They’re celebrating prematurely.
But she supposed that, given the uncertainty of the past few weeks since the Hydra attack, a celebration wasn’t uncalled for.
The mayor also announced an investigation into the aforementioned attack. To his credit, he revealed some among the city council were among the suspects. He probably wouldn’t investigate all of those who were involved, for political reasons, but at least some justice would be dealt if he succeeded.
Will visited her shortly after the news broke. “Did you hear? The water’s back on. You did it.”
She smiled wanly. “Looking back, it seems like it was such a hard fight.”
“Wasn’t easy,” he agreed.
“Well,” Rhea said. “The water’s back on. I can leave now.”
Will cocked an eyebrow. “You weren’t joking about Ganymede, were you?”
“No,” she said.
“And Veil?” he said.
“He can’t hunt me if I’m on another planet,” Rhea replied. “Or in this case, moon.”
“How can you be so sure?” Will pressed.
“I can’t,” she admitted. “But I have no more leads at the moment. If I knew where I could find him, I’d launch a preemptive strike. But I don’t. If I stay here, I’m a target anyway. One day, Veil might simply decide to stage a direct assault, led by the Black Hands, or the Scorpion, or whatever other minions he has at his disposal. Who knows, he might even drop a bomb. I put everyone at risk by staying. So no, my mind is made up.”
“What about Khrusos?” Will asked.
“What about him?” Rhea replied.
Will studied her. “You have no interest in his claim on you? Considering he’s the leader of the free world…”
“He has no ‘claim’ on me,” Rhea said. “If I was seated at his table, as the mayor described, it would have been as a guest.”
Will frowned. “If that’s true, why do you sound so doubtful? I think what the mayor said about Khrusos keeping Ganymede prisoners for personal entertainment is more in line with reality.”
“Perhaps one day I will seek the truth of this Khrusos,” she said. “For now, I only want to go home.”
Will shook his head. “Why do you insist on this? There’s nothing there. Forget Ganymede.”
“It’s where I’m from,” she said. “It calls to me. Maybe when I arrive, more memories will return.”
“Is that why you’re going?” he said. “Because you want to trigger some memories? Hire a therapist instead, or a hypnotist: you’ll save a ton of credits.”
When she didn’t answer, Will sighed. “All right. You’re adamant on leaving. Fine. So how are you planning on getting there?”
“Renaldo has arranged a ride for me,” Rhea said.
Will smirked. “Has he now?”
“Yes,” she explained. “He put out a call on my SubverseTube channel, and my followers reached out to friends and family across the world. We found someone within a few hours: a generous space trader who saw my exploits on VidTube before I was banned has agreed to let me hitch a ride aboard his transport at no cost. He’s headed to the Europan colony of Centaar on Ganymede.”
“I’m coming with you, of course,” Will said.
“You’ve done enough for me,” she told him. “You don’t need to come to Ganymede.”
“I don’t need to, no,” he said. “I want to. So, tell me, will this trader of yours make room for Horatio and me, or do we have to hire our own transport?”
Rhea smiled, feeling suddenly teary eyed. “He’ll make room. Oh, Will.” She gave him a fierce hug. “You’re too good to me.”
Will patted her on the back. His voice seemed hoarse, as if he was holding back strong emotions himself. “Someone’s got to watch your naive back up there, Dude.”
He pulled away and averted his gaze.
Rhea smiled. “You’re a good man.”
He nodded. After a moment, he recovered enough to look her in the eyes: “So. When do we leave?”
“Soon,” she replied. “But first, there’s something I have to do.”
Rhea perched on a beanbag near the entrance of the rebuilt lean-to where Chuck’s parents lived. Horatio sat cross-legged on the floor to her left, Will her right. Chuck’s parents resided across from her, on a repurposed coffee table that had been made into a couch of sorts.
“I know you received a message already about your son,” Rhea told them. “But I just wanted to come here in person to tell you how much his sacrifice meant to me, and to Rust Town. He was instrumental in restoring the water to this city. Without him, I would have died in the Outlands, killed by an assassin. But Chuck gave his life for me, distracting the assassin long enough for the rest of us to shoot him down.”
“What happened to this assassin?” the mother asked.
“Have you heard of an X2-59?” Rhea said.
The mother nodded.
“That’s what happened to the assassin,” Rhea finished.
There was no reaction from either of the parents to those words.
“I’m so sorry,” Rhea continued. “For sending you a missive. I was too afraid to visit you in person. Too afraid to face you, and your accusing eyes. But this is my punishment for failing him.”
“You didn’t fail him,” the father said. “You restored our city’s water. I heard the announcement from the mayor earlier, but everyone knows you’re the one who changed his mind. I don’t know what you said to the mayor but obviously you can be quite convincing. We’ll always be grateful for what you’ve done, not just for getting our water back, or for bringing us together before and after the bioweapon attack, but for allowing Chuck into your inner circle. Whenever he spoke of you, it was with the awe of someone who was so very thankful to be a part of something bigger than himself. You’ll always be welcome in our home. Chuck would have been very proud of what you’ve done for our city.”
Rhea smiled, her vision blurring with tears. “Thank you. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”
She
