“Now it was pissed. Even before it picked itself up, the place it landed was being subject to intensive defoliation. A shot tore its ear. Its anger-if what I felt was fire, this was lava, thicker, slower-moving, hotter. It retreated, scuttled half a dozen trees deeper into the jungle. Whoever those guys were, they were professionals. They advanced on the spot where the thing fell and, when they saw it wasn’t there anymore, they didn’t rush in after it. Instead, they fell back to a defensive posture while one of them put in a call-for air support, I’m guessing.
“The thing was angry and hurt and the thirst-" Davis shook his head. He sipped his Coke. "What came next-I’m not sure I can describe it. There was this surge in my head-not the thing’s head, this was my brain I’m talking about-and the thing was looking out of my eyes.”
“It turned the tables on you,” the lieutenant said.
“Not exactly,” Davis said. "I continued watching the soldiers maybe seventy-five feet in front of me, but I was…aware of the thing staring at the DVD still playing on the TV. It was as if the scene was on a screen just out of view.” He shook his head. "I’m not describing it right.
“Anyway, that was when the connection broke.”
Davis watched the lieutenant evade an immediate response by taking a generous bite of his Double Quarter-Pounder with Cheese and chewing it with great care. Han swallowed and said, "Soldiers.”
“What?”
“Soldiers,” Han said.
Through his mouthful of burger, the lieutenant said, "He wants to know what happened to the soldiers. Right?”
Han nodded.
“Beats the shit out of me,” Davis said. "Maybe their air support showed up and bombed the fucker to hell. Maybe they evac’d out of there.”
“But that isn’t what you think,” the lieutenant said. "You think it got them.”
“Yes sir,” Davis said. "The minute it was free of me, I think it had those poor bastards for lunch.”
“It seems a bit much to hope otherwise, doesn’t it?”
“Yes sir, it does.”
When the lieutenant opted for another bite of his sandwich, Davis said, "Well?”
The lieutenant answered by lifting his eyebrows. Han switched from McNuggets to fries.
“As I see it,” Davis began. He stopped, paused, started again. "We know that the thing fucked with us in Fallujah, linked up with us. So far, this situation has only worked to our disadvantage: whenever one of us is in sufficient discomfort, the connection activates and dumps us behind the thing’s eyes for somewhere in the vicinity of three to five minutes. With all due respect to Lee, this has not been beneficial to anyone’s mental health.
“But what if-suppose we could duplicate what happened to me? Not just once, but over and over-even if only for ten or fifteen seconds at a time-interfere with whatever it’s doing, seriously fuck with it.”
“Then what?” the lieutenant said. "We’re a thorn in its side. So?”
“Sir,” Davis said, "those soldiers hit it. Okay, yes, their fire wasn’t any more effective than ours was, but I’m willing to bet their percentages were significantly higher. That’s what me being on board in an-enhanced way did to the thing. We wouldn’t be a thorn-we’d be the Goddamned bayonet Han jammed in its ribs.
“Not that we should wait for someone else to take it down. I’m proposing something more ambitious.”
“All right.”
“If we can disrupt the thing’s routine-especially if we cut into its feeding-it won’t take very long for it to want to find us. Assuming the second part of my experience-the thing has a look through our eyes-if that happens again, we can arrange it so that we let it know where we’re going to be. We pick a location with a clearing where the thing can land and surrounding tree cover where we can wait to ambush it. Before any of us goes to ruin the thing’s day, he puts pictures, maps, satellite photos of the spot on display, so that when the thing’s staring out of his eyes, that’s what it sees. If the same images keep showing up in front of it, it should get the point.”
The lieutenant took the rest of his meal to reply. Han offered no comment. When the lieutenant had settled into his chair after tilting his tray into the garbage and stacking it on top of the can, he said, "I don’t know, Davis. There are an awful lot more ifs than I prefer to hear in a plan.
If we can access the thing the same way you did; if that wasn’t a fluke. If the thing does the reverse-vision stuff; if it understands what we’re showing it. If we can find a way to kill it.” He shook his head.
“Granted,” Davis said, "there’s a lot we’d have to figure out, not least how to put it down and keep it down. I have some ideas about that, but nothing developed. It would be nice if we could control our connection to the thing, too. I’m wondering if what activates the jump is some chemical our bodies are releasing when we’re under stress-maybe adrenaline. If we had access to a supply of adrenaline, we could experiment with doses-”
“You’re really serious about this.”
“What’s the alternative?” Davis said. "Lee isn’t the only one whose life is fucked, is he? How many more operations are you scheduled for, Han? Four? Five?”
“Four,” Han said.
“And how’re things in the meantime?”
Han did not answer.
“What about you, sir?” Davis said. "Oh sure, your wife and kids stuck around, but how do they act after you’ve had one of your fits, or spells, or whatever the fuck you call them? Do they rush right up to give Daddy a hug, or do they keep away from you, in case you might do something even worse? Weren’t you coaching your son’s soccer team? How’s that working out for you? I bet it’s a lot of fun every time the ref makes a lousy call.”
“Enough, Davis.”
“It isn’t as if I’m in any better shape. I have to make sure I remember to swallow a couple of tranquilizers before I go to work so I don’t collapse in the middle of trying to help some customer load his fertilizer into his car. Okay, Rochelle had dumped me while I was away, but let me tell you how the dating scene is for a vet who’s prone to seizures should things get a little too exciting. As for returning to college, earning my BS-maybe if I could have stopped worrying about how Goddamned exposed I was walking from building to building, I could’ve focused on some of what the professors were saying and not fucking had to withdraw.
“This isn’t the magic bullet,” Davis said. "It isn’t going to make all the bad things go away. It’s…it is what it fucking is.”
“All right,” the lieutenant said. "I’m listening. Han-you listening?”
“Listening,” Han said.
X
4:11am
“So where do you think it came from?” Lee said.
“What do you mean?” Davis said. "We know where it comes from.”
“No,” Lee said, "I mean, before.”
“Its secret origin,” the lieutenant said.
“Yeah,” Lee said.
“How should I know?” Davis said.
“You’re the man with the plan,” Lee said. "Mr. Idea.”
The lieutenant said, "I take it you have a theory, Lee.”
Lee glanced at the heap of coals that had been the fire. "Nah, not really.”
“That sounds like a yes to me,” the lieutenant said.
“Yeah,” Han said.
“Come on,” Davis said. "What do you think?”
“Well,” Lee said, then broke off, laughing. "No, no.”