"But this is the first I've heard of it." Scooter glanced at Crystal; it was the first either of them had heard about it, too."I only seriously got to...thinking about it the last break," he said. "I've been flipping it over in my mind all the last trip." How about if I put it this way? Whether I'm going to have boatmen enough depends on one guy on Team 1, and I won't know till this time next week. How about if we leave it that if someone hikes down to Phantom to relieve you, you can take off,. ”My ladies had a brief whispered conversation. Rita said, “Master, we feel that it would be helpful for us to have the use of a computer now. It would help us to accomplish the things that you are asking us to do.”“You’re right, Rita. I have a portable computer upstairs that you can use for this task. We can get more equipment on our next trading trip. As part of this task, I want you to identify the computer equipment and programs that we will need immediately and the equipment we will need to. "Holy shit!" I exclaimed upon seeing her, which was a surprise in and of itself. Not even realizing I had spoken, possibly because she jumped, dumping the basket she was carrying in the middle of the floor."Jesus Christ!" She screamed upon seeing me, looking at me like I was some sort of a burglar or something. "You scared the shit out of me!"Dumbfounded, I could only sit there looking at her stupidly. I felt as though I had just entered the twilight zone or something by the way she was. " She shook her head. "There's no place for unattached women back there. If we took one step into the camp, they would gang-rape us and then roll the dice to see who could keep us as concubines." "They wouldn't do that to us. They'll know we are comrades in arms who had met up with a terrible misfortune. Remember, the captain and I served in the infantry together and my father has a seat on the Council of Lords." "Lila, the leader of the party that captured us, has asked me to be her.