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  In the aftermath, Progress was just scrappy remains, but the low entrance to the redoubt remained. That was good news—the companions did not plan to stay in the area any longer than they needed to, and having access to the redoubt and its mat-trans chamber provided an ideal path to their next location, wherever that may be.

  While the others gathered their belongings and scavenged for what food and supplies had survived the deluge, Ryan took in the last of the night air, peering out on the river whose banks had burst and receded all in the space of a few hours. He stood before the ruins of the hydroelectric dam, looking out at the carnage that lay in its shadow. His head ached deep in the bones where Mildred had removed the rogue hunk of tech, and the area around his missing eye felt more raw than it had in a long time, nagging at him the way a scar would nag when the temperature plummeted.

  “How are you feeling now, lover?” Krysty asked, joining Ryan at the edge of the broken walkway looking out onto the Klamath River.

  Ryan turned to her, seeing her beautiful face as if for the first time, marveling at the way her red hair framed that face like a fire. Krysty started, backing away just a half step before stopping herself. Her eyes were fixed on the empty socket that was Ryan’s left eye, staring into the dark secrets held in the blackness there.

  “I didn’t mean to frighten you,” Ryan said, turning away.

  “You didn’t,” Krysty assured him, patting her arm with her own hand. “It was just...I hadn’t expected...” Her words trailed off, and the sentence and its meaning were carried away on the night wind.

  For a moment, Krysty and Ryan just stood there, watching the ever-changing water of the river as it hurried past them, washing away the wreckage of the ruined dam and the ville it had once fed; washing away the evil of a deranged plan to protect a long-gone nation.

  “I’ve just remembered,” Krysty said suddenly, breaking the silence between them. Ryan turned slyly and watched as she reached into the pocket of her shirt, the space over her heart. When her hand reappeared, it held a tangle of black material and cord—Ryan’s eye patch, the one he had tried to discard right here at the river’s edge. “I kept this as a keepsake of the man you were. You should have it back.”

  Ryan took the patch and looked at it with his remaining eye, judging its weight on his open palm.

  “Aren’t you going to put it back on?” Krysty pressed.

  “Brings home how this is a step back,” he said.

  “No,” Krysty said. “Never that. You wore this when I fell in love with you, and that’s the man you’ll always be—inside, where it counts.”

  Ryan looked at her and smiled. “Yeah, I guess so.” As he spoke, Krysty took the eye patch back from him and stepped close, wrapping the cords around his head as she kissed him.

  Ryan kissed her back, remembering for a moment the photographic image he had taken of her at this very spot, her hair catching in the wind, the river racing behind her. And even without the photograph, he could still see her in his mind’s eye, beautiful as she always was, an image that he could call upon whenever he wanted to. There were other images too—of his son, Dean, and his father and mother, his friends and even his cruelhearted brother, who had tried to chill him. The pictures in his mind were the story of Ryan’s life, and no tech could improve that or change that or take that away from him.

  “We are everything our memories retain,” Ryan said softly as Krysty pulled away from the lingering kiss, the black eye patch bound once again to his head.

  “There’s always space to make more memories,” Krysty reminded him, taking his arm and pulling him away from the river.

  Together, Ryan and Krysty walked back to the mat-trans where their companions were waiting. To make new memories, and one day find a new life—a life filled with hope.

  * * * * *

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  ISBN-13: 9781460331750

  First edition May 2014

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  Copyright © 2014 by Worldwide Library

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