同章对照

• Four years ago.

Len Sabino woke up on a mattress, the room cold, and chill. Water leaked from the wood ceiling, rain hitting the window. Thunder echoed in the distance, the storm getting closer. In spite of the noise, Ryan was soundly asleep next to her, snoring almost as loud as the lightning.

“Hey, Riri, you’re sleeping?” she whispered, but the boy didn’t offer any response. Ryan was kind of cute when he slept, and completely in denial about the snoring.

Len remembered the day she and her dad had found him, amidst the rubble of a village destroyed by marauders. He had hidden in the basement, while his whole community had perished, their livestock taken. If she hadn’t scavenged his house looking for supplies, Len may never have met Ryan.

They stuck together for years afterward, never far from the other. They survived the Wars, Dad’s rampages, marauders, and Genomes. Always together, even sharing the same bed. They were siblings in all but name… though she wished they could become more, even if she was too shy to say it out loud. She never had a boyfriend, didn’t understand how these things worked.

If only he would make the first move.

Len glanced around the room. It used to be some kind of hunting lodge near the Alps, a silent house of wood on a steep hillside. The locals must have abandoned it a few years ago, either chased away by marauders or moving towards the rebuilding cities for protection. Everybody spoke about New Rome, whenever she managed to talk to someone outside her family without Dad interfering.

When Ryan wouldn’t wake up, Len left the bed in her pajamas and searched the room. Her companion had left his pants on a chair, and while it wasn’t nice, the girl looked into his pockets.

The Blue Elixir seemed to shine, as lightning fell right outside the bedroom.

It had been weeks since they left Venice, and so far Dad hadn’t noticed the potions. He had left the kids alone three days ago, to salvage stuff nearby. She hoped he wouldn’t kill anyone this time.

Len knew her father would come back. Ryan wished he didn’t. He feared Dad, hated him.

Len understood. Dad was… difficult. He was already drinking a bit too much after Mom left them for her other family, but he always did his best to raise Len and her brother. When Cesare died during the bombing, something broke inside Dad and never came back. The Elixirs had just been the last straw that broke the camel’s back, making him take out his pain on others.

But in spite of everything, he was still her father.

Len observed the potion with a mix of fear and hope. She knew how Dad might react once she drank it, but… Blue Elixirs made people smarter. Geniuses. Mechron drank one, and he invented killer robots and orbital lasers.

If it gave her a smart power, maybe she could create a cure for Dad. Make him normal again. Turn their group into a real family, instead of… of whatever they were right now.

Len hesitated, briefly glanced at Ryan, then moved into another room of the lodge. The garage at the back.

The place was complete chaos, a storage area where the previous inhabitants put everything they got their hands on. Books, car parts, tools, lamps… even an old fridge and washing machine long out of use.

It had a workshop, however, perhaps used to skin hunted animals. Since electricity didn’t work, Len had to light up a candle to see and provide some warmth. She sat behind the workbench and examined the Elixir. The receptacle provided no notice, no information besides its helix symbol. It would be a leap into the unknown. A direct injection scared her, so she decided to ingest the substance directly. She had seen Dad do it before, so it should work.

Breathing long and deep, Len removed the syringe and drank the potion whole.

The substance tasted unlike anything she had ever felt. It mixed the texture of saltwater with alien flavors, neither sweet nor salty, neither acid nor bitter. The liquid had no natural component at all.

More strangely, the substance fused with her flesh. As she drank it, the Elixir vanished before it could move into her stomach; it went straight into her bloodstream through the tongue and mouth, bypassing the normal digestion process. In the span of seconds, Len had swallowed it whole.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Len put the empty syringe on the workbench, wondering if something had gone wrong. Had age caused the Elixir to lose its potency?

And then her mind caught fire.

A manic surge of divine inspiration possessed Len, ideas flowing into her head. Raw, pure information filled her brain like a torrent of water breaking through a dam, expanding her neurons, changing her whole understanding of the universe. She couldn’t move, her consciousness freezing as it struggled to compute an enormous mass of new content.

Her body went numb, a surge of blue energy phasing through her nerves, her bones, her organs. It was brief but intense, her entire self altered on a fundamental level.

As the mutation continued, Len entered some kind of fugue state. The urge to create possessed her; her power demanded to be used, like a baby wishing to be born into the world. As the blue light left her body, Len’s hands grabbed the remains of the fridge, the tools, the washing machine, and everything within reach.

She didn’t know how long she remained in that manic state. Maybe minutes, maybe hours. During that period, nothing else mattered; not Dad, not Ryan, not the world. She only needed to create something, anything.

When the surge lessened and Len regained control of herself, she had transformed the fridge and random stuff into some kind of bulky bathysphere. She had somehow painted it red, and even incorporated a hammer and broken sickle into the final design; even in that fugue state, her personality had bled through.

She understood her power’s nature, almost intuitively. It boiled down to one word.

Water.

Her power was all about water. How it worked. How to understand marine life, and how to adapt land animals to survive below the waves. How to alter the ocean on a worldwide scale, how to make technology that resisted deep sea pressure, how to create devices capable of causing tsunamis. She knew what creatures lived in the darkest abysses of the planet, and how she could communicate with them. Her power provided her with all the information she needed, allowing her own creativity to fill in the blanks.

For Len, who had always loved the sea and Jules Verne’s stories, it was almost a dream come true. It made her wonder if the Elixir granted powers based on the drinker’s personality, providing an ability that they would like based on the selected color.

But for all its wonders, her power wouldn’t help Dad.

It wouldn’t help Dad! She couldn’t imagine any way to cure him, even with her expanded intellect! She didn’t even understand how his unique biology worked, let alone how to deal with his insanity! She could make submarines, tsunami machines, water-control devices, but nothing that could help her understand Elixirs, let alone the madness they caused! And he—

“Len.”

Len turned towards the door, Ryan stepping inside the garage while still in his pajamas. He glanced at the mini-sub, then at the empty bottle; his mouth said nothing, but his eyes widened.

“I had to,” Len said, her voice breaking. “I had to.”

There was no condemnation in his gaze, only worry. “Was it worth it?”

Len shook her head in defeat, crumbling on the bench. The creative surge had left her exhausted as if she had run for hours.

She felt his hand on her shoulder. She raised her head at Ryan, who offered her a warm smile. “Hey,” he said, pointing at the bathysphere. “It’s still beautiful. Now you can send fish to Siberia if they misbehave.”

The lame joke came out of nowhere but made Len laugh. “You’re horrible,” she replied, the tension evaporating. “I should send you to a gulag.”

“We both know that will only be a temporary solution.”

“Seriously though,” Len smirked, “We could travel. I can make a Nautilus from scrap parts—”

They heard the lodge’s door open from the outside, the lock removed.

“Len? Cesare?” Bloodstream’s voice echoed through the lodge alongside the lightning, Ryan’s hand tensing on Len’s shoulder. “Where are you? We have to go!”

“Hide,” Ryan said, panic overtaking his voice. “You have to hide.”

“Where?” Len replied sadly. “There’s nowhere to go.”

“We have to leave, the homeless are revolting again! They killed my clone in…”

When Bloodstream entered the garage, leaving bloody footprints behind, Ryan had moved in front of Len. The Psycho observed his daughter without a word, the blood making up his body shifting like a raging ocean.

“Len.” Dad’s behavior had suddenly changed from warm to tense. “What am I sensing?”

“Dad…”

“What am I sensing in your blood?”

Ryan shielded Len, like a knight in shining armor protecting her from a furious dragon. But for all his bravery, he had no sword.

“You have…. you have lied to me…” Bloodstream rasped angrily, his fingers turning into claws. “You lied to your own father!”

Len froze. She suddenly felt so small, the world so cold and unwelcoming.

“The power isn’t for you!” Dad snarled angrily. “It was for me! It was always meant for me! Don’t you understand, you stupid daughter? I took it for you! I took it to protect you! Protect you from this sick world!”

“I know…” the Genius apologized, lowering her eyes. “I know.”

It was her fault. If she had been strong… if she had been strong, Dad wouldn’t have had to take those potions and transform into a monster.

“Ever since your mother abandoned us, it was my responsibility! Mine!” Dad calmed himself, but the menace in his voice only grew. “You have to be punished.”

“Dad, please…”

“Don’t touch her!” Ryan tried to stop the Psycho, but Bloodstream simply slapped him out of the way with a furious backhand, sending the boy to the floor. Her father moved towards Len, hands raised to strangle her.

His daughter closed her eyes and didn’t resist. She just waited for the inevitable.

But it never came.

She opened her eyes again, facing her father’s featureless visage. His claws within an inch of his daughter’s neck, Bloodstream trembled, as if suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

“No…” Dad suddenly held his head with both hands, fighting a headache. “No… not her… not Len… I can’t… I can control it… I can...”

Bloodstream walked away from the garage, his last embers of humanity struggling against the Elixir addiction. Dad vanished inside the lodge, Len hearing him bang his head against a wall in a room nearby.

Ryan had recovered from the slap, Len extending a hand to help get back on his feet. “You’re okay?” she asked with concern. He had blood falling from his nose; not Bloodstream’s, but his own.

“Yeah,” he said, although clearly shaken. “Yeah.”

“You were very brave,” she tried to cheer him up, blushing a bit. “It was very heroic.”

Instead of answering with words, he kissed her.

Len gasped, as he pulled her towards him without warning, his lips against her. It was a kiss born of hunger, of a primal desire for comfort and human contact.

It felt…

It felt good.

After all the fear and tension, it just felt good.

They quickly broke the embrace as they heard Dad crawl back into the room, putting space between each other. Whether it was out of fear of discovery or embarrassment, Len couldn’t tell.

“I am… I am well… I see clearly…” Bloodstream seemed calmer, but he didn’t mention the incident. He didn’t even acknowledge Ryan or his injury. “I see it clearly now. You are smart, Len. You’re smarter now. You can make anything.”

“Y-yes, no I mean,” Len cleared her throat anxiously. “I can’t make anything, but I can build stuff.”

“We will leave,” Bloodstream declared suddenly. “People are after me. After us. They destroy my clones and close in. You will make a sub, and we will leave. It was getting harder and harder to find good places to crash in anyway.”

“Leave where?” Ryan asked, very careful.

“How about America?” Bloodstream replied, joining his hands. “The land of opportunity, Hollywood! We will be stars there, stars! Like the Kardashians!”

“I…” That was insane, Len thought. They barely knew how things were in France, let alone across the Atlantic! “I will see, Dad…”

“It’s all going to be fine.” Both Len and Ryan tensed, as Dad put a hand on their heads, almost paternally. “We’ll always be together.”

---

• Present Day

Silence and darkness.

The bottom of the ocean was the most peaceful place on Earth. You could always hear sounds of some kind on the surface. The singing of birds. The wind on the grass. The horns of cars. The moans of Rust Town’s whores and addicts.

Here, in the deepest abyss of the Mediterranean Sea, Len was alone with her thoughts.

She liked it this way.

Carrying a plasma torch adapted for the underwater environment and clad in her diving armor suit, the Genius worked on repairing the base’s outer shell. Some of the steel parts hadn’t handled the stress of deep sea pressure, weakening a part of the modular habitat. While she had designed the place to be highly modular, with each ‘house’ independent from the others, any leak could cause a disaster down the line.

If it was to house life one day, it had to be perfectly safe. Safe from the horrors and darkness outside.

The antidepressants dulled Len’s mind, made her numb after the initial manic rush, but her power allowed her to focus anyway. If anything, she only really felt happy while working. Using her power filled Len with euphoria, provided her with a sense of purpose and direction she lacked in her life.

It must be night above the surface, the Genius thought. I wonder...

Unable to suppress her curiosity, Len briefly activated her radio, listening to a conversation above the surface while working.

“Existence is subjective.”

“Mm?” Even now, hearing Ryan’s voice startled Len and almost made her drop her tool.

“Your question, about whether I exist if you can roll back time.” Len didn’t recognize that voice. A new one. “We can never know we exist, so there is no objective truth to existence.”

“You’re still thinking it over?”

“Yes. It’s disturbing.”

“Eh, you get used to the uncertainty.”

No, you didn’t.

She couldn’t.

Len eavesdropped through Ryan’s Chronoradio for a while, then muted it. She had watched him from afar the day after he reached New Rome, while he was close to the shores. The Genius could have sworn he knew she was nearby, and it made her retreat beneath the waves.

Ryan was looking for her. He had been for years.

And she didn’t know what to tell him.

• 四年前。

蕾恩·萨比诺在床垫上醒来，房间里寒气逼人。木头天花板往下漏着水，雨点敲打窗户。远处雷声隆隆，暴风雨正在逼近。尽管这么吵，瑞恩依然在她身旁睡得正香，鼾声几乎能盖过打雷。

“喂，瑞瑞，睡着了吗？”她轻声问，可男孩没有回应。瑞恩睡着的样子还挺可爱，就是死活不承认自己打鼾。

蕾恩记得她和爸爸找到他的那一天。村庄遭到掠夺者摧毁，遍地废墟，他就躲在那里的地下室里。乡亲们全死了，牲畜也被抢走了。要不是蕾恩进他家搜寻物资，她或许永远都不会遇见瑞恩。

往后的几年里，他们一直相依为命，从不远离彼此。战争、爸爸的暴走、掠夺者、基因者——他们都挺过来了。无论何时，他们都在一起，连床都睡同一张。两人虽无兄妹之名，却已情同兄妹……可她希望他们不止于此，只是羞于说出口。她从没交过男朋友，也不懂这种事该怎么做。

要是他肯主动就好了。

蕾恩环顾房间。这地方原本大概是阿尔卑斯山附近的一间猎屋，一栋静静立在陡峭山坡上的木房子。当地人想必几年前就遗弃了它，不是被掠夺者赶走，就是搬去正在重建的城市寻求庇护了。每次她好不容易能避开爸爸的干涉，和家人以外的人说上话，听见的都是新罗马。

见瑞恩迟迟不醒，蕾恩便穿着睡衣下了床，在房间里找了起来。同伴的裤子搭在椅子上。虽然这样不太好，她还是翻了他的口袋。

一道闪电劈落在卧室外，蓝色灵药仿佛也随之发起光来。

离开威尼斯已经好几个星期了，爸爸至今还没发现这些药。他三天前把两个孩子留在这里，独自去了附近搜罗东西。她希望这次他不会杀人。

蕾恩知道父亲会回来。瑞恩却巴不得他别回来。他怕爸爸，恨爸爸。

蕾恩明白。爸爸……不好相处。妈妈为了另一个家抛下他们以后，他就开始有些酗酒，可还是一直尽力抚养蕾恩和她的哥哥。切萨雷死于轰炸时，爸爸心里有什么东西也跟着碎了，再也没能复原。灵药不过是压垮骆驼的最后一根稻草，让他把痛苦发泄到了别人身上。

可不管怎样，他仍然是她的父亲。

蕾恩望着药液，既害怕，又满怀希望。她知道喝下它以后，爸爸可能会有什么反应，可是……蓝色灵药能让人变聪明，变成天才。梅克隆就喝过一支，然后发明了杀人机器人和轨道激光武器。

要是它能给她一种让人变聪明的能力，也许她就能研制出治好爸爸的药。让他重新变回正常人。让他们真正成为一家人，而不是……不是现在这副说不清算什么的样子。

蕾恩犹豫了一下，瞥了瑞恩一眼，然后去了猎屋的另一个房间——后面的车库。

那里乱成一团，是个储物间，以前的住户把能弄到手的东西全堆在了这里。书、汽车零件、工具、灯……甚至还有一台废弃已久的旧冰箱和洗衣机。

不过，这里倒是有个干活的地方，或许曾用来给猎物剥皮。屋里没电，蕾恩只好点起蜡烛照明，顺便取一点暖。她坐到工作台后，端详着灵药。容器上除了螺旋标志，什么说明、什么信息都没有。喝下去，就是一脚踏进未知。她害怕直接注射，于是决定把药液喝下去。她以前见爸爸这么做过，应该管用。

蕾恩长长地吸了一口气，取下注射器，将药液全喝了下去。

那东西的味道是她从未尝过的。它有着盐水般的质感，却混杂着异样的滋味，不甜不咸，也不酸不苦。这种液体里没有任何天然成分。

更奇怪的是，它与她的血肉融为了一体。蕾恩喝下灵药时，药液还没来得及进入胃里便消失了；它绕过正常的消化过程，经由舌头和口腔直接融入了血液。几秒钟内，蕾恩就把它全咽了下去。

有那么几秒，什么也没发生。蕾恩把空注射器放在工作台上，怀疑是不是哪里出了问题。难道放得太久，灵药失效了？

随后，她的脑海燃烧起来。

一股神赐般的灵感狂潮攫住了蕾恩，无数念头涌入脑海。原始而纯粹的信息仿佛决堤的洪水，灌满她的大脑，扩展着她的神经元，彻底改变了她对宇宙的理解。她动弹不得，意识在竭力处理这团庞大的新信息时陷入了停滞。

她的身体失去了知觉，一股蓝色能量穿过她的神经、骨骼和脏器。过程短暂而剧烈，从根本上改变了她的整个存在。

变异仍在继续，蕾恩进入了某种恍惚状态。创造的冲动占据了她；她的能力在要求得到使用，就像一个渴望降生的婴儿。蓝光离开身体时，蕾恩的双手已经伸向了冰箱的残骸、工具、洗衣机，以及一切触手可及的东西。

她不知道自己在那种狂热状态里待了多久。也许几分钟，也许几个小时。在那段时间里，其他一切都不重要了：爸爸不重要，瑞恩不重要，整个世界都不重要。她只需要创造出点什么，什么都好。

等那股狂潮渐渐退去，蕾恩重新掌控自己时，她已经把冰箱和一堆杂物改造成了某种笨重的深潜球。她不知怎么还把它漆成了红色，甚至将一把锤子和一把断掉的镰刀融入了最终的设计；即使处于那种恍惚状态，她的个性还是流露了出来。

她几乎凭着直觉就明白了自己能力的本质。归根结底，只有一个字。

水。

她的能力全都与水有关。水如何运作。如何理解海洋生物，如何让陆地动物适应水下生活。如何在全球尺度上改变海洋，如何制造抵抗深海压力的技术装备，如何造出能够引发海啸的装置。她知道地球上最黑暗的深渊里生活着哪些生物，也知道该怎样与它们交流。能力为她提供了一切所需的信息，余下的空白则交由她自己的创造力来填补。

对于一向热爱大海、热爱儒勒·凡尔纳故事的蕾恩而言，这几乎就是梦想成真。她不禁猜想，灵药会不会根据饮用者的性格赋予能力，在所选的颜色之内，给予他们一种自己会喜欢的能力。

然而，无论这能力多么神奇，都帮不了爸爸。

它帮不了爸爸！即使头脑比以前聪明了，她也想不出任何治好他的办法！她连他独特的生理机制是怎么运作的都不明白，更不用说怎么对付他的疯狂了！她可以制造潜艇、海啸机器、控水装置，却造不出任何能帮她理解灵药的东西，更别说灵药引起的疯狂了！而他——

“蕾恩。”

蕾恩转向门口，瑞恩仍穿着睡衣，走进车库。他看了看那艘迷你潜艇，又看了看空瓶子；嘴上什么也没说，眼睛却睁大了。

“我必须这么做。”蕾恩说，声音发颤，“我必须这么做。”

他眼里没有责备，只有担忧。“值得吗？”

蕾恩颓然摇头，瘫坐在长凳上。那阵创造的狂潮耗尽了她的力气，仿佛一口气跑了好几个小时。

她感觉到他的手搭在了自己肩上。她抬头看向瑞恩，他正温柔地对她微笑。“嘿，”他说着，指了指深潜球，“它还是很漂亮。现在鱼要是不听话，你就能把它们发配到西伯利亚了。”

这句烂笑话来得毫无征兆，却把蕾恩逗笑了。“你真坏，”她说，紧绷的情绪烟消云散，“我该把你送进古拉格。”

“咱们都知道，那也只能管一时。”

“不过，说真的，”蕾恩嘴角带笑，“我们可以去旅行。我能用废零件造一艘鹦鹉螺号——”

他们听见门锁被卸了下来，猎屋的门从外面打开了。

“蕾恩？切萨雷？”血流的声音伴着雷电在猎屋里回荡，瑞恩搭在蕾恩肩上的手绷紧了。“你们在哪儿？我们得走了！”

“躲起来。”瑞恩说，声音里满是惊慌，“你得躲起来。”

“躲哪儿？”蕾恩悲伤地回答，“没有地方可去。”

“我们得走了，那些流浪汉又造反了！他们杀了我的分身，就在……”

血流走进车库，身后留下一串血脚印，瑞恩已经挡在了蕾恩面前。疯魔一言不发地打量女儿，构成身体的血液如怒海般翻涌。

“蕾恩。”爸爸的态度突然从亲热变得紧绷。“我感觉到了什么？”

“爸爸……”

“我在你的血里感觉到了什么？”

瑞恩护着蕾恩，像个身披闪亮铠甲的骑士，为她抵挡一头暴怒的恶龙。可纵然勇敢，他手中却没有剑。

“你……你竟然骗我……”血流愤怒地嘶声道，手指化作利爪。“你竟然骗自己的父亲！”

蕾恩僵住了。她突然觉得自己如此渺小，而世界如此寒冷，如此容不下她。

“这力量不是给你的！”爸爸愤怒地咆哮，“是给我的！它从来就该属于我！你不明白吗，你这个蠢女儿？我是为了你才喝下去的！我是为了保护你才喝的！为了保护你不受这个病态世界的伤害！”

“我知道……”天才垂下眼睛，带着歉意说，“我知道。”

都是她的错。要是她够强……要是她够强，爸爸就不必喝下那些药，变成怪物了。

“自从你妈妈抛弃我们，这就是我的责任！我的！”爸爸让自己平静下来，声音里的威胁却愈发浓重。“你必须受到惩罚。”

“爸爸，求你……”

“别碰她！”瑞恩试图拦住疯魔，血流却暴怒地反手一巴掌把他扇到一旁，男孩摔倒在地。父亲朝蕾恩走来，抬起双手，要掐住她的脖子。

他的女儿闭上眼睛，没有反抗。她只是等待着那无可避免的一刻。

可那一刻并未到来。

她再次睁开眼，面对着父亲那张没有五官的脸。利爪距离女儿的脖颈不到一英寸，血流浑身颤抖，仿佛患了帕金森病。

“不……”爸爸突然双手抱头，与头痛抗争。“不……不能是她……不能是蕾恩……我不能……我能控制住……我能……”

血流走出了车库，残存的人性余烬仍在与灵药成瘾搏斗。爸爸消失在猎屋里，蕾恩听见他在旁边的房间里用头撞墙。

瑞恩已经从那一巴掌里缓过神来，蕾恩伸手扶他站起。“你没事吧？”她关切地问。他鼻子里正往下滴血；那不是血流身上的血，是他自己的。

“没事。”他说，显然仍惊魂未定，“没事。”

“你刚才很勇敢。”她想让他好受些，脸微微红了。“很有英雄气概。”

他没有开口回答，而是吻了她。

蕾恩轻呼了一声。他毫无预兆地把她拉向自己，嘴唇贴上她的唇。这一吻源于渴求，源于对慰藉、对与人相触的本能渴望。

这感觉……

这感觉很好。

经历了那么多恐惧和紧张后，这感觉就是很好。

听见爸爸爬回房间，两人立刻松开怀抱，拉开了距离。究竟是怕被发现，还是出于羞涩，蕾恩自己也说不清。

“我……我没事了……我想明白了……”血流似乎平静了一些，却对刚才的事只字不提。他甚至没理会瑞恩，更没理会他的伤。“现在我想明白了。你很聪明，蕾恩。你现在更聪明了。你什么都能造。”

“是、是的，不，我是说……”蕾恩紧张地清了清嗓子，“我不是什么都能造，但我能造些东西。”

“我们要离开。”血流突然宣布，“有人在追杀我。追杀我们。他们毁掉我的分身，越逼越近。你造一艘潜艇，我们就走。反正能落脚的好地方也越来越难找了。”

“去哪儿？”瑞恩小心翼翼地问。

“美国怎么样？”血流合起双手，“机会之地，好莱坞！我们会在那儿成为明星，明星！就像卡戴珊一家！”

“我……”这太疯狂了，蕾恩心想。他们连法国现在是什么情况都不清楚，更别说大西洋对岸了！“我会看着办的，爸爸……”

“一切都会好起来的。”爸爸一手一个，把手放在他们头上，那动作几乎有了点父亲的样子。蕾恩和瑞恩都绷紧了身体。“我们会永远在一起。”

---

• 现在

寂静，黑暗。

海底是地球上最宁静的地方。在地面上，总能听见些什么。鸟儿的啼鸣。风拂过草地。汽车的喇叭。锈镇妓女和瘾君子的呻吟。

而在这里，在地中海最深的深渊中，只有蕾恩和她自己的思绪。

她喜欢这样。

天才身穿潜水装甲，手持专为水下环境改装的等离子炬，修补着基地的外壳。部分钢制构件没能承受住深海压力，让这座模块化居所的一部分结构变得薄弱。尽管她在设计时采用了高度模块化的布局，每座“房屋”都彼此独立，但任何一处渗漏，都可能在日后酿成灾难。

如果这里有朝一日要容纳生命，就必须绝对安全。必须能将外界的恐怖与黑暗隔绝在外。

抗抑郁药让蕾恩的头脑变得迟钝，在最初那阵躁狂的亢奋过后，让她变得麻木。但她的能力依然能让她集中注意力。真要说起来，她也只有在工作时才会真正感到快乐。使用能力让蕾恩满心欢欣，赋予她生活中所缺少的目标感与方向感。

海面上应该已经入夜了。天才心想。不知道……

蕾恩压不住好奇心，暂时打开了收音机，一边工作，一边收听海面之上的一段对话。

“存在是主观的。”

“嗯？”即使到了现在，听见瑞恩的声音仍让蕾恩心头一跳，差点失手丢了工具。

“你问过，如果你能让时间倒流，我是否还存在。”蕾恩认不出这个声音。是个新声音。“我们永远无法知道自己是否存在，所以，存在这件事并没有客观的真相。”

“你还在琢磨这事？”

“是的。很令人不安。”

“唉，这种不确定性，慢慢就习惯了。”

不，习惯不了。

她就做不到。

蕾恩通过瑞恩的时空收音机偷听了一会儿，随后把声音关掉。他抵达新罗马的第二天，走到海岸附近时，她曾远远地观察过他。天才几乎敢断定，他知道她就在附近，这让她又退回了海里。

瑞恩在找她。他已经找了好几年。

而她不知道该对他说些什么。