The Cassandra Compact

EPILOGUE

According to the media reports, General Frank Richardson and NSA Deputy-Director Anthony Price were killed in a tragic crash due to faulty brake lines. Richardson was given a warrior's burial at Arlington National Cemetery while Price was interred in his family's plot in New Hampshire. The president, citing overseas commitments, was absent on both occasions.

Subsequent reports dealt with the crash of a private jet over the Pacific Ocean. The plane, belonging to the Bauer-Zermatt pharmaceutical company, went down six hundred miles west of Los Angeles on its way to the Big Island of Hawaii. There was only one passenger onboard: Dr. Karl Bauer.

President Castilla led the nation in mourning its greatest space tragedy since the Challenger disaster. Investigators determined that the explosion onboard the shuttle Discovery was linked to fuel-pump problems during the craft's descent into Edwards Air Force Base.

“What will happen to Megan?” Randi Russell asked.

She stood beside Smith in a small cemetery called Tsarsoye, overlooking Moscow and the river.

“She's not Megan anymore,” Smith replied. “She has a new name, a new face, new identity.” He paused. “She survived, but in the end she was counted among the dead. There was no choice. She had to give up her old life if the secret of what really happened was to remain intact.”

Randi nodded. Through the CIA grapevine she had heard rumors that one or more of the shuttle astronauts had survived. But after a while, the whispers died away. When Smith had arrived in Moscow, she turned to him for the truth. Megan Olson had been a longtime friend of Sophia's… and of hers as well. Randi felt she had a right to know if Megan was still alive somewhere.

“Thank you for telling me about her,” she said.

Smith looked over the rows of headstones. “Without your help, everything would have ended differently,” he said softly.

Smith stepped forward and laid flowers on Yuri Danko's grave.

“Without the brave, where would any of us be?”