“I am still Russian, despite my daughter’s best attempts to turn me into an American!”I chuckled, “That sounds like Lyusya Alekseyevna and her...mom! She’s here. Come on in!”“Hello, Steve!” Larisa said impishly.“Hi, Laura!” I grinned.“Yuck!” she replied.“Not quite THAT American?”“No. I am Larisa Dmitriyevna!” she said emphatically.“Then please call me Stepa!”We exchanged a Russian style greeting, and I brought them to the sunroom where everyone was gathered. I excused myself to finish making. "Well Katy, it seems you're anatural. You can start regular work at the Club tomorrow - I'll have youadded to the rota. It will only be for a couple of hours each daythough, and you'll still be taking lessons the rest of the time. Half ofeverything you earn you keep - or at least, we put it away for you,until we feel you can, ah, be trusted. That's it then - you know the wayback."As I trudged back along the corridor, I had a lot to think about. Itseemed clear now that my new career was to. I’m asking you to come up with something better, because we need it. You know we need it.“We haven’t won a war in more than sixty years. How is that possible? The American military goes into some small country and can’t defeat the locals after being there for a decade or more. There’s something wrong there. Are our generals that incompetent? Is the system rigged for failure? All I know is that it’s broke. We need to fix it.”Colonel Porter was silent. His career was shot. He was getting retired. You give her a nervous smile and nod, but the busty blonde walks right past you like you're invisible. She's probably just busy rushing off to class or cheerleading practice, you tell yourself for the 83rd day in a row. You unlock your door and enter the apartment, tossing your backpack on the couch. Your roommate, Andrew, was heading out of town for the weekend, so you have the place to yourself and nobody will care if you leave your things strewn about. You think about just vegging out and.