As the flame died, Bill finally saw the giants retreating back into the forest.He couldn’t help it – a smile just sprouted on his face. That had b...en certain death, Bill thought, and they had come out of it with nary a scratch. Merlin’s balls, am I glad I insisted that Harry be an intern under my watch.***“Maman,” Apolline said at last from the corner, obviously not able to take the sight of her own daughter suffering in such a manner, “Please, enough of this. Anger is obviously not an emotion. You can offer a child facing a difficult life, theopportunity to live a life full of love with a beautiful, gentle,loving mother. That's not so bad, is it?"John's eyes watered with love and appreciation for this woman."Joanne... your so... kind. Thank you. Thank you, so much."Suddenly, the door swung open. "There you are!" Rose smiled, then shebecame concerned when she saw that she'd interrupted a discussion. "Iseverything ok?" Everything is perfect, right Bebe?" Joanne looked from Rose to. I'd be lucky to get another two hundred miles under my belt before dawn broke. If I angled toward the coast to reach it about two hundred miles from now, I'd be pushing my luck to get across the border by daybreak. People-detecting radars have a short range, but flying so close to the area where any border surveillance had to be the strongest would be inviting detection.Having no choice, from dawn onward, today would have to be a day of submarine travel. It being so much slower, I had only. “We get a choice?”“Yeah ... If it’s here, I can intersperse your training with other activities. If it’s there, well, I can still do that stuff, most of it anyway, on line or whatever...”“It’d be a whole lot easier if you came here. Uh, can you do a week without Dan?”“I can’t stand two nights, sis. No, that’s my biggest hurdle to coming there – Dan’s workload. I have Nikki backing me up with the Munchkins...”“But Terri’s gone...”Giggle. “I doubt Terri’s worried about robotics right now...”“I.