. have?" She reached into her purse. "I have some money. I can pay for it."Val stepped around the tool box and the engine block until there was nothin... between them. He was also, by no accident, between her and the door. He shook his head. "Not money. I am from Russia, where money means nothing. In Russia, business done through barter. This for that." He added at her look of confusion."Barter?" She backed away from him, her blue eyes as wide as saucers. "What do you want to trade for?"Val just. So we traveled with Robert. He’s former Special Forces.’ ‘We are twenty years old, twenty one in May. May 4th. How old are you?’ ‘I just turned twenty four.’ ‘And how old was Janelle when you met?’ ‘I was twenty, same as you. She was twenty four. She was married when we met but separated. Her husband played around and beat her up a couple of times. For family reasons she just separated rather than divorced. When our relationship became serious her father in law at the time helped engineer a. " I closed my eyes and prepared myself, locking the lifeless planet and its two small lifeless moons.Mars' closest approach to Earth had occurred the previous week, on April 14'th. It wasn't a particularly close encounter, over five light-minutes away, almost a hundred million kilometers. At exactly light-speed time until the last quarter moon, I cancelled Martian reality, and one millisecond later created two Earth sized planets in its place.I have no idea what Earth's population will call the. He seemed more than capable of turning the ladies' heads whenever he and I hit the bars. I didn't know what he would think of our proposal, but if there was any guy I trusted with Pam, it would be him."Tell me more," I said. It was an interesting idea, but I wanted to see just what she had in mind."Mark, you know that before we met, I had a rather wild past. I was a bit of a slut, actually, just trying to figure things out and find my place."During that first couple of years at school, I did.