Asimov's Science Fiction: April/May 2014 Read Free Page B

Iliad?"
    "Odyssey.
In high school." He felt a twinge of sorrow for that lost self.
    "I was going to say that when you tie it to
The Iliad,
it's this story about what happens in war and what it's like to be a returning soldier."
    "Mm-hm." Jimmy did not want to have this conversation, but he recalled now flattening the book open on his desk. His thumb involuntarily moved, and he recalled the book in his hand. "What was," he began, and thought harder. "There are those phrases like 'wine-dark sea' and 'dawn's something.'"
    "Rosy-fingered dawn. That's the Fitzgerald version."
    "Didn't Odysseus have some phrase connected with him?"
    "It varies," Max said, in his element, not really talking to Jimmy, expounding. "The man of woe. Skilled in ways of contending. Wily. The cunning man. The man of twists and turns. That's Fagles, one of the latest translations. Odysseus is the smartest guy in any Mediterranean room. He can see his way out of any situation, probably because he's been through so much, had so many adventures. His only failing, if it's a failing, is it takes him forever to get back to Ithaka after the war. They're not just a strategy. The twists and turns are his life story."
    "He has to get back... to his wife?"
    "Penelope. Remember, there are all these 'suitors'? The suitors make the mistake of thinking that just because he's old now, or older, he's helpless. He can't possibly fight this crowd of younger men. But everything he's gone through has made him stronger. You can't beat Odysseus." He squinted into this idea, then opened his eyes at Jimmy. "Does that strike you as ridiculous? I mean, personally. You've been in a war, or conflict. And I'm talking about the journeys of this
make-believe
fighter. Wouldn't a real person be... traumatized by these things?"
    Aware of Bekka sitting stiff beside him, Jimmy pushed his pale soles into the sand, digging with them, making a track. He found himself wondering how far down the sand extended. When did it become dirt, stone, whatever lay deeper? What were the layers? Mantle, crust...
    Jimmy said, "How can you be sure he's make-believe?"
    When the others returned to the passive lake, Jimmy stayed behind, reading, He had to bring the book close to his face, his sunglasses muddying the view of what was already a challenge, small print on paper going brown with age.
    The novel opened with a scene Jimmy assumed had no connection to the tale to come, something to establish the abilities of the great man.
    For such a giant, his movements were astonishingly swift. In a
    series of actions that appeared as a blur to everyone, including his
    stunned associates, the Big Man swept two of the gun-toting
    assailants over the bridge and, before the third man could react,
    relieved the gape-mouth mobster of his weapon. One blink later, the
    remaining man was being held aloft by a single steel-strong arm.
    "Can your associates swim?" a thunderous voice asked.
    "I—I dunno!"
    "Mikey and I'll go fetch them, Boss," said Sparks, and the two
    jumped into the waiting roadster.
    "A full explanation would go a long way toward restoring you
    safely to your feet," said the copper-skinned giant, his voice rolling
    into the man with such force it made the thug stop squirming.
    Jimmy looked at the cover again. The Big Man would survive the dreadful toll of years imposed on him by his enemies; he would not yield; he would grow stronger from the knowledge brought about by suffering.
5. Looking Glass
    The black-clad BrightLine guard who led Jimmy to the cell stood a head's-height above him. Stone-faced, not meeting his eyes, hands firmly on his weapon. Quarles, his nametag read. It set Jimmy sideways to have a fellow black man not give him a solid look, but he didn't force matters, waiting to read the man better.
    The metal door's window was a square smaller than a face. Quarles turned his cap askew and bent to peer inside. Jimmy studied the cap's BrightLine insignia: what he took to be a curving brown Earth below