The guy running the business portion of the meeting.2. The person standing next to him quietly asking him about something.3. The couple sitting on the...other side of the waist high wall directly behind me talking.4. My wife and the person directly across the table from me talking.5. Two people talking at the table directly across from me.6. A small child at that table talking.7. Two distinct conversations I could hear from the large group at the long table across the aisle from me.8. The loud. Thoughts of ants, snakes and other man-eating animals were banished as the problems of the world gave way to the mysteries of sleep. If soldiers had been looking for them, they would have found their quarry at about three forty-five the next morning simply by listening, when Lauren rolled off the suitcase, snuggled down into the dirt and snored loudly.They woke just before the sun lit the sky. Great black birds circled over their little hideaway, not menacingly, but nevertheless enough to spur. On the table were place settings for five people on each side, and one at the end, but there was no food or drink. It was as if someone was preparing to serve a meal for eleven.I stepped slowly into the room, my senses heightened to their limit. There was something...Slowly, the door on the other wall opened. In the midst of everything else that was happening, I remember noting the end of a bed in the other room. But the thought was quickly forgotten as the large bobcat of my dreams padded. She was cold and distant, "You are a fool Robert! You never were very well organised." She sounded exasperated - the way she did when I fell short of her high standards of personal discipline. But this time there was no hint of a loving edge in her voice."Don't you remember? I made sure you'd know who had been chosen for you."Chosen for me? How did these two get in? And who was the other one by the window?"Look," she went on, still with an edge of irritation in her voice, "I've sorted things.