.. I just feel so self conscious right now. I get the feeling that any second David's going to yell, 'Professor Abbott! What happened to you?'"Aphrodi...e smiled. "He won't." Sometimes I wish he would. It'd be like the other shoe dropping. At least I know it'd be over." I've got an idea." What?" Just something that should help. And don't worry, David will be back to normal at the end of the trip." David? No, don't touch him. It's not his fault he got dragged off on this quest of mine." Relax,. " I calculated that as being nearly 2 million pounds but I found out later the claim as to it being my value was somewhat of an exaggeration. The figure was correct but it really wasn't a ransom payment for me. When the aid agreement was signed, the following day General Cumu granted our pardon 'as a gesture of good will.' I was so overwhelmed that I cried and so did Roger. After six months we were going home, and yet there was going to be a good deal of sadness when we left too. Sumala didn't. I walked into his office with an invention to tell him about. He believed me. He knew. He picked Dave and Evie to build this place, and they didn't even bid. They just made a deal with him, and he knew that they weren't going to mess over him."I don't know as much about Bill. But I can feel that he's an Alpha. He left his daughter with us — well, with Dave, Evie and us. His wife left him and he didn't have a good place to leave Linda while he was flying. He knows we'll take care of her, and. Even my small town police department wasn't going to fuck up this investigation - like they did the one when a young woman was strangled in her home and her kids were drowned in the bathtub, eight years ago.I didn't even give a shit. I sat back down in my car and waited for the fuckers to get here. About that time my car did a trick I didn't realize it could. It disappeared, reappearing parked in the Wal-Mart parking lot, right in the handicapped parking spot that my sun visor's hanging sign.