Basically the population of the Earth was already close to outstripping the amount of food we appear to be able to produce, and with crops failing; we... have undoubtedly passed that 'tipping-point'."There was silence round the table as everyone took in the implications of what the CMO had just said."Are you positive about that?" Alex Salmond challenged."Absolutely," Crichton affirmed. "The emerging economies – places like China and India – have been growing at a quite astonishing rate. The needs. ' he thought as he finished swallowing the bite of sandwich he'd nearly choked on."You okay?" she asked. "You look a little ... strange." She walked up and put her arms around his neck. Taking a finger, she cleaned some white goo from his sandwich off his face and sucked it off her finger. Then she finished cleaning the spot with her tongue.Frank grinned. 'She has that look. It's playtime... ' "I need a place to put this sandwich if we're going to continue..." he suggested.Tanya lay back on the. As we were leaving, the phone rang. I was a bit taken aback, since I didn’t realize that there was even a phone in the room. I found where it was and answered it. It was Coach D’Agostino. He was calling to make sure we were back and asked that Brandon, Tom and I meet with him at the Athletic Building at 1:00. I told him we’d see him there and hung up the phone.As we headed to the cafeteria I told the guys what the Coach had asked. Tom slapped his forehead. “Ah, sorry, Bob, but I talked. She reminded herself in her silenttorment, she would never be the same person that had caused all thetrouble between her friends.Caroline frowned as this thought crossed her mind. She checked herself.'Friends' isn't exactly what they were, now is it? They weren't reallyfriends. You used them to get what you wanted and they all know it. Youknow it! You don't have any friends do you? You never did.The idea made her sad. She wept a bit as the idea danced past her mentalfield of vision and then out.