It’s just Lucius now. Or Sixty-two, if you prefer. Most people seem to.” Greer addressed the guard. “Give us a few minutes, will you, Sanders?”
“I’m not supposed to leave anyone alone with a prisoner.”
Peter shot him a cold glare. “I think I can take care of myself, son.”
A moment’s hesitancy; then the guard relented. “Well, seeing as it’s you, sir, I guess ten minutes would be okay. After that my shift ends, though. I don’t want to get in trouble.”
Peter frowned. “Do we know each other?”
“I saw your signature. Everybody knows who you are. You’re the guy from California. It’s, like, a legend.” All pretense of his authority was gone; suddenly he was just a starstruck kid, his face beaming with admiration. “What was it like? Coming all that way, I mean.”
Peter wasn’t quite sure how to respond. “It was a long walk.”
“I don’t know how you did it. I would have been scared shitless.”
“Take my word for it,” Peter assured him, “that was a big part of it.”
Sanders left them alone. Peter took the room’s only chair, straddling it backward across from Greer.
“Looks like you made quite an impression on our boy there. I told you it would be a hard story to keep quiet.”
“It’s still strange to hear it,” Peter said. “How are you doing?”
Greer shrugged. “Oh, I get by. And you? You look well, Peter. The uniform suits you.”
“Lish says hello. She just got bumped to captain.”
Greer nodded equably. “A remarkable girl, our Lish. Destined for big things, I’d say. So how goes the fight? Or do I have to ask?”
“Not so good. We’re oh-for-three. The whole Martínez thing was a catastrophe. Now it looks like Command is having second thoughts.”
“That’s always what they’ve been best at. Not to worry, the winds will turn. One thing you learn in here is patience.”
“It’s not the same without you. I can’t help thinking it would be different if you were there.”
“Oh, I very much doubt that. This has always been your show. I knew it the moment I met you. Caught upside down in a spinning net, wasn’t it?”
Peter laughed at the memory. “Michael puked all over us.”
“That’s right, I remember now. How is he? I imagine he’s not the same kid I knew back then. Always had an answer to everything.”
“I doubt he’s changed much. Either way, I’ll find out tomorrow. They’re posting me down to the refinery.”
Greer frowned. “Why there?”
“Some new initiative to secure the Oil Road.”
“DS will love that. I’d say you’ve got your hands full with that lot.” He gave his knees a slap to change the subject. “And Hollis, what do you hear of him?”
“Nothing good. He took Sara’s death hard. The story is he’s on the trade.”
Greer considered this news for a moment. “On the whole, I can’t say I blame him. That may seem strange to say, knowing Hollis, but more than one man has gone that way under those circumstances. I imagine he’ll come around sooner or later. He’s got a good head on his shoulders.”
“And what about you? You’re getting out soon. If you want, I can put a word in with Command. Maybe they’d let you reenlist.”
But Greer shook his head. “I’m afraid those days are over for me, Peter. Don’t forget, I’m a deserter. Once you cross that line, there’s no going back.”
“What will you do?”
Greer smiled mysteriously. “I imagine something will come along. It always does.”
For a while they talked of the others, bits of news, stories from the past. Being with Greer, Peter felt a warm contentment, but accompanying that, a sense of loss. The major had entered his life just when Peter needed him; it was Greer’s steadfast presence that had given him the will to move forward in the days when his resolve had wavered. It was a debt that Peter could never fully repay: the debt of borrowed courage. Peter sensed that Greer’s incarceration had changed him. He was still the same man, although something inside him ran deeper, a river of inner calm. He seemed to have drawn strength from his isolation.
As the end of the ten minutes approached, Peter told the major about the cave, and the strange man, Ignacio, and Alicia’s theory about what he was. Even as he spoke the words, he realized how far-fetched the idea sounded; and yet he felt its rightness. If anything, his feeling that the information was important had grown over the days.
“There may be something to that,” Greer agreed. “He said, ‘He left