Howard yelled from behind him: “Commander, down!”
Michaels went prone, shoving his pistol out in front of him as he did so.
Howard’s submachine gun roared, the sound of it joining those of Michaels’s and Ames’s weapons.
Ames saw Michaels go down, was sure he had hit him, but then the second man was there, firing—
Why had he shot? Why hadn’t he surrendered, like he said?
But he didn’t have an answer for that. It hadn’t been a decision. It had been a reflex, an action born of something deep within him, something he hadn’t even known had been a part of him until that moment.
Fire blossomed in his chest, in his shoulder, in his leg. He spun away from the hurt, but the pain followed him. He looked down, saw the blood—
More impacts. The gun fell from his suddenly nerveless fingers, clattered on the floor, but he was past worrying about that. He felt weak, too weak to stand. He fell, hit the wall, slid to the floor in a sitting position. He was having trouble breathing…
He saw the two men come toward him. He should do something, but he was suddenly so tired…
I’ll just rest a second here. Get my strength back. Close my eyes for a minute, then I’ll be better…
Howard moved quickly, Michaels now on his feet and following. Ames was down, bleeding. It didn’t look as if he was breathing.
Howard kicked the fallen man’s pistol down the hall, then bent and laid two fingers on Ames’s right carotid.
Nothing.
Julio came running, slid to a stop as Howard shook his head.
Michaels said, “Did I hit him?”
“Hard to say, but I think that one in the leg was yours,” Howard said.
“Good.”
Howard looked at Michaels, wondering.
“That man sent a killer to my house,” Michaels said. “He threatened my child.”
Howard nodded. “Mine, too. God will judge him for his actions, but I’m not sorry He will get the chance sooner rather than later.”
“Amen,” Julio said.
EPILOGUE
Michaels and Toni went for a walk to the park with Alex and Guru. The day was unseasonably cool, in the seven-ties. As Guru followed the boy toward the merry-go-round, Toni turned to Alex and asked, “So John is really retiring this time?”
Michaels nodded. “Yes. He’s been offered a job in the private sector. An old friend is running the place, and I think he is going to go for it. More money, and he’ll be dealing with a different class of people. Not necessarily better, but probably less dangerous. At least physically. I think he might find some kind of security job there for Julio Fernandez, too.”
“Good for them.”
He smiled at her. “And good for us, too.”
“You’re really going to pull the plug?”
“It’s already done. I talked to the director today. You can help me draft my letter of resignation.”
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely. I’ll stay on long enough to bring a new commander up to speed, a few weeks at most. We can sell the condo, cash in some bonds, buy a nice house in the Colorado suburbs, and take some time off before I have to worry about a job.”
She looked at him. “And what about CyberNation?”
He paused, then shrugged. “Yeah, that’s a point. We’ve cut off some of its heads, but CyberNation is still out there, and I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon. The thing is, I’m not sure what I think about it anymore.”
Toni frowned. “That’s a switch.”
He nodded. “That lobbyist I told you about, Corinna Skye, made some good points in my office one day. I can’t say I agree with her, not completely, but maybe I don’t disagree quite so strongly as I once did.”
He reached out and took her hand. “I guess the way I see it is that CyberNation will either happen or it won’t — and if it does happen, it’ll either be a good thing or a bad… or somewhere in between. Like most things in life, it’s not as simple as I’d like it to be.” He shrugged. “Either way, though, it’s not up to me any longer. And that’s okay.”
She slid her arm around his waist. “You aren’t worried that we might turn into a dull, old married couple?”
He laughed. “That’s not high on my list of things to worry about, no. We have already had enough excitement for ten lifetimes.”
“Look, Guru is getting on the merry-go-round with the boy,” she said.
“Great, that’s all we need, Guru with a broken hip.”
But the old lady stood in the middle of the twirling playground equipment as solidly as if she were bolted down. Little Alex was delighted, laughing as the merry-go-round twirled.
This was what life was supposed to be about, Toni thought. Your family with you, healthy, and safe. Not necessarily living happily ever after, no one could promise that — but it was a start.
And right now, that was enough.