The two strangers in suits, accompanied by the XO, came for Kim, while we were drinking our third cup of coffee. It was shortly after 9am. "Well it is time to go pay the piper," she suggested more to them than me.

"I hope the price is enough, since Jason most likely is already dead."

"That was mean spirited, but at least it is honest. You don't seem to care about the bigger picture." Kim said with irritation in her voice

I looked hard into her eyes and said, "It's hard to see the bigger picture, when you are dodging bullets."

"Yes, or when your family is going to be tortured."

"Exactly, we all do what we have to do and it makes us who we are." I admitted.

"So, we won't say goodbye?"

"No we won't say goodbye." I looked away as she and the spooks left the cabin. "I thought it was a pretty good performance. It should have been, since there was a lot of true emotions in our charade. She and I had not agreed on much except that we were private people. As such we didn't want anyone to know what had happened in the cabin with the blue door.

I left the compound less than an hour later. My drive was much longer than hers I'm sure. Even without drugs, I had that drugged feeling, so it was a long drive home. The pickup truck had a throttle from an electric scooter. It was hooked to a servo motor, which regulated the trucks throttle linkage, It was my only concession to being without a full right leg.

That day driving was a little more dangerous, since I kept the throttle on cruise. I had a hard time keeping my mind on the drive. I made it home in about five hours, so there was still some sunlight as I entered the shack.

I had chills again by the time I got inside. I was glad that I had used the payment from the book tour to change the heating system. The wood from my friends tree was about to run out and the paycheck was burning a hole in my pocket, so I had a propane heater installed where the wood stove once sat. The salesman wanted to put in a furnace until he saw a picture of the place. After that he felt lucky he had convinced me to spring for the blower model. Needless to say the instant heat was welcome.

I didn't even turn on the water, I simply fell into the bed and drifted off to a troubled sleep. I slept until early morning. I felt much better when I finally left the bed to start my day. I decided that, since the room was warm I would bath. Bathing in the shack was something that required some effort, so it was not to be taken lightly.

I heated the water in a large electric tea kettle. When I say large, I mean about half a gallon capacity. From experience I knew that the proper mix was one teapot of boiling water to one gallon of tap water. I mixed it in a red plastic dishpan. I quickly refilled the teapot and started it heating again while I sat on a small infants plastic wading pool. I used a soapy wash cloth to scrub dirty and dried sweat from my body. When I finished, the teapot would be whistling again.

With a fresh gallon and a half of water I rinsed my body and my hair. I would then towel my hair and my body, before I put on my leg in order to empty the large plastic tub of water out the rear door. Three gallons of water did the wash and rinse, while not being too difficult for disposal.

That first morning home, I took care of my bathing, then I went to the cafe for breakfast. Kim crossed my mind a couple of times that day. Jason seemed to be there as well. I didn't spend much time feeling bad about Jason, but I still hated to be on a mission when men died. It just felt wrong somehow.

I spent the day banging around the Internet, since I still didn't feel up to doing anything taxing. I slept like a baby. Off and on all day is what I mean by that. Each time I woke I felt better, I fully expected to be back to normal the next day.