James Swallow: Icarus Effect

Kelso had driven her to seek sanctuary as far away as she could go. Somewhere off the map, far from cities and the threats of what she saw when she dreamed.

He was watching her. "You'll be okay here."

Anna put down the bottle. Something in his tone rang a wrong note. "I will? And what about you?" When he didn't answer she glared at him.

"You're not going to stay?"

He shook his head. "Job's not done, Anna. Namir and those bastards he works for are still out there, still playing their games… I can't look

Sam's family in the eye and know that I let Namir keep breathing after I let their son down."

She moved closer to him. "Redemption, that's what you want, isn't it?" Anna sighed. "So do I, for Matt. But I want it for myself as well…"

"Yeah…" He drained the beer. "Haven't found it yet."

"You're wrong." She took his hand. "You saved my life, Ben. You came to save me when you could have just gone on with the fight. Then I did the same thing. I saved you. We… we redeemed each other." At last, she opened her hand and showed him the brass coin, its surface blackened and scratched.

"It's not enough…" he muttered, looking away. "After all we've seen, it's not enough." He went to the balcony. "They won, Anna. After everything we did to burn those bastards, they still won!"

She shook her head. "Not yet. Not until they silence us. This game isn't over." Anna followed him to the veranda. "Stay here," she said. "Please tell me you will stay here."

"You don't need me," said Saxon.

"It's not about need," she replied. "It's about what's going to happen. I don't want you to die out there…" Anna heard the fear and pain in her own words, rising up from deep inside.

"What do you mean?"

Anna told him about what Janus had shown her, the torrent of images and sights the hacker had pulled from the depths of the Illuminati's dark schemes; things she couldn't comprehend, half-formed pictures that lurked in her subconscious and tainted the patterns of her dreams. She hadn't slept well since that day; the specter of what Janus had revealed was always there when she closed her eyes.

"There's one thing I remember very clearly," she said. "It's burned in my memories like a brand. An image, an impression, of every city in the world." Anna shivered as she spoke, despite the heat of the fading day. "All of them engulfed in fire and fury. That's what they're planning."

Saxon watched her carefully, struck by the strength of her certainty, and her fear. "What are you saying? There's gonna be a war?"

She looked up at him. "A change is coming, Ben. And we can't fight it. We can't stop it. The wheels are already in motion. The only thing we can do is ride it out, and wait." "For what?" "For a new future." Anna took his hand again and looked up as the day passed into darkness. Out across the sky, night fell on the world they knew.