No. She won’t. She ...

  Was too fast.

  Anyssa aimed the binding rod and pressed again. It released a thump and a flash of light.

  Amadi stumbled backward, his eyes wide and unblinking. He uncrossed his arms and grabbed at his neck.

  Blood streamed around the black object jammed into his throat.

  As Amadi crashed into the wall, he reached a bloody hand toward Danny, who read his brother-in-law’s lips.

  Help me. Help me.

  Anyssa grabbed Danny by the arm and shook her head.

  “Patience.”

  “Shit! What have you done?”

  Anyssa closed the binding rod.

  “I responded as authorized. This is how we respond to men of reckless disregard.”

  Amadi collapsed to the floor, his breaths intermittent. Air bubbles filled the gap between his open lips. The last of his desperate notes ended, and his eyes stared into an abyss.

  Danny released the woman’s arm and took a knee in front of the dead man, whose chest was soaked in blood.

  What in hell am I supposed to do now?

  Danny thought of one person: His sister.

  “Gracie. Oh, fuck. I’m sorry. I ...”

  He swung around.

  “What is wrong with you? He only wanted credits. You didn’t have to kill him.”

  She nodded.

  “I’ll concede. We discussed options. This was the quickest.”

  How am I going to explain this?

  “Quick?” He rose to his feet and stood five inches taller than her. Yet as he approached, Anyssa did not flinch. “You just killed a man in your home. He was married to a Cooper. You won’t ...”

  “Get away with it? Calm yourself, Dan. Discover the proper frame of mind to resolve this conundrum.”

  His hands trembled.

  “Frame of mi ... conundrum?”

  “Slow, steady breaths. Discipline your rhythm. We can’t move forward with a meaningful dialogue while you’re in the throes of a panic attack. How about that refreshment?”

  Danny shoved her away. Though Anyssa stumbled, she regained her composure in short order, even checked to make sure her bun was still in place.

  “It’s simple, Dan. Your brother-in-law was a treacherous man who deceived everyone. He made outrageous demands and approached me with violent intent. I responded with self-defense after his disgusting advances. You tried to restrain him, but Amadi Lasaviette was a criminal hiding from enemies on his home world. He sought redress through others who might have loved him. A tragedy for so many.”

  And people called Danny delusional.

  “Nobody will believe that crap.”

  “OK then. Why don’t I add the other bit? The one where you two formed a conspiracy. The one where you assigned Amadi to spy on me and steal my property in the hopes of gaining leverage. The one where you came to my home together intent on terrorizing me, but you had cold feet. The one where Amadi took charge and forced me to make a fateful choice.”

  She held firm. How many scenarios did she account for?

  “Even if they believe your story, you’ll leave here with nothing.”

  “Will I?”

  Her confidence seemed too certain, her smile too easygoing. Did he miss something?

  Danny surveyed the residence, but no detail stood out.

  “Who are you? Who the fuck do you work for?”

  “Bosses, of course.”

  “You aren’t from Halifax.”

  “Used to be. Then I found a better opportunity.”

  The last piece of the puzzle seared into his mind.

  “Amadi was right. You are a con artist. You played me.”

  She winked. “I’m an artist with a wide repertoire, but there is not a false note about me.” She held out her arms as if asking him to admire her figure. “Recon surgery can’t do this.”

  “You aren’t Cassandra Latin. Who do you work for?”

  “A truth.” She set the binding rod on the kitchen table. “Some might call it a new paradigm. A revisiting of what it means to be human. Dan, the immortals are holding out on everyone else. You understand.” She scoffed. “What are you, but a bureaucratic middleman cast off from the town of your birth? And merely for the sake of genetics. They control too much, and they are holding you back.”

  “Shut up. You’ve been here what? Four days? Who are you to tell me jack about my life?”

  She took a pair of cautious steps toward Danny.

  “I once asked a similar question of my critics. Then I discovered the ability to view life from the periphery. The outside edges of your mind lead to fascinating revelations. But they cannot be so easily considered without a refresh. Work with me today, Dan, and I will offer you a refresh. An escape from frustrations and limitations.”

  Even as Danny fought terror and fury in equal doses, his mind grabbed onto her last words. It circulated the phrase ‘escape from frustrations and limitations’ like wet clothes in a tumbler.

  “I keep up with the news from the outer worlds,” he said. “I know that slogan. You’re with Black Star.”

  She wriggled an indecisive hand.

  “I bear loyalty to no institution, criminal or otherwise. I am, Dan, an independent woman moored by vision not pledge. Pledges have held you back, including one to a man beyond your reach.”

  He felt a twitch.

  “Don’t you go there.”

  “Once you move on from Michael Cooper and focus on the future rather than the forgotten, you’ll find peace. I can deliver that peace. Follow my instructions, and we will convert this unfortunate tragedy into a windfall both financial and spiritual.”

  What was her game? She murdered Amadi. A prick, for sure, but he never deserved this. Grace and her son did not deserve this.

  “Financial? I never asked for money. I only wanted the tech to bring my father home.”

  “And you gladly sacrificed your value as a loyal and trusted citizen in pursuit of a singular, selfish goal. As a result, you will someday have to explain that to your sister.” She nodded toward the corpse. “Mere money would have been an easier explanation. Yes?”

  The twitch disappeared. The fists returned.

  He jumped her.

  A left blow, then a right.

  She groped for air when he pounded her in the gut.

  Anyssa. Cassandra. Someone else.

  Did it matter?

  Not to Danny.

  She wobbled when he let go and fell limp at his feet.

  He backed away and unraveled his fists.

  “Oh, shit. Why did I do that? What the fuck is wrong with me?”

  Danny dropped to his knees and unleashed a torrent of sobs. He pounded the floor.

  “Stupid. Stupid. I. Am. So. Fucked.”

  He did not move from that spot. Even when he realized the woman’s chest was rising and falling, he stayed put. In hopeful moments, he’d close his eyes and pretend the dream might soon end. Really, would it have been such a surprise? How often had his dreams felt devastating only to draw down at the sound of a morning alarm?

  At his lowest moment of self-pity, Danny wiped the drool from his chin and said:

  “They were right. I had everything I needed.” He turned to Amadi, who stared back without care. “I love my wife. I love my girls. I ... I promise. I’ll make it right. I fucking have to. I ...”

  A chime interrupted his ramblings. Sunlight followed.

  Shit. The door. Who ...?

  Danny gave up. No strategy would help him now.

  A shadow broke the sunlight. Footsteps followed.

  The door slipped shut.

  “Humans never learned how to let go,” the intruder said. “If only they could close the circle.”

  Danny recognized the voice. He jumped to his feet and caught his breath.

  “You. You’re ... how?”

  “Hello, Daniel,” said Shoan Gui. “I wondered under what grave circumstance we’d meet again.” Shoan lifted his left hand, upon which alighted a winged blue worm. “They thought you might avoid the fate of unchecked ambition and hubris. I voiced my doubts.”

  “Shoan ... how did you know to be here? What’s going on?”

  The man/Jewel studied the victims with a piteous frown.

  “I did warn you, Daniel: Variables can pose unintended danger.”

  He remembered the last time Shoan appeared, after the Joy Circle. The gift Shoan gave to Caleb and the message he delivered to Danny.

  “Have you been watching me?”

  “Watch is not an accurate word. Daniel, I am not allowed to speak of the future, but I can offer advice – as I once did. If you are unwilling or unable to take said advice, I will have to submit a complicated report. I am a judge, as you recall.”

  A tinge of hope buoyed his heart.

  “Advice? Maybe you have a way to get me the hell out of this nightmare?”

  “A way out? Fear always demands a way out. I’ve learned so much from them. My most important lesson: Let go. Independence from fear is a gift beyond description.”

  Danny heard the words, but none suggested a plan. He latched onto the blue worm.

  “Are the Jewels judging me?”

  “That job belongs to me. They have other plans.”

  “For me?”

  Shoan walked past Danny and stood over so-called Anyssa.

  “The great algorithm of causality is burdened by variables but ultimately self-corrects despite their infringement. I would suggest we have arrived at such a moment. You allowed this one to insinuate herself into the algorithm. Might a remedy spring to mind?”

  The woman moved her hand and groaned.

  “Remedy? Shoan, I need a way out.”

  “Yes.”

  “What are you saying?” Shoan responded with a gaze that replied, “Isn’t it obvious?” Danny switched his focus between the woman and the weapon she set on the kitchen table. “No. It won’t help. There will be two bodies. Everyone will know.”

  “True. The suspect, under normal conditions, would be obvious. Yet how is your situation ordinary? Your actions to date show a man of commitment and tenacity. Few would have remained so bold for so long. Only the man who lets go is free to choose his own path.”

  “But …”

  Shoan stepped away, his eyes shaded.

  “Only you can choose to let go.”

  I’m fucked either way. She can’t talk. She can’t talk.

  As he reached for the binding rod, the woman came to. She reached for her right chin and groaned.

  “What is …?”

  She can’t talk.

  Danny remembered how she used it. He pressed the button on the rear end. The clamp-like objects emerged.

  Anyssa/Cassandra/Other sat up.

  “You can’t talk,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  Her eyes ballooned. She pushed off, surging toward him.

  The binding rod thumped and fired.

  Her left eye caught the black projectile. Only a smidgen of it remained visible. She twitched and collapsed.

  “I never wanted this,” he muttered. “I never meant to kill. I ….”

  He swung around and watched Shoan judge him. What did he feel? Pity? Disappointment?

  Did it matter?

  “Look what you made me do. You have to help me.”

  “No, I don’t. Nor will I, unless you let go.”

  “What? But I just …”

  “Daniel, where might a boy find refuge when all hope seems lost?”

  “Just tell me what to do!”

  “A boy’s last refuge.”

  Danny looked to the corpses for an answer. Much to his surprise, he found it.

  “If I do this …”

  “Find refuge,” Shoan said. “The next phase has arrived. The dark will soon follow.”

  Danny ignored those final words and dashed for the door.

  When it opened, he looked back and caught a last, fleeting glance of Shoan’s hands morphing into swarms of winged blue worms.

  21

  Promise

  LIBERATION PARK FILLED WITH the curious alongside those who already believed, though half the planetside immortals had yet to arrive. Caleb walked onto the stage where Oryn Velt, Halsted Boudnoir, Rosa Marteen, and Doc Tess Ranke discussed the presentation.

  “Have you heard from him?” Oryn asked.

  “No. We have time. X will make the right choice.”

  “What if we begin the program early?”

  Caleb noticed an uptick in Oryn’s typical impatience today.

  “If we expect Exeter to keep his word, we need to do the same. Another twenty minutes will not make a difference.”

  Oryn motioned to Tess.

  “Tell him what you heard.”

  Tess shot Oryn with an annoyed side-eye.

  “I spoke with Rafe Dunham, the Lioness quartermaster. He says Adm. Kane has ordered our warships to reconfigure for Inner System Defense.”

  Every Aeternan had served time in the fleet and run sorties in that configuration, although Caleb doubted Tess had served such a rotation in twenty years.

  “Makes sense if he’s ramping up for Priority RED. Seems wrong for Dunham to tell you. Fleet officers are not permitted to share tactical operations with the surface except through official channels.”

  Tess gave away a sly grin.

  “Technically, he did. I called the Lieutenant in my capacity as a Council member. Also, he frequented my home during his most recent leave. Many endearing qualities. Lovely sense of humor. He finds me disarming.”

  Caleb wouldn’t consider the Doc that way, but if others did…

  “They’re reconfiguring the fleet. We shouldn’t feel threatened.”

  “Unless,” Oryn said, “Kane and your husband decide to expedite RED specifically to undercut our message.”

  “No. X would talk him out of it. Tess, you said Kane’s briefing did not mention an imminent threat of invasion.”

  “Correct. He said the UNF delegation believed it was a looming danger but not immediate. He’s taking no chances.”

  “I don’t question Rafa. Neither should you. No one’s given more to our defense.”

  As he hoped, Oryn and Tess backed away.

  He found their skepticism unseemly. The one constant since The Last Day’s War: Trust our commanders. Period. Since when did they let us down?

  There was one time with Michael Cooper, but few remembered. Exeter later confided the specifics and revealed news of a conspiracy against the Minister.

  I trust him. Exeter will do the right thing.

  Caleb was stunned when Oryn outed Exeter’s “secret research teams” in the Broad Occip. What purpose did it serve? Yet Caleb held his tongue.

  See this program through, allow everything into the open, and I’ll make amends.

  Time had crushed their marriage like many Aeternans predicted from the outset. But hadn’t they shared too much together to walk opposite paths? Might there be another route?

  Caleb studied the growing crowd of familiar faces. The Revivalists who attended regular meetings surged toward the front. Skeptics eyed the core committee with understandable suspicion.

  The Promise Council gathered at one corner of the stage. Minister Solis huddled with Samantha Pynn, Rayner Jeffus, and Marta Cather. Caleb wondered whether the real threat to this gathering might be much closer than Rafael Kane.

  Samantha caught his eye and broke away from her huddle. She approached him on the stage, bypassing the core committee.

  As with every encounter, Sam disarmed Caleb with a soft, non-threatening twinkle in those deep blue eyes. Unlike the Bouchet immortals, Sam had not aged in decades, unstuck in time. Under the morning sun, she carried the aura of a gentle thirtysomething going on twenty. Sam took his hands.

  “I won’t try to talk the others down, Caleb. Oryn and Tess are intractable, and Halsted will tee up a meandering speech.” She almost made him laugh. “I’ve always known you to have a wiser spirit. Are you prepared for what this might do to our society?”

  “Sam, I’ve had years to think about this day.”

  “And I’m sure you feel righteous. Have you considered what happens if many of our people are reluctant to follow this path?”

  Yes, actually. For years.

  “Not everyone will fall in line straightaway. Some will need more time. And please, don’t suggest we hold off for a few days. I know about RED, and we won’t object to Rafa’s order. But whatever this new threat might be, we can’t put our lives on hold until it magically disappears. That could take months or years.”

  Unlike so many other hardheaded Aeternans, Sam surrendered without a fight. She kissed his hand and backed away.

  “You sound like Michael. I’ll be here if you ever need to talk.”

  Caleb never appreciated Sam like he should have. She often dropped by the lake house when Exeter was off-world for months. She listened to him voice the same concerns many mates had intimated about a marriage between immortals. And every time, she discouraged the cynicism. She spoke of how shards of her heart went missing after Michael disappeared.

  “You and I are the only people on this planet who understand the separation,” she said, years before her own children found spouses and pilgrims populated the satellites. “Don’t surrender. He’ll come home one day.”

  Caleb wanted to believe. Tried to believe.

  And now? Too late.

  A different future called. What point did regret serve?

  He counted the minutes and looked to the bright morning sky. He thought of Exeter aboard the Lioness.

  “Do the right thing, X.”

  * * *

  EXETER WATCHED THE PLANET transform.

  Huge plumes of fire and lava blasted through the surface along the concentric region around the chasm. Once-teeming forests incinerated. Hills split open and collapsed into the fiery maelstrom. The six outposts crumbled then disappeared into the abyss.

  As the cyclonic storm approached – now moving at a clip of forty kph – the ring of fire tempered its rage and descended with the rest of the land it had consumed. Massive vaults of steam rose toward the surface. The drones which survived the first towers of flames relayed data that Lt. Mars quickly assessed.

  “Incredible. The water drained from the rivers redirected to the ring through …” He caught his breath. “Commander, the subterranean tubes are acting like a system of aqueducts.”