Her Celestial Farm on the Scrapyard Planet (by Kay Lucas) novel Chapter 616

Chapter 616 The Names We Left Behind

This time, though, he had the faint sense that the scheme ran bigger and deeper than he’d imagined, deep enough that once he stepped into it, he might never get himself back out.

Better to pull free early than sink deeper and deeper into a swamp like that.

Going to the farm meant no career to speak of, but at least his family could eat well and live/well.

He’d seen Silas, seen Marcus, seen men who’d once been given only a few years to live, and who now lived better on that farm than anyone.

Cyrus was still lost in his thoughts when his device buzzed.

He glanced down. Another message from Wade.

“Captain Bramble, I’ve been thinking. If that day really comes, I might just retire early. I’m not young anymore, and I’m done grinding. Only thing is, I don’t know whether the Tycoon Farm would even take guys like us, coming out of the Fifth Military.”

Cyrus looked at that line of text and couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.

So he wasn’t the only one thinking it after all.

He forwarded Elizabeth’s answer to Lawrence, then got up and headed for the bedroom.

The bedroom door was ajar. Sophie heard his footsteps and looked up at him.

“What time is it? You’re still up?” Cyrus walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Just thinking about some things.”

Sophie didn’t press him.

Ten-odd years of living

years of living together, and she knew him too well.

When he didn’t want to talk, asking got you nowhere.

She just scooted over and made room for him.

“Get some sleep. You’ve got work tomorrow.” Cyrus didn’t answer.

He lay down, stared at the ceiling, and said nothing for a good long while.

Then, he turned his head and said to Sophie in the dark, “I want to take a month’s leave.”

Sophie blinked. “A month? Why?”

“There are some things I need to take care of.” His voice was very quiet, almost like he was talking to himself. “I want to go see some of the old squad.”

1/3

Sophie was quiet for a moment.

TH

She knew what he meant.

Those brothers invalided out by their wounds.

Every year a few of them reached out. Some were still holding on. Some couldn’t hold on any longer.

She didn’t press him. She just reached over and squeezed his hand. “Go. I’ve got things here.”

Cyrus said nothing more and closed his eyes.

Early the next morning, Cyrus changed into civilian clothes instead of his uniform.

When he walked into the office building, the colleagues in the corridor gave him a second glance, but nobody asked.

He went straight to his direct superior’s office door and knocked.

“Come in.”

Cyrus pushed the door open. His superior, a man named Terrence Grisham, was in his mid-forties, a little heavyset, with a genial expression fixed permanently on his face.

But Cyrus knew that geniality was only skin-deep.

He stood in front of the desk and handed Terrence the electronic leave request. “Mr. Grisham, I’m requesting a month of leave.”

Terrence took the form and skimmed it, and a small crack appeared in that genial expression.

“A month?” He set the form down and looked at Cyrus. “Cyrus, do you know what time it is right now? We’re in the thick of it, mission after mission, and we’re already short-handed. And you want a month off,

now?”

Cyrus said nothing. He just stood there.

Terrence rose, came around the desk, stopped in front of him, and gave his shoulder a meaningful pat.

“Cyrus, I’ve always had high hopes for you, you know that. Your name is already on the list for the next promotion review. You take a long leave at a time like this, and you know what people will say? They’ll say you’ve got no drive, no ambition, that you fold when it counts. All these years of diligence, wasn’t it all so you could wait for a chance like this? Don’t throw your future away.”

Cyrus had heard this speech plenty of times.

Every time before, he’d chosen to give in and keep waiting.

Waiting for the next promotion, the next opportunity, some day he could never quite name.

He drew a slow breath. “Mr. Grisham, I haven’t taken leave in three years. By the regulations, I’m fully entitled to it. And the system already approved the request. I only came by to give you a heads-up, so you can plan the workload around it.”

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