Or starve.And so, Jacob found himself in the offices of Fred Durnst. Fred was, to put it politely, a sleazeball. (Far worse, and more accurate, explet...ves had been used.) Fred did web porn. Jacob didn't do that sort of thing; you got a reputation for it, and soon you couldn't find work elsewhere. And you couldn't exactly present a client with your redesign of the "Hot Chix Central -- 600 Barely Legal All Nude Celebrities!" website as an example of your past work. Plus, just on principle, Jacob. Tall, lanky, not particularly good looking, he still managed to date most of the girls he wanted to. He just wouldn't be told no; he always kept coming back with a new approach. Most everything in life, he tackled the same way. In school, there had been smarter people than he was, but they hadn't wanted the best grades as badly as he had. He supposed that school, both prep and college, had tended to make him more of a loner, since he inevitably spent so much of his time in study.His father had. Ich hoffe, dass ich mit neununddreißig Jahren noch so aussehe. Bis dahin werde ich wahrscheinlich die gleiche Zahl von Nachkommen haben, mit der normalen Rate von einem alle drei Jahre. Das ist laut Gesetz die Voraussetzung. Sobald eine Frau achtzehn wird, wird sie gefickt.Natürlich haben wir es leicht. Die Männer arbeiten normal, und wir bleiben zu Hause und erledigen die normalen Hausarbeiten. Wir tragen die Kinder raus und erziehen sie zu guten kleinen Christen. Es ist schon seit acht. ‘As many contacts as you have in government, everyone else combined has way more. You won’t be able to afford the campaign contributions it would take to outweigh their clout.’ My father remained silent. ‘Do you have any questions or smart-ass remarks, Dad?’ My father remained silent. ‘Do you require any clarifications?’ ‘No.’ ‘Don’t you mean no, pissant?’ My father didn’t say a word. I didn’t realize I had been crying. Jeff took me in his arms. He had been audacious to think I would go along.