"I don't think Jenny had it in mind that I do my job this very minute!"Jenny smiled shyly. "I don't even know whether I can get pregnant. AI?"The dise...bodied voice responded, "The nanites have been preparing your body since it was announced this morning that you would be first. Conception should occur within the next twelve hours. An additional supply of sperm would be helpful." Oh, my," said a surprised Jenny. "Just like that? How different our world has become. I suppose you will confirm. Please sit down. Would you care for coffee? ... Excellent, Beth, please bring in our coffee ... Sgt. Ferber, I'd like for you to meet my wife, Beth. Beth, this is one of the Germans we met the other day."After the greetings and a few moments of casual chit-chat, Beth left. When she left, Sgt. Ferber said, "My congratulations, Sgt. Haggerty. You have a beautiful wife, but I wonder why she is here in a war zone?" That's one of the things we have to talk about. Technically, this is not a war zone,. “I’ve called for a car,” the mousy woman said, “we’ll see if one answers.”“Just like that?”Marisa shrugged, “works the same everywhere. If a car is available and isn’t blocked by other cars, it should come around at some point.”“How long?” Gene asked.“Depends. If there’s only one car and it is a long distance away, could be hours or days. No way to tell.”They didn’t wait long. Ten minutes later, a metallic whizz echoed through the tunnel, and Gene tensed in anticipation. The car slowed and. But as theygathered in the center aisle, looking at each other as if to see what theothers would do, Mrs. Wilson approached them. Tommy had to suppress asmile, as he just knew the confrontation he had expected was about tooccur. He mentally ran over his arguments, preparing to parry her attack."Thomas, James...."The two boys turned to face her, their insides starting to tighten inanticipation of the battle."Next time, don't cut it so close for morning roll call. I would hate tohave to mark you.