New as we were to being a couple, there was but one thing on our mind. The pillars stood by the side, splitting the room equally along the middle fro... opposite walls. Her seat was right next to the pillar, mine in the centre back of the room. Dumping my sparse bag on my desk, I was by her in a flash. For two whole years we had been friends. So very comfortable with the separated nearness from each other. And now, for the last few weeks, the distance was indistinguishable. Nineteen years old. Through the collectivization of political power, public power, international resources, connections, and billions of dollars, a singularity of massive power was formed in the first meeting of Founding Patriarchs.. . .At first, the change was subtle, and you couldn't be blamed for not noticing. A replaced police chief here, a new council member there, and maybe a new professor over there. All of it was pretty much normal, and at worst, an eyebrow or two was raised over the sexist remarks of one. Luckily, my condo had an underground garage with an elevator that stopped on my floor. I parked beside the elevator to unload the gold. There was an empty parking place a few feet away, so I never lost sight of the suitcases. I was able to get all of the suitcases into the elevator and ran it to my floor. A few minutes of additional work got all of the cases inside my condo and the door was locked. I stacked the suitcases in a closet that I had been using for miscellaneous storage and went to. One of them was all bloody and wasn’t moving. The other one had wet pants and was sobbing. ‘Let’s go out and give Greg a hand, Larry,’ John said. ‘You ladies stay here, we’ll be right back. Everything’s OK now.’ ‘All…all right,’ Gail sobbed. ‘Be…be careful, John.’ ‘I will, honey,’ John told her, giving her a hug. Larry gave Joanne a hug, then he and John walked outside and found Greg standing there, covering the two men with his gun. ‘Nice to see you finally got here, Greg,’ John commented..