"What the Hell is this?" he screamed at her. Dan turned to head back to the truck but got two steps before his knees crumpled and falling forward he l...id face down in the dirt.It was minutes, later when he awoke a scared _expression on his face and mine, but his was looking up into the black round face of some native boy."No one just takes what is my people's home!" said Madame Ojo. "You and those like you have come before, crooked men, treacherous women, those seeking riches or powers, now. Instead, they are more like a funnel into which events are poured and out the tip squeezes the present."The minute we are living right now is the sum result of everything that has happened on the Earth for the last five billion years. Anything that we could change as a result of going back in time has already been accounted for. For instance, the Hawkingium Sonja and her team brought back from your time is a good example of that concept. Everyone was surprised that you all brought back so much. .. and our acute vulnerability, in the new circumstances, to whatever PCW might choose to throw at us ... and I was left a less than happy bunny.Which state of mind, even a few months back, would have sent me straight into a pub for a consoling beer or eight, probably followed by a decision to just chuck the whole thing in. Looking back, I'd walked away from a lot of stuff in my life, in fact had set up my life more or less precisely to allow me to do just that ... avoiding long term. "We'll sleep with you," Georgia said after a quick glance at Debbie.William pursed his lips as if deep in thought. He made a little note on the pad of paper and then said, "Not enough. What else?"Debbie couldn't believe that William was acting like such an ass. She said, "You say you're his friend. Why are you acting this way?" I won't dignify that question with an answer," William said. He looked down at his pad of paper and said, "So far all you've done is offer to sleep with me. What else.