He stammered.Then he stepped back into the shadows of the smoothie stand. I heard his voice. "Fine. You can go. But those boys, they'll try to fuck yo..., count on that. You have to say no. Alright? You'll say no?"So, it was I who must say no. But still, to go with my friends, in the dark, at the movies."Of course. I can't cheat on you that way – you know that, right? I mean – when you disagree with Mel it's one thing, but I can't just cheat."I still couldn't cheat – I didn't think – not even if. You see they know me already and are happywith my work. In fact Jess, I might need your help for some papers Ihave to provide for my part time employment."I was quite crossed now; Marcia was taking decisions behind my back. Ithought I was her main employer as I said before to her and only nowshe decided to involve me.My tone was firm and slightly condescending now, "I think Marcia youoverstepped your boundaries here, you try to organise your future workmovements without asking my permission. I. It was a loud horn blast that could be heard for at least half a mile and certainly all over the two boats.Nobody else but pirates could be stupid enough to waste fuel on speedboats, so it was pretty obvious who was chasing us. Our two houseboats were large enough to be juicy targets for any pirate, so there was no surprise that we were being attacked. I was too close to that damned alarm to be able to stand it any longer, so I switched it off. Again, John was not far behind. By now, everybody. Everything felt suddenly like it was inslow motion, then suddenly the pressure let off and I could lean awayfrom the seat again.Just as the dark haze began to clear we felt a bump as if the truck haddropped a foot or so onto the roadway. Sugar held it steady and thetrailer hardly swerved at all."I'm going back to check on everyone," TooTall said as he scrambled outof his seat. We'd never experienced a drop while shooting a portalbefore."Convoy two begin slowing down, we have to let Crunch catch.