Her thoughts began to dart, disorganized and nearly incoherent. Beneath her eyelashes, she stared at her stepmother’s profile, noted the satisfied s...ile that curved Dora’s lips. She discovered that her body was shaking with rage and betrayal. Dora turned the car into the long drive that led to the house before she spoke. ‘Your father’s out of town, Alayne. I’m telling you this so you don’t do anything stupid.’ ‘When he gets back, I’m going to tell him,’ Alayne managed. Pulling up in front of. Keep those interactions to a minimum. We’re making progress and we don’t want any setbacks.”“I’m with you on that one,” I said. “I’ll talk to you in June.”When we’d hung up, I went back to my office to find Charlie waiting with Robert Woodford. I’d gone well over the time I’d allotted for talking to Doctor Mercer and had forgotten about the interview. I apologized profusely, saying I had an important call that had run longer than expected. I spent fifteen minutes talking to Robert and then. “Then again,” He said with a grin, “if they keep pushin’, push back hard.”There were no rules for fighting in our world. You used every advantage to win and worried about the correctness of your actions later.We traveled up the country, stopping to trade here and there, venturing into a big town about halfway into our journey to get rid of some of what we had traded for and to lay in a new supply. Most had never seen anything but a ‘tame’ Indian, and were nervous over Jacob’s weapons and. As fast as I could, I pumped the windless and aimed the ballista. As soon as I had the sights lined up, I pulled the trigger cord. I must have pulled the cord too hard and caused the ballista to be jarred off line. Whatever was the cause, the dart flew out and just grazed one of the living dinosaurs across its back. This brought his attention back to us; I think that it had forgotten about us until that point.As soon as I fired, Jean and Angie started reloading. I didn't wait for them to.