"Dinner was uneventful, although that was to be expected. Holmes and I were there on business and it is impolite to discuss business at the dinner tab...e. When Victoria withdrew at the conclusion of serving, Palmerston invited us to share a cognac and asked the servants to leave, signalling that he was ready to return to the subject of our visit."Well, Mr Holmes," he began. "Do you have any observations of Victoria as they pertain to the case." Lord Palmerston," Holmes looked at him gravely over. The target BC blew apart as did the other BCs.The CL had just begun to fall off his trek at his apogee and that put him directly targeting "Vector"; his port side blossomed with energy blasts and fired missiles. "Vector" had only begun to roll, her defensive shields were just blooming and she simply disappeared. Within seconds, "Shriek's" maser on continuous fire ripped open the CL from stern to stem. Later assessment of the tapes showed the CL had half that side's weapons closed up with full. "Never, in the playoffs. Hell, they swept the Padres, and then beat Atlanta, 4-2. In the whole regular season -- 162 games, they got beat three games in a row only two times! Imagine that! You could look it up, if you don't believe me."Hell, I believed him. The Cardinals were scary!"You guys know how many times -- regular season -- that we lost three in a row? I looked that up, too! Six times! Six! And two of those times, we went on to lose another one! Four in a row! We lost four in a row just. Amy hadn't been abandoned, her father had died from a drug overdose when she was still in the womb. Her mother died a few days after childbirth from complications. According to her adoption records, her mother had held her and been conscious long enough to name her Amy. But both of her parents had been poor European immigrants—illegals—so she didn't even know if she had any family somewhere in Europe. She probably did, but finding them would be impossible.Pride came easy to Amy. She was very.