Hunted - After Earth, Page 5

  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.