Kale and Malcolm came face to face and that resulted in a duel between the two, the old ex-collector lost by inches and now he has no other option but to serve. Malcolm used to serve the corporation but here he is under a different employer now.
Kale wanted some sort of revenge as well, after all Malcolm tried to get rid of him for good. So as a result of all that fuss in the past the ex-collector finds himself as the official collector for the Children of Titan.
This is one duty he is in no position to say no even; also it is one way he can keep himself alive if he keeps on serving willingly. Of course this is not the Malcolm Rhett C. Bruno painted in Titanborn, as he is more tamed and is in no mode to fight back without proper preparation. At some point we think that perhaps he would never fight back at all but then he is not a man who backs down from a challenge. Kale on the other hand after a huge loss in Titan’s Rise , is also not having easiest of times as a ruler.
He wants to free Titan but he is aware that it will cost much more than he expected at the start when the struggle began. Now going back is not in the option list because all the back doors are closed and if Kale fails there would be no room left for the people of Titan in the solar system.
More and more enemies emerge in different form against the ruler and he thinks that this could break him from the inside but he keeps his head straight and mind focused. R.C. Bray has done a monumental job as a narrator in this concluding part of the series, not only he started well but he ended it well too.