"You said those flat areas we landed in would prevent the greenies from sending special forces teams after us." I said no such thing," Wilde replied, ...o longer caring about the insubordination. "I said the flat area would force them to drop their teams further out and prevent them from moving in too close. I never said their teams would be blinded to what we were doing. That's why I had the APCs shuttle crewmen to the tanks, remember? That's why I had the landing ships form a big perimeter of. I responded by nearly leaping completely back across the dimensional gapand utter my own ear-piercing wail.Katie immediately hopped over to the phone on the dresser and pressed thestop button, killing the warbling pop singer in mid croon. She whirledback around, putting one hand over her heart as her breathing came indeep, rapid gasps."What the hell, Charlie?" she breathed, apparently trying to get her pulsedown out of low earth orbit. "I didn't think you'd be home for anotherhour."I leaned. A car behind me honked. shattering my reverie. The light had been green and I didn't even notice. She laughed at me; I couldn't hear it but I had the strongest urge to.That was when I made my decision.I turned the wheel sharply and drove into the gas station just behind her. I turned off the engine and hopped out of my Mustang. I walked up behind her and leaned down. She still hadn't noticed me ,I guess, so I whispered into her ear, "Need a ride?"She wasn't even startled. She turned to me with. " You mind if an old girl joins you?" Nan's voice came from behind us."Not at all," I answered quickly. "Annie Oakley is always welcome in this group." Very funny," she said with a frown which quickly turned into a smile."John, there's something I wanted to show you. Would you and Georgie come with me?"I looked at Georgette and she shrugged, indicating she didn't know what this was about. Nan led the way across the shallow yard toward her garage. I saw her take a small black device out of her.