She laid out the inner workings of the Martian and the WestHem systems in a way that high school civics instructors would never have dreamed of. "Mone...," she told them. "Everything comes down to the common denominator of money. Those that have the most of it are able to use it to pervert even the most moral of us to do their bidding. And who has the most money on this planet? Who controls the flow of money on this planet? Who runs the industries that make this planet such a valuable commodity. To any man I'mabhorrent, unnatural. Anyway this way it's easier to hide what a freak Itruly am." Aislin...stop." Ina reached over and held her grandchild close. Hesounded so cold, detached. No one should think of themselves that way.The three of them sat in silence for a few minutes, before Macha, withtears in her eyes asked her master. "I don't understand why you justdidn't have Aislin become your apprentice. I can tell that, she...I meanhe has the ability."Ina frowned. "I tried to do just. David had been in a confrontation with a known group of bullies just before Winter Break. One on one he would have been fine. He'd been going to a local Dojo and was learning Aikido. He'd just passed his Sankyu test, which put him about half way to Shodan (first degree black belt). What it did for him, though, was to give him more confidence and the ability to defend himself to a reasonable extent; he had a long time ahead of him before he'd be able to do much more.The bullies had caught up. "Betraying signs of dizziness, Hargraves sat up."You'll wish to remember this," Suzie informed him. "Do so!"This isn't the first time you've used your beastly machine. Two weeks ago you used it on my younger sister, Mary. Remember her? She's the blonde research assistant in the university's Computer Science department. It was bad enough that you used this abomination on Mary," Suzie snarled, "but you had the gall to make her pose for a bunch of pornographic photographs that you showed to all.