“No. I’ve been dealing with self-important idiots like Brianna LeClair my whole life. You think it’s easy being this size? In a military organization? Brianna LeClair is a minor obstacle in my path.” She sniffed. “I also wanted you to know that I’m at the top of my class.”
“Are you?”
“Yes,” she said, “and I intend to stay there, and when I graduate at the top of my class, I intend to join your staff.” She gave Michael a fierce look.
He almost laughed. “Do you?”
“Yes, I do. I know who you are. I know who you’ve been and I know what you’ve done. Everybody is going to want to join your staff. I wanted to get my application in before the rest of them.”
Michael was not entirely certain that he was going to have a staff, since he was not entirely certain where his so-called career would be taking him. He might, though. It was certainly possible.
“When you graduate at the top of your class, send me your CV. I’ll keep it in mind.”
She grinned, and suddenly looked very, very young. “Good,” she said.
“Dismissed.”
“His network still exists,” Arcturus said.
Michael was finding it hard to concentrate. He shrugged, squeezed a slice of lime over his plate of seafood, picked up a shrimp, dipped it in hot sauce and stolidly chewed. Down below, the beach shimmered in the heat like a faraway dream, the white sand, the blue water, the bathers so far in the distance that they looked like small, mechanical dolls.
Michael dimly remembered having similar feelings, long ago, when a mission had ended. His mood at such times tended to vacillate between elation and a deep, deep depression.
Roderick Allen had been his friend. And now he was gone, along with a trillion of his followers.
He sighed.
Arcturus grinned but had enough sense not to tell him to cheer up. “Parliament has voted you an Earlship,” Arcturus said. “The Prime Minister and the Imperator have already signed the bill. Congratulations.”
“An Earlship…” Michael gave a reluctant smile. “Earl Michael the First.”
“They’ve also granted you an estate, and a yearly stipend to go with it.”
Michael raised his head. “Where?”
“On Earth.”
“Earth? Isn’t Earth a wasteland?”
“Not all of it. I’ve seen the pictures. Your estate is quite pleasant, though somewhat run-down. The stipend will be more than sufficient to repair and maintain it. It’s on an island in the Mediterranean.”
“Rather isolated. Probably rather boring.”
“Yes, well, the Empire has decided that it would be good PR to fix the old place up. It’s embarrassing to have the home world of humanity remain a slum. The Emperor’s palace has been moved to Manhattan, though he perversely insists on spending most of his time on Reliance.”
“Like I said, probably rather boring.”
Arcturus shrugged. “Use it as a vacation home. Go there now and then to re-charge. You don’t have to live there.”
Michael nodded and sipped his beer. “I’ll think about it.”
“So,” Arcturus said. “What now?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? One-by-one, the ships had returned, carrying with them the survivors from Gehenna, and Michael, by the laws of salvage, still owned all those very valuable ships.
And the old crew, as Michael had sadly predicted, was breaking up. Rosanna and Curly were going to make their home on Dancy. Rosanna, two months pregnant, planned on opening a restaurant. Michael had no doubt it would be successful. Curly was toying with the idea of starting his own security firm. Richard Norlin had purchased a building close to the beach, with sumptuous living quarters on the top two floors and a sound studio below. His schedule was already filled with concerts and appearances. He had been seen around town with Lady Egidia Colbert and her two twin retainers.
Gloriosa and Andrew Sloane-2 had bid Michael and Frankie goodbye. Gloriosa had planted a chaste kiss on Michael’s cheek and given Frankie a hug. They had no plans in particular, not yet…wander, see the galaxy, maybe drop in on the educational coordinator and her gene-splicer husband. Andrew Sloane-2 had no ambitions. He was happy just to be with Gloriosa and alive.
Frankie, as Rosanna had predicted, had forgiven him. He had been pretty sure she would but there had been just a smidgen of doubt.
“We’re going to take a little trip to the Rift. I promised to return Andrew Sloane to his father. After that,” Michael gave a half-hearted grin. “I’ll think about paying a little visit to a misguided corporate oligarch on Nereid. He deserves to be shown the error of his ways.”
Arcturus nodded, and re-filled his glass with beer. “These are good plans, but they won’t take a lot of time,” Arcturus said. “What about after that?”
Michael Glover, Ptolemy, knew himself well enough to know that he was easily bored. Michael Glover was not built to sit around and do nothing. “I’m going to get married,” he said, “and have a couple of kids. I’ve never done that before.” He shook his head. “Not successfully.
“And then? As you said, Xenophon’s network is still out there. The head has been chopped off, but the beast isn’t dead. Criminal organizations always have men who are willing and eager to step up and take over. I think that I might enjoy helping to root it all out.” Michael grinned. “After all, it’s a big Universe. We have an Empire to protect and help grow, and Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
“Good,” Arcturus said. He sipped his beer. “I can use you.”
Michael smiled. Or I can use you, he thought.
The End
Information About the Author
I hope you enjoyed The Well of Time, the fifth book in The Chronicles of the Second Interstellar Empire of Mankind, which includes The Game Players of Meridien, The City of Ashes, The Empire of Dust and The Empire of Ruin.
I graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University with a degree in English before attending Northwestern University Medical School. I’ve had a long career as an academic physician, which has resulted in over forty scientific publications. I began writing fiction many years ago, and in addition to The Chronicles of the Second Interstellar Empire of Mankind, I am the author of two additional science fiction novels to date: Edward Maret: A Novel of the Future and The Cannibal’s Feast, plus the Kurtz and Barent Mystery series, which includes Surgical Risk, The Anatomy Lesson, Seizure, The Chairmen and Brighton Beach. The sixth book in the Kurtz and Barent series, If a Tree Falls, is in progress.
For more information, please visit my website, http://www.robertikatz.com or Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/Robertikatzofficial/. For continuing updates regarding new releases, author appearances and general information about my books and stories, sign up for my newsletter/email list at http://www.robertikatz.com/join and you will also receive two free short stories. The first is a science fiction story, entitled “Adam,” about a scientist who uses a tailored retrovirus to implant the Fox P2 gene (sometimes called the language gene) into a cage full of rats and a mouse named Adam, and the unexpected consequences that result. The second is a prequel to the Kurtz and Barent mysteries, entitled “Something in the Blood,” featuring Richard Kurtz as a young surgical resident on an elective rotation in the Arkansas mountains, solving a medical mystery that spans two tragic generations.
The Well of Time Page 23