He locked the cruiser into a hover close to the boat. He opened the hatch and lowered a rope. “Thorne’s ship is about to go nuclear,” he yelled to the surprised crew. “Climb onboard if you want to live.”
Unsurprisingly, they all wanted to live.
***
Rin took one last breath and held it as the water closed over her head. She waited for the pressure to equalize once the reactor chamber was completely flooded. When the pressure equalized, she pulled herself through the tear in the hull and floated toward the surface. She would not spend her last minutes underwater inside a metal tomb, a fate nearly as bad as being trapped underground in her opinion.
She surfaced and took a deep breath, savoring the fresh ocean air in her lungs. It smelled almost like being back home, with the sea breeze coming in from the ocean. She swam a good distance away from the churning water near the rapidly sinking freighter.
The sunrise overhead was beautiful. It was the first she had seen the sun since that day she had spent with Reznik in the grove of her family’s estate.
It’s a pity there hadn’t been more time for us.
Rin’s HUD quickly ticked down toward zero. She savored her last few seconds, almost able to hear her father’s voice in her mind, “A truly honorable death is to give one’s life selflessly to protect others.”
This is fitting. The Takahashi name will continue to be an honorable one. My ancestors would be proud—Father would be proud.
And Rin found the elusive peace she had long sought as blinding light washed over her.
Chapter 31
Reznik set the cruiser back down on the landing pad outside TI headquarters. Once the Triton’s crew had gotten onboard, reaching the compound again had only taken two minutes at nearly full throttle. Only a couple minutes to spare, he noted on his HUD.
He opened the hatch and pushed past the crew crammed into the luxurious cabin. He ignored their thank-yous as he stepped outside. They were free to do as they pleased, as far as he was concerned.
Marcus had left a message on his Datalink, inquiring about their status. The message also included the location of the temporary ops center. Reznik headed toward the Section 7 building. Just as he set foot on the steps outside the building, the early morning suddenly became brighter than high noon.
A mushroom cloud billowed into the sky out over the distant ocean in a towering pillar of fire. Reznik watched in awe at the raw destructive power of the blast. He sat down on the top step and just stared at the spectacle.
“Reznik?”
He became aware of his friends approaching, eyes wide in shock at the mushroom cloud. Marcus and Ayane sat down beside him on the step. Keeva and Ciera sat on the other side of him.
For several minutes, they just watched silently. Once the cloud began to slowly dissipate, Reznik answered their unasked questions.
“Thorne had a contingency upon his death—a nuclear warhead was going to be set off. His intent was for it to detonate right here in the District harbor and destroy everything he’d built and everyone who’d worked for him. He seemed to believe it was his duty to ‘reset’ humanity from its sorry state. He did it first by allowing the Cataclysm to happen. With recent events, apparently he didn’t like what he saw, so he resorted to a scorched-earth solution.”
“He was bloody insane,” Keeva muttered.
“Did Reiko…” Ayane must have been afraid to ask the question.
“She sacrificed herself to disable the ship and save all of us.”
The group sat there silently, each of them lost in his or her own thoughts. Reznik thought about what had been accomplished and the heavy toll exacted in achieving victory and couldn’t help but wonder if the high price was worth it.
***
Waves crashed against the rocky shoreline below, sending a spray high into the air. Reznik sat on a promontory at the edge of the Thorne compound overlooking the bay. Somewhere in the distance, beyond even the limits of his keen sight, the bay reached the ocean and the watery grave where the Triton had sunk and exploded.
And Rin gave her life so the rest of us can carry on.
During the past several days, as daily life transformed into its new state of normality, the fresh pain of loss had faded somewhat for Reznik and his friends, each dealing with it in his or her own way. It helped that they all stayed busy.
Marcus had proven to be a competent leader as the new de facto CEO of Thorne Industries. With all the skins under his control, further resistance within the corporation had quickly been stamped out. Reznik had assisted in rounding up a number of Thorne’s cronies and imprisoning them until they could be sorted out at a later trial. Marcus had ensured that all resources were used to assist all the wounded rebels and Shiru troops, as well as any civilians who had been caught in the crossfire. His friends Ram and Brent were instrumental in helping to maintain order. The dead had been cremated, and reskins were on hold, perhaps permanently.
Reznik knew Marcus did what he had to do out of obligation, not because he had any desire to run the corporation. The young man mainly just wanted to spend time with Ayane. He had agreed to run the company until it was decided whether it would be shut down or handed off to other capable hands. Reznik didn’t blame his friend at all—he was young, and the couple seemed to have a great future together.
Keeva and her people seemed at a loss for direction after Red Royce’s death since they had overthrown TI. Reznik had made the suggestion that they could see that the wasteland receive whatever supplies and security assistance needed to ensure a better quality of life for the citizens. Gangs of bandits and slavers still preyed on the wasteland settlers. Keeva had agreed, and her rebels seemed happy to have a goal again. Marcus had promised whatever assistance TI could provide, and Ayane had done the same, speaking on behalf of her father for Shiru International.
Ichiro had resurfaced shortly after the fight was over. He had apparently won a hard-fought battle against the AI that ran the DefenseNet. He had disrupted the TI network around the globe, crippling command and control and preventing any type of organized counterattack to be made. Once the thousands of skins around the globe had been reprogrammed, for all intents and purposes, any resistance within the company was pacified.
To Reznik, it didn’t really feel as though they had won. He still questioned whether the victory was worth the high cost. It remained to be seen whether the New USA would survive without being propped up by Thorne Industries if the company was shut down, or whether it would descend into chaos. Marcus was ensuring that TI’s heavy-handed control would be scaled back dramatically. Reznik wondered about Thorne and his brutal “solution” to the problem of exploding population and dwindling natural resources. Would humanity have been able to save itself if the meteor had been stopped, or would it have crept ever closer to its own destruction? That was a question that had no answer.
Enough philosophizing—I need to decide what my next move is. He had never really contemplated what he would do after the campaign was over—he had always had a new mission to take up after the last was completed. Skin City seemed a likely choice for the time being, but it was a long distance away, and he’d be sure to take his time getting there. Perhaps he would even find his calling elsewhere.
He briefly considered the Extensis Vitae colonists. Perhaps during the past months they had returned to the surface. He could always swing by during his trip across the wasteland. If they had returned, he thought it might be nice to pay some of his old friends a visit, particularly Myrna, although doubts surfaced when he thought of her. It feels as though I’ve lived a whole lifetime since then… I don’t even know if I’m still the same person I was back then.
He didn’t doubt that Marcus or Keeva could find plenty of work for him, but he was looking for a change. As far as he knew, Lady Angelis’s job offer was still open. Reznik had always liked the Wild West although the trip would be different without Rin by his side.
Thinking back to the days of cruising the wastelan
d with Rin brought a bittersweet smile to his face. They had been on a quest, not tied down by anyone or anything, and it was nice to be able to lend a helping hand to those in need along the way. Although it had been a trying time, he carried fond memories. With Rin gone, the trip would be lonely without her.
Reznik got to his feet and picked up his pack. He had clothes, food, and water—enough for several days. He’d make it work.
His eyes fell on Rin’s katana, strapped to the outside of his pack. He thought of the beautiful, sunny day in the grove at her estate. She had looked lovely against the backdrop of the blossoming cherry trees, dressed in a light-blue-trimmed kimono that set off her eyes, her hair pulled up neatly. Rin had shared details of her personal life he had never known until that day. The experience had felt good—they had been like two normal people living a normal life for once. He wondered for probably the hundredth time if the kiss aboard the Triton had meant anything or if it was just a distraction so she could immobilize him.
Reznik secured the pack on the back of the hoverbike Marcus had given him from the Thorne Industries motor pool. It was a much more advanced version of the one he had ridden many months before, and he looked forward to trying it out in the open wasteland.
Adjusting the .45 on his hip, he climbed aboard the bike. A pulse rifle was attached to the side within easy reach if he needed it. My soldiering days are done for now, but I could always come across someone in need.
Reznik fired up the engine, and the bike lifted a foot off the ground, rumbling beneath him like a rocket ready for launch. He twisted the throttle, and the bike shot off down the hillside.
[I’ve discovered something that you might find interesting, my friend.] Ichiro’s message popped up on his HUD just as he turned onto the road that would take him off the compound.
“What’s that, Ichiro?”
[I was performing routine network scans on the Shiru servers and noticed something of interest.]
“You weren’t hacking them, were you?”
[No. Since I am now a contracted network specialist, it is within the parameters of my duties.]
Reznik smiled. He could imagine Ichiro being slightly miffed at his comment. He wasn’t quite sure how a digital presence could be a contracted employee. “So what did you find?”
[It appears Lady Takahashi surreptitiously re-enabled her remote backup capability. Quite recently, in fact. There was an update performed at midnight on 9 April.]
That would’ve been the night before they launched the operation, he realized—the day they had spent together at Rin’s family estate.
“She re-enabled it? I wonder why… that whole argument about honor and how important a good death was. ‘Samurais would never accept such a thing,’ she said.”
[Lady Takahashi was always partial to the old traditions, true, yet she was very aware that the world has moved on since then. Honor can also be found in how one lives one’s life, not only in a good, fitting death. It is possible she realized that at the end.]
“Hmm. That is good news indeed, Ichiro. Thank you.” Reznik’s head was spinning with the revelation.
[You are welcome. My belief, though, is that all talk of honor aside, perhaps her main reason was that she simply found something to live for.]
Reznik was left to ponder that thought as the refreshing sea breeze washed over him. He gunned the throttle, and the hoverbike sped down the road. Alongside his path, waves crashed along the shore as far as the eye could see. For the first time he could remember, he had the luxury of time. The day was young, and the horizon beckoned, full of possibilities.
THE END
Author’s Note
Thank you for taking the time to read my book! If you made it this far, then I hope you enjoyed the series. If you have a spare moment, please take the time to leave a review and spread the word to your friends. Reviews and word of mouth are really important for independent authors to find an audience. I invite you to visit my website for news about future stories and to leave a comment there if you like.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank everyone that made this final volume of the series possible. Thanks once again to the usual suspects: Tim, Chris, Mona, and Mom and Dad for all the help and support. Writing and publishing this series has been an incredible experience.
I’d also like to give a heartfelt thank you to all my readers for taking a chance on an independent author.
About the Author
Gregory Mattix grew up in the blazing heat of the Arizona desert. He obtained a degree in Business Administration at the University of Arizona, served in the military, and lived overseas for a time. He currently lives in Colorado with his wife and works his day job in the sprawling government machine that aims to keep America safe. He daydreams that one day he can quit the day job and write full time. Extensis Vitae: Empire of Dust is his fourth novel.
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