Much shorter entry today. I realized yesterday I had screwed up and forgotten something: this book is supposed to be, in large not all, a war diary of Graf’s back to Alix and, for the future, their kids. So, I had to backtrack from what came after the end of this segment and am working it into a letter he writes two days later. Since it starts with, “Pai will have to check this, what with the painkillers I’m on,” we can guess this jaunt to just east of Pataskala, Ohio Province, didn’t go all that smoothly.

In RealLife news, today is election day in most of FUSA. As there was no candidates above the county level, I could consider them all. Anyone running unopposed, I skipped. All attempts to steal more of my money, voted NO. Doesn’t matter, they always pass. There are more people who like their gibs allied to guilty old White people that crap like that passes every time.

He paused a moment when she pulled a small container from a pocket then seemed to touch her eyes.  She looked up at him and smiled.  Green eyes.

“Colored contacts?” he asked.

“The gold is a little too obvious if we encounter an enemy.  And I’ll be stuffing my hair,” she said, gathering the white-purple mass of it and putting a pin in, “under a hat.”

“Your first body would have been much more inconspicuous,” Graf noted, slinging a battle rifle over his shoulder.

“In some ways, yes.  But you already knew it was starting to attract attention.”

“So,” trying to get back to their immediate mission, “where are we setting down?”

“Roof of Building Two,” she replied.  “Building Three, a story taller, is the little reactor.  It would be a maze to try to get out of it.”

“Or, worse, into it and up to Caper if we’re being pursued,” he agreed.  “The last time you set down on a roof top, things got unpleasant.”

Graf saw her head dip a little and felt like a heel for mentioning San Diego, where his wife nearly went insane while killing a prototype of her kind.  “I’m sorry.  I apologize.”

“You know people like me cannot forget.” Pai’s head came back up.  “To you, it was an event in the recent past.  I see it with perfect clarity whenever I want.  Which, I confess, Husband, is not often.”

There was a little motion as they settled on the small landing legs.  No reason to waste power hovering when we might be here for hours or maybe a day or two. 

“Now that we’ve touched down, can you give me the full brief, please?”