Zorchi grinned at me. "Emperor Weels!" he mocked.
I grinned back. "If you ever say that seriously, Luigi, I want you to say it with a bullet through my brain. I've seen enough cases of power corrupting."
For a second, he studied me. "If that day should come, then there shall be the bullet. But now, even I must sleep," he said.
Then he glanced at Rena. "I have left orders that a priest should be wakened."
She colored faintly.
"You'll be best man, I suppose?" I asked.
This time, even his beard couldn't conceal his amusement. "Is Zorchi not always the best man?" he asked as he left us alone.
I stared at the vault that would be my home for the next twenty-five or fifty years—until I was an old man, and the rest of the world was ready to be awakened. "It's a lousy place to spend a honeymoon," I told Rena.
She leaned against me. "But perhaps a good place to bring up children," she said. "A place to teach them that their children will have a good world, Tom. That's all a woman ever wants, I guess."