The Black Silent

EPILOGUE

Sam sat on the veranda above the ferry, with the turquoise of the water against the blue of the sky and the breeze washing over his mind like the waves on the rocks. The orcas made their rounds, looking for foolish seals, the salmon having mostly passed to the rivers. Food was already a bit sparse for the bald eagles and they were flying about hunting and generally looking magnificent.

After all the hysteria about youth retention, Sam occasionally found himself looking in the mirror, wondering about the coming of the age spots and wrinkles. He was too young to think about such things, about which kind of bypass surgery worked best, what diet might keep his prostate reasonably small and his hemorrhoids under control. Despite the aches and pains of aging and not-so-old injuries, he felt better than ever. Felt comfortable with getting older (unless Haley could make him a deal). Felt happy to take his place in the order of things, content to breathe the sea air and listen to the blow of the whales. Life brimmed inside him, and, for the first time since his wife, Anna, had died, his joy was unmitigated. He hadn't yet decided why the fullness of his spirit had returned, but he thought the reason might have been buried in a conversation with Haley about measuring life by whom you loved and who loved you-and not by what you thought you did or did not do. Anna was a terrible loss, but now he knew that they had agreed in a moment that she should go on ahead.

Ben had been right. The older Sam got, the more surprised he was by the shortness of his days on earth. It was important to get to wherever you were going before you went out of this life. Anna had done that.

Haley had her own lab at the university compound and was desperately trying to figure how she might extract microbes and mud from the deep parts of the sea and keep it under pressure. Sam had been there when they gave her an award and had reveled in the gleam in her eye when her shame became just a memory.

Finding the magic Arc was a grail quest she undertook willingly-largely, Sam thought, because she thought humankind was meant to have it, to use it, despite men like Garth Frick. Frick himself awaited a death sentence or, if unlucky, life in prison.

Sanker and Rossitter were fighting charges of conspiracy to commit murder, and Sanker had the largest criminal team ever assembled. Sam figured having to deal with all the lawyers was in itself some punishment. Of course, Sanker and Rossitter had turned on each other. Everybody figured they'd both end up with life terms, which in Sanker's case wouldn't be long.

Frick's rocket had melted the Arc container, effectively disintegrating it. Whatever was left of the genetically engineered Arcs had been blown over the side by the explosion.

The obstacles to rediscovery, given the luck of the first find, were turning out to be enormous. Somewhere down in the depths of the sea, under the mud-maybe a thousand feet down into the earth or even deeper, or perhaps under a brackish freshwater pond- lived a particular Arc with a particular gene with a certain codon. No one knew exactly where and no one knew how many of this Arc subspecies existed.

Perhaps people could handle the prize, given a second chance and armed with the knowledge of the mistakes of the past. It was a decidedly optimistic view. Haley slipped up behind Sam, but not unnoticed. She came around him and sat across the table, a little short of breath. She must have been running to keep from being late. One of the many things Sam had learned about her was that Haley considered lateness a subtle form of arrogance.

She looked at his sling and then at his eyes, and she seemed to enjoy the way they held hers.

"You're not going. You aren't better yet-you've had holes blown through you. Don't tell me you called me here to say good-bye."

"The muscle's knitting well enough. Besides, I'm just supervising."

"You're going into a war zone."

"Not technically. We're just gonna get some food and some medicine to people who need it."

"We're not discussing this. I'll fight you."

It was hard not to chuckle, but she wasn't having any of it. Haley was angry, determined, and utterly sincere.

"I more than appreciate your concern."

Her face softened and she stood, came back around the table, and sat in a chair close beside him. It was rather pleasant.

"I'll sit on you until your flight leaves," she said matter-of-factly.

"I'll be back."

"How would I know that? You've been all over the world. The rest of your family is from California."

"Ernie is going with me. I don't have to stay for the whole thing."

"Ernie, of the FBI?"

It had surprised Sam too. "Yeah. He's taking a little leave from the FBI to celebrate his hero status and he wants something worthwhile to do. I won't be doing it all myself, Haley. As soon as Ernie gets the hang of this private contractor work, I'll leave. They just need someone to follow."

"You really have to go, all broken up like this?"

"I gotta go."

"You're a wonderful idiot." She kissed him on the forehead.

He paused, working up his courage.

"I let you down all those years ago. I let you down bad." The words came from his soul.

In her eyes he saw the flood of pain. Then tears poured. It was almost more than he could handle. She said nothing, waiting.

"The day on the dock when I was touching you, we both know I was trying to say that I loved you. Of course, we both knew I did. I whispered it so quietly you weren't sure what I said." He waited, wishing there was an easy way to do this. "If you want, you can say you don't know what I'm talking about." Judging from the increased flow of tears- she knew what he was talking about. "I promised you I would call you. I said I'd call you the next day. We both figured that on the phone I might be able to say more about how I was feeling. But I didn't call. Not that day, not the next. You probably went the first week, making excuses for me, telling yourself there would be a letter or something. I know this sounds ridiculous. It does to me. We talked so little about our feelings."

"It's not ridiculous," she said, sniffing and coughing through the tears.

"I'm sure you called yourself foolish for even imagining that we were in love," Sam said, choking up himself. "That's maybe the worst part. You thought you were a fool, and then you figured that I never cared, or if I did, I was some kind of weird guy with a personality disorder."

Haley laughed despite herself.

"Then, to add insult to injury, I never even brought it up. I pretended that it hadn't happened, that it was the folly of youth. We had cousinly love or something of the sort."

"And then you married Anna Wade and said nothing," she said. "Not a word."

"I need you to forgive me, for not calling the day after we sat on the dock."

"Why?"

"I was going to save the world from some very bad people. I was pumped up. The next day I was going underground, to Europe, to try to break a big case. It was for a government and a corporation. It just possessed me and I knew I could never do right by you. Your life with me would have been hell. But I should have said something. I should have given you a chance."

"So now what do you want?"

"Another chance. I want you to open yourself and give me a chance. Run the rock pile.

Take a risk."

"You know that I loved you ever since that day," she said.

"I know that."

She looked sheepish for a second. "I even practiced how I'd tell you off if this ever came up. In my head, at least."

He chuckled, and she laughed too.

"You wouldn't seduce me," she said. "I hated you for not even trying. Of course, I really wanted you to mean what you said, you jerk."

"I am sorry," he said, meaning it.

"That's it?" she said.

"I didn't know exactly how much I loved you in the let's-get-married sense until I saw you in your tam-o'-shanter hat the day all this started."

"You didn't tell me that either."

"We were a little busy," he joked. "And I did have that thing about people I cared about dying all the time." He grew slightly more serious. "I couldn't remember about Anna, and I guess I couldn't be at peace."

"Are you over that?"

"Enough to run the rock pile one more time," he said. "How are things with your mother?"

"Much better. And with the part of me that is my mother. We're in the game, she and I.

There is no rule that says we can't succeed."

"Amen. Or Pacna, if you're Tilok."

"My life with Ben and Helen is a testament to the fact that my mother's gift worked." -

He kissed her then, hoping to end the dialogue and begin the peace. She climbed in his lap and they continued until he realized it might be a breach of the public's peace. Then they talked, and he said all the things he might have said thirteen years previous.

Sometime, he knew, she might ask about the other women and how he could have fallen in love with them. Then again, Haley was a big person and she might never get around to that one.

"Ben call today?" he finally asked.

By some quirk of the Great Spirit, Ben had been alive when Ernie's boat arrived. Ben and Sarah were recuperating together at an exclusive place in Switzerland, with Ben holding court for the scientists of the world. Each visitor thought he would successfully ply the old man and separate fact from fiction. The idea of retirement to a small island with a little laboratory had come up.

The passengers in the coast guard helicopter had also survived, with varying degrees of injury. Ernie had rescued them all. Rachael and Lew were together and beaming, though Sam hadn't seen either of them on San Juan Island in the last couple days. Sam had given them a bottle of champagne and a week's reservation at the most romantic spot he knew. They took it and went. That boded well, he guessed.

"Ben wants me to come to Switzerland at Christmas. He said he'd love it if you would come too. And after what you just said, you better not hesitate for one lousy second."

"I will," he said.

Her mouth dropped open.

"Not hesitate," he clarified.

"Wow," Haley said, "just like that! The mysterious Sam will go with me to Switzerland at Christmas?"

Sam's mind weighed the pros and cons, still feeling the sleuth, the spy, the nameless man who doesn't draw attention, eyes shifting to see who might be watching. Then the moment caught him and he gave way, locking his mind and spirit with hers.

It was a rhetorical question.