Pardela, you have a dangerous job, but I will not yet again ask you to return and stay here where we can keep you safe. I know how futile that will be... What else has been happening?” asked the Queen.Pardela, told her mother briefly of the intergalactic war and the circumstances that led up to it and then told her the Ghouls tried to kidnap her.“Pardela I hope you told our guests no one knows where we are. We do not face outside dangers, but we are our own worst enemies,” said Mergal then turned. ‘Key in door.’ She did it almost, but Chrissy beat her. Or did Alex let Chrissy beat her? ‘Alex.’ Chrissy whispered. Chrissy saying her name like that was enough for Alex to cry more. ‘Why did things have to be different? Was she really this sensitive? Why did it matter so much to people?’ Chrissy knew the story. She knew that Chrissy’s father had committed suicide. And it hurt her like hell to see Alex crying like this. Chrissy pouted her bottom lip out and her hips and said sweetly, ‘Me no. I could also feel the adrenaline draining off. Rather than fall into the same trap Percy did, I started setting up a quick camp.With a small fire started, I recovered Percy’s rifle. It was a pretty nice Winchester 30.06 bolt action. But hadn’t been cared for. When I emptied the magazine, I was surprised to find that the rounds were high-end competition-grade rounds. As expected, the weapon had been fired recently. But I could also see that it had been fired before, but never cleaned. There was. I say go with the odds and call the one on the three phones. Obviously, someone wants to hear the good news from someone.”“OK. Give me one of the phones.”Recon handed me the small flip phone and I opened it and followed Recon’s instructions to find the stored number and dialed it. I recognized the voice as soon as he spoke.“About fucking time. What is going on?”“Hi Stan.”“Who is this?”I paused before answering.“It is me. Mick! How have you been, Stan?”“Fuck you! You’ll know how I’ve been.