Kaveh hoped Bureaucrat Shannon hadn’t caught the tremor that ran through him. Please, don’t be requesting a private conference with me because you’re curious about vibrators. “A beach?”

Bureaucrat Shannon sighed that death sigh again and walked away into any number of conversations going on behind closed doors. What were the risks? What was the legality of this? What branch of the government should handle the transport? Should the military get involved, and why was the answer to that question yes?

Eventually, at great taxpayer expense, they granted Nikola’s request for the following afternoon. It was only one big helicopter, which took them to an island off the coast of Santa Barbara, a nature preserve that was off limits to fishermen and human boating enthusiasts. Some Coast Guard boats had arrived ahead of time to make sure the island was absolutely cleared of anything that could be considered human activity.

Then they stepped into the sunlight, Nikola’s first time in almost two weeks, the military guys and civilian feds looking on as if this were some Neil Armstrong moment they were witnessing. Nikola moved down toward the beach, and when Kaveh told the G-men they didn’t want to be followed, none of them protested.

Kaveh had a walkie-talkie on him, mostly for the CIA contingent to yell at him if either he or Nikola moved where they couldn’t see. Nikola spent a few minutes on the beach, approaching the water and cocking his head curiously, probably for show, demonstrating that, yes, I sure am interested in the nature of your beautiful planet, nature nature nature, look at all that salt water.

Eventually, he backed away from the water and settled on the rocks in a roosting position, eyes to the overcast ocean. February in California wasn’t like February on the East Coast, but it was still windy and cold. After Kaveh sat down about a foot from Nikola, he dug out the walkie-talkie. “Can you make sure they aren’t eavesdropping?”

Nikola looked at it, but didn’t touch it. “THEY WILL HEAR NOTHING I DO NOT ALLOW.”

Kaveh put the walkie-talkie back in his pocket and pulled the flaps of his peacoat up around his neck. The two looked out at the ocean for a while.

“I HAVE DONE AS YOU HAVE ASKED. I HAVE MADE GOOD-FAITH EFFORTS TO ENGAGE MY SYMPHYLE. I HAVE REFRAINED FROM MEDICATING MYSELF.”

“Thank you for that,” said Kaveh.

Nikola kept his luminous eyes to the ocean. Kaveh turned to check the couple of CIA agents bumming around some thousand feet away. One of them kicked a rock.

“BUT I AGREED TO CONTINUE TO LIVE IN THE SHORT TERM. WE DID NOT DISCUSS HOW SHORT, OR HOW LONG, WE SHOULD CONTINUE.”