He stood outside looking at a few notices in the window and checking out the interior. He didn’t recognize her straight away and he didn’t want to... leave a message, in case she wasn’t there.“Hello! I didn’t expect you to come,” the young girl’s surprised voice exclaimed. George saw her reflection in the plate glass window first.“So you’re Samantha, or is it Sam?”“Samantha Amber O’Toole; a bit of a mouthful, but you can call me Sam, Mr Beckman. Are you coming in?”“Only if you call me ‘George’,. ” “That’s quite alright sir, no need at all.” replied Jack.Robert cracked open his window, lit a cigarette with the cigar lighter, then coughed at his first lung full of smoke. He didn’t know whether it was the capsule, the brandy or the cigarette or a combination of all three but the pain dulled to an acceptable level.By now night had fallen, dim orange glows of light indicated where the motorway lights were suspended along the road. The journey had deteriorated to stop go movements of a few. Portable phones in the homes need electrical power to work, and it appears the whole neighborhood is out. These ladies," he continued, nodding to the two nurses, "have a backup generator, so we still have power. Judging from the violence of that storm, I suspect the power outage is widespread. Neither my private cell phone nor my agency phone can find a working tower. Total zero on bars. I've been talking to my SAC using my radio," he said, tapping his earpiece. "I doubt if anyone in the area. .. you..."I groaned and got up from the couch. "Look Chip, it's already past11:00. I'm feeling sort of funky right now, so I'm going to take ashower and get ready for bed. When you can get over your strangebehavior... then I'll talk to you." I grabbed my bag with all my clothesand headed up to his bedroom and adjoining bathroom.He called out over his shoulder as I began to climb the stairs. "I thinkI'm going to wait up till my folks get home... I need to talk to mydad." Yeah, whatever..." I.