super hero.
Stupid phrase. Probably trademarked, too. Knowing our luck, if we start getting called super heroes, whoever holds the trademark is going to come around and send us a cease-and-desist letter. Maybe charge us a hundred bucks for every use.
I go for a stroll in the latter part of the afternoon. Sun’s setting earlier these days, but it won’t be dark for a while. The back lawn’s empty. No one’s trying to beat the crap out of each other. That’s a plus.
66 Even as I dwell on the things that Scott was talking about, I shove them aside and start to worry about something else. I look to the skies and they’re empty. Someone should be here who isn’t, and it’s starting to concern me.
“You see something, kid?” Logan’s voice, practically at my elbow. How the hell does he do that? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, though. This is a guy whose idea of hunting is going into the woods, creeping up on a deer, and brushing his fingertips across its fur without it even knowing he was there. Compared to a deer, when it comes to being aware of the world around me, I might as well have headphones on and be listening to Black Sabbath.
“Lockheed wanted to fly on his own. I thought he’d beat me here.” I’ve been watching the skies intermittently ever since I got out of the cab yesterday, but there’s been no sign of his little winged self.
“The dragon’ll show,” Wolverine says confidently. “I did.”
I turn to face him. At least he doesn’t smell like my Uncle Geoff during Purim anymore. “Big entrance.”
“Sorry about that. Wasn’t planning it. Sometimes I go off more since…”
“I know.” He doesn’t have to explain. Her death hit all of us hard. Must be worse for someone who has a short fuse even at the best of times and has convenient blades in his hands. Of course, when the bad guys are coming down on you from every angle, there’s no one better to have at your side. So I suppose it all balances out.
67 He joins me to watch the skies for a time, but it’s clear his mind is elsewhere. And then, in seven words, he summarizes what it is:
“Super heroes. Summers has gotta be nuts.”
Assuming you count “gotta” as one word.
And I can’t disagree.
68
SEVEN
THIS was not remotely what Doctor Rao had had in mind.
When she had confirmed the breakthrough (
her
breakthrough; that was how she had to start thinking of it) to the board, she had assumed that the news would be announced through a dignified press gathering. She had envisioned that the editorial heads of about a half-dozen prestigious scientific journals would gather around the table in one of the conference rooms, and she would present her research to a group of scientifically inclined minds that would be able to understand everything that had gone into the process. Her greatest concern was that they would ask difficult questions, the same questions that some board members were curious about. After her years of research on the topic had come up empty, for instance, how was it she had suddenly had this breakthrough out of nowhere that had exponentially accelerated the entire process? What flash of inspiration had triggered it? She hadn’t been exactly evasive with the board, but instead stuck to saying it was really just a set of happenstances, none of them connected, that had prompted her to abruptly pull a lot of pieces together. The board 69 had nodded and congratulated her and agreed with her that the news needed to be announced, preferably through a press conference. Obviously their priorities had been elsewhere: namely, on getting publicity for Benetech.
The prospect of facing a board of formidable scientific journalists had been somewhat daunting. But she needn’t have worried. What she was getting was as far a cry from a roundtable of distinguished minds as she could possibly have imagined.
Instead Benetech had rented a small venue off-site at a hotel, one that a number of politicians had used for
Stupid phrase. Probably trademarked, too. Knowing our luck, if we start getting called super heroes, whoever holds the trademark is going to come around and send us a cease-and-desist letter. Maybe charge us a hundred bucks for every use.
I go for a stroll in the latter part of the afternoon. Sun’s setting earlier these days, but it won’t be dark for a while. The back lawn’s empty. No one’s trying to beat the crap out of each other. That’s a plus.
66 Even as I dwell on the things that Scott was talking about, I shove them aside and start to worry about something else. I look to the skies and they’re empty. Someone should be here who isn’t, and it’s starting to concern me.
“You see something, kid?” Logan’s voice, practically at my elbow. How the hell does he do that? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, though. This is a guy whose idea of hunting is going into the woods, creeping up on a deer, and brushing his fingertips across its fur without it even knowing he was there. Compared to a deer, when it comes to being aware of the world around me, I might as well have headphones on and be listening to Black Sabbath.
“Lockheed wanted to fly on his own. I thought he’d beat me here.” I’ve been watching the skies intermittently ever since I got out of the cab yesterday, but there’s been no sign of his little winged self.
“The dragon’ll show,” Wolverine says confidently. “I did.”
I turn to face him. At least he doesn’t smell like my Uncle Geoff during Purim anymore. “Big entrance.”
“Sorry about that. Wasn’t planning it. Sometimes I go off more since…”
“I know.” He doesn’t have to explain. Her death hit all of us hard. Must be worse for someone who has a short fuse even at the best of times and has convenient blades in his hands. Of course, when the bad guys are coming down on you from every angle, there’s no one better to have at your side. So I suppose it all balances out.
67 He joins me to watch the skies for a time, but it’s clear his mind is elsewhere. And then, in seven words, he summarizes what it is:
“Super heroes. Summers has gotta be nuts.”
Assuming you count “gotta” as one word.
And I can’t disagree.
68
SEVEN
THIS was not remotely what Doctor Rao had had in mind.
When she had confirmed the breakthrough (
her
breakthrough; that was how she had to start thinking of it) to the board, she had assumed that the news would be announced through a dignified press gathering. She had envisioned that the editorial heads of about a half-dozen prestigious scientific journals would gather around the table in one of the conference rooms, and she would present her research to a group of scientifically inclined minds that would be able to understand everything that had gone into the process. Her greatest concern was that they would ask difficult questions, the same questions that some board members were curious about. After her years of research on the topic had come up empty, for instance, how was it she had suddenly had this breakthrough out of nowhere that had exponentially accelerated the entire process? What flash of inspiration had triggered it? She hadn’t been exactly evasive with the board, but instead stuck to saying it was really just a set of happenstances, none of them connected, that had prompted her to abruptly pull a lot of pieces together. The board 69 had nodded and congratulated her and agreed with her that the news needed to be announced, preferably through a press conference. Obviously their priorities had been elsewhere: namely, on getting publicity for Benetech.
The prospect of facing a board of formidable scientific journalists had been somewhat daunting. But she needn’t have worried. What she was getting was as far a cry from a roundtable of distinguished minds as she could possibly have imagined.
Instead Benetech had rented a small venue off-site at a hotel, one that a number of politicians had used for
Similar Books
