He said something nice about me, and Concitor also received a long encomium. The Knights were mentioned generally, as was General Verix. Nothing about Dietrich, Douglas, Taleb, or the other men of the Lafayette Initiative. That was just the nature of the event, I suppose. The war had claimed so many that it was petty to demand recognition for every single one of your friends when most grieving Taiwanese families wouldn’t get to hear their loved one’s name from the President’s lips. What was more important was that the ideas they had died for would live on.
Six weeks after the end of the Taiwan War, I finally came back to the United States. I hadn’t wanted to come back until I got a formal pardon from President Gates for the Knights’ mutiny. Besides, Amy was still badly hurt, and I knew Taiwan was the best place in the world for her to get treatment.
My parents came to meet me at the airport in Indianapolis. My hometown threw a parade for me, and I didn’t have the heart to skip it. I sat in a convertible with Amy, and for a week afterward everyone in town took Amy and me out to dinner to ask us about the war.
After two weeks, it was time to move on. In my personal effects from Taiwan, I recovered a card given to me a few months earlier. I found the telephone number I was looking for and called on a beautiful early summer afternoon.
“Hello.”
“Domingo, it’s Clay. I was wondering if your job offer was still open and whether you’d be amenable to taking on a few more people.”
Cortez, creator of the Lafayette Initiative, the man who had sprung me out of a Chinese hospital, laughed. “Not sure. Someone else was faster on the draw contacting me, and I’ve already hired his firm to provide some of the special services I had in mind for you. I think you two will be able to come to some sort of arrangement, however. My assistant will send you his contact information.”
We talked on for a few more minutes about the end of the war and how Cortez was adapting to life without the use of his legs. “It’s a pain in the ass, but it was all worth it to win the war. And I’ll be telling my great-grandkids about the time I fought with Clay McCormick.”
When the conversation was over, I called the number his assistant gave me. A receptionist answered, “Douglas Security Services, President Ivanov’s office, how may I direct your call?”
When I was patched through to Dmitriy, we both laughed until we cried. “You're alive, President Ivanov?”
A rumbling laugh came over the line. “I thought the Chinese were going to kill me right on that rooftop, but someone must have decided I was more valuable to them dead than alive. They must have figured they’d hold me as a high-value prisoner, but President Gates succeeded in getting us all back. As for my new title, turns out Douglas had a generous will, what can I say,” the Russian explained. “I’m going to build on his legacy. And, as you’ve probably heard, we have retained Cortez’s company as a client. Would you be interested in being the director of that particular client relationship?”
I grinned. “Only if I can bring along an assistant.”
And so I became an employee of Douglas Security Services, with Amy as my assistant. She routinely ignores my title. But the security business is booming, along with most of the other business in the United States.
The economic partnership with Taiwan, the phasing out of programs like employment vouchers, and… something harder to grasp is pushing us forward again. I don’t know what the future holds, but for the first time in too long, I’m excited to find out.
Dedicated to the people Concitor talked about in his speech.