" Then McGreuter paused. "Important to me at least." Ethan just stared at him, fearing the worst. "You see, I wasn't quite honest earlier when I tol... you that I was a mad scientist." "You coulda fooled me." Ethan muttered to himself, closing his eyes for a moment and hoping that his heart would stop racing. When he opened them back up, he saw that McGreuter had moved onto the metal disk and was staring down at him. "To be quite honest," McGreuter said, sounding almost embarrassed, "a mad. A little gym time, light dinner, some reading, maybe thinking about Miss Latest Prospect. Knock at the door: speak of the goddam devil. ‘Make my day.’ The door opened and a dark curly head peered through the crack. ‘Hi, Kirsty, whaddya need?’ She sidled in, shy but determined: her standard expression. Third floor back and damn near invisible, but she paid the rent on time, other kids seemed to like her. Sure was a serious girl though: never met a woman so set on wanting to understand. Out of unconscious habit, they were all posing in an attempt to attract his attention. The women included a Jew and an Arab along with women from Africa, Europe, China, India, Russia, the United States, and South America. Every one of them was extremely attractive.He had no respect for them. They would do anything for money. He knew it. They knew it. It was a game and one that now bored him. He was going to have to get rid of this batch and bring in a new set when they next came to port.In the. .”“Seriously.” She gave me a stern look.“Look, Carlie. Now that I know you have enough money so that you won’t starve if I scare you off, I can tell you. I really like having you around. Really. If you stay the same Carlie that’s shared my universe for the last few weeks, I want you to keep doing that.”“You mean, like friend slash daughter slash whatever?”“Yeah.”“You’re good with that?”We got out at the house, walked upstairs and inside.“You didn’t answer.”Carlie’s turn:His head bobbed. “I’m.