The Storm

CHAPTER 60

KURT AUSTIN WAITED IN THE DARK AS THE AIRSHIPS CIRcled and finally began to approach. Standing at the edge of the helipad, he watched as the lead ship floated in, slowly sinking toward the pad. With the fans tilted down in a vertical position to slow the descent like retro-rockets on a moon lander, the microbots were blasted around like ash from a volcano.

They swirled into the air, a cloud of metallic dust, drifting and falling toward the zero deck below.

A few feet away, down on his knees, Jinn watched the cloud fall but otherwise made no movement. He was a beaten man, a broken man. He looked different, Kurt thought.

“You’ll send me to prison,” he mumbled.

“For ten times your natural life span,” Kurt replied.

“Can you see a man like me surviving in prison?” Jinn asked, looking up.

“Only long enough to go insane,” Kurt replied.

Jinn looked toward the edge. The darkness beckoned. “Let me go.”

Kurt could see what he had in mind. “Why should I?”

“As a kindness to a vanquished enemy,” Jinn mumbled.

Kurt stared at Jinn for a long moment. Without a word, he stepped back.

Jinn came up off his knees and glanced at Kurt. “Thank you,” he said and then turned away.

He took three steps and was gone.