Part 8 (1/2)
The sound of my name snapped me back from wherever I had been. ”Why? Why did you stop me? It was supposed to be me, not Thorp!”
”I love you, Liz.”
I blinked at him, the goofy billionaire. Then I looked up at Queen Jolly Freeze. Wetherall was afraid of heights. How the h.e.l.l had he climbed down that ladder?
Altogether, the twenty-five s.h.i.+tdogs consumed twenty-five of Thorp's people, twelve men and thirteen women. They then fell into a coma-like sleep.
During the next forty-eight hours, the world watched as they shrivelled and deflated. The Joint Chiefs advocated nuking them before they awoke. I was in the camp that said it would be a crime against the universe to destroy the aliens over what was clearly a human-caused tragedy. Wetherall pointed out that Thorp's people were trespa.s.sing on private lands, had been warned of the dangers involved, and had voluntarily offered themselves for consumption. He never mentioned that I'd been prepared to do the same, and I was grateful to him for keeping that quiet.
About the time Wetherall and I were being picked up by Nguyen and Janglish, Wetherall's smart rope lost power. Queen Jolly Freeze came unmoored, floated majestically across the flats before a stiff, hot breeze that smelled of fresh-baked oatmeal bread. Ten hours later it wrapped itself around Deseret Peak in the Stansbury Mountains of Utah and was totally destroyed.
The debate about what to do about the dogs was still raging when, three days later, they awoke.
The report that the s.h.i.+tdogs were stirring came while Wetherall, Nguyen, Janglish and I were sitting in the lounge of Laputa, going over the wreckage of Wetherall's plans and trying to figure out what came next. Wetherall seemed surprisingly sanguine about the destruction of Queen Jolly Freeze. When I asked him about it, he only said, ”I don't need it anymore.”
Nguyen and Janglish had established some sort of alliance aimed at getting Wetherall back to his business interests. And they were holding hands. They made a strange couple; I wondered how they'd fare once the nosegays wore off. In any event, I guess I'd figured out the gory details of Nguyen O'Hara's erotic life.
Me, I was thinking about whether I could face going back to the university after everything that had happened. Back to bored undergrads and faculty meetings run by the likes of Saintjohn Matthewson. Much as I had complained, inwardly and outwardly, about the way Wetherall had deranged my life, I wasn't sure I wanted it to be ranged again.
Also, the s.h.i.+tdogs were the biggest news in the world of science since Playdough Theory. As the sapientologist with the most experience on the ground, so to speak, I wasn't going to leave until I knew what was going on.
”Let's go,” I said.
”Uh . . .” Nguyen said. ”Considering their last interaction with humans, I'm not sure I want to be there when they take up activities again, thank you. Besides, we have issues to resolve with Wetherall.”
”That's fine,” I said. ”I don't blame you. But I'm a scientist.”
”I'm coming too,” Wetherall said.
”There's no need-” I started.
”Considering your behavior during the last s.h.i.+tdog interaction with humans, I think there is,” Wetherall said.
I didn't argue. We grabbed a jeep and motored over to Pile B. It was the first time we had been alone together since we'd been picked up on the salt flats. I felt nervous, as if we were both expecting me to say something. I took my eyes off the horizon to look at him. He squinted against the bright sunlight, the wind blowing his short blond hair. He looked his age, which I had discovered was forty-two.
”The place will be lousy with media,” I said.
”I don't care.”
I concentrated on driving. Amid the talk that he was responsible for the death of Thorp's followers, he had faced hordes of questioning reporters-without his avatars.
”I haven't forgotten what you said when you stopped me from getting eaten,” I told him.
”Please-I don't expect you to say anything. You already told me how you feel about me.”
”That was an example of the narcissism of minor differences.”