Fortune Favors

EPILOGUE Paid in Full

For a few minutes, Kismet wasn’t even sure that he was still alive. The light and fury of Hauser’s transformation had reached a crescendo and then…nothing.

He couldn’t see or hear anything.

But gradually, his other senses began filling in the gaps. The air was alive with ozone. His hands were touching something that was both soft and firm, and he recalled that he had been huddled together with Annie and Higgins…yes, he could feel human warmth in his fingertips, and a faint pulse of life.

The darkness was receding a bit. Familiar shapes were emerging out of a brown haze as his eyes began to recover sensitivity, one wavelength of the spectrum at a time. He saw the pillars of the colonnade surrounding the Court of Lions, but for a moment couldn’t penetrate the shadows beyond.

“What just happened?” Annie whispered.

Kismet shook his head; he didn’t have an answer.

Hauser and Elisabeth were gone, but so also was the Prometheus security team, vanished just as surely as if they’d been caught up in the conflagration.

He discounted that idea. It was more likely that, upon witnessing the destruction of the Seed and Hauser’s — death? — they had decided to evacuate the site. With the Seed gone, there wasn’t any reason to stay anymore.

And as Hauser had said, there was just one rule where Nick Kismet was concerned: Don’t interfere.

“Is it over?” Higgins’ asked.

Kismet could tell by the way Higgins’ eyes darted back and forth that his vision hadn’t recovered yet. He had been looking right at the Seed when it exploded, struck blind gazing upon the glory of God…

Something like that anyway.

Annie was tearfully hugging her father. Kismet wasn’t sure what to think or feel about the other man now. He understood Higgins’ motivations; they weren’t all that different from his own. His decision — his betrayal — had probably saved them all in Florida.

But it still stung like a son of a bitch.

He sighed. Some wounds took longer to heal, even with magic potions.

“It’s over. Come on. Let’s get out of here.” He gripped Higgins’ biceps and started guiding him toward the nearest gate.

“What happened?” Annie asked again, staring in disbelief at the spot where Hauser and Elisabeth stood a few minutes before. There was a faint starburst pattern on the paving stones, as if that place alone had been bleached by the sun, but that was the extent of the damage to the courtyard. “The Seed…what was it? Was it really from the Tree of Life?”

“I don’t know,” Kismet answered honestly. He had examined it briefly after Joseph King had handed it over; it did look like something from a fruit. But it could just as easily have been an artifact, something crafted as a receptacle for the unique energy that had sustained a select few legendary men throughout history and infused the water in a Florida cave with the power to restore life. He had once remarked that it was science, not magic, but now he wasn’t so sure. If it was some application of science, then it utilized principles that were beyond the grasp of anything he’d ever heard about — and wasn’t that the very definition of magic?

“I don’t know if there ever really was a special Tree,” he continued, “Or a Garden of Eden. Maybe everyone got it backwards. Maybe the whole idea of the Tree came from the fact that it kind of looked like a seed.”

“But…how did it do all that? Heal and destroy at the same time? And what happened to Hauser? Is he dead?”

Kismet just shook his head. “He’s gone. Maybe he transcended the flesh, became one with the universe…Maybe he just went ‘poof.’ The important thing is that it’s finally over.”

“You came back for me,” Annie realized aloud.

Kismet suddenly found himself locked in her embrace, her lips pressing against his. He did not resist. A moment later, she leaned back and tousled his hair. “So…you’re not exactly the older man anymore.”

“I’m sure the effects are just temporary. I hope they are. I have to shave twice a day just to keep this beard under control.”

“I kind of like it.” She kissed him again. “And I’m flattered that you were willing to sacrifice the secret of immortality to save me. I just hope it was worth it.”

Kismet gazed back at her, and then glanced at Higgins, who shuffled sightlessly along. The ordeal had cost a lot more than just the Seed.

But maybe the old saying was true, maybe time really did heal all wounds. It had taken more than twenty years, but it finally felt like the ordeal that had begun that night in Iraq was over. The chains that had bound Higgins to him were finally broken. He didn’t know if their relationship — friendship, camaraderie, brotherhood, whatever it was — would endure, but at least the shadow that had corrupted it was gone.

“Definitely,” he answered finally. “Because I got my friends back. Both of you.”

Higgins gave a wan smile and nodded, though Kismet could tell that his eyesight hadn’t yet returned. Maybe because he’d been staring right at the blast, it wouldn’t…

He took out his hip flask. “Al, you look like you could use a drink.”