I thanked her profusely and bid her good day.I deposited the check in my business account and took the time to get Alice Clark on the list of people w...o could write checks on it. Alice didn't want to take that responsibility, but I pointed out that there could be times when bills needed to be paid and I wasn't around to sign the check. This convinced her, but I wondered how long it would be before she realized that it was a meaningless argument for somebody who could time travel like we. Mr. DeLuca had added his share of bodies to the Nevada deserts but he always kept his private wars quiet, with little or no police or press attention. Killing was always a last resort for him and his enemies usually just suddenly disappeared with little if any fuss or need for bribes or public cleanup. Blood on the Strip was very bad for business.Wes, on the other hand, preferred to use noisy public murders as warning to his competitors. I still made regular trips out to Carcosa, but mostly for. ‘Alright. But I may get a speeding ticket on the way to the hotel.’ ‘Tickets aren’t very expensive here,’ she teased, pulling the strap of her dress back up. Smiling, he brought the damp end of his finger up to his face and breathed in her scent. A musky, enticing aroma made the ache in the pit of his stomach all that more palpable. And when he tasted it, he knew exactly what he was going to do to her first when they reached the hotel. It was like ambrosia. Cassie directed him out of the lot. The Counsellor sat in the Captain's chair. Although she was ships counsellor, her Starfleet rank was Lieutenant Commander and as the only other person on the bridge her place was in the centre seat. They had been running skeleton shifts since they left Starbase 76, but she knew they still needed a third person on the bridge. She also knew that he was on his way.The duplicate Picard stepped out of the turbolift onto the bridge. During the ride to the bridge he had been thinking that his mission.