The Martian was the best intelligence asset they had, and Aaron had closeted himself with her for hours and plied her with questions until, after thre...e days, they were both exhausted.He’d returned to System Command for all of a day before Rita had asked him to personally bring Luisa to this meeting. He’d immediately returned to Devinstown and delivered the invitation, and then had stayed on at his apartment. Aaron greatly enjoyed her company, so they’d passed the time talking about their. Lucile, AKA Wicked Stepmother, was standing in the doorway behind her. WSM had an extremely proud expression on her face."Lucy," daddy said. "I'm very proud of you ... this is your doing."Lucile said, "It's summer ... summer means white for young ladies." But she was pleased that Charles had noticed."Aren't you going?" daddy asked her."I'm staying home with young Charles," she said. "Charles ... don't get her dirty. David, Grace is a lady ... treat her like one. Grace ... be picky about where. ”“Girls can climb trees,” I said.George leaned forward over the newspaper. “I’ll have you know that when your mother was your age, she was the best tree climber in the neighbourhood.”Johnny looked at me with surprise.I nodded. “Your dad had the most awesome tree in his front yard. We used to spend hours clambering around in that old thing.”George held up his left arm and pointed at it. “I broke my arm right here, trying to prove that I could climb better than she could. The truth is, she was. I don't think Brian noticed her at all. His eyes were totally on Jenna.He was sitting down and I saw his lips move silently. Then I saw Jenna's eyes widen and she staggered. Lisa noticed and took her arm. "Are you okay?" Jenna nodded but sat down. Lisa whispered mentally, "Hold the food."Lisa and I were listening hard. Jenna said very quietly, "Coolbeam, who is Radiantbeam?" She looked sharply at Brian. She slowly said, "His mind is open to me and inviting me to examine it."She smiled. Again.