—No. I do not believe it would alter my essence.

—What if I switched more than two? How about all of them? You see what I’m getting at. If I grab a bunch of matter, anywhere, and I organize it in exactly the same way, I get…you. You, my friend, are a very complex, awe-inspiring configuration of matter. What you’re made of isn’t really important. Everything in the universe is made of the same thing. You’re a configuration. Your essence, as you call it, is information. It doesn’t matter where the material comes from. Do you think it matters when it comes from?

—I suppose not.

—So, as I said, Dr. Franklin is Dr. Franklin. If she weren’t, then she would be something else.

—I must say, I find you particularly unhelpful today. I will do my best to replicate this conversation with her, but in all honesty, I would be astonished if Dr. Franklin found lasting comfort in atoms and banana matter.

—If it makes you feel better, I’ll talk to her and I’ll tell her exactly what we did. If you want me to, that is.

—Why not tell me so that I can relay the information?

—You haven’t told her about me, have you?

—I have not.

—You should really talk to someone about your control issues.

—I have one question before we eat.

—I’m serious!

—So am I. I do have one question.

—You’re hopeless, completely and utterly hopeless…What do you wanna know?

—Why take her to Ireland, of all places?

—The device was nearby. As I said, it is designed to move things, and the closer you move them, the easier it is to control where they reappear. We didn’t want her to rematerialize in the middle of a lake or on a busy highway. This isn’t as easy at it seems.

—It seems many things: inconceivable, far-fetched. It does not seem easy.

—Then it’s just as hard as it seems. Maybe harder.

—I may regret asking, but how is what you did any different from traveling through time?

—You’re right. For her, it would have seemed instantaneous, so from her perspective, it isn’t different at all. From ours, well, I guess you could call this really, really slow time travel.

—I do not understand.

—The reason we can’t send information zipping through time, as you said, is that we don’t know where it will end up. How do I put this? Stuff moves fast. Really really fast! The Earth spins on itself a thousand miles an hour. It flies around the sun at sixty-six thousand miles an hour, while the sun is going about half a million miles an hour around the galaxy. Of course, the Milky Way is also moving in our cluster of galaxies, which is also moving, very very fast. And all of this is happening in a universe that’s constantly expanding. Four years is a lot of mileage to keep track of. I’m sure there’s a proper bullet analogy, but I can’t think of any that would do this justice at the moment. The point is, we can’t do it.

But her information did move through time. It was sitting in a drawer for four years. It took four years for it to travel four years into the future.

—So between the time of her death and her reappearance, Dr. Franklin did not exist, but information about her did, in a drawer, somewhere.

—I told you this conversation was a bad idea. Oh, thank God! Our food’s here.

FILE NO. 1433

SURVEILLANCE LOG—WORKSTATION #3

Location: Earth Defense Corps Headquarters, New York, NY

[01:01] It’s 6:00 A.M. London Time. Jamie MacKinnon at workstation #3. Continuing remote video surveillance of Regent’s Park. Monitoring southeast cameras 1 through 5.

[01:03] Selecting camera 1. Overlaying image from…5:00 A.M. Perfect match. No movement.

[01:08] Changing view modes. Toggle to infrared. No change in thermal readouts. Heat signature is uniform. Air temperature in London is…8 degrees Celsius, 47 Fahrenheit. The robot registers at 10 degrees, 2 degrees warmer than ambient.

[01:21] Toggle back to visible light. Lea, did anyone check the EM readings?

[Still nothing. That thing’s like a rock.]

Figures.

[01:31] Switching to camera 2. How’d we end up with the graveyard shift again?

[Seniority]

Oh! Come on! We’ve both been here longer than Nathan and I don’t see him here. I think Dr. Doom just hates us.

[Shhhh! She’ll hear you!]

She’s still here? Does the woman ever sleep?

[Just go back to work.]

[01:43] What the hell? Lea, scoot over for a sec. Tell me what you see…

[That’s just a bird flying into the robot. Happens a lot.]

No, let me zoom in if I can. Now, what do you see?

[Shit!]

Get Dr. Franklin now!

[1:49] [What is it, Jamie?]

Hello, Dr. Franklin. Sorry to bother you at this hour, but take a look at this. This is from camera 2 about ten minutes ago.

[It’s a bird.]

Wait. Let me go back. Look closer.

[Looks like it hit…]

Yeah.

[That’s about what? A foot before the metal? Could just be an optical illusion. Can we get the same thing from camera 4?]

Sure. Rewinding to 06…42. Should be about now.

[Stop! Here it is. Damn! Play it again…]

Should we wake up the General?

[I’d rather have more than a bird…Let me think for a second.]

Rain.

[What?]

It rained last night.

[Oh. That’s good, Jamie. Can you access it here?]

Yep. Just give me one sec. Time index…Let’s try three o’clock…No.

[Earlier. Try one thirty.]

Yep. It’s raining.

[We can’t see anything. Switch to infrared.]

Holy shit!

[The rain isn’t touching the robot at all, anywhere. Nice thinking, Jamie!]