The End of All Things: The Fourth Instalment (13 page)

“Is this indicative of anything?
Subconsciously or otherwise?”

“Probably not.”

“Right.”

“Fine,” I said.
“I might be thinking of retiring.”

“Hanging up the super body and aging like a normal, decent human should?”

“Maybe,” I said.
“This is only an idle thought.”

“If nothing else, you can’t say that the Colonial Union didn’t get its money out of you, Harry.”

“No, I suppose not,” I said.

“If you did retire, where would you go?
What would you do?”

“I haven’t thought that far out.”

“I have an opening on my staff,” Danielle said.

“I don’t want to work for you, Dani.”

“I’m a terrific boss, and I’ll brutally sabotage the career of any underling who says different.”

“You should use that as a recruiting statement.”

“What makes you think I don’t?”

I smiled at this.
Hart was now photographing the bits of the Declaration of Independence carved into the walls of the monument.

“Seriously, Harry,” Danielle said, after a minute.
“Come back to Earth.”

“Why?”

“You know why,” she said.
“And you can now.”

“Maybe I will,” I said.

“
Maybe
.”

“Don’t rush me.
I’ve got a lot to work out.”

“All right,” Danielle said.
“Just don’t take too long.”

“Fair enough,” I said, and took her hand.

“Interesting times we live in,” Danielle repeated.
“That’s not meant to be a curse.
I like interesting.
I like it now, anyway.”

“So do I,” I said.
She squeezed my hand.

“This place is great!”
Hart said, coming up to the both of us.

“Glad you like it,” I said.

“I really do,” he said.
He looked at the both of us, excited.
“So.
What’s next?”

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

JOHN SCALZI
is one of the most popular and acclaimed SF authors to emerge in the last decade.
His debut,
Old Man’s War,
won him science fiction’s John W.
Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
His
New York Times
bestsellers include
The Last Colony, Fuzzy Nation,
his most recent novel
Lock In,
and also
Redshirts,
which won 2013’s Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Material from his widely read blog
Whatever
(
whatever.scalzi.com
) has earned him two other Hugo Awards as well.
He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter.

By John Scalzi

The Old Man’s War Series

Old Man’s War

The Ghost Brigades

The Last Colony

Zoe’s Tale

The Human Division

The End of All Things

First published 2015 by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

This electronic edition published 2015 by Tor

an imprint of Pan Macmillan

20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR

Associated companies throughout the world

www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-1-4472-9845-8

Copyright © John Scalzi, 2015

The right of John Scalzi to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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