Chet smiled broadly. “Yes, everyone’s fine. They’re bringing them down now. Your family will come first.”

“Thank heavens,” Nicole breathed. “Where were they?”

“Well, Clayne found Shirley Ferguson at the first campsite. Needless to say, she was quite surprised to see him. She had radioed Travis, and Stephanie caught her. So she ran, and the camp moved to the fall-back site. Clayne found them there.”

“What a relief that is,” Nicole said, squeezing Eric’s hand.

“Do you want the other good news?” Chet said, barely able to hide his excitement.

“What?”

“President Dobson just finished talking with Mount Pleasant on the radio. The Guardian Forces have laid down their arms and agreed to submit to whatever government comes out of all this.”

“So that’s all of them!”

“Yes, every unit of Guardians has now surrendered. It’s over, Eric.” He clapped Eric on the shoulder. “Well, I’ve got to get back to the wounded. I just wanted you to know about your family.”

Surprisingly, as Chet left them, the elation left Eric as abruptly as it had come, and he felt only a deep weariness settling in upon him. It was over. Don Brownley was dead. Cliff was bedridden and paralyzed. Richard Dawson had a bullet in his left leg, and Dick Andreason had been blasted into unconsciousness by a stun gun. The rest were exhausted but safe. On the other side, in addition to Travis and the Major, four Guardians were dead, several more badly hurt. But Central Control, with all that it implied, was a burned-out shell.

Eric pulled his thoughts away from all that and turned toward Nicole. “Hello,” she said softly.

He reached out and touched her cheek. “We did it.”

“Not we did it,” she said. “You did it. You and Cliff.”

He shook his head slowly.

“And now what do you do with Joe and Shirley?” she asked.

“Dr. Gould and any others who planned this must be dealt with, but as for Shirley and Joe, I’d say get them to a preacher as soon as possible, marry them off, and start them raising a family.”

“Nothing else?”

“How can you punish people for being loyal? We don’t need any more revenge at this point.”

She smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder. “That’s good. It’s over now.”

“Is it?”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Of course.”

His eyes were dark and brooding. “You say we did it. What have we done?”

“What’s that supposed to mean? You freed the people.” Her voice suddenly dropped to a whisper. “You freed me.”

He shook his head, half smiling. “You freed yourself. I only came along to watch.” Then he was sober again. “Yes, we freed the people.”

“Eric,” she cried, “what’s the matter with you?”

“Up in the mountains I told you that the Major had taken away the most sacred of all stewardships, the right to guard the gate of the mind.”

“Yes.”