Still, I guess the career move was the right move, and the Army was going to be paying for some college courses too. Plus the recruiter did guarantee ...hat I would be able to do stuff with computers. That had been the final straw that convinced me to sign up.It was late in the day and she told me to go up and wash up that we’d be having an early dinner. That was good news. Whenever we had an early dinner, we always had late nights. This night figured to be a very late night. Well, and grandma. I was mortified and just wanted to bury my head, but she realised just how long I'd been without a woman and spluttered her apologies."I should have realised, Johnny," she said miserably as I stood up awkwardly to get out of the bath."You weren't to know," I said and wrapped a towel round my waist. "I'm going for a nap now." I left her looking miserably at my back as I walked angrily into the bedroom.It was the first truly dreamless sleep I'd enjoyed in many weeks and when I finally awoke, I. ”“All the ladies play bridge every Wednesday night and gossip. Hope, Ruth and Gilbert routinely delayed legislation that would have a negative impact on us. Rose, Sherman and Roxy were sending us proposed contracts before they were published, giving us advance notice and pushing our bids higher on the list,” he said.“It started with Hope, Ruth and Gilbert. They were steering countries to us that needed the services we supplied. Sometimes they arranged foreign aid funding or mutual security. With the food out of the way, it was time for some questions and answers, or at least as close to answers as we could get in some cases. I was sure that it was no coincidence that my family, with Trunk and Alianna in tow, had arrived exactly when they did. Not with two seers in the family.The trip to visit the Shar had been the beginning, so we started with it first. Of course dad wasn't surprised to hear that the Shar had set us on a quest, but he was surprised at the vagueness of it.