Prophet by Helen Macdonald

Author:Helen Macdonald
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Published: 2023-07-25T19:20:08+00:00

CHAPTER 43

Rao’s voice comes over the intercom. “This is weird.”

“How are you doing, Mr. Rao?” Rhodes checks. Adam watches her tap a key to change the image on-screen. Still Rao’s brain. The scan isn’t fully complete, but he understands what he’s looking at. Rao’s skull. His eyes. There his brain sits and sparks. “Looks fine here.”

“No, I think I’m alright,” Rao confirms. He’s nervous in the machine, his voice wavering like he’s on the edge of laughter. “I just wanted to say that this is fucking weird.”

“Please don’t move,” she instructs. Rao responds with a huff over the mic and the line goes quiet.

Adam decides he hates the scanner. Which surprises him. Generally speaking, he doesn’t mind heavy machinery. He understands engines. Aircraft. Cars. Doesn’t understand people who feel intimidated by technology, by things built to do a specific job and do it perfectly. He grew up on base surrounded by the roar of jets, the noise of sirens and horns. But the machine Rao is in isn’t making the kind of sounds he’s used to. They’re alien hums and tones that remind him of alarms. In the back of his mind, the Big Voice over base loudspeakers. Scramble. Scramble.

“I would like to take you to see the clock, Colonel Rubenstein,” Dr. Rhodes murmurs, her eyes on the screen. “Your manifested object.”

“I know what clock you’re talking about, Dr. Rhodes,” he says. “To what end?”

Rhodes smiles a private smile. “To see what happens.”

There are a million reasons why he shouldn’t tempt fate by going down there. One of them is the expression on Rhodes’s face. Adam looks at Rao in the tube, hears the alien clunks. Thinks about how Rao simply wanted to talk through how weird it is in there.

“Alright,” he says.

Dr Rhodes turns her head to look at him properly. She’d been expecting resistance. “Do you think you can handle it?”

“I suppose we’ll find out.”

“Told you there’d be aftereffects,” Rao complains as the slab rolls out of the tube like a tongue rolling out of a mouth. “I feel fucking dreadful after that.”

“The scan is entirely safe,” Rhodes says. But once Rao is sitting up, she takes his wrist all the same. Old school. Eyes on her watch as she counts the beats. “You’re fine.”

“Dreadful,” he repeats venomously. “I want to lie down.”

“You’re welcome to do so, Mr. Rao. There’s a bed in the room next door. Take as long as you need. Colonel Rubenstein and I are going to take a stroll down to the testing labs to revisit his EPGO.”

“The clock?”

“Correct.”

Rao shakes his head, winces. Speaks with his eyes closed. “Adam.”

“Rao.”

“That’s bonkers.”

Adam’s inclined to agree, but Rhodes speaks before he can reply. “Even when the object was manifested, Colonel Rubenstein showed no signs of wanting to connect to it. I’m confident revisiting it will be a risk-free experience.”

Rao opens his eyes and looks at her. Adam knows that look. Rao’s pissed that he can’t tell if her statement’s true because it’s about him. Rhodes, he realizes, has no knowledge of that particular block.

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