.. hi." Yes?" I felt like a fool, what was I doing on Trish's door late at night, her mom standing in a cold doorway as some awkward teenager stuttere...d his way through normal conversation."Is Trish... I mean..."She interrupted, "Trish? No, she is at her friends tonight." She frowned and looked me slowly up and down in a most disagreeable way, as if I was a fancy dress in a shop window that she considered buying. "Would you like to come in? Out of the cold I mean?"I didn't see the reason for it,. “Oh, what’s that?”“This type of operation, well, I apparently only have two people with any of the needed skills. The one you recommended, Etienne, and a volunteer, a Niruin. I could use more operatives for a mission this large, this important.”Sapphire laughed then. “So you’re telling us that if we volunteer to join you, the first job we have is recovering our own hiring bonus from where ever that bastard hid it?”“Look at the bright side. Because of his actions, the properties that belonged to. I live alone don’t I…” She did the routine most nights.She spoke to the mirror just inside the hallway which reflected her rueful grin. What had possessed her to hook up with Joe she never knew, but presumably her usual problem…the problem that was staring her now in the mirror.The full length mirror taunted her – but that was the idea. She had put it there on purpose as soon as she had moved into the small house, hoping it would catch her eye every time she left the house and persuade her to. It had a significant knock in the engine and was leaking transmission fluid so I quickly moved to number two. The second car was out on the north end off of Hwy 95 where the lots were considerably larger. After being in and around the Strip for three days it was nice to be somewhere quiet for a change. I was surprised when I rolled up in front of an older, ranch style house on a half acre parcel, with desert landscaping and a very wide porch running the entire length of the house. There was a.