Germaine and Brendan had left together. The lady who'd moved in next door to the young nurse with her daughter had brought the news to Erik.

She'd gone knocking at Brendan's door hoping to get him to examine her daughter who'd come down with a bad cough. But the door had been open and Brendan was nowhere.

Erik had checked the woman's daughter himself. She had no fever nor cold and it certainly wasn't the virus. She had a simple strep throat. He sent the woman and her daughter back with a pack of antibiotics that he knew Gemmy used to give him when he would have that ailment.

His heart had grown heavy again at the thought of Germaine. He'd gone over to Brendan's house. He was unsure why he did it. It wasn't like Brendan had left behind a shadow that would answer his questions.

And if he had, what was Erik even going to ask? Lisa had been right, Gemmy was a grown woman. She had the right to decide if she wanted to be a part of his eccentric schemes anymore or not.

After the prison incident the Last Hand would probably be declared a national threat. Germaine had every right to not be a part of it. And hadn't he been prepared for this?

I want Germaine to be safe. Even if I get arrested or die. That's what he'd told Cathy.

Erik walked into Brendan's empty house. It had the dead stillness of a toy abandoned by a child that had grown up and moved on from toys.

He gazed out at the empty road from the living room window. It looked just as abandoned as the house. Abandoned by Germaine.

Wasn't this town your dream, sister? He thought. Breath constricted in his throat as he lingered over the thought. A realization slowly dawned on him. He wasn't sad that his sister had left him. He was sad because he'd made her abandon her dream.

Her dream of making this city of their childhood what it used to be. And now she was gone. He'd chased her away, made his ambition eclipse hers. There was no point in blaming Lisa.

It is me, he thought, I'm the one who failed.

He felt the tears in his eyes again. He let them roll, let himself cry more freely than he'd cried last night. There was no booze to soften the blow of sadness this time. He wanted to feel this misery in all it's bitterness.

"I deserve this..."

###

Luce had only managed to make it barely a hundred kilometers away from Kingsville when he ran into the choked up highway. Yes, all of these people were coming from the neighboring cities to watch Eli Hodges scream down a microphone in person.

The Ardvenian sun was glaring down at all the cars boxed on the road. A cacophony of horns rang out on the highway. As if honking their dumb vehicles was going to clear this mess.

The dashboard clock of his rental car showed half past three. Grifftown was maybe another three hour long drive from here. And there was no way of telling when this traffic would clear up. The only thing he knew was sitting and waiting for the road to open up was the worst idea in this situation.

So he climbed out of the car, hopped over the roadside rails and started limping down the dirt path next to the road. He had to get ahead of this crowd. He had to meet Ylsa Shrike before it was too late.

###

Erik ran out of tears after about fifteen minutes. He'd cried without catching his breath. He felt drained, vacant. As if someone had turned his body inside out and knocked him empty of all life.

He walked over to the sink and splashed cold water on his face. His eyes were swollen and dead. His lips looked sealed shut like the lips of a man who hadn't spoken to anyone in ages.

Erik couldn't believe he was seeing himself. It was like he was looking at himself twenty years in future. Old and frail, abandoned and hollow. Ghost of a man who'd cheated death multiple times to lead this barren existence for a life surrounded by his ambitions like the infected that were dead but still alive, shadows of their former selves, much like himself.

What was he even supposed to do now? He'd succeeded in what he'd set out to do. He'd snatched the government's most powerful weapon right out of their hands. He'd freed his friends who'd been arrested. He'd soon hear from Watcher. The Harrises will probably succeed in the mission that he gave them.

Maybe everything about their plan will fall into place. Maybe they'll move onto the next step of the plan. Maybe they'll win. Maybe Ardvenia will be freed from the clutches of the evil Seat of Authority.

But it won't happen without him.

The revolution needed a leader. The Last Hand needed him. Regardless of how dead and empty he felt, Erik couldn't run from the fact that he had started this thing and brought it all to this point. He was the one responsible for pushing people away and pushing them beyond their limits.

He, along with his plan to free Ardvenia, was at the point of no return. This had to end. He had to see that it ended.

But Lisa Neville couldn't be a part of it.

It was a simple realization. Lisa's one reckless decision had turned the face of his revolution upside down. If Lisa stayed on the team, the plan would become something else entirely.

He had to let her go. Erik walked out of Brendan's house, leaving the door hanging open behind him. He started on his way to the manor. He had to talk to Lisa.

###

Oriana. That was it. She had finally decided the name. "My sweet, sweet Oriana." Lisa nuzzled the baby girl, holding her close. "Your daddy would've loved that name too."

"Da!" The child flailed her little arms as Lisa held her up.

"You wanna see daddy?"

"Da!"

She carried the baby over to the desk by the wall and settled into the chair, little Orinana in her lap. She had pulled out a mini photo album from the drawer in the desk.

She opened the album in front of the baby. "See that?" She pointed at a picture. "That's your daddy."

Oriana mumbled something in her baby voice and reach out to touch Richard's photograph as if caressing her father's face.

"I know," Lisa grinned. "He is handsome, isn't he?"

"Da da!"

Lisa flipped the page and put her finger on another picture. "Look at this. This was the home mommy and daddy built." And then the rain burnt it down. "But mommy will build an even bigger house for her princess. Mommy will build you a castle. But first mommy will have to fight a war."

"Mmumum..."

"Lisa." Erik appeared at the door. "I have to tell you something."

Lisa looked at him. "Oh? What is it?"

Erik looked at the baby in her lap, looked at the photo album and frowned. He had to do it, no matter what. "I'm discharging you from the Last Hand," he said.

"What?!"

###

The truck had sheep in the back and also a trailer that carried a horse. Luce had limped for about two and a half kilometers to find the empty stretch of road with no traffic in it. It had taken him close to an hour. He'd kept walking. Walking until someone from the jam was allowed to pass through. This was all part of a security check to make sure no one was carrying any weapons or anything. The other side of the checkpoint had just much of a jam (if not a bigger one) as the one on Luce's side.

The check probably won't end until late in the evening. And Luce didn't have that kind of time to spare. So he'd kept walking, baking himself in the harsh afternoon sun, feeling his throat run dry as a desert.

That's when he'd heard the chugging of an engine, the rattle of an old truck chassis. He didn't care. He stuck his thumb out waited for the driver to hit the brakes.

The driver was an old man with a wrinkled face and a bald head. The first thing he asked Luce was where he was headed.

"Grifftown."

"But I'm headed up east to Bridgeford."

Luce pulled out his wallet and took all the money out. "Here. I want you to take me to a specific place in Grifftown." He held the money in front of the old man's face.

"But I'm headed east. Grifftown is the other way–"

"These are three thousand kerver!" He then whipped out his provisional badge. "I don't even have to give you money. I'm an officer of the law. I can make you take me there even if you don't want to. I'm only offering you money because I want you to take me there as fast as you can!"

The old man had pursed his lips and told Luce to hop in the back.

The smell of the sheep was only nauseating for the first thirty minutes. After that his mind had wandered back to his objective. And nothing mattered from there on.

His instinct had gotten way stronger. He could tell, he was very close to unravelling Mist's true identity.

I'll find you, Mist. I swear I will.

###

Vahn Shrike was in his bedroom, half-dozing with a book in his lap. His wife, Ylsa, had already fallen asleep. And when a yawn overcame him, he knew it was about time for him to join her.

So he kissed her brow gently and turned down the lights. He wrapped an arm around her and closed his eyes.

That's when their daughter, Mia, padded into their room. "Dad, someone's at the door." Her voice was quiet as if sharing a secret.

"But it's almost around ten o'clock," Vahn said.

She nodded. "He said it's urgent. He works for the government."

"He showed you any identification?"

Mia nodded. "He did show a badge but..."

"But what?"

"But it's weird that he came here in a sheep truck that was dragging a horse trailer."

###

Twenty one hours. It had been twenty one hours since his investigation began. And he couldn't believe he'd already gotten this far.

It was a siege of a city named Stuerheim in the country of Moudrin. Ardvenian forces had been deployed to take over garrison towns in a big raid ten years ago. Stuerheim was one of these garrison towns.

Ylsa had been a part of one of these units. Her unit had fifty soldiers when they landed in Stuerheim. There were just seven left by the end of it.

"One of these seven was the man I'll never forget," Ylsa said. Luce stood just by her bedroom door while Vahn held his wife's hand. "He wasn't resorting to creating a hostage situation by taking advantage of the civilians. But he was fearless against the enemy. When it was just the seven of us left and we'd almost won the siege, a building fell on me," she gazed down at the blanket that covered her legs. Then Luce noticed the wheelchair by the closet. "He sent the rest of our team ahead to carry out the objective and stayed back to pull me out from under the rubble. He gave me the best first aid he could but the blow had been too hard. It paralyzed me from below the waist."

"She could've died if it wasn't for him," Vahn said.

Luce nodded. This was really fitting Mist's m.o. "Can you tell me the name of this man? And if possible, where I may be able to find him?"

And she did.

###

Luce stepped out into the pale moonlight and let out a quiet breath. He limped down the empty street, feeling a sense of relief wash over him. He felt like a man who had swam through an entire ocean and had finally got a chance to catch his breath.

He leaned against one of the lamp posts and slowly sank to the ground. If someone in the neighborhood was watching from their window they would've confused him for a bum.

He chuckled and pulled out his cell phone. And from his wallet he pulled out a scrap of cereal box with a phone number written on it. He dialed the number and waited for an answer.

"Agent Luce?" a girl spoke from the other end. "It's pretty late right now. Is everything okay?"

Everything is terrific. "I want you to do something for me, Tracy."

"Okay."

Luce looked up at the light above his head and said, "I want you to go to Sector 27 and check if Erik Koehlwin is still living in the old Koehlwin manor."