Werner Schmidt informed the Director that SeaVire Services would refuse any further action under their contract. He also advised the Director that leg...al or covert actions against his firm would be most inadvisable. He wished to put a quick end to a bad situation. His ships and men were withdrawing immediately."Mr. Director, I expect that our invoices for services rendered will be honored without delay. Your office has them. And sir? Please do not call us again."Damned good riddance, you German. I got the whole thing on my phone's recorder. I watched my wife suffer for almost eight hours before she finally died. At least he gave her morphine, which eased her pain.But, I digress. It was shortly after she died that the Confederacy showed up and began passing out CAP scores. I took the test, but before I would agree to volunteer I forced the AI to allow me to attend as many pickups as needed to find concubines who would be compatible with me. I guess a lifetime of working with Artificial. We were getting close to my old home, but there was no way that we could make it that far before the snow came and blocked the roads. I discussed the situation with my family, and we decided to find a town where we could spend the winter. A few days later, we came to a rather large town that was located on the bank of a large river.We drove our carts into town and had started to look for the town elders when there arose a great collective groan coming from hundreds of people. The sound seemed. The two young women had rebuilt their relationship after Ellen’s long absence and they had the easy friendship again that had given them so much comfort. Of course, their main subject of talk were their children. Enrique, as Eleanor called the boy, was teething and a terror for the wetnurse. Of course Ellen could relate to that story and she was grateful that Little Anthony was long past those problems.Little Anthony was two-and-a-half years old and he had been fully weaned for almost a year..