Nearly threethousand years, and... ancientspirits..." mumbled the genie.I began to doubt all my senses. This whole thing didn't seem even theslightest...bit real. I decided to ask about one of my most pressingquestions."Yyy...you claim you made men superior to women? For thousands ofyears?"The genie turned his head when he heard my accusing tone."We are superior, undoubtable! That indignance of being a woman's slaveis to be described-descripted as unbearable-harsh."I shook my head. I was just a. Those marks, you see, are something more than a signature, more than a confession of guilt. And, as long as she is unable to give a satisfactory explanation of this point—"But Marie Fauville vouchsafed not the slightest explanation of this or of anything else. She remained impenetrable. On the other hand, the police failed to discover her accomplice or accomplices, or the man with the ebony walking-stick and the tortoise-shell glasses whom the waiter at the Cafe du Pont-Neuf had described to. Shewas lying, helpless in a pool of her own piss.But Max knew she would scrubup well. They always did.Her trailed a finger overeach plump breast, thumbing her nipples.He reached down andscratched her triangle of pubic hair, then ran a fingernail between her labia.Her eyes followed him.He shrugged. ?So, you werenot a virgin when you married ??She didn?t reply, didn?tmove a muscle, eyes sullen, staring.Max blew on the tip of hiscigar and held the glowing end to her nipple.She bucked away, or. Do you want to do the piece on the temple site now?"Bethany looked around at the beach and over towards a rocky headland where a white villa sat perched on the low cliffs. A solitary figure was standing on the terrace of the villa looking out to sea. "No," she said. "Let's go back to the harbour. The ferry is due in soon. With luck our permit should be on it. If it is we can still get some work done today." The group began to pack up their things.On the headland, the solitary figure watched as.