What would my heroes do in this case? Xena would have tossed the boy into a home for wayward youth. Hillary would have ignored the assaults, as long a... she had time to run the country. My most secret hero, Courtney Love - well, let's not consider her, it would only have proved Race's case. They weren't real people, anyway, at least not to me. Anne, my occasional tennis partner, she had two boys Race's age. She was a top executive at a major hardware chain. She had two boyfriends who knew about. I stared, this was the first time I had seen him use brute force and his strength was astounding. Roberta was lying motionless, her body a twisted and broken mess on the floor."You killed her." No, not kill..kill..kill..kill..kill...kill..killl.."Blaze fell silent and motionless, frozen in sudden shutdown, standing over her body, his head half turned towards me.That was when panic set in. Security had been alerted, there was a dead body in the room and Blaze had shut down. I was helpless in. The aerial photos stored in my AI showed that there were 14 separate food storage areas. I absolutely refused to send in demolition teams of less than two men, so one of the areas was going to be skipped. Then I had a brainstorm: the food dump used by the commander would be the one we skipped. That would be a psychological blow that should play hell with morale. I could imagine what the average soldier would think when he was hungry, but the commander was eating a normal meal.We were able to. . or at least something different."Yes indeed." The Matron Veránda muttered in concurrence. "The weaving has been much too dark, as of late, and my next panel could do with a bit of brightness." Quite so!" The Crone Skúlda rasped with annoyance. There has been nothing, of late, but doom and gloom woven on your loom. Perhaps it's time for you to take a rest, assume my shears, for awhile, and let a new cycle begin."Perhaps ... it is nearly time for the end of the age," The Matron agreed, "but not.