"Maybe so, but the people need you to be clear-headed." Then the doctor remembered himself. "Or, at least as clear-headed as you can be."

He injected a medicine deep into the flesh near Adrian's spine. Within moments the pulsing pain of the wounds became numb.

"Thanks."

"No problem," the doctor replied.

Adrian pulled down his shirt.

"Doctor, I believe I'm well enough to see my wife now."

The doctor didn't answer, only put away his instruments and turned away.

"Maybe you should sit down."

"Sit down for what?"

"There is something that I need to tell you."

Cold blackness fell down like rain. Drenching clothes. Soaking them to the skin. Words, words, and more words. What was said made no sense. Sorry. We tried. There was nothing we could do. You have a son. Keep him. Raise him. She's not in pain anymore. Not one more day. Not one more hour. No more gasps for breath. No more suffering. She's not coming back. Was there sorrow? A whimper. A cry. A wail. Who made those sounds?

A snarl vibrated from behind the locked door. Adrian sounded like a large cat with teeth made for rending flesh. He hissed, then went quiet like a menacing dark spirit in the back of a cell.

"How long has he been like this?"

"All night."

A growl, low and intense.

"This is not working." The doctor wrote out a new script. "Stop the medication and give him this."

The window was a wash of nightfall colors. Orange drowned by pink and purple and blue, and a dot of green that briefly held in the air like a solid object, then faded away. A shadow bent his head towards the failing light. A man broken both in mind and spirit. His beard fully grown and curled at the edges, ungroomed and sprinkled with spit.

"Stephen," Adrian said, "I know you are there."

The little man stepped into the vanishing glow of the evening sun. No one else would come to witness this embodiment of grief. Only Stephen. He pushed back his glasses and rubbed his hair.

"You've been here for hours ... almost every day."

"I didn't think you should be alone," Stephen said and drifted back towards the exit. "Don't worry. I'm leaving now."

"Stephen?"

"Yes?"

"Stay for a moment."

"Okay."

Silence.

"Have you seen my son?"

"Yes. Antoine. He is well. Sheila is taking care of him."

"Antoine? Good. That's good."

Silence.

"Have you ever thought about what will be left behind when we're gone?" Adrian asked.

"What do you mean?"

"What will be left of humanity? Ever wonder?"

"Sometimes," Stephen said.

"We are stripping our monuments clean so we can make our new underground cities. All our databases, all of the information about who and what we are, will corrode in a matter of years without human intervention. Our books will disintegrate. ... There should be something left of us, don't you think?"

"I suppose so," Stephen said.

Adrian placed a memory card on the window sill.

"This is for you."

"What is it?"

"It's my plans for your atmospheric encoding project. Multiple layers of code in the atmosphere can be networked like a spider's web over the surface of the Earth. It should still run your warning program, but it should also be a giant database where we upload our books, history, all our knowledge. ... It will be a memorial to mankind."

Stephen stepped forward and carefully picked up the card.

"Okay," Stephen said. "I can get started on this."

"And I want you to do something for me."

"Yes?"

"I want you to make sure that she is remembered. ... I want you to make it so that the sky will have her memory living up there. ... I want you to make her beautiful like she was. ..."

"I'll try."

The door creaked open, slicing a sliver of white into the shadow.

"Stephen?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

** PREPARING FOR DOWNLOAD **

enter access code: enter access code: * BREAK *

>> continue ** ERROR: CANNOT COMPLY **

enter access code: enter access code: enter access code: Antoine ** UNRECOGNIZED CODE **

enter access code: enter access code: Adrian ** UNRECOGNIZED CODE **

enter access code: enter access code: enter access code: enter access code: 10110001 ** PROGRAM DATA STREAM OPEN **

DOWNLOADING...

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** ERROR: SYSTEM OVERLOAD **

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==> ERROR: FRAGMENTATION.

==> BRIDGE SOCKET 200983 CLOSED.

** DOWNLOAD COMPLETE **

** Please 'continue', there is **

** still more to see... **