She looked at her swollen hand and said, Ithink I would rather deal with Beverly Hills High juniors than makea living doing that."
We all laughed and drank morechampagne.
Buster's cell phone rang, and he walked outsideon the porch to take the call. Without saying anything, he wentdown the steps and drove the SUV down the hill toward the lake andairstrip.
Steve and Georgia drove up to the lodge andjoined the celebration. Steve was beaming. "I knew it would be awin, but not that big. I hope that nobody else will ever have totell my sad story."
Georgia then added "Steve said yourdark-complexion lady with reddish hair is here. I'd like to meether."
I replied "Yes, come meet her." I led Georgiaover to the table where Tina was sitting. She arose and introducedher. They seemed to form an instant connection and were soonchatting about metaphysical activities in LA. I noticed Georgia wasgiving Tina the stare that meant she was reading her pictures.Suddenly, Georgia broke into a big smile and continued on with theconversation.
I went to Steve and said, "I was a little tenseduring your court demonstration. You seemed so calm. Weren't younervous about performing on–command in thatenvironment?"
Steve said, "I sort of cheated. I went intomeditation the night before and traveled in time to thedemonstration. I perceived where each of them would all be hidingand what they would be doing. The only thing I didn't know beforethe court performance was the names of the children. I was able torecheck my conclusions during my testimony."
I replied, "Oh, I guess I should have knownthat. Excuse me for thinking so linearly."
I noticed a vehicle making dust coming down theroad from the entrance to the ranch. It was some sort of whitedelivery vehicle. Sofia walked out of the lodge, talked to thedriver, and directed him to the back kitchen door. She came backin, disappeared into the kitchen, and came back into the livingroom with a fresh bottle of champagne. She said, "The caterers havearrived."
"From Rocky Butte? That was fast!"
Sofia smiled, "From Sacramento, I placed theorder this morning."
"How did you know....?" I asked.
She smiled and turned her head inquisitivelyand said, "I called Steve. He said the verdict would come back inearly afternoon, and it would be cause for celebration. You of allpeople seem to doubt his predictions."
Two minutes later a man and a woman dressed inblack uniforms appeared from the kitchen carrying trays of horsd'oeuvres.
Then, to my great surprise, Buster drove up inthe SUV. Vince Colson and Dore got out, wearing businesssuits.
I greeted them at the door and receivedvigorous handshakes and congratulations.
"How did you time getting here now?" I askedVince.
Vince grinned and said, "Steve had alerted themthat the trial would be over this afternoon. We timed our flightfrom a business meeting in LA to Palo Alto so that it could bediverted here when final word came. We selected the particular jetfor the trip to LA so that our pilots would be comfortable landinghere at the ranch airstrip.
"We wanted to be here to congratulate you andthe whole team. I consider this an enormous win in our crusade towiden the scientific paradigm. My security consultants say that weare rid of that Skeptemos guy for good. You know, he put a bomb onone of our airplanes a couple of weeks ago. We have a goodsurveillance system at our hangar, mostly to know whether somebodyplaces industrial espionage eavesdropping devices on our plane. Itworks for mad bombers too. Our video surveillance clearly shows itwas your guy. That's how we got the FBI involved."
Dore excused herself and went over and gaveGeorgia and then Steve a hug and then began chatting with them. Ihad never seen her enjoying herself before. She was usually allbusiness.
Dore made the party rounds, spending timetaking to everyone. She seemed to already know everyone exceptElizabeth and Tina. She spent quite a while talking to Tina. Icould see that Tina had been fully assessed and that Dore seemed tolike her.
Vince joined Steve and Georgia. They talkedanimatedly like old friends.
After about a half hour, Dore looked at herwatch and then pulled Vince from a group conversation. They cameover to me.
Dore smiled approvingly and said, "Is theresome place we can talk in private?"
I led Vince and Dore to the TV room and closedthe door. Dore turned to me with her fixed stare and said, "Wewould like to offer you a position as the CEO of the ColsonFoundation, directing our further missionary efforts encouragingscientists embrace the eight-dimensional paradigm. Here is ourformal offer."
She handed me a letter that I opened andscanned. "This is very generous," I said. "I need to discuss thiswith Phil Bracken before I reply."
"Of course," said Vince. "I have already talkedto him as a courtesy. He said he would be reluctant to see you gobut is amenable to the idea."
I thought to myself, 'this is a win–winsituation. I get a new job and Phil gets to tell Sam Perris ofChralMed that I am no longer with the law firm. Sam will think hewon and got me fired.'
Vince continued, "You can set up your officeanywhere you like, as long as it is near an airport. The LA area isfine."
Dore added, "You will report to me for mostmatters. The first effort will be establishing research grants tovarious universities, similar to that with Dr. Montgomery. You willhave other legal responsibilities, but, as far as we know we don'thave anymore trials like this one on the horizon."
"We expect that your office will follow thegeneral design of ours, with no private offices guarded bysecretaries. I'll have our interior designer contact youlater."
Vince then said, "We can talk details later.Let's get back to the celebration," and led the way out to theliving room.
After a few minutes more of socializing, Dorenodded to Buster, gathered up Vince, and walked over to where Tina,Sofia, Elizabeth, and I were talking.
She said, "I understand you are taking somewell-deserved vacation. Don't worry about responding to that letteruntil you get back."
Vince added, "Good
