They stayed off the shore for the day. They did some fishing to see what was worth catching.The next morning, two men came out of the forest and sat o... the beach. They were not dressed as simply as the villages had been. They both wore a form of thigh length belted white tunic with coloured trims and leather sandals.The men had dark hair and olive skin. They were both around 160cm tall and of wiry build. The older man had a small potbelly and was grey at the temples. Both had a form of the. But if you decide you can help me, I'd consider the slate even between us. Hell, I'll probably owe you." What is it then?" I need information about an outfit called StarIntel. They're a private contractor in Iraq. They are supposed to have a high-ranking Ba'ath Party defector who can finger the people behind the bombings in the South. We need what they have, but the price they ask is too high. They want one of our own defectors in exchange."George Lowell's face had undergone several changes. In. He entered her eyes and read her newspaper. After a few seconds he began to open her mind to his and he saw the nametag she had put in her bag this morning. Nice to meet you, Susan. Sam knew that probing too deeply was impossible at this stage, for the initial link was always recent thoughts, images and emotions, but every now and again he got lucky. If something triggered a deeper response then it was open, like a hyper-link in the menu of the mind. He enjoyed deep-water fishing and wondered. It was an otherwise unremarkable morning, pleasant even for late December, though spending New Year's Eve in jail was a little unusual.Arraignment waited until Monday morning, which is when I learned I'd been charged with rape.Of course I pled not guilty. I WAS not guilty.That did not stop the throng of reporters and camerapersons (?) from descending on my innocent self, on the day school took back in, a day when I should have been in class teaching math to a horde of barely-interested.