The firestorm, like all storms, eventually passed. It left behind a landscape that was irrevocably altered. Mr. Thorne's empire crumbled, his reputation in tatters, a series of federal indictments the final, brutal epitaph to his reign of quiet, corporate evil. He was a monster, but in the end, he was just a man. A man who had been brought down by a quiet, brilliant engineer and a small, ridiculously brave group of teenagers.
Jessica disappeared into the quiet, protective custody of the legal system, a ghost of her former self, on a long, uncertain path toward a new, and hopefully, a better, life.
Silas was never found. He had vanished, a loose end that had been permanently, and silently, cut.
At Northgate High, the story became a legend, a whispered, embellished tale of the quiet, artistic kids who had taken on the school's queen bee and, in a strange, inexplicable turn of events, brought down her powerful, corrupt father.
