part 8

What was the name?

Gee Bruce, you look familiar somehow.

No, I think I’d remember.

Yeah, I get that all the time.

I know.

Ok, seriously, how many times have you aired it?

No, I leave it off for a few days after these things.

How much sleep have you had since last night?

Oh, a solid eight. But I take stuff.

Nothing special. Over the counter.

Nope.

I know, suddenly there’s just one to talk about.

Well, I think we should give everyone a break and go back to what we were originally going to talk about.

Right.

I know. Everybody’s wondering.

So he’s still around.

Nothing besides that.

Well, as you know, I’m not prone to that kind of speculation. I’m not really here to talk about what the Avatar might or might not do.

I’ve been trying to drive the dialogue with respect to the role the rest of us should play.

Of course, the question is, what do we do? Sit on our asses and watch? Change our personal habits? Organize and work for social change?

I’d say he’s issued a call to action. He’s pulled the tallest weeds and now it’s up to us to tend the garden.

Oh, you want details. I don’t have any.

Sure.

Ok, that’s probably a good idea.

Right. There’ll be plenty more analysis to come.

Yeah, I have to admit it’s pretty exciting.

Of a different order, of course.

I don’t know, I think I’ve had enough excitement to last me the rest of my life.

I’m an engineer, I want to know how he works.

Apparently he assembles himself out of locally available materials.

I know.

Exactly. Unbelievable, isn’t it?

Actually, I don’t have to believe anything, I saw it happen.

I have no idea. I assume there are teams of better minds than mine working on it right now.

Well, I’ve got some news.

Oh, yeah.

Well, let’s start with what you already know. After he appeared he walked directly down the center of the lane and never looked right or left until after everything was over.

Right. He never even glanced in the direction of any member of the ambush.

The forensic teams have been busy all night and all day and they have some interesting things to say about the bodies. First of all, there were four men with RPGs. There was no evidence of any thermal neural damage to any of them.

That’s right. None.

All four of them were killed by shrapnel from the grenades and launchers.

Even more interesting. Two of the others died exactly as the four shooters. They were watching through the windows and holding detonation devices for the cars that were never activated.

Right, they were close enough to the grenade launchers to be killed by the same fragments as the shooters.

Not the identical fragments, come on Bruce . .

Right.

Ok. Now the last two. Both brains blown.

Totally typical. Just like a million others.

Except . .

. . neither one of them was near a window. I wasn’t told what they were doing, but they were totally blocked from line of sight.

Oh yes.

Isn’t it? Without having to orient that mysterious cannon, he triggered the ignition, I forgot to tell you this, of all the grenades, whether they were loaded or not.

Oh, they had wounds but not fatal wounds. Not from the shrapnel.

I guess the preferred term is neural pulse.

So anyway, he identified, selected and set off all the ordnance and fried two brains without direct line of sight and without even facing the targets.

I know. It’s terrible.

Yeah, I get grief for it all the time. I probably shouldn’t be so flippant but I’ve seen death by the acre and I get face time with the Hammer. Sometimes I treat the technical details like it was all a video game.

Of course. Makes sense doesn’t it?

On the other hand, there’s been a kind of constant evolution since he first appeared, this could just be another step in the process.

Once again, it’s speculation. But there has to be a reason he’s been gone for five days and we saw a clear demonstration of skills we haven’t seen before. And my experience was categorically different that any of my previous encounters.

It’s simple. He’s the Avatar.

Doesn’t matter, you have to respect the office, right?

And he hasn’t been back today so . .

No, I think it’s the same guy.

Nothing really. He just seemed familiar somehow. That doesn’t mean anything. There’s plenty of support for the argument he’s a new agent.

Well, of course. That’s what I’m saying.

Not a damn thing. He seemed to hear me though.

Yeah, whatever I said.

Give me a break. It’s been five days.

Oh, he’ll be back.

No, because I don’t trust people.