Fourth Vector Ch. 34

"Have we received news?" he asked, gesturing to the note. "What is that for?"

Greg's face paled. "A new dispatch arrived on theDestiny this morning. This one from the Admiralty. Abigail sent it over to us and I wrote down the note. You need to see this. We're out of time."

Jack took the note and read it carefully.

ATTN: REAR ADMIRAL JACK EASTERBROOK

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, TASK FORCE 21

COMMANDER ABIGAIL WAINWRIGHT AND LT. COLONEL GREG VAUGHN ARE TO BE HUNG FOR TREASON WITHIN 24 HOURS OF RECEIPT OF THIS MESSAGE. SEND BACK PROOF OF THEIR DEATHS IN ORDER TO KEEP COMMAND OF YOUR TASK FORCE.

FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS MESSAGE WILL RESULT IN YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE COMMAND BEING DECLARED OUTLAWS OF THE JAVAN EMPIRE, IN WHICH CASE WE WILL HUNT YOU DOWN LIKE FERAL DOGS.

I EXPECT YOUR CONFIRMATION MESSAGE WITHIN 24 HOURS.

EMPEROR PERCIVAL I BANCROFT

JAVAN EMPIRE

Jack let out a small whistle as he read the message. "He doesn't mince words with this one, does he?"

"No, he doesn't," agreed Greg. "I had a feeling it would come to this. Of course, we knew the likely outcome once we removed Ferris and Barnabas. It's just something else entirely holding the order for your own death in your hands."

"What are you going to do, Jack?" asked Kat as she held John close to her breast. "We can always lie to Bancroft. Tell them you executed both of them. How would anyone know it was a lie? We can figure out what to do with them both before anyone has to confront the reality. They can stay just about anywhere in the West."

Kat's proposal had some merit to it but Jack surprised even himself when he started to shake his head. "I won't have them living a lie. I won't destroy their lives just to protect the careless fiction that we still have two loyalties."

With those words, Jack looked Greg in the eye. "Are you with me totally, Greg? There's no going back after this. You're a general in the Galician Army and no longer a Javan colonel. Are you with me to the very end?"

With tears in his eyes, Greg nodded. "Until my very end, Jack. I will follow and fight with you wherever we need to go. Even if that's Java herself."

Jack touched the other man's shoulder and nodded his head in appreciation. It was almost poetic in a way that Greg and Kat were the ones to bring this fateful dispatch. Greg was the symbol of his past and the life he'd left behind while Kat was the symbol of destiny and what awaited him in the future. Even the baby at her chest was a symbol of that future.

The thing that sealed the deal for him was the sight of Greg's newly pressed Galician uniform. If Greg could adapt to Galicia, couldn't all of them?

If he'd made his decision already, why couldn't they cut the cords of the past?

With those final thoughts, Jack ripped up the note into many pieces and dropped them on the ground.

"Henceforth, there is no association between our forces and those of the Javan Empire," he declared. "The loyalties of this entire army and task force belong to Galicia—the free Galicia, not the one imprisoned by Eric Rosdahl. All allegiances between us and Java have now ended. This may not have been the ending that anyone wanted, but it's done. We're truly on our own now."

Jack felt tears sting his eyes at his proclamation but it wasn't long before both Greg and Kat pressed into him in a large embrace. For better or worse now, they were all Galician.

And in their home countries, they were all outlaws.

Nothing better illustrated the mood of all of them than when the main Javan flag that flew at their camp was lowered for the last time. The yellow dragon of Java flew lower in the air until it finally hit the dirt. It was folded up and put away for the last time. In its place, the sixteen-point golden star of Galicia fluttered in the breeze, occupying the highest position on the pole.

The message was clear—this force owed nothing to the Javans any longer.

Jack watched with some curiosity as his newborn son seemed to focus on the waving Galician flag. It was the flag of his ancestors, a flag under which so many had given their lives to bring them to this very moment.

Jack was determined that no one's sacrifice wound have been in vain. He would finish the job here on Apulia before helping to liberate the other island countries. Then he would take the war to Swabia while he still could.

And if Java wanted to intervene further, he would take the war there too if he had to.

As a final note, Jack thought of the significance of the final end of his relationship with Bancroft. The father figure and mentor had guided his career all this time, even when things had turned sour between them in the past year.

Jack had been content to follow Bancroft's guidance as long as he was someone worthy of being followed but his recent actions had made that impossible. This war wasn't so much about a rejection of Java as it was a rejection of Bancroft.

The lines in the sand had been drawn. There would be another war.