"Those were lovely roses on your desk," he said."You saw those?" I asked."I was afraid you'd moved on, and another man held your heart," he said."So t...at's why the card was misplaced," I said."Yeah, sorry about that," he said smiling sheepishly. "I saw some people coming back and I didn't want to get caught so I hid." How did you find me tonight?" I asked."You had your end-of-year party at the same place last year," he said. "I took a chance that you'd be here again." I'm glad you did," I. I'll help you here. Stand up."I cut the zip-ties on her legs, leaving her arms praying behind her back, and helped her get her to her feet. Good cop bad cop never works in here, especially since I had to play both parts anyway.I lit a cigarette and watched her for a while; she just stood there. A fucking mannequin. A mannequin for fucking. A cold wet fish. Not unlike so many marriages I've heard of. I'm at least trying to kill my husband. As sloowly as I can tolerate. Killing him with bad. There are approximately one hundred adults involved, so only the people mentioned by name and ones that will be used in later stories are listed. Others just show up as ‘three concubines’)Fred Winthrop CAP: 10.0 Age: 48Major General, USA (ret), Assistant. Dir. NSA, Military Governor Vulcan colony, Husband of Sarah, father of Mike and Jacqueline (Jackie), Brother of John and Elizabeth Eleven Concubines:Janet Marshall 40 Fred’s Assistant at NSA, Mother of GillianRobert Marshall 50 Lawyer,. "Sir, the new test subject has responded well. We have implanted a 'series 5' chip in his brain and he has been absorbing all the martial arts training you specified. He has been fed the serum we developed, through an IV, to increase muscle mass and promote healing." Good, he is still inactive then?" He asked."Yes sir. When he has fully recovered from his 'accident', we will activate him and start weapons training ASAP." The technician replied."And the others?" Stuart asked."They have been.