.. Um ... Rachel ... Of ... Of course not! N-n-n-no one is ... is ffforcing me ... to ... to do anything. Remember ... I’m, I’m banking m-millions...here.”The subject was rattled. Rachel’s instincts took over. She moved in for the kill.“That raises an important point, Cynthia. So you are claiming that this ... endeavour is an equal partnership between yourself and your, ah, handler, a Mr. Ibrahim Beg?”“Um ... sure ... equal ... fffifty-fifty.”«Got her! Forgive me, Ms. Royal. This is for your own. Everyone else except Bob had joined the first group in the clearing. They busied themselves collecting the goods that had been scattered around the campsite. Rob brought a second shovel from their wagon and helped Andrew with the grave.Vanessa found a clean sheet but handed it over to Rebecca and Dana to wrap the body. It was too soon for her to participate in the burial. Dana cleaned the blood from the man's head as much as she could. Jackie found a shirt and Dana dressed the body. She then. He smiled, relief washing over his features as he took a step away so that he could concentrate more fully on the task of straightening his cuffs.~~~ I remember every minute of that day in exquisite detail, but for the life of me I have no recollection of what we learned in that hour before lunch. I don’t even know what subject it was. I do remember watching Rick for a while (a fairly long while) sitting two rows in front and one to the left. I could see his ear, the side of his neck and the. The system was shut down until a service tech could look it over. In the meantime, I was on my own. The security light had probably been activated by some passing critter, but it wouldn’t hurt to be sure.I opened a drawer in the nightstand next to my bed and picked up my home defense weapon. After much thought and experimentation, I’d settled on a Springfield Armory XD .45 pistol. A suppressor was screwed onto the 4” barrel and a powerful flashlight was mounted to the rail in front of the.