“Let him in.”
It was the voice of the High Judge.
The guard opened the door and shoved Ozzy inside, then slammed the door the moment Ozzy was clear of the doorway.
“Have a seat, Mr. Mack,” said Robert, sitting at a table, motioning for Ozzy to take the chair in front of him.
Ozzy remained standing, his chains clanging against one another, refusing the gesture. “I prefer to stand.” He eyed two guards on either side of Robert, their hands behind their backs, being good little soldiers.
“Do you know why I called you in here?”
Ozzy shifted on his feet. “I don’t care.” He just wanted the prick dead.
“This is your sentence hearing.”
The door flew open, and Ozzy turned. It was Jozi Ryan. She shot Ozzy a look, then focused on Robert. “Sir, I deeply apologize for my intrusion. I think there was a mistake, though. I read from the judiciary reports that Ozzy Mack will be sentenced to one hundred and five years? Again, forgive me, but I think the reward for saving humanity should be freedom, not prison time.”
Ozzy tilted his head. Did she just say saving humanity? “Can you repeat that?”
Robert stood and pressed his palms on the table, leaning forward. His chin was low, and he glared at Jozi. “You have no right barging in here.” He threw a finger at Ozzy. “We have him on holocam attempting to abandon the mission and attempting to make a deal with a crime syndicate while on that mission. He’s getting fewer years than what is required.”
Ozzy stomped his foot to get their attention. “I have a question.”
Jozi nodded her head. “I’m sorry, Ozzy. But, it’s true.” She shifted her gaze onto Robert, her emotions getting to her. “That’s not what I was expecting from a well-heeled High Judge. One who claims to be fair and just.”
“But what about my daughter? You said I saved humanity? Does that mean I saved Lily?” A glimpse of hope engulfed Ozzy. From the moment he’d been thrown in prison to now, he hadn’t any clue if the ingredients to the cure actually did anything. From the sounds of it, the plants may have done their job.
“It didn’t save everyone. Those in the last stages didn’t make it,” she replied.
Ozzy dropped his chin to his chest, the light inside him fading. “Lily was in her last stage.”
“She was,” responded Robert, sitting back down. “Now, can we get back to business? I have a sentence I’m supposed to record in front of two witnesses, hence these guards and the defendant.” He pulled out a holorecorder.
“Can I see my daughter?” It took Ozzy everything he could muster to say those words, but he had to see her body. He had to give her one last kiss before he was locked away. He needed to touch her one more time, to hold her, even if she wasn’t inside her body.
Robert paused. “You can’t, Ozzy.” He shook his head. “I know that’s tough to hear, but understand, you’re one of hundreds of thousands of parents across Mars with the same weight on their shoulders.”
Ozzy blinked his eyes several times, not wanting to ask, but maybe this was why Robert wasn’t lenient on him at the moment. “Did your son make it?”
Robert smiled. “Yes, he did. Thank you for asking. Now, let’s get—”
“Then why are you sentencing me? I saved your son.”
“No, the doctors did. You found the ingredients to save my son, and there’s a big difference.”
Jozi squeezed her arms into her body. Ozzy could tell she was holding back rage like a dam about to burst. “Sir, please, can Ozzy see his daughter? Not all children who have died have been carted out of this hospital.” She twisted on her heels and headed for the door, forcing a smile. “I’m going to check the main registration desk, and if they say she’s here, then we can authorize his parental rights to see his child one last time before he’s placed behind bars.”
“Wait,” demanded Robert. “Don’t—”
It was too late. Jozi had stepped out of the room.
For a few minutes, silence filled the room. Ozzy’s eyes darted around, doing everything he could to hold in the tears that wanted to fall. His throat was in a knot, and his heart was burning in pain.
Lily was dead, but he didn’t want Robert to see any emotion coming from him. If Robert did, then Robert won.
Robert leaned back. “Well, I don’t have to agree to anything.” He brought his attention back to Ozzy. “Now, if you would please listen up, I have some brief statements and a sentence to introduce to the High Council who will be listening when I turn the—”
The door flew open again, and Jozi was panting as if she had run a marathon. She held up a piece of paper. “She’s still here, Robert. Room 212.” She drew a big smile, most likely masking the fact that she stepped way over Robert’s head. “I can escort him if you’d like?”
Ozzy’s eyes went wide, and his heart palpitated. He bit his lip, keeping his chin from quivering, and let out a few shallow breaths, wanting to see her, but not wanting to see her. Yet, it was his duty as a father, as a decent father, to be by her side even if she wasn’t alive.
And that kiss. That last kiss.
He swallowed, pushing a cry to the bottom of his stomach. He lifted his eyebrows, knowing there wasn’t any hope he’d get his way. “Please.”
Robert sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. He eyed Ozzy for several seconds, then sighed a second time. “I can’t allow it at this time, Mr. Mack.”
“Then when can you allow it?” he asked.
“Never.”
Ozzy lowered his eyes. “That’s what I thought.”
Jozi placed her hands on the table and leaned forward. “According to article seven, section six in the prison by-laws, a prisoner may be accompanied under heavy security to visit a dead or dying relative for up to two hours and up to four hours for funerals.”
“This isn’t a funeral,” replied Robert, his lips straight and his eyes deadpanned on Jozi.
“It doesn’t matter if this is a funeral, but he gets one visit, and he can choose, according to law, when that visit begins.”
Robert sat straighter and more uncomfortable. He let out an exasperated breath. “The law is the law.” He gestured toward Ozzy, his eyes rolling. “I assume you wish to invoke your rights now?”
Ozzy closed his eyes, imagining what his dead daughter might look like. He pushed the thought out of his mind. He had to see her. It didn’t matter what she looked like, he was her father, and this would be his last wish. “Yes.”
“Then, according to the High Judge, the Ministry, and the prison by-laws, you are granted one last visit with your daughter.” He slapped his hand on the table in place of a gavel.
“Thank you, Robert.” Ozzy put his hands together and gave a quick bow.
“Let’s go, Ozzy,” said Jozi, grasping his forearm.
“Guards,” ordered Robert. “Escort him to room 212 under article seven, section six of the prison by-laws. Jozi, you may not accompany him.”
Jozi folded her arms across her chest. “I understand, High Judge. That’s probably for the best, and I thank you for being fair and just.”
“And, Mr. Mack,” said Robert, “you will be surprised at what you see.”
Ozzy didn’t know what that meant but didn’t want to ask a question that could get him suddenly barred from seeing Lily.
Jozi brought her hands behind her back, intertwining her thumbs together. “High Judge, if I may stay, I have something important to discuss with you.”
The numbers 2-1-2 were embossed on the door. Ozzy stared, blinking his eyes at it, doing everything he could to push the door open.
He could hear his breathing and his heart beating loudly. He’d seen plenty of dead bodies, but none were going to be as heartbreaking and terrifying as this one.
Maybe he should turn away and run back to his cell and await his dying days until he saw her in the afterlife—if there was one, and if there was, he’d have words with the Creator. Many words.
Who would kill so m
any and so many innocent children?
A guard became impatient from waiting and opened the door. “You may enter, prisoner 113884.”
Ozzy stood, eyeing the doorway. The lights were off, and shadows loomed everywhere.
“Proceed,” ordered the other guard.
Ozzy didn’t budge.
They shoved him inside and closed the door.
He was alone. It was quiet. Too quiet. He took a step forward, hearing his boots tap on the floor.
A drape separated him from his daughter.
He walked over to turn the lights on, then dropped his hand by his side. The shadows were probably for the better. The small light streaming through a curtained window was all the light he needed.
His chains jangled when he took another step forward.
He reached up and slowly pulled the drape open.
He gasped and flung his hands to his mouth. Lily-bug, his little seven-year-old, was lying under the covers, her mouth open, her eyes shut, and a shadow was laying over her.
She wasn’t breathing, not that he could tell.
He couldn’t move.
She was dead.
His heart grew heavy, and a knot filled his throat. He took a few steps around her bed. He leaned down by her side, lifting a portion of the blanket away from her hand, and touched her fingers.
They were warm.
He pressed his forehead against them and went to talk, to say some last words to his daughter, but a deep guttural sob came instead.
He cried more than ever, crying for all the times he hadn’t seen her and all the times he wanted nothing more than to hold her, to comfort her, and to be the daddy she never had.
He lifted his head. Were her fingers truly warm?
That didn’t make any sense. Was it the covers?
He sniffed and wiped the tears from his eyes. He looked at her beautiful little face and bit the inside of his cheek, holding in another, deeper wail.
Her hand moved.
He jerked his head back, and his mouth shot open.
“Daddy?”
A shock ran through his body, and he looked up. Through the shadows, he could see her blinking.
“Lily-bug?”
“Daddy?” She smiled. “I missed you.”
He pulled her into his arms and squeezed tightly, crying, holding on with all he had. He hoped this was real. It had to be.
“I’m okay, Daddy.”
He glanced up, the tears clouding his eyes, and nodded good and hard. “Yes. And I’m glad. I’m so, so glad.”
She was alive. He had saved her. He had done something right for her.
Yet, he couldn’t believe it…she was breathing and talking. She was cured.
He let out a long cry.
“Daddy, are you okay?”
He couldn’t talk and instead nodded his head. Finally, he managed, “I’m so grateful.”
“Are you going to live with me again?”
He pulled back and closed his eyes. “I want to.” She was blurred behind his tears.
She smiled. “Me too.”
Yet, he couldn’t. “I want to see you every day for the rest of my life, but I’m sorry, Lily-bug. I won’t be able to.” He wiped another tear with his forearm. “I’m going someplace for a long time.”
Her lips downturned. “But why? I just want to be with you. Why can’t I be with you?” She held on to him, squeezing her little fingers around his hand and pressing her cheek against his arm.
A tear fell from her eye.
“I know. I will do everything that I possibly can to see you.” He wiped her cheek, feeling the wetness on his skin. He hadn’t felt that in years.
“Don’t leave again, Daddy. I missed you so much. Please stay with me.” She rubbed her cheek back and forth on his arm. “Mommy will let you live with us again. I know she will. You don’t have to go away. You can sleep with me in my bed. I don’t mind.”
He stroked her hair, the heavy pit in his stomach falling farther and farther toward the ground. “I would love that more than anything, Lily-bug. More than anything.”
“But why can’t you?”
“One day you’ll understand. Just know that I helped save a lot of people, and at the same time I was saving them, I helped save you.”
She didn’t respond, most likely trying to compute everything he said and not understanding.
A guard walked in. “Time’s up.”
Ozzy pressed himself closer to Lily. “Just a few more minutes. No, a day. Can I at least have a day with her? I won’t move from this spot. I promise.”
A guard spoke into a radio device. “The prisoner is not cooperating.”
Both guards stepped forward and walked toward Ozzy at a quick pace. They threw their hands on him. Ozzy held his ground, grasping the bedframe and holding onto Lily.
“Don’t. Please.”
They ignored him.
“Daddy,” screamed Lily.
Ozzy let go and pushed off the floor with his legs, thrusting his shoulders into the men and slamming them into the wall. A loud grunt and one man fell, holding his stomach.
A fist popped Ozzy on the side of the head. He fell down, covering his face. He quickly jumped to his feet, his eyes narrow and his legs ready to kick.
The guard unholstered a gun and pointed it at Ozzy. “You want to see your daughter ever again, then I suggest you calm the hell down.”
A knock sounded, and the door opened. “Excuse—” It was Jozi. She put her hand to her throat when she saw Lily alive and then thrust her hands out when she saw the gun. “Put your gun away.”
“We are ordered—”
She flung her hand in the air, waving a paper back and forth. “You are ordered to set this man free by the law and the High Judge.”
A guard walked over, clearly perturbed. “Let me see that.” He swiped the paper out of her hands. He read it and gave it back. “Uncuff him.”
“You’re shitting me,” replied the other guard.
“Do it,” responded Jozi. She held out her badge. “I’m an MMP agent if you haven’t figured that out yet.”
A guard walked over to Ozzy and looked him up and down. Ozzy stared back, dumbfounded. Right now, he wasn’t going to question a damn thing.
He held out his hands.
The guard pulled out a key and shoved it in the cuffs. He twisted until he heard a click, and the cuffs fell off.
Jozi walked further into the room, and the guards walked out.
Ozzy rubbed his wrists. “How?” He walked backward, not truly trusting this was real. This couldn’t be. This was Ozzy’s life, and life was callous and unfair.
“I took your advice and found those documents. There was incriminating evidence that would put Robert away much longer than he tried putting you away.” She grinned. “Let’s just say we came to an agreement.”
Ozzy walked over and sat next to Lily. “Why didn’t you just turn him in?”
“Because he is family, and family is more important. I know you can understand that, Ozzy. You’re free now.”
Lily gazed up at him with confusion all over her face. “Daddy, does that mean you can sleep at my house tonight?”
Ozzy shrugged. “That will be up to your mom, but I’m sure she’d let me stay with you for a few nights a week.” He rested his hand on her heart. “Does that sound good, Lily?”
She nodded emphatically. “Where is mommy? We can ask her.”
Another knock and Ozzy looked up. Lily’s mother, Venessa, was in the doorway. She smiled at Lily. “Hi, sweetie-pie.” She walked in.
“Can Daddy live with us again?”
She halted, her lips straightening. “Uh…that’s something we’ll have to discuss later.”
Jozi extended her hand. “Lily’s father has just saved humanity. And he did it for her.” She gestured toward Lily.
Venessa shook her head, giving Ozzy an odd stare. She hadn’t been notified that Ozzy had saved the world, and the rest of the people on Mars most likely
hadn’t been told either.
Ozzy was sure that the newsfeed would read that the Ministry had found the cure and saved the people. Not that a criminal had.
Jozi took several strides over to Ozzy. She put her hand on his heart. “Remember something, please, Ozzy. You are a great man. Do you understand? A great man. Don’t ever forget that.” She gently thumped him a few times on the chest and walked out of the room, taking one last look at Ozzy before disappearing around the corner.
“Are you ready?” asked Venessa.
Ozzy glanced at his ex-wife. “For what?”
“Well, you’re here, and Lily wants you around. So, I’m asking you, are you ready to be a father again?”
He nodded. “Can Lily leave yet?”
Venessa grinned. “Yes. I’ve just been given the orders.”
“Good.” Ozzy threw off Lily’s covers and picked her up in his arms.
“You and Lily have a lot of catching up to do,” reminded Venessa. She pointed her finger, her face turning serious. “You leave her again like you did and that will be your last chance.”
Ozzy nodded. “I won’t. I promise.”
If this were a dream, then for the first time in a long time he didn’t want to wake up. He gave Lily a kiss on the cheek, and she hugged his face, kissing him back.
He took his first steps out of the room and his first steps toward freedom.
A type of freedom he hadn’t felt in years.
Epilogue
Two months later—Ketler Asteroid
“Almost two months ago,” said the news reporter, “the Ministry killed all the Dunrakee terrorists at Dawes in a massive secret campaign, but it came at a cost. They destroyed an entire city, along with its terraforming capabilities…”
Ozzy turned the holoscreen off. The Ministry had been taking credit for everything, including the cure, destroying the Dunrakee terrorist stronghold at the city of Dawes, and making everyone feel safe again.
Safe was a strong word. There were already reports that more Dunrakee terrorists were inbound and heading for Mars.
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