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won’t be alone.  We are all in this thing together.  All of us.  You included.”
     
    Lucille’s face was overcome with guilt as she saw Bear and Clancy’s children beginning to cry.  This in turn led to Lucille’s own tears running down her cheeks.
     
    Mac’s eyes looked to the sunlit sky above them.
     
    “Awww, hell.  C’mon now, Lucille, none of that.  I’m gonna be fine.  You know me…toughest son-of-a-bitch you ever met.  That’s what you call me.  And that’s what I am.  I can still throw down when the need is there.  Bear’s right, they’ll be coming back.  And there won’t be any mercy for any of us when they do.  We thought they came at us hard back in Dominatus – this time it’ll be worse.  A whole lot more of us will be dead.  There could be a hundred drones flying over our heads any day now.  We don’t have the defenses to stop that kind of attack.  Not yet.  My gut tells me we won’t, either.  Not before it’s too late.  So honey, I got to do this.  I got to try.  It’s all I know how to do.  It’s….it’s what I need to do.”
     
    Lucille wiped yet more tears from her face as she looked into the face of Mac.
     
    “I still say you’re a stubborn old fool, Mackenzie Walker.”
     
    Mac smiled, and shrugged his shoulders.
     
    “You won’t get an argument from me on that one, Lucille.  Can’t believe you’ve put up with me for this long.”
     
    Lucille put her arms around Mac and squeezed him tightly, kissing his neck before whispering into his left ear.
     
    “I’m going to wait right here for you, Mac.  You come back to me.  Please…do what you say you have to do, and then you come back to me.  Promise?”
     
    “Mac gently took Lucille’s face into his hands and kissed her lips.
     
    “I promise, I’ll do everything I can to make sure you and me ain’t done with each other just yet.”
     
    Mac felt a pang of guilt as he said the words, knowing it would be very difficult to prove them right to Lucille.
     
    Bear took both of his children into his arms and hugged them, his eyes shut tight as he did so. He then stood and silently held Clancy, whose body shook with her own sobs.  Dublin took Reese’s right hand and squeezed it tightly, grateful in knowing she would be sharing this journey with the man she had come to call her friend and lover.
     
    Finally, the group of four former residents of Dominatus began walking down the road that led to the eastern outskirts of Juneau and eventually led to the Wyse farm.  Bear looked back several times to wave goodbye.  Mac did not – he looked straight ahead, his jaw set with determination.
     
    The journey to the priest and the hopeful weapon of the New United Nations’ destruction had begun.
     
     
    IV.
     
     
    It took much of the day for the four to reach the beginning of the long drive that marked the entrance to Cooper Wyse’s property.  A single hand made sign nailed to the side of a fence post that simply read WYSE was the only welcome they received.
     
    The hours of walking had taken a toll on Mac, though he had said nothing in complaint, he was unable to mask his increasingly labored breathing, and as morning turned to afternoon, his steps grew noticeably slower.  He stopped in front of the sign and placed both of his arms over the top rail of the fence, leaning on it for support.
     
    “I still don’t know why in the hell he made us walk all the way out here.  Got my ass dragging, that’s for damn sure.”
     
    Bear stood next to Mac and clapped him on the shoulder.
     
    “For what it’s worth, I’m more than a little tired myself, Mac.  If I didn’t know better, I’d say this Cooper was testing us to make sure we were up for the trip.”
     
    Dublin was staring down the long narrow drive, a smile spreading across her face.
     
    “This is a beautiful place Reese.  The trees, grasses – it all looks and smells so amazing.”
     
    Reese, who had spent most of his life in