The Return of Santiago

EPILOGUE

He's back from the dead,

He's back from the grave;

He's clever, he's cunning,

He's ruthless, he's brave.

Fear is unknown to him,

Mercy is too.

His name's Santiago—

And he's coming for you!

There was a lot of work to do, a lifetime or more, and they soon got busy, each in his own way—for as Santiago explained, everything that had been done up to this point merely put the pieces in place. It would be years before the Democracy truly realized that the King of the Outlaws was back, defying them at every turn.

September Morn never returned to Hadrian II, but remained on Valhalla, where she added another two thousand stanzas to the poem, while still writing her own works.

Moby Dick opened a chain of Fat Chance casinos all across the Inner Frontier, each catering exclusively to aliens, and spent most of his time covertly helping Santiago.

Deuteronomy Priest spent the rest of his life warning anyone who would listen that Santiago was the devil in disguise, and that as long as he remained in human form, he was fair game for any God-fearing Christian with a weapon and a strong sense of moral outrage.

Accidental Barnes and Blue Peter criss-crossed the Inner Frontier, quietly recruiting human and alien foot soldiers for a rag-tag army whose existence would always remain a secret from the Democracy.

The Plymouth Rocker did what he was told, went where he was sent, and proved to be every bit as good a major domo as Silvermane had predicted.

The Blade killed the Knife and took over the Candy Man's operation, but continued to send Valhalla its percentage.

Tyrannosaur Bailey led the first successful raid on a Navy convoy in more than a century. And the second, and the third.

Wilbur Connaught never left the Democracy to live on his beloved Inner Frontier again, but he channeled tens of millions of credits to the organization that fought in secret to defend that Frontier.

Virgil Soaring Hawk realized that he no longer had a Dante to lead through the nine circles of Hell. He stayed on Valhalla for a time, but eventually he wandered off to satisfy his unholy appetites, and was never seen again.

Waltzin' Matilda continued to practice her criminal trade, at which no one was better, but this time it enriched the coffers of her organization rather than her own bank account.

As for a small-time thief named Danny Briggs who had once operated on the world of Bailiwick, he was never seen or heard of again. After a year had passed the Democracy assumed he had been killed, canceled the reward, and closed his file.

And that is the story of how Santiago came back to the Inner Frontier.

– The End –