FILE NO. 249

INTERVIEW WITH VINCENT COUTURE, CONSULTANT, BVI COMPANY NUMBER 462753 INC.

Location: Undisclosed location, near San Juan, Puerto Rico

—I hope you are enjoying yourself in this new setting.

—How could I not? I live on the beach! I don’t know where you’re from, but for someone who’s lived in Quebec all his life, this is pretty awesome.

—I am happy that the beach house is to your liking. I was actually referring to this facility.

—I’ve only been here twice. I met with Alyssa—did you know they brought her back?—the day I arrived, and I met her again when I came in for a physical a few days later.

—You have been here for nearly two weeks if I am not mistaken. What have you been doing with your time if you do not spend it here?

—I’m learning to surf! Well, I’m trying to learn to surf. I’m horrible at it, but it’s so…much…fun! I know I can’t, but I keep thinking it might be a lot easier with my knees flipped. You should come! I’m easy to spot, I’m the glowing white guy with really bad sunburns.

—I…Is it really necessary for me to state that I do not surf? Can we talk about work?

—Sure!

—What do you think of the new base?

—I’m sure you know a lot more about this place than I do. Like I said, I’ve only been here twice. I thought our room in Denver was impressive, but this thing is completely insane. Do you know we’re almost a mile deep underground?

The door behind us leads to a large room roughly the size of the one we trained in, back in Denver. There are also half a dozen laboratories on this floor, and a huge bay—I mean gigantic—that leads into the Atlantic. I’ve only been on this floor, though, I don’t know what else there is.

—There is only one floor. There is also a twenty-thousand-square-foot machine shop, medical facilities, crew quarters, and a power plant.

—Can I ask a stupid question?

—No. You cannot.

—Then, can I ask a really smart question?

—As you wish.

—How do we get the robot out of here? The only door I’ve seen that might be large enough leads straight into the ocean.

—Once assembled, the device cannot leave this facility on the ground. She must be disassembled and hoisted to the surface near the shore. There, we can load the pieces onto cargo ships. She does, however, fit into the sea-lock chamber, so, in theory, she could simply walk her way out of the ocean along the more moderate slopes of the coastline.

—You think she can work underwater? That’d be cool.

—We do not know. I certainly intend to find out. And, yes, it would.

—Who runs this place? Is this an American base?

—Not quite. These facilities belong to a consortium of four nations: Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as four corporations: two from Germany, one from the United States, and one from Japan.

—That seems like a completely random list of countries. Did you pick the names out of a hat?

—Russia had to be involved in some manner. The situation was simply too volatile after two of their officers were shot during one of our missions.

—We shot two Russian officers?

—We did not shoot anyone. Tuvan peasants did…It is a long story. Suffice it to say that any attempt by the United States to keep the robot would have had catastrophic consequences. I had to offer Moscow some assurances. Unfortunately, they do not have the financial resources necessary to fund a project of this magnitude. The Emirates did. Japan was an acceptable partner for both of them, and South Korea is the most obvious client for our product. Our private partners bring specific technologies to the table.

—Did you just say “our product”?

—Our goal is to provide close-range defensive capabilities for member nations.

—How about offensive capabilities?

—No. It is part of our charter. It can only be used to defend against an enemy strike or invasion, never as an offensive weapon, and never against another consortium member.

—I’m sorry, I’m still trying to wrap my head around this. You can do that? Just grab the robot and say you own it?

—It is open to interpretation. Ownership could perhaps be contested. We do, however, own over seven thousand patents on the technology. It would be legally perilous for anyone else to use it.

—What do the private companies get out of it?

—The cost of membership is…significant. As more nations join our group, those who provided seed funding could enjoy a considerable return on their investment.

—So we went from the greatest discovery in history, for the betterment of all mankind, blah blah blah, to a weapon for profit? Is that it?

—I will concede that this situation is far from what I had envisioned, but it is one that allows us to continue our research and avoid a global conflict.

—What’s it called?

—What is what called?

—The consortium. Oh, that’d be a good name, just that: “The Consortium…”

—It does not have a name at this point. It is a numbered International Business Company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.

—How romantic. You didn’t want to call it the Themis Consortium? It’s got a good ring to it.

—I have not shared information pertaining to her history or identity with anyone else at this time.

—Why?

—I have my reasons. However, I do admit that a numbered company is less than ideal from a motivational point of view. Perhaps you can suggest a good name for our group. I would like our personnel to feel a certain sense of belonging. Given the security restrictions and personal life limitations that come with working in our facility, strengthening morale will be of the essence.

—Well, if you don’t want to use Themis…She’s a daughter of Gaia and Uranus. You’re not dealing with teenagers, but I would still avoid having Uranus in the name. Gaia’s not bad. The Gaia Consortium.

—I will suggest it to the board of directors.

—There’s a board?

—It is a corporation.

—I guess so. Anyway, I’m not gonna complain. Buying this place must have cost a fortune. Who was here before us?

—I do not understand.

—I mean, what was this place before we came in? Was it a mine?

—There was nothing here. We are below a national park. We had to excavate from the sea.

—You’re kidding. There’s absolutely no way you can build something this size in just a few months. It would take years to dig this much, this deep.

—It took approximately two years.

—Did you just say two years?

—Yes, we built this facility in less than two years. The costs were, unfortunately, inversely proportional to the speed.

—That makes no sense. Two years ago, we hadn’t even put all the pieces together. We didn’t even have a head.

—I rarely do anything without planning for contingencies.

—Aren’t you a little worried about how the US government’s going to react to all this? They weren’t on that list of countries you mentioned.

—Indeed, they are not. They are, however, immune to any attack since one of our members is an American company.

—I’m sure that’ll be a great comfort to them…I must be missing something. The US paid for all the research. We retrieved all the pieces with their Army, and now you’re giving it to Russia? I don’t know about you, but I’d be a little ticked off.

—You are correct in assuming there will be some fences to mend at some point.

—OK then. Who am I to complain anyway? I’m from Canada. When do you think we’ll be able to start training again?

—If Ms. Papantoniou is correct, we should have retrieved all the pieces within a month.

—We’re also missing a pilot. I thought Kara would be here by now.

—She should be here soon. She may have been involved in an accident.

—What happened? Is she OK?

—She is fine. She may not have had the accident yet. You may have forgotten that she is US Army personnel. Without direct involvement from the United States, I cannot simply ask the government for her services. There is nothing I am officially, or unofficially, involved with at this point that would require a helicopter pilot.

—So?

—So sometime soon, if it has not happened already, she will be involved in a routine traffic accident. She will suffer a concussion, whiplash. Her physician will diagnose her with postconcussive syndrome and cervical radiculopathy and declare her unfit for duty. He will recommend that she be placed on medical leave for at least six months.

When she arrives, you will have some fences of your own to mend. She was deeply hurt by your disappearing act. While I sincerely hope that your relationship can be restored to its former status, I will gladly settle for peaceful coexistence at this point. It is imperative that the two of you learn to work together again and communicate in the most efficient manner, just as you did in the past. Furthermore, you must learn to do this very quickly. Recent events have forced me to increase the number of players involved. There are now too many people, with too much vested in this project, to see it set back because of personal issues, even if it is only by a few days.

—I don’t think you need to worry about Kara. She may hate my guts now, but she’ll do her job.

—You are absolutely correct. Ms. Resnik is a professional, and she will perform her duties to the best of her abilities, despite whatever feelings she may have. It is you I am worried about.

—I’ve never…

—There is no need to be on the defensive. I have no doubts about your determination to perform your duties well, but you lack the military experience Ms. Resnik possesses. You have mentioned several times, and so has Ms. Resnik, that working in the sphere has a unique psychological effect on people. I am concerned that, should one of you not find his or her feelings reciprocated, the sphere will quickly become a toxic environment. I do not believe you could cope with this much added stress and be efficient.

—We’ll be fine.

—You need to be more than fine. You need to be in sync. Your minds need to work in unison.

—Kara and I had absolutely no business being together in the first place. She has more issues than the New York Times, and I’m about as charming as a root canal, and yet, we found each other. It took about—what? twenty minutes?—after I kissed her the first time for some yahoo to run me into a cement wall with a pickup truck. We stuck together through that. We destroyed an airport together, killed our best friend, and brought the world to the brink of World War III, all in a day’s work.

Don’t you see? The two of us ending up together is either the biggest cosmic joke ever, or it was somehow meant to be. The real funny thing is, I don’t believe in fate. Like I said, Kara and I will be fine. If I were you, I’d be more worried about the next mess we’re gonna make.