part 3

Good morning. I’m going to ask you to bear with me, I’ve never done one of these before. I don’t want to get off track so please hold your questions until after I’ve made my statement OK? I’d like to get right to the details of what happened last night, then I’ll make a couple quick comments and open the floor to . .

Jesus christ. Mark . . ?

You and you and you. Take a hike.

Right, just get ‘em out of here.

That’s alright, I can wait.

Yeah, yeah, whatever. Bye.

Thanks, Mark.

Anybody else here not paying attention?

Alright, I don’t see any need for additional introductory remarks so I’ll get right to the story. I arrived at DIA last evening about six fifteen mountain time. You can get the flight details from Mark Lewis if you want them. There were just two of us, myself and my friend John Ducept. We left the plane and made our way through the concourse and into the terminal without incident. Neither one of us had checked anything so we went directly to the passenger pickup area outside the East Terminal on level four and were waiting at the north end of the sidewalk for John’s wife to pick us up. We’d been standing there about two or three minutes when a grey van with four men in it pulled up and stopped in front of us. Simultaneously, two of their confederates came out of the terminal behind us. The side door of the van opened and all of them except the driver began to shout and draw automatic weapons. Before anyone could fire, the entity known as The Avatar emerged from the terminal behind the two gunmen and killed all six of them by the method you are familiar with. He also killed John and two unarmed airport workers who were standing nearby. My attention was drawn to John as he fell and when I looked back towards the terminal the Avatar was gone . . .

No shit. Now, there are some aspects of this event that are clearly not a part of the pattern we’ve seen and raise some questions we may not be able to answer yet. It’s the first appearance of the Avatar in the western hemisphere. It’s the first time he’s ever come to the aid of a single person.

Keep your pants on, we’ll come back to that. And it’s the first time he’s ever killed someone who was unarmed. It also appears another pattern may be developing. It’s the third time he’s saved my sorry ass, which begs the question posed by some of you in May as to whether the object of his little visit to the mosque was to save the hostages or me. I’d like to address these issue briefly in order. First of all, he’s been continuously expanding his playing field so it’s my guess it’s time for mass murderers in this hemisphere to start making out wills. Just to keep someone from asking about it I’ll point out that even though I was party to his first activity in Africa and the Middle East as well, he came to Eastern Europe while I was in Afghanistan, so whether or not my predicament yesterday had any influence on his itinerary I think it was inevitable that he would show up on this side of the world. The second issue is moot. Whatever the focus of his intent, he saved sixty lives in Saudi Arabia besides mine. I think the third issue is more significant because it has implications for larger questions. He killed three unarmed men, one of whom was my best friend standing less than two feet from me. I don’t want to hear any collateral damage crap. It’s clear now that he doesn’t discriminate based on any mysterious insight into people’s motives, he just shows up where there’s trouble and whacks anybody who’s holding a weapon. He’s killed hundreds of innocent people but until now they’ve always been armed and actively involved in defending themselves. You can make the case the Avatar simply opposes the use of weapons but I don’t buy it. I think it’s because he has to act quickly and by necessity uses a simple algorithm. Last night is probably a case in point. However he monitors human activity, I don’t know how he could have seen this one coming and there wasn’t much time to respond. Typically he can use the hardware to identify targets but this time he had to act suddenly and just took down everyone with a certain proximity to me. He hardly errs on the side of caution, it’s clear he’s a guy who trims some meat with the fat just to make sure he doesn’t miss any. . . . So, as much as I don’t like to admit this, it’s possible the freak has a greater than random interest in my personal safety. I would caution all of you from jumping to any conclusions about this. I want to make this very clear, we have no . . special . . relationship. There’s nothing going on between us that I’m not telling you about. Whatever his motive can only be something innocuous. Once again I think it has to do with the fact that I’m the first human life he ever saved and maybe he, or whoever sent him, doesn’t want that effort to have been wasted. End of story, do you understand? I’ve been checking online this morning and all the news is about me and my Avatar bodyguard. It’s ridiculous. For some reason, he’s seen fit to yank my butt out of the fire a couple times. So what? I’m grateful, but there are other issues here I’m not seeing you look into. This worldwide Avatar bandwagon is starting to scare the hell out of me. Doesn’t it make any of you nervous? He’s going to slaughter hundreds of people today and some of them are going to get nailed by mistake. And all over the world there’ll be cheering for every blown synapse. People are keeping score just for fun. I don’t see any of you looking hard at this kind of thing. It may be that what this mindless mechanical butcher is doing, needs doing, but people who enjoy executions are sick and you should be reminding everyone of that. I’ll have more to say about this later. Now I’ll answer some questions but . . . sit down!

Listen up god dammit. Last night I was holding my friend of twenty years in my arms watching steam roll out of his boiling brain when his wife and daughter drove up. I’ve had a rough night and I’m not in any mood for bullshit. I’m not a jock or a movie star or a fucking politician so keep in mind I don’t need to pimp for gate receipts or tickets or votes. You will conduct yourselves like reasoning adults and keep in mind I have a low tolerance for stupid questions. Understood? Good. Alright, you.

No, it happened too quickly. It was almost simultaneous. Their guns were coming out as they opened the doors but they were dead before the van was fully stopped. I snapped my head around and saw the two others hit the ground with the Avatar behind them. He was still in mid-stride. But by then all I could think about was John.

It rolled into the maintenance truck. It was parked about, I don’t know, ten, twelve meters ahead.

Shit. Maybe two minutes.

Nineteen. Leave her alone. I mean it.

It’s a private matter. I’m not going to talk about it.

Not yet.

Middle Eastern.

Don’t you? It’s become entertainment. You know? Crowds around a guillotine. Time to party, there’s a gonna be a lynchin’. Doesn’t that make you the least bit uneasy?

I didn’t say I don’t understand it. I said it’s sick, and it is.

Where’ve you been? Next question.

No.

Beats me. I’d love to know. Maybe we’ll hear about it. You know, an edict from some crank in a hole in the ground somewhere.

No kidding. I’d say my odds of catching a bullet have suddenly gone way down.

Because I’m not. And your point is . . . ?

Alright. Let’s say you’re a friend of mine and this gentleman takes you hostage. For some dumbass reason he thinks he can make the world a better place and make his god happy if he cuts your head off. Ok? Now, somehow I find a way to make a deal with him. I take these three guys in and trade them for you. He lets you go and cuts their heads off instead. Hey, you’re alive! Happy? Grateful? Come on, thank me, I saved your life.

Tell that to John Ducept’s wife and daughter and the families of those two maintenance guys, they may not see it that way. You.

Oh, please. Next.

You too? Alright, let’s take a poll. How many of you think this is a stupid question? Well, cowboy, it looks about seventy-thirty your esteemed colleagues agree with me. Why do you think that is?

That’s probably true, but let’s assume at least some of them weren’t sucking up. Use that same insight to tell me why it just might actually be a stupid question.

Alright, look. If it turns out I’m teacher’s pet we may be having more of these little chats, so let me give you some things to think about for the next one. First of all, we’re dealing with events of a significance unmatched in human history. An extraterrestrial entity has invaded our planet and is killing human beings in substantial numbers. Most of them, but not all of them, are guilty of capital crimes or trying to be. But many of them are simply defending themselves or their families, or in yesterday’s case, completely innocent bystanders. This entity has extraordinary powers and operates with absolute impunity. He communicates with no one. He’s given no indication of his origin or his ultimate intent. I have deep concerns about this. I also have deep concerns about the influence his activities are having on people’s ideas and attitudes, and I mean worldwide. Now, I think it’s vitally important that media have access to information about every aspect of his presence here. As a result of forces not of my own making, I may occasionally have some details to provide. Because I appear to have a unique relationship to these events I suppose it’s inevitable that I become the object of some curiosity. But I am not the story and whatever interest there may be in me personally needs to be taken within the context of the activities of an autonomous alien assassin. I’m willing to be poked and prodded but there are at least two classes of inquiry I see no reason to respond to. One is personal trivia. I’m not going to discuss what I put in my coffee or whether I wear boxers or briefs. And I’m not going to address questions I can’t possibly know the answer to. Don’t ask me where I think the Avatar came from. I have no opinion about that. It’s pointless to have an opinion about that. Don’t ask me what I think he’s made of or how I think he’s powered. I have no idea. The only special qualification I have is that I’ve seen him closer up than anyone else alive and I’ve made clear many times the impression I came away with. I’m perfectly aware that I could be wrong, but I’m convinced he’s a machine. He appears to be made of some kind of metal. It looks like blued steel but it has to be something else. There’s something otherworldly going on in that black hole in his face, but I really have no opinion what it is. That’s it. So, I think that’s all I have to offer for the time being. Now I have to go help a new widow make arrangements for her husband’s funeral. Thank you.