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Leonard: I can’t believe they let me out. How did you manage to pull that
off?
Reese: Believe it or not, I threatened to quit.
Leonard: You’re that important to them?
Reese: I didn’t think so, but I said it as a last resort, since
nothing else was working. I think they hesitate to read people into these
kinds of situations, so they would rather you just do it, instead of having
to bring in someone new.
Myka: You brought me in.
Reese: They don’t know about you, and we need to keep it that way.
Myka: Sure, as long as we get this straight first. So. You’re telling
me that there are a bunch of aliens—
Leonard: Not a bunch. One confirmed. We’re on our way to find out if there
are more.
Myka: Right. One alien, maybe more, plus him, who’s human, but also
somehow an alien? What are the odds?
Leonard: I’m not from another planet, I’m just from another universe;
another version of Earth. We have a different history, different
sociopolitics—particularly law—and I believe minor anatomical or
physiological differences.
Reese: Really? I didn’t know that.
Leonard: The scientists didn’t probe me, but one of my parolees told me
about it. He never sat me down to warn me about anything. We just spent a
lot of time together, and he would tell me stories. I didn’t believe him
until we started getting into messes together, but I didn’t
really believe until I came here. This is a very different world from
mine. Nothing major, but the subtle differences add up to something
undeniable.
Myka: Oh. But the other alien is an alien? What does it look
like?
Reese: It looks like a dragonfly, it sounds like a cricket, and it
acts like a person. It talks normal. If you heard it talking with your eyes
closed, you wouldn’t know the difference.
Leonard: So there was a microphone hidden somewhere in our basement
jail.
Reese: Yeah, that’s half the reason why they put you together, to get
more information. They played a little of your conversation for me. I’m
sorry, I tried to get to you first.
Leonard: Nah, man, I get it. But if you didn’t hear all of the audio, then
there’s something else you should know. Have you heard of cicadas? Do you
have those here?
Myka: Yeah, we do.
Leonard: Well, the Ochivari life cycle is reminiscent of theirs. They live
underground for years at a time, sometimes decades. That I didn’t know
before.
Reese: We’ll have to remember that. We may be able to use that
against them.
Myka: *after a lull in the conversation* Hey, I hope you didn’t bring
me along to help you drive there and back. I shouldn’t be behind the wheel.
It’s a trigger for me.
Reese: Yeah, I know. You’re not here for that. We will need
your help keeping watch, though. One of you two will be awake for three
hours while the other and I sleep. I’ll take the four-hour middle shift,
because it’s harder to wake up, then try to go back to sleep.
Myka: That’s stupid. I’ll do that, since you two need to do your
jobs.
Leonard: Well, we’ll talk more about it tonight.
Myka: Yeah, we will. One thing you’ll learn about me is that I
always win in a fight.
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