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the rule, Waas ST Godfrey says into the microphone that hangs above his steering wheel. And Comrade, Snarky says, Fine. She leans down to unbuckle a luggage tack off one suitcase comrade snarky, tucks the luggage tag in her olive green pocket, then lifts the second suitcase and steps up into the bus with one suitcase still on the curb. Abandoned, orphaned, alone. Comrade Snarky, sits down and says, Okay, she says, Dr. It was the day that whales invaded North America. Jasper was talking to Lily on the phone before she left for school. Gaspar called from his marvelous sub aquatic Zephyr. I'm frightened, said Lili. Really frightened. We have faith in your plan, Jesper said. I need to find these fellows before they emerge from the sea. Be careful, Jasper Lily hung up. She cleared the table of the breakfast issues. Her father and mother were talking in the other room. Suddenly, the phone rang, really picked it up and said, Hello? Oh, hey there. Hey there, said a voice. Is this little kef? Lt's little girl. This is Lily, said Lili. Great, Great. This is your dad's boss, Larry. Is your dad there? Sure, said Lili, fumbling with the phone. Sure, sure, I'll I'll get him, then. Is he in the little boy's room? Because, if so, could you just tell him to hurry up in there? He's I can give him a message. Tell him he doesn't need to come into work today. He and the rest of the team have done a great job and they can take the day off. Larry hung up. Lily ran into the living room. Dad, Dad, Larry called in. Her mother and father were gaping at the TV. Larry called. Her Dad asked. Thank goodness. That means he's safe, he said. You don't have to work today and not to worry and that your team did a good job. Of course, we don't have work today, said her father, pointing at the TV screen. The walls of the abandoned warehouse blew apart from the inside five minutes ago, revealing, I just can't believe this. There's a huge antenna and an army of walking whales on the screen. The whales were information, their eyes blazing, crunching through rubble. Lily gasped. They were on the move. The attack had begun. It's war out there. Plain and simple war In times past the species battled for their territory with axes and spears, the same genes or at work. Today, the try a lawyer in the courtroom, is a warrior. The executive battling in the trenches of business is at war. The salesman approaching reluctant customer must conquer the teacher, the worker, the administrator, the citizen before the City Council, all seeking something, perhaps wanting change. Perhaps simply seeking recognition are engaged in a war. It's a war over ideas. Ideas are the territory possessed by the power person. The decision maker Ideas have power. Peabody, when ants finally sent for me of his own accord, said, he has wore her out at last and I said a damn good thing, and at first I would not go because there might be something I could do and I would have to haul her back. By God, I thought, maybe they have the same sort of fool ethics in heaven they have in the medical college, and that it was maybe Vernon Toll sending for me again. Getting me there in the nick of time is Vernon always does things getting the most for answers money like it does for his own. But when it got far enough into the day for me to read Weather Sign. I knew it couldn't have been anybody but ants that sent. I knew that nobody but a luckless man could have a need, a doctor in the face of a cyclone. And I knew that if it had finally occurred toe ants himself that he needed one. It was already too late when I reached the spring and get down and hitch the team. The sun has gone down behind a bank black cloud like a tub heavy mountain range like a load of cinders dumped over there. And there's no wind. I could hear cash saw in for a mile before I got there and, sir, standing at the top of the bluff above the path. Where is the horse? I see Jules taken and gone, he says. Can't nobody else catch it. You'll have to walk up, I reckon. Me walk up weighing £225 I say. Walk up that Dern wall. He stands there beside a tree. Too bad the Lord made the mistake of given tree's roots and given the ants bun Drinan's he makes feet and legs. If he just swap them? There would never be a worry about this country being divorced it someday. Oh, any other country. My mother didn't try to stab my father until I was six. But she must have shown signs of oddness before that. Her detached gaze, the secret smile, something We were living in a two room apartment over the dance floor of a nightclub. My father was performing in the show that played below us every night. We could hear the musical numbers through the floorboards and we had heard the closing number at midnight. My father should have come back from work hours ago. Finally, he came in. She jumped up furious. Where have you been? She screamed. Even at the age of six. I could understand her anger. He worked with half naked women and came home late. It wasn't crazy to be suspicious. She told him she knew he was sleeping with someone. He denied it. You are, she screamed. He denied it again this time impatiently. You son of a *****! She said she picked up a paring knife and lunged at him, trying to plunge it into his face. This was crazy. He caught her by the wrist. What's the matter with you? They struggled over the knife is I pleaded with them to stop. When he forced her to drop it, I picked up the knife and rammed it point first into the table so it couldn't be used again. A few weeks later, the three of us were at the small table by the kitchenette eating. I was playing with the knives and forks in the silverware tray. I found a paring knife with a bent point, and I looked up at my mother. Remember when I stuck the knife in the table? When when you wanted to stab Daddy, she smiled. Don't be silly. I never did that. I love Daddy. You just imagine that she laughed. A light hearted but deliberate laugh. I looked over at my father, who looked away and said, nothing