" Forty minutes later, when Ken and his ten oreleven friends came stomping in, making all kinds of noise, what anastonishment they had to see Mr. Ludd... the big-shot employer, standing in a cornerof the foyer, with his pants and underpants down around his ankles. There was no sign of awhipping...Steffi had been merciful on that point...but she apparently wantedthem to see what a nancy boy her Giles was! For the rest of the evening, Giles stoodthere, shamefacedly, as men came in and out, using. He had to let Daniel know that he was still his friend, and that he was there for him and always would be.He reached his house and slowly, carefully opened the door, not knowing what to expect. His parents leapt for the door as they heard it close and to their relief, there stood their son, safe and unharmed. “Oh Jake hunny your ok!” his mother cried out with relief as she grabbed her precious son tightly and squeezed him into a loving hug.“Where have you been Jake? Your mother and I have been. Every morning!’ ‘Okay,’ they said in unison. Erika nodded in silent satisfaction. Had either given even the sliver of a hint of dissent, she’d have come down on them like a ton of bricks. Problem number one may have been Mary O’Leary. But number two was all the other Mary-fucking-O’Leary’s who might crawl out of the woodwork if this came out. ‘And should either of you find anything unusual—anything at all—I want to know instantly,’ she went on, reinforcing who was in control. ‘No one takes. Several of us have absorbed the languages to scan the information. We have found that no one civilization has discovered everything. There are niche discoveries made by each culture. Many are little known or unknown to vast numbers of others. This caused us to be very careful in our examinations."I asked again. "What about the fur?" "The planet is experiencing an ice age at this time. The hairy integument you have been given is part of a series of adaptations to the environment."This alarmed.