THE ENDThis concludes a story arc conceived in 2004 as a novel with the workingtitle 'The Chrysanthemum Inheritance'. It was intended to form the firs...part of a sequence that spanned a quarter of a decade and told of therelentless spread of the Bucovina hive, as well as the authorities'increasingly impotent efforts to contain it.The tale in its present form was begun in the late summer of 2009, when Ireplaced the original protagonist, Norah Russell's disillusioned nephewRichard, with the. " Yeah, right, 'Rachel'," he replied with a dry chuckle. Having now got off the phone with her sister, Kelly sat down on the couch next to me and put her arm around my slender shoulders."You okay, babe?" she asked, in her now rich, sexy baritone."As much as any of us are," I said, sighing, and putting my headon her muscular shoulder."Kate told me the phone system is overloading with the number ofpeople trying to contact friends and relatives, so I guess we're not going to get a call through to. My mouth, for one, was remarkably dry. Something to dowith terror, I think.***14:45 18 Jan "So what are you doing this morning?" Dan asked finally. "She spent the night over last night," said Debbie slyly. Danlooked at her, then looked at me. I gave him a 90210 smile. "And you two..." he said faintly. "Most of the night," I admitted modestly. Debbie patted my arm. "Oh my God," Dan said reverently. George looked at Dan for asecond, then ostentatiously crossed himself and. This time daddy wouldn’t pay, and she got a public defender. The judge was about to sentence her to three years when I stood up and asked the judge if I could speak.Rachel, Connie, and Sue stood behind me at the railing, and we pleaded for final leniency. We all told him Heather was our closest friend, and that we had not done our duty to help her stop her bad behavior. In the end, the judge released her on 1-year probation with a 3-year suspended jail sentence, and had us put up a $10,000.