On the bus, I had to let Mikey in on it. He hadn’t heard, which was a good sign. It took little to convince him that I didn’t know anything about ...it, but I was going to find out if it was true as soon as we got to school. There wasn’t much Mike could do to help, other than offer his solemn support, and he did just that.Things were all business when Shelby got on the bus. She practically raced back to my seat and shoved me in to make room. She assumed Mikey was up to speed, and was already. “So what if it was solid metal?”“It would weight too much. It would launch, but its range would be about ten kilometers and would destroy the rails with each launch. That wouldn’t add much to their military capability,” Mike answered.Dale sat down in the chair and thought about the problem for a minute. He looked up and said, “I suppose a light-weight powder would probably make a pretty impressive cloud of dust.”“I suppose so. Of course, the powder itself could act like a solid on impact. Then. “You have both always been friendly.”I took another step closer, admittedly enjoying how flustered she was. “Do you think she would be interested in a big guy like me?” I towered over Kristi and spoke low, in a deep voice that some women seem to like very much. “I mean look,” I took Kristi’s hands and pulled them up to my shoulders, “She could barely reach me.”I felt Kristi’s hands squeeze the muscles of my upper arms and I pressed my advantage. “I have known your mom’s boyfriends. I have met. We just involved in the business in the evenings and on weekends and are just barely covering our costs on the photos right now. But we are also starting to produce videos.”I said, “First of all, thanks for being understanding about my snooping. But what does your venture have to do with me?”Marcus continued, “The name of our business is meant to convey several meanings. We do some color photos, but our specialty is black and white because we can create some very artistic effects in that.