He felt a rush down both arms, heard an almighty bang and felt himself lifted from his feet and flung through the air.He landed perhaps twenty feet aw...y from where he had been standing, falling to the ground with a bump. Eoric scrambled to his feet, pleased that he seemed to be uninjured and made his way over to where he had discharged the energy. His eyes opened wide with amazement as he saw the deep gash in the rock and the pure seam of solid copper. He knew roughly how hot a furnace had to. He actually appearedto be shoving his own work downwards onto his subordinates' laps, andwiling away his own office hours doing very little that was productive -about as little as he was humanly able, Stephen personally reckoned.In fact, the only area where Michael seemed to be putting genuine effortinto was in the firing, reallocation and hiring of his employees -generally in that order. Within only a scant few weeks, Stephen'sdivision had seen half a dozen good men called into Michael's. His flow of energy had been so badly crippled that he could lie there until the end of time and never recover at all.But Eric was no better. He was kneeling in the crater he had carved into Adam’s chest. Just a minute ago, he had been the epitome of physical stature, as buff as a professional body-builder. Now, he looked like a half-cremated corpse. His muscles had been completely destroyed, leaving just a thin layer of tissue clinging to his skeleton. He had lost more than half of his blood. He hadn't pulled into the driveway since he hadn't seen the van or me until he was walking down the path beside the drive. I wondered if he had a search of the tent in mind. It hadn't been up when he left so it would be a tempting target no doubt... "Beats me, but I get to make up something. You need to know for sure." I smiled at him with what i hoped didn't have too much smart ass in it."It has happened twice more since the Rape. My guess is that it was hush money. Somebody didn't want her to.