A tower must have been taken down.Suddenly, it was like fire hoses had been turned on the house. Mixed with hail the size of golf and tennis balls. Ev...eryone in all locations listened to the thumps of the hail hitting the roof and walls. This went on for what seemed like a long time, but was really less than 30 minutes. The hail stopped, but the rain kept on pouring down. They came up into the house. Levi stepped over to the window. He made a show of looking all around. "YUP!!! Thar's that. I caught my breath; a womanstood there, regal, beautiful. She turned and delivered me a smile thatshould have been magnificent, coming from such a lovely face, but wasn'tquite that way; there was something weirdly out of place in it. I foundmyself climbing to stand next to her. She turned away from me and liftedher voice. The noise in the hall diminished instantly--everyone there,perhaps five hundred people or more--seemed almost as bound to listen as Ihad been to come in.I understood none of. We’ve gotten a chance to see what all parties are thinking.”Major Roth – Ken – raised his hand. “You’ve heard our position.”“I’m glad you didn’t say ‘demand’, Ken. Yes, we’ve heard. We understand and we’re in basic agreement, but what we’ve done is also of pecuniary interest to all parties here as well. The girls deserve remuneration for their work, as does the university for providing the facilities, and of course you’re going to buy out a segment of Google’s participation. None of that gets. “And where have you two been?” Jordan said at the top of his lungs when they reached the porch.“Digging through your underwear drawer, looking for porn,” she answered without bothering to look at him.Jordan laughed, “Your loss! The good stuff is under the bed.”She headed straight to the bar and cracked a beer. The party was still going strong. Beer pong had been abandoned in the darkness and a big game of Kings had taken its place. A few people were swimming; the pool lights making them glow.