  —What is—?

  —Oh, crap!

  —Where’d they go?

  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

  —Ready for what, Eva?

  —Can you put us right behind them? Say thirty, forty feet?

  —Yeah, I think I can do that. Just tell me when.

  —Can you punch it in now and press go when I tell you to?

  —Yep. Eva, I gotta tell you, I’m a little nervous about this.

  —Does it help if I tell you I’m also scared shitless?

  —You fought one of these before. I haven’t.

  —Yeah. I was inside Themis, fighting…this guy, actually. I was just a kid.

  —How was it?

  —It didn’t go well if that’s what you mean. I don’t remember much. I was trying to hold on to the robot, to Lapetus, but I wasn’t strong enough. I felt so small, I was so small. I was scared out of my wits, shaking. I was absolutely convinced I was going to die.

  —Your father saved you?

  —Not really, no. He…

  —What?

  —He was standing where you’re standing now. He got out of his station, walked up to mine, and he held me. He held me so I wouldn’t let go, but mostly so I’d feel safe. One last big hug. He also thought we were gonna die, but he wanted me to feel safe.

  —Did you?

  —Yeah. I did. I always felt safe around him.

  —Eva, I…

  —That was a long time ago. A lot’s happened since then. He—

  —Eva, I’m not judging you. Family’s fucked up. I don’t really care what kind of issues you and your dad have to work out, but I really, really don’t think this is the place for that. I don’t think you should be here. I think you’re endangering the mission, endangering me. Especially me. Not to mention this could start a war.

  —What is the mission? They told me it was “to prevent Themis from providing support to the People’s Liberation Army.” I’m not fluent in military talk, but I assumed they meant we should kick her ass and make her leave. Am I wrong?

  —No, you’re not wrong. That’s what they want us to do.

  —Then, Barbara, and with all due respect to the moron you normally ride with, you have a much better shot with me here than with anyone else. As for starting a war, I didn’t come here looking for trouble. To be honest, I didn’t want to come here at all. I only signed up hoping I could use Lapetus to get back home.

  —Home where?

  —Home! Where I grew up. Anyway, it took about two seconds of staring at that console to realize I’d never figure it out. So no, I’m not here to start a war. I’m here now because I’m stuck on Earth, and China is about to invade Korea. That’ll start a war. So how about you cut me just a tiny bit of slack, and we find a way to get out of this alive?

  —Roger that. Just say when.

  —Well, we can’t move yet.

  —…What was it like?

  —What was what like?

  —Being on another world.

  —Well, I was ten when we got there. To be honest, I don’t remember much about before. There was just…normal. I did—Same thing you do, I guess? I got up every day, ate breakfast. I spent some time with my friends, hanging out, mostly. I worked. I had a job. Have you ever spent any time in another country? Not on vacation, I mean. Like, for real.

  —We were a military family. My dad was army. He was stationed in Turkey for about a year. I was young, though. Five years old? I spent most of my time on the base.

  —Playing with other kids your age.

  —Yeah. There were a bunch of kids.

  —That’s how it was. The view’s different. People don’t look the same. Different food. But that’s pretty much it. You can change the backdrop, but your life is basically your life anywhere. We’re not that original. Anyway, that’s how it felt for me. That was my ordinary. This. Now. This is the strange place.

  —Why do I find that depre—

  —I can move my fingers! Beam us behind them, then turn around as fast as you can.

  —And here. We. Go.

  —NOW! Turn around! Sideways! Kick them in the back!

  —Ugh! That must have hurt. Now what?

  —They’re shaken up right now. It’ll take them a second to realize they’re lying flat on their face. Then they’ll crouch to try and get up. They won’t be able to see us that whole time.

  —They will if they roll over.

  —They can’t get up from their back. They won’t roll over. We’ll do it for them, though. There! They’re moving, get closer so I can grab them. Get ready to push with your right leg, I’ll flip Themis on her back.

  —All right. We’re straddling her.

  —Push! Quick! Step on their arms and crouch so I can punch them.

  —We have a light cannon, Eva. We can just fire at them.

  —Fuck the cannon. They’re pinned down. Now bend your legs!

  [Oh shit!…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?

  [AAAAAGH! Stop it! Fuck! AAAAAARGH!…Alex?…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. UGH! UGH!

  …

  Oh shit!

  —Whoa! They’re gone! Where’d they go?

  —They beamed away, Barbara. That’s where they went!

  —From their back?

  —GET US AWAY FROM HERE, NOW!

  FILE NO. EE684—PERSONAL FILE FROM ESAT EKT

  Personal Log—Eva Reyes

  Location: Somewhere in the Etyakt region

  AAAAHHHH! They shot me! Those red assholes shot me!

  [Ayt erktsot!]

  Of course I’m hurt. I just said they shot me! My arm’s all numb. Some sort of stun gun. I can’t feel anything. At least we know they’re not trying to kill us. Keep going, Ityets! Here! Down that alley!

  Go! Go! I’m right behind you. Damn, these guys are fast. Why can’t you run that fast?

  [Eyipots oyyetsek Vincent.]

  Yeah. I saw him too. Turn here. Hey! Where are you going?

  [Ast eyyekt ops ant—]

  I don’t care where we go! Just shut up and run! They’re catching up fast!

  They’re firing again! Get down! Here! Here! Try that door. Yesss! Close it! Close it! Can you disable it?

  [At. At.]

  Go! Go!

  Wait! Stop!

  [Eps eyakak.]

  I have made up m
y mind! There’s no other door, Ityets. There’s no way out! How long do you think that door will hold them?

  [Ast…]

  That’s what I thought…I think…I think this is it, my friend!

  Really? You’re just going to sit on the floor?

  [At.]

  All right. I’ll finish this log entry and I’ll hide the recorder. They’ll be so happy to get the both of us, I don’t think they’ll waste much time searching this place.

  My name is Eva Reyes. I’m nineteen years old, and I’m the most wanted person on this planet.

  I’m here with Etat Ityets, one of the so-called leaders of the Hand of Yetskots. Who comes up with these names anyway? He runs a soup kitchen! He’s meditating now. I should try, but I’m too busy being scared we’re gonna get caught. I can see the headline already. The Dagger arrested. Yep, that’s me: Esant, “The Dagger”…Dun-Dun-Duuun. I’m a symbol, apparently. The face of the insurrection. I’m Katniss yokits Everdeen. I’m the Mockingjay. Hey, maybe I can change my name. I hate that stupid knife thing.

  Hey, Ityets! Ast eyet ets Mockingjay akt.

  [Akt eyet mockingjay?]

  It’s a…How do I explain bird? Never mind. I guess I’ll be The Dagger. Revolution’s gotta have a face after all. Only problem is there isn’t any. There’s no Hand of Yetskots. There’s no insurgence. None we’ve heard of, anyway. We have meetings. We hand out leaflets. We have no weapons unless you count kitchen knives, and we sure as hell don’t blow up buildings. They vaporized a school in Eskyaks last week. A school! There were no kids inside, but people died. We went there to see if we could help. It’s a fairly poor region. Waste of time. There was nothing to help with. Nothing left. Now, they’re blaming us for it. Well, not us, me, and this organization that doesn’t exist.