"Kikapua looked over the silent crowd. "So many changes! Nothing has remained the same, except perhaps me as your leader. As the one constant in these...incredible two years, some of you have come to me and asked me to break with tradition, to run for a consecutive term as leader. I stand before you today, to announce that I will indeed run, for a position of councilor. I will not break tradition."There was a large sigh from the crowd, and a quick traditional song of respect before the people. My gray eyes were lined with deeper gray eyeliner, making them look more wide awake than I felt. My lips were full and had little more than lip balm. My cheeks were naturally flushed, so blush was rarely required. My eyes swept down my red shirt. The ruffle at the top brought the eye up, but there wasn’t enough cleavage to look unprofessional. My skirt was black and well-tailored to fit just above my knees. Normally, I tended to take off my heels as soon as I entered my office, slipping into. “Raytheon’s BIG money...”“Yeah,” Terri said. “They wanna send a couple guys from the army to watch us, then they want US to take the bug to Fort Benning...”I related that conversation to Bill when he got home.“Oh, that’s gotta be rich. All those hard-charging special ops guys versus - what was the term Cindy used? – a middle school math club?”“Yeah,” Haley said. “But right now our hand has no military function other than data gathering.”“Everything has a military function,” Bill said.. One problem at a time she thought and turned back to her son. “Not quite how your sister put it, but essentially the same; what were you thinking? What did he say?”Caitlin leant against the door frame looking expectantly at her older brother, nibbling her bottom lip as her eyes skirted over the bruises on his arm and thigh; she’d half been expecting to see him in a wheelchair after she heard what had happened. She was even slightly proud of him having seen the absolute shiner he’d left upon.