The Free Citizen
Page 24
He removed the glasses.
“We need to go,” said Sabine.
Sabine, reached for her crutches and pushed herself off the bench, Dr Muller helping her up.
“Wait a minute!” he said to Sabine. “What about Cora? If you want me to work for you then I’m going back for her first. Non-negotiable.”
Sabine reached out her hand.
“Glasses, please.”
He returned her shades.
“Well?” he said.
“Have a little faith, Calvin Rae,” said Sabine with a sparkle in her eyes before she put on her shades.
He sat there, confused at the response.
“It was a pleasure, Cal,” said Dr Muller with a nod and a smile.
“See you next week,” said Sabine, turning to leave, Dr Muller giving a small wave.
“O—kay…” said Rae, confused at them ignoring what he’d said quite firmly about his priority in getting Cora back.
He knew she was just one of millions of victims of the Regime, but surely they knew how much it meant to him. Why no update on Cora, no plan—or even an outline of a plan—as to how they were going to get her out? Maybe this had been a mistake. Maybe he’d traded one puppet-master for another. A sinking feeling drained any residual joy he’d felt from seeing Dr Muller and Sabine.
“Bye then,” he said numbly, lost for any better words.
He watched Sabine and her mother disappear around the bend of the curved walkway. Checking his watch, he hauled himself off the bench and turned back towards his hotel and started walking on autopilot, lost in thought.
Something caught his attention up ahead on the path. He raised his downcast eyes, resolving the splash of red his peripheral vision had found. Her dark, wavy hair caught the breeze and lifted off her red coat, as her sleek legs moved with increasing urgency towards him. Cora’s smile grew unrestrained. They locked eyes and he felt like they were the only two people in the world. Her pace quickened, and she started running as he did the same, his arms ready to embrace, his beaming face breaking into laughter. Wrapped in her arms, he kissed her like he’d never kissed her before. Tears welled in his eyes as his fears evaporated, banished by powerful rays of joy. The darkness gave way to the light she had brought.
Until tomorrow came, he would enjoy their hard-won freedom. The battle raged on. The war had only just begun. And come what may, he would return to America and fight against tyranny in the Land of the Free.
The End
***
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HOME PLANET: The Sci-Fi Epic
When Dan Luker left Earth in 2070 on humankind’s first interstellar sleeper ship, the Juno Ark, he didn’t expect this. No one did. He wakes up alone on a damaged ship in the darkness of space, surrounded by death. The former LA cop had left his past behind to become a pioneer on Aura—the closest confirmed habitable planet, sixteen light-years away. He and the other twelve-thousand colonists had set off full of hope, ready to rebuild a better world on the Second Earth. Now only destruction and the bodies of his friends surround him. How long has he been in stasis? Where is the Juno Ark in the vastness of space? And what the hell happened?
What Luker uncovers is a shocking history that will redefine his reality.
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