becomes the property of the Jamaican resistance, and Carrasca becomes the new commander of the Thunderbolt. Over the course of their adventure, Valentine and Carrasca fall in love. When Valentine gets back to the Ozarks, Ahn-Kha gives him a note from Carrasca, telling him he will be a father soon. Valentine looks forward to the day he can go to see his daughter. Valentine returns to North America being unable to find a home in Jamaica. Ahn-Kha Ahn-Kha is a Golden One who looks like a seven-foot cross between a short-haired bear and an ape with pointed, expressive ears. He is one of Valentine's most constant companions. Valentine and Ahn-Kha consider each other brothers and would die for each other. Ahn-Kha was born on Earth, 41 years before the beginning of Choice of the Cat, one of the first of his clan to be brought to this world after his people had settled. The Golden One clans and the Gray Ones' tribes were brought to this world to do the dying while winning the victory for the Kur. Although many people who encounter Ahn-Kha dismiss his intelligence due to his resemblance to the Gray Ones, his own species of Grog is generally as intelligent (if not more so) than humans. Ahn-Kha is a great source of wisdom, something Valentine relies on almost as much as he relies on Ahn-Kha's strength. Valentine and Ahn-Kha are separated at the end of Valentine's Exile, Ahn-Kha drawing off pursuit to allow Valentine and the others in their group, which included Smoke and Gail Post, to escape. Valentine believes Ahn-Kha to be dead after several years without news. Valentine later hears rumours of a Golden One leading a rebellion in Appalachia and swears to investigate the rumours hoping to find his missing "brother". Alessa Duvalier aka Smoke At age 16, Duvalier ran away from the Great Plains Gulag after burning a police van and then killing two policemen, after one of them attempted to rape her. Taking all their possessions she could carry, she then escaped by crawling through a swamp and heading for the mountains. She is taken in by the Duvalier family. When a raid on Leavenworth is planned, she is recruited as a scout. She becomes friends with a Cat named Rourke and later becomes his disciple. Eight years later, she meets Valentine at the battle of Little Timber Hill where she