But inspiration suddenly hit Mildred.
“It’s our only chance, but it’s a long shot,” she stated, tapping in six letters.
The LED flashed, the figures frozen. Then, with a beep, it turned itself off.
“What the hell did you tell it?” J.B. asked her with a mixture of awe and admiration in his voice.
“I just put in the name Garcia.” She smiled. Then, seeing their blank expressions, she laughed aloud. “It was just something on one of the posters from the redoubt… I’ll explain it sometime. Let’s just say you’ll be grateful when you’re dead.”
“I very much doubt it,” Doc said, bewildered.
THROUGH THE BLACKNESS and confusion, a wave of strength hit Krysty. Somehow, she had picked up on her friends and the wave of relief from them. It gave her strength, and within her mind she saw her mother back in Harmony, telling her about the power that could be wielded by those who worked together for a common good. It wasn’t a power that could be measured like blasters or grens, but it had its own strength.
A strength that, for one moment, allowed her mind to clear from Jenna’s influence.
Krysty’s hands were twisted awkwardly and painfully toward her own body, pointing the blaster at herself. She straightened them, so that the blaster was pointed directly at Jenna.
The baron’s wife realized that she had momentarily lost her grip on her adversary. In that second, fear entered those glittering black eyes.
It was all the relief that Krysty needed. She squeezed the trigger, and let fly a shot that entered Jenna’s forehead neatly between her eyes, puncturing a small entry wound and a larger exit wound that took a large chunk out of her skull, pulping brain tissue as it did so.
The glittering raven eyes dulled and died.
Krysty, drained of all energy, fainted.
She was still unconscious when Jak and Dean found her some minutes later.
Epilogue
It took several days for Blake—the new sec chief— to set straight the mess that Raw had become. The chilled bodies had to be disposed of, and those ville dwellers who had sided with Harvey had to be searched out. Those who didn’t recant on their decision were to be exiled. Needless to say, all of them swore to be loyal to Alien. Blake wasn’t so stupe as to believe them out of hand, and so established a list of those citizens who needed to be watched.
“Things will never be the same,” he said sadly.
And they wouldn’t be. Alien was a shadow of his former self. The knowledge of his wife’s betrayal, and the depth of her depravity, had severely dented his belief in his ability to rule, and it would take him time to rebuild his barony. He attended the cremation of Jenna supported by Doc.
J.B. helped the Armorers set the armory straight, Mildred assisted the medical staff of the ville, and Ryan and Jak sat in with Blake as he attempted to build a new structure to the ville that took account of what had happened, but didn’t stray too far from the precepts of Alien and his ancestors—the precepts in which Blake also believed.
Krysty took the entire period to recover from the psychic attack she had endured before chilling Jenna. Although she hadn’t drawn on the Gaia power that aided her in times of great physical demand, she felt as though she had. She tired easily, ached all over and felt as though she could sleep all day. Eventually, she was well enough for them to leave.
BLAKE ACCOMPANIED THEM to the exit that led out to the forest. Alien wouldn’t go with them, wouldn’t even acknowledge that they were leaving.
As they stood on the threshold of the ville, the new sec chief grasped Jak by the arm.
“I’m sorry to see you go,” he said quietly. “I need all the good people I can get, and you’re good people. If you ever come back this way…”
“Mebbe. Mebbe not wander some day,” Jak replied, knowing that in some ways he would always be searching.
Blake watched them as they marched through the forest until they were out of sight, then returned to his own battle.