The walls were covered with diagrams and symbols scrawled on paper and ancient papyrus, and the shelves and tables were stacked with books and all man...er of strange objects.From the desk where she sat reading, Marian said. "I won't be long, my dear. I just need to read this and let father know if there is anything to it. I'm sure Mrs Ledbetter will not mind if we are a few moments late." Why don't you take a seat." Marian added with a wave of her hand in the direction of a green chaise-lounge. This was the technique known as following the nap of the earth.It didn't take long for us to move into a wooded area, and this raised some complications. I finally decided that the lesser of two evils was to move just above the tree tops, dropping to near ground level when we came to open spaces.We were about three miles from our target when the first shot was fired at us. It was hard to tell from my point of view where the shot had come from, but the AIs were polled over the special radio. After getting settled, everyone got ready to go to dinner as Mom had found a nice seafood restaurant to eat at.Mom had called Stosh and arranged to pick him up and bring him to the restaurant. I told mom that I’d pick him up and they could head to the restaurant and get the table. I decided to fuck with him when I was on the way to pick him up.Because of mom working for the USARC (U.S. Army Recruiting Command) at Ft. McPherson, and the truck being registered to her. The truck had a Ft.. ”“If it’s truly what you want, Melanie, Sly and Lil have had guardianship papers drawn up and your mother has agreed. They’ll take you up to Chicago this weekend to collect Stephanie.”“Why are you people so nice? Why would Mama Lil and Papa Sly take us in like this? They were, like, retired and everything. And they’re willing to take on two kids? Why? How can we trust you all?” I held the sobbing teen and tried my best to comfort her. She’d come a long way in the past two weeks, but she was.