She felther throat closing up again, the way it had on that night, the way itdid when ever she thought of that night."Stay calm," said the wizard, cal...ly. "It's not fear that closes yourthroat, you know. It's guilt. Guilt is the other monster that lives indark places, guilt that you are alive and Allen is dead." The wizardsaid nothing for most of a minute and Theodora tried desperately not tothink at all. "You even feel guilty that your son is alive when yourhusband is dead and buried."Tears. Then disaster struck, and things changed dramatically.It was a Monday, and we had an implementation scheduled for the following weekend. That morning we heard the word - the contract firm that supplied the 4 programmers under us had gotten into a row with the head of our department, and had pulled all four of their contractors out that morning. That was a really stupid thing to do, because that firm will never do business with our agency again. Still, it left us understaffed and without time to. We weren't hostile to each other, instead we just didour own separate things and no longer took the time to keep the other inthe loop. Then, as expected, the law firm informed us that there would beanother two month extension if I agreed to get two tattoos, one of aunicorn on my left hip and one that said "Steve's Slave" on my right buttcheek. The idea of getting the tattoos was more than I wanted to do. Upuntil now everything felt like it was reversible or just a game but theidea of the. ’ There was a short pause as Diego finished his plate and sat back. ‘Well will you do it?’ ‘Let’s see, I’m pulled out of a cryo-chamber with no memory of my previous life, no idea where I am and hardly an idea of who I am. Now I’m being asked by someone that I’ve never seen before if I’ll help her kill the corrupt nephew of a dying Emperor on the grounds that I worked with her father 30 years ago.’ He paused for a moment and thought, he was missing something. ‘Oh yes, and there’s some funny.