What had been seven cities, each with its own government, had become one sprawling metroplex under the iron fist of the federally appointed Atlantica ...oard.Citing a housing shortage, the Board started a number of building projects. Huge self-contained towers, called arcologies, combined the sprawling suburbs and apartment complexes into spires that seemed to pierce the clouds. As part of the civil works programs that the government used to put people to work, elevated roadways and monorails. I was happy to see that everyone was wearing something nice for Christmas. Many of the ladies wore a nice dress or skirt. John, Fred, and I all wore dress slacks and a collared dress shirt. While I sat at the end of the table, Jill sat on one side of me and Dakota on the other side. Once everyone was sat, Bobby began carving slices of roast beef. Sammy began pouring some red wine for those who wanted it. As the plates were being filled, I looked at my family who were all sitting and chatting. " Good night dearest Jack. I love you." she said with a yawn. Within moments they were both asleep. They had forgotten about the puppy sleeping downstairs. A few minutes after they fell asleep, the puppy made her way up the stairs and went to the big pillow bed in the corner where she could curl up and fall asleep as she watched over her family. During the night, Angel, the cat, came up the stairs and Precious started barking, which woke Jack."Precious, be quiet!" Jack said to her. The pup. He took a pink plastic Easter egg and put an uncoated steel ball bearing inside it. He glued the egg shut and wrapped it in tape. He coated the egg in the black dust and in the morning he tossed it at the grid. At work, he found the egg on the camera. It was undamaged. He was annoyed that he forgot to have the computer insert an x-ray camera into the grid yesterday. He punched in the commands to activate the special camera. He verified that his created programs masked from the main monitor.