" I shifted position so I could look at him without craning my neck. "Richard, haven't you ever wondered how an obscure keypuncher working a routine l...w-level job at DOD suddenly became a master hacker, the greatest in history I think you said?" Well, sure," he acknowledged. "But I guess you've answered that one already. It isn't you at all, it's this person you call Spook, your confederate on the speaker. Right?" Half right," I said. "The half part is that Spook's the one who's doing. Her best friend had one.The pleading and the tantrums surfaced once more but this time the major's hands were tied.Iris was now that untouchable jail-bait creature; the adolescent female.She would slide up in a helpless damsel mode, stroking his shoulder and so forth as she pressured him to buy her a pony. He'd wanted to say, "What's in it for me?" But instead it was, " Well lets wait and see, you could be a bit young to be handling a horse."Iris then had grasped the initiative as she moved her. “The laundry is taking ages. You still have to move all of the other dirty clothes out of my room, you know.” “Yes, Sandy. I –” Mary hesitated. It had become hard for her to speak up. “I suppose we can put some of it back in the suitcases and store it in the kitchen and the bathroom?” Sandy shrugged. “Whatever. Just make sure you put new sheets on my bed, the old ones are filthy.” “Of course.” Mary nodded. “Um, Sandy?” “What?” “I was wondering, where do you want me – um, I mean, am I sleeping. I would see. There are a variety of responses available: violence, confrontation, spitefull revenge, flight, even denial. I would choose. In my experience, none do any more than change the timeline, and then only slightly.As most in the far North do, I have a snow survival kit in the car. One of the tools I carry is a snow saw. It's a coil of braided wire, coated with abraisive grit, spiked with thousands of razor sharp triangular teeth. It has a split ring at each end, smaller rings captured.