“You got it, boss.”
They slid off the bar stools and headed toward the door, emerging into the cool darkness of the Nova Prime night. As they started to walk away, a startled voice said, “Daniel? Is that—?”
He turned and, sure enough, there was Ronna. Her hair was shorter than he’d remembered, and she looked a bit more haggard, but otherwise she was more or less the same. Her eyes widened in astonishment. “My God, it is you. I thought I was… oh my God! You’re a Ranger?”
“Sweetheart,” said Martes, clamping a hand on Daniel’s shoulder, “I’ll have you know he is the Ranger. And who are—?” Then he saw the look in Daniel’s eyes, the silent warning. “You’re kidding. This is her?”
Daniel didn’t have to reply to him; the answer was on his face.
“So… Ronna… how have you been?”
“Been okay. I guess.”
He realized she wasn’t looking him in the eyes. “Really?”
“Not really, no,” she admitted. “I’ve been in and out of a few relationships, and, well…” She shrugged.
“They weren’t going anywhere?”
She looked down. “I guess I deserved that. The truth is, lately I’ve been thinking about that night. You know: that night. And how terrible I was to you. And I was wondering if you’re, y’know… busy? Maybe we could go somewhere and talk?”
He was silent for a long moment, studying her, thinking about her… thinking about what she’d meant to him, what she could mean to him again.
But he also thought about what he himself could mean for Nova Prime. And Ronna could fit into that, yes… but not in the way she was thinking.
For his purposes, he needed her to be not what she was now, but what she had been.
Forever.
Without a word, he started to walk away. Martes automatically followed him.
Ronna stood there, stunned. It took her a few moments to find words: “Daniel? Where are you going?”
And the last thing he said, before the night swallowed him and his fellow Ranger, was, “Actually, Ronna… I want to remember you just the way you are.”
She looked stunned, but his back was to her and he never saw it.
BY PETER DAVID
Fable: The Balverine Order
Fable: Blood Ties
Fable: Reaver
Fable: Theresa
Fable: Jack of Blades
Fable: Edge of the World
Battleship
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man
The Incredible Hulk
Fantastic Four
Iron Man
The Camelot Papers
Tigerheart: A Tale of the Anyplace
Knight Life
One Knight Only
Fall of Knight
Book 1: Darkness of the Light
Book 2: Heights of the Depths
Book 1: Sir Apropos of Nothing
Book 2: The Woad to Wuin
Book 3: Tong Lashing
Blind Man’s Bluff (Star Trek: The New Frontier)
Year of the Black Rainbow (with Claudio Sanchez)
The Fallen Angel
Gypsies, Vamps and Thieves Book 4: Pyramid Schemes (forthcoming)
Copyright
After Earth: Ghost Stories: Hunted is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
2012 Del Rey eBook Original
Copyright © 2012 by After Earth Enterprises, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.
Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House
Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-345-54207-6
Cover illustration: Stephen Youll
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