I’m going to be here for a while to welcome the guests.”I nodded and walked to the garden. The mansion was surrounded by a large garden that, apar... from a small terrazzo section directly adjacent to the house, where some garden chairs and a table were situated, was really nothing but an enormous lawn. The garden was surrounded by a thick hedge of foliage about three metres in height. When, as a small child, I had asked my mother why the hedge was so high, she’d said that she didn’t want. There was nowhere else in the world that I could possibly have wanted to be at that exact point in time. Our friend was completely asleep now. She looked up at me; let me fall into her eyes, her deep blue eyes that reminded me of tide pools. Her hand came up and held the side of my face. I leaned forward and slowly kissed her, her mouth gingerly touching mine. I pulled back and looked down into her face once more. She smiled at me, inviting me in for a second kiss. I crept forward and claimed. Still, there’s time, maybe even enough. I’ll let the crew get their tea, and have them make it substantial. The next two meals will have to be substantial too, if I’ve got the timing right, ’cause if I am right and the storm is on schedule, it’ll be a long time before we have a full meal.’ She flicked the loud-hailer to intercom mode and set it to talk to the galley. ‘Robin, get yourself a decent tea. Have a couple of the sausage rolls and you can micro some of the chips as well. And take bar. I was armed and wearing armour, including a helmet, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew anything could happen. As I got closer to the place I started to notice the bodies. They looked like locals, and from what I could see, they’d been shot in the back. Some of them were women and children. The younger children looked to be alive, though dazed at what had happened to their parent. A couple started to cry as I stepped past them.The sight tugged at my heart. As I moved forward, pressing on and moving.