Free New Title 32 by Bryan Fields Page B

didn’t think any of them significant. One incident stood out during their assessment: both became terrified to the point of hysteria by a portrait of the Virgin Mary on the wall of the exam room. Their behaviors escalated to the point of physical violence against the staff until the portrait was identified and removed. The children refused to discuss the matter, because “she sees us and she knows our names.” Quote obtained from an eyewitness to the session.
    Another individual missing from the Meadows shelter, Toni Aguilar—seventeen, Hispanic female—turned up fifty feet inside the storm drain culvert during a cursory sweep for additional evidence. She was hospitalized for exposure. Her record showed eight foster homes in six years, before she ran away from the last one and wound up at the Meadows shelter. Child services elected not to try to place her again. Previous foster parents indicated she had a history of reality dissociation and reports of delusions.
    On waking, she stated she had been chasing after the younger children and had tripped while in the culvert, striking her head. She exhibited no awareness of the above events and had to be reassured the younger children were safe. Child services refused to take her in, so the hospital released her Thursday afternoon.
    Bob had multiple bullet holes in his garments, but no wounds. Fragments of metal, all partial remains of expended bullets, were found in the folds of his clothes. He had no explanation, and medical needles had no issue puncturing his skin. He was released Thursday morning. He would not answer any additional questions and referred all inquiries back to his police statement.
    The last surviving Rolling 40s’ member was arrested on an outstanding traffic warrant and released after a court appearance Friday morning. He was last reported trying to make arrangements to enter theology school. His account of the incident was put up for sale on his church’s web site, with all proceeds to go to his college fund.
    The store clerk returned to work the next day and declined to make any further statement.
     

 
Chapter Six
    Showtime
     
    Thursday’s wake-up call came at five thirty. The show opened at nine, but Rose and I were going to a casual-dress industry breakfast at seven, by personal invitation from Gordon Norris. Last night, Lorena had spotted me across the room and invited us over for a chat.
    When I introduced Rose, Lorena said, “Congratulations, David. If I’d know what I was up against I wouldn’t have bothered you.”
    Gordon laughed and shook my hand. “So you’re the guy I owe my thanks to. If you’d said yes, Lorena and I wouldn’t have met. How about I upgrade your industry ranking for the conferences? It’ll get you into all the top-end content and open a lot of doors for you. Interested?”
    Of course I was. Introducing the boss to his new girlfriend was like diamonds in the hand.
    After Rose and I sat down at the breakfast, Gordon and Lorena came in. She was out of costume and wearing regular walking prosthetics under a nice pants suit. She looked like a mid-level executive, until she looked at Gordon. You could almost see the rosy little hearts rising out of her eyes.
    Since I managed a whole two hours of sleep last night, all I wanted was some comfort food, of which there was none on the menu. How could anyone in their right mind think caviar, black truffles, and pesto were breakfast foods? I made a note to file a bug report with the maître d’.
    The coffee was great and the people at our table very congenial. We swapped some horror stories about programmers ignoring deadlines or not commenting their code, egotistical investors, and the fickle nature of the fan community. By the time the speaker got to the podium, I was happy and relaxed.
    Our speaker was an ethicist from an international human-rights organization speaking on treatment of real-world ethical issues within game environments. Integrating the Geneva Convention