Twenty minutes to Toll BoothCommit Markers." It began repeating itself.I had to hurry and change Corra, then helped Sophie change Dotty andDavid. We g...t to watch the views of the front screens as we grew closer.This was a historic event in our lives and no one wanted to miss it.There were military looking vehicles mixed in with our convoy now."Lead truck approaching Toll Booth Activation," suddenly a dozen pillarsshot up out of the ground in front of the leading truck. Each pair tallerthan the. A psychologist would have called him a paranoid psychotic.Arriving at her apartment door, Hooke ran his hand over his hair to make sure it was neat before he rang the doorbell. Felicia answered immediately."Hello. I've been expecting you."He pushed the door open and stepped inside without answering her. Hooke closed the door behind him and looked around the cramped apartment. There wasn't much to see. The sitting room had cheap, new furniture clustered around a small vid unit. A kitchenette. And now it was kind of happening to me, yet it washappening to me in such a weird way.***When I got back in the apartment I went to hang out with Beth. She was ina pretty good mood, having decided to give herself the day off forstudying."Where's Karen?" she asked."She went home with a guy she met at the gym," I said. "She'sexperimenting with guy-on-guy sex." I don't think that's terribly respectful of you," Beth said."Well, I kind of had a lesbian encounter when I was at the gym, so Iguess it. All that was one reason I had asked for no help from European countries. If asked, they would demand to be part of the decision making process and as there were more of them, I would end up losing control or get mired down in continuous political disputes.I felt sure that Orbatch would very probably send troops if I asked, given I had him on a string. I was betting I wasn’t going to need them with the plan that the generals and admirals had worked out. The DOD had excellent planners when one.