"What is that?" Thomas asked.
"Thomas, my boy, I'll just bet you that there is data on that thing. And I'll bet it is data about who is who in the Separatist organization." Alexander smiled.
"Ma'am, we hadn't heard from you in a couple of hours. We feared the worst!" U.S.R. Fleet Admiral Sterling Maximillian said. "The battle is not going well, ma'am. The Americans have decimated our fleet. We have but a couple of ships still fighting."
"Put me on a systemwide broadcast, Admiral."
"Yes, ma'am. You're on, now."
"People of the United Separatist Republic, you have all fought so bravely and made such sacrifice. I love you, each and every one, with all of my heart. But the time has come that I must ask you all to lay down your weapons and surrender. There is no longer any need for us to continue the bloodshed. Our Separatist movement has been heard in history and throughout all of humanity, from Washington, D.C. to the deserts of Mars, to the Oort Cloud of Sol, and to colonies light-years from where man first crawled out of the muck. We have made our point to all of humanity, to our brethren. It is time now for us to make our amends with them. I ask you all to stand down. Thank you, and God bless you all."
"You are clear, ma'am," Maximillian said.
"Stand down, Admiral. Ahmi out." The holoscreen blanked out, and the view of the blue-green gas giant filled the horizon again.
"How was that?" Sehera pulled her hair out of the hole in her mother's ski mask and slipped it the rest of the way off.
"Perfect." Alexander smiled at his wife. "Let's go home."
Epilogue
December 14, 2396 AD
Tau Ceti, Ares
Saturday, 7:15 PM, Earth Eastern Standard Time
Saturday, 2:15 PM, New Tharsis Standard Time
Dee and her father sat on a park bench across from a row of condominiums, feeding the New Tharsis pigeons. December in New Tharsis was warm, humid, and more like May in Mississippi. It had taken Nancy months to figure out where their last target had slipped off to. It turned out that he hadn't slipped far. They had been finding the targets and eliminating them one by one for about fifteen months, and this last one had proven to be the most slippery of them all.
"Thanks for bringing me along on this one, Dad," Dee said.
"Like I would have ever heard the end of it if I didn't let you come." He laughed. "I just hope he shows up before we need to QMT to the embassy. I cannot miss the treaty signing. Finally reuniting all the human colonies—nothing is more important than tonight's ceremony. It'd be a shame to have to let Nancy finish this without us."
"We won't miss it. I'm sure Nancy's intel is right. So, are you going to run again?"
Alexander Moore knew he'd never get used to the way the gears were always churning in his daughter's head. "Well, your mother and I have talked about it a great deal, and—"
I've got our target in ten seconds. Nancy's voice rang in their minds.
"Saved by the belle. . . . We'll finish this conversation tomorrow." Alexander stood up and eased a modified railgun pistol out of his waistband, holding it casually against the side of his leg.
Dee stood up as well and turned toward her father.
"There's our target." Dee nodded toward the condos across the street.
A car pulled up and parallel parked in front of the condo just to the right of the only tree on the street. Dee and Alexander watched as the man got out of his car. He checked his mailbox and started to unlock his front door. Dee tossed the bag of pigeon food in the trash bin by the park bench.
"Time to go to work, Dad," she said a bit too eagerly.
Bree, QMT to target AO.
Roger that.
They flashed from the bench to the living room of the condo. As Alexander handed her the railpistol, Dee could hear the keys in the door. Then a shard of red and purple light from Tau Ceti and the Jovian's rings glinted through. Walt Fink stepped in and tossed his keys on the table next to the doorway and then turned and locked the dead bolt behind him.
"Well, hello there, General." Dee smiled at him and set the muzzle of her railpistol against his forehead. "Remember Clay Jackson and Jay Stavros? I do." Dee didn't blink when she pulled the trigger. One single tear rolled down her cheek as she stepped up and put a few more rounds into his head.
". . . a miraculous recovery," Gail Fehrer, anchor for the Earth News Network, said. "President Alexander Moore had the lowest approval ratings of any president since the twenty-first century, but between the decisive military victory over the Separatists and the historic accords that followed, his approval ratings have reached all-time highs. With less than a year of his present term left, will the Democrats be able to mount any sort of challenge?
"Moore's acceptance speech at the convention tonight is being viewed almost as a coronation. We go now, live to the floor of the convention center."
President Alexander Moore stepped out onto the stage and slowly walked up to the podium, surrounded by holo-images of his many triumphant moments as president. Many of the images prominently featured the vice president at his side.
When he reached the podium, the images ghosted away, and the lights dimmed down to two lone spotlights that lit up Moore and the presidential seal on the podium.
"George Washington once said, 'However political parties may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.'
"I first took office nearly twelve years ago with a single goal—to end the Separatist threat and reunite humanity in common bond and purpose. With yesterday's signing of the Tau Ceti Accords, and thanks in no small part to the great courage, ingenuity, and sacrifice of many brave souls, we have finally succeeded.
"So the time has come for me to step aside, to allow a new vision, a new purpose, a new principle to lead this Grand Old Party and this great nation.
"Mr. Chairman, I hereby nominate Vice President Jacob Forest McClintock to be the next Republican nominee for the office of president of the United States—"
The tumultuous uproar that arose from the capacity crowd in the convention center was everything Alexander had hoped it would be.
Abigail, where are Sehera and Dee?
They are currently waiting to have dinner with you at Camp David. Dee and DeathRay are in the middle of a dogfight sim, while Nancy and Sehera are planning the wedding. I think Nancy and Jack make a very attractive couple, don't you?
Yes, I do. Take me to Sehera.
With a smile and a wave, the one hundred thirty-first president of the United States disappeared in a flash of white light and the sizzle of frying bacon.
THE END
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