I was about to turn and run when the book's open pages caught my eye -the title on one page read 'To Trap a Slave', and on the other 'ToRelease a Slav...'. I leafed through a few of the pages, shocked to read'To Access a Slave', 'To Control a Slave', and more.Unexpectedly dextrous in those boots, the figure was up next to me in notime and began stabbing the page about releasing a slave with adesperate finger, the tight satin over the hands glistening in the lowlight and padlocks clacking. As it. .....................................................................Back on board I headed first to check on Mhari, the Medical Centre toldme she was back in her cabin so I got the number and headed over there.She was in bed when I got there her Dad still with her. The x-ray hadshown some bruising and minor damage to a knee ligament but nothing thatwould not heal after some rest. Her holiday though other than movingabout on a pair of crutches was more or less over. It was hard to reallytalk. What you need to do is look at all you've done in yourlife and stop regretting what could never have been. As I have shown you,the end result wouldn't have been worth it." "Thank you, I see that I have been selfish. I only saw myself and not thewhole picture. So what do I do now?" "Learn to accept things as they are. Consider the fact that sometimesfantasy can wind up being worse than reality. That all humans have beengiven the free will to make their own reality. Though she trusted her teammates with her life, they had proved themselves worthy in a thousand ways on a hundred battlefields over the years; she still turned her head to visually verify their positions. This was too important to her, both professionally and personally, to allow even the tiniest chance that the bastard in that cave could escape.Holding up her left hand in a fist, she signaled the advance to halt. Each of the troops under her command knew exactly what to do and disguised.