We had been at it for two hours; it was 1400. With Bobbie gone I was answering my calls without the normal screening she did. I did not realize just h...w many calls came into the office that were just bull crap calls. I finally gave up and assigned one of the other clerks to answer the phones so Ben and I could get the work done.We were interrupted by a knock on my closed office door. It was General Ingram. This time he pulled up a chair opposite the desk as Ben left.“Here is the classified file. ’ ‘Okay, I’m sorry, it was something I needed to know. I won’t bring it up again.’ ‘I’m not mad, Al, you needed to know if you’re going to be a brother surrogate, and we’re sharing the house. I guess I’m the one who has to tell you, but I don’t like to talk about it.’ ‘So we won’t.’ ‘Thanks, Al.’ And that was that, but I was really sure there was some deep dark secret, like she had a husband hidden away somewhere like Guatemala, or was secretly into zoo bears, or something, anything. Over the. .."She did look good. She was a stone fox. Her butt was reduced, her stomach was much flatter, and her breasts were shrunk just enough. Despite that, she merely looked like a younger, healthier version of the matronly woman who had entered the med tube ... how long ago?Still not wanting to cover this gorgeous body quite yet, she turned to the Decurion. "How long?" Maybe six hours. A half hour for the medical, another ninety minutes for the CAP score, and the rest to make you look the same age. If I played it right we might actually survive this, but if I didn’t, or some dumb fucking luck befell me ... well the three of us would likely die here tonight, in this dark, godforsaken wilderness.Talk about pressure.Actually, it’s worse than that; more like a weight, a crushing stress of sorts, trying to collapse my resolve. I think its goal is to paralyze, to enforce inaction, like a preservation instinct and I’m pretty sure it’s deeply held by more than just me. After all, if we don’t run.