He had three shells, but didn't expect to need more than one.For the past seven years, Santiago had been a mercenary for hire. He had worked for a ser...ies of ruthless cartels in South America before deciding to get out of the business. Mercenaries like him had a short shelf life in the cocaine trade.During a cocaine deal at the rehab center, Santiago had joined Max's army after Max offered him a cut if he would kill the cartel's number two man and frame the man's younger brother. The deal had. " But you want the money for college, don't you." Her mother replied, almost threatening. "You know it pays more than anything you could find around here does. Besides, It could do you good. Who knows, maybe being around all those sweet little babies all summer will give you ideas," her mother grinned. "You could even change your mind about college. It's certainly not too soon for you to start having babies."That was the other part of it. Not only did Mom - and she suspected Dad was behind it -. She never would have thought that Aunt Jane would do something like this to her own daughters. But then again, she thought, her own mother had just treated her like a slave. Anything seemed possible these days.It was also a surprise that her mother and Aunt Ann were going to be staying for a whole week. She had assumed that her mother would return home that evening or Sunday at the latest. Now, she would have to endure the humiliation of serving her mother over an extended period.The three. "Watch your heads," Chad warned. "We're coming to the end of the tunnel."They crouched in the darkness, waiting for they knew not what. Chad reached out, trying to reach the local fuzzroach group mind, but for long moments was unable to make contact. Then he found it, but this time there was no sense of vibrant strength in the intermeshing thought patterns. The currents were weak, grayseeming; the blurred pictures strangely furtive, evasive even. He tried to project a friendly image, reassuring.