Story so far
Fayez Sarkis rides north with Elvi and Amos, joking his way across the ruined world ('this planet doesn't have mountains, it has hemlines') until they reach the alien plant and Murtry's ambush. When Murtry shoots Amos from behind and kills Wei, Fayez — the man who always cast himself as the selfish coward of the pair — is the one who breaks: he names the trap aloud ('You set this up… You put her there to distract Amos and you shot him from behind. You did this!'), rejects Murtry's corporate self-justification, and rounds on him that Amos and Holden are trying to save everyone while Murtry serves only the company.
As Murtry levels his pistol to execute Amos, Fayez punches him in the nose — awkward, artless — then commits, running into him with a shout, 'Elvi! Run!' Murtry stumbles but doesn't fall and swings the gun toward him. Fayez screams for Elvi again as she flees; behind her a pistol fires twice, then a third time.
His fate is left unseen — last known grappling the armed killer to buy the woman he loves her escape.
Appearance
A Mars-raised man, tall and thin with an oversized head, hair tied back, gray and mud-streaked and starved; here red-faced and shaking with fury, fists clenched, then flinging himself bodily at an armed man.
Role
RCE geologist and Elvi's lover; the self-styled cynic who finds unlooked-for courage, tackling Murtry to save Amos and buy Elvi her escape.
Relationships
Elvi Okoye — His lover he screams at to run, throwing himself at Murtry to cover her flight.
Adolphus Murtry — The killer he accuses of staging the ambush and tackles to stop Amos's execution, drawing his fire.
Amos Burton — The wounded protector whose execution he interrupts with a desperate charge.
Sources — 13 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 3
- Mars-raised geologist and hydrologist, [[Elvi Okoye]]'s sardonic friend, who survives the crash and expects the worst.
Chapter 10
- The sardonic geologist who realizes [[Ilus]] has no natural geology at all — the whole world was machined by the gate-builders.
Chapter 16
- Elvi's cynical friend, who backs her science to Holden, insists most people on both sides are decent, and warns her not to fall for the mediator.
Chapter 19
- Fayez rides out to the alien machine with Elvi and Holden, quips through the dread, and pitches the tent for the long night on the plain.
Chapter 23
- Fayez drinks his way through the colony as deliberate peacemaking — befriending everyone so he won't be 'scalped in the next uprising' — masking real terror beneath the jokes.
Chapter 28
- Fayez rouses Elvi to watch a moon melt overhead, deflecting the horror with jokes while needling her about her flimsy pretext to run to Holden.
Chapter 31
- Buried in impossible planetary data and quietly unraveling, Fayez confirms Elvi's dread — the whole world defies its own rules — and gently sends her to help the doctor.
Chapter 34
- Fayez joins the search party into the gale, comes back having found nothing — First Landing utterly erased — and delivers the grim forecast: nuclear winter, five days of unity at most.
Chapter 40
- Fayez talks Elvi out of confessing love to Holden — diagnosing her as scared, lonely, and touch-starved — then offers himself, becoming her tender, wry lover.
Chapter 42
- Fayez keeps Elvi fed and functioning through the blindness crisis, gently tries to define their new relationship, and lays his heart bare: save everyone, and grow old with me.
Chapter 46
- Blind and starving himself, Fayez keeps Elvi fed and flirting in the dark — and his needling banter is what jostles loose her cure for the plague.
Chapter 52
- Fayez presses Elvi on why she's leaving, then — told she likely won't come back — trots across the mud and climbs into the cart beside her for the northward journey.
Chapter 56
- The self-styled cynic finds his courage: Fayez accuses Murtry of staging the ambush, punches then tackles the killer to stop Amos's execution, and screams for Elvi to run as shots follow.