The God Mars Book Five: Onryo (47 page)

“Then we do something he doesn’t anticipate,” Ram
decides quickly.

“Like… join him?” Lux jokes badly.

Ram looks at all of us.

“We get help.”

“You can bring our people to Eureka,” I offer Rashid
before we move out. “They have facilities; atmosphere, water, local
food sources. They could use your protection.”

“Soon, perhaps,” he declines. “When it is safe enough
to send for the rest of our people, we will need a proper home for
them. Until then, those of us left will help defend Katar, should
the demon return.”

“You’ll have the Carters,” I remind him needlessly.
“And Dee and his new Bot Army.”

This last gives him a grin—we’ve never had the
machines of the enemy on our side, and in large numbers.

We embrace like brothers. I tell him I will see him
again soon. Then I embrace Sarai.

“I will make sure our people have a home,” I promise
her as my father did.

Straker is saying her farewells to Ram and the
Carters and finally to Bly. She lingers with him, then unexpectedly
leans in and kisses him. He looks as surprised as the rest of us,
but doesn’t pull away, even reciprocates. They promise to see each
other again soon as well.

Then Straker joins me for the hike back to Eureka.
I’m glad she decided to join me. I hope she can make some real
peace with the exiled Keepers, bring them in as allies as Ram
offered.

I see Ram give me a nod and smile, and hear him in my
head:

“You’re a better man than I am, Jonathan Drake. If
anyone deserves these gifts, you do.”

I give him a nod back but have trouble accepting his
words. I’ve done so much out of rage, not righteousness…

Ram and Bly join the other immortals in the Siren’s
Song. Her engines are already spinning up to launch.

Khan meets us with his guard on the field. Cousteau
is with him, as his new Captain. He offers me a bow, then his hands
to clasp in friendship.

“I disrespected you when we met,” he admits. “I am
sorry for that. We are grateful for what you have done for us. I am
grateful for what you have done for my daughter.”

“I hope she comes back to you, sir.”

“I hope she comes back to
us
,” he corrects me.
Then he bows again, and we pass to the Wall.

I take one last look at the Siren’s Song as it lifts
and flies away west, with Terina asleep in her belly, perhaps one
day to wake. I also think of her escort to White Station: Paul
Stilson, off to confront his father, and that makes me burn with a
fresh surge of grief, thinking again of the things I should have
said to mine and put off too long, afraid. I still have what feels
like an infinite emptiness inside my breast plate, and can’t
imagine how it will ever be filled, even if I do live forever.

The Ghaddar is waiting for us at the gap in the
Wall.

“I served your father,” she tells me formally. “Now
my service is yours, if you want it.”

“You should serve Rashid,” I offer her
half-heartedly. “He’s Sharif now.”

“Rashid doesn’t need me to watch his back,” she digs
at me.

“And I do?” But then I accept with a nod.

Straker slaps me across the shoulder plate as we head
into the gap.

“You were really going to tell the Zauba’a Ghaddar to
fuck off?” she takes her own dig at me.

“Not on my life,” I tell her. “And that’s apparently
saying something.”

The hike back to the South Blade is peaceful, even
beautiful.

We stop at the Don Quixote, to refill the Ghaddar’s
canisters and check the drone net. The systems report no
incursions, nor has there been any distress calls from Eureka.

On the way out, I stop and leave a ritual offering of
food at the graves, and say the
Salat
for the dead. Then I
use my gloved fingers to rub away the red paint filling the carved
symbols for Peter Nagasawa.

He is, after all, with his family now.

To be continued in
Book Six: Valhalla, I Am
Coming

About the Author:

Michael Rizzo is an artist (yes, those god-awful
covers are his), martial artist, collector (and frequent user) of
fine weaponry, and a pretty good cook. He continues his long,
varied and brutal career on the mental health and social services
battlefield, trying to do good work while writing about very bad
things.

He is also the author of the
Grayman
series,
which features Mike Ram and other characters from this series in
their much younger days.

He causes trouble in person mostly in the Pacific
Northwest.

For updates and original art, visit Michael on
Facebook.com
, and see the Facebook page for
“
The
God Mars Series
”.

Discover other books by Michael Rizzo at
smashwords.com