Grabbing his coat as he headed for the door, he grinningly said, "Always do." Perching the phone on her shoulder as she riffled through the messages, Mandi said, "Hi, John." "Hi, Mandi. Alan's in charge of the Mandi contests now. You'll be hearing from him soon." "Already have, John. Thanks." "You talked to Cade?" "I did, and he's in Andrea's hands until the conversion is finished." "That woman can handle him, Mandi. Cade's a sucker for eyes like hers." "I saw how you looked at her, John." She snickered and added, "Sucker." Laughing, John said, "Yeah, all right, she got me, too. Any hitches or glitches?" "A few, but I think they'll work out. Unless you need him for something, I'm going to bring him out here to work on the base in a couple of weeks." "You know us. We don't always know if we'll need somebody 'till we need him. Or her. Thanks again. Oh, and I covered your butt about those melted video tapes. The report now says a machine malfunctioned and overheated." "You didn't have to do that, John. Those tapes were a message to some people." "Oh, your message got through, Mandi. I just fixed the official report so there couldn't be any official flak later. Is there anything else?" "You called me, John. That's my line." "Ah, so it is. Well, there's nothing at this end of things. Keep me posted about Cade, will you?" "Will do." "Thanks, Mandi. Later. Bye." Before she could say 'you're welcome', he'd disconnected. Mandi tossed the handful of messages back in the basket and left the office to return to the roof. A quick change later she was in uniform and lifting into the sky again for a cruise around the city before going home for the evening. At the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Lake Mead Road she dropped out of the sky to push a stalled truck to the side of the road and half an hour later she helped a Cessna land in one piece when the pilot passed out. When nothing else seemed to require her attention by one in the morning, Mandi headed home to see if a certain someone she was rather fond of had finished tweaking her website. -- End, "An Encounter in Atlanta" -- Other titles by Ed Howdershelt * SCIENCE FICTION "3rd World Products, Inc., Book 1" "3rd World Products, Inc., Book 2" "3rd World Products, Inc., Book 3" "3rd World Products, Inc., Book 4" "3rd World Products, Inc., Book 5" "3rd World Products, Inc., Book 6" "An Encounter in Atlanta" "Assignment: ATLANTA" "Bitten and Smitten"(Vampires!) "Hunt Club"(Vampires!) "In Service to a Goddess, Book 1" "In Service to a Goddess, Book 2" "In Service to a Goddess, Book 3" "In Service to a Goddess, Book 4" "STARDANCER" * FICTION-EROTICA-ROMANCE "ANNE" "Dragonfly Run" "Field Decision" "KIM" "MINDY" * COMING SOON: "ANSEN" "Crystal River Witch" * An index to articles and ebooks may be found on our website: http://www.AbintraPress.com