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The Unlikely Adventures of Race & Cookie McCloud Holiday Special: Race & Cookie (sort of) Save Christmas By Tom Hoefner Cover Art by Kev Gillespie Text copyright © Tom Hoefner 2016 All Rights Reserved This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. _Table of Contents_ Chapter 1: Elf Off the Shelf Chapter 2: An Escaped Clause Chapter 3: Ponies Are Delicious Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4: I Declare a Christmas War Chapter 5: Just Send Cash (Tens & Twenties) About the Author For all the back-up Santa Clauses out there, doing Santa's work year in and year out for people they love and people they don't even know. Chapter 1: Elf Off the Shelf "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire... Jack Frost nipping at your nose... Yuletide thongs being burnt in a tire... and elk dressed up like dominoes.... Why, hello! I didn't see you there! I do so love Christmas carols, but I can never remember the words. So this time I wrote a few down, from memory. Admittedly, that one isn't one of my favorites. It's silly. But why am I in the Christmas mood, you ask? Well, it has everything to do with Race and Cookie McCloud's latest case. It has been a few event-filled months since their initial partnering, and tonight they find themselves visited by a peculiar new client who has offered them a peculiar new case, a mysterious case, but a case that, as you will soon see, would rouse all but the most jaded of us with the festive holiday spirit. As it turns out, Cookie McCloud IS the most jaded of us. In spite of this new client of McCloud & McCloud Investigations she is neither festive nor spirited. Discuss! Good King William Pence in town, on the beast of Steven... eating grapes and selling figs... I should probably look some of these lyrics up." * Race McCloud held on tightly to the side of the little red sleigh as it hurtled through the night sky. In the cold blue water below ice floes were starting to drift into view, a clear indication that they were heading further and further north. "Are you sure this is safe?" he yelled to their driver for about the forty-second time. The little man in the green pointed hat, the one who had introduced himself back in the offices of McCloud & McCloud Investigations as 'Yule' while barely being able to look over Race's desk, glanced back over his shoulder at Race, keeping his hand on the reins and one eye on the pair of flying reindeer pulling the sleigh through the air. "I told you, detective!" he answered against the wind, his high-pitched voice cutting through to the back seat. "The magic of the sleigh will keep you in your seat!" The iron runner attached to the bottom of the sleigh brushed against a puffy cloud, one of the few scattered on this otherwise crystalline night, spraying white cumulus in every direction and causing the sleigh to buck up a few feet, bumping Race off of the cushioned bench. "I don't feel like it's keeping me in my seat!" he called up front again. "Would you calm down already, Uncle Race?" Cookie sat beside to him, her legs crossed at the ankles and her feet swinging back and forth underneath the bench, her gloved hands resting casually on the seat next to her. "This is probably the safest and fastest form of travel in the world. Nobody falls out of one of Santa's sleighs, not even one of these smaller back-up ones. Well, almost no one falls out," she amended. "Strange things happen to the naughty-listers sometimes." Race nodded and checked his head for his hat. It was still there, which was magical in and of itself considering the speed at which they were traveling. Cookie continued: "You won't fall out, you won't feel the cold or the wind, and time slows down... well, actually, it speeds up. It's hard to explain. Quantum mechanics. Hey!" The elf up front turned back to them. "How much longer until we hit the Pole?" "Just a few minutes more!" Yule called back in a voice like tinkling bells. "A few minutes?" Race asked, almost shouting to be heard. "But we just left! How could it be..." He stopped, though, and looked around. It was snowing now, but this wasn't normal snow. Snow flakes from one to six inches in diameter, a rare few almost a foot wide, fell slowly around them, twisting and pirouetting gracefully in the wind. Race dared a peek over the edge of the sleigh and saw that they were now zipping over a landscape of snowy peaks and valleys and beautiful frozen lakes and evergreen forests; many of the trees slipping quietly past them were decorated with brightly colored lights and fancy baubles and ornaments. "I don't understand!" Race said, looking back to Cookie with eyes wide as the snowflakes falling past them. "We just left Westside City!" Cookie shook her head. "Magic. You can't explain it, but there it is." She scowled. "You have no idea how much I hate magic." Race nodded. "Yeah, I do. You've said. Besides, I'd totally I'd peg you for a magic hater. But it's keeping us in the air right now, so..." "... so I won't say it too loudly. I got it, don't worry." The sleigh descended quickly as the pair of reindeer up front dove through the swirling snow. Race squinted into the wind and whipping white flakes: the trees of the forest below were opening up for them and the reindeer were leading the sleigh down to a long straight expanse of snowy white. As they drew closer to the ground, bright colored lights arranged in two long parallel lines burst to life, lining the narrow snowy strip in brilliant Technicolor, and Race realized that the big red sleigh was going to touch down on the world's most festive runway. Race and Cookie both gripped tightly to the bench, but to no avail; they were still jolted up and out of their seats as the sleigh smacked tarmac (Narrator's Note: "Or perhaps it's called snowmac up here. Get it? Snow? Tar? Get it?... I'm sorry, that was terrible. I'm not feeling well today. A bit of a cold. I'll shake it. Let's go on!") "So sorry, so sorry," Yule cried out as he pulled back hard on the reins, slowing the reindeer down to a trot. "I'm not very good at this, I'm afraid. Santa does most of the flying." The sleigh glided smoothly to a stop and two elves wearing big goggles and bulky leather gloves rushed out towards them, coming from a single-level wood building at the far end of the runway that had big gold-lined doors situated alongside a smaller stable entrance. "That's where the reindeer sleep," Yule told them, pointing to the stable, "and it's where we keep the sleigh. They mostly roam free during the day, though. Er... the reindeer do, I mean. Like Jangle and Silver here." 'Jangle and Silver?" Race asked, running through 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' in his mind. He couldn't remember any deer named Jangle or Silver. "They're part of the 'B'-team," Cookie explained. "How do you know that?" Race asked her. "I did a term paper on flying reindeer back when I was still at Perfect Academy." "Of course you did." The two handlers had grasped hold of the reindeer's bridles and were now guiding the sleigh slowly towards the stable. Race peered at two elves, trying hard not to look like he was staring. Like Yule, they were clad entirely in green and red with trimming of brown leather and gold and silver doo-dads. They wore big brown boots with pointed toes, and big heavy coats with white stuffing sticking out of the sleeves and colors. Race could see close-up that, again like Yule, all the clothes appeared to be hand-stitched, with the stitching always in red on the green fabric and always in green on the red fabric. The sleigh pulled to a halt and its passengers hopped out. Race and Cookie immediately sank ankle-deep into the pristine snow but Yule stepped right onto the surface of it, the pristine newness remaining unbroken by his stride. "You could have told us to bring boots, you know," Cookie said to their guide. Yule gasped when he looked down and saw Race and Cookie knee-deep in the snow. "So sorry, detectives, so sorry. But quickly, quickly!" He hustled Cookie along to a cleaner path that led off of the runway, winding towards a road lying alongside the airstrip. Race was left to wade through the snow for himself. "Quickly, quickly, down the path and to the cart. I wouldn't want you to catch a chill." It wasn't until he said this that Race noticed his teeth chattering violently together. He looked at Cookie quizzically. "We're out of the sleigh," she reminded him through her own chatter. "This is the arctic north, after all." Cookie hunkered down in her winter coat and Race pulled his long black one closer to his chest as he pushed his hat further down onto his head. They hurried down the path after Yule and through the gateway in the fence that defined the boundaries of the airstrip. A carved wooden sign arching over their heads as they passed through the gate read 'Reindeer Runway' in a rustic burnt-in script. Yule guided them to another sleigh on the road, this one much smaller, about the size of a (very) compact car and made entirely of brass and wood. "Inside, quickly!" he said, ushering them into the rear two seats of the vehicle. As soon as Race and Cookie stepped into the open-air sleigh the overwhelming warmth provided by the same spell used in the flying sleigh washed over them. Yule hurried to the front of the sleigh, where there were no reindeer or horses but instead a large brass key sticking out of the grille. The little elf had to stretch his arms wide to grasp the bow of the key in two hands, and then began turning it in big grinding circles. After ten or twelve turns he stopped, and beneath their seats they felt a mechanism tick to life as the whole sleigh began sputtering in place. Yule jumped into the front seat of the sleigh and grasped hold of a tiny golden steering wheel. As soon as he did the little motorized sleigh zipped off, puttering down the snowy wooded road at a brisk pace, leaving Reindeer Runway far behind them. Cookie leaned forward to talk into Yule's ear. "You want to tell us what's going on yet?" The elf shook his head but didn't look back at them. "Not until we get to the workshop! I can't, sorry, sorry!" "Great," Cookie muttered as she sat back in her seat. "Hey, c'mon, don't be a Grinch!" Race said cheerfully. He knew his niece and knew how she was, but even she couldn't be grumpy in a place like this. Could she? "We're going to Santa's Workshop! How ridiculously awesome is that?" But Cookie just gave an off-handed wave. "Been there, done that. They bring all the first years at Perfect Academy here. Supposed to impress us, or something. It's the only safe hotspot we can be brought to. What a snoozefest." Race shook his head. "And a 'ho, ho, ho' to you, too." They fell back into silence, Cookie glaring off into the trees zipping past them and Race going over the events of the last hour in his mind. It had been a quiet day in Westside City, and he and Cookie had just been about to shut down the office for the night when this miniature man in thick round glasses came rushing in, breathing heavy and mopping the sweat off of his brow. "So sorry, so sorry, but it's awfully hot down this far south!" he had said as he lifted up his hat and plastered his curly brown hair back down, the tips of his pointed ears glowing bright red. Race was thoroughly stupefied to come face-to-face with someone claiming to be not only one of Santa's elves but the elf that was second-in-command at the North Pole, but Cookie, as usual, had been fairly nonplussed by it. "Project Perfect has a long-standing arrangement to run interference for Santa each year on Christmas Eve," she had explained to Race as they followed Yule up to the roof of the building on the corner of Williams and Jake that housed both their office and their home, Cookie pulling on a pink puffy winter coat and gloves as they climbed, Race putting a long black coat over his signature black jacket, white shirt, and blue tie. Also, mittens. "They've been covertly keeping the path clear for him ever since the near-tragic blimp fiasco of 1973." "What happened with a blimp in 1973?" "Don't ask," Cookie and Yule had both said to him. The jittery little elf had insisted they both hop into the magical sleigh he had parked on the roof of their building, but refused to tell them why he needed them to come along. "Top secret!" he had squeaked when Cookie pressed him for details. "Top secret! Santa needs your help! Quickly, quickly!" So they had piled into the sleigh and taken off, the two reindeer leaping up into the sky and carrying them here to the North Pole. "Here we are!" Yule chirped from the front seat of the their wind-up snowmobile. He cut around a corner and underneath an ornate bronze gate into a holiday wonderland of color and cheer that dropped Race's jaw to the floor. There were gumdrop colored buildings of all shapes and sizes, each festooned with twinkling lights and topped with glittering snow, and sidewalks of what seemed to be gingerbread lined the white powdery roadway along which they glided. Garland was strung from house to house and wreaths hung upon each door, while candy canes big and small stood planted in the snowy ground as light posts, sign posts, and decorative accents. Happy holiday music danced 'round their heads and the smell of baked treats filled the air. Elf mothers and fathers and their elf children filled the streets, waving to them as they passed, playing games and shopping and dancing and tra-la-la-ing as they went. The snow still fell around them, gentler now than it had in the woods, and smaller, and everyone wore big jackets of varying shades of red and green that looked comfortably warm enough to melt right into. Race's eyes grew bigger and his smile grew wider as he craned his neck trying to look every which way at once. "Cookie, look!" he said. "This place is amazing! Look at these shops!" Each building was a wonder of design, bursting with activity and magic, the functional parts of each shop and factory practically exploding out of their structures. He began reading off the ones that most caught his eye as they passed them, trying to keep up with the multi-colored scenery as it whipped past them. "Ellie's Gingerbread Shop! The Peanut Brittle Workshop! Hot Cocoa Works! Fake Trees 'R Here! Yummy Gummy Bear Bakers! Reindeer Flight School!" He looked to Yule. "Reindeer need to learn how to fly?" Yule steered them past a place called Starshine Dance Club, from which boisterous and lively music was emanating. "Well, you haven't ever seen a flying reindeer outside of the North Pole, now have you?" "Fair enough. Oooo, look, the Candy Cane Cobbler! I love Candy Canes, don't you, Cook?" "Bah," said Cookie, glancing disinterestedly in the direction her uncle was pointing. "Humbug." Race rolled his eyes. "Oh, look, there's a place called the North Pole Cookie Exchange. Think we can trade you in?" "You and puns, such a horrid combination." The wind-up snowmobile took a right and started down a road that wound round and round a large hill at the far end of town. After three or four times around, the road leveled out and they pulled up to a large gated mansion at the top of the hill that was painted red and green with golden windows and doors. Race didn't need a sign to tell him what this was. "Santa's Workshop?" he asked in a hushed whisper as Yule the Elf slowed their ride down to a halt. "Workshop and residence," the elf said, hopping out of the car. "Quickly, quickly! Inside!" He scurried off, and Race and Cookie jumped out of the clockwork sled and hurried after him, heading towards the main gate of the workshop. As they approached, Race saw the first sign of anything un-jolly he had encountered here in Santa Land: the compound was blocked off with red and green barrier tape. Yule, though, ducked right under the tape and kept on towards the workshop. As Race and Cookie followed suit, Race noted the writing on the tape: "DO NOT CROSS - DEPT. 66 - CRIME SCENE - MERRY CHRISTMAS!" How jolly. They were trying to catch up with Yule as he headed towards the stone and wood building when... "HEEEEEYAH!" A tiny tornado in dark green plowed into Race from the side, knocking him down and into the snow. "Don't move!" came a high-pitched voice as the barrel of a gun was pressed against Race's head. "Don't move or I'll UGGGH!" "Don't move or you'll UGGGH?" Race asked, lifting his head. "That doesn't make any sen-- Oh, I see you've met Cookie." She had reacted to the assault on her uncle as Race would have expected her to, and after a quick takedown she now had his assailant trapped face-down on the ground. It was another elf, his arm locked in an arm bar as he kicked his legs wildly, Cookie's knee buried in his back and his weapon a few feet away and half-buried in the snow. "Ms. McCloud, please, no!" Yule cried, hurrying forward to shoo Cookie off of the struggling elf trapped under her knee. "Not the commander! So sorry, commander, so sorry!" Cookie got to her feet, eying the little solider suspiciously as Yule helped him up. The commander was wearing green, but his was of a much darker hue and was not interspersed with stitching or patches of red. Just dark, solid green, from his boots to his gloves to his... bowler hat? Yes, that's what he was picking up out of the snow, dusting if off as he grumbled. A bowler hat. "These the humans, Log?" he said to Yule. "I told you we didn't need 'em. They're already causing trouble." "So sorry, commander," Yule quickly repeated. "So sorry." He turned to Race and Cookie and jumped to introductions without explaining why this new elf had called him 'Log'. "Detectives, I'd like to introduce you to Commander Tinsel of Department 66, the security force of the North Pole. Commander, Detectives Race and Cookie McCloud, formerly of Project Perfect. They can help," Yule added eagerly, almost pleadingly. "Honest they can!" Commander Tinsel took several steps closer to Race and Cookie. Race tried very hard not to giggle at the contrast of his stubbly face and clenched jaw cast against his bright red cheeks and the playful twinkle in his eyes. He was almost successful. "What are you laughing at, detective?" chirped the commander. "Nothing, nothing. Just thought of a funny joke." "Oh, really?" "Nah, that's a lie. I can never think of funny jokes." "Could someone tell us why we're here?" Cookie demanded. "We're about to turn around and go home." "Go then," Commander Tinsel said stiffly. "Have a good walk back." But Yule tugged on the commander's sleeve. "Please, commander. They've come all this way. And Santa needs their help." The commander grunted; clearly he didn't much care if Race and Cookie had come from Mars, but he acquiesced with a shrug. "Santa. Right. Follow me." He turned and headed for the big wooden double doors at the front of Santa's Workshop. Race, Cookie, and Yule had to hurry to keep up; for a man with tiny, tiny legs, the commander's pace was parade-ground swift. "I suppose Log here brought you up to speed about our little dilemma." "No, actually, he hasn't," Cookie replied. The commander nodded approvingly, though under the brim of his bowler his face kept right on scowling. "Good, Log, good. Finally followed some procedure." "Why do you keep calling him 'Log'?" Race asked as they climbed up a short stone staircase to the front door. "Isn't his name Yule?" The commander stopped in front of the doorway, turning to a blushing Yule. "Didn't tell them, huh? Can't say I much blame you. Every elf is named something Christmasy," the commander explained to Race and Cookie. "But no two elves are allowed to have the same name. Since we tend to live a long time that sometimes leads to some unfortunate handles popping up." "What's wrong with 'Yule' as a name?" Cookie asked. The commander shook his head. "Nah, there's already a 'Yule'. Works in the popcorn mines. This boy's full name is 'Yule Log'. See? Unfortunate." Race and Cookie turned to their guide, who looked very much like he'd like to disappear straight into the ground. "Yule Log?" asked Race. "That thing they show on TV every Christmas, where they play holiday music over the looping image of a single log burning in a fireplace?" Yule Log nodded miserably. Race grinned. "Dude... that's awesome! No, seriously!" "I think you and I are going to have to have a conversation about what the word 'awesome' means, because clearly you have no idea," Cookie said to Race. "Can we go inside now?" "Follow me." Commander Tinsel pushed open the door and marched in, Yule (Log) and Race and Cookie following. Race and Cookie came to a dead stop in the middle of the main foyer. "This," Race said, eyes alight with wonder and a severe case of the cozies marching up and down his body, "just may be the most warmy fuzzy place I've ever been in my whole entire life." "It's neat," Cookie agreed in her usual understated fashion. Their eyes went first to a roaring fireplace of red brick situated in the far wall, at least twenty feet across and eight feet high, being stoked and coddled by no fewer than eight-hundred elves, but probably more like five. (Narrator's Note: Race has mathematical dyslexia. Not so good with the counting and things.) The rest of the room was done up in finished oak: oak ceilings and walls, oak furniture, oak everything, two oak staircases wrapping along either side of the two-story octagonal room design that both led to a landing, upon which sat a pair of oaken doors in a frame of carved wooden snowflakes and candy canes, the former swirling and whirling around the latter in everlasting relief. The room was carpeted in deep shag of a thick, lush red, the furniture was all upholstered in soft green velvet, and there were three smaller doors at the back of and on either side of the room. The smells of roasted food goodness filled the air, and upon closer inspection Race saw that two of the elves tending to the fireplace were actually roasting chestnuts over the flames in wire frame cages. "Hey, chestnuts roasting!" said Race. "They actually DO that?!" "You've never had them, human?" barked Commander Tinsel. "They're SCRUMPTIOUS! What's wrong with you?!" "This is the main foyer," Yule Log explained. "Through here is the Claus residence. East wing, west wing, south wing." He pointed to the three other ground-floor doors in turn. "No north wing because, well, this IS the North Pole. Santa always says a 'North' wing would be redundant. One of the little jokes he likes to make." "He should stick to making toys," said Cookie. She pointed to the ornate door at the top of the twin staircases. "What's through there?" "The scene of the crime," said Commander Tinsel, starting up the stairs on the left. "Let's go." "It's actually just the elevator down to the workshop," Yule Log said to Race and Cookie as they climbed after the Commander. "Commander Tinsel sometimes enjoys talking as though he were on one of those police dramas that are so popular on the television." "I love television," said Race. "Should I tell him that? Maybe he and I would get along better." "DOWN to the workshop?" Cookie asked. Yule Log nodded. "It's underground. It is very massive, VERY massive, as you'd expect." They reached the top of the steps and Tinsel already had the elevator waiting. The elevator was a roomy wooden box illuminated by hundreds of tiny red and green lights, big enough for maybe six regular-sized people, or twelve elves. "I like the lights," Race said as he, Cookie, and Yule Log stepped on the elevator. "Very Christmasy." "Really?" Tinsel said as he pushed a button marked with a big 'W' and the doors closed. "Because they give me a splitting headache. Humbug to 'em." "I think I'm the one who's going to get along with him," Cookie said to Race. The elevator descended swiftly, and after a few moments slowed to a stop. The doors opened with the sound of jingling bells, and Race and Cookie followed the two elves off of the elevator, and all of a sudden they found themselves in the middle of... how to describe it? Ah. If a room could be made entirely of the giddy feeling of joyous controlled chaos that comes from knocking over one million brightly colored dominos in a perfect chain, it would be the room into which Race and Cookie had just entered. They stood on a raised platform overlooking the hustle and bustle of Santa's factory floor. Machines and gears cranked and turned as toys of all shapes and sizes moved along conveyor belts and down slides and up and over big spinning wheels, picked up and carried by factory cranes from one workstation to the next. Elves and elves and more elves were bustling away, hammering and screwdrivering and painting and sewing and soldering and whistling Christmas music. On the far side of the room, to their left, were rows and rows of high-definition computer monitors, at which elves tapped on keys, clicked on mice, and swiped the screens of touch-sensitive tablets. "Wow," Race said. "This is amazing. Wait..." He leaned forward, listening more intently to the music in the air. "Is every elf here singing the same song?" "In perfect six-part harmony," Yule Log said proudly. Cookie, her extra-sensitive hearing under holiday assault, held her hands tightly to her ears. "This is grounds for an aural disembodiment of the entire area, you know that?" "What's 'aural disembodiment'?" Race asked, snapping his fingers to the elven beat. "You don't want to know." "This way, this way!" Yule Log hurried them to a spiral iron staircase that led them down to the factory floor. As they hurried among the workers, the rest of the elves didn't seem to know how best to react to the party: most of them saluted the commander and nodded to Yule Log, but they stared openly at Race and Cookie, nervously whispering to each other after the group had passed. "They aren't used to humans being here," Yule Log explained apologetically. "Please, please don't take their stares personally!" "People whispering and pointing? Why would we take that personally?" Cookie muttered to Race as they crossed the factory floor. They walked around a large vat of something pink and rubbery that smelled like bubble gum (probably because it WAS bubble gum) and headed towards a door set into the far back wall of the factory floor, when... "Yule Log!" A middle-aged elven woman in horn-rimmed glasses and neatly pulled-back hair of a shocking red ran over to them, carrying in one fist a large pile of papers. "Yule Log, what on two poles is going on around here? Why is Deptartment 66 puttering all over the factory?" "Why don't you ask me, Turtledove?" snapped the commander before Yule Log could reply. "Yes, well, commander, I would have, but \--" "But I already told ya, it's a training exercise, that's all!" Turtledove frowned and put her free hand on her hip. "Some training exercise. Santa's office sealed off, and now we've got HUMANS down here?" "They're tourists!" Yule Log squealed, and not even Race was convinced. "Only tourists!" "Nice cover," said Cookie out of the corner of her mouth. "Where's Santa?" demanded Turtledove. Other elves had begun to take notice of the confrontation, slowing down their work and singing a little more quietly as they eavesdropped. Commander Tinsel answered before Yule Log had a chance to make things worse. "In the office. You're right, Turtledove, this isn't a training exercise. There's been a breach of security. The formula for a new line of modeling clay has been stolen and Department 66 is investigating." "Modeling clay?" Cookie asked, and there was no hiding the disgust in her voice. "THAT'S why you brought us here? Modeling clay?" Tinsel nodded. "That's why we brought you here." He turned back to Turtledove. "Santa and I are looking over some improvements to the infrastructure so that it won't happen again." "Fine," said Turtledove, although the frown on her face suggested that she didn't REALLY think that Tinsel's explanation was 'fine'. She again waved in the air her stack of papers. "But Santa needs to sign these forms in triplicate or they will not get sent out and they needed to have gone down south yesterday. Or does Santa WANT the children of Norway to go present-less this year? Also, we've got a jam on bear stuffer number eight. Someone threw in some fifty-fifty cotton-poly blend instead of the seventy-thirty." Turtledove looked over the rim of her glasses at Race. "You'd think nobody cared about quality anymore. I apologize, humans. You're not seeing us at our best." She turned back to Yule Log. "See that Santa addresses these issues ASAP, please." "That woman's a pain," muttered Commander Tinsel as Turtledove headed off, nose high. "Hell of an office manager, though. All clear, let's get inside." The Commander opened the door, one which Race just then noticed was labled, 'S.CLAUSE: PROPRIETER', and all four of them entered Santa's office. The first detail that popped out to Race's keen deductive mind was the giant, eight-foot wide hole blasted int0 the back wall of the office, right behind Santa's big wooden desk, which was covered in gingerbread and peppermint bark and cheese platters and sausage and paperwork. Through the giant hole, which was taped off with more Department 66 crime-scene tape, was a tunnel carved through the earth that headed off into darkness, sloping downwards as it went. At work in the office were six more elves dressed in the same dark green as Commander Tinsel, but rather than his dark green bowler hat they all wore dark green berets perched upon their heads. The elves were taking measurements of the hole and photographs of the hole and wearing headphones as they pointed long shotgun microphones down the hole and looked at readouts on little handheld computers they were sweeping around the hole. In other words: they were really, really focused on the hole. The next thing after the giant hole that Race couldn't help but notice was the complete lack of Santa Claus anywhere in the office. "All right," Commander Tinsel said, turning to Race and Cookie. Yule Log had grown very pale and was wringing his hands. "I lied about the modeling clay. We didn't want a full-blown riot of elves on our hands. Santa Claus is missing. We need you two to help find hm." Race stared at the little man in disbelief. He turned to Cookie who, just as he had expected, could not have looked more pleased. "Modeling clay," she said, grinning as she shrugged off her coat. "I knew they were lying. This is more like it." Chapter 2: An Escaped Clause About thirty feet into the tunnel that had been dug through solid earth and into the back of Santa Clause's office, Cookie McCloud was on her hands and knees, a Department 66 forensics analysis kit at her side and latex gloves on her hands. She was peering with her magnification vision at a glistening strand of dried-up residue she had just found smeared across a rock. She scraped the clear residue off the rock with a scalpel and then transferred the scrapings into a clear plastic evidence bag. She sealed the bag and then held it up to the floodlight Department 66 had set up inside the tunnel, studied her specimen for a moment, and nodded. The slime combined with the other piece of evidence she'd collected pretty much confirmed the identity of the guilty party. Easy-peasy. She collected her equipment, got to her feet, and pulled off her gloves as she headed back up the tunnel and through the giant hole into Santa's office. "... but why do you need us?" Race was asking Commander Tinsel. The six Department 66 elves that had been examining the hole when Cookie and Race had first arrived in the office had stepped back to allow the McClouds clear access to the inside of the tunnel. Obviously they hadn't wanted to look too far beyond Santa's office, as they would have had to get a special exemption from the world's governments once they left the North Pole and began operating on foreign soil. Cookie knew this, but she couldn't blame Race for not understanding treaties that dictated laws that regulated places that he hadn't known existed until earlier that evening. "They need us because international law only allows them jurisdiction over the North Pole, and along Santa's route on the twenty-fourth of December," Cookie explained. "For something like this, they'd normally call Project Perfect." She turned to Yule Log. "But Project Perfect isn't answering, are they?" "No ma'am, no ma'am," Yule Log replied. "I've been trying to reach them on the hotline all day, but no luck!" Cookie nodded. "Yeah, well, they've been dealing with some stuff." "Their computer tried to take over the world," Race said. Cookie shot him a warning glance. What did he not understand about the word 'classified'? He changed course under her withering look. "Er... but I don't really know a lot about that, so let's pretend I never brought it up." Cookie turned to Commander Tinsel. "You came to us because I used to be in Project Perfect, didn't you?" "That, and you're both McClouds. The name has weight." The commander put his hands on his hips. "So can you help us, or can't you? Did you find anything in there or didn't you?" "I think so," Cookie said. "Do you have an analyzer?" The commander turned and waved over another one of his strike-team elves. The elf hurried over with a briefcase, laid it on Santa's desk, and clicked it open. Mounted inside was a pocket computer with a small, built-in monitor, an attached plastic receptacle capsule, and a big green 'Start' button: the standard-issue P.A.D, or 'Perfect Analysis Device'. Cookie opened up her evidence baggie, carefully scooped out the residue scrapings she had collected from inside the tunnel, placed them in the analyzer's capsule, and pressed the green button. The capsule turned over and lights began to flicker on the base of the analyzer while the word 'Scanning...' flashed on the monitor. Everyone gathered around the desk and watched until a few seconds later 'Scanning...' changed to 'Results Inconclusive'. "What else ya got?" Tinsel asked. "Hold on." Cookie closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and dove head-first onto the information superhighway, surfing through conduits, binary code flashing past her while she looked for the proper off-ramp. She knew the way, and after just a few long moments she had reached her destination. Data zipped past her and she cherry-picked the proper stream, hooking it before retreating, flashing back to where she had started, drawing a connection between point 'B' and point 'A' as she went, finding the input point, syncing up the two feeds until a clean exchange had been established... and then she gasped and her eyes popped open, landing her back in reality and off the cybersphere. "Okay," she said, "I've opened a connection to the Project Perfect information database. Let's try that again." "How did you..." Yule Log began to ask, but she ignored him, pressing the big green button on the analyzer. Once more, lights flashed and the word 'Scanning...' displayed on the monitor, but this time it took but a few moments for the display to change to, 'Match Confirmed.' "Here we are," Cookie said as images began to flicker up on the monitor. "Hmmm. Just what I thought." "You thought of a giant worm?" Race asked. Cookie nodded. She pointed at the biggest picture on the monitor, an image of a large purple slug with razor sharp teeth and wearing a saddle. "That residue I found in the tunnel was a dried strand of slime from a Draconian Battle Beast." She pulled a second evidence baggie out of the kit. Inside of it was a single strand of pure white hair. "Pair it with this hair I found, and what happened is pretty clear: Santa Clause was captured by the Elder Elves of the Center World." Nobody said anything for a few moments. Finally, Race spoke up. "Believe it or not, weird-ass crap like what she just said just makes this a regular old Tuesday for us." * "Deep beneath our feet, miles and miles below the Earth's crust, exists the magical realm of the Center World, where two races of warriors have been locked in combat for two centuries. In this corner, we have the Elder Elves, noble keepers of Gaia's Flame, long-eared and white-haired, with tiny, tiny pupils. So small, the pupils. You can hardly see them. They may as well not even be there, if I'm being completely honest. In the other corner are the Light Eaters. Pig-dog heads sit on their shoulders, atop bodies that can only be referred to as 'humanoid' under the loosest of interpretations. These foul abominations long ago crawled out of the Center World's hills, wearing loincloths and carrying big wooden clubs with nails in them (nobody knows where they found the nails), waging war against the Elder Elves at even the slightest provocation. Until recently, the Draconian Battle Beasts were solely the steeds of the Light Eaters, but in recent years the Elder Elves have begun to appreciate the usefulness of the creatures, taking advantage of their ability to travel miles and work for days with no food, water, or sleep. The beasts are slow-moving but nigh-unstoppable nocturnal tunnelers who feast on flesh. No, well, okay. They feast on soil and moss. But 'feast on flesh' has such a nice ring to it. For what purpose, one must wonder, did the Elder Elves tunnel through the Earth's crust and into Santa's basement office? The Clause carries much magic, and his holly power purloined could cause war with the enemies of Elders to end effortlessly. I'm in an alliterative mood. Sue me." * "You shouldn't be coming," Cookie said to Commander Tinsel. She, the commander, and Race were back in the tunnel, at the point where it turned sharply downwards and fell into a steep drop, three Department 66 elves strapping safety harnesses onto them as they prepped for descent. "It could cause an international incident." "If the American Imperial President were kidnapped by foreign agents, you can bet your honey biscuits special U.S. operatives would break treaties and cross borders to go get him," the commander said as he raised his arms and let an elf tighten the black nylon straps of the safety harness. "Probably even send one of your relatives to do the job." Cookie frowned. He was right. She didn't like it, but he was right. "Fine. But let's find Santa and get in and out before anyone sees us." Race turned to her. "What are the odds of this all going so smoothly OUCH THAT PINCHES!" He hopped away from his assigned harness tightener, who had just pulled up his harness' back strap. "Not very good," Cookie admitted. "That's in response to the part of your question that came before the pinching, by the way." Cookie's harness secured, her Department 66 handler handed her a sleek black sled. "Hold that," the handler instructed. She did, and the handler then reached in-between Cookie and the sled to attach the sled's silver hook to the center of Cookie's safety harness. "These stealth sleds carry a bit of the same magic that power's Santa's sleigh," Commander Tinsel explained. "That'll keep them from flying off track and keep us from crashing at the end of this tunnel." Cookie nodded. She'd never used one of these before and didn't particularly trust magic (Narrator's Note: "As mentioned earlier.") but she had trained on rapid deployment skids at Perfect Academy that worked on a hover technology not dissimilar to what Commander Tinsel was describing. Race, on the other hand... "Just keep your eyes closed if you start to get nauseous," she said to her already-turning-slightly-green uncle. "The sled will do all the work." Race gulped and nodded. "Any chance you could knock me out before we go?" Cookie half-smiled. "Don't tempt me." She punched him lightly in the side. "You'll be fine. Trust me." Race nodded again in reply, but did not seem terribly convinced. "Lay 'em down!" called out one of the Department 66 elves. Three more handlers rushed into the tunnel, totaling six, two to each sledder. Cookie, Race, and Tinsel where then carefully tipped and lowered until they lay parallel to the ground. Cookie looked down at her sled's runners; as soon as they touched terra firma they began to sparkle with gold dust. "Remember," called out one of Commander Tinsel's handlers, "hold onto the bar in front of you. Only steer when necessary. Let the sled find your path." From back in the office Yule Log called down to them. "Good luck!" he cried. "Good luck!" The handler began the countdown. "Alpha... set... launch!" The two elves guiding Commander Tinsel's sled grasped hold of it and took off, racing it forward and then letting it go; Tinsel disappeared over the lip of the pit and quickly out of sight. "Beta... set..." "You'll be fine!" Cookie called out as Race's handlers got ready to go. "... launch!" To her uncle's credit, he didn't cry out when he was sent flying into the pit. Cookie wondered if he had already passed out. "Gamma..." Her handlers grabbed her sled. "... set... launch!" Their grip tightened, they sprinted forward a few steps, and then swung their arms forward. She slid towards and down into the pit, and with a swoop in her stomach and a blast of wind in her face, she was off and over the edge of the pit. The power headlight in the front of her sled flickered to life. Up ahead she could see Race's flailing legs as he sped along in front of her, and beyond that she could just make out Tinsel's form, steady and speeding out of sight. She lowered her head, stretched her legs back, tucked her arms in, and pointed her toes, trying to create as little wind resistance as possible. She picked up speed and quickly drew alongside Race, on his left. She glanced at her uncle; his eyes were shut tight and his teeth clenched as his sled wobbled from side to side. She reached out a hand and grabbed him by the shoulder, steadying him, but she didn't bother to offer any words of comfort; they'd have been lost to the roar of wind around them, anyway. He didn't open his eyes when she grabbed him to offer support, but he unclenched his teeth and stopped swerving about. That was something, anyway. After a minute or so, Cookie could feel the tunnel begin to level off. Ahead of them, Commander Tinsel had long since disappeared, but now the tunnel began to twist and turn and she quickly forgot all about the commander. As promised, the runners of the sleds she and Race rode on didn't lift up off of the sides of the tunnel by even a hair's breadth, not for a single second, not even as the corkscrew of the ever-leveling tunnel grew more and more twisted. Ahead of them appeared a gleam of yellow light that grew larger and larger, and almost before she could process that they were about to reach the end of the line, they were through, zipping out of the mouth and across grass. Cookie threw her weight into a hard left, turning the rudders of the sled against the grain and throwing up chunks of soil as she and Race came skidding to a halt. As soon as their forward momentum had been halted, Race fumbled around with the security strap on his sled, unclicking it and then rolling off and onto the grass, where he lay on his back gasping for air. Cookie unhooked her strap and pushed herself up to her knees. "You need a minute?" she asked him. He only nodded in reply, unable to speak through the large gulps of fresh air he was sucking in. Cookie got to her feet and looked around. They were on a tree-dotted hilltop that sloped gently down into the valley below. Although the lush meadows surrounding the hill were the picture of pastoral loveliness (bunny rabbits, butterflies, daffodils growing along babbling brooks), far off ahead of them and stretching all along the horizon, high colorful flags of war were raised up high in the air. Cookie squinted a bit, telescoping her vision to get a better look. Moving among the flags and tents were tall, pale humanoids with long white hair and pointed ears: elves. "Where's the Commander?" Race had eased himself up into a sitting position. Cookie turned to look at him. "I don't know." She walked past him and over to the hole in the hillside out of which they had flown. It was surrounded with mouthfuls of regurgitated dirt, the excess that the Battle Beast who had dug the tunnel had spilled off through its gills. Finally on his feet, Race came up beside her. "Aw, gross, is that poop?" Before she could answer, someone answered for her. "No. 'Tis not. Turn slowly. Hands high." "Great," Cookie muttered. She and Race complied, though, putting their hands in the air and turning. Behind them a cadre of warrior elves had appeared, bows drawn and arrows nocked. Alongside them was the missing Commander Tinsel, his hands tied behind his back and red in the face. One of the elves, distinguishable from the others as he was the only one with streaks of gold in his long white hair (they all had long white hair, and bows and arrows, and leather armor, and tiny non-pupils) stepped forward, lowering his bow. "I am Galadrieallal," he said. "That's way too many 'L's'," said Race. Galadrieallal ignored him. So many did. "Your coming has been foretold. It has all happened as He proclaimed. Praise on high." "Praise on high!" repeated the other warrior elves. "I think you have us confused with somebody else," said Cookie. Race nodded. "Yeah, our arrival isn't worth being foretold. Even on a good day I have trouble tying my shoes." "Hands behind your backs, please," said Galadrieallal. They did as they were told. Two of the warrior elves stepped forward and bound their hands. Galadrieallal motioned down the hill, towards the elvish encampment. "This way." The party formed quickly, Galadrieallal and two sentries in the lead, the other two warriors behind, and Race, Cookie, and Tinsel in the middle. "Why'd you two even come along?" Tinsel groused, quiet enough for only Race and Cookie to hear. "I could have gotten captured all on my own." "You did," Cookie reminded him. "You have any theories about what's going on?" Race muttered to her. Cookie nodded slowly. "I actually do. Let's let this play out." They walked on mostly in silence for the better part of an hour, tromping through the meadows and then through the trees and thick undergrowth that lay between the hill they had landed on and the elven military encampment. Eventually, Cookie could see the smoke from campfires rising up into the sky, and the smell of roasted elderberry and tree bark soon followed. "We're close," she told Race. "Good," Race said, panting. The last twenty minutes or so of uphill underfoot branches had been particularly hard on him. "When we get there, I think I'll lie down and die for a minute if that's cool with you." "Oh, suck it up." Moments later they broke through a hedge line and into the encampment. Galadrieallal had a quiet word with one of the sentries patrolling the camp exterior. The sentry looked at Race, Cookie, and Tinsel, nodded solemnly, and waved them through. White-haired elven warriors were all about, drinking wine, crafting arrows, meditating, and doing something that looked an awful lot like Tai Chi. Galadrieallal and his men led their prisoners swiftly through the camp, finally stopping in front of the largest tent they'd yet seen, a red and green striped eight-paneled number, a crackling fire visible within. Galadrieallal held up a hand to stop the party, and then slipped inside the tent. "I think this cinches it," Cookie said as she eyed the red and green tent up and down. "Cinches what?" Race asked. Galadrieallal reappeared. "Our Lord and savior on high would grant you an audience." He stepped behind them, untied their hands, and then gestured them forward, towards the entrance of the tent. "Come." Race glanced at Cookie. She shrugged and stepped forward. Just before she entered the tent, Galadrieallal lightly placed a hand upon her shoulder. "Be mindful," he cautioned. "Yeah, whatever, dude." Cookie shrugged his hand off and pushed her way into the tent, Race and Tinsel following behind her. In the center of the tent was a roaring fire, on the other side of which was a large, towering figure. As Cookie's eyes quickly adjusted to the inside of the tent, that figure stepped around the fire towards the party and came into view. He stood about six feet, six inches high, and almost as wide around. His only clothing was a pair of bloodied and dirty red pants with torn white trim and heavy black leather boots. Coarse white hair covered a broad, bare chest, and on his wrists were thick golden braces. A wild white beard sat under a beet red nose, eyes that burned like coal, and a bald head surrounded by more tufts of white. In his right hand he clasped a blender-sized glass of ale; in his left, a whole roasted leg of mutton. A bandolier was strapped around his chest, and the head of a sheathed battle-axe stood tall over the warrior's shoulder. Race leaned over to Cookie. "I'mma be honest," he whispered. "That's not how I've ever pictured Santa Clause." "That's because he's never looked like this before," Cookie whispered back. "S-santa?" Cookie looked at Tinsel. He had stepped forward and, though it was difficult to tell in the orange light of the flame-lit tent, she was pretty certain the commander had gone pale. Cookie couldn't blame him. She had met Santa Clause. This figure in front of her was indeed the man she had met, but at the same time, it wasn't. "HO, HO, HO!" Santa's famous laugh sounded to Cookie's ears like a proclamation of authority, and his belly certainly wasn't shaking like a bowl full of jelly. To the contrary, with each, "HO!" his chest puffed out further and further. He turned to the commander of Department 66. His voice boomed. "Tinsel, my boy! It's heartening to see a familiar face, but you should not have come here." Tinsel didn't answer. He just stared. Cookie cleared her throat and stepped in front of him. "Mr. Clause? We've met before. My name is Cookie McCloud, formerly a Junior Perfect Agent, currently of McCloud & McCloud Investigations." "Race McCloud!" Race added with a wave. "Private eye. Uh... hi." Cookie nodded. "Right. Anyway. We've been asked by your associates in the North Pole to journey here to the Center World and... ah... 'rescue' you." "Rescue me?" Santa threw his head back and laughed again. "HO, HO, HO! Rescue me!" Still chuckling, he wiped a tear from his eye. "Rescue me from who, Ms. McCloud?" Cookie shrugged. "I'm honestly not even sure anymore." "I remember you." Santa gestured to a pile of cushions on one side of the tent. "Please, sit." "With pleasure," Race said. He just about threw himself onto the cushions, elated to finally be off his feet. Tinsel, still in a state of shock, lowered slowly down onto a cushion. Cookie chose to remain standing. Santa pointed his big leg of mutton at Cookie. "I know you, Cookie McCloud. I know all the world's children. But you... I know you, and you know me." Santa gave her a wink. "You took a field trip to the North Pole with your classmates from Perfect Academy. Ho, ho, ho! Santa remembers everything, my dear!" Santa then took a big, sloppy swig of his ale, belched, and wiped the mess off his beard with the back of his hand. Cookie wrinkled up her nose in disgust. "You've changed since then." "Have I?" Santa asked, wearing a mischievous grin. She nodded. "Lil' bit." Tinsel jumped back to his feet, determined anew. "Santa, are they holding you against your will? How have they done this to you?" He lowered his voice to an urgent whisper. "If you need us to help you get outta here, blink twice. Twice!" "Now, Commander," Santa said, waggling a finger at his security chief. "There'll be no talk of escaping. I came here of my own free will. Tinsel, these elves could never have captured me. My magic far overpowers theirs. That's why they needed me, as it so happens." "So about that," Race said, still sprawled across the cushions. "What happened in your office? It looked like a break and enter and kidnap. You know. Standard." Cookie thought back to the crime scene. "Except there was very little evidence of a struggle. I assumed that meant it had happened quickly. What it means, though, is that there wasn't any struggle at all." She shook her head, disgusted with herself. What a stupid oversight. Santa waved his empty mug around. "Would anyone care for a tankard of ale? I'm going for another. No? Suit yourselves." Santa stepped over to a large brown barrel that sat on a table on a far side of the tent, pulling on the tap and pouring another full mug of frothy, nut-brown ale. "Galadrieallal came to me," he began after taking a long swig from his refreshed mug. "Through the earth and right into the wall of my North Pole office, riding a Battle Beast. He and the rest of the Elder Elves are at war, you know." Cookie nodded. "Yeah. I know. Eternal war." "Which is why he came. He came to ask me to help end the war. To win it, for the elves." "And you agreed?" Race asked. "You're Santa Claus, not a warrior." Santa turned to Race. His eyes darkened and his expression hardened. "I'm two thousand years old. I'm the most powerful sorcerer on the planet. I fly 'round the world in a single night delivering presents to millions of boys and girls. I am everywhere at once and nowhere in particular. I. Am. The CLAUSE." He ripped the rest of the flesh off of his mutton leg with his teeth and tossed the used bone into the fire. He turned his back to them as he chewed, lost in thought. Cookie and the others waited for him to continue. "Tell me," Santa finally said, his back still to then. "What do you know of Santa's family?" Race shot his hand into his air. "Oo! Oo! I know! Pick me!" "You don't need to raise your hand, Uncle Race." "You have a wife!" Race said. "There's a Mrs. Clause." Santa turned towards them. "Anyone else? Parents?" Cookie shook her head. "Not that I know of." "Me neither," said Race. "Commander?" Santa asked. They all looked at Tinsel, who shook his head. Santa went on. "For as long as I can remember, I've been Santa Clause. I'm an elf, but I've always felt different than the others. I'm so large and the rest of the North Pole elves are so small. What if I'm not one of them?" He gestured outside of the tent again. "What if I'm actually an Elder Elf? They're powerful warriors, imposing figures that use magic, and they have beautiful white hair. These are all traits I share with them." "Beautiful?" Race muttered. Cookie kicked him in the ankle. Tinsel marched over to Santa. He came only up to the big man's thigh, and even then Santa had to practically bend over to look the security chief in the eye. "Santa," said Tinsel, "this is nonsense. You aren't one of those other elves. You live in the North Pole! You hang up colored lights, make homemade marshmallows, and get into snowball fights with penguins wearing red hats! You're freaking SANTA CLAUSE!" "SANTA CLAUSE as the world thinks him to be, IS A LIE!" the bigger elf roared, shutting Tinsel up. Santa looked back and forth from Race to Cookie. "Do you two know that S. Clause Inc. owns and operates every other major toy manufacturer in the world as subsidiaries?" "I did," said Cookie. "I don't know what that means," said Race. "My corporation has a total global monopoly on the toy industry," Santa explained. "Many parents don't think I exist, but little do they know that when they buy a toy at Toys 'N Stuff or order a video game online at Euphrates-dot-com, the product they purchase is coming from my North Pole workshop." "Every toy?" Race asked. Cookie nodded. "Every toy." Santa puffed out his chest. "It's the most successful multi-national corporation in the history of the world, and I've built it in secret. Being immortal really gives you time to work out the kinks." He sighed. "I'm a victim of my own success. The company is so well structured it barely needs me to run." Santa smiled wistfully, his eyebrows curling upwards towards dreams of happier days. "Sometimes I miss the forty-eight hour pre-Christmas crush from back in the old days. Just me and a handful of expert toy makers, whittling toy soldiers as if our lives depended on it, stuffing cotton into dolls by the armload, then wrapping everything up and shoving it all in a sack half-filled with sugar plums and candy canes. We'd throw the sack onto the sleigh and up I'd hop, all rose-cheeked and dimpled. A peck on the lips from Mrs. Claus for luck, then a crack of the whip and eight reindeer leaping to the heavens, and off we flew, toys for the good children and coal for the bad!" He held that memory for a moment, but then reality came sloughing back over him and his shoulders slumped. "Now I just rubber-stamp my name on a few thousand forms a day. All the toys are machine built. Our distribution system is second to none. Drones are sent out carrying packed product for the ten thousand plus warehouses we keep worldwide. I don't even deliver many toys myself, anymore." "You still go out on the sleigh!" Tinsel said. "Every Christmas Eve, you still do that!" "Commander, you know as well as I that my ride is almost entirely promotional in nature. I personally deliver a very small percentage of the total number of gifts that go out on Christmas Eve." Santa turned back to Race and Cookie. "Not only that, but as the world's population rises and the marketplace needs to accommodate greater and greater numbers of shoppers, the gifting season starts earlier and earlier." "Is that why stores start playing Christmas music on Halloween?" Race asked. Santa nodded. "It is." "And why Thanksgiving is treated like Christmas pre-game?" "It is." Santa took another long swig from his mug and wiped his beard clean(ish) again before going on. "In fact, by the time Christmas comes in one year, planning is already well underway for the next." "So the Elder Elves showed up, asked you to come fight for them, and you left the Pole because you were bored." Cookie shrugged. "Seems reasonable." "It's selfish," said Tinsel. Santa, rosy cheeks burning bright, turned slowly to the elf commander, but Tinsel stood his ground. "The world's children –" "—will be none the wiser, so long as they get their presents," Santa said firmly. "Tell Yule Log to cancel my personal appearances." Santa drained the dregs from his glass and threw the mug into the fire pit, shattering the mug and causing tongues of flame to leap anew. "The Christmas Eve operation will run just fine without me, Commander Tinsel. I have a war to win here in the Center World. We'll talk about next Christmas, next Christmas." Santa reached behind him and pulled his long axe off his back. He thumbed the blade, frowned, and shouted, "Galadrieallal!" The elf appeared through the tent flaps immediately, quiet as a breeze and soft as a whisper. "Yes, Father Clause?" "I'll to the blacksmith's tent before addressing our warriors," he said. "Light Eater skulls are thick and heavy. Splitting them has dulled my blade. Assemble the men. I would address them immediately after the smith puts the edge back on my axe." Galadrieallal bowed. "To your will, my Father." He exited the tent. Santa looked back at Race, Cookie, and Tinsel. "You have your freedom. The battle will soon be joined. If you do not plan to fight, go home." Santa turned and left, ducking his head and turning almost sideways to fit his massive frame through a tent flap designed for slender Elder Elves. Cookie stepped to the tent flap and watched Santa disappear among the other Elder Elves, each one he passed preparing for battle: crafting arrows, strapping into armor, joining hands and praying, etc., etc. "So that was an epic waste of time," she said. Tinsel stomped forward to join her. "It can't be allowed!" he sputtered. "It can't be!" "What would you like us to do?" Cookie waved her hand out towards the rest of the camp. "The man was asked to come here and fight, and he said yes. What, we're just going to drag him back to the North Pole? You know how powerful he is. You know we can't make him do anything he doesn't want to do." Tinsel didn't answer. He just folded his arms and pouted. Cookie sighed. "Hey, I get it. I do. It's going to be tough for you guys to get Christmas ready without him. He's not wrong, though. The whole process has been industrialized, more or less." Tinsel laughed rudely. "More less than more. Do you know how many carefully balanced, intricate pieces of the Christmas Eve operation there are that keep the whole set-up running in secret? Without Santa's magic massaging the works, everything falls apart. Christmas falls apart! Deliveries don't happen! Children are left toyless! End of discussion!" "Really?" Cookie asked. Tinsel shook his head. "Every house in the world. One night. It doesn't matter how many drones or warehouses we have. Without Santa's magic, it's not possible. There aren't enough elves in the North Pole to make it possible" Cookie sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, but without a kidnapping I don't think we can help you." She turned back to Race. "You ready to go home, Uncle Race?" Race didn't answer. His back was to she and Tinsel and he was standing stock-still, staring deep into the flames leaping out and around the fire pit. "Uncle Race?" she repeated. "Are you ready to get out of here?" Race turned to face her, and Cookie felt her eyebrows rise in surprise. He looked... angry? Annoyed? Hungry? No. Determined. Determined? What about? "This is wrong," he said. Cookie didn't follow. "What is?" Race gestured all around them. "Him. Here. With all of this. Fighting this war. It's wrong. It's all wrong." He was breathing heavily. It was not a reaction she had ever seen from her uncle. Keeping one eye on Race, she said over her shoulder to Tinsel. "Give us a second." "What should I?" "Because I asked nice." "No you didn't." "For me, that was nice, and so is this: get out." Dragging his feet and muttering angrily under his breath (to be fair, things were not going anywhere near as he had expected them to) Tinsel stepped out of the tent. Just to be safe, Cookie reached over and drew the tent's flap closed before turning back to her uncle. "You want to clue me in here?" "Santa Clause is not a bare-chested axe-swinging warrior," Race said. His jaw was clenched. Wherever he was coming from with this, he was throwing all-in with it. "It's not what he does, it's not who he's supposed to be, and... and we can't allow it." "He chose to come here. It's not our call." Cookie shook her head. "Why is this bothering you so much?" Race took a deep breath, let it hang for a second, and then exhaled it, his shoulders dropping with it. "I don't know," he admitted. "But it is." "So can we please just go home?" "No," Race said, his jaw tightening again. Wow. He was going to fight her on this. "We can't force him to leave. But we still have to get him out of here. We have to get him back to the North Pole. He has to be Santa Clause again." He leaned in closer to her. "He can't be here. It... it... it upsets things." "Things? What things?" Race threw his arms up in frustration. "I don't know! I don't know. I don't know, I don't know, I don't..." he closed his eyes and Cookie watched his lips move as he counted up to ten before re-opening them. "I don't know why this is upsetting me so much. But this is bad. This is very bad. We have to fix this." She wasn't even annoyed. She found herself confused, utterly confused, as to the strength of his conviction over this. She realized, though, that as confused as she was about it, Race was even more so. She nodded. "Okay. I don't get it, and I don't know what we can do, but okay." Race half-smiled. "Really?" he said, his voice quavering a little. "You mean it?" "You drive me up the wall sometimes..." "Most times." "I was trying to be nice. I have your back, though. Just like you have mine." She smiled. "We're a team." Race nodded feverishly. He swallowed hard. "Cookie... thank you. I... I... would you like a hug?" "Touch me and I will take back every word." "Noted." Race cleared his throat, gathering himself together. "So... um... funny thing: I don't actually have any idea about HOW we can fix this." "I have one idea. You're not going to like it, though." "That happens a lot. What's your idea?" Cookie crossed to the tent flap and pulled it open. She smiled and looked back to Race as she gestured to the masses of Elder Elves preparing for battle. "We're going to have to win a war." To his credit, Race barely reacted. He just pursed his lips. "You're right. About your idea. I don't like it. I don't like it, very much." Chapter 3: Ponies Are Delicious The terrain changed quickly. The dew-kissed, sun-speckled greenery that made up the signature look of the elvish half of the Center World vanished without warning as Race climbed atop a particularly tallish hill. He crested the peak and did a double take: ahead of him was a desolate plain of ash and lava. Behind him, the elven meadowlands, and the line of demarcation between the two was remarkably precise. Race climbed down the hill to the borderline and hopped back and forth across it, from the grass to the ash and back again a few times, until he realized he probably looked pretty silly doing that. "I probably look pretty silly doing this," he said aloud, and then realized that talking to himself about how silly he looked would probably make him look even sillier, so he stopped doing either and pressed on. Even the sky was different. The cloud-dotted blue sky of the meadows behind him had dimmed as he crossed into the land of the Light Eaters, and now plumes of darkness were rolling in up above him, spitting lightning back and forth and occasionally down to the ground somewhere off in the distance. The black sky, the dead terrain, the lightning, the cracks of lava veining the rocks and hills... it all struck him as pretty cliché when he thought about it. Still, cliché or not, it was an effective look, and an unsettling one. For the twentieth time or so Race thought about turning back... but then immediately thought of Santa Clause swinging a battle axe and cleaving off some creature's head. No matter how frightening the landscape became, he couldn't let that stand. Santa had to be Santa again, not some barbarian elf, and it was up to he and Cookie to make sure that happened. He firmly believed that. He only wished he knew WHY he so firmly believed that. He also hoped that the plan they'd hatched for setting things right was sound. Cookie had said they needed to win this war so Santa would have a reason to lay down his axe and return to the North Pole, but they had both agreed: war sucks and maybe they should try a Plan B. "I'll stay here and offer to train a squadron of elves, mostly as a stalling tactic," Cookie had said. "Santa respects Project Perfect's techniques and he won't mind me passing some on to his men. That'll give you the time you need to sneak into the Light Eater's camp and try and convince them to lay down their arms, at least long enough for us to convince Santa that they've surrendered and the war is over." "Why would they do that?" Race asked. Cookie half-smiled at him. "Hey, this is all your idea. I'm sure you'll think of something." Her smile turned and she got serious. "Go with a white flag. You're offering a truce. If things start to go south, or if you even think they might go south, get out of there and we'll go with the whole 'win the war' thing." It was a hastily assembled, half-baked plan, but time was of the essence if they wanted to avoid massive bloodshed and head-loss. So Cookie went to go and train some elves, Commander Tinsel headed back to the North Pole to round up a Department 66 strike team to kidnap Santa back, if necessary, and Race was off to the Valley of the Light Eaters. As he walked passed the third decorative pillar of humanoid skulls, the ones that he was to follow in order to find the Light Eater's camp, he was starting to think that maybe he'd drawn the short straw. Though mostly hidden by the dark-clouded sky, what he could see of the sun had started to dip towards the horizon by the time Race crested a hilltop and finally caught sight of the Light Eaters' army. The swamp-green skin of the Light Eaters made them easy to pick out as they milled about in the camp below him, beginning to fall in line behind various flags and torn banners, howling war cries rising up from their ranks and impromptu slugfests breaking out between foot soldiers driven wild with bloodlust. The camp wasn't a place he was eager to get to. Time was of the essence, though, so Race took out the little white handkerchief he'd borrowed from Commander Tinsel and waved it frantically above his head as he trotted down the hill and towards a random spot in the assembled ranks. Two of the nearest battalion of Light Eaters (who rode under a ragged pink banner that depicted a wild boar eating an elf, intestines first) saw Race before anyone else and cried out, pointing at the intruder. One of them put some sort of hollowed out animal's horn to his lips and blew a low, resonating note. Moments later, the ground at the warrior's feet rumbled and undulated, and a Draconian Battle Beast broke through to the surface. Race skidded to a stop, stunned by the shock of seeing up close and in person the giant purple slug-beast Cookie had described back in Santa's office. Whooping wildly, the Light Eater, a fellow with a severe underbite and one eye, hopped atop the Battle Beast and prodded it forward. "We didn't think this through," Race muttered to himself as the creature and its rider slithered towards Race, who began instinctively backpedaling away from it. The slug, though, proved surprisingly speedy for its girth, and within seconds Race found himself falling onto his back as the Battle Beast and accompanying Light Eater pulled within striking distance. Race threw his arms over his face (in a misguided attempt to turn invisible as much as anything else) and waited for the killing blow, but it never came. Instead, he felt a blanket fall over his face and his arms pulled tight against his body, and when he opened his eyes he saw that he had been pretty close, but it wasn't a blanket that had wrapped around him. It was a net. The Light Eater, who Race could see if he craned his neck just past the point of 'comfortable', raised up his battle trident and bellowed a victory scream back to his fellows that made the nostrils of his pig snout flail out and about. The triumphant yell was returned by the Light Eater rank and file, and then Race's captor put his heels to the slug and off they slithered, back into the cheering throng and into the heart of camp, Race saying, "Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow," at each individual bump along the way, almost certain that none of this was actually worth it... unless it helped them get Santa out of the Center World and back to the North Pole, where he belonged. Nothing was more important than that. And Race still couldn't figure out why he felt that way. Finally the slug came to a halt and Race's net went tumbling to the hard dead ground. He could feel the air shaking with the fury and frenzy of the smoke-snorting pug-faced Light Eater warriors, each louder than the other, flashing their jagged jaws and pounding their spears on the ground. Still trapped under the net, Race managed to get to his knees. The sky was getting blacker and the Light Eaters were drawing closer. Race tried to pull back from them but he was surrounded; the best he could do was nestle in as closely as he could to the slug that had dragged him here. Slime oozed down over his shoulder as he burrowed backwards into the fleshy folds of the battle beast, but he pondered it for a millisecond and decided slug-slime was preferable to being torn to pieces by these goblin-looking things wearing the armor made of some sort of freshly-killed animal hide. One particularly ornery Light Eater, a mottled-skinned one with one long fang protruding from his lower jaw, was really feeling his oats and began stomping his way towards Race, coming closer than the others and pounding his chest with closed fists while whooping war cries to the heavens, goaded on by his fellows. He took one step closer to Race, and then another, and then another, and then he didn't take any more steps ever again because a spear flew in from the side of the crowd and pierced the oats-feeler right through one stupid floppy ear and out the other. That shut everyone up. Every Light Eater, now silent and as ashen-faced as half-mutt, half-goblin people could be, stepped back where moments earlier they had all been pushing forward. Then emerged through the crowd the one Race could only assume was the leader, something he assumed because this one was at least half a head taller than any of the others, wore a crown of rusted metal, and also had a little button pinned to his leather breastplate that read, "Hi! I'm the leader! Ask me about leading!" Which Race thought was weird, but who was he to judge? The leader stepped towards Race... well, actually, first he stepped over to the body of the Light Eater he had just killed (Race was trying to ignore that that had happened; frankly, he wasn't used to such graphic violence in the cases McCloud & McCloud took on and he was right then realizing it had been more than a little naïve of him not to expect that in his chosen line of work seeing some pretty awful and graphic things was almost inevitable, but that was something he'd have to hide in a closet and scream himself hoarse about later)... anyhoo, the leader stepped over to the guy he'd just killed and took back his spear, pulling it out of the dude's ear cavity with a long SCHHHHHHHHWUCK! And THEN he stepped towards Race, bending down close and taking a long sniff-snort of Race's face with his drippy pig-snout. I'd better think of something cool and not-intimidated to say here, Race thought, so he went with, "Looks like you gave that guy a SPLITTING headache, huh?" Then he laughed too loudly, and nobody else laughed at all, and then he caught a glimpse of brains on the end of the leader's spear, and he threw up a little, by which it is to say that he threw up a lot. Which was weird, considering he hadn't eaten a single roasted chestnut back at Santa's workshop. "Who you?" the leader asked as Race wiped his mouth clean on the sleeve of his jacket. "Race McCloud, Private Eye," Race said in a weakened voice. He cleared his throat. "I'd like to talk to you guys about stopping the war." The leader's eyes narrowed. "You not elf. Why you care? War not stop. Elves must die." "Look, if you'll just hear me out... wait. Could you take me out of this net? This is really uncomfortable. Also, someone threw up over here." The leader nodded, grasped the net in both hands, and ripped it apart. "Net gone. Now talk, or me rip you like net." "Noted." Race got shakily to his feet, placing one hand against the Battle Beast to steady himself. "What's your name, anyway?" "Grogmeister." "Sure. Why not? Okay. So. The elves. Why do they have to die?" "Center World have two types land." Grogmeister, Leader of the Light Eaters, pointed in the direction Race had come from. "Elves have good land." Grogmeister then gestured to the darkened, lightning-wracked sky directly above them, then at the burnt soil under their feet, and then at the cave-pocked barren landscape all around them. "Light Eaters have bad land. Elves won't share. We make them share." "MAKE THEM SHARE!" yelled out one of the hundreds of surrounding Light Eaters watching Grogmeister and Race. The cry was picked up and carried across the Light Eater ranks like wildfire. "MAKE THEM SHARE! MAKE THEM SHARE! MAKE THEM SHARE! MAKE THEM SHARE!" Grogmeister held up a hand. His men immediately fell silent. "So why you say we not make war?" he asked Race, drawing a dagger from his belt as he did. "Make answer good." Race's eyes went wide as saucers as he watched Grogmeister casually pick a cutlet-sized piece of meat from between his teeth with his dagger. "Uh... sure. So the Elder Elves... they've got a new battlefield commander. Have you seen him?" "The Fat Man!" shouted a Light Eater from in the crowd. "KILL THE FAT MAN!" Again, the crowd picked up the cry; again, Grogmeister held up a hand to stop it. "The Fat Man crush Light Eater heads," Grogmeister said, his voice a low growl. "The Fat Man break Light Eater bones. I kill the Fat Man, eat his fat guts, take good land, send elves to bad land. So says I." Grogmeister turned from Race. "So says GROGMEISTER!" Grogmeister's brothers-in-arms took their cue and all bellowed out, "GROGMEISTER!" Then they began chanting the name, bleatingly and full-throated. This time, their leader did not quickly bring it to a stop, instead basking in their adulation for a minute before gesturing to one of his fellows to come forward, a tall, stick-thin, pig-snouted, pug-faced, hooved loincloth wearing Light Eater, one with an axe. When Tubby Pug came close, Grogmeister pointed to Race and swiped his thumb across his own throat. Race wasn't great with sign language, but that one was pretty clear. "Wait," he said, first to Grogmeister, then again: "Wait!" this time to the skinny guy who had just put on a black hood and was striking his axe-blade with a whetstone for that extra last little bit of an edge, but neither Light Eater heard him over the crowd's mad chanting of "GROGMEISTER! GROGMEISTER! GROGMEISTER!" Grogmeister walked slowly away from Race as the executioner walked slowly towards him. Race looked back from one to the other to one to the other, panic rising, until he remembered to throw his Hail Mary and shouted, "THE FAT MAN IS SANTA CLAUS!" Grogmeister's hand went up. The crowd dropped silent. The executioner froze. You could have heard a pin drop. Race looked around, confused. He cleared his throat and it sounded like a shotgun going off. Still no one moved. He repeated himself. "Um... the Fat Man is Santa Clause." Grogmeister turned back to him. "You lying." Race glanced to the executioner, who still hadn't moved. "Uh, no," he said, returning his attention to Grogmeister. "I'm not. It's Santa Claus. The Elder Elves recruited him for help. He said he's not doing Christmas again until the war is over." When he said it aloud, he remembered: that's why he was here. Santa Clause needed to go back to the North Pole, and it was Race's job to put him there. He felt some of his many, many nerves steady down, and he took his hand from off of the Battle Beast, straightening up and holding his ground. "That's why you need to stop fighting," Race said, surprising himself with the air of steady purpose now present in his voice. "I need to get Santa back to the North Pole and the only way he'll go is if the war is over." Grogmeister stared him down, eyes locked on Race's. Race had to will himself not to look away, not to blink. When the Light Eater spoke again it was to ask, "What happen to Christmas?" Race shook his head. "I'm not sure. Santa has people working for him, but... c'mon. They're not Santa. If Santa stays in the Center World, Christmas is gonna be a really sad imitation of what we're used to, if it even happens." Grogmeister stepped closer to Race. Race didn't budge. "You lying!" he said again. "You can accuse me of lying all day long," Race answered, "but what I'm saying will still be the truth." Grogmeister's lips curled up in disgust. "This not fair. Grogmeister been good all year." Race glanced at the still-warm corpse of the Light Eater whose brain Grogmeister had ventilated just minutes earlier, but decided to play along. "Uh... sure." "All Grogmeister want is PlayBox VR. Grogmeister sick of playing Landskiers in boring 2D." "You play Landskiers?" Race asked. "With the little toys you scan into the game?" Grogmeister reared back, and with all his strength and might he bellowed, "THEY NOT TOYS! THEY COLLECTIBLES!" Race sighed. Things had just taken a turn for the weird. Now he was in familiar territory. "Sure. Of course. Collectibles." "Grogmeister scan them through the box and everything," the Light Eater grumbled. "They worth money someday. You see. You all see." Another Light Eater stepped forward. "Me Soupburner," he said. "Me get picture with Santa last week. Santa say he bring me Cabblywurts!" "Where did you get your picture with Santa?" Race asked. "And what in the world is a Cabblywurt?" "THEY HOT NEW TOY!" yelled Soupburner. "SOUPBURNER NOT WANT TO FIGHT BLACK FRIDAY LINES FOR HIS CABBLYWURT!" Another Light Eater spoke up. "Santa must come! Me ask Santa for pony this year!" "A pony?" Race asked. "Yes!" the Light Eater replied. "Ponies delicious!" Race nodded. "That seems more in character." Every Light Eater, it seemed, started complaining to anyone who would listen about the things they wouldn't get for Christmas if the war with the Elder Elves stretched on. As his men worried and grumbled, Grogmeister turned back to Race. "Christmas must come. Christmas good. Presents good." "Okay, I have to say this." Race took a step closer to Grogmeister. "Grogmeister, Christmas isn't really about the presents. It's about family, and counting our blessings, and let's not forget, it's a celebration of the bir--" "PRESENTS GOOD!" Grogmeister repeated, baring his surprisingly sharp teeth at Race as he did. Race did a little hop-back. "Yes. Presents good. Presents very good. You want to make sure good presents keep coming?" Grogmeister nodded. "Okay," Race said. "Here's what you do." Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4: I Declare a Christmas War They stood one hundred yards from each other, the two armies did, the line of demarcation between the light and the dark halves of Center World standing in as the fifty-yard line. The two generals, Grogmeister on the side of the Light Eaters and Santa Claus on the side of the Elder Elves, each sent out a lone emissary to parley on their behalf, to see if some sort of peace could be achieved before more bloodshed took place. Neither general had high hopes. The two emissaries met right on the line, one in the dark and one in the light, and looked each other up and down. The elven emissary shook her head in disbelief, and spoke: "What the hell happened to you?" Cookie asked. Her counterpart sighed. "I got dragged around in a net and then I threw up a little," Race explained. "You throw up a lot." "Nah, it wasn't that much." "No. Not 'a lot', as in quantity. 'A lot,' as in often." "Oh." Race nodded sadly. "I do, don't I?" "It's like your thing. What about the clothes? Why do they smell so bad?" Cookie had known it was going to be hard to predict how the Light Eaters would react to Race's request that they stand down. Dressing her uncle up in a dead animal wasn't one of the reactions she had even considered. "I know," Race said, shifting around the 'breastplate' of horsehide that still had short hairs on it and might still have been bleeding. "I think they killed this thing an hour ago. They insisted I be 'armored' if I was going to meet with the... now how did they put it... ah, yes... the 'awful bad stupid mean person' that the elves would send to meet me. So they got that part right, anyway." Cookie half-smiled. "Ha, ha." Race nodded towards her, indicating the garb she had been placed in. "It looks like you got the opposite treatment." Cookie looked down at herself. She was wearing elven armor of elegantly crafted brown leather: breastplate, boots, a half-helm, and a bracer to protect her left arm while drawing back the string of the sturdy bow they had gifted her with and that she now clenched in her left hand. Under the armor she wore hand-spun clothes of rough, thick, green-dyed fabric that yet breathed and moved, and on her back was a quiver of arrows, held in place by a corded strap slung over her shoulder and running diagonally across her chest. She looked back at Race and shrugged. "Yeah, well, while you were gone I gave them some pointers and strategy on how to win the war and then I saved a whole family from a massive house fire..." "You did WHAT?!" "... it was whatever, I was there, there was a fire, I had nothing to do, so... anyway, they gave me this stuff and made me an honorary general. No big deal." Race laughed. "A general? They made you a GENERAL?!" He jerked his thumb back over his shoulder towards the Light Eaters. "They told me I was their new errand monkey." "What's an errand monkey for?" "I DID NOT ASK." He shook his head. "Can we get this over with? I'd like to leave this place now." Cookie nodded. "Right. What have you got?" Her uncle cleared his throat. "So the Light Eaters have agreed to stop fighting, on two conditions. First, Santa must return to the North Pole immediately and get ready to bring them all great Christmas presents. Second, they want a month's vacation time each in the good half of the Center World, somewhere in the southeast region, by the lake and the amusement parks. Oh, and they also want all-access park passes." Cookie shook her head. "I can't get them all-access passes. The elves will never agree to that. Two weeks vacation, partial park passes. They can go to one park a day, but they can't hop between all three." Race scoffed. "Oh, come on, that's ridiculous. The Light Eaters aren't asking for anything. They just want to be able to go to Elven Haven in the morning and Thunder Island in the afternoon." "What about Learning Land?" "Yeah, like anyone wants to go to Learning Land. Okay. Three weeks vacation, partial passes... but a full meal plan." Cookie thought about that. "Okay. Okay, we can do that." "And," Race added, "let's you and I not forget why we're here. Santa..." "... Santa goes back home today," Cookie agreed. "And gets back to work making Christmas happen." "And we get to get out of here and back to Westside City." Race frowned. "Hey, who's paying us for this?" Cookie scowled. "That's always the question. We have got to start asking for more money up front. So do we have a deal?" Race smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. "Deal." He held out his hand, Cookie grasped it and shook it, and at this sign of a treaty completed a cheer went up from the armies on either side of the line. "All right, then," Race said, looking around. Cookie looked past him to the Light Eaters' side; they were all jumping on each other and hugging and yelling. She turned and looked to the elves, many of who had fallen to one knee and were praying and giving thanks to their gods. Except for one. "Uh... Uncle Race? Look." Race directed his gaze across the field to where she was pointing. His face fell. "Yeah," she said. "That's what I was wondering. Why does Santa look so torked off?" Santa Clause's face was bright red and his jaw and fists were clenched, and as he looked around at the two armies celebrating a peaceful end to their conflict, his face just got redder and his jaw just got clenchier. He reached behind his bare back, pulled forth his long axe, and drove the butt end of it into the Earth. When it hit, a bolt of lighting tore across the sky and a crack of thunder echoed o'er the plains. Many of the elves fell over in stunned surprise, and a howl of fear rose up from the Light Eaters. "ENOUGH!" Santa roared, his voice inhumanly loud and ringing across the battlefield. "THERE WILL BE NO PEACE! NOT WHILE AN AXE LIES IN MY HANDS AND A LIGHT EATER HEAD REMAINS ATTACHED TO ITS SHOULDERS!" "Huh," Race said. "Did not count on a bloodthirsty Santa Clause messing this up." Cookie drew an arrow from her quiver and nocked it, but did not draw her bow. "This is going to be bad." Over on the elven side of things, Galadrieallal had hurried over to Santa and was trying to reason with him, but Santa was having none of it. Instead, the Clause reared back and swiped at the elven captain with the back of a bear-sized hand, sending Galadrieallal flying backwards twenty feet and crashing into ten of his men, where he lay still. "This is going to be very bad," Cookie said. Santa raised his axe high in the air. Another crack of lightning ripped across the sky, glinting white hot against the blade... and then Santa brought the axe crashing down into the ground. Where the blade cleaved the soil a fissure ruptured and ran across the Earth... and directly towards Race and Cookie. Cookie dove left and Race dove right, each ending up on different sides of the newly formed tear in the ground. Cookie looked up and watched as the churned up soil ran straight to the front line of Light Eaters and stopped. Time stood still and silence reigned. Elf, Light Eater, and McCloud alike all stared at the Santa-cleaved crack in the ground, wondering what was to come next... and then a wooden branch, gnarled and twisted like a monstrous skeletal hand, reached up and out of the fissure and grabbed at the earth right at Cookie's feet. She scurried back a few extra feet as another branch-hand followed suit... and then a few feet more as the hands gripped into the soil and pulled forth their owner: a monstrous living tree, a fir tree... no, not just that. It was a Christmas tree, decorated with baubles and tinsel, ablaze with lights, a star at its tip, two long branch-hands jutting out from its midsection, a split in the bottom of its trunk like two stumpy legs, and gaps in the branches on its face, two smaller ones above one long one. It took a second for the picture to register in Cookie's mind, and it only fully coalesced when the Yule Monster in front of her opened wide the longer of the three gaps and let loose a roar that sounded like an acre of forest being felled all at once. It was inconceivable, but true: dragging themselves from the depth of the Earth, Santa Claus had called forth an army of Christmas tree monsters, with branches for arms, trunks for legs, and angry eyes and mouths ripped open in their needles. "CHRISTMAS TREE MONSTERS!" Race squealed from the other side of the newly-formed mini-ravine. "COOKIE, CHRISTMAS TREE MONSTERS! LOTS OF CHRISTMAS TREE MONSTERS!" 'Lots' was an understatement. Cookie looked up and down the line of the fissure. Dozens and dozens of Christmas tree monsters were clawing their way out of the ground, screeching and yelling and grasping for Elder Elf and Light Eater alike. She turned her attention back to the one who had clambered to the surface directly in front of her. It was now shuffling its way towards her as fast as its stumpy trunk-legs would allow. It plunged a branch-hand into its own needles and drew forth a sparkly red Christmas ball. It hauled back and launched the ornament at Cookie, who ducked just in time, and the thing exploded behind her; she could feel some festive shrapnel bury itself into her armor. Her first thought? Think goodness I have this armor. Her second? Uncle Race doesn't have this armor. And she was pretty sure dead horse skin wasn't going to protect him from explosive Christmas decorations. It was a good thing the Elder Elves had placed her in charge of munitions, then. "I'm a dogdamn genius," she said as she drew back her bowstring. As soon as the nocked arrow was back and in launch position, the tip of it burst into flames. Having the elves arm themselves with fire arrows? That had been Cookie's idea. She released, and the arrow flew into the heart of the Christmas tree monster. As much as a neckless monster tree could, the thing looked down at its 'gut'; the flames from the arrow spread quickly through its needles and branches. It began to scream, a horrible sound of pain and fear that, given the circumstances, didn't bother Cookie all that much. She quickly sent two more flaming arrows whistling into her assailant, and within moments it had gone up in flames completely. It was a scene replaying itself across the battlefield, as elves poured flaming arrows into their foes, but the sheer number of Christmas tree monsters, now somewhere in the hundreds and climbing, was threatening to overwhelm both the Elder Elves and the Light Eaters. The Light Eaters didn't have flaming arrows, but it looked as though their axes and heavy swords were doing the job as they hacked tree after tree into splinters. Cookie began moving forward methodically and steadily, stepping over writhing, flaming branches and melting candy canes, ducking exploding ornaments and grasping branch-hands, and plucking arrow after arrow into the attacking Christmas trees. She reached the edge of the fissure and fired a few arrows straight down into it to knock loose from its sides the trees that were just about to reach the surface in front of her, giving herself a seconds-long window clear of any clambering Christmas trees. She took that opportunity to take a standing leap and effortlessly clear the ten-foot wide fissure, landing and surveying the battlefield on the other side. All around her was a mass of meleeing elves and Light Eaters and trees; without looking, she shot an arrow to her right that caught a tree right in the 'forehead' and dropped it at her feet, its mad dash for her throat left unfulfilled. "Where, where, where, where," she muttered to herself, and then, "... there!" Thirty feet away, there it was: a tree just pounding and pounding away at something on the ground. She began moving forward again, and reached for an arrow. "One," she said as it found its mark in the tree's back. The thing reared up and hollered in pain, but Cookie just reached for a second arrow. "Two," she said as she let the second fly, and then, "Three," as she followed that up with a third. Out of arrows, she cast her bow aside as she reached the still flailing, flaming tree. She drew from a sheath on her hip a silver short sword, reached through the flames and grabbed the top of the tree, pulled it down and back towards her, and with one quick slash of the dagger she severed the already damaged trunk, finishing the job. The tree collapsed in a pile of smoldering needles, and she stood over it, the top of the tree in her hand. She tossed that aside and then reached down and helped Race up off the ground. "You okay?" she asked. Rae pulled the horse skin down from over his head. "Yeah. This thing held up nicely. What do they make horses out of down here, anyway? LOOK OUT!" Cookie spun around but before she could get her sword raised another tree, this one the tallest she'd seen yet, had swung a massive branch-hand into her arm and knocked the short sword out of her hand, sending it flying away. She froze: no arrows, no sword, nothing but leather armor and horsehide to protect them. She was running five or six possible escape scenarios through her head, none of them good, when... SLICE! SLICE! The tree's branch hands fell to its side, severed at the trunk. The tree cried out with a twisted yelp of a scream that quickly went dead as its lights went out and it toppled over. Standing behind where the tree had just been, a long machete unsheathed in his hand, was... "Commander Tinsel!" Race exclaimed. "Wow, are we glad to see you." Commander Tinsel, dark green bowler hat and all, stood where the tree had fallen, a shining machete in his hands. "I brought help," the commander said. Cookie looked around. He wasn't lying: Department 66 elves had joined the fray and were turning the tide against Santa's trees, expertly cutting them down one by one. "They're automatons," Tinsel said. "Automatic sentries that make up the first line of defense against invasion at the Pole. Slice off their arms." A screaming tree, this one covered in very pretty blue and white twinkle lights, came running up on them. Commander Tinsel spun around to face it, and... SLICE! SLICE! ... down it went with, its arms lopped off with two quick swings of his machete. The commander looked back at Race and Cookie. "That's how you disarm them." He scowled. "Santa's gone off the deep end. We have to beat back the trees and get him back to the Pole for treatment." He drew a second machete from his belt and handed it to Cookie. "Take this. Good luck." Without another word, Tinsel turned and dove back into the battle, the steel of his machete singing and flashing. Race started laughing. "Disarmed! I get it! Because you cut off their arms! Wow, that's a good one!" "That's an awful one," Cookie said. The trees were being thinned out around them, but no matter how many were cut down, fresh ones clambered out of the crack in the Earth to replace them. "If we want to stop this we need to get to Santa. Stay close. Let's go." They headed towards the rear of the elven line, running, ducking, dodging, and fighting their way through, Cookie lopping off the arms of Christmas trees when necessary. Santa had taken to the top of a hill, daring all to get close to him, fending off Elder Elf and Light Eater alike, some with his axe, others with magical bursts of wrapping paper and holly that wrapped his foes from head to toe, turning them into festive mummies. As she and Race pushed closer to him, Cooke glanced up at this intimidating form. "I don't know how we're going to stop him," she said. "He's the most powerful being on Earth, to my knowledge." "Just get us there," Race said. He ducked the clawing branch hand of a scraggly fir tree covered in candy canes. Cookie spun around him and with two quick swipes sent the tree to the kindling pile. She looked to Race. "Just get us there," he repeated, "and I'll talk to him." She was about to dismiss him with an offhand remark, but then... something in his expression, something in his voice, gave her pause. She studied him. He frowned, thrown off by her reaction. "What is it?" he asked. "Is there something on my face?" Cookie nodded. "Yeah. Confidence." Race rolled his eyes, which was normally her move. "Geez, don't get weird on me. Come on, let's go!" She nodded, took a quick double slash at the tree reaching for the back of Race's head, dropping it down cold, and then moved them through the battle at double time. Just minutes later they were within striking distance of Santa Claus. Two of his own Department 66 security force had grabbed hold of his axe, and Santa pointed far off in the distance. "That's where you're headed!" he roared. He gave the axe a mighty swing, and the two elves flew off screaming through the air, off towards the horizon and out of sight. Race and Cookie froze and stared. "Soooo... go talk to him," Cookie said. "I don't wanna now," Race said. Santa, though, didn't seem inclined to give them a choice, as he now turned towards the two of them. "You," he said. "If you two had just left me alone, if you hadn't come here, this war would already be over!" "Wars have a funny way of going on longer than you think," Cookie said. She raised her machete. "Call off the trees. It's over." Santa threw back his head and laughed. "HO, HO, HO! HO, HO, HO, HO, HO!" Still laughing, he held up his hand. A ball of energy crackled to life in his palm. He thrust his hand forward, and from the energy ball exploded a bundle of wrapping paper, aiming to wrap Cookie up tight. She held up her arms, hoping she'd maybe catch enough of the paper on the blade of her machete to cut through it... ... but then Race stepped in front of her, and said, "No!" The wrapping paper flying towards them tore itself in half and fell dead to either side of them. Cookie and Santa both stared. "How... ?" Santa asked. "... did you do that?" Cookie finished. Race took a deep breath. "Santa, you do not belong here. No matter how insignificant you think you've become in the modern age, you are Christmas. You aren't a warrior. You shouldn't have an axe. Peace and joy and goodwill are things we have in real short supply in this world, and I can not stand by and let you rob us of one of the few sources of pure good feeling we have left." Cookie looked around. When her uncle began speaking, the trees had begun to fall, one by one. The battle was stopping as the elves and Light Eaters realized their foes were collapsing. Everyone was looking at each other in confusion, and one by one realizing that a horse-skin covered non-extraordinary detective was giving Santa a verbal dress-down. Cookie was mystified. Were the trees falling because Santa was distracted by Race? Or was it something her uncle was doing? But how could that be? "You are Santa Clause," Race continued. "You represent something so much bigger than this. Do you even know what this war is about? Does anyone?" Race turned to the now halted battle, the combatants all staring at him in confusion. "So you both want to live on the same land!" he shouted. "Just live there! There's room for both of you! Why are you killing each other for something so stupid? What is the matter with you?" Cookie stepped forward, closer to her uncle. "If it wasn't for stupid, there'd be no wars at all," she reminded him in a low voice. He shook his head. "Don't tell me that," he said. "It's true, though," she insisted. "Even the treaty we forged, that was you and I doing that. It won't last. We hoped it would last just long enough for us to get Santa out of here, but it didn't even last that long." Race closed his eyes and slumped his shoulders as she spoke. She felt for him, right in that moment. Even though she was the teenager and he was the adult, there were certain hard truths she knew and understood so much better than he. Or maybe, she realized right then, it was just that she accepted those hard truths and he did not. Of the pair, one of them was an incurable optimist. Cookie was not that one. And though she sometimes thought her uncle foolish because he was, she'd never change that about him, not ever. The world needed some foolish optimism, once in awhile. Race took a deep breath and opened his eyes again. "We can't solve the world's problems in one day. But we can solve the one we were hired to solve." He looked at Santa. "What do you say? Can we give up on this nonsense and go home? Get you back to the North Pole so you can get Christmas back on track? Maybe it's corny, but the world needs Santa Claus. The world needs, and WANTS, Christmas." Santa didn't answer for a long time. He looked around, and he looked down at himself, looked at the axe in his hand. When he finally turned back to Race and Cookie, the ferocity and warrior's fire that had been in his eyes since they first encountered him in the elven camp had gone out, replaced with a deep, deep sadness. "I'm sorry," he said. Race smiled and waved it off. "Hey, it's all right. We all have stuff we gotta deal with." Santa, though, shook his head. "No. I'm sorry. I can't go back. I don't know who I am anymore. I don't know what I'm meant to do. Christmas isn't what it once was, and I... I need to find myself." He laid his axe on the ground. "Thank you for coming. Thank you for stopping me. The both of you are on the 'Good' list. But... good-bye." "What?" Race said. "No, wait!" Santa placed his finger on his nose, and though Cookie tried to jump him and hold on to him, with just a wink and a nod and a twinkle of golden lights, he was gone. And Cookie's dive took her head-first through the spot where he had just been and she ate dirt. "Eight-point-five out of ten," Race said as he helped her up. "I knocked off two points. Rough landing." "One and a half points," Cookie said as she wiped dirt off of herself. "You have mathematical dyslexia." She looked out across the battlefield. The trees had all wilted into dead black twigs and the rest of the combatants were just kind of milling about. "So... do we have a treaty or don't we?" Race asked. Cookie shook her head. "I don't even know anymore." She frowned. "You know, if there's no Christmas, that's going to have huge global economic ramifications. It could be devastating, financially speaking." "I'll trust you on the numbers, because as you point out: I have mathematical dyslexia." Race looked at her, worried. "So what do we do?" Cookie turned back to the battlefield. Most of the soldiers had begun taking off their armor and putting away their weapons. Some of the Elder Elves and Light Eaters were even shaking hands. Commander Tinsel was gathering his people back together and glancing up at Race and Cookie, a disgusted look on his face. She and Race both grinned sheepishly and waved at him. "The North Pole elves aren't going to be happy about Santa running off again," Cookie said out of the side of her mouth to Race as they watched Tinsel stomp up towards them. "The commander looks like he's on his way to tell us just that. There's going to be a big leadership vacuum in the Pole, though, so I can't blame them for being upset about the long term picture. Short term, though, for getting this coming Christmas up and running?" She smiled. "I think I have an idea." Chapter 5: Just Send Cash (Tens & Twenties) "Yes, yes... this might work, this might work." Yule Log took off his glasses, cleaned the lenses on his coat sleeve, and put them back on. He was smiling, but it was a nervous smile, to be sure, and who could blame him? He'd just a few hours earlier learned he was the new de-facto Santa Claus. Among his many concerns about this was the fact that he, like all of the North Pole elves, was incapable of growing a beard. As soon as he had said that a light bulb clicked in everyone's head: maybe Santa WASN'T truly a North Pole elf, after all. But Yule was rolling with the punches, and very admirably, Race thought. Given how nervous the little guy had been the whole time he'd first come to McCloud & McCloud, Race figured being named the new chief of Santa's operation would have him breathing into a paper bag for the rest of his life. He only spent a few minutes dry heaving out of a window, though, and then he pulled himself together and started putting Cookie's plan into action. So now Yule Log stood atop a hill behind Santa's residence and workshop, next to Race, Cookie, and Commander Tinsel. Behind them were the holiday lights, smells, and songs of the North Pole's workaday elves, chipper as ever as they made and ate peanut brittle and marshmallows and peppermints and fruitcakes. In front of them, though, was the workshop's service yard, and it was crawling with Santa's elves, Elder Elves, and Light Eaters, all working together to haul back-up sleighs out of dry dock, getting them refurbished and ready for the Christmas run... a Christmas run they were going to attempt to undertake without Santa Claus. The North Pole elves felt a duty to the holiday, obviously, but Galadrieallal and the Elder Elves had come out of guilt for hauling Santa off in the first place, and Grogmeister and the Light Eaters had come because... well, they really wanted presents. "Why do you need so many sleighs?" Race asked. Fifteen or so had been hauled out of the workshop garage and into the yard, and more were following, the Light Eaters tugging them out with long ropes under the direction of bell-wearing North Pole workers. "Only Santa can get Red One into the air," Yule Log explained. "And only Red One can get across the world in one night. So it's going to take a lot of sleighs and a lot of pilots and a lot of reindeer, lots of reindeer, to hit half the houses in the world." "That's why Galadrieallal and a team of his elves have gone into the woods," Tinsel said. "They're rounding up more reindeer for us to train to fly." "Do you really need so many, though?" Cookie asked as another pair of sleighs, one with a broken runner and the other with a busted seat, were pulled out of the garage. Like almost all the other back-ups getting placed out in the yard, these two were going to need some patching up. "Santa said he only hit a few hundred houses anymore. Is that true?" "It isn't," Yule Log said, shaking his head. "He still does millions. Millions of people who can't afford to buy the presents we put in stores. I don't know why he said that. I don't know what's gotten into him." A thought occurred to Race. "Hey, has anyone told Mrs. Clause what's happened?" Yule Log looked nervously down as he shuffled his feet. Commander Tinsel answered. "Humph. She left him a few years back for her tennis instructor. Guy was French. I didn't trust him." "Say," Yule Log said as though it had just occurred to him, "maybe Mrs. Clause leaving had something to do with Santa's little identity crisis." Race and Cookie looked at each other in amazement. "Uh, you think?" Race asked in disbelief. Even HE wasn't so blind as to miss the likely connection between Mrs. Clause leaving and Santa losing it. Cookie shook her head. "Maybe you guys should shut down one of the eight gingerbread shops you have in the village and replace it with a therapist's office. You can have all the lights and tinsel you want, but it's still always nighttime in Santa's North Pole. Haven't you ever heard of seasonal affective disorder?" "No," said Commander Tinsel. "What's that?" Yule Log asked. Cookie just shrugged. "Forget it. Not important. Well, it looks like you guys have a lot of work ahead of you. You'd better get to it." "Oh yes, oh yes." Yule Log reached up and grasped Cookie's hand to shake it, and then Race's. "Thank you both, thank you." "Why?" Race said, a little jolt of frustration kicking in his gut. "We failed. We didn't get Santa back." "You tried, though," Yule Log said. "You tried very hard." "Better we know what happened now," Tinsel added. "Instead of being paralyzed and indecisive, we can move ahead. Santa's not coming back anytime soon. It's up to us." He nodded curtly at the McClouds. "Detectives. Been a pleasure. All the best." Tinsel marched off, headed down to the courtyard below, no doubt to bark orders at somebody. "We'll arrange a ride home for you," Yule Log told them. "Feel free to explore the village! It's ever-so-lovely-lovely. When you're ready to leave, I'll have a pilot meet you at the Reindeer Runway. And your fee will be in the mail. Do you take checks?" "It's not going to bounce, is it?" Cookie asked warily. "What with Santa not here and all..." "I'll get you cash, cash," Yule Log said. He then, of course, hugged them both and turned and headed down to the courtyard, a little Santa in training pants, overseeing an operation that was way too big for him. "He's a nice guy," Race said, watching after him. "I hope he pulls this off." "They'll be fine," Cookie said. "The truth of how many people they have to get to is somewhere between what they're claiming and what Santa claimed. A big part of the present business really is outsourced." She nodded towards the scene down below, all the sleighs being hoisted up on lifts and elves and Light Eaters swarming around, working on getting Christmas up and off the ground. "These guys just have to get to the people who don't have access to big department stores and credit cards." Race frowned. "So the people who need them the most." "... well, yeah, but..." Race sighed. "We failed, Cookie. Santa belongs here, but he's not here, because we couldn't bring him back here. It just isn't right." "Hey." Cookie reached up and put a hand on his shoulder. "You can't win 'em all, Uncle Race. And look: Christmas is still going to happen. We at least made sure of that. Silver lining." "You're not usually the one of us looking for silver linings." "Yeah, I'm not. So you'd better snap out of it and start doing it again, because I'm really not wired for it." Race smiled. "Sorry. I didn't mean to swap roles. I'll do better." "See that you do." Before they turned to leave, Race took one final look down at the courtyard. "Look at that: Elder Elves and Light Eaters working together towards something bigger than themselves. Do you think this is the start of a new age of peace, compromise, and collaboration between the two races?" "I'm not optimistic," Cookie replied. She smiled at him. "But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be." Race smiled back. He was suddenly feeling a little bit better, a little bit warmer. Business-as-usual in the North Pole was going to go on with or without Santa, and maybe in the end that was all that mattered. "Optimistic. You're right. That's just what I should be. Merry Christmas, Cookie." She gave him her best exasperated look and her best exasperated sigh and said, "It's still only July, Uncle Race." Turning her back to the courtyard, she started down the hill, back towards town. "Come on. Let's get the hell out of here. I'm freezing my face off." Race thought about it. She was right. "It's only July." He looked back down into the courtyard and called out to no one in particular, "What was the freaking rush?!" Nobody looked at him to answer so he just shook his head, laughed at himself, and followed after Cookie. He was definitely going to make sure she counted the cash before they headed back to Westside City. * "In lieu of the usual epilogue and 'Tune in next time!' I would usually leave you with, I'll do naught here but wish you and yours a Merry Christmas, or a Merry Whatever-You-Celebrate, and a Happy New Year! ... and I'll also point out that Race never did figure out why he was so passionate about getting Santa Clause back to the North Pole, or how he was able to disrupt Santa's magic and keep Cookie from being wrapped up tight in wrapping paper. No, those are two mysteries to which Race and Cookie do not have the answer. But I do. Until next time, dear reader! And a Merry Christmas to all, and to all a nude fight! ... okay, I KNOW that one can't be right." About the Author: "Vell, Tom's jus zis guy, you know?" – Gag Halfrunt, Brain Care Specialist For all Race & Cookie updates, including release announcements and special offers, sign up for our e-mail list here! Please leave The Unlikely Adventures of Race & Cookie McCloud: Race & Cookie (sort of) Save Christmas a review where applicable. Your feedback serves to increase our digital visibility and make future Race & Cookie books even better. Thanks for your support! Be sure to visit us at Goodreads!

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

BookCorpus2

One Step Food Maker with BONUS Garden Fresh Gift Pack The only system that steams and blends in one easy step. Wholesome homemade baby food fast: add your ingredients and water, set the timer and walk away! Makes fresh baby food in as little as 10 minutes. Cooks fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry and fish. Customize your cooking time to control how soft your baby food will be. Easy to use all-in-one steamer and blender.Baby Brezza One Step Baby Food Maker is the only food maker that cooks and blends in one step, preserving all the essential nutrients and vitamins important to give your family a healthy start. One Step Food Maker Easy to use - just add your ingredients and set your steam time and the machine will do the rest! Steam and blend food in one bowl for easy cooking and clean-up Use the Food Maker to reheat and defrost Unique vapour blade blends foods with precision, to a consistency just right for baby

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

Feds Seeks Dismissal of Ex-Airman's Surgery Suit Fort Worth Star-TelegramBy Chris Vaughn The U.S. government has asked a federal judge in Fort Worth to dismiss a lawsuit filed this spring on behalf of a retired Air Force airman who had both legs amputated when a routine surgical procedure went horribly wrong in a military hospital in California three years ago. Fort Worth attorney Darrell Keith sued the government on behalf of Colton Read and his wife, Jessica, both of whom grew up in Arlington, challenging a 60-year-old Supreme Court precedent that bars service members from collecting damages from the government for wrongful death, medical malpractice or any other typical tort claims. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, seeks tens of millions of dollars for the Reads for pain, impairment, disfigurement, loss of earning capacity and mental anguish. In a recently filed response, U.S. attorneys cite exactly that precedent -- known as the Feres Doctrine after the name of the original case in 1950 -- in arguing that the Reads' claims are a dead end. "This case involves a straightforward application of the Supreme Court's nearly sixty-year-old holding in Feres," the brief states. "This Court is without jurisdiction to entertain the Reads' claims, and this case should be dismissed." If Judge John McBryde dismisses the claim, Keith hopes eventually to persuade the Supreme Court to review the case and overturn what he once called the "extremely unjust, outmoded, universally criticized and judicially erroneous Feres Doctrine." "Colton and his wife and I were expecting the federal government's response and motion to dismiss," Keith said. "The government's motion is just the first step in the long run to the Supreme Court." The Feres Doctrine has withstood challenges over the years from military members and their families. The last challenge came from the family of an airman who died after a botched appendectomy at the same hospital where Read had his surgery, a case that ended last year when the Supreme Court declined to reverse a lower-court ruling that tossed out the suit. Although other government employees and citizens can sue the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act, the Supreme Court ruled in the 1950s that military personnel cannot. Instead, the government has said that military members who are injured, no matter the cause, can receive pension benefits and lifelong medical care from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The government attorneys said there is no disputing what the Supreme Court has ruled. "Simply put, the FTCA's waiver of sovereign immunity does not extend to injuries which arise incident to military service, which is broad enough to encompass the alleged injuries sustained by the Reads," the government brief states. Government attorneys also argued that the case should be dismissed because it was filed in the wrong venue. At the least, the attorneys said, the case should be transferred to a federal judge in the Western District of Texas or in the Eastern District of California. The Reads own a home in New Braunfels, and the surgery was performed at Travis Air Force Base in California, neither of which are in the federal system's Northern District of Texas, the brief states. Keith said that although the couple owns a house in New Braunfels, "as far they are concerned, it's still a temporary residence." On July 9, 2009, Read went to the base hospital at Travis for laparoscopic, or minimally invasive, surgery to remove his gallbladder, an operation he needed before deploying overseas. The routine surgery turned nearly deadly when one of his doctors lacerated his aorta at the beginning of the procedure, according to court documents, and he started hemorrhaging. It took several hours for the doctors to determine what had happened and fix it. Keith's lawsuit alleges that the doctors sewed Read's aorta shut and prevented blood from reaching his legs for longer still. When Read was transferred to a civilian hospital later that day, physicians had to amputate both his legs, one all the way to the hip. The lawsuit accuses the government, the Air Force and the hospital of negligence and says they are liable for 23 different actions, or lack of actions, made by the two military surgeons that day.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

Drug companies like Pfizer are accused of pressuring doctors into over-prescribing medications to patients in order to increase profits [GALLO/GETTY] Has America become a nation of psychotics? You would certainly think so, based on the explosion in the use of antipsychotic medications. In 2008, with over $14 billion in sales, antipsychotics became the single top-selling therapeutic class of prescription drugs in the United States, surpassing drugs used to treat high cholesterol and acid reflux. Once upon a time, antipsychotics were reserved for a relatively small number of patients with hard-core psychiatric diagnoses – primarily schizophrenia and bipolar disorder – to treat such symptoms as delusions, hallucinations, or formal thought disorder. Today, it seems, everyone is taking antipsychotics. Parents are told that their unruly kids are in fact bipolar, and in need of anti-psychotics, while old people with dementia are dosed, in large numbers, with drugs once reserved largely for schizophrenics. Americans with symptoms ranging from chronic depression to anxiety to insomnia are now being prescribed anti-psychotics at rates that seem to indicate a national mass psychosis. It is anything but a coincidence that the explosion in antipsychotic use coincides with the pharmaceutical industry’s development of a new class of medications known as “atypical antipsychotics.” Beginning with Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Seroquel in the 1990s, followed by Abilify in the early 2000s, these drugs were touted as being more effective than older antipsychotics like Haldol and Thorazine. More importantly, they lacked the most noxious side effects of the older drugs – in particular, the tremors and other motor control problems. The atypical anti-psychotics were the bright new stars in the pharmaceutical industry’s roster of psychotropic drugs – costly, patented medications that made people feel and behave better without any shaking or drooling. Sales grew steadily, until by 2009 Seroquel and Abilify numbered fifth and sixth in annual drug sales, and prescriptions written for the top three atypical antipsychotics totaled more than 20 million. Suddenly, antipsychotics weren’t just for psychotics any more. Not just for psychotics anymore By now, just about everyone knows how the drug industry works to influence the minds of American doctors, plying them with gifts, junkets, ego-tripping awards, and research funding in exchange for endorsing or prescribing the latest and most lucrative drugs. “Psychiatrists are particularly targeted by Big Pharma because psychiatric diagnoses are very subjective,” says Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, whose PharmedOut project tracks the industry’s influence on American medicine, and who last month hosted a conference on the subject at Georgetown. A shrink can’t give you a blood test or an MRI to figure out precisely what’s wrong with you. So it’s often a case of diagnosis by prescription. (If you feel better after you take an anti-depressant, it’s assumed that you were depressed.) As the researchers in one study of the drug industry’s influence put it, “the lack of biological tests for mental disorders renders psychiatry especially vulnerable to industry influence.” For this reason, they argue, it’s particularly important that the guidelines for diagnosing and treating mental illness be compiled “on the basis of an objective review of the scientific evidence” – and not on whether the doctors writing them got a big grant from Merck or own stock in AstraZeneca. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and a leading critic of the Big Pharma, puts it more bluntly: “Psychiatrists are in the pocket of industry.” Angell has pointed out that most of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the bible of mental health clinicians, have ties to the drug industry. Likewise, a 2009 study showed that 18 out of 20 of the shrinks who wrote the American Psychiatric Association’s most recent clinical guidelines for treating depression, bipolar disorders, and schizophrenia had financial ties to drug companies. “The use of psychoactive drugs – including both antidepressants and antipsychotics – has exploded…[yet] ‘the tally of those who are disabled…increased nearly two and a half times.” Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine In a recent article in The New York Review of Books, Angell deconstructs what she calls an apparent “raging epidemic of mental illness” among Americans. The use of psychoactive drugs—including both antidepressants and antipsychotics—has exploded, and if the new drugs are so effective, Angell points out, we should “expect the prevalence of mental illness to be declining, not rising.” Instead, “the tally of those who are so disabled by mental disorders that they qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) increased nearly two and a half times between 1987 and 2007 – from one in 184 Americans to one in seventy-six. For children, the rise is even more startling – a thirty-five-fold increase in the same two decades. Mental illness is now the leading cause of disability in children.” Under the tutelage of Big Pharma, we are “simply expanding the criteria for mental illness so that nearly everyone has one.” Fugh-Berman agrees: In the age of aggressive drug marketing, she says, “Psychiatric diagnoses have expanded to include many perfectly normal people.” Cost benefit analysis What’s especially troubling about the over-prescription of the new antipsychotics is its prevalence among the very young and the very old – vulnerable groups who often do not make their own choices when it comes to what medications they take. Investigations into antipsychotic use suggests that their purpose, in these cases, may be to subdue and tranquilize rather than to treat any genuine psychosis. Carl Elliott reports in Mother Jones magazine: “Once bipolar disorder could be treated with atypicals, rates of diagnoses rose dramatically, especially in children. According to a recent Columbia University study, the number of children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder rose 40-fold between 1994 and 2003.” And according to another study, “one in five children who visited a psychiatrist came away with a prescription for an antipsychotic drug.” A remarkable series published in the Palm Beach Post in May true revealed that the state of Florida’s juvenile justice department has literally been pouring these drugs into juvenile facilities, “routinely” doling them out “for reasons that never were approved by federal regulators.” The numbers are staggering: “In 2007, for example, the Department of Juvenile Justice bought more than twice as much Seroquel as ibuprofen. Overall, in 24 months, the department bought 326,081 tablets of Seroquel, Abilify, Risperdal and other antipsychotic drugs for use in state-operated jails and homes for children…That’s enough to hand out 446 pills a day, seven days a week, for two years in a row, to kids in jails and programs that can hold no more than 2,300 boys and girls on a given day.” Further, the paper discovered that “One in three of the psychiatrists who have contracted with the state Department of Juvenile Justice in the past five years has taken speaker fees or gifts from companies that make antipsychotic medications.” In addition to expanding the diagnoses of serious mental illness, drug companies have encouraged doctors to prescribe atypical anti-psychotics for a host of off-label uses. In one particularly notorious episode, the drugmaker Eli Lilly pushed Zyprexa on the caregivers of old people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, as well as agitation, anxiety, and insomnia. In selling to nursing home doctors, sales reps reportedly used the slogan “five at five”—meaning that five milligrams of Zyprexa at 5 pm would sedate their more difficult charges. The practice persisted even after FDA had warned Lilly that the drug was not approved for such uses, and that it could lead to obesity and even diabetes in elderly patients. In a video interview conducted in 2006, Sharham Ahari, who sold Zyprexa for two years at the beginning of the decade, described to me how the sales people would wangle the doctors into prescribing it. At the time, he recalled, his doctor clients were giving him a lot of grief over patients who were “flipping out” over the weight gain associated with the drug, along with the diabetes. “We were instructed to downplay side effects and focus on the efficacy of drug…to recommend the patient drink a glass a water before taking a pill before the meal and then after the meal in hopes the stomach would expand” and provide an easy way out of this obstacle to increased sales. When docs complained, he recalled, “I told them, ‘Our drug is state of the art. What’s more important? You want them to get better or do you want them to stay the same–a thin psychotic patient or a fat stable patient.'” For the drug companies, Shahrman says, the decision to continue pushing the drug despite side effects is matter of cost benefit analysis: Whether you will make more money by continuing to market the drug for off-label use, and perhaps defending against lawsuits, than you would otherwise. In the case of Zyprexa, in January 2009, Lilly settled a lawsuit brought by with the US Justice Department, agreeing to pay $1.4 billion, including “a criminal fine of $515 million, the largest ever in a health care case, and the largest criminal fine for an individual corporation ever imposed in a United States criminal prosecution of any kind,”the Department of Justice said in announcing the settlement.” But Lilly’s sale of Zyprexa in that year alone were over $1.8 billion. Making patients worse People and Power: Drug Money As it turns out, the atypical antipsychotics may not even be the best choice for people with genuine, undisputed psychosis. A growing number of health professionals have come to think these drugs are not really as effective as older, less expensive medicines which they have replaced, that they themselves produce side effects that cause other sorts of diseases such as diabetes and plunge the patient deeper into the gloomy world of serious mental disorder. Along with stories of success comes reports of people turned into virtual zombies. Elliott reports in Mother Jones: “After another large analysis in The Lancet found that most atypicals actually performed worse than older drugs, two senior British psychiatrists penned a damning editorial that ran in the same issue. Dr. Peter Tyrer, the editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry, and Dr. Tim Kendall of the Royal College of Psychiatrists wrote: “The spurious invention of the atypicals can now be regarded as invention only, cleverly manipulated by the drug industry for marketing purposes and only now being exposed.” Bottom line: Stop Big Pharma and the parasitic shrink community from wantonly pushing these pills across the population. James Ridgeway writes for The Guardian newspaper, and is the senior Washington correspondent for Mother Jones magazine. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

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OpenWebText2

Q: Are underground shelters defensible? In many survivalist stories the intrepid heroes wisely (given the impending plot line) decide to build and stock a fallout shelter. When the inevitable catastrophe comes they move into their underground bunker and live in relative comfort while the bulk of humanity perishes in the event and aftermath. An underground bunker makes good sense for threats like bombs or other large general threats, but it seems like that is all an underground bunker can reasonably defend against. Underground bunkers that even a wealthy survivalist could build appear to rely on a strong door and concealment for survival against assault. That being said the strong door isn't a true deterrent since the air vent/intake must be exposed. If that air intake is blocked or restricted with mud or a plastic bag and some duct tape the only option for the inhabitants is to sally forth. Given the extremely limited egress points from the shelter these are easily covered by a small assaulting force. So how can an underground bunker be reasonably defended against roving bands of bandits? Especially considering the cost of blocking an air vent/intake is exceedingly low compared to the cost of defending the air vent/intake. This is the opposite of a defensible position. What tweaks would be needed to make an underground bunker defensible? Key assumptions: Current Tech No access to extreme amounts of power like a nuclear power plant in the bunker. Completed bunker must be affordable enough and reasonably attainable for a wealthy survivalist or a small group of wealthy survivalists Location is rural continental United States A: Much of what you are asking has been answered in the 5000 year old recorded history of warfare. Essentially, what you are asking about is how to protect your fortress or fortification from investiture or siegecraft, with a specific set of conditions. The first rule of fortifications is that there should be no single point of failure. There are always at least two gates, and possibly more "sally ports" to allow your forces to exit and counter attack the investing forces. Similarly, the air handling system of your shelter is also multiply redundant, with several concealed intakes and exhausts, widely dispersed to prevent accidental or deliberate interruption of the air supply. You need this anyway in a nuclear shelter in order to shut down parts of the system to change filters in order to prevent the entry of radioactive particles or other contaminants into the system. In fact, a well designed and built shelter would probably have geosensors, cameras etc. to detect both movement on the ground and digging in and around the area of the bunker, much like castles in the middle ages had "countermines" to allow defenders to hear attempts to dig under the castle walls. Larger and more elaborate shelters would also be divided into separate compartments which could be sealed to isolate damaged, contaminated or compromised sections, and a very well stocked system would have equipment on hand to dig either up or out. Diagram of NVA tunnel and shelter system Only a hastily built and poorly planned shelter would lack these features (perhaps the survivalist simply buried a 20' ISO container in a trench as the basis of his shelter), but unless there was absolutely no time or resources, I suspect that a person thinking along these lines would gradually add to the shelter and incorporate these features over time. History tells us that a manned and defended fortress can hold out for a considerable period of time, provided the defenders have sufficient supplies. Even in the modern age, fortifications could be blasted to rubble, which simply provided the defenders even more concealment, and made attacking a nightmare. With sufficient preparation, extensive tunnel networks can be built to make attacking them nightmarish, as the Americans discovered in the Viet Nam war, or the Israelis have discovered in Gaza and Southern Lebanon, and these have stood up to serious bombardment by heavy artillery and large bombs. Either dedicated bunker busters must be used, or actual engineers enter the networks with tools and explosives. IDF soldier in underground tunnel in Gaza A: Yes, if they are unapproachable. https://www.newlyswissed.com/inside-a-secret-military-bunker-in-switzerland/ Site your bunker in a cliff. One must climb a ladder to the entrance or rappel down, possibly from a considerable height. It is easy to defend against attackers swinging in the open in front of a cliff face. Even if they use cannons to bombard your front door until it is a hole in the cliff, you will have a second door set well back inside the cliff. It is easy to defend a stone hall people must walk down to attack your second door. Site your air intakes on the cliff face. They will be impossible to find among the natural irregularity of the cliff face. You might be at risk for attack by persons (very dedicated persons) tunneling down from above. Put your bunker under 500 meters of granite to slow down tunnelers. A: You can vent into a cave system. Particularly doable in areas with very large cave systems, such as Kentucky and parts of Texas. Many cave systems are not fully mapped, so if your survivalists are spelunkers, they might have a fall back option into an area where they hold all of the information advantage. For urban survivalists, one of the many forgotten undergrounds of major cities : Atlanta, San Francisco could be adjacent to the bunker - same information advantage as a cave system. You can vent into crevasses, which may be impossible to reach without blasting, and also may diffuse any signature. German bunkers vented into old forest where overgrowth did a good job of hiding the exhaust. Or, you could choose terrain that is just frighteningly inhospitable for the would-be invader (see Snake Island), or riddled with possibly natural booby traps against excavation (see Oak Island), or almost impossibly remote such as the deep deserts of the Midwest, that really require both a good water supply and knowing where your going. In coastal areas, or mountain areas it's possible to build such that the bunker is naturally sealed by water (think a beaver dam, or supposed German caches in Corsica) during flood or high tide, and only open during dry seasons or low tide. Or, always flooded (vented into an inaccessible small cave system). I've seen a few episodes of Preppers where the primary bunker has several caches/spider holes around it, for the purposes of the bunker-borne to circle around wannabe intruders and catch them by surprise.

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StackExchange

Nougran Shareef Nougran Shareef is a village in Jhelum District, Punjab, Pakistan. Nougran Shareef is a village almost 6.9 miles west of the main city Jhelum pass by CMH (Combine Military Hospital), consisting of 603 houses and a population of 6,300 approx. Mainly tribes are Mirza, Raja(Ghakar), Chaudry, Qureshi and non farmers' families reside there. Category:Populated places in Jhelum District

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Wikipedia (en)

1.. INTRODUCTION ================ Recently, infectious diseases became a major health concern to the world as a result of several millions of sicknesses and deaths recorded every year, despite clinical efforts and development. Several research works tried to identify host-parasite interactions from different perspectives to get a thorough understanding of parasite and defensive means to curb parasitic infections. In host-parasite interactions, proteins are involved, and these proteins control all biological systems in a cell such as molecular functions and biological processes. Proteins interrelate with other proteins to generate a protein interaction network. Therefore, interactions between proteins become vital keys in various biological activities. Host-parasite protein interactions play critical roles in host and parasite infection and therefore identifying the protein-protein interactions (PPIs) that allow parasites infect the host would be of great assistance in discovering potential drug targets \[[@r1]\]. Unfortunately, there is a limitation in the presently available knowledge on genes and proteins implicated in such interactions because only a few works have been experimentally proven as protein interactions between host and pathogen in several host-parasite systems. Computational method of identifying host-parasite protein interactions became popular because of this limitation in experimental method. The computational approaches are divided basically into methods based on; sequence homology, protein structure, domain and motif and machine learning \[[@r2]\]. 2.. Methods of host-parasite protein interactioN predictions used in literature =============================================================================== There are several computational approaches used for predictions, but the popularly used ones in inter-species/host-parasite protein interaction predictions are presented here. They are sequence homology search, domain-motif, structure-based and machine learning approaches. [Fig. (**1**)](#F1){ref-type="fig"} presents a graphical view of such methods. [Fig. (**2**)](#F2){ref-type="fig"} is a graphical view of features exploited by previous studies in host-parasite/inter-species protein-protein interaction predict-tions. 2.1.. Sequence Homology-Based Method ------------------------------------ The homology-based method is a traditional means of intra-specie protein-protein interactions prediction. This method has been embraced in the prediction of inter-species host-parasite protein-protein interactions. The idea behind sequence homology method is that the interaction between two proteins in a particular species will probably be conserved in related species \[[@r3]\]. The conserved interactions are called Interologs. What this means is that pairs of homologous protein originate from similar family pairs of interacting proteins which will likely take the structure and function as well as interactions of the family proteins. The operation of homology method for identification of inter-species protein-protein interaction involves first getting the template PPI pair (x y), and finding the homolog x\' in the host and the homolog y\' in the parasite and then infer that (x\', y\') interact \[[@r3]\]. Some of studies utilized this method as a method of host-parasite protein interactions prediction. Such studies include; \[[@r4]-[@r13]\]. The limitation of this method of protein interaction prediction is that inferences cannot be made about interactions between specie-specific families of genes. 2.2.. Domain and Motif Interaction-Based Method ----------------------------------------------- Domains are the core determinants of the structure and function of proteins which perform specific function in facilitating proteins interaction with other molecules \[[@r14]\]. Majority of PPIs are facilitated by domain-motif interaction by binding domains in protein to short linear motifs in interacting partners. These interactions are mostly implicated in major cellular processes, requiring their tight regulation \[[@r15]\]. A number of studies have used this method as a building block for predicting protein-protein interactions in single species \[[@r16]-[@r18]\]. Study \[[@r1]\] happens to be the first to explore this method for inter-species protein interaction prediction, although, the number of interactions predicted was few and their biological significance has not been assessed. A procedure that predicts interacting protein between parasite and host from the integration of protein domain profiles and interacting protein between proteins from the same organism was used by \[[@r1]\]. Here, Bayesian statistics were used to find the probability of proteins interactions for every pair of functional domains found in the protein pair. This procedure was applied in the host-parasite system by identifying domains in the individual host and parasite protein having at least one domain. Then, the probability of the interaction was computed for each pair of host and parasite with at least one domain. Other studies \[[@r19]-[@r22]\] also used domain and motif interaction based method for HPPI. 2.3.. Structure-Based and Structural Modeling Approaches -------------------------------------------------------- In the structure-based method of prediction, two proteins with similar structures to a known proteins interaction pairs are likely interacting in a structurally similar way. Quite a number of studies already employed the structural information to predict the similarities between query proteins such as host-parasite protein interaction and template PPIs to infer that interaction exists in host-parasite protein pairs that match some template PPIs \[[@r23]\]. Doolittle and colleague \[[@r24]\] constructed a map interaction of HIV-1 and human. The same Doolittle and colleague in another study \[[@r25]\] applied similar approach for building a network of interactions to Dengue virus and its host. A study by \[[@r26]\], presumes interactions between proteins that are structurally homologous using Human and Influenza A NS1. Protein structure-based protocols were used by \[[@r27]\] to discover potential protein interactions in *P. falciparum* and host erythrocytes. For structural modeling, study \[[@r28]\] conducted HPPI comparative modeling of 3D structures and applied the techniques to 10 pathogens including *Mycobacterium, apicomplexa, kinetoplastida* and *Plasmodium falciparum* which are responsible for neglected human diseases. 2.4.. Machine Learning ---------------------- Machine learning approach is a robust method of HPPI predictions, although this method has not been used extensively in HPPI prediction. Random Forest (RF) is a classifier algorithm made up of decision trees. Individual tree in the training phase is built by random feature vector sampled from a dataset independently. A little part of the variables is selected at random and individual classification tree is raised for every node in a tree. In order to group a new object, the input vector is set up for each of the trees in the forest. Based on the largest vote, a class is allocated to the object. Random forest is a practical classifier when large datasets with a large number of features are concerned because there will be no need to feature select or feature delete. The Random forest can also classify features based on importance and can also be used to recover missing data. Nevertheless, specific databases with noisy data may overfit. Random forest and Decision trees are extensively employed in bioinformatics and computational biology for classifying biological data \[[@r29]\] especially for PPI prediction \[[@r30]\]. The RF approach was used by study \[[@r31]\] for feature evaluation in order to accurately predict protein-protein interactions from negative dataset. In predicting cytokine-receptor interactions, Random forest classifier method was used by \[[@r32]\]. The studies that implemented Random forest classifier approach to predict host-parasite/inter-species PPIs that this work is interested in are studies \[[@r19], [@r33]\]. Study \[[@r19]\] employed RF method for HPPI predictions by integrating thirty-five features within eight groups. The same random forest classifier was used by \[[@r33]\] to assess the quality of conserved interactions for predictions of putative PPIs between human host and malaria parasite. Support vector machine (SVM) is another classifier approach used in HPPI predictions. SVM classifier is reinforced by margin optimization. This margin for an object is connected to the certainty of its classification. Objects with correct classification will have large margins and objects with classification unclear will probably have small margins. Training SVM can be achieved using a labeled dataset with each data labeled to indicate that it belongs to a class or two. Support vector machine is a very powerful classification method for arbitrary complex problems. Studies \[[@r34]-[@r38]\] employed this approach. Here, fixed feature vector length that connotes relative frequency of conserved amino acids in the protein sequence was used. The other machine learning approaches employed in Literature include; Expectation maximization algorithm by \[[@r37]\]. Here, the study predicted, HPPI in human RBCs and merozoite membrane proteins from estimates of domain-domain interaction probabilities. Also, study \[[@r38]\], proposed Multi-instance transfer learning method called AdaBoost which was used to re-construct the proteome-wide Salmonella and human protein-protein interaction networks. The training dataset was improved using homolog knowledge transfer in the form of independent *homolog instances*. AdaBoost instance re-weighting was employed to offset the noise from *homolog instances. Fig. [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"} is a graphical display of computational methods used in literature for such predictions.* 2.5.. Strength of Methods Reviewed ---------------------------------- Homology-based method: The simplicity and the seeming biological basis of homology-based method is a major advantage. Prediction using this method only requires template PPIs and protein sequences data. The method is also scalable with application to several host-parasite systems. Studies \[[@r4], [@r6], [@r7]\], used homology-based approach alone for prediction while \[[@r33]\] combined homology-based method with other methods to predict host-parasite protein-protein interaction. Domain-domain/motif: Protein domain is a key in protein structure prediction. In order to also determine protein structure, annotate functions, mutagenesis analysis, and protein engineering, protein domain prediction is important. Ability to predict domains from sequence information increases identification of tertiary structure; improve annotation of protein function, assist the determination of structure and give direction to engineering and mutagenesis of protein. The identification of domains within a protein sequence also serves as a foundation for other methods. Structure-based prediction approach: This method of prediction is quite efficient when the structure of the target protein has not been resolved experimentally. The similarity between structure leads to an identification of homologs. *Machine learning is* a group of computational methods used to identify complicated patterns in a given dataset and make decisions on previously unseen data. 3.. tabulations of hppi predictions in human host & *plasmodium falciparum* and other inter-species protein interaction predictions =================================================================================================================================== This part is divided into two sections. Section 3.1 presents specific studies conducted on human host and *Plasmodium falciparum* parasite PPI predictions. It looks at the method of prediction by each study, the predictive method, filters used, potential PPIs identified and measurements used. Table **[1](#T1){ref-type="table"}** is a tabular presentation of section 3.1. The second section, 3.2 reviews other studies on host/parasite PPI predictions and inter-species PPIs, presenting the type of host, pathogen or species used in the study. The methods of prediction employed the predictive method, filters used, potential PPIs identified and measurements used as in section 1. Both sections are presented in the form of a table. Table **[2](#T2){ref-type="table"}** is a tabular representation of section 3.2. 3.1.. Tabulation of Studies on Human Host and *Plasmodium falciparum* PPI Predictions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table **[1](#T1){ref-type="table"}** is a tabular cross section of results from literature of host-parasite protein-protein interaction predictions specifically for human host and Plasmodium falciparum parasite. The table highlights the methods used and also described the work done. 3.2.. Tabulation of Studies on Other Host-Parasite/Inter-Species Protein Interaction Predictions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Table **[2](#T2){ref-type="table"}** presents other studies on inter-species/host-parasite protein interaction predictions in literature, the methods of prediction employed, the filters used, potential Protein-protein Interactions identified and measurements used. 4.. some MEASUREMENTS INDEXES used in hppi predictions and future prospects =========================================================================== 4.1.. Some Evaluation Measurements Indexes used in HPPI Predictions ------------------------------------------------------------------- Common measurements indexes identified in literature for host-parasite protein-protein interactions include; Sensitivity as used by \[[@r1], [@r4], [@r34]\] and Specificity by \[[@r34]\], Accuracy by \[[@r22], [@r34]\], AUC (area under the roc curve) by \[[@r1], [@r22], [@r33], [@r36]-[@r38]\]; Precision-Recall by \[[@r1], [@r22], [@r36], [@r37]\] and F1score by \[[@r7], [@r22], [@r34]\]. The formula for calculating the evaluation indexes for Sensitivity, Specificity, Accuracy, ROC-AUC and Precision-Recall are; $$\mathit{Sensitivity}\operatorname{~\lbrack}\mathit{Recall}\operatorname{\rbrack\ =}\frac{\mathit{TP}}{\mathit{TP} + \mathit{TN}}$$ $$\mathit{Specificity}\operatorname{~=}\frac{\mathit{TN}}{\mathit{TN} + \mathit{FP}}$$ $$\mathit{Accuracy}\operatorname{~=}\ \frac{\mathit{TP} + \mathit{TN}}{\mathit{TP} + \mathit{FP} + \mathit{TN} + \mathit{FN}}$$ $$\mathit{Precision}\operatorname{~=}\ \frac{\mathit{TP}}{\mathit{TP} + \mathit{FP}}$$ $$\mathit{F1}~\mathit{Score}\operatorname{~=}\ \frac{2\ x\ \mathit{Precision}\ x\ \mathit{Recall}}{\mathit{Precision}\ + \mathit{Recall}}$$ $$\mathit{AUC}\operatorname{~=~}\mathit{Area}~\mathit{under}~\mathit{ROC}~\mathit{Curve}$$ 4.2.. Future Prospects ---------------------- From the above review, it is eminent that HPPI predictions will uncover the required knowledge in gaining understanding and discovering the crucial interactions that might be responsible for diseases. Such computational studies will shed more light on taking experimental work further and also assist in therapeutic development. It will further enhance deeper insight into the disease under study and open rooms of opportunities to explore new therapy development through the important protein interactions and proteins predicted. The need to explore machine learning methods is proposed here to ensure efficient results. The future prospects in studies carried out on HPPI for human, and Plasmodium falciparum include; the need to include reliability assessment of protein-protein interactions identified through high-throughput screens in study \[[@r1]\]. For study \[[@r4]\], multiple methods could be combined to improve sensitivity and identify drug targets for drug discovery and design. The extent to which the method by \[[@r5]\] can predict HPPI should be investigated further, through a comprehensive experimental database for PPIs between P. falciparum and human. There is the need to identify molecular strategies that allow the parasite, Plasmodium falciparum to have power over the host in study \[[@r33]\]. This will expand the knowledge of the parasite unique re-modelling processes of the host cell and give potential leads to disease mediation. Furthermore, in study \[[@r36]\], more studies to understand the significant relationship between the SNPs and parasite invasion are required. There is also the need to experimentally confirm the identified interactions. For study \[[@r27]\], experimental attempts are required to understand possible means of pathogenesis of red blood cells protein-protein interactions predicted in the study. Finally, an in vivo testing and validation of inhibitors identified in study \[[@r13]\] is required to understand the properties as antimalarial drugs CONCLUSION ========== Host-parasite interaction prediction is gaining more ground in the recent years because the knowledge from it can give a better understanding of how parasite infects its host, which protein interactions are important for such infection to take place and also identifying drug targets. Computational methods will therefore, play an essential part in creating pathways for experimental HPPI validation by identifying and presenting important interactions that could then be taken further experimentally. In this review, we have been able to identify up to date studies conducted in host-parasite protein interactions with a table showing the host-pathogen involved in the interaction, the methods such studies used in conducting their studies, filters employed and measurements as the case may be. The future prospects of the studies were also mentioned with a specific focus on human-*Plasmodium falciparum* predictions. This kind of review will help researchers who want to work in this area to know what has been done so far and thus give direction to further studies. Consent for Publication ======================= Not applicable. This work is partially supported by the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro Staff Development Programme and NIH-H3ABioNet grant U24HG006941. Conflict of Interest ==================== The authors declare no conflict of interest, financial or otherwise. {#F1} {#F2} ###### Cross section of studies on human host and Plasmodium falciparum PPIs predictions ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Host-Parasite **Predictive Method** **Potential PPIs Identified** **Filter** **Measurements** **Ref** ------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------ ------------ Human-*Plasmodium falciparum* Combined interaction probability of domains\ A total of 516 PPIs between human and Pf were predicted. Important PPIs predicted are PfEMP1s and MSP1s, Q8IAS3, plasminogen (Q5TEH4) and pfEMP1, Q8IAL6 and Q8I339. They all interact with human blood coagulation proteins which may play a role in disrupting human blood coagulation pathways. Q8IHZ5, a known subtilisin-like protease, interacts with a number of blood coagulation proteins, which suggests that it may be involved in the degradation of blood platelets. Also, hypothetical Plasmodium protein Q8IKP8 interacts with the predicted partners of Q8IHZ5. Gene ontology terms Area under the Curve (AUC), Sensitivity\ \[[@r1]\] Bayesian statistics for assessment and Precision Human-*Plasmodium falciparum* Interlogs inferred from ortholog information Interactions between putative HSP40 homologs of *P. falciparum* and the *H. sapiens* TNF receptor associated factor family was revealed here, suggesting a role for these interactions in the interference of the human immune response to *P. falciparum*.\ Gene ontology annotations and\ Sensitivity \[[@r4]\] Calmodulin (PF14_0323), interacts with 50 human proteins.\ Presence/ absence of translocational signals. Among the 50 human proteins interacting with PF14_0323, thirteen (13) of them interact with human calmodulin (CALM3). This suggests that *P. falciparum* calmoduin shares some of the targets of human calmodulin, and may hijack these PPIs for its purpose.\ PF14_0359 and the TNF receptor associated factor family (TRAF1, TRAF2 and TRAF6) are predicted also to interact. Human-*Plasmodium falciparum* Homology detection method using template PPI databases, DIP, and iPfam Remarkable interactions are: Plasmepsins and host cytoskeletal proteins, interaction between TRAP and ICAMs Database of Interacting Proteins (DIP) sequences \[[@r5]\] Human-*Plasmodium falciparum* Interolog The study observed that most of the highly interacting proteins were involved in structural assembly of the pathogen such as actin, tubulin, and histone. 𝛼-tubulin was finalized as an important protein involved in the infection process. Cellular location, Gene ontology, and Functional role. \[[@r13]\] Human-*Plasmodium falciparum* Homology-based approach A total of 208 physicochemically viable interactions were predicted. The key interacting proteins are: SAR1 and the host ADP-ribosylation factor-binding protein GGA3 (Q9NZ52), Host calcium-activated potassium channel protein 4, KCNN4 (UniProt ID: O15554), and conserved parasitic protein of unknown function, PF3D7_1463900. Intrachain heterodomain interactions from iPfam, Intra host and intra pathogen interactions and Expression profile of parasite proteins from PlasmoDB. \[[@r27]\] Human-*Plasmodium falciparum* Comparative Modelling The key prediction from this study relating to P. *falciparum* and human are; P. falciparum thrombospondin-related\ Biological context and Network-level\ \[[@r28]\] adhesive protein (TRAP, SSP2, PF13_0201) interact with human Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4, ENSP00000346893), based on a template structure of Glycoprotein IBa bound to Von Willenbrand factor (PDB1M10).\ Information TRAP, animmunogenic protein used as a component of several vaccine candidates, interacts with TLR4. Host-Parasite **Predictive Method** **Potential PPIs Identified** **Filter** **Measurements** **Ref** Human-*Plasmodium falciparum* Sequence Orthology/ Homology\ The discovery here is that parasite proteins predominantly target central proteins to take control of a human host cell. Several prominent pathways of signaling and regulation proteins were predicted to interact with parasite chaperones. Expression data and molecular properties Area under the curve (AUC) \[[@r33]\] and\ Random forest Human-*Plasmodium falciparum* Estimation maximization A network consisting of 205 PPIs between parasite and human membrane proteins were predicted. A further prediction shows that SNARE proteins of parasites and APP of humans may function in the invasion of RBCs by parasites. Gene expression data Area under the curve (AUC) \[[@r37]\] Human-*Plasmodium falciparum* Mining of combined HPPI data The analysis in the study revealed; apolipoproteins and temperature/Hsp expression on PfEMP1 presentation, the essence of MSP-1 in platelet activation, role of parasite proteins in TGF-β regulation and the contribution of albumin in astrocyte dysfunction. Gene Ontology,\ \[[@r39]\] Tissue-specific annotation ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ###### Cross section of other studies on host-parasite/inter-species protein-protein interaction predictions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Host- Pathogen **Predictive Method** **Potential PPIs Identified** **Filter** **Measurements** **Ref.** ---------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------ Mycobacterium Tuberculosis -- Homo Sapien Homology detection approach based on sequence motif A total of 118 pairs of HPIs were obtained from 43 Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteins and 48 Homo sapiens proteins were predicted and stored in the PATH database Domain-Domain Interactions (DDIs), and Functional annotations of protein and publicly available experimental results for further filter F1 Score \[[@r7]\] *Salmonella*-Human Sequence and interacting domain similarity approach This study predicted 29 out of 59 gold standard PPIs used. With Domain-based prediction feature, nine (9) of the gold standard interactions were predicted. These nine interactions are also part of the set of 29 PPIs formerly predicted. Domain-based prediction feature \[[@r8]\] *Candida albicans*-Zebrafish Ortholog-based PPIs and Multivariate\ This study developed a computational framework. Some of the predictions between *Candida albicans*-Zebrafish were done. An important discovery here is that redox status is critical during the battle between the host and pathogen, which could determine the outcome of infection. Sequence-targeted probes derived from the individual genome \[[@r11]\] linear dynamic model\ of regulatory responses *Mycobacterium Tuberculosis* H37Rv --Human Stringent homology-based approach An interesting discovery made aside from PPI predictions include host proteins and pathogen proteins that partake in the host-pathogen PPIs which tend to be hubs in their own intra-species PPI network.\ PATRIC database \[[@r12]\] Again, host and pathogen proteins that are involved in host-pathogen PPIs might have a lengthier primary sequence, more domains, more hydrophilic and others. HIV 1- Human protein Supervised learning using Random Forest Classifier A key prediction from this study is HIV-1 protein tat and human vitamin D receptor (VDR) Tat is a regulatory protein of HIV-1. The interaction has also been validated experimentally. Eukaryotic Linear Motif (ELM) database ROC-AUC, Precision-Recall \[[@r19]\] Host- Pathogen **Predictive Method** **Potential PPIs Identified** **Filter** **Measurements** **Ref.** Human- microbial Oral Ensemble methodology for prediction\ The study revealed important pathways involved in the onset of infectious oral diseases, and also potential drug-targets and biomarkers. Also, the first computational model of the Human-Microbial oral interactome was constructed. PPI pairs from the five databases Area under the ROC-AUC, F1, score, Accuracy, Precision-Recall \[[@r22]\] naïve Bayes classifier for training and validation HIV virus-Human Structural similarity A total of 502 interactions involving 137 human proteins were predicted. Three interactions consistent with two other studies predicted by this study are; gp41 and LCK, gp41 and PLK1, IN and XPO1.\ RNAi functional data and shared Gene Ontology cellular component annotation for further filter \[[@r24]\] Twenty-two (22) of true positives predictions out of 265 predictions were made. Dengue virus-Human and Insect hosts Structural similarity They predicted 2,073 interactions among viral and human proteins and found 7 out of 19 true positives.\ Functional information\ \[[@r25]\] The study revealed the possibility that some of the protein interactions which enable DENV to manipulate the cellular pathways of two hosts are conserved between the species. from recent literature and Gene Ontology cellular component annotation (Subcellular co-localiza tion) Influenza A NS1--Human Method based on structural homologous proteins interactions The study predicted that out of 41 human proteins of influenza--human PIN, twelve (12) have been identified to be host factors for influenza virus replication.\ Predicted and literature data \[[@r26]\] When Influenza--human interactome were combined with predicted and literature data, forty-seven (47) of 364 human proteins were identified to be host factors directly controlling viral replication Human-Human papillomaviruses (HPV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) Support vector machine This study predicted interactions between viruses and human proteins.\ BLAST and Gene Ontology Sensitivity, specificity accuracy \[[@r34]\] The comparative analysis of HCV and HPV viral interaction networks gave 11 common human proteins that are targeted by both viruses.\ The SVM model revealed an average accuracy of 81.6% to predict human-HCV proteins, and accuracy of 83.3% to predict\ Human-HPV proteins. Human- Yersinia Pestis, Francisella\ Multitask learning approach The study carried out a host-pathogen protein-protein interaction (PPI) prediction involving a fixed host and pathogens with various\ BLAST Precision-Recall and F1 score \[[@r35]\] Tularensis, Salmonella and Bacillus anthracis bacterial species.\ A set of interologs were predicted to exist between the four datasets. HIV-1 and Human Ensemble Transfer Learning method and Support Vector Machine for classification The study deployed a model that is robust against data unavailability with less demanding data constraint.\ Gene Ontology ROC-AUC, F1 Score, Precision-Recall \[[@r36]\] Analysis of overlapped predictions between the model in this study and the other existing models were carried out and the model was applied to novel host- pathogen PPIs identification. Host- Pathogen **Predictive Method** **Potential PPIs Identified** **Filter** **Measurements** **Ref.** Human T-cell leukemia viruses (*HTLV) retroviruses*-Human Multi-instance Ada boost transfer learning method The study used homology knowledge (GO) in the form of auxiliary homolog instance to address the problem of scarcity and unavailability of data.\ AdaBoost instance reweighting ROC-AUC, Precision recall Curve, Specificity, Sensitivity and F1 score \[[@r38]\] The study concluded that the method is effective in enriching information abundance evidenced by the HTLV-human PPI networks predicted. Xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae (Xoo) oryzae-Rice XooNET uses Structural Interactome MAP (PSIMAP), Protein interactions Experimental Interactome MAP (PEIMAP) and Domain-Domain interactions from iPfam This study discovered 15 annotated AvrBs3 homologues in Xoo;\ Psi-Blast and hmm pfam for domain assignment \[[@r40]\] Xoo1125, a hypothetical protein has over 60 interaction partners including the Avr proteins, responsible for the loss of pathogenicity when transposon insertion eukaryotic linear motifs HIV1-Human Method of domain-motif based on Multiple sequence alignments The study predicted 109 true positives HPPIs from a total of 4,523 predictions.\ Conserved Eukaryotic Linear Motifs (ELMs) in Protein\'s multiple alignments \[[@r41]\] A total of 56 of the 133 Eukaryotic Linear Motif (ELM) resource were conserved on some HIV-1 protein. The essential discovery here is that ELMs that are conserved may appear frequently on human proteins. ELM LIG_PDZ_3 occurred on 90% of human proteins while some other ELMs such as LIG_EH1_1, occurred on quite a few human proteins. Dengue virus-Human Domain and motif based method A total of 79 human proteins (out of 1654) were identified to have interactions with viral proteins deposited in the VirHostNet database.\ Human domain set was used to filter the 3DID database in order to obtain motif-domain interactions\ \[[@r42]\] The Functional enrichment analysis of the remaining 1,574 human proteins revealed 1,224 proteins that share biological processes annotations with the 79 identified human proteins targeted by the virus. involving only domains in the human proteome *Plasmodium berghei*-Mouse Correlated gene expression profiles The first network of mouse/mosquito malaria host-parasite interactions was predicted in the study.\ Yeast two-hybrid\ \[[@r43]\] Several host genes involved in malaria infections were discovered. Specific ones include chromatin remodeling which is important for malaria interacting with its host to control gene expression timing. Also, genes involved in vesicle transport to the Golgi are important in host--parasite interactions for both Plasmodium and mouse especially to export proteins to the host cell surface. interologues and CSS interactions Hepatitis C virus (HCV)-Human Method based on Domain-domain interactome.\ Domain-centric perspective was used to construct a global landscape of virus-host interactions.\ Integrated domain-domain interaction (IDDI) database \[[@r44]\] Topological and functional analysis of the network. The study identified that viruses use unique domains to interact the same host partners with fundamental functions and it also employed conserved DDIs occurring in host\ interactomes to mediate the interspecies interaction. Host- Pathogen **Predictive Method** **Potential PPIs Identified** **Filter** **Measurements** **Ref.** *Mycobacterium tuberculosis* - *Homo sapiens* Interolog method and domain-domain interactions to filter HPPIs The study predicted 118 pairs of HPIs.\ Protein sequences and Functional annotations of protein and publicly available experimental results \[[@r45]\] A biological interaction network between M. tuberculosis and Homo sapiens was then constructed using the predicted inter- and intra-species interactions based on the 118 pairs of HPIs.\ Finally, a web accessible\ database named PATH was built. Francisella-human Comparative genomics and Literature The study identified 222 unique PPIs between 18 Francisella tularensis proteins and 183 human proteins.\ Proteome-scale yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) \[[@r46]\] Twelve (12) Human-F. tularensis interactions were chosen for re-testing. There was a confirmation of four interactions in this assay. They are FTT0482c with WD repeat-containing protein 48 (WDR48), FTT1538c with 78-kDa glucose-regulated protein (HSPA5), FTT1538c with WDR48, and FTT1597 with AP-3 complex subunit mu-1 (AP3M1). *Human-Staphylococcus aureus* and\ Genome-wide protein microarray analysis The study revealed interactions between the *S. aureus* immune evasion protein FLIPr (formyl-peptide receptor like-1 inhibitory protein) and the human complement component C1q, as key players of the offense-defense fighting; and of the interaction between meningococcal NadA and human LOX-1 (low-density oxidized lipoprotein receptor), an endothelial receptor Human recombinant proteins from the GNF library \[[@r47]\] Human-*Neisseria. Meningitides* Grass carp-grass carp reovirus (GCRV) Structural motif-domain interactions A systems-based framework for the understanding of the GCRV infectome and diseasome was provided by the study.\ RNA-seq data from previous work \[[@r48]\] JAM-A protein was predicted to interact with GCRV Sigma1-like protein motifs, sharing similar binding mode compared with orthoreovirus. Human- human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1). Short linear motifs A method that predicts virus-host SLiM mediated\ NIAID HIV-1-human interactions and the set of ELM mediated HIV-1-human interactions. \[[@r49]\] PPIs and rank ranks candidate interactions were developed.\ The study discovered that the majority of conserved linear motifs in the HIV-1 virus are located in disordered regions. Human- *Mycobacterium tuberculosis* Pairwise structure similarities Secreted proteins of the STPK, ESX-1, and PE/PPE family in *M*. *tuberculosis* targeted human proteins involved in immune response and phagocytosis.\ Cellular localization information \[[@r50]\] *M*. *tuberculosis* also targeted host factors known to regulate HIV replication -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [^1]: Joint Authors

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

PubMed Central

The association between racelessness and achievement among African American deaf adolescents. Generally, deaf students do not achieve as well academically as their hearing peers. Within the deaf population, African American deaf students achieve less well academically than their White peers. There are, of course, both deaf and hearing African American students who excel in school. What then, are the factors that contribute to the accomplishments of successful African American deaf students in school? The present study explored the relationship of the construct of racelessness to school success among African American deaf adolescents. Data were collected on 32 deaf adolescents from six public schools. There was little support for racelessness as a robust construct in the present study. Although exceptions existed, there was no significant relationship between racelessness and achievement.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

PubMed Abstracts

Background ========== Angiotensin II receptor antagonists (AIIRA) have demonstrated excellent efficacy in patients with hypertension \[[@B1],[@B2]\], heart failure \[[@B1],[@B2]\], diabetes \[[@B3]\], diabetic nephropathy \[[@B4]-[@B6]\], and recently in post-myocardial infarction patients \[[@B7]\]. Such promising results allowed the US Joint National Committee on hypertension in their seventh report (JNC-7) and the European Society of Hypertension (ESH-ESC) in the 2003 guidelines to integrate this class of agents in the management of hypertension and to propose AIIRAs as an alternative treatment to ACE-inhibitors for most of the above-mentioned high-risk conditions \[[@B8],[@B9]\]. However, the main message of the published guidelines remains that a normalization of arterial blood pressure in hypertensive patients is the key objective to the prevention of cardiovascular events, especially in high-risk categories, where stricter therapeutic targets and aggressive strategies to reach them have been proposed. Yet, achieving normalization of blood pressure (BP) remains a difficult task, or, in the words of the JNC-7 report \[[@B8]\]: \"The most effective therapy prescribed by the most careful clinician will control hypertension only if the patient is motivated to take the prescribed medication and to establish and maintain a health-promoting lifestyle.\" In industrialized countries, the success rates in controlling blood pressure range from below 10% to 30% of the treated population, depending mainly on the definition of the therapeutic targets \[[@B10]-[@B14]\]. The JNC-7 report estimates that 34% of hypertensive patients in the USA manage to maintain a BP below 140/90 mmHg \[[@B8]\]. The inadequate persistence with therapy, i.e. the frequent switch or discontinuation of the prescribed therapy has been recognized as a frequent cause of treatment failure \[[@B15]\]. Persistence is a good general indicator of the satisfaction with the treatment of both patients and physicians. Among classes, a British comparative study showed ACE-inhibitors as the best and diuretics as the poorest persistence builders \[[@B15]\]. A large Canadian cohort study based on pharmacy prescriptions confirmed these results \[[@B16]\]. Recently, the first population-based studies including AIIRAs revealed that patients persist more with AIIRAs than with all other antihypertensive drugs after 6 months up to 3 years \[[@B17],[@B18]\]. A cohort study with 2416 newly diagnosed hypertensive patients showed that the AIIRA irbesartan induced significantly more persistence than other drug classes and even than other AIIRAs \[[@B19]\]. This improved persistence has been attributed in part to the efficacy of the compounds and mainly to the low, placebo-like side effects profile \[[@B20]-[@B22]\]. Placebo-like tolerability has indeed been confirmed at all clinically relevant dosages of irbesartan \[[@B23]\]. The aim of this open prospective observational survey with 4769 hypertensive patients treated in general practices in Switzerland, was to evaluate the persistence with irbesartan in real-life settings over a period of about one year and to investigate factors affecting either positively or negatively the persistence. In addition, the tolerability profile and the effect of irbesartan on BP control were assessed. Methods ======= Design of the investigation --------------------------- This prospective observational survey was conducted in general practices in all regions of Switzerland from October 1997 to March 1999 i.e. shortly after the launch of irbesartan in the country. The general practitioners (GPs) were asked to document their daily routine in the treatment of hypertensive patients with irbesartan; 1390 physicians were contacted, 1045 included patients and 886 documented the treatment. They were recruited by the field forces of the sponsors of the study i.e. BMS and Sanofi-Synthelabo Switzerland. GPs filled in a baseline visit (Visit 1) form for every treated patient, and could report up to five follow up visits in the following 3--6 months (End Form). They were asked to document two arterial blood pressure measurements at every visit and to report concomitant antihypertensive medication and adverse events, as well as changes or discontinuation of treatment. At the end of the observation period, GPs reported if their patients were continuing the treatment with irbesartan, alone or in combination with other antihypertensive drugs. About 1 year after baseline, patients with ongoing treatment with irbesartan received a Compliance Form Patient, where they were asked how irbesartan was tolerated (very well, well, fairly well, poorly) and how many times weekly they took irbesartan in the preceding 3--4 weeks; a further question was how many tablets (all drugs) were taken daily. Their GPs received a Compliance Form MD, to report the last blood pressure measurement and if and when the patient had discontinued the treatment. The various forms were designed by external consultants. The data were collected by mail using self-addressed envelopes and processed by the consultants. Queries for incomplete forms were done by the sponsor representatives. No standard validated questionnaire was used. In Switzerland, this type of survey does not need to be submitted to an ethical committee. Patient selection ----------------- All patients with newly diagnosed hypertension, or with treated hypertension requiring a change in medication according to the GP, were considered for the survey. No standardized definition was used but physicians considered a BP \>140/90 mmHg as hypertension. There were neither demographic nor clinical exclusion criteria. The only condition to participate was that patients should not have been pre-treated with irbesartan. Treatment was started with irbesartan 150 qd. Thereafter, physicians were free to change the antihypertensive therapy at any time during the follow-up based on their individual therapeutic goals (usually \<140/90 mmHg). Statistical analysis -------------------- Values are presented as mean +/- sd. The statistical significance of between-group differences was computed using the 2-sided Chi-square test, the Mann-Whitney-U test or ANOVA methods as appropriate. For multivariate correlations, a logistic regression analysis with a dichotomous dependent variable was used (e.g. therapy discontinuation: yes = 1; no = 0). To support the results of the logistic regression models, Cox regression models with cumulative survival functions were further computed. Results ======= Characteristics of the database ------------------------------- As shown in Figure [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}, 5452 patients were enrolled by 1045 GPs, and 886 of those returned the therapy documentation (End Form) of 4769 patients (87.5%). This latter sample was taken to analyze the safety data and is referred to as AE-Sample (Tolerability Events). For the evaluation of the effect on BP control, all cases with at least one follow-up value were taken into account. 130 cases of the AE-Sample had no follow-up values; the remaining 4639 subjects (97.3% of the AE-Sample) are referred to as the Efficacy Sample. At the end of the treatment observation period, after an average of slightly more than 4 months (133 ± 75 days, mean ± SD), GPs reported that 3829 patients (82.5% of the Efficacy sample) continued the treatment with irbesartan. This is referred to as the Sample with Ongoing Therapy. A total of 1419 Compliance Forms MD (37.1% of the sample with ongoing therapy) and 928 Compliance Forms Patient (24.2%) were returned after on average more than 13 months from baseline (402 ± 105 days). Due to lack of completeness, some forms had to be excluded from the analysis, giving a total of 1186 valid Compliance Forms MD (31.0%) and 853 cases with both usable Compliance Form MD and Patient (22.2%). {#F1} Table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"} summarizes the baseline demographic and clinical data for both the previously untreated and the pre-treated patients. Almost two thirds of the patients (61,5%) entered the study receiving another therapy for high blood pressure. The most frequent reasons why GPs changed pre-treatment to introduce irbesartan were insufficient efficacy of the previous therapy (64.6%), cough (22.5%) and adverse events other than cough (16.6%). The multivariate analysis of factors correlated to pre-treatment shows that patients who switched to irbesartan from other antihypertensive drugs were older, prevalently female and from the German part of Switzerland (p \< 0.001). They had significantly more risk factors, associated clinical conditions (p \< 0.0001) and target organ damages than naïve patients (p = 0.0013). More pre-treated patients received a polytherapy regimen during the post-marketing surveillance (p \< 0.0001). ###### Baseline demographic and clinical data: Efficacy Sample. ***Naïve patients*** ***Pre-treated*** ***Total*** -------------------------- ---------------------- ------------------- -------------- Total 1785 (38.5%) 2854 (61.5%) 4639 Gender (f/m) 882/903 1605/1249 2487/2152 Mean age ± SD 57.9 ± 12.7 63.6 ± 12.3 61.4 ± 12.8 Baseline SBP (Mean ± SD) 168.8 ± 17.8 163.5 ± 19.1 165.5 ± 18.8 Baseline DBP (Mean ± SD) 101.2 ± 8.6 96.3 ± 10.4 98.2 ± 10.0 Diabetes 165 (9.2%) 492 (17.2%) 657 (14.2%) ISH 79 (4.4%) 408 (14.3%) 487 (10.5%) WHO-risk  *Low (\<15%)* 37 (2.1%) 101 (3.5%) 138 (3.0%)  *Medium (15--20%)* 837 (46.9%) 1190 (41.7%) 2027 (43.7%)  *High (20--30%)* 274 (15.4%) 526 (18.4%) 800 (17.2%)  *Very high (\>30%)* 637 (35.7%) 1037 (36.3%) 1674 (36.1%) For detailed explanation of WHO-risk and region categories see results. ISH = isolated systolic hypertension (defined as ≥ 140 mmHg systolic and \< 90 mmHg diastolic blood pressure). Effect on blood pressure ------------------------ More that 90% of the Efficacy Sample patients received irbesartan 150 mg qd, as a monotherapy or in combination with other antihypertensives. 69% of the Efficacy Sample patients received a constant monotherapy and 5.6% a constant polytherapy. In the Efficacy Sample, the mean reduction of systolic blood pressure (SBP) from baseline to the last visit was 20.2 ± 19.5 mmHg (p \< 0.001). For the diastolic blood pressure (DBP), the mean reduction was 11.7 ± 11.3 mmHg (p \< 0.001). Figure [2a](#F2){ref-type="fig"} shows the differences between naïve and pre-treated patients. Despite previous treatment, the pre-treated group had clearly inadequate mean baseline values of SBP and DBP (163.5 and 96.3 mmHg, respectively) justifying a change in therapy. Naïve patients achieved a significantly greater reduction of both SBP and DBP than pre-treated ones. At the last visit, the pre-treated group showed higher SBP and similar DBP values in comparison to naïve patients. {#F2} Since GPs did not receive specific instructions about therapeutic goals in this survey, various therapeutic targets were used to evaluate the success in controlling blood pressure (Figure [2b](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). As shown in the figure, one third of the patients had normalized their BP (\<140/90 mmHg) and two-thirds had a diastolic BP below 90 mmHg. The Sample with Ongoing Therapy, as reasonably expected, appeared slightly more successful than the Efficacy Sample in achieving the various targets (Figure [2b](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). Tolerability profile -------------------- Adverse events were reported for 383 patients (8.0% of the AE-Sample), more often by older patients (\>65 years: 10.2%; 55--65 years: 7.8%; = 55 years: 5.5%; p \< 0.001) and by pre-treated patients (9.6% vs. 5.5% naïve; p \< 0.001). Yet, in the majority of patients (90.7%), irbesartan was well tolerated according to GPs. Tolerance was reported as poor only for 131 patients (2.7%). Adverse events led to discontinuation of irbesartan in 343 cases (7.4%). The most frequent side effects are listed in Table [2](#T2){ref-type="table"}, where they are compared with their occurrence listed in the Swiss prescribing information \[[@B24]\]. Serious adverse events, leading to death, disability, life-threatening conditions or hospitalization, were reported in 74 patients (1,3% of AE-sample), but GPs described a possible or probable connection with trial medication only in 8 cases. Very good or good tolerance was reported by 824 patients in the Compliance Form Patient (96.6% of the total), all subgroups scoring above 90%. ###### Most reported adverse events in the AE-Sample (n = 4769) compared to the Swiss prescribing guidance *AE-Sample* *Swiss prescribing guidance* ------------- ---------------- ------------------------------ **Total** **383 (8.0%)** Dizziness 65 (1.4%) \>1% Nausea 53 (1.1%) \>1% Headache 43 (0.9%) \>1% Dyspepsia 24 (0.5%) 0.5--1% Diarrhea 18 (0.4%) 0.5--1% Palpitation 17 (0.4%) Not mentioned Cough 15 (0.3%) 0.5--1% Fatigue 15 (0.3%) \>1% Vomiting 11 (0.2%) \>1% Tachycardia 10 (0.2%) 0.5--1% Persistence ----------- 3829 patients out of 4639 continued the treatment with irbesartan after the last visit (on average, more than 4 months from the start). The main reasons for discontinuation of the remaining 810 patients were the occurrence of adverse events and an insufficient efficacy (figure [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}). In a logistic regression model, the factors that correlated more strongly with ongoing therapy were a reported good tolerance and reaching the a blood pressure ≤ 140/90 mmHg. Interestingly, pre-treated patients discontinued irbesartan significantly more often when the previous therapy was a fixed combination of antihypertensive agents, but not if they had stopped the pre-treatment because of cough, which on the contrary increased the probability of therapy continuation. Treatment modifications also affected persistence. Thus, if the dose of irbesartan was increased or another antihypertensive agent was added at the first follow up visit (Visit 2), patients had better chances to stay on therapy whereas, if treatment was modified after visit 2, this was associated with more discontinuations. In the former situation 9.5% of patients persisted on therapy. In contrast, if further changes in drug therapy were necessary on visit 3 because of insufficient BP control 35.9% of drug therapies were discontinued. The survival analysis (Cox regression) generally confirmed the statistically significant relationships with persistence found in the logistic regression models (Figure [4](#F4){ref-type="fig"}). An effect detected only by the Cox regression was the positive correlation between persistence and number of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases at baseline (RR = 0.74 for the discontinuation; p = 0.0001). Diabetes did not appear to influence persistence. In both multivariate analyses, the presence of a family history of hypertension or cardiovascular diseases reduced the chances of persistence. {#F3} {#F4} Perception of compliance ------------------------ Patients with ongoing therapy at last visit were asked in the Compliance Form Patient to indicate how many irbesartan tablets they took per week during the preceding 3--4 weeks. Since after about one year only 853 patients returned the form, we have to assume a sampling bias. Nevertheless, some within-group differences are worth mentioning. 777 patients (91.1%) who returned the Compliance Form Patient reported an irbesartan intake of 6--7 times per week, i.e. more than 80% of the prescribed doses. All subgroups scored around 90% (Figure [5](#F5){ref-type="fig"}), but females reported a better compliance than males (92.9% vs. 89.0%; p = 0.021). Patients with isolated systolic hypertension appear to adhere better to therapy than other hypertensives (97.2% vs. 90.2%; p = 0.032), while patients with a low risk for cardiovascular events showed a lower compliance (84%, n.s.). Compliance Forms MD reported an overall ongoing treatment rate with irbesartan of 88.0% (1044 patients), and a slightly higher rate for pre-treated patients (90.4%, n = 728). {#F5} Discussion ========== Taken together, the data of this postmarketing survey confirm that irbesartan is a well tolerated and effective antihypertensive agent when used in a real life setting at the dose of 150 mg qd. More interestingly, our data provide further insights on factors affecting either positively or negatively the persistence with antihypertensive treatment. In particular, our observations point out the importance of a good tolerability profile and of achieving a rapid control of blood pressure in enhancing persistence whereas late changes in treatment and addition of irbesartan in patients already treated with a fixed-dose combination appears to be factors promoting a lower persistence. Prospective observational surveys are not specifically designed to evaluate the antihypertensive efficacy of a new agent since there is generally no control group and the treatment schedule is not standardized. Moreover, there may be a selection bias since the inclusion of patients was not randomised. Nevertheless, this type of survey may provide some valid information on the antihypertensive effect that may be obtained in real life conditions i.e. outside the rigorous context of a clinical trial and the rather large number of patients included certainly limit the effect of a systematic selection bias. In the present case most patients were treated with a 150 mg irbesartan tablet per day because this was the dose recommended at the time the survey was conducted, i.e. soon after the launch of irbesartan in Switzerland. All patient subgroups, but in particular naïve patients, responded positively to the treatment. In fact, in the group of patients with follow-up values and after a mean observation time of 4 months, the average reductions in blood pressure were of comparable magnitude that those obtained in clinical trials and in other post-marketing surveys \[[@B25]-[@B27]\]. Such a substantial reduction could be achieved in spite of the fact that irbesartan 150 mg represents the minimal recommended daily dosage nowadays. Of note, no blood pressure target was pre-defined in our program. Moreover, one should consider that the reported blood pressure values show a clear digit preference for figures ending with a 0 or a 5. This reflects the tendency of the GPs to round blood pressure values, explainable by the wide use of sphygmomanometers. Therefore, the effect on blood pressure was assessed using different criteria. With the generally accepted targets of \<140/90 mmHg or a diastolic BP below 90 mmHg, respectively 26 % and 60% of patients were controlled with 150 mg irbesartan qd. In a more recent survey, in which physicians had the opportunity to use the higher dose of 300 mg or the combinations of irbesartan 150 or 300 mg with hydrochlorothiazide 12.5 mg, the percentage of patients with a blood pressure below 140/90 mmHg increases to more than 60% \[[@B28]\]. Looking at sub-populations, older patients and pre-treated patients had more problems in reaching the therapeutic target chosen for analysis (≤ 140/90 mmHg). The same was true for patients with more cardiovascular risk factors, but not for people with associated clinical conditions -- the highest risk factor according to the WHO 1999 guidelines, JNC-7 and ESH-ESC 2003 guidelines -- who, on the contrary, reached the target more easily \[[@B8],[@B9],[@B29]\]. This observation further emphasize the known difficulty to achieve a good control of systolic blood pressure particularly in elderly patients with isolated systolic hypertension. In post-marketing surveys in real life settings, the evaluation of safety is of great importance. More than 90% of patients tolerated the treatment well or very well according to their GPs and adverse events were reported by only 8% of them. Serious adverse events possibly or probably related to irbesartan occurred in less than ten cases. The patients with more risk factors tolerated irbesartan equally well, despite taking significantly more drugs. The most frequent adverse events were dizziness, nausea, headache, dyspepsia and diarrhea, and occurred at the rate described in the Swiss prescribing information. These data therefore confirm the excellent tolerability profile of angiotensin II receptor antagonists reported in clinical trials \[[@B30]\]. The main observation of the present survey is the assessment of the factors determining long-term persistence with the irbesartan treatment in our population. Out of the 4639 patients with complete follow-up data, 82.5% continued to take irbesartan for more than 4 months. When evaluating factors affecting persistence some interesting observations were made. The first and expected ones are that a good tolerability profile and the achievement of a rapid blood pressure control are positively associated with the long-term persistence with therapy. This finding would therefore encourage the use of well-tolerated antihypertensive drugs such as angiotensin II receptor antagonists at high doses in order to obtain a rapid control of blood pressure. It may also favor the use of fixed dose combinations as first line treatment since these combinations are associated with a low side-effect profile and an improved efficacy \[[@B31]\]. A consistent majority of the study population (61.5%) entered the trial after a failed experience with other antihypertensive drugs. Irbesartan proved to be the drug inducing more persistence in a comparative study with newly-diagnosed patients \[[@B19]\]; therefore, it was also interesting to appraise the persistence rate in pre-treated patients. To our surprise, patients who switched from a fixed combination treatment tended to discontinue irbesartan more often. On the contrary, patients who abandoned the previous treatment because of cough (a class side effect of ACE-Inhibitors), tended to stick more to irbesartan. Moreover, late changes in treatment schedule had a negative impact on persistence whereas early changes in treatment had a rather favorable impact on persistence. These negative influences on persistence are probably linked to the increased complexity of the treatment schedule which is known to impair compliance as well as persistence. Indeed, several previous studies have demonstrated that drug adherence decreases in proportion with the complexity of the drug regimen \[[@B32],[@B33]\]. In this survey, an attempt was made to obtain information on drug adherence using simplified questionnaires addressed to the patients and physicians. Unfortunately, only a small proportion of these questionnaires were filled by the participants. There is therefore a high probability of bias towards highly compliant patients. Moreover, questionnaires are known to overestimate drug adherence. Hence it is not surprising that good compliance with the dosing schedule was reported by more than 90% of the patients after about one year treatment, meaning that this fraction of the patients reported to have taken irbesartan at least 6 times a week in the preceding 3--4 weeks. Yet, the results of more than 1000 questionnaires confirm previous observations such as the lower compliance in men and the absence of effect of age. Indeed, Degoulet at al have also reported thatmale sex is a variable significantly associated with an increased dropout rate in hypertensive patients attending a hypertension clinic \[[@B34]\]. Of interest is the observation that patients with a low cardiovascular risk appear to have a lower compliance whereas those presenting with an isolated systolic hypertension have a higher compliance. These findings may be related to the patients\' perception of their disease and their degree of concern. Thus, patients with a low cardiovascular risk may be less motivated to take their medications whereas patients with high systolic blood pressure may be particularly concerned by their hypertension. In line with this finding, we have found recently that epileptic patients well controlled under treatment are less compliant than those experiencing repeated seizures despite treatment \[[@B35]\]. In conclusion, this survey confirms that irbesartan is a safe and effective antihypertensive drug in clinical practice. A high persistence with irbesartan was found in this program which is likely related to the consistent reductions in blood pressure and the good tolerability profile. This post-marketing survey has also tend to confirm in a large population of patients that achieving an early control of blood pressure may be a positive predictor of persistence. Based on this observation one could encourage physicians to start the antihypertensive therapy more aggressively using higher doses of well tolerated drugs such as angiotensin II receptor antagonists or fixed low-dose combinations in order to improve blood pressure control as well as long-term persistence. Competing Interests =================== All authors had a consultant agreement with both Bristol Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Synthelabo. These companies supported the study financially and monitored the study. Authors\' contributions ======================= MB has written the paper, BH, PG and BW have contributed to the conception of the study, to the analysis of the data and to the redaction of the paper. Pre-publication history ======================= The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: <http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2261/5/13/prepub> Acknowledgements ================ This study was supported by Sanofi-Synthelabo and Bristol-Myers Squibb, Switzerland.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

PubMed Central

Sam Horry Biography Personal Real Name Sam Horry Alias(es) "The Ronin" "The HNIC" Hometown New York City Birthday 10/13/1985 Height 6'2" Weight 245 Handedness Right History Biography Born in the East Elmhurst section of Queens, NY, Sam Horry has from his youth been a driven individual, a trait instilled in him by his father Marshall, who unfortunately passed when Sam was still in his formative years. Sam took the anguish of losing his father and turned it into a competitive fire that few can match. Combining his superior athletic talent with a seeming knack for public speaking, and coupling it all with a basis of martial arts talent, Horry has made a name for himself the world over in both bareknuckle fighting and professional wrestling worlds. Other Feds Other Fed Titles Other Fed Awards Gimmick Sam draws parts of his in-ring style from many sources such as The Great Muta, who he looks to as an idol in the professional wrestling scene, and brings with it an amateur wrestling and all around vale-tudo style, leading to him being hard hitting but at the same time able to hang in a technical or submission match style. Outside the ring, Sam is the life of the party, and he makes no bones about his lifestyle either. Strengths When the Going Gets Tough - Sam performs best under high pressure situations. He can sometimes take over a match and "put a team on his back" if it's a team situation. World Traveled - there are very few situations in or out of the ring that Sam can't handle, and that's because in his extensive travels he's seen just about everything. Time and Time again - Sam keeps his focus by keeping himself in shape by doing many different forms of workout, this usually lets him push himself longer and harder than most seem to be able to. Weaknesses It's What the Ladies Like - Sam doesn't hardly ever have what you could call a "stable relationship" with the other gender of the species, which you wouldn't normally think would matter in a wrestling setting however, when one spends all night doing what Sam does with the ladies, one can be quite drained before important matches. Your Overconfidence is Your Weakness - Sam is very much a cocky bastard at times, but he's one that can back it up, most of the time. Sometimes there are checks the body can't cash, and somehow Sam seems to find a few of those big check types without thinking about the possibility that he might lose. I'd run but...- Sam is also pretty much fearless, confidence, stupidity, whatever you wanna call it, at times no matter how the best of his friends try to get his attention and keep him from getting INTO a fight against overwhelming odds, he doesn't see reason, and you can figure out what happens from there... Quotes I'm the most dangerous fighter alive. Period. Keep Calm and Roundhouse Kick. You ain't got no future, bruh. Say 'goodbye' to tomorrow. Lookin' at me like that, gets you tripped an' snuffed. First an' last warnin'. Never say I ain't never give you nothin'. Chill, son. When I get desperate in a fight, I rely on a technique my sensei called:‘omotai mono de kare no atama wo nagaru’. That pretty much translates to: Crack that muhf*cka in the head with the heaviest object you can find. Worked in the streets, works in the ring. If you ever see me in the forest fightin' a grizzly bear--HELP THE BEAR!!!

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

The CFAR Behavioral Core will provide support and resources for investigative teams which collect information from human subjects. The specific aims of the Behavioral Core address two major areas: recruitment/retention of enrollees in clinical and behavioral studies and quality of assessment of behavioral risk factors, behavioral interventions, and behavioral outcomes related to HIV and AIDS. In regard to recruitment and retention of subjects, the Core is designed to 1) evaluate current methods and strategies to recruit and encourage continued participation in HIV/AIDS studies, 2) develop and test strategies for recruitment and retention of hard to reach populations, 3) assist in training individuals to serve as recruiters and outreach workers, and 4) serve as a repository for information on recruitment and retention. In regard to assessment, the Core is designed to 1) evaluate current methods of assessment, 2) develop and test now approaches to participant interviews, 3) evaluate and refine current measures of assessing adherence and sexual behavior, and 4) serve as resource center for training interviewers.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

NIH ExPorter

Skin Is Not In It Appears As Though Modesty Is Back In Fashion, As Knee-length Skirts And High-waist Pants Replace Miniskirts And Low-rise Jeans. July 8, 2004|By Jean Patteson, Sentinel Staff Writer Sitting down is a complicated maneuver when you're wearing low-rise jeans. "They slide off my butt," says Tiffany Lambert, 14, of Altamonte Springs. She is hanging out at the Altamonte Mall with friends, who all wear low-slung jeans and tiny tops. "You kinda have to pull them up, then hold them up when you sit," explains Rachel Richards, 15, of Longwood. "And not lean forward," adds Tiffany. "Or your underwear sticks out," offers Rachel, giggling. Such is life with skin-baring fashion. But relief is on the way. Skin is no longer in, say the trend-spotters. Not even for teens and 20-somethings. Miniskirts, skimpy tops and those embarrassing, thong-baring jeans are on the way out. They are being replaced by high-waist pants, long-sleeve tunics and knee-grazing skirts. The latest fashion watchword is modesty. A word long missing from the style lexicon, it's suddenly on the tongue of every trend-watcher, on the runways of London, Paris and New York, and in the latest issues of magazines as different as Seventeen, InStyle and Vogue. "Naughty vs. nice," trumpets Vogue's cover. And inside: "The end of the reign of the teen pop temptress. . . . Britney, Paris and Christina are overexposed in every way." Hilary Duff, looking squeaky-clean in a demure, dove-gray jacket over a white top, is Seventeen's cover girl. (Could old-fashioned names such as Hilary also be part of the trend?) In a single season, fashion has flipped from cheesy to cutesy. Fashion experts suggest a number of reasons for the about-face. Some welcome it; others view it with suspicion. But all agree it is happening -- from coast to coast, and for everyone from tweens on up. "The first reason that comes to mind is the most obvious: the fashion pendulum," says Rachel Weingarten, a trends expert and president of GTK Marketing Group in New York. "Fashion is always swinging from one extreme to the other: mini to maxi, tight leggings to baggy pants, bare to covered-up. "Think of Madonna, how she's gone from bustiers to mumsy dresses and floral frocks." There's also the current backlash against showing too much skin, she says -- against Abercrombie & Fitch's naked catalog models; against Janet Jackson's nipple flash during the Super Bowl halftime show. "People have had enough. Even sexualized pop stars are starting to scale back," she says. The backlash against revealing fashions has been unusually virulent in recent months, says Lyn Mikel Brown, an associate professor of women's gender and sexuality studies at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. The reason: Marketers have targeted "even the littlest girls with sexualized clothing and messages." "I think for many parents, myself included, this was the most offensive part of the trend," says Mikel Brown, mother of a preteen daughter. It's hard to explain to an 8-year-old -- and as a mother I resent the fact that I'm pressed to do so -- why certain clothing suggests certain things to certain people." In other words, try explaining "hooker chic" to an 8-year-old. Catherine Stellin, a vice president at Youth Intelligence, a trend-tracking company in Los Angeles, agrees the "slutty look" is passe. "It's oversaturated," she says. "The way to stand out is to go against the grain. Right now, that means having a more covered-up, sophisticated look. "It's nice," she adds, "when trends work in parents' favor." In interviews with girls and young women across the country, "the word `trashy' came up a lot," Stellin says. Teens who a few months ago emulated the provocative style of pop idols such as Jennifer Lopez now are spurning those looks as "trashy," she says. Their new role models are fresh-faced stars such as TV's Mischa Barton of The O.C. and Amber Tamblyn of Joan of Arcadia. The modesty trend is also tied to the political climate, says Stellin. "There's this sense of uncertainty -- about the economy, the threat of terrorism, the war in Iraq, the [Abu Ghraib] prison scandal. These are big issues in people's minds, issues that call for more-serious clothing." Sexy style is the culmination of two major lifestyle forces: "The sexual liberation movements of the 1970s and the physical-fitness craze of the '80s. They merged during the '90s, slowly but surely," says David Wolfe, creative director at the Doneger Group, a trend-forecasting company in New York. "Now low-rise can go no lower -- I hope." Fashion has reached the point of "sleaze fatigue," says Jamie Ross, another consultant with the Doneger Group. "Bare just doesn't look new anymore -- and fashion needs to look new all the time." This quest for newness, and the marketing hype that accompanies each new trend, troubles Colby College's Mikel Brown. "Whenever there's a dramatic shift, it's a marketer's dream. It means there's a whole new line of clothes to market," she says. "I suspect clothing manufacturers are gleeful and are pushing this big-time." Also, watchwords such as "modest" and "demure" raise a red flag for Brown. " `Modesty' sounds like pre- or postfeminist jargon for stepping back, acting nice, not making waves," she explains. "I worry that what will follow is a push for girls to be more accommodating and conservative." She would rather girls be creative, bold and independent -- no matter what trend they follow.

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Pile-CC

NASA conducting 'quiet sonic boom' tests in Galveston over the next two weeks NASA held a news conference to unveil plans to conduct a series of supersonic technology research flights over the Galveston, Texas, area, in support of the agency's Commercial Supersonic Technology Project. The flights, which will take off from nearby Ellington Airport, will take place in November 2018, and feature a NASA aircraft performing a series of supersonic dive maneuvers off the coast.( NASA PHOTO ) less NASA held a news conference to unveil plans to conduct a series of supersonic technology research flights over the Galveston, Texas, area, in support of the agency's Commercial Supersonic Technology Project. ... more Photo: Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle / Houston Chronicle Photo: Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle / Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 77 Caption Close NASA conducting 'quiet sonic boom' tests in Galveston over the next two weeks 1 / 77 Back to Gallery NASA has begun a series of quiet supersonic research flights off the Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston to test how the community responds to the noise from a new experimental aircraft that could eventually cut commercial flight times by half. The space agency on Monday began testing "quiet sonic booms" near the island community using F/A-18 jets as part of its Quiet Supersonic Flights 2018, or QSF18, campaign. The jets are flying over the Gulf of Mexico in a unique maneuver as part of a two-week project to assess public reactions to the noise. "QSF18 is a big step in NASA's efforts to understand what is required for acceptable supersonic overland flight," said Peter Coen, NASA's commercial supersonic technology project manager, in a statement. "This is the first time in decades that we have reached out to a large community as part of our supersonic research," Coen said. "NASA has performed similar tests at our Armstrong Flight Research Center, using similar sounds created by the same F/A-18. We've measured the noise levels and the impact on structures, as well as surveyed people for annoyance, to make certain that these tests are safe and well-planned. We greatly appreciate Galveston's interest and support." NASA officials hope the Galveston tests will help further the agency's goal of perfecting supersonic flight — an elusive goal marred by previous efforts decades ago with the Concorde, an aircraft that could cross the Atlantic in just over three hours by traveling twice the speed of sound. It was eventually banned by federal aviation officials after residents complained about noise from the plane's sonic boom. The public response data that NASA collects will be provided to the Federal Aviation Administration for use in developing new rules about potential supersonic passenger flights that could cut cross-country commercial flight times in half. Currently, the FAA bans these flights over land, in part because of concerns about how they would affect communities and infrastructure on the ground. The F/A-18's supersonic dive maneuver starts out over the water. At around 50,000 feet the aircraft are put into a special dive that still creates a regular sonic boom, however when the sound reaches land it should be heard as a quieter "thump" instead. GALVESTON: Company awarded $145 million to construct 6-miles of Texas border wall While the "quiet thumps" produced by the F/A-18 present no risk of causing physical damage to people or structures, NASA has learned that elements such as atmospheric turbulence and humidity can influence how certain areas may perceive the sound. NASA will operate a number of microphone stations in the area to match up the community's response with the decibel level of each sonic thump. The agency will be conducting community surveys to get feedback on the sound levels of the sonic booms. NASA recruited 500 volunteer residents in Galveston to participate. If they hear the thumps, they will define the level at which they were able to perceive the sound. "Galveston is both honored and excited to be part of this project," Galveston Mayor James Yarbrough said in a written statement. "This is the type of project that motivates engineers and innovators" The data will be used to help NASA better understand successful data-collection methods for future flights using an experimental aircraft called the X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology, or QueSST, demonstrator. Starting in 2022, the X-59 will fly directly over yet-to-be-selected communities to collect data using lessons learned from QSF18. The "quiet thumps" produced by the F/A-18 present no risk of causing physical damage to people or structures. A handful of Galveston residents posted on Facebook about the sonic booms on the first day of testing. "I heard the 'quiet thump' this morning," wrote Jeff Daniels underneath a Facebook post from the City of Galveston about the sonic boom testing. "It's definitely much better than a traditional sonic boom but I wouldn't want to listen to it all the time such as regular commercial air flights. It still rattles the windows." Jerry Baker, another commenter on the same Facebook post, wrote, "I just heard LOUD boom. East end, near beach. Windows lightly rattled in this old house." Want to know more? Individuals can report information and feedback about the booms by calling the NASA hotline at 281-483-5111. They can learn more about the program by visiting the information booth at McGuire Dent Recreation Center at 28th Street and Seawall Boulevard in Galveston. Staff writer Alex Stuckey contributed to this report. Nick Powell covers Galveston County for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and send him tips at [email protected]

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OpenWebText2

Dwight Lowery Dwight Larte Lowery (born January 23, 1986) is an American football safety who is currently a free agent. He was drafted by the New York Jets in the fourth round of the 2008 NFL Draft. He played college football at San Jose State. Early years Lowery attended Soquel High School in Soquel, California where he was an All Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League running back for the Knights during his senior year. Lowery broke the school's scoring record for a single season (25 touchdowns) and the County's single game scoring record (7 TD; 5 rushing, 1 receiving and a returned interception for the games final he earned All-League defensive back his junior and senior year having 20 interceptions in 20 games. Lowery also played basketball and was a 3-year starter on the varsity squad. He earned league MVP honors his junior year, and lead his team into the Central Coast Section Playoffs. College career Cabrillo College Lowery previously attended Cabrillo College in Aptos, California where he played Free Safety and special teams for the Seahawks. During Lowery's Freshman season at Cabrillo College, he received All State defensive back honors and lead California in INTs (9). His Sophomore season was cut short with a hand injury but he still managed four more interceptions in the games following the injury. He left Cabrillo with 13 picks in 15 games. He also led the state in return yards in 2004. San Jose State Lowery was a two-time All-America selection AFCA and FWAA All-America cornerback for San Jose State University. Lowery led the nation in 2006 with 9 interceptions. In his senior season at San Jose State University Lowery recorded 4 interceptions and was named to the all-WAC team in 2007. In the post-season 83rd East–West Shrine Game, Lowery had 2 interceptions. Lowery had applied for a draft grade from the NFL's advisory committee following the 2006 season but decided that he would return in 2007 for his Senior season at SJSU. Awards and honors Named to the 2007 Playboy All-American Team. Named to the 2006 and 2007 AFCA All-America Team Named to the 2007 Scout.com All-America Third Team Earned All-WAC first-team Honors in 2007 Became the first player in San Jose State University history to be named an All-American in back-to-back years. Named to 83rd East-West Shrine All-Star Game in 2008 Professional career New York Jets Impressed with Lowery's versatility and ball skills, the New York Jets would draft him in the fourth round (113th overall) of the 2008 NFL Draft as a cornerback/safety. An injury to cornerback Justin Miller would see Lowery debut in his first NFL game against the Miami Dolphins; Lowery performed modestly with four tackles and three passes defensed. Lowery was named to the NFL's mid-season all-rookie team for his efforts on defense however in November, Lowery was benched in favor of veteran Ty Law. In spite of the benching, Lowery continued to improve and contribute as a backup cornerback earning the praise of his head coach Eric Mangini and his teammates. In 2009, Lowery continued to contribute as a backup and would finish the season with 24 tackles, 9 passes defensed and 3 interceptions. In 2010, Lowery would record his first career touchdown, intercepting Brett Favre on a play that would seal the Jets' victory over the Vikings. Jacksonville Jaguars Lowery was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars for an undisclosed draft pick on September 3, 2011. In his first game with Jacksonville, Lowery intercepted a Matt Hasselbeck pass to seal a Jaguar victory. On March 13, 2012, Lowery agreed to a four-year extension with the Jaguars. He was placed on season-ending injured reserve on December 22, 2012. In week 2 of the 2012 season during the Jaguars home opener loss to the Houston Texans, Lowery tackled a fan who ran onto the field. Lowery's 2013 season ended when he was placed on injured reserve on October 8. He was released from injured reserve on November 4. Atlanta Falcons Lowery signed with the Atlanta Falcons on April 8, 2014. Lowery helped contribute to a struggling Atlanta Falcons defense in 2014. Lowery replaced old Atlanta Falcons Free Safety Thomas Decoud and did an outstanding job. Indianapolis Colts Lowery signed with the Indianapolis Colts on April 3, 2015. San Diego Chargers On March 9, 2016, Lowery signed a three-year contract with the San Diego Chargers. Lowery was signed to fill any empty void previously filled by All-Pro safety Eric Weddle. On September 2, 2017, Lowery was released by the Chargers. NFL statistics ''' Personal life Lowery was born to Tracy Rivers who raised him as single mother. Lowery has six other siblings, including a sister, Aujanae. Lowery is married to his wife, Ashley Lowery. References External links Los Angeles Chargers bio San José State Spartans bio Category:1986 births Category:Living people Category:Sportspeople from Santa Cruz, California Category:Players of American football from California Category:African-American players of American football Category:American football cornerbacks Category:American football safeties Category:Cabrillo Seahawks football players Category:San Jose State Spartans football players Category:New York Jets players Category:Jacksonville Jaguars players Category:Atlanta Falcons players Category:Indianapolis Colts players Category:San Diego Chargers players Category:Los Angeles Chargers players

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Wikipedia (en)

US bail and remand… Nov 2, 2017 (Ed Note: This past week the communiqué has experienced a hardware glitch that ultimately required an extensive amount of revision of the lists of recipients. We had a problem with some recipients getting more than one copy of the e-mail and we have had to do extensive revamping. We think the problem is solved now and we offer both this delayed edition from Nov. 2 and our apologies for any inconvenience. Please let us know if there is any mishap from this point forward of if there is any error. Thanks for both your patience and your support.) Globe and Mail – Julie Macfarlane Millard’s self-representation in murder trial an example of growing crisis Millard is the accused in a murder case who cross-examine both the father and the boyfriend of the victim. Macfarlane is project director, National Self-Represented Litigants Project, and professor of law, University of Windsor and uses the case and the distasteful scene to raise an issue around the increasing numbers of people self-representing themselves in courtrooms. How widespread is the problem: “More than 50 per cent of those appearing in family court (and up to 80 per cent in some downtown Toronto courts) are coming without a lawyer. In civil and appeal courts, the numbers are creeping up above 30 per cent.” MacFarlane is project director, National Self-Represented Litigants Project, and professor of law, University of Windsor. https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/amp/opinion/self-representation-is-an-expanding-crisis-for-our-courts/article36797362/ The Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto, – Anthony Doob and Rosemary Gartner Criminological Highlights Following the usual format, the Newsletter brings a number of diverse issue under scrutiny. This issue of Criminological Highlights addresses the following questions: How can school policies affect crime? Why do Black Americans have less confidence in the police than White Americans? What kinds of jobs will reduce offending among those who have been involved in crime? How do courts punish those who have not been found guilty? Does what men look like affect the sentences they receive? What are the challenges facing First Nations police services in Canada? Do drug courts encourage police to charge minor drug offenders? Why does the incarceration of parents lead, eventually, to lower earnings for their children? http://criminology.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/CrimHighlightsV16N6.pdf CBC News (Edmonton) – Marion Warnica Prison guards accused of using inmates as weapons to cover up alleged sexual harassment – Officials suspend at least 7 people without pay amid investigation Earlier reports last week of unrest and panic in the Edmonton Institution among the women inmates seems to have been well founded. Seven employees have been suspended without pay, the suspensions linked “to allegations of sexual assault, assault, harassment and employee misconduct.” The Edmonton police are investigating. http://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4378784 Related article (June 2017) CBC News – Marion Warnica Edmonton Institution runs on ‘culture of fear’ and intimidation, report finds – Toxicity in the federal prison was so prolific that investigators compared it to 1950s movie The Blob http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/csc-report-toxicity-edmonton-institution-1.4172365 Halifax Examiner A prisoner on prisons: “Habeas Corpus in a Nutshell” This link brings you to the Oct. 17, 2017 edition of The Journal of Prisoners on Prisons. The articles and the links provided, titled “Dialogue on Canada’s Federal Penitentiary System and the Need for Change,” offer a look at conditions inside Canada’s penitentiaries and prisons. On the question of reform, the various authors have identified a bountiful harvest for consideration: “justice, employment issues, programs and education, food and nutrition, visits and correspondence, reintegration and parole, media and communications, a focus on punishment, health and dental care, and mental health care” as key areas of reform. https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/a-prisoner-on-prisons-habeas-corpus-in-a-nutshell/ Related article: CBC News – Joe Lofaro Ontario issues new bail policy to ease strain on jails – Release low-risk offenders into community, ensure conditions ‘realistic,’ prosecutors told http://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4378273

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Pile-CC

This week’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race will feature the largest grid out of all series part of the ‘Super Sebring’ event, with 43 cars on the entry list for the second round of the season. The Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 gets underway Friday at 12:05 p.m. ET with live coverage on IMSA.tv. A total of 28 GS class cars headline the two-hour race, down from the 35 GT4 entries that took part in January’s season-opening round at Daytona. While a number of one-off entrants including TRG, Ian Lacy Racing and Classic BMW are not present, both KohR Motorsports and Carbahn Motorsports have added additional cars for the event. Alec Udell is set to share a third KohR Ford Mustang GT4 with DJ Randall, who started the season in the team’s No. 59 entry, while Mark Siegel and Tom Dyer are listed in a second Carbahn Audi R8 LMS GT4. The pair of Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT4s, meanwhile, feature all-new lineups in drivers from Ford’s NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series program. Ben Rhodes and Myatt Snider are set to share the No. 15 Mustang GT4, with two-time Truck Series champion Matt Crafton to team up with Grant Enfinger. Fifteen TCR entries, meanwhile, are set to do battle, one more than Daytona, following the addition of a second JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi RS 3 LMS TCR for Mikey Taylor and reigning class champion Britt Casey Jr. No other changes have been made to the TCR entry. McLaren Slapped With 50kg Weight Increase The Daytona-winning McLaren 570S GT4 has been given a considerable increase in minimum weight, in the latest round of the Balance of Performance adjustments by IMSA. The British sports car will be 50kg heavier in Sebring, with a new weight of 1535kg, putting it on the same weight as the Mustang GT4, which remains unchanged. Aston Martin’s new-for-2019 Vantage GT4, meanwhile, has been given a 45kg weight reduction along with a 4-liter increase in fuel capacity and adjusted ECU. The only change in TCR comes with rear ride height adjustments for the Alfa Romeo Giuletta TCR, Honda Civic Type-R TCR and Hyundai Veloster N TCR.

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OpenWebText2

Roof construction presents many problems. The roof must be waterproof so that rainwater and melting snow and ice cannot enter the building. In most geographic areas insulation of the roof presents further problems. The roof must be insulated to prevent loss of heat in cold weather when the building is heated, and to prevent entrance of heat in hot weather when the building is air conditioned. Waterproofing and insulation of roofs introduce another problem in that moisture from within the building must no be allowed to condense on the undersurface of a roof, or within the insulation. In addition, the roof surface must be capable of bearing a certain amount of traffic. This may be a very light amount when traffic is necessary only for repairs, or it may be rather heavy traffic in areas where the roof serves as a passageway for access to facilities that must be serviced frequently. In many areas the roof must also be proof against penetration by icicles that may drop from a very substantial height, such as from taller nearby buildings, or from towers above the roof. Various efforts have been made to solve the above and other problems in roof construction. It is common practice to provide a waterproof membrane on top of a roof deck, which membrane may be a single layer of plastic resin or elastomeric material. or which may be built-up of a plurality of layers of suitable fabric or paper combined with asphalt or bitumen. Suitable insulating material is then placed below the roofing deck and a waterproof membrane or the like is placed beneath the insulation to prevent water vapor in the building from penetrating the insulation. Alternatively, there is a known built-up roof construction in which a waterproof membrane is placed directly on or above the roof deck to prevent moisture from passing in either direction. Panels of rigid foam insulation then are applied above the membrane. Protection may be provided for the plastic material such as by separate concrete slabs or panels, by roofing gravel, or by a continuous layer of concrete poured on the site.

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USPTO Backgrounds

John L. Saksun John L. Saksun (May 3, 1922 - November 1, 2016) was a Canadian-Czechoslovakian tool and die maker and precision machinist. He was born in Zalobin, Czechoslovakia. At age 16, shortly after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1938, Saksun left the country for Canada. He founded military and commercial aircraft manufacturer, The Queensway Machine Products Ltd, in 1952. He later founded golf club manufacturer, Accuform Golf in 1975. The Queensway Machine Products Ltd Saksun incorporated The Queensway Machine Products Ltd in 1952 after gaining standing delivering on tank radar and de Havilland Mosquito bomber manufacturing contracts in World War II. The company has since played a central role in Canadian history through its manufacturing of the 1976 Montreal Olympic Torch, involvement with the Alouette 1, involvement with the Avro Arrow, and provisions made for the Canadian Armed Forces during wartime. Queensway Machine has primarily acted as a subcontractor for Boeing, Bell Helicopter, Fleet Canada, de Havilland and McDonnell Douglas over its 65-year operating history. Golf Industry Saksun applied his manufacturing expertise to the golf world in the mid-1970s. He founded Accuform Golf in 1975, which designed and manufactured golf club heads. Saksun also invented the cylindrical-shaped bunker rakes found at most PGA Tour courses and around the world. At the company's peak, Davis Love III, Joey Sindelar, Gary Koch, Mike Donald, Dan Halldorson, Jerry Anderson, Jim Rutledge and Dick Zokol played Accuform clubs. The company was sold to former Labatt president Don MacDougall in the early 1990s. In 1990, Saksun was utilized by the United States Golf Association (USGA) to help solve a controversy regarding the use of square, or U-grooves, in PING's immensely popular PING Eye2 irons. The United States Golf Association argued that players who used the Eye2 had an unfair advantage in imparting spin on the ball, which helps to stop the ball on putting greens. Saksun set up methods of measuring the unique grooves and determined that PING was in compliance with the rulings. However, after proposing a cost-effective solution to help PING change the design of subsequent Eye2s, PING subsequently withdrew its US$100 million lawsuit against the United States Golf Association. Awards Saksun won the Canadian Professional Golf Association (CPGA) Pro-Am Championship in 1979. Saksun was granted Honorary Membership to the Canadian Golf Tour in 2006. References External links Category:Canadian businesspeople Category:Czechoslovak emigrants to Canada Category:1922 births Category:2016 deaths

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Wikipedia (en)

Q: What is the most computationally efficient way to make ripples? I know you can use Dynamic Paint as well as Fluid Simulation with Force Fields to make ripples. I'm sure there are other ways as well. Which way is the least memory and processor intensive of these? A: The most computationally efficient (and easiest) way to make ripples or waves in Blender is to use the Wave Modifier. This feature was in Blender long before fluid simulations, dynamic paint, displacement textures or even modifiers. (It was called an "Effect" back then, but other than that, it has not changed much.) I just tested it on Blender 1.60 from 1999. I bet it was in Blender sooner, but I don't have an Irix machine to test it. (I also know a similar wave tool was in 3ds Max r2 in 1997.) It's a simple procedural operation designed on much slower computers, so it's fast. (I believe it uses the sine function to offset the mesh, also it doesn't need to cache.) You can interactively tinker with the settings and preview the animation. It has options for the size of the wave, when and where it starts, whether it's a ripple circle or a wide wave... It is simple, but you can do more advanced effects with it. For example: to emulate a ripple bouncing off a wall, add another wave with the starting position outside of the object, the same distance to the wall. Here's a video tutorial on using the wave modifier by the Ott Planetarium. A: The simplest way would be to create a blend/gradient texture with a displacement modifier (or simply for a bump map if it's in the distance) and animate the offset by right clicking the property and inserting keys. This won't really work (I think) if the ripples are spherical originating from a single point since I don't know of a way to offset the ripples out of the center. The next cheapest would be the dynamic paint method. The advantages of this is that you get the animation done for you dynamically and fairly realistically, and the mesh density is the same as that of the previous displacement map method. However it can take a fair amount of time to calculate if the mesh is dense and there are multiple sources of dense brush meshes. Lastly is of course the fluid simulator. Only if you really need the ripples and the splashing together should you use this method as it uses huge amounts of ram and calculates very slowly, and also doesn't allow for UVs or any other mesh data. So it's all about what you need it for. If you're not too fussed about the realism of the simulation, it's always quicker to fake a few things than to let blender do it for you. It may be a little more manual work, but it's usually quicker than a hardcore simulation. A: Another solution is the Ocean Simulator. It is built into Blender as a texture, which you can use to either displace a mesh, or use as a normal map. Ocean texture is slower than a normal texture, but can provide great result if that's the kind of ripple you are looking for. http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Modifiers/Simulate/Ocean

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StackExchange

Q: Saving a Bluetooth connection while switching between classes I am working with sending some signals from an App via Bluetooth. The way my application works is that it starts by entering an activity which handles all the Bluetooth related things. Here it shows a layout with all the found devices. When a device is pressed it connects to it, as in: public BTCommunicator myBTCommunicator = null; gets the MAC-address into it. After it is successfully connected, I go to another activity with a bunch of button listeners. What happens is that when you press a button it calls a function from the bluetooth activity, which should send a signal to the external device. public void updateMotorControl(int left, int right) { if (myBTCommunicator != null) { // send messages via the handler sendBTCmessage(BTCommunicator.NO_DELAY, motorLeft, left * directionLeft, 0); sendBTCmessage(BTCommunicator.NO_DELAY, motorRight, right * directionRight, 0); } The problem is that when we return, myBTCommunicator == null again. When I check my external device, it is still connected, but apparently myBTCommunicator isn't saved when you leave and return. Is there a way to solve this? A: Make your Connection Globally Static public BTCommunicator myBTCommunicator = null; To SomeGlobal.class public static BTCommunicator myBTCommunicator;

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StackExchange

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to data processing systems, and more particularly, to bridge systems including mechanisms for transferring information between buses. 2. Description of Related Art Computers can use buses to transfer data between a host processor and various devices, such as memory devices and input/output devices. As used herein an "input/output" device is a device that either generates an input or receives an output (or does both). Thus "input/output" is used in the disjunctive. These buses may be arranged in a hierarchy with the host processor connected to a high level bus reserved for exchanging the data most urgently needed by the processor. Lower level buses may connect to devices having a lower priority. Other reasons exist for providing separate buses. Placing an excessive number of devices on one bus produces high loading. Such loading makes a bus difficult to drive because of the power needed and the delays caused by signaling so many devices. Also, some devices on a bus may periodically act as a master and request control over a bus in order to communicate with a slave device. By segregating some devices on a separate bus, master devices can communicate with other devices on the lower level bus without tying up the bus used by the host processor or other masters. The PCI bus standard is specified by the PCI Special Interest Group of Hillsboro, Oreg. The PCI bus features a 32-bit wide, multiplexed address-data (AD) bus portion, and can be expanded to a 64-bit wide AD bus portion. Maintaining a high data throughput rate (e.g., a 33 MHZ clock rate) on the PCI bus leads to a fixed limitation on the number of electrical AC and DC loads on the bus. Speed considerations also limit the physical length of the bus and the capacitance that can be placed on the bus by the loads, while future PCI bus rates (e.g., 66 MHZ) will exacerbate the electrical load and capacitance concerns. Failure to observe these load restrictions can cause propagation delays and unsynchronized operation between bus devices. To circumvent these loading restrictions, the PCI bus standard specifies a bridge to allow a primary PCI bus to communicate with a secondary PCI bus through such a bridge. Additional loads may be placed on the secondary bus without increasing the loading on the primary bus. For bridges of various types see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,548,730 and 5,694,556. The PCI bridge observes a hierarchy that allows an initiator or bus master on either bus to complete a transaction with a target on the other bus. As used herein, hierarchy refers to a system for which the concept of a higher or lower level has meaning. For example, a PCI bus system is hierarchical on several scores. An ordering of levels is observed in that a high level host processor normally communicates from a higher level bus through a bridge to a lower level bus. An ordering of levels is also observed in that buses at equal levels do not communicate directly but through bridges interconnected by a higher level bus. Also, an ordering of levels is observed in that data is filtered by their addresses before being allowed to pass through a bridge, based on the levels involved. Other hierarchical systems exist that may observe an ordering of levels by using one or more of the foregoing concepts, or by using different concepts. Some personal computers have slots for add-on cards, which allow the card to connect to a peripheral bus in the computer. Because a user often needs additional slots, expansion cards have been designed that will connect between the peripheral bus and an external unit that offers additional slots for add-on cards. For systems for expanding a bus, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,006,981; 5,191,657; and 5,335,329. See also U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,252. For portable computers, special considerations arise when the user wishes to connect additional peripheral devices. Often a user will bring a portable computer to a desktop and connect through a docking station or port replicator to a keyboard, monitor, printer or the like. A user may also wish to connect to a network through a network interface card in the docking station. At times, a user may need additional devices such as hard drives or CD-ROM drives. While technically possible to a limited extent, extending a bus from a portable computer through a cable is difficult because of the large number of wires needed and because of latencies caused by a cable of any significant length. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,696,949 a host chassis has a PCI to PCI bridge that connects through a cabled bus to another PCI to PCI bridge in an expansion chassis. This system is relatively complicated since two independent bridges communicate over a cabled bus. This cabled bus includes essentially all of the lines normally found in a PCI bus. This approach employs a delay technique to deal with clock latencies associated with the cabled bus. A clock signal generated on the expansion side of the cabled bus: (a) is sent across the cabled bus, but experiences a delay commensurate with the cable length; and (b) is delayed an equivalent amount on the expansion side of the cabled bus by a delay line there, before being used on the expansion side. Such a design complicates the system and limits it to a tuned cable of a pre-designed length, making it difficult to accommodate work spaces with various physical layouts. U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,377 shows a primary PCI bus in a portable computer being connected to a PCI to PCI bridge in a docking station. When docked, the primary and secondary buses are physically very close. A cable is not used to allow separation between the docking station and the portable computer. With this arrangement, there is no interface circuitry between the primary PCI bus and the docking station. See also U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,529. U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,597 suggests avoiding additional PCMCIA connectors when connecting a peripheral device to a PC card slot in a portable computer, but does not otherwise disclose any relevant bridging techniques. U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,702 and show a programmable controller for controlling industrial machines and processes. The system exchanges data serially with a variety of input/output modules. One of these modules may be replaced with an expansion module that can serially communicate with several groups of additional input/output modules. This system is not bridge-like in that the manner of communicating with the expansion module is different than the manner of communicating with the input/output modules. For the expansion module the system changes to a block transfer mode where a group of status bytes are transferred for all the expansion devices. This system is also limited to input/output transactions and does not support a variety of addressable memory transactions. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,413,319; and 4,504,927. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,525 another bus designed for instrumentation (IEEE 488 General Purpose Instrumentation Bus) connects to an extender that breaks the bus information into packets that are sent serially through a transmission cable to another extender. This other extender reconstructs the serial packets into parallel data that is applied to a second instrumentation bus. This extender is an intelligent system operating through a message interpretation layer and several other layers before reaching the parallel to serial conversion layer. Thus this system is unlike a bridge. This system is also limited in the type of transactions that it can perform. See also U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,833. U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,491 shows a system for interfacing a local bus to a cable with a large number of wires for interfacing with remote peripherals. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,800,097; 4,787,029; 4,961,140; and 5,430,847. The Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) defines bus standards for a variety of peripheral devices. This SCSI bus is part of an intelligent system that responds to high-level commands. Consequently, SCSI systems require software drivers to enable hardware to communicate to the SCSI bus. This fairly complicated system is quite different from bridges such as bridges as specified under the PCI standard. A variety of other complex techniques and protocols exist for transferring data, including Ethernet, Token Ring, TCP/IP, ISDN, FDDI, HIPPI, ATM, Fibre Channel, etc., but these bear little relation to bridge technology. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,954,949; 5,038,320; 5,111,423; 5,446,869; 5,495,569; 5,497,498; 5,507,002; 5,517,623; 5,530,895; 5,542,055; 5,555,510; 5,572,688; and 5,611,053. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system for transferring information between buses.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

USPTO Backgrounds

Our Work Chester Schools Christian Work functions with two core areas of work; Spiritual and Personal Development. Spiritual Development This is the longest standing area of our work and continues to be in high demand. We are grateful for the value schools place on our contribution to the curriculum as part of the children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Open the Book Is a Nationwide project from the bible society, which we have been doing for over 15 years with teams in over 75% of the Primary schools in Chester. Open The Book presents the Bible in Primary Schools in an accessible and enjoyable way and helps schools meet their statutory collective worship obligations. We have lost count of the amount of times children and staff tell us that Open The Book is their favourite day of the week! We run and support a number of christian unions in schools across the city. Often, these lunch time clubs come in different shapes and sizes, determined by the culture of the school and the people that attend. Our aim for these spaces is to create a safe environment for people to discuss life, faith and spirituality, whether they are someone who is a christian or not. We are privaledged to lead a large number of inspirational, interactive assemblies where we encourage students to reflect upon spiritual and moral issues. Rooted in Christian traditions of prayer, our prayer and reflection spaces are a safe and creative space to reflect. they provide opportunities for children and young people to connect with God and consider how they engage with the world around them. Personal Development Wellbeing is currently the fastest growing element of our work in schools. It has been developed in response to needs and concerns identified by young people. It is a privilege for us to be invited to work alongside students and staff in a variety of different support roles. These enable us to work with both individuals and groups and to build good relationships. The transition to high school can be one of the most demanding changes in the life of a child and that is why we run the 'Its Your move' project, assisting year 6 pupils in their move to high school. THis project enables children to see the potential that high school brings as well as tackling the issues that cause concerns, including bullying, homework, being lonely and getting lost. Each child is given a copy of the Scripture Union booklet, 'It's Your Move'; a brilliant resource packed with great advice about how to prepare for the move and cope with the changed ahead. We are frequently invited on both primary and high school residential trips. Our team have a wealth of experience in this setting and are a great resource to schools. These invitations demonstrate the strength of the relationship and trust between CSCW and Chester schools and enable us to build stronger relationships with both staff and pupils. Hallmarked is a 10 week course for year 8 students that are struggling with their mental health. Our aim is to help prevent mental health problems from DEVELOPING and increase young peoples resilience. The course is designed for 10 students at a time , and we ask teaching staff to select and recommend students whom they think will benefit from the course. Our work aims to equip young people to make intelligent, informed choices about sexual behaviour, by increasing their knowledge and understanding of the value of others and themselves. We teach RSE in a unique way, encouraging young People to take a holistic approach by fixing it firmly within a framework of emotional and social well-being. We also emphasise the value of relationships in our teaching and encourage students to think about what a healthy relationship looks like and to expect this for themselves. For more information on our projects and what CSCW offer, please contact us.

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Pile-CC

Check out our new site Makeup Addiction add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption add your own caption Sees Confession Bear on Front Page Reposts it as Scumbag Steve

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OpenWebText2

What is Website design?Design is the process of gathering concepts, and visually setting up and implementing them, directed by certain concepts for a specific function. Website design is a similar process of development, with the objective of providing the material on electronic web pages, which the end-users can access through the web with the ass What is Web Design?Design is the process of gathering concepts, and aesthetically organizing and executing them, directed by particular principles for a particular purpose. Web design is a similar process of development, with the objective of presenting the content on electronic websites, which the end-users can access through the web with the aid What is Web Design?Style is the procedure of collecting concepts, and aesthetically arranging and executing them, directed by particular principles for a specific function. Website design is a similar procedure of creation, with the intent of providing the material on electronic web pages, which the end-users can access through the web with the hel What is Website design?Style is the procedure of gathering ideas, and aesthetically arranging and implementing them, assisted by certain principles for a specific purpose. Web design is a comparable procedure of production, with the intent of providing the material on electronic web pages, which the end-users can access through the internet with th What is Web Design?Style is the process of collecting concepts, and visually arranging and executing them, assisted by certain principles for a specific purpose. Website design is a comparable process of development, with the objective of presenting the material on electronic web pages, which the end-users can access through the internet with the a

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

Pain and fertility outcomes of nerve-sparing, full-thickness disk or segmental bowel resection for deep infiltrating endometriosis-A prospective cohort study. Choosing the optimal treatment for bowel endometriosis, ie, conservative vs radical surgery, is under debate. We aimed to evaluate the surgical outcomes of segmental resection and disk resection regarding fertility, pain symptoms, and quality of life score of women with colorectal deep infiltrating endometriosis. From March 2011 to December 2016, 134 consecutive patients with symptomatic deep infiltrating endometriosis of the rectosigmoid up to 25 cm from the anal verge undergoing segmental resection or disk resection were prospectively evaluated regarding reduction in pain symptoms, fertility outcomes, and complication rates according to Clavien-Dindo classification. Of the 134 women included, segmental resection was performed in 102 (76.1%) women and disk resection was performed in 32 (23.9%) women. There was no difference in duration of surgery, complication rates, mean hospital stay, or discrepancy in hemoglobin level comparing the two groups. There was no significant difference regarding reduction of pain symptoms, fertility, and functional outcomes. One hundred and twelve (83.6%) women were followed up long-term. In both cohorts, there was a significant reported decrease in pain symptoms and increase in quality of life scores. Of all the 61 infertile women, 26 (42.6%) became pregnant spontaneously, and 13 (21.3%) by in vitro fertilization with an overall pregnancy rate of 63.4%. The overall complication rate (Clavien-Dindo III-IV) was 8 of 134 (5.9%) without statistically significant difference between the cohorts. Both conservative surgery with disk resection, and nerve- and vessel-sparing segmental resection reduce pain symptoms with equal morbidity. Fertility is improved with surgery with both techniques.

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PubMed Abstracts

Background {#Sec1} ========== Based on recent advances in medical equipment, ureteroscopy has become a powerful tool for the diagnosis and endoscopic treatment of patients with urothelial carcinoma (UC) of the upper urinary tract (UUT) \[[@CR1]--[@CR6]\]. The combination of direct visual examination and tumor biopsy by endoscopic cold forceps has led to marked diagnostic accuracy. However, there are potential limitations, such as the endoscopic view can be easily compromised by bleeding, and tissue samples obtained using endoscopic forceps are too small to yield a definitive diagnosis regarding the presence or absence of malignancy. In that situation, subsequent follow-up would be necessary. Data regarding these issues have not been reported. In the present study, we evaluated diagnostic outcomes of ureteroscopy and collected follow-up data on patients who were not considered to have UC of the UUT at the first examination. The aim of this study was to clarify the incidence of later cancer detection and its risk factors after the first examination. Methods {#Sec2} ======= After obtaining the approval of Institutional Review Board of Hokkaido University Hospital for Clinical Research to access patient data, the medical records of patients undergoing ureteroscopy under general or lumbar anesthesia at Hokkaido University Hospital between 1995 and 2012 were reviewed. During this period, 208 patients underwent ureteroscopic procedures. For the present analyses, patients undergoing ureteroscopy mainly for endoscopic treatment for UC of the UUT, urolithiasis, or other diseases were excluded (n = 16). In addition, because of the special circumstances, patients undergoing ureteroscopy through an antegrade approach, an ileal conduit, or ureterocutaneostomy were excluded (n = 16). Patients under 18 years old (n = 2), those undergoing ureteroscopy for the removal of a migrated stent (n = 3), those with failure on ureteroscopy (n = 4), and a patient undergoing ureteroscopy for suspicion of recurrence after conservative treatment of UC of the UUT at the previous hospital were also excluded. Finally, 166 patients undergoing diagnostic ureteroscopy to obtain a diagnosis of UC of the UUT were included. Regarding the indication of diagnostic ureteroscopy, patients with abnormal radiological findings, such as hydronephrosis, a solid mass within the urinary tract, gross hematuria originating from the upper urinary tract, or positive urine cytology with a normal bladder mucosal appearance were considered to be candidates. In patients with apparent imaging findings and positive urinary cytology, we generally proceeded with radical surgery without diagnostic ureteroscopy. Details of procedure {#Sec3} -------------------- Before ureteroscopy, almost all patients underwent cystoscopy, CT, and voided urine cytology at our outpatient clinic. Under general (n = 86) or lumbar (n = 80) anesthesia, we initially performed cystoscopy and, thereafter, observed the upper urinary tract using a semi-rigid ureteroscope. Since 1998, flexible ureteroscopy has also been available in our hospital. Although, during the study period, several models of ureteroscopes were used due to the introduction of new models or simply the wear and tear of equipment, a semi-rigid ureteroscope of Richard Wolf (size: 6.0-7.5 Fr, working channel: 4 Fr) and a flexible ureteroscope of Olympus (size: 5.3-8.4, working channel: 3.6 Fr) were mostly used. With the use of 3 Fr forceps, biopsy of any suspicious region was performed, and samples were processed in formalin fixative. Washing urine samples were also collected. In patients with abnormal cytological findings without apparent abnormal radiological findings, random biopsy of the bladder mucosa was also conducted. In the present study, we examined the diagnostic outcome at the initial ureteroscopy. Thereafter, we collected follow-up data on patients who had been diagnosed without UC of the UUT, and evaluated the incidence of later cancer detection and associated risk factors. Statistical analysis {#Sec4} -------------------- Cox proportional hazard model addressed the association between the clinical characteristics and later cancer detection. Survival probabilities were estimated using Kaplan-Meier methods, and survival distributions were compared with the log-rank test. All calculations were performed using JMP version 11. P-values \< 0.05 were considered significant. Results {#Sec5} ======= Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"} shows the patients' characteristics. The median age was 67.5 years (range: 22--89). Of the 166 patients, 118 (71.1 %) underwent diagnostic ureteroscopy based on abnormal radiological findings, 76 (45.8 %) based on abnormal cytology findings, and 78 (47.0 %) due to macrohematuria (there were overlaps among the groups). In the present cohort, 55 (33.1 %) patients had a concurrent or previous history of bladder cancer.Table 1Patients' characteristicsn = 166Age, yearsMedian: 67.5 (range: 22--89)Sex male/female Male107 (64.5 %) Female59 (35.5 %)Side evaluated by ureteroscopy Unilateral143 (86.1 %) Bilateral23 (13.9 %)Reason for undergoing ureteroscopy Abnormal radiological finding only39 (23.5 %) Abnormal cytological finding only^a^21 (12.7 %) Macrohematuria only13 (7.8 %) Multiple reasons any of the above 3 indications83 (50 %) Missing information10(6 %)Concurrent or previous history of bladder cancer Yes55 (33.1 %) No111 (66.9 %)^a^Abnormal cytological finding means malignant, suspicious, or atypical cells Figure [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"} summarizes the diagnostic outcomes of initial examinations. Of the 166 patients, UC of the UUT was detected in 76 (45.8 %) patients. After the diagnosis, 42 patients underwent nephroureterectomy, 2 underwent nephroureterocystectomy, 2 underwent partial ureterectomy, 1 patient with bilateral UC of the UUT underwent nephrouretectomy and contralateral partial ureterectomy, and 5 underwent endoscopic conservative surgery. Pathological examination after surgery revealed that 49 patients had UC of the UUT, while 3 patients did not show evidence of carcinoma in the surgical specimens. The remaining 24 patients underwent non-surgical treatment (BCG instillation into upper urinary tract: n = 6, systemic chemotherapy: n = 7, palliative therapy: n = 6, and observation: n = 5). Figure [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"} summarizes the diagnostic outcomes of the remaining 90 patients without UC of the UUT at the first examination. Fifty patients, in whom no apparent tumor was observed on ureteroscopic evaluation or pathological evaluation, and washing cytology did not lead to a definitive diagnosis of UC, were considered to be without malignancy or urological disorder. In 22 patients, malignant diseases other than UC of the UUT (bladder cancer: n = 16, renal cell carcinoma: n = 2, other malignancies n = 4) were detected. In addition, non-malignant disorder was detected in 18 patients (ureteral stricture: n = 10, benign tumor: n = 4, urolithiasis: n = 2, others: n = 2). Regarding the complications among the 166 patients, major ureteral injury occurred in one patient with a ureteral stone and severe hydronephrosis, which later resulted in nephrectomy. Minor ureteral injury occurred in 7 patients, which was resolved by ureteral stent placement. No urosepsis occurred after ureteroscopy.Fig. 1Summary of the first examination. UC = urothelial carcinoma. UUT = upper urinary tractFig. 2Summary of the remaining 90 patients without UC of the UUT at the first examination After the first ureteroscopy, follow-up data were available in 65 patients with a median 41-month (range: 3--170 months) follow-up duration, while 25 patients were lost to follow-up. During the follow-up period, 11 patients underwent a second ureteroscopy, and UC of the UUT was detected in 5 patients. An additional patient developed metastatic urothelial carcinoma 33 months after the first examination (case No. 6 in Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}). Therefore, UC of the UUT was detected in a total of 6 patients (6/65, 9.2 %) at a median of 43.5 months (range: 10--59 months) after the first ureterosopy (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"} and Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}). Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"} summarizes the results of uni- and multivariate analyses of risk factors for later cancer detection. Episodes of gross hematuria (p = 0.0048) and abnormal cytological findings (p = 0.0335) during the follow-up and a male sex (p = 0.0316) were adverse risk factors of later cancer detection. When using a multivariate model adjusting for episodes of gross hematuria and abnormal cytological findings, episodes of gross hematuria remained significant (hazard ratio: 7.84, 95 % confidence interval: 1.32-61.7, p = 0.0239).Table 2Summary of the 6 patients with later detection of UC of the UUTCase No.Age, yearsSexSide of first examinationMucosa appearance of upper urinary tract at first examinationWashing cytology at first examinationUreteral biosy at first examinationDiagnosis at first examination155MaleLnormalnot performednot performedbladder cancer271MaleRnormalnegativenegativefree of disorders382MaleRnormalatypicalnot performedbladder cancer468MaleRirregularnegativenegativebladder cancer570MaleLnormalnegativenot performedfree of disorders685MaleLnormalatypicalnegativefree of disordersCase\ No.Side of subsequent cancerEpisode of gross hematuria after first examinationUrine cytology after first examinationDiagnostic methodInterval between first examination and cancer detetionTreatmentPathology1LNonegativeureteroscopy57nephroureterectomyUC,G3 \> 2,pT32RYesnegativeureteroscopy10nephroureterectomyUC,G1 \> 2,pT23RNonegativeureteroscopy60nephroureterectomyUC,G3,pT34RYessuspiciousureteroscopy28BCGUC, G2 \> G3, pTa5BYespositiveureteroscopy55BCG for CIS of UUT-6LYessuspiciousCT33palliative therapy-Table 3Univariate and multivariate analysis of risk factors for later cancer detectionFactorNo. of patientsUnivariate hazard ratio (95 % confidence interval)P-valueMultivariate hazard ratio (95 % confidence interval)P-valueAge, year continuous651.07 (0.99-1.18)0.0807Gross hematuria after first examination Yes1311.3 (2.15-82.8)0.00487.84 (1.32-61.7)0.0239 No5011Cytology after first examination Positive/suspicious/atypical96.6 (1.18-37.0)0.03354.58 (0.689-31.3)0.112 Negative4711Concurrent or previous history of bladder cancer Yes223.09 (0.6-22.4) No4310.177Smoking history Yes324.08 (0.66-78.1) No2610.142Sex5-year cancer-free survival rate, % Male4073 Female251000.0316 Discussion {#Sec6} ========== In the present study, 76 (45.8 %) of the 166 patients were diagnosed with UC of the UUT at the first examination. Although the detection rate of UC of the UUT was lower than in previous studies \[[@CR5], [@CR6]\], we consider that it is strongly influenced by the indication of diagnostic ureteroscopy at each institution. As aforementioned, we proceed directly to radical surgery without ureteroscopy in patients showing apparent imaging findings with a positive urinary cytology, and this would contribute to our lower detection rate. The incidence of urinary stones was low in our cohort, because patients requiring stone treatment were usually referred to our teaching hospitals. At the initial diagnosis, UC of the UUT was not detected in surgical specimens in 3 patients (5.8 %, 3/52). The final pathology revealed dysplasia in one patient and the remaining two patients had neither carcinoma nor dysplasia. Of these three patients, one was diagnosed with a pelvic tumor due to positive washing cytology. This patient had concurrent bladder carcinoma, and contamination by carcinoma cells from bladder cancer would lead to a misdiagnosis. The remaining two patients were diagnosed by mucosal biopsy, which would suggest the difficulty of pathological diagnosis using small biopsy samples. Tsivian et al. reported a similar rate of misdiagnosis (not UC based on final pathologic findings), whereby it was 2.1 % (1/48) with routine ureteroscopic assessment \[[@CR5]\]. Interestingly, they reported that the rate of misdiagnosis was 15.5 % (9/58) before routine ureteroscopic evaluation, which suggested improvement of the diagnostic accuracy due to ureteroscopy. After the first ureteroscopy, follow-up data were available in 65 patients with a median of 41 months (range: 3--170 months), and UC of the UUT was detected on second ureteroscopy in 5 patients. Because one additional patient developed metastatic urothelial carcinoma detected by CT, UC of the UUT was detected in a total of 6 patients (6/65, 9.2 %) at a median of 43.5 months (range: 10--59 months) after the first ureteroscopy, which was an unexpectedly high detection rate. Regarding Case 2 in Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}, because the interval between the first ureteroscopy and definitive diagnosis was relatively short (10 months), we considered that UC of the UUT carcinoma might be missed at the first examination. In the remaining 5 patients, because UC of the UUT was diagnosed after more than two years (range: 28--60 months), these carcinomas might be de novo development rather than being missed at the first examination. Cases 1, 3, and 4 had concurrent bladder cancer, and it is well-known that patients with bladder cancer are at risk of upper urinary tract recurrence. Picozzi et al. reported in their meta-analysis that the incidence of upper urinary tract recurrence after cystectomy ranged from 0.75 to 6.4 % \[[@CR7]\]. However, interestingly, the laterality of the carcinoma was the same as that observed at the first examination in all 6 cases, although we could not clarify the precise mechanism. At present, we consider our observations to suggest that later cancer detection of UC of the UUT was not uncommon after the first examination, but this should be verified in another cohort. Regarding the risk factors of later cancer detection, the univariate model identified episodes of gross hematuria (p = 0.0048) and abnormal cytological findings (p = 0.0335) during the follow-up and a male sex (p = 0.0316) as adverse risk factors. Regarding the sex difference, previous epidemiologic studies revealed conflicting observations of a male \[[@CR8]--[@CR10]\] or a female \[[@CR11]\] predominance in the incidence of UC of the UUT. Alternatively, a difference in accessibility to the upper urinary tract between males and females, due to differences in the urethral length, may influence the outcome. In the present study, the hazard ratio of males to females could not be calculated due to the absence of later cancer detection in the female cohort. When adjusting for episodes of gross hematuria and abnormal cytological findings in the multivariate model, episodes of gross hematuria remained significant (hazard ratio: 7.84, 95 % confidence interval: 1.32-61.7, p = 0.0239). This study had several limitations, including its retrospective design, small sample size, and variations in ureteroscopies, as well as each surgeon's experience and proficiency during the study periods. In addition, we could not follow all patients after the first examination and did not have a uniform follow-up protocol, such as an indication for repeat ureteroscopy. Nevertheless, we consider that several important findings were yielded by the present study. Conclusion {#Sec7} ========== Later cancer detection of UC of the UUT was not uncommon after the first examination. Risk analysis revealed that episodes of gross hematuria (p = 0.0048) and abnormal cytological findings (p = 0.0335) during the follow-up and a male sex (p = 0.0316) were adverse risk factors. UC : Urothelial carcinoma UUT : Upper urinary tract **Competing interests** The authors declare that they have no competing interests. **Authors' contributions** NM and TA drafted the manuscript. SM, KT, and NM collected the follow-up data. TA and SM conducted statistical analysis. TH and AS contributed to the study design. NS and KN revised this manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

PubMed Central

Welcome to the Baer Caev! Pat Baer is a comedian living in New York City who you may have seen at various PAXes with his panels 404ing It, Improvised Postmortem, and League of Heels. You also may have encountered him on Twitch, where he builds Gundams and LEGO. Follow Pat on Twitter here. Battle Chef Brigade exceeded my expectations. A mix of a side scrolling beat-em-up and a match three cooking game, it’s the story that kept me engaged. Battle Chef Brigade is greater than the sum of it’s parts; I don’t think it’d hold up as just as match three game. The total package is one of my favorite gaming experiences of 2017. It’s only this low on the list because it came out in December and I haven’t had enough time with it. New Colossus is a game that I predict I’ll forget I loved. It’s a fine enough shooter with a story that goes some pretty bizarre places, but the game’s biggest asset is that it came out in 2017. A game about small victories over Nazis appealed to me and let me overlook the level design and shooting. If this had come out two years ago, I don’t think it’d be on my list. Why yes, this is the first of two Visual Novels on this list. Butterfly Soup follows 4 queer Asian teens who play baseball. Even though this wasn’t my teen experience, the dialog and the text chats feel genuine and natural. If VN games aren’t your style, at least go the itch page and read the comments. That’s probably the first time I’ve suggested reading internet comments, but trust me. I think you’ll feel good knowing how many people see themselves represented in Butterfly Soup. I love wrestling. This Fire Pro is pretty much what I want in a wrestling game. It just came out of Early Access, but I knew it’d be on my list since it launched. The systems are complex but follow a logic that’s accessible. More importantly, the custom wrestler creation and workshop support is exactly what you expect from a Fire Pro game. The experts out there are already creating every wrestler you can think of. Also someone made me in the workshop. A cool adventure game about a college dropout trying to figure out her place in a town that seems to have moved on without her? Sign me up. It’s the listlessness and small town gossip that keep this story grounded. Sometimes you just wanna break stuff with your loser friends and play your bass, even if there’s a mystery in the woods. Tough jerks with hearts of gold: that’s how I play my open world characters. Yakuza Zero gives me that in spades. Whether it’s helping a band act tough, protecting a fake Michael Jackson from “zombies”, fighting someone as a distraction so a statue man can go pee, or protecting a mushroom salesman, Yakuza Zero lets me solve most problems with my fists and feet. The setting and music kept my interest throughout, even as I was distracted from the main storyline by dance battles and so much karaoke. “But Pat, Pokémon Sun/Moon came out in November 2016!” Yes. But this is my list, and I put well over a hundred hours into my copy of Pokemon Sun in 2017. Sun/Moon represents the biggest overhaul in a Pokémon game in years. Island Challenges replace Gym Battles. Moves like Surf and Fly are now just abilities you can summon, without having to make a Pokémon learn them. Say goodbye to having a normal type in your party that knew Strength and Cut just because you needed SOMEBODY to do that. If you skipped Sun/Moon, get the update Ultra. The new content doesn’t come in till late in the game, so it’s probably not a must have if you just finished Sun/Moon. BTW, have you seen Guzzlord? That’s an incredible Pokémon. Google it. And here’s my other visual novel that made the list. There are so many available dads to date in your new neighborhood. If Butterfly Soup is a solid representation of reality, Dream Daddy is an idyllic paradise that doesn’t ring true in 2017. It’s a sort of wish fulfillment that all these bisexual and gay men all happen to be living in the same cul de sac, and no one has any issues with that at all. Dream Daddy is a traditional dating sim, and that’s fine by me. And if you must know, I wooed Damien Bloodmarch. Of course I went after Goth Dad. Oh yes, my #2 GOTY is the sixth expansion for Hearthstone. With every expansion, Blizzard introduces several new (or modified) game mechanics. Some are more meta changing than others. Lifesteal, a mechanic that some cards had in previous expansions, has done little to change up people’s game style. But players have built decks specifically around the Death Knight cards, which replace your hero and hero power. Mage and Priest decks become basically instant-win when the Death Knight is played, while low tier classes like Hunter were given somewhat of a chance if their DK is included in the right deck. We’re already on the next expansion, but I’ll remember KotFT fondly. So much has already been said about PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Even if the game had missed hitting 1.0 and stayed in Early Access, it’d be my GOTY. I don’t know how many hours I’ll put it Battlegrounds next year, or how many hours I’ll watch live streams and youtube highlights. But the game I engaged with the most in 2017, and got the most enjoyment out of, was hands down PUBG. At this very moment, I’d rather be vaulting in Miramar than finishing this list. See you in Murder Desert?

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Universal Robots wins the Game Changer Award at RoboBusiness in Silicon Valley Going up against widely-profiled competitors, the Danish manufacturer of industrial robot arms, Universal Robots, has won the prestigious Game Changer Award in the Human-Machine Interaction category. It has just been announced that Universal Robots’ UR5 robot arm will take home Robotics Business Review’s inaugural award for best product in the collaborative class featuring human-friendly design, unique safety features, and user-friendly interfaces. The UR5 robot was chosen by a panel of distinguished experts from the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems and the business and investment community along with Robotics Business Review and Robotics Trends editors to join an exclusive group of products deemed most noteworthy. CTO and co-founder of Universal Robots, Esben Østergaard, will be receiving the award along with the company’s National Sales Manager in USA and Canada, Ed Mullen, at the industry event RoboBusiness. This is the 14th award the company has won since 2013 and the first in North America. “To win this kind of recognition in Silicon Valley means the world,” says Østergaard. “We ran in a category competing against some incredible robots, making this award stand out even more.” Esben Østergaard will share the unique story of Universal Robots with the RoboBusiness audience Thursday Oct. 24 during his presentation Toppling Tradition: Making Robots Small, Cheap, Dexterous, and Friendly. Ed Mullen attributes a significant part of his company’s success in North America to the UR robots’ ability to make small and medium sized business competitive. “Our robots address the heart of the ‘reshoring’ debate by optimizing production in companies that would have otherwise lost orders to overseas competitors,” he says. “We’ve succeeded in creating a robot for a market segment that never thought they’d be able to employ a robot due to cost and complexity.” With the UR5, Universal Robots pioneered user friendly, yet sophisticated, 3D programming via an intuitive tablet interface. This has enabled users with no previous programming experience to quickly set up and operate the UR5 robots allowing the machine operators to be promoted to robot programmers. Training a UR robot to perform a task can easily be done via the arrow keys on the tablet—or by simply grabbing the robot arm to demonstrate desired movement. “We’re distinctly different because we offer an out-of-box experience in less than an hour. That’s the time it takes to unpack the robot, mount it and program the first tasks,” says Mullen, who has created a network of 16 distributors now providing full coverage of both Canada and USA. Eighty percent of the more than 2,000 UR robots deployed globally operate with no safety guarding in the immediate vicinity of employees. “When we started to develop our robotic solution, robots were treated like wild animals—caged up and unable to collaborate with humans. We saw a great opportunity to create a robot that could work directly alongside employees,” says the Universal Robots CTO, Esben Østergaard. Editor-in-chief of Robotics Business Review, Tom Green, has followed Universal Robots’ ascend in the robotics industry: “It’s kind of like watching the underdog in a Hollywood movie transforming from a lovable weakling with a great idea into an Iron Man-esque hero for co-robots,” he wrote in a recent article. Green stresses that every Game Changer Award entry was eminently worthy of an award. “Every product entered displayed an imaginative concept, innovative engineering, and great practicality,” he says. “Every entry is a marvelous contribution to robotics. All of which made the judging ever so difficult.” Read the UR5 Game Changer Award entry here. The UR robots Universal Robots is a result of many years of intensive research in robotics. The product portfolio includes the UR5 and UR10 models that handle payloads of up to 11.3 lbs. and 22.6 lbs. respectively. The six-axis robot arms weigh as little as 40 lbs. with reach capabilities of up to 51 inches. Repeatability of +/- .004” allows quick precision handling of even microscopically small parts. If the robots come into contact with an employee, the built-in force control limits the forces at contact and does not cause bodily harm, adhering to the current safety requirements on force and torque limitations. In most applications, this safety feature enables the robots to operate with no safety guards after risk assessments have been conducted. The collaborative robots can quickly be moved around the production sites and are easily integrated in all industries—from the small machine shop to the large auto assembly line. Payback period is typically 3-8 months. The company: Universal Robots is a first mover within a new segment of collaborative robots focusing on user friendliness and flexibility. Since the first UR robot entered the market in 2009, the company has seen substantial growth with the robotic arms now being sold in 50 countries worldwide. The company is headquartered in Odense, Denmark where all development and production is carried out.

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On the streets of Punjab, Bhagwant Mann is now the underdog taking on the establishment, making the once feared and revered Badals and the Akali Dal the butt of devastating rhymes In every Bhagwant Mann rally, the joke is always on the Badals. And it always comes with a loud chorus. Balancing himself atop an SUV — a challenge that makes you pray for a man known also as 'Pegwant Mann' — during a road show in Jalalabad, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader starts with a line that has now become a rage. "Kiklee kaleer di," he says. "Gapp Sukhbir di," the crowd roars back. And it is show time in Jalalabad, in a market falling over itself for a glimpse of the AAP leader. Bhagwant: Chitta mere... Crowd: Mere bhai da.. Bhagwant: Border te... Crowd: Mangai da Bhagwant: Dasso kitta chahi da Crowd: Ghar-ghar pahunchai da Bhagwant: Chitta sadda lahu hai Crowd: Main Badalan di Bahu hai. Main Badalan di Bahu hai... A loud applause, like the clattering of clouds, breaks out. Some dance, some scream. Others try to shake his hand. Almost everyone takes out a mobile phone to record the moment for posterity. And the caravan moves on, till the next kiklee stop. Mann's kiklee, a variation of the rhyme young Punjabi girls sing while playing a game where they hold hands and dance in a circle, has become the theme of the AAP's campaign. With devastating humour, it conveys what Punjab is talking about at every corner: The menace of chitta (a synthetic drug called so because of its shiny white colour). It's amusing to hear a man, who reportedly has a drink problem, talk of nashabandi. Every day, some hilarious anecdote of Mann either stumbling or being so daft as to just blow kisses at rallies for five minutes comes out in the local papers or goes viral on social media. Sometimes he just stares into emptiness with his big, button-type eyes, making you suppress a giggle at his comic face. But such is Mann's craze that people dream of drug-free Punjab every time he raises his fist and chants Inquilab. Mann has become a veritable hero for the underclass, with his earthy, rustic demeanour and colorful lifestyle. In the minds of the electorate, he is cast in the mould of the Amitabh Bachchan of the 80s — a Coolie, a Mard tangewala...even, well, a Sharabi! On the streets of Punjab, he is now the underdog taking on the establishment, making the once feared and revered Badals the butt of devastating rhymes. He has become a symbol of the ire of Punjab's Dalits and youth against the status-quo. Mann is no longer a stand-up comic; he has become the messenger of a revolution. "Apne jaisa banda hai ji, mast hai," says a youth in Jalalabad. In the crowd, an ecstatic supporter claims Mann will win by a huge margin and his rival, deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, will lose his zamanant (deposit). Among the bookies, he is the odds-on favourite to win the biggest battle of the Punjab elections. You realise Mann has already won the war of rhymes, jokes and laughter, when his rivals pay him the ultimate compliment, that of reciting the kiklee, during Navjot Singh Sidhu's rally in far away Amritsar, albeit without giving him credit. Mann's rallies and road shows are a rage, like a film that everyone wants to see repeatedly. So, Mann practically eats, drinks (hopefully) and lives just the election. He hits the road soon after dawn and zips around till dusk. In his trademark yellow turban, white kurta-pyjama and sneakers, he performs the same drill hour after hour: Stand atop his vehicle, crack jokes, recite the kiklee, and when the crowd demands, dance to the tune of jhadoo wala aa gaya, jhadoo wala chhaa gaya. For many, it is cathartic to see Mann on the campaign trail. He soaks up the simmering anger in them, gives voice to their suppressed emotions, and then, with his humour, helps everyone laugh them away. At his rallies, the beaten, battered Punjabis, find a welcome release from the fire that has been raging inside them. Some are angry because of the be-adabi (disrespect) to the Guru Granth Saheb at various places, some are scared of the menace of drugs, and some are just fed up with the status-quo that allowed the Congress and Akali Dal to rule them by turn. His backyard of Malwa, the region left of the Sutlej, has always been known as the cradle of the anti-establishment hero. It was once a cradle of a strong Leftist movement, producing leaders who fought for the rights of Dalits and peasants. Mann has tapped into both the region's history and hopes. It is scary to see so much ride on just one man. It is scarier when the man leading a silent revolution is somebody known to be a bit cavalier and daft in public life. When you see Mann trying to balance himself on his SUV, it seems he is just one misstep away from a great fall, taking the hopes of his followers into a bottomless abyss. For the moment, however, he is doing fine. It is almost dusk now, and his hands and feet are still steady. And, he is still leading a revolution with just one line: kiklee kaleer di.

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Featured Workplace: Inside Prospa's New Sydney Offices Small business lender fintech Prospa has grown incredibly quickly in the five years since it begun. It started with $60 million funding in 2015 and had the eighth biggest capital raise of last year at $25 million, according to Right Click Capital. Prospa uses proprietary technology to facilitate its online loan application workflow, with lending approval and funds available to approved customers within 24 hours. Their latest hire is Raj Bhat, who joins the Sydney fintech as Head of Group Capital Management. He's one of Australia's top debt markets experts, having been involved in over $5 billion in capital raising across a range of ASX-listed and privately held Australasian companies over the past 8 years at KPMG, as well as holding senior roles at Barclays Capital, Westpac and ANZ. Business Insider was recently invited to tour the company’s new office in Sydney CBD. Let's take a look around at their new digs. We'll start at the ground-floor lobby. Prospa is in the same building as MTV and Viacom. Follow that man around the corner to find the lifts. Photo: Daniella Brandy Here's reception on level one. Check out the little living wall in the corner. Photo: Daniella Brandy This is Prospa's mascot dog's teepee bed by reception. His name is Carlos. Photo: Daniella Brandy Carlos is CEO Greg's cavoodle, who visits 2-3 days a week (but unfortunately not when we visited). He even features in a mural in one kitchen. Check in using an iPad Photo: Daniella Brandy and take a seat while you wait. Photo: Daniella Brandy Enter the office, turn right, and here's the function space where company-wide meetings and external events are held. Photo: Daniella Brandy Here's the kitchen on this level. Photo: Daniella Brandy This isn't the main kitchen though, that's one level up. The booth-style seating is popular for meetings and for people to eat lunch together. Photo: Daniella Brandy Here's the mural featuring Carlos the cavoodle. Photo: Daniella Brandy There are funky pods dotted around the office. Photo: Daniella Brandy These ones are used for impromptu meetings, but it looks like this one has been configured to optimise comfort. As you can see, it's open plan Photo: Daniella Brandy but if you need privacy, these pods are the ultimate focus tool. Photo: Daniella Brandy Here's the customer team. Photo: Daniella Brandy They're in charge of acquisition and happiness of clients, and are on the phone a lot. These empty shelves will be filled with knick knacks that Prospa has asked their clients to send over. This tea point is another area for people to congregate and chat. Photo: Daniella Brandy Let's head upstairs. Photo: Daniella Brandy This is the credit team. Photo: Daniella Brandy They have their own space and privacy curtain as they deal with confidential information. Prospa's technology is able to scan 400 different data points to thoroughly check each prospective client's application. This may be enough, but the credit team always a human eye run over every single application before approving, just to be sure all bases are covered. This set up is perfect for video conference calls or small meetings. Photo: Daniella Brandy Here's the main kitchen. Photo: Daniella Brandy There were interesting paraphernalia left over from last week's Friday drinks around the room. Can you see the inflatable swan in the right corner? Friday drinks are a serious occasion here. Each team puts together a cheese board or some nibbles for themselves. For the bigger monthly company-wide update meetings, each team is assigned the responsibility to organise the drinks theme for the whole office. There has been karaoke, an 80's theme where they had a music quiz and prizes for the best costumes, a Mexican theme; complete with sombreros and tequila, and a cruise ship/nautical theme. There's a pool table and ping pong table. Photo: Daniella Brandy The ping pong table gets used a lot. There are tournaments that are played throughout the year, and apparently they can get pretty heated. The perks workers enjoys are excellent. Lunches are provided by Prospa's clients on Wednesdays and Fridays. Photo: Daniella Brandy Wednesday's lunch is the "nice" weekly lunch — healthy things like sushi and salad are on the menu. On Friday, it's more of a cheat-meal vibe with the "naughty" lunch of the week, when pizza and burgers from Bare Grill are served. Otherwise, people bring in their own lunch a lot at Prospa. The engineering team often bring large lunches to share amongst their team to eat together. They even offer massages from qualified masseuses that visit on Mondays and Thursdays. These booths are used for meetings as well as eating lunch. Photo: Daniella Brandy The office is very health-oriented. Photo: Daniella Brandy There's a run club on Tuesdays and Thursdays, ultimate frisbee teams in summer as well as a group that go to the gym together at 6.30am. There are 3 showers (BYO towel). They even have bike racks. Photo: Daniella Brandy It's a separate interview where a small team of people who have been with Prospa for some time interview candidates to review their fit culturally with the company. After moving into their new office, the Prospa team found curios left over from previous tenants. Photo: Daniella Brandy This intriguing contraption sits outside CEO Greg's office — but no one could tell me exactly what it is. One suggestion was it could be a barometric pressure measuring system. Spaces like these are used for lunches or larger meetings. Photo: Daniella Brandy The boardroom gets plenty of natural light, and is used a lot. Photo: Daniella Brandy Meditation workshops are run in here every Wednesday for an hour and are incredibly popular. When Business Insider visited, there was an employee lying down in the boardroom by themselves, having their own meditation session. Down Votes Only logged in users may vote for comments! Get Permalink Trending Stories Right Now Escalator walkers and escalator standers are forever locked in struggle—they are like toilet paper over-the-roll installers and under-the-roll installers, or GIF pronouncers, or one-spacers and two-spacers, only brought head to head every day in the malls, airports, offices, train exits, and sundry moving staircases of the world. And the real-world evidence, it seems, is on the side of the standers. Walkers are a bottleneck, and they’re slowing each other — and the standers — down. Contracts kinda suck. While the telco industry is built on the back of two-year commitments, locking yourself into one provider for as long as 24 months never feels great. What if there’s a better deal? What if the service is terrible? What if you decide to abandon technology and live a nomadic life off the grid?

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Four years ago, Shayna* skipped school with a classmate who promised that if they headed to a local barbershop, she would show her how easy it was to make fast money. “I had no idea what that would be until we got there, and I didn’t realize that she was recruiting me for a pimp,” says Shayna, who accepted a drink from the man upon meeting him. “He began telling me, not asking me, everything I was going to do from that day on. I was scared but interested, because he made it seem like it was the perfect situation. But I didn’t really understand the depth of what he was saying—or what it really meant I would be doing—until he brought in the first guy who bought and violated me. I was only 14 years old.” Shayna, now 18, was trapped in that life for three years, part of the time in metro Atlanta, before she escaped. “I feared for my life through all the sexual assaults, gang rapes, beatings and weapons used by the pimp to keep me in line and generate money,” she recounts through an interview facilitated by Lisa Williams, founder of Living Water for Girls, a treatment facility that helps to restore the lives of girls who have been trafficked. Shayna didn’t even know that her pimp had sold her on the Internet, a common practice in the sex-trafficking world. According to a recent federally funded study on the sex trade, in Atlanta, some pimps make nearly $33,000 a week. Much of this income comes from selling young girls by promoting their business online. I am the ultimate experience. Beautiful Young and Sinfully Tempting. Very Talented. Start with a Touch ~ Always End With a Smile. I will provide very discreet fun sessions. AVAILABLE NOW. There are thousands of online classified ads such as this with naked and likely underage girls erotically posing on websites such as Backpage and Craigs-list. Whoever posted the one above listed the young woman’s age as 19; experts say she’s probably much younger. Welcome to Atlanta According to the Urban Institute, which conducts economic and social policy research, Atlanta is the sex-trafficking capital of the United States, with more than $290 million spent in the metro area in 2007 alone. “We have the world’s busiest airport, so travel in and out is very easy for those who want to purchase our children,” notes DeKalb County Assistant District Attorney Dalia Racine. In a state that also ranks tenth in the nation for interstate superhighways, Atlanta draws tens of millions annually to conventions and major events. Local pimps staff up, out-of-town exploiters bring their sex slaves and “johns”—the term used to describe the men who pay for sex—flock to the city for high-profile occasions. Every month, approximately 7,200 men in Georgia purchase more than 200 girls averaging between ages 12 and 14 for sex, according to youthSpark, an organization that works to end sex trafficking. In Atlanta, 42 percent of those johns live north of the city’s perimeter, which means they’re likely White. But Jennifer Swain, youthSpark’s program director, believes that the true criminals responsible for luring these Black girls are usually much closer. “Most of the girls I deal with in my group are being sexually exploited in their own communities,” says Swain. “It’s the people in your ’hood—that older man who’s known you and your cousins, and now he’s wanting to have sex with you.” In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that 40 percent of all sex trafficking victims were Black. Racine says the majority of cases she handles in DeKalb County, which has an African-American population of nearly 55 percent, involve Black children. But interestingly enough, being Black doesn’t make you any more valuable to a pimp. “Even within the world of exploitation, you are considered more elevated in the game if you are able to recruit White girls,” explains Racine. “Black females are called ducks and White females are called swans; you will always be able to make more money with a White child.” Spend an hour or so on Backpage or other sites where prices are listed looking for Black girls who are prostituted in Atlanta, and you’ll find that the going rate seems to be between $40 and $100 for a variety of “services,” including some bargain-based “tonight only” sales. Trolling for White girls? You’ll rarely see a price at all. Ride Along One of these ads led DeKalb County Police Sgt. Torrey Kennedy to a seedy motel room where the carpet was dirty, the walls smudged and on the bed lay a Hello Kitty doll. An ashtray filled with cigar butts, a condom, a can of Colt 45 and a $100 bill littered the nightstand. Sgt. Kennedy, an officer in the county’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit, was there trying to convince a young woman sitting on the rumpled bed in handcuffs to enter into a program that could save her life. “I don’t know you. I’m not your pimp. I’m not your friend. I’m not a family member. I’m not using you. I don’t want anything from you,” he told her. “My sole purpose, every day I wake up and put this gun and badge on, is to help young ladies like you.” Looking all of 17 but actually 25, the young woman began to cry, refusing to give her name as the fear of what might come next was all too real for her. Outside, her 28-year-old pimp was surrounded by officers and giving no information except to brag that he had three children by the young woman and “kids from other girls, too.” Variations on this scene played out until about 3:00 a.m., ending a sting that involved more than 150 officers from a dozen agencies across the Atlanta metro area. In March, 37 agencies across the state of Georgia collaborated in “Operation Broken Heart,” which netted 14 arrests, including an elementary school principal, for allegedly traveling to Atlanta to meet a child for sex. Lured Online Policing sex traffickers is getting harder for law enforcement because of the proliferation of sites targeting children on the Internet. “Social media is the No.1 recruitment tool,” says Racine, sharing that the Internet Crimes Against Children unit is the lead in the county’s sexual exploitation of children cases. “All children are vulnerable, not just runaways,” states survivor-turned-advocate Keisha Head, who intimately understands the trafficker’s approach. For eight years when she was a child, Head was molested by two male family members. By the time she was 16, she had run away from 42 foster or group homes, only to end up being trafficked by one of Atlanta’s most notorious pimps, “Sir Charles” Pipkins. Head was terrified. Pipkins threatened to abduct her child and had had his name literally branded across her back. She was abused regularly, forced to bring in $1,000 a night turning tricks and raped almost 20 times in her first six months on the street. “You’re being raped, you’re being beaten and you’ve been kidnapped. Every night, a different horrific thing is happening and you’re escaping with your life,” reveals Head, who shares her story with at-risk girls and those who have been trafficked. She also helped develop youthSpark’s prevention curriculum, which dispels the glamorization of sex trafficking. “At some point, you realize that it’s not worth the money because your life is always in danger.” Pipkins was found guilty of child prostitution, racketeering and a host of other charges. He received a 30-year prison term in a landmark 2002 case in Georgia, said to be one of the nation’s first with such severe sentencing of a convicted sex trafficker. Head had stopped turning tricks by the time she was 18 but confesses she didn’t totally leave the life. “I became a madam and did that for eight years,” she admits. “I was thinking, ‘I’m out here hustling, making money. I’m teaching my girls we’re an entourage, and we don’t care how men think. We’re anti-pimp.’ It was just twisted.” Like Head, most prostituted women have been exploited since they were youngsters. “The pimps’ jobs have become much easier because somebody’s already groomed these children for this life,” says Racine, who has handled crimes against women and children for much of her career. “Seventy to 90 percent of these girls have already been abused in what is supposed to be the safety of their homes.” YouthSpark reports that some children who have been sexually abused equate love with sex and abuse because their boundaries have been violated. There are feelings of guilt and shame instead of a thriving self-worth. Add the likelihood of poverty, and by the time these girls are approached by a trafficker, many are desperate not only for someone who can provide food, clothing and shelter but also affection. The first spokesperson for youthSpark, Sharon Saffold, 39, was once one of those girls. Having spent her early years in the tumultuous foster care system, she survived a decade on her own after her mother kicked her out when she was in the eighth grade. She partially blames the people in her housing project for aiding in the culture of exploitation by staying silent when they knew that grown men were approaching her for sex. Advocating for Girls In the late 1990s, three African-American women, Georgia’s Fulton County Juvenile Court Judge Nina Hickson; Deborah Richardson, the court’s director of programs; and County Commissioner Nancy Boxill, became champions for the cause. They demanded girls not be labeled as prostitutes but as victims, advocated for services on their behalf, challenged the local media to expose the problem and started spreading the word at community events and town hall meetings. Their work led to a coalition that changed laws to increase trafficking penalties in the state. Using DeKalb County as a test model, Racine says they have developed a template for the state to follow, which includes having rescued girls treated by nurses specially trained in criminal sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) methods and forensic interviews conducted by CSEC-trained staffers. This particular approach aids in investigations and, more important, increases the likelihood of these girls having a normal life again. For those young women already being exploited, Saffold says hope lies in giving them options. She endured years of violent sexual abuse, jail time, drug dealing and suicide attempts and is now a wife, mother and successful motivational speaker attending Spelman College with her daughter. “Right now, the only plan we have is to raise awareness and get them off the street so the pimps can’t hurt them and johns can’t sleep with them. But it’s not enough. It’s not nearly enough.” There are organizations answering that call. Shayna entered the Living Water for Girls residential treatment facility after her mother helped her escape the life. Shayna believes meeting Williams, the organization’s founder, improved her life dramatically. “She understood what I went through and helped me see that my past didn’t have to dictate my future, and that my life had value.” Having now completed her GED, Shayna plans to pursue a career as a veterinarian, and she recently contributed to a CNN documentary about sex trafficking with actress and activist Jada Pinkett Smith. “I hope girls watch it,” she says. “I’m sharing my experiences so that I can help prevent someone else from becoming a victim.” *Name has been changed to protect anonymity

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####”Jazz washes away the dust of everyday life.” - Art Blakey “Without music, life would be a mistake.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche How often do you hear about jazz being difficult, not accessible and generally something scary? Often? Well, maybe not since talking about jazz scarcely happens in the first place. When it does it tends to have this connotation that jazz is overly complex and not for an everyday man. But is this really the case? I’m here to tell you a little secret that I’m pretty sure no one has ever told you. Are you ready? Jazz is for everyone! *Gasp* Yes, that includes you. I know, I know, it’s very possible that the mere thought of jazz makes you roll your eyes and think of endless solos that don’t make any sense and that sound… well, weird. Or perhaps you think it’s supposed to be sophisticated and it would be cool to listen to it, but it’s simply too overwhelming and difficult. Whatever the case, it’s likely that you think ‘It’s just not for me’. That’s most people’s relationship to jazz. So I am writing this post because it doesn’t work for me that we live in a world where such an immense art form is mostly overlooked and misunderstood. I honestly believe every single person has a place in their heart for jazz. It is not meant for only a handful of people, but should be enjoyed by everyone. It has so much to give and I really don’t want anyone to miss out on that. Jazz is for everyone, people! "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for." - John Keating, The Dead Poet Society Public image and media are making us believe otherwise. It seems to me that jazz is always portrayed as something that is meant only for a small and chosen minority. This leads to people avoiding jazz altogether. Maybe the thought of listening and liking jazz has simply never crossed their minds, or maybe they see it as something too difficult, therefore not something they would want to get into (i.e., “It’s just not for me”). You might see yourself in here too. I get that and I can relate to that feeling. I used to feel this way some years ago. And today? Today I see something else. Jazz is incredibly diverse and it is actually such a broad term. The area it covers is vast. One of the reasons I love jazz so much is how diverse it is. Anything that you could possibly imagine and anything that you couldn’t, is covered. There is something for everyone! So when I hear people say that it’s not for them or that it’s difficult to listen to, I know this has more to do with the perception of this music than the reality. Because you know what’s almost always the case? People hear one or two jazz songs and after they don’t like it they decide jazz is not for them. However not liking some songs says nothing about your relationship to the whole genre. Nobody likes everything. That’s ok and we’re all the same in that. I mean I am what you would call a jazz lover (in case you haven’t noticed already), but there is tons of acclaimed jazz music that I don’t enjoy. You don’t have to like everything, nobody does. But don’t disregard the whole genre because of that. Before I started listening to jazz I fell into this trap too. I was pretty certain that I didn’t like it, until it swoop me off my feet one day. Which came as a shock. I didn’t see it coming at all. I’m not saying everyone will go head over heels for jazz like I did - I’m just saying you may not be aware of it yet, but I’m 100% certain there is a place in your heart for jazz. To be clear, I’m not promoting everyone should start getting crazy over jazz. Not at all, that would be no good. Diversity in the world is what makes life beautiful. What I am saying though, is that people get afraid of jazz and that shouldn’t happen. It’s such a precious treasure and failing to see its value and treating it like it’s difficult and only for a ‘chosen’ minority is no good. Musicians don’t get the recognition they deserve, and most of the world is missing out on something huge. Something exciting, exquisite, and one of the most honest forms of human communication. ##Why jazz? The reason I am writing about this is that I passionately believe jazz is one of the finer things life has to offer. It’s far-reaching and speaks to tolerance and encourages individuality and diversity at the same time. It can be exciting or relaxed, intense or mellow, joyful or anguished, sensuous or childish but most importantly it’s always honest. The stories it tells are relevant and relatable. The people who have been creating it come from all walks of life. They are as diverse as they come, but they all share the devotion and passion for music and give it their everything. Simply put, at the end of the day jazz is fun, fulfilling and… it swings! I’m certain there isn’t a person alive who couldn’t use a piece of that in their lives. “Jazz music celebrates life! Human life; the range of it, the absurdity of it, the ignorance of it, the greatness of it, the intelligence of it, the sexuality of it, the profundity of it. And it deals with it. In all of its… It deals with it!” - Wynton Marsalis ##Why does it matter? In this day and age where radios and TVs play mostly over-produced soulless music, made with the sole purpose of earning as much money as possible, we are blasted with superficial crap with no originality. It’s intentionally made simple and uses proven hooks that are bound to bring in cash. The commercial radios poison our ears by playing same stuff over and over again. They’d rather play one song a hundred times than play something that deviates from their mold. In turn, they numb our senses and make it harder and harder to be really touched by a piece of music. It is rare or practically impossible to hear something authentic, honest and from the heart. I think that’s awful and no one should stand idly by and suffer that. Music is something that can enrich our lives extensively. And jazz offers that full-heartedly. Do yourself a favour. Take a step away from the everyday, shallow stuff that’s blasting at you and take the time to enjoy something that’s soulful, honest and courageous. It will put a spark in your life. “I was in awe of jazz musicians because of their power, because of the mystery of their sinuous but overwhelming power. Nothing else in my experience was so exhilarating, so utterly compelling. The laughter in the music, the intimacy, the range and bite of the life-tales each player told in textures and cadences entirely his own. The irony, the deep blues, and, as I grew older, the sensuousness.” - Nat Hentoff, Jazz Is ##Ok, let’s do this So how do you get into jazz? Since it’s so vast, where do you begin, how do you find a piece of it that you enjoy? That’s a whole different story and I will get into that in my next post, so stay tuned.

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Maybe you once thought the CIA wasn't supposed to spy on Americans here in the United States. That concept is so yesteryear. Over time, the CIA upper echelon has secretly developed all kinds of policy statements and legal rationales to justify routine, widespread surveillance on U.S. soil of citizens who aren't suspected of terrorism or being a spy. The latest outrage is found in newly declassified documents from 2014. They reveal the CIA not only intercepted emails of U.S. citizens but they were emails of the most sensitive kind - written to Congress and involving whistleblowers reporting alleged wrongdoing within the Intelligence Community. The disclosures, kept secret until now, are two letters of "congressional notification" from the Intelligence Community inspector general at the time, Charles McCullough. He stated that during "routine counterintelligence monitoring of government computer systems," the CIA collected emails between congressional staff and the CIA's head of whistleblowing and source protection. McCullough added that he was concerned about the CIA's "potential compromise to whistleblower confidentiality and the consequent 'chilling effect' that the present [counterintelligence] monitoring system might have on Intelligence Community whistleblowing." "Most of these emails concerned pending and developing whistleblower complaints," McCullough stated in the letters to lead Democrats and Republicans at the time on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees - Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), and Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.). The March 2014 intercepts, conducted under the leadership of CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, happened amid what's widely referred to as the Obama administration's war on whistleblowers and mass surveillance scandals. Is that legal? According to the CIA, the spy agency has been limited since the 1970s to collecting intelligence "only for an authorized intelligence purpose; for example, if there is a reason to believe that an individual is involved in espionage or international terrorist activities" and "procedures require senior approval for any such collection that is allowed." But here's where it gets slippery. It turns out the CIA claims it must engage in "routine counterintelligence monitoring of government computers" to make sure certain employees aren't doing bad things. Poof! Now, all kinds of U.S. citizens and their communications can be swept into the dragnet - and it's deemed perfectly legal. It's just an accident or "incidental," after all, if the CIA happens to pick up whistleblower communications with the legislative branch. Or maybe it's a lucky break for certain CIA officials. The only reason we know any of this now is thanks to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), whose staffers were among those spied on. Grassley says it took four years for him to get the shocking "congressional notifications" declassified so they could be made public. First, Grassley says, Clapper and Brennan dragged their feet, blocking their release. Their successors in the Trump administration were no more responsive. Only when Grassley recently appealed to current Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who was sworn in on May 17, was the material finally declassified. "The fact that the CIA under the Obama administration was reading congressional staff's emails about Intelligence Community whistleblowers raises serious policy concerns, as well as potential constitutional separation-of-powers issues that must be discussed publicly," wrote Grassley in a statement. Legal or not, there was a time when this news would have so shocked our sensibilities - and would have been considered so antithetical to our Constitution by so many - that it would have prompted a swift, national outcry. But today, we've grown numb. Outrage has been replaced by a cynical, "Who's surprised about that?" or the persistent belief that "Nothing's really going to be done about it," and, worst of all, "What's so bad about it, anyway?" Some see the intel community's alleged abuses during campaign 2016 as its own major scandal. But I see it as a crucial piece of a puzzle. The evidence points to bad actors targeting candidate Donald Trump and his associates in part to keep them - and us - from learning about and digging into an even bigger scandal: our Intelligence Community increasingly spying on its own citizens, journalists, members of Congress and political enemies for the better part of two decades, if not longer. Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) is an Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist, author of The New York Times bestsellers "The Smear" and "Stonewalled," and host of Sinclair's Sunday TV program, "Full Measure."

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Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 1 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED No. 12-60841 January 24, 2014 Lyle W. Cayce UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Clerk Plaintiff–Appellee v. BRIAN ROBINSON, Defendant–Appellant Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi Before SMITH, PRADO, and ELROD, Circuit Judges. EDWARD C. PRADO, Circuit Judge: Defendant–Appellant Brian Robinson was convicted of producing, possessing, and distributing child pornography. He challenges the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence and his 720-month sentence. We affirm the denial of his motion to suppress, but vacate his sentence and remand for resentencing because the district court did not appreciate its authority to consider evidence of Robinson’s cooperation under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND In 2010, federal investigators discovered images of child pornography in a suspect’s possession. Two sets of images were sent over the internet in June  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 2 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 and July 2010 by a person using the username “lowkey” on the instant messaging service ICQ. Information embedded within the images indicated that the sets of images had been taken on May 20, 2008, and January 26, 2009. Investigators obtained subscriber information and Internet Protocol (“IP”) logs related to the “lowkey” account. Investigators further determined that the account had been accessed numerous times from a particular IP address assigned to Accurate Roofing Company, Inc. (“Accurate Roofing”) in Potts Camp, Mississippi. In March 2011, investigators obtained a search warrant for Accurate Roofing. Prior to serving this search warrant at Accurate Roofing, investigators determined that the child in the images was the young son of Brian Robinson, who was a vice-president of Accurate Roofing. Based on the original affidavit and the additional information identifying Robinson’s son, investigators also obtained a search warrant for Robinson’s home. At Accurate Roofing, investigators found a computer and a separate thumb drive that contained a combined 260 images of child pornography and 19 videos of child pornography. They also discovered evidence that Robinson’s workplace computer had been used to access the “lowkey” account. At his residence, agents found clothing, household items, and furniture that appeared in the pornographic images. Robinson initially agreed to speak with investigators; however, when he was asked how images of his son had come to be on another person’s computer, Robinson stopped the interview. He was arrested on state charges of child exploitation. The next day, after being advised of his rights, Robinson gave a full recorded confession. He admitted that the “lowkey” account was his and that he had sent images of his son to other persons using that account. Robinson was indicted on two counts of production of child pornography (18 2  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 3 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 U.S.C. § 2251(a)), two counts of distribution of child pornography (18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(1)), and one count of possession of child pornography (18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B)). Robinson moved to suppress the evidence obtained through the searches of his workplace and home as well as his statement to investigators. He argued that the affidavit submitted in support of the warrant to search Accurate Roofing “failed to establish a nexus between the place to be searched and the evidence sought” because it failed to disclose both that other IP addresses had accessed the “lowkey” account and that investigators did not know which IP address had accessed the account at the time the images were transmitted. As for the affidavit in support of the warrant to search his residence, Robinson argued that the affidavit failed to assert that the household items seen in the images were still in the residence when the search warrant was sought in 2011. Finally, because he had invoked his right to counsel the day before he gave his incriminating statement to investigators, Robinson argued that his statement should be suppressed. The district court denied the suppression motions after an evidentiary hearing. Pursuant to a conditional plea agreement, Robinson pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography. He reserved the right to appeal the denial of his motions to suppress. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(a)(2). The presentencing report (“PSR”) calculated a total offense level of 43. Because Robinson had no criminal history, his criminal history category was I. These calculations resulted in a guidelines range of imprisonment for life. However, the sum of the statutory maximum sentences for each count of conviction was 720 months, making this the guidelines sentence. Robinson 3  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 4 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 filed a sentencing memorandum, 1 which, in relevant part, requested a lower sentence based on his cooperation with investigators in at least two other cases. At sentencing, Robinson urged the district court to consider his cooperation with authorities when considering the sentencing factors of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2). The district court adopted the PSR; stated that it had considered the advisory guidelines range, the statutory ranges, and the sentencing factors of § 3553(a); and found no reason to depart from the guidelines range. Robinson was sentenced to a total of 720 months of imprisonment. 2 Addressing his cooperation with authorities, the district court “acknowledge[d]” those efforts, but it stated that “it does you no good for the purposes of sentencing in that the Court does not have before it a [U.S.S.G. §] 5K[1.1] motion to consider.” The district court further stated that it was a “moot question” whether Robinson would have received a reduction under § 5K1.1 because the Government had chosen not to file such a motion. The district court represented that it was not considering all the § 3553(a) factors: I represent on the record that if the Court were to consider those [§ 3553] factors, it would not have helped Mr. Robinson at all in his sentence because when the Court considers the nature and circumstances of this offense [it] finds that there is no reason when [sic] he would be entitled to any reduction due to this charge of molesting his child, his own son, and distributing pornography of his son. Robinson filed one objection to the guidelines calculations regarding grouping of the 1 counts, but both he and the probation officer agreed that the resolution of this objection would not affect the final offense level. 2An amended judgment was filed several months later, after no victims requested restitution. 4  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 5 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 The district court reiterated this statement: “If I considered all the factors under [§] 3553 . . . the Court would still be of the opinion that a 720-month sentence is appropriate in this case.” Robinson unsuccessfully objected that the sentence imposed was substantively unreasonable. He filed a timely notice of appeal from the amended judgment. II. DISCUSSION Robinson appeals (1) the district court’s denial of his motions to suppress the evidence seized from Accurate Roofing and from his residence and (2) the procedural and substantive reasonableness of his sentence. We first address Robinson’s suppression challenge. A. Suppression 1. Standard of Review and Applicable Law When reviewing a denial of a motion to suppress evidence, this Court reviews factual findings for clear error and the ultimate constitutionality of law enforcement action de novo. United States v. Charles, 469 F.3d 402, 405 (5th Cir. 2006). The clearly erroneous standard is particularly deferential where, as here, “denial of a suppression motion is based on live oral testimony . . . because the judge had the opportunity to observe the demeanor of the witnesses.” United States v. Gibbs, 421 F.3d 352, 357 (5th Cir. 2005) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). We apply a two-step test to determine whether to suppress evidence under the exclusionary rule: first, we ask whether the good faith exception to the rule applies, and second, we ask whether the warrant was supported by probable cause. United States v. Mays, 466 F.3d 335, 342–43 (5th Cir. 2006) (citation omitted). The good faith exception to the exclusionary rule provides “that evidence obtained by law enforcement officials acting in objectively reasonable good-faith reliance upon a search warrant is admissible” even if the 5  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 6 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 affidavit on which the warrant was grounded was insufficient to establish probable cause. United States v. Shugart, 117 F.3d 838, 843 (5th Cir. 1997) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). This Court has recognized several circumstances in which the good faith exception does not apply, including where the judge who issued the warrant acted after being “misled by information in an affidavit that the affiant knew was false or would have known was false except for his reckless disregard of the truth,” or the affidavit upon which the warrant is founded is “so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to render official belief in its existence entirely unreasonable.” Mays, 466 F.3d at 343 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). 2. Search Warrant for Accurate Roofing Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Brent Lyons prepared the affidavit in support of the search warrant for Accurate Roofing. The affidavit alleged that the IP address assigned to Accurate Roofing “was utilized to transfer images of child pornography via the Internet by using an online instant messaging chat program in approximately June and July 2010.” It also stated that investigators had learned the IP address most recently used (on December 15, 2010) to log in to the “lowkey” account was assigned to Accurate Roofing and that IP addresses assigned to Accurate Roofing had been used to log in to the “lowkey” account on multiple other (unspecified) dates. Agent Lyons testified at the suppression hearing. He stated that investigators had requested six months of login data for the “lowkey” account, but the internet service provider could provide only approximately three months of data. He acknowledged that the records the investigators received did not include login data for June and July 2010, when the subject images had been transmitted, and that this fact had not been included in the warrant 6  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 7 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 application or supporting affidavit. However, Agent Lyons asserted that, for the period covered by the records, “almost all” of the logins to the “lowkey” account had been from IP addresses associated with Accurate Roofing. In particular, he stated that, of the approximately sixty logins to the “lowkey” account between October and December 2010, all but “five [or] six” came from IP addresses associated with Accurate Roofing. In rejecting Robinson’s motion to suppress the evidence seized from Accurate Roofing, the district court found that there were no records available to show what IP address had logged in to the “lowkey” account at the time the subject images were transmitted. However, it also noted that the records provided showed “multiple matches for the log-in to the ICQ Lowkey account and the IP address assigned to Accurate Roofing during the October through December time period.” The district court concluded that, at the time the warrant application was made, the investigators “had sufficient, reliable information to believe that . . . the IP address assigned to Accurate Roofing was being utilized for these transmissions” and that, therefore, “there was a sufficient nexus” between the location and the evidence sought. The district court also found that, even if the affidavit had included the information that the “lowkey” account had been accessed from other IP addresses, this “would not have negated a finding of probable cause” and that there was still “sufficient evidence to support a finding of probable cause”; it also concluded that, while the omission of this information may have been negligent, it was not “intentional or in reckless disregard.” Robinson argues that the good faith exception does not apply because the affidavit in support of the warrant application for Accurate Roofing was misleading and omitted important information. He asserts that the affidavit failed to disclose that the available records for the “lowkey” account dated back 7  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 8 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 only to October of 2010, several months after the subject images were sent. He also asserts that the affidavit failed to disclose that these records showed that the “lowkey” account had been accessed by other IP addresses not associated with Accurate Roofing. Robinson argues that these “omissions in the affidavit made it falsely appear” that the evidence showed that an IP address associated with Accurate Roofing had sent the subject images in June and July 2010. In response, the Government argues that these omissions were not dispositive. It notes that the district court found that, even if the information about logins from other IP addresses had been included in the affidavit, this would not have negated the finding of probable cause. To defeat the good faith exception, a movant must not only show that there was a knowing or reckless falsehood; he must also show “that without the falsehood there would not be sufficient matter in the affidavit to support the issuance of the warrant.” United States v. Davis, 226 F.3d 346, 351 (5th Cir. 2000). The omitted material must be “information that is not only relevant, but dispositive, so that if the omitted fact were included, there would not be probable cause.” Id. The district court did not err in finding that this evidence was not dispositive, because, even if the omitted information had been included in the affidavit, there would still have been probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant. See id. The affidavit stated that the “lowkey” account had most recently been accessed from an IP address assigned to Accurate Roofing. Investigators had determined that this same IP address had been used to login to the “lowkey” account on multiple other occasions. Thus, even if the affidavit had acknowledged that agents did not have records for the specific dates when the images were transmitted, these facts would still establish a “fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime” would be found at that 8  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 9 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 location. See id. (stating that movant must show that, if the omitted fact was included, there would not have been probable cause). Likewise, the fact that several logins to the “lowkey” account came from IP addresses not associated with Accurate Roofing would not be dispositive because most of the logins did come from that location. Accordingly, we affirm the denial of Robinson’s motion to suppress evidence seized pursuant to the search warrant of Accurate Roofing. 3. Search Warrant of Residence Robinson also appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained pursuant to the search warrant of his residence. Special Agent Lyons also prepared the affidavit in support of the warrant to search Robinson’s residence. It repeated the statements that an IP address associated with Accurate Roofing had been used to log in to the “lowkey” account. It also stated that date stamps on the subject images showed they had been taken in May 2008 and January 2009 and that investigators had determined that the child in the images was Robinson’s son. The affidavit asserted that public records indicated that the home address of Robinson was the subject premises. The affidavit concluded that there was therefore probable cause to believe that the residence would contain evidence of the creation of the images, such as cameras, computers, and the clothing and household furnishings seen in the images. During a telephonic hearing to consider the warrant application, Agent Lyons informed the magistrate judge that investigators had traced the subject images back to an IP address assigned to Accurate Roofing, that the child in the images had been identified as Robinson’s son, and that Robinson worked at Accurate Roofing. He also asserted that the images, depicting a bedroom and a bath tub, appeared to have been taken at a home. Agent Lyons said that 9  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 10 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 investigators believed that Robinson’s son lived at the residence with Robinson. He stated that agents intended to search for any digital media that could contain child pornography, as well as clothing, bedding, and household items that were visible in the images. At the subsequent hearing on Robinson’s motion to suppress, Agent Lyons acknowledged that the affidavit did not specifically assert that Robinson or his son lived at the residence at the time the images were taken or that any of the items seen in the image were still at the residence. The district court found that the date that the images were taken, more than two years prior to the search, did not render them stale information, unable to support probable cause. In particular, the district court noted that caselaw suggested that, especially in child pornography cases, older information still may be reliable because of techniques allowing for the later electronic retrieval of evidence and the fact that child pornography is usually carried out in the secrecy of the home. The district court also concluded that, “once there was a search of the business and an identity that the victim in the child pornography was the son of Mr. Robinson, then certainly there was reason to believe that items of clothing and property could be found at the home that would substantiate the likelihood that the photographs were taken in the home of the defendant.” Challenging the district court’s suppression ruling, Robinson makes two arguments: first, that the affidavit was “bare bones” because it depended on dated—i.e., “stale”—information on which an officer could not reasonably rely; and, second, the affidavit was otherwise lacking in indicia of probable cause because there was not a sufficient nexus between the place to be searched and the evidence to be seized, such that the good faith exception should not apply. Robinson states that the supporting affidavit contained no information 10  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 11 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 indicating that he or his son had lived at his current residence when the images were taken in May 2008 and January 2009. He asserts that the affidavit failed to establish a nexus between the evidence sought and the place to be searched. He also asserts that the affidavit contained no information indicating that it was likely that the clothing or household items visible in the images would be present more than two years later. An officer is not entitled to invoke the good faith exception if the affidavit upon which the warrant is founded is a “bare bones” affidavit “so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to render official belief in its existence entirely unreasonable.” Mays, 466 F.3d at 343 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). A “bare bones” affidavit contains “wholly conclusory statements, which lack the facts and circumstances from which a magistrate can independently determine probable cause.” United States v. Satterwhite, 980 F.2d 317, 321 (5th Cir. 1992) (citation omitted). Whether an affidavit is a bare bones affidavit is determined by a totality of the circumstances. United States v. Fisher, 22 F.3d 574, 578 (5th Cir. 1994). Stale information cannot be used to establish probable cause. Marcilis v. Twp. of Redford, 693 F.3d 589, 601 (6th Cir. 2012). When evaluating the staleness of information in an affidavit, this Court considers the particular facts of the case, including the nature of the unlawful activity and of the evidence sought, especially whether the evidence “is of the sort that can reasonably be expected to be kept for long periods of time in the place to be searched.” United States v. Craig, 861 F.2d 818, 822–23 (5th Cir. 1988). Here, we hold that the information in the affidavit was not so stale that it rendered the affidavit a “bare bones” affidavit. In other child pornography cases, this Court and others have found that similarly old information is not stale for establishing probable cause. See United States v. Allen, 625 F.3d 830, 11  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 12 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 843 (5th Cir. 2010); see also United States v. Paull, 551 F.3d 516, 522–23 (6th Cir. 2009) (information that the defendant subscribed to child pornography thirteen months earlier was not stale); United States v. Newsom, 402 F.3d 780, 783 (7th Cir. 2005) (“Information a year old is not necessarily stale as a matter of law, especiall where child pornography is concerned.” (citations omitted)); United States v. Lacy, 119 F.3d 742, 745 (9th Cir. 1997) (upholding search warrant in pornography case based on ten-month-old information). Relevant to this inquiry is the fact that evidence of child pornography often is found in the secrecy of a defendant’s home and the criminal activity is carried out over a long period. See Allen, 625 F.3d at 843 (citing United States v. Frechette, 583 F.3d 374, 378 (6th Cir. 2009)). In addition, Robinson alleges that there was not a sufficient nexus connecting the child-pornography activity to his residence. The requisite nexus between the location to be searched and the evidence sought can be shown by “direct observation” or by “normal inferences as to where the articles sought would be located.” United States v. Payne, 341 F.3d 393, 400 (5th Cir. 2003) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). The issuing judge may “draw reasonable inferences from the material he receives,” and the ultimate determination of the affidavit’s adequacy is entitled to great deference on review. United States v. May, 819 F.2d 531, 535 (5th Cir. 1987). Even though the affidavit failed to assert that Robinson or his son still lived at the same location as when the images were taken and failed to allege that any of the items visible in the images were still at his residence several years later, the information had sufficient indicia of probable cause that an officer in good faith could rely on it. Even if Robinson could have moved to a different address after taking the images, it would be a reasonable inference that evidence of the production, distribution, or possession of child 12  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 13 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 pornography might be found at Robinson’s current residence. In addition, it would be a “normal inference” to conclude that Robinson and his son lived at the same residence at the time the photographs were taken and that, because the images appeared to have been taken in a home, the household items visible in the background, the victim’s clothing, or even the camera used to take the images, would be located at their current residence even if Robinson and his family had moved after the images were taken. See Payne, 341 F.3d at 400 (stating that the required nexus may be established by “normal inferences as to where the articles sought would be located”). Accordingly, we hold that the district court did not err when it concluded that the information was sufficient to entitle the officer to invoke the good faith exception. In sum, we affirm the district court’s denial of Robinson’s motion to suppress evidence obtained pursuant to both search warrants. Robinson’s arguments that the good faith exception does not apply are unavailing. Robinson is unable to prove that the withheld information regarding IP addresses was dispositive to the probable cause determination for the Accurate Roofing search warrant. Robinson is also unable to show that law enforcement could not reasonably rely on the search warrant for his residence. The district court did not err in determining that the information used to establish probable cause was not stale, given the nature of the offense. B. Sentencing Robinson raises two issues with regard to his sentence. First, he contends that the sentencing court committed procedural error by failing to appreciate that it had discretion to consider his cooperation with the Government under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). Second, he contends that his sentence of 720 months is substantively unreasonable. 13  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 14 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 1. Standard of Review This Court reviews a district court’s sentencing decision in two steps. First, we must “ensure that the district court committed no significant procedural error, such as failing to calculate (or improperly calculating) the Guidelines range, treating the Guidelines as mandatory, [or] failing to consider the § 3553(a) factors.” United States v. Cisneros–Gutierrez, 517 F.3d 751, 764 (5th Cir. 2008) (quoting Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007)). This Court applies harmless error review to any procedural error. United States v. Neal, 578 F.3d 270, 274 (5th Cir. 2009). Second, if the sentence is procedurally sound or if the procedural error is harmless, this Court “consider[s] the substantive reasonableness of the sentence imposed under an abuse-of- discretion standard.” Id. at 273 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). In applying this two-step review, this Court reviews the sentencing court’s interpretation or application of the Sentencing Guidelines de novo, and its factual findings for clear error. Id. 3 For the reasons below, we hold that the sentencing court’s failure to appreciate its discretion to consider Robinson’s cooperation was a procedural error and was not harmless. Therefore, we remand to allow the court to exercise its discretion to consider evidence of cooperation under § 3553(a). 4 3 Robinson sufficiently preserved his procedural error issue by arguing in his sentencing memorandum that the district court should impose a reduced sentence in light of his cooperation, despite the Government’s decision to not file a § 5K1.1 motion. “To preserve error, an objection must be sufficiently specific to alert the district court to the nature of the alleged error and to provide an opportunity for correction.” United States v. Neal, 578 F.3d 270, 272 (5th Cir. 2009). By asserting in his sentencing memorandum that the district court should consider his cooperation, even in the absence of a § 5K1.1 motion, Robinson preserved the issue for appeal. See id. at 272–73 (finding defendant’s written objection to PSR sufficiently preserved that issue for appeal, even if he did not object when district court misconstrued it). 4 We do not reach the issue of whether the sentence is substantively unreasonable. 14  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 15 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 2. Procedural Error Following the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005), sentencing courts must conduct a two-part process—first calculating the sentence using the now-advisory Sentencing Guidelines, then applying an individualized assessment using the factors set out in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). See Gall, 552 U.S. at 49–50. The first of the seven § 3553(a) factors that a sentencing court must consider is a “broad command to consider ‘the nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the defendant.’” Id. at 50 n.6 (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(1)). Robinson’s claim, in essence, is that the sentencing court misunderstood the relationship between this broad command and the Sentencing Guidelines’ policy statement under § 5K1.1. He argues that even though the Government did not move for a departure under § 5K1.1, the court was not barred from carrying out its mandated task of considering the § 3553(a) factors, including his cooperation. This court has previously held that, absent a government motion, a sentencing court does not have discretion to depart on the basis of the defendant’s cooperation under § 5K1.1. United States v. Solis, 169 F.3d 224, 226–27 (5th Cir. 1999); see also United States v. Arreola–Albarran, 210 F. App’x 441, 443–44 (5th Cir. 2006) (unpublished) (per curiam) (citing Solis for this proposition post-Booker). This Court has not, however, had the opportunity to decide whether a sentencing court may nonetheless consider cooperation as part of the § 3553(a) factors in the absence of a § 5K1.1 motion. We now join our sister circuits in expressly holding that a sentencing court has the power to consider a defendant’s cooperation under § 3553(a), irrespective of whether the Government files a § 5K1.1 motion. We further join our sister circuits in 15  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 16 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 holding that a sentencing court’s failure to recognize its discretion to consider a defendant’s cooperation under § 3553(a)(1) is a significant procedural error. There are several persuasive reasons for adopting this rule. First, nothing in the text of § 3553(a) suggests that a § 5K1.1 motion should be the exclusive means for considering cooperation. Section 3553(a)(1) is a broadly worded provision guiding the sentencing court in its exercise of discretion. See Gall, 552 U.S. at 49 n.6. Indeed, § 3553(a)(1) “contains no express limitations as to what ‘history and characteristics of the defendant’ are relevant.” United States v. Fernandez, 443 F.3d 19, 33 (2d Cir. 2006). Second, this Court has presumed that a sentencing court may consider evidence of cooperation as part of the mandated consideration of § 3553(a) factors—and, in particular, § 3553(a)(1)—but that it retains discretion as to whether and what weight to give that cooperation evidence. See United States v. Fraga, 704 F.3d 432, 440 (5th Cir. 2013) (“No § 3553(a) factor requires the sentencing judge to take such cooperation into account, and we cannot conclude that the sentencing judge abused her discretion by considering the testimony but ultimately declining to place significant weight on that cooperation.” (footnote omitted)). This approach is consistent with the Second Circuit’s observation that § 3553(a)(1) is a “sweeping provision [that] presumably includes the history of a defendant’s cooperation and characteristics evidenced by cooperation, such as remorse or rehabilitation.” Fernandez, 443 F.3d at 33. Third, every other circuit that has examined this issue has expressly stated that a court may consider evidence of cooperation under §3553(a)(1) even in the absence of a §5K1.1 motion. See United States v. Landrón–Class, 696 F.3d 62, 77–78 (1st Cir. 2012), cert. denied, 133 S. Ct. 1621 (2013); United States v. Massey, 663 F.3d 852, 858 (6th Cir. 2011); United States v. Leiskunas, 16  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 17 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 656 F.3d 732, 737 (7th Cir. 2011); Fernandez, 443 F.3d at 33; United States v. Doe, 398 F.3d 1254, 1260–61 (10th Cir. 2005). Fourth, permitting a Sentencing Guideline rule regarding departures from the guidelines to preclude consideration of factors relevant to variances from the guidelines would conflate two distinct categories under post-Booker sentencing law. A “departure” is typically a change from the final sentencing range computed by examining the provisions of the Guidelines themselves. It is frequently triggered by a prosecution request to reward cooperation . . . or by other factors that take the case “outside the heartland” contemplated by the Sentencing Commission when it drafted the Guidelines for a typical offense. A “variance,” by contrast, occurs when a judge imposes a sentence above or below the otherwise properly calculated final sentencing range based on application of the other statutory factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). United States v. Rangel, 697 F.3d 795, 801 (9th Cir. 2012) (citation omitted), cert. denied, 133 S. Ct. 1294 (2013). These categories have continuing importance not least because of the sort of review each occasions. Whereas “a properly granted § 5K1.1 motion would reflect a proper application of the Sentencing Guidelines, and thus be entitled to an appellate presumption of reasonableness,” a variance under § 3553(a) “could be granted absent government motion to effect a ‘reasonable’ sentence, [and] would not be entitled to the same presumption.” United States v. Blue, 557 F.3d 682, 686 (6th Cir. 2009) (internal quotation marks omitted) (citing Rita v. United States, 551 U.S. 338, 347 (2007)). We now hold that a court may consider evidence of cooperation under §3553(a)(1) even in the absence of a §5K1.1 motion. Having established that courts may consider cooperation evidence under the § 3553(a) factors, we must still decide whether the sentencing court committed a significant procedural error by failing to appreciate its discretion 17  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 18 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 in the instant case. Under other circumstances, this Court has held that a sentencing court procedurally erred when it failed to appreciate its discretion under § 3553(a) due to a misinterpretation of the Sentencing Guidelines. See United States v. Burns, 526 F.3d 852, 862 (5th Cir. 2008) (holding that defendant was “entitled to have his sentence set by a judge aware of the discretion that Kimbrough [v. United States, 552 U.S. 85 (2007),] has announced”). The rationale of Burns applies with equal force here: a sentencing court commits procedural error if it fails to appreciate its discretion to consider evidence of cooperation under § 3553(a). This is true even though our opinion marks this Circuit’s first announcement of this rule. See id. at 861 (vacating sentence and remanding to district court to exercise its discretion correctly under § 3553(a) in light of Kimbrough, which was decided between the district court’s sentence and the defendant’s appeal). Applying this test, we conclude that the sentencing court did fail to appreciate its discretion to consider evidence of cooperation under § 3553(a). The sentencing court “acknowledge[d]” the “very valuable” information Robinson provided in cooperating with law enforcement. In addition, the court heard extensive argument from defense counsel on Robinson’s cooperation and indicated that it had read Robinson’s sentencing memorandum. Yet the court was quite explicit in rejecting its authority to consider the evidence of Robinson’s cooperation. In the same sentence that the court acknowledged Robinson’s cooperation, it stated that it “does [Robinson] no good for the purpose of sentencing in that the Court does not have before it a 5K motion to consider” (emphasis added). The court went on to construe Robinson’s request for a variance merely as a request for a departure and therefore “moot”: [The § 5K1.1 motion] is certainly within the Government’s prerogative to file. They did not in this case. And, so, it’s a moot question as to whether or not you have—would have received a 18  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 19 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 departure from the 720 months had the Government filed that motion. It’s simply not before the Court. This is not a case where the court merely evinced doubt or hesitation. See, e.g., Landrón–Class, 696 F.3d at 78 (finding no error where court initially expressed doubt it had discretion to consider cooperation absent government motion). Nor is it a situation in which the court understood its discretion to consider the defendant’s cooperation, but elected not to give that evidence any weight in the imposition of the sentence. See, e.g., Fernandez, 443 F.3d at 34 (finding no error where sentencing court appreciated its discretion to consider cooperation evidence but gave it no weight). The sentencing court here clearly concluded it did not have the authority, and that conclusion was a significant procedural error. 3. Harmless Error Not all procedural errors require reversal; the court may affirm the sentence in spite of a procedural error if that error is harmless—that is, if “the error did not affect the district court’s selection of the sentence imposed.” United States v. Delgado–Martinez, 564 F.3d 750, 753 (5th Cir. 2009) (quoting Williams v. United States, 503 U.S. 193, 203 (1992)). “The proponent of the sentence has the burden of establishing that the error was harmless.” Neal, 578 F.3d at 274. If “a district court is mistaken about its authority to consider some factor during sentencing . . . then [the court] must remand for resentencing unless ‘it is clear . . . that the district court would have imposed the same sentence had it known that it could consider’ that factor.” United States v. Garcia, 655 F.3d 426, 432 (5th Cir. 2011) (third alteration in original) (quoting Unites States v. Davis, 316 F. App’x 328, 332 (5th Cir. 2009) (unpublished) (per curiam)). 19  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 20 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 In light of this stringent standard for finding harmless error, we hold that the sentencing court’s procedural error was not harmless. This Court’s reasoning in Burns is instructive. In that case, the defendant asked the district court to exercise its discretion to reduce his sentence based on the then-existing disparity in treatment of crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses under the Sentencing Guidelines. 526 F.3d at 860; see also Garcia, 655 F.3d at 432–33 (discussing Burns). 5 In response, the district court explained that it did not possess such discretion: I recognize what you claim, which is claimed not only by you but by others . . . of the disparity between crack cocaine and cocaine sentencing. And that argument has been—discussion and debate has been going on in circuit courts and in the Congress and among the Sentencing Commission, but the guidelines are what the guidelines are today. . . . The Court finds that the facts do not warrant a downward departure . . . for taking into consideration the difference between crack cocaine crimes under the guidelines and cocaine offenses under the guidelines as a decision that’s been made by the Congress of the United States and the Sentencing Commission. The Court finds it has no—limited discretion, if any. And if I do have discretion, I exercise my discretion not to downward depart on that basis. 526 F.3d at 860–61 (alterations in original) (emphasis added). But, in fact, the district court in Burns did have that discretion according to the Supreme Court’s subsequent decision in Kimbrough v. United States, 552 U.S. 85, 110 (2007). 6 5 At the time of Burns’s sentencing, the Sentencing Guidelines reflected a 100:1 ratio of crack to powder, “meaning that for purposes of sentencing, one gram of crack cocaine was considered the equivalent of 100 grams of cocaine powder.” Burns, 526 F.3d at 860. Burns argued that his sentence would have been significantly lower if the court had used the Guidelines applicable to powder cocaine, rather than crack. Id. 6The Supreme Court issued Kimbrough in between Burns’s sentencing and his appeal. Burns, 526 F.3d at 861. Kimbrough held that a sentencing court could “conclude 20  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 21 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 On appeal, the Government argued that the district court’s statements— “the facts do not warrant a downward departure” and “if I do have discretion, I exercise my discretion not to downward depart”—showed that the error was harmless. Burns, 526 F.3d at 861. This Court disagreed: Read in context, the district court’s statement is that Burns is not entitled to a downward departure under the Sentencing Guidelines. This would mean that Burns’s case was not atypical or unusual and fell within the “heartland” of the Sentencing Guidelines. United States v. Winters, 174 F.3d 478, 482 (5th Cir. 1999) (“a district court cannot depart from the guidelines unless it first finds . . . that facts or circumstances remove the case from the ‘heartland’ of typical cases encompassed within the guideline.”). The Kimbrough issue has a different focus. We cannot tell from the record whether, if the judge had known that he could consider policy disagreement as an additional factor in the “array of factors warranting consideration” in his analysis under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), it would have affected the ultimate sentence imposed on Burns. Id. at 861–62 (alteration in original). Accordingly, the Court vacated Burns’s sentence on the basis that he was “entitled to have his sentence set by a judge aware of the discretion that Kimbrough has announced.” Id. at 862. As this Court subsequently explained in Garcia, “Burns sets a high bar.” 655 F.3d at 433. Indeed, “[a] district court’s mistaken belief regarding its authority under the guidelines is not harmless even where it states that the modified sentence is appropriate in light of other factors and that even if it had discretion to analyze the supposedly impermissible factor, that factor would not affect the sentence.” Id. The Garcia opinion further explained that the district court’s statements in Burns did not “make it obvious that it would have imposed the same sentence had it been aware of its authority.” Id. when sentencing a particular defendant that the crack/powder disparity yields a sentence ‘greater than necessary’ to achieve § 3553(a)’s purposes.” 552 U.S. at 110. 21  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 22 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 Turning to the present case, we find even stronger reasons for holding that the error was not harmless. In Burns, the district court included the caveat that it would have imposed the same sentence even if it had considered the supposedly impermissible factor. 526 F.3d at 861 (“And if I do have discretion, I exercise my discretion not to downward depart on that basis.”). But here, the sentencing court never specifically addressed or weighed Robinson’s cooperation in its conditional statements about what it might have done. The sentencing court stated that “if the Court were to consider [the § 3553] factors, it would not have helped Mr. Robinson at all in his sentence because when the Court considers the nature and circumstances of this offense [it] finds that there is no reason when [sic] he would be entitled to any reduction.” The sentencing court reiterated, “If I considered all the factors under [§] 3553 that we might look at to warrant a reduction in your sentence under Booker, the Court would still be of the opinion that a 720-month sentence is appropriate in this case.” Although this was a caveat, it was not a caveat explaining that the court would have reached the same conclusion even considering Robinson’s cooperation. Thus, because the language in Burns did not show the error to be harmless, neither do the sentencing court’s statements in this case. Furthermore, as this Court explained in United States v. Ibarra–Luna, 628 F.3d 712 (5th Cir. 2010), the harmless error doctrine places a “heavy burden” on the proponent of a sentence to convincingly demonstrate that the sentencing court actually would have followed the very same reasoning absent the error. Id. at 717. Even though the Government did cite the sentencing transcript, the Government has not met its heavy burden. Rather, the record supports vacating Robinson’s sentence and remanding for consideration in light of the rule we have announced. 22  Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 23 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 Consequently, we remand for resentencing by a sentencing court aware of its discretion to consider evidence of cooperation under § 3553(a). We express no view on what sentencing decisions the district court should make on remand. III. CONCLUSION We AFFIRM the district court’s denial of Robinson’s motion to suppress, but VACATE and REMAND for resentencing consistent with this opinion. 23 

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

FreeLaw

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of the relationship between a maternal smoking biomarker and schizophrenia. It provides the most definitive evidence to date that smoking during pregnancy is associated with schizophrenia. If replicated, these findings suggest that preventing smoking during pregnancy may decrease the incidence of schizophrenia. A higher maternal cotinine level, measured as a continuous variable, was associated with an increased odds of schizophrenia (odds ratio=3.41, 95% confidence interval, 1.86–6.24). Categorically defined heavy maternal nicotine exposure was related to a 38% increased odds of schizophrenia. These findings were not accounted for by maternal age, maternal or parental psychiatric disorders, socioeconomic status, and other covariates. There was no clear evidence that weight for gestational age mediated the associations. The authors conducted a population-based nested case-control study of all live births in Finland from 1983 to 1998. Cases of schizophrenia in offspring (N=977) were identified from a national registry and matched 1:1 to controls on date of birth, sex, and residence. Maternal serum cotinine levels were prospectively measured, using quantitative immunoassay, from early- to mid-gestation serum specimens archived in a national biobank. Cigarette smoking during pregnancy is a major public health problem leading to adverse health outcomes and neurodevelopmental abnormalities among offspring. Its prevalence in the United States and Europe is 12%–25%. This study examined the relationship between prenatal nicotine exposure (cotinine level) in archived maternal sera and schizophrenia in offspring from a national birth cohort. Cigarette smoking during pregnancy is one of the most common adverse exposures during the fetal period: approximately 12%−25% of pregnant women in Western societies smoke while pregnant (1). Nicotine readily crosses the placenta into the fetal bloodstream, with higher concentrations than in the pregnant woman (2). Nicotine specifically targets fetal brain development, causing short- and long-term changes in cognition (2), neuromorphology (3, 4), and neurotransmitter function and altered regulation of neuronal apoptosis (5). These effects occur in part through modulation of brain nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which have a vital role in brain maturation (6). Moreover, prenatal nicotine exposure is related to epigenetic events (7), dysregulation of gene transcription in placental and fetal cells (8), and oxidative stress (9), which adversely influence brain development. Each of these effects potentially contributes to neurodevelopmental abnormalities (6). Increasing evidence supports a role for pre- and postnatal environmental insults, which affect neurodevelopment in schizophrenia (10). Studies of maternal smoking as a risk factor for schizophrenia in offspring have revealed contradictory findings, and most have had significant limitations. In a Finnish birth cohort study, limited by a small sample size, no association with schizophrenia was observed (11). In two other studies, which examined schizophrenia as an outcome, results were conflicting (12, 13). In those studies, data on maternal smoking during pregnancy were acquired retrospectively, by maternal interview, which can be limited by recall bias. Moreover, clinical, rather than population-based, samples were used (12, 13). A Finnish register-based study found an association between maternal self-reported smoking and psychotic disorders in general (14). The remaining studies, which reported associations between maternal smoking and psychotic symptoms in adolescents, did not examine schizophrenia per se (15, 16). We know of no previous study to date on maternal smoking and schizophrenia that used biomarker data to define the exposure. We examined whether maternal smoking was related to schizophrenia in the Finnish Prenatal Study of Schizophrenia. Unlike all previous studies, our investigation utilized maternal cotinine levels measured in prospectively drawn, biobanked maternal serum specimens during early to mid-gestation. Moreover, we employed a national registry-based study with nearly 1,000 cases of schizophrenia, which addressed the limitations of small sample sizes and use of clinical samples in prior studies. We hypothesized that increasing maternal cotinine levels during pregnancy are associated with an increased odds of schizophrenia in offspring. Method The Finnish Prenatal Study of Schizophrenia is based on a nested case-control design. The sampling frame was defined such that all birth cohort members were within the age of risk for schizophrenia. Hence, the sample consisted of all offspring born in Finland from 1983 to 1998, and the subjects were followed up until 2009 (see “Case and Control Identification” below). Description of Cohort and Biobank All offspring in the Finnish Prenatal Study of Schizophrenia were derived from the Finnish Maternity Cohort, which consists of virtually all pregnancies in Finland with archived prenatal serum specimens drawn beginning in 1983 (total number of samples is over 1 million). Sera were drawn during the first and early second trimesters (5th to 95th percentile: months 2–4 of pregnancy) from over 98% of pregnant women in Finland, following informed consent, for screening for HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis. One maternal serum sample was obtained for each pregnancy. Serum samples were stored as one aliquot at −25°C in a single, centralized biorepository at the National Institutes of Health and Welfare. All serum samples in the Finnish Maternity Cohort can be linked with offspring by a unique personal identification number (PIN), which has been assigned to each resident of Finland since 1971. Finnish Population Registry The computerized nationwide registry includes comprehensive data on place of birth, date of emigration, date of death, place of residence, and biological parents, including their birth dates. Case and Control Identification The Finnish Hospital and Outpatient Discharge Registry was used to identify all recorded diagnoses for psychiatric hospital admissions and outpatient treatment visits among cohort members. The registry contains the personal and hospital identification codes and psychiatric diagnoses. Computerized data are available from 1987 to the present. To identify the cases, we conducted a record linkage between the Finnish Maternity Cohort and the discharge registry, using the PINs. Cases with schizophrenia (ICD-10 F20) or schizoaffective disorder (ICD-10 F25) were followed up until 2009 (these cases are referred to as “schizophrenia”). The age at first treatment was recorded by the first contact with a psychiatric facility with a schizophrenia diagnosis. The validity of schizophrenia diagnoses according to the discharge registry was excellent; 93% of subjects with a diagnosis of schizophrenia in the discharge registry were assigned a consensus diagnosis of schizophrenia (17). There were 977 cases with sufficient serum volume for the cotinine assays; these were included in all analyses. The case subjects were matched 1:1 to control subjects drawn from the birth cohort who were without schizophrenia, other nonaffective psychotic disorders, and bipolar disorder. They were matched on date of birth (within 1 month), sex, and residence in Finland at the time of case diagnosis. A flow chart of subject selection is shown in Figure S1 in the data supplement accompanying the online version of this article. The study was approved by the ethical committees of the Hospital District of Southwest Finland, the National Institutes of Health and Welfare, and the Institutional Review Board of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Informed consent was obtained prior to acquisition of maternal serum specimens. Cotinine Assay Cotinine measurements were conducted by researchers blind to case/control status. Serum cotinine levels were measured using a commercially available quantitative immunoassay kit (OraSure Technologies, Bethlehem, Pa.) (sensitivity=96%−97%, specificity=99%−100%). Intra- and interassay variation are 3.5%−6.2% and 6.0%−9.6%, respectively. The limit of detection was 0.08 ng/ml. Covariates The covariates included sex, maternal age, paternal age, socioeconomic status (maternal education), province of birth, municipality of birth (urban, semiurban, rural), parental history of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, previous births, weight for gestational age, maternal C-reactive protein (CRP) level, and gestational week of the maternal blood draw. All covariates except gestational age and gestational week of the blood draw were obtained from the Finnish Population Registry. Gestational age was obtained from the Finnish Medical Birth Register and obstetric record review, gestational week of the blood draw was obtained from the Finnish Maternity Cohort, and maternal CRP level was obtained from assays of the archived maternal serum specimens. In accord with the extant epidemiologic literature, covariates were included in the statistical models based on associations with both maternal cotinine exposure (p≤0.1) and schizophrenia (p≤0.1). Statistical Analysis The analysis was based on a nested case-control design, in which the control subject for each case was drawn from the population at risk (the Finnish Prenatal Study of Schizophrenia birth cohort) and matched on selected factors (see “Case and Control Identification”). In the primary analysis, we examined cotinine as a continuous measure. Given the skewed distribution of cotinine levels, the variable was log-transformed before analysis. To account for missing cotinine levels below the limit of detection (0.08 ng/ml), we constructed a conditional logistic regression model with the following predictors: 1) an indicator of a cotinine level below the level of detection and 2) the indicator of the complementary event multiplied by log(c+cotinine level), where c is a small positive constant. In the results of the analyses presented below, c was set to 0. Sensitivity analyses were used to assess how the results changed as c varied between the limit of detection (LOD) and 3*LOD; the choice of c within this range had little effect on the results (results presented on request). To further facilitate interpretation of the data, we then examined maternal cotinine as a three-class categorical variable: reference (<20 ng/ml), moderate exposure (20–50 ng/ml), and heavy exposure (>50 ng/ml). These cut-off points were recommended by the cotinine immunoassay kit and have also been used in previous studies based on the Finnish Maternity Cohort serum bank (18). These levels also corresponded well with the frequencies of self-reported maternal smoking in mothers of case subjects (data on self-reported smoking available for 656 mothers). Smoking was reported by 22 of 508 (4.3%) mothers in the reference category, 11 of 19 (57.9%) mothers with cotinine levels of 20–50 ng/ml, and 105 of 129 (81.4%) mothers with cotinine levels >50 ng/ml (p<0.001). Appropriate to the nested case-control study design, point and interval estimates of odds ratios were obtained by fitting conditional logistic regression models for matched pairs. We tested for interaction between maternal cotinine and a three-level variable for parental history of psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia or other nonaffective psychosis, any psychopathology, no psychiatric disorders) on the multiplicative scale using the statistical modeling approach described in the previous paragraph. We also tested for interaction between these variables on an additive scale by computing the relative excess risk due to interaction (19). Statistical significance was based on p<0.05. Statistical analyses were performed with SAS software (SAS 9.4, SAS Institute, Cary, N.C.). Results The mean age of the case and control subjects was 22.3 (SD=2.2, range=14.6–25.6). Maternal and paternal age, parental history of psychiatric disorders, and province and municipality of birth were associated with schizophrenia in offspring (Table 1). Low weight for gestational age was not associated with schizophrenia. Maternal cotinine level was associated with maternal age, maternal education, parental history of psychiatric disorders, previous births, gestational week of the blood draw, and province of birth. Maternal cotinine level was not related to gestational age (Table 2). Maternal age, parental history of psychiatric disorders, and province of birth were associated with both schizophrenia and maternal cotinine level, and they were included in the adjusted models (Table 3). In additional models, weight in relation to gestational age was also adjusted to test for a potential mediating effect of this covariate (see below). TABLE 1. Covariates for Offspring With Schizophrenia and Control Offspringa Covariate Offspring’s Schizophrenia Case-Control Status p Cases (N=977) Controls (N=977) N % N % Sex 1.00 Male 568 58.1 568 58.1 Female 409 41.9 409 41.9 Maternal education 0.35 No education after comprehensive school 248 25.5 226 23.2 Vocational degree or secondary school graduate 563 57.8 557 57.2 College or bachelor’s degree 116 11.9 136 14.0 Master’s degree, licentiate, or Ph.D. 47 4.8 55 5.7 Province of birth <0.001 Southern Finland 476 48.7 350 35.8 Eastern Finland 116 11.9 145 14.8 Western Finland 258 26.4 345 35.3 Northern Finland 127 13.0 137 14.0 Municipality of birth 0.008 Urban 616 63.1 513 56.6 Semiurban 123 12.6 128 13.1 Rural 238 24.4 296 30.3 Parental psychiatric disorder Maternal schizophrenia or other nonaffective psychosis 98 10.0 18 1.8 <0.001 Parental schizophrenia or other nonaffective psychosis 161 16.5 32 3.3 <0.001 Maternal affective disorder 204 20.9 81 8.3 <0.001 Parental affective disorder 298 30.5 128 13.1 <0.001 Any maternal psychiatric disorder 313 32.0 134 13.7 <0.001 Any parental psychiatric disorder 483 49.4 230 23.5 <0.001 Previous birth (≥1) 612 62.6 598 61.2 0.51 Gestational age <37 weeks 48 7.0 35 5.0 0.12 Weight for gestational age 0.67 Under –2 SD 20 2.9 19 2.8 –2 SD to +2 SD 648 93.3 628 92.5 Over+2 SD 26 3.8 32 4.7 Mean SD Mean SD Maternal age (years) 28.4 5.5 27.9 5.1 0.02 Paternal age (years) 31.1 6.2 30.3 5.7 0.02 Maternal CRP level (mg/L) 4.2 7.5 3.6 4.5 0.04 Gestational week of blood draw 11.2 4.0 10.9 3.9 0.99 TABLE 1. Covariates for Offspring With Schizophrenia and Control Offspringa Enlarge table TABLE 2. Covariates in Relation to Maternal Nicotine Exposure in Pregnancies of Control Offspring Without Schizophrenia (N=977)a Covariate Maternal Cotinine Level p <20 ng/ml (N=813) 20–50 ng/ml (N=20) >50 ng/ml (N=144) N % N % N % Sex 0.82 Male 469 57.7 12 60.0 87 60.4 Female 344 42.3 8 40.0 57 39.6 Maternal education <0.001 No education after comprehensive school 152 18.8 7 35.0 67 46.5 Vocational degree or secondary school graduate 479 59.1 9 45.0 69 47.9 College or bachelor’s degree 125 15.4 4 20.0 7 4.9 Master’s degree, licentiate, or Ph.D. 54 6.7 0 0.0 1 0.7 Province of birth 0.10 Southern Finland 280 34.4 7 35.0 63 43.8 Eastern Finland 127 15.6 1 5.0 63 43.8 Western Finland 298 36.7 8 40.0 39 27.1 Northern Finland 108 13.3 4 20.0 25 17.4 Municipality of birth 0.53 Urban 453 55.7 14 70.0 86 59.7 Semiurban 107 13.2 1 5.0 20 13.9 Rural 253 31.1 5 25.0 38 26.4 Parental psychiatric disorder Maternal schizophrenia or other nonaffective psychosis 14 1.7 2 10.0 2 1.4 0.02 Parental schizophrenia or other nonaffective psychosis 24 3.0 2 10.0 6 4.2 0.18 Maternal affective disorder 61 7.5 0 0.0 20 13.9 0.02 Parental affective disorder 98 12.1 2 10.0 28 19.4 0.049 Any maternal psychiatric disorder 99 12.2 3 15.0 32 22.2 0.005 Any parental psychiatric disorder 179 22.0 5 25.0 46 31.9 0.04 Previous birth (≥1) 506 62.2 6 30.0 86 59.7 0.01 Gestational age <37 weeks 30 5.1 0 0.0 5 5.3 0.70 Weight for gestational age 0.26 Under –2 SD 15 2.6 0 0.0 5 5.3 –2 SD to +2 SD 546 93.2 13 100.0 89 93.7 Over +2 SD 25 4.3 0 0.0 1 1.1 Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Maternal age (years) 28.3 5.0 23.0 3.6 26.6 5.4 <0.001 Paternal age (years) 30.5 5.6 25.9 4.1 29.9 6.0 0.001 Maternal CRP level (mg/L) 3.5 4.6 3.5 4.6 4.2 4.2 0.37 Gestational week of blood draw 10.7 3.7 9.4 3.9 11.8 4.9 0.003 TABLE 2. Covariates in Relation to Maternal Nicotine Exposure in Pregnancies of Control Offspring Without Schizophrenia (N=977)a Enlarge table TABLE 3. Association Between Maternal Nicotine Exposure During Pregnancy and Schizophrenia in Offspring Logistic Regression Analysis or Variable Offspring’s Schizophrenia Case-Control Status Case (N=977) Control (N=977) Association With Maternal Nicotine Exposure Median Median Maternal cotinine level (ng/ml) 1.55 1.29 Log-transformed analysis Odds Ratio 95% CI p Unadjusted 2.69 1.54–4.69 <0.0001 Model 1a 3.41 1.86–6.24 <0.0001 Model 2b 2.60 1.41–4.81 0.002 Model 3c 3.41 1.86–6.24 <0.0001 Categorical analysisd N % N % Odds Ratio 95% CI p Unadjusted Reference 715 76.7 813 83.2 Moderate exposure 29 3.0 20 2.1 1.62 0.89–2.95 0.12 Heavy exposure 197 20.2 144 14.7 1.51 1.18–1.93 <0.001 Model 1a Moderate exposure 1.96 1.04–3.70 0.04 Heavy exposure 1.61 1.23–2.10 <0.001 Model 2b Moderate exposure 1.83 0.97–3.47 0.06 Heavy exposure 1.44 1.10–1.89 0.007 Model 3c Moderate exposure 1.81 0.94–3.47 0.07 Heavy exposure 1.38 1.05–1.82 0.02 TABLE 3. Association Between Maternal Nicotine Exposure During Pregnancy and Schizophrenia in Offspring Enlarge table The distribution of cotinine by case-control status and exposure levels in quintiles is presented in Figure 1. The mean cotinine level in the case subjects was 35.9 ng/ml (SD=92.9), with a range of 0.01–1301.3 and interquartile range of 0.5–8.1, and in the control subjects it was 23.1 ng/ml (SD=61.1), with a range 0.007–537.3 and interquartile range 0.4–2.8). FIGURE 1. Distribution of Maternal Cotinine Levels by Offspring’s Schizophrenia Case-Control Status Main Results The findings for the conditional logistic regression analyses are presented in Table 3. In the unadjusted analysis, with cotinine examined as a continuous variable and taking the presence of cotinine levels below the limit of detection into account, there was a significant association between increasing log-transformed maternal cotinine and odds of schizophrenia (odds ratio=2.69, 95% CI=1.54–4.69, p<0.0001). In models 1–3 adjusting for covariates associated with maternal cotinine exposure (p<0.1) and schizophrenia (p<0.1), the odds for offspring schizophrenia associated with log-transformed maternal cotinine remained significant. In the model including maternal age, province of birth, and any parental psychiatric disorder as covariates the odds ratio was 3.41 (95% CI=1.86–6.24, p≤0.0001) (Table 3). In the categorical analyses (Table 3), in which cotinine was categorized as a three-class variable, heavier nicotine exposure (cotinine level >50 ng/ml) was associated with offspring schizophrenia after adjustment for covariates (models 1–3), including any parental psychiatric disorder (odds ratio=1.38, 95% CI=1.05–1.82, p=0.02). Moderate nicotine exposure (20–50 ng/ml) was associated with offspring schizophrenia after adjusting for maternal age, maternal schizophrenia, and province (model 1: odds ratio=1.96, 95% CI=1.04–3.70, p=0.04) but not in the other multivariate models. However, the numbers of case and control subjects were very small in this category (29 case subjects, 20 control subjects). Supplemental Results For further reassurance, we conducted supplemental analyses. First, we excluded schizoaffective disorder to examine whether maternal cotinine was associated with schizophrenia only. Heavier nicotine exposure remained significantly associated with schizophrenia (odds ratio=1.44, 95% CI=1.09–1.89, p=0.009). The association persisted in the analysis adjusting for maternal age, parental schizophrenia, and province of birth (odds ratio=1.40, 95% CI=1.04–1.89, p=0.03). Maternal cotinine examined as a continuous variable was also associated with schizophrenia only, adjusting for these covariates (odds ratio=2.91, 95% CI=1.48–5.70, p=0.02). Second, given that smoking is a known cause of low weight relative to gestational age and that high cotinine was related to low weight in this study, the latter variable may be considered as a potential mediator of the relationship between maternal smoking and schizophrenia. To test for mediation, we added weight for gestational age to the models. In each of the models in which weight was adjusted, the odds ratios for low weight and schizophrenia were all below 1 (Table 4). Given that a key criterion for establishing a covariate as a mediator in a putative causal pathway is a relationship with the outcome (20) in the model adjusting for this covariate, this lack of association indicates that low weight for gestational age did not mediate the association between maternal cotinine and schizophrenia. Moreover, in the models in which cotinine was classified as a continuous variable, there were generally modest changes in the odds ratios from those presented in Table 3; for cotinine classified as a categorical variable, the addition of weight led to a modest decrease in the odds ratios, ranging from 9.2% to 17.3% (Table 4). There was one notable change (44% decline) in the odds ratio following adjustment for weight (model 3). However, there was a statistical trend in the p value (p=0.06) in the adjusted model, indicating a persistent association between maternal cotinine and schizophrenia. TABLE 4. Tests for Whether Low Weight for Gestational Age Mediates Association Between Maternal Nicotine Exposure During Pregnancy and Schizophrenia in Offspring Logistic Regression Analysis Odds Ratio 95% CI p Log-transformed analysis Model 1a Cotinine level 2.91 1.26–6.72 0.01 Low weight for gestational age 0.69 0.30–1.60 0.39 Model 2b Cotinine level 2.54 1.07–6.04 0.04 Low weight for gestational age 0.86 0.36–2.03 0.73 Model 3c Cotinine level 2.36 0.96–5.75 0.06 Low weight for gestational age 0.92 0.38–2.20 0.85 Categorical analysisd Model 1a Moderate exposure 1.78 0.73–4.33 0.20 Heavy exposure 1.33 0.93–1.92 0.12 Low weight for gestational age 0.71 0.31–1.64 0.42 Model 2b Moderate exposure 1.65 0.66–4.10 0.28 Heavy exposure 1.25 0.86–1.82 0.24 Low weight for gestational age 0.88 0.37–2.07 0.76 Model 3c Moderate exposure 1.63 0.64–4.18 0.31 Heavy exposure 1.26 0.85–1.85 0.25 Low weight for gestational age 0.94 0.39–2.25 0.89 TABLE 4. Tests for Whether Low Weight for Gestational Age Mediates Association Between Maternal Nicotine Exposure During Pregnancy and Schizophrenia in Offspring Enlarge table Maternal self-reported smoking was also associated with schizophrenia. Among subjects for whom maternal smoking data were available, 138 of 656 (21.0%) mothers of case subjects smoked, while among the control subjects, 106 of 670 (15.8%) mothers of control subjects smoked (p<0.01). Test for Interaction Between Maternal Cotinine and Parental Psychiatric Disorders We tested for interaction between a three-level variable for parental history of psychiatric disorders and maternal cotinine on the multiplicative scale by adding four product terms for the interaction of parental history and cotinine to the adjusted conditional logistic regression model. The odds ratios for schizophrenia associated with heavy and moderate versus low cotinine exposure were 1.22 (95% CI=0.46–3.26, p=0.69) and 0.95 (95% CI=0.08–11.35, p=0.97) among those with a parental history of schizophrenia or nonaffective psychosis, 1.82 (95% CI=1.11–2.98, p=0.02) and 2.94 (95% CI=0.75–11.56, p=0.12) among those with a parental history of any psychiatric disorders, and 1.30 (95% CI=0.91–1.85, p=0.16) and 1.73 (95% CI=0.77–3.89, p=0.18) among those with no parental history of psychiatric disorders. However, there was no statistical evidence for interaction on the multiplicative scale. None of the product terms for the interaction of parental history and cotinine exposure was statistically or marginally significant (p>0.2), and the group of four terms did not contribute significantly to the model (p=0.75). We computed the relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI) to test for the effect of additive interaction between parental history of psychiatric disorders and categorically defined maternal cotinine levels on the risk of schizophrenia. Considering those with a parental history of schizophrenia or nonaffective psychosis versus no family history of psychiatric disorders, the RERI for heavy versus low maternal cotinine exposure was above 0 but not statistically significant (RERI=1.92, 95% CI=−7.31 to 11.14, p=0.68). For moderate versus low maternal cotinine, the RERI was less than 0 and fell short of statistical significance (RERI=−5.69, 95% CI=−11.80 to 0.43, p=0.07). Comparing parental history of other psychiatric disorders to no family history, we found that for both heavy levels (RERI=1.08, 95% CI=−0.34 to 2.50, p=0.14) and moderate levels (RERI=2.91, 95% CI=−4.57 to 10.39, p=0.45) versus low levels of maternal cotinine, RERI estimates were above 0 but not statistically significant. Discussion In this nationwide population-based nested case-control study of nearly 1,000 schizophrenia subjects, we demonstrated an association between maternal nicotine exposure, quantified as cotinine during gestation, and schizophrenia in offspring. For cotinine classified as a continuous variable and for heavy nicotine use, the association persisted after adjusting for covariates. There was no clear evidence of mediation of this relationship by low weight for gestational age, particularly since it was not a risk factor for schizophrenia in this population. Moreover, we did not find convincing evidence for interaction between parental schizophrenia or other psychiatric disorders and maternal cotinine on a multiplicative or additive scale. To our knowledge, this is the first biomarker-based study to show a relationship between fetal nicotine exposure and schizophrenia. The plausibility of these findings is supported by an extensive literature on prenatal smoking and neurocognition. Offspring of mothers who smoke have delayed psychomotor and mental developmental scores; deficits in sustained attention, verbal learning, and design memory; impaired speech and language; and lower IQ (2). Low premorbid IQ and other neurocognitive abilities have been related to schizophrenia (21). There are several potential mechanisms by which nicotine alters fetal brain development (3, 6) so as to increase risk of schizophrenia. Nicotine binds to neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which are essential for proper brain organization during the prenatal period (6). Prenatal nicotine treatment decreases the number of cells in whole brain and particular subregions in the fetal and neonatal periods (22), consistent with apoptotic processes. The effects of nicotine-induced dysregulation of neurotransmitter systems and neuromorphology persist beyond the fetal period (6). In humans, prenatal smoking has been associated with structural brain changes in adolescence, including cortical thinning (23) and decreased corpus callosal volume (4). These brain anomalies have also been demonstrated in schizophrenia (24), as have abnormalities of prenatal brain development (10) and dopaminergic function (25). Prenatal nicotine is associated with abnormal development of cerebral inhibitory neurons, a key pathophysiological defect in schizophrenia (26). Neonates of mothers who smoke during pregnancy have abnormal inhibitory gating of the P1 auditory evoked response, indicating impaired cerebral inhibition. The principal cholinergic receptor involved is the α 7 -nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) (27). A single nucleotide polymorphism in CHRNA7, the α 7 -nAChR gene, is associated with schizophrenia (28), and the CHRNA7 genotype has been linked to familial transmission of the P1 sensory gating deficiency (29). Nicotine also causes uteroplacental underperfusion and increases carboxyhemoglobin levels, with higher fetal than maternal levels, both of which reduce oxygen availability and its delivery to fetal tissues, resulting in hypoxia (2). Although prenatal nicotine exposure is associated with disrupted intrauterine growth (30, 31) and lower weight for gestational age (32), in this study there was not strong evidence for a mediating role of low weight for gestational age. Moreover, maternal cigarette smoking has been associated with epigenetic effects indicating sensitivity of the methylome (33) and down-regulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) (34), which is related to schizophrenia (35). Maternal smoking is also associated with abnormal DNA methylation patterns, which may adversely affect fetal development (8, 33). Tobacco may also cause oxidative stress in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and striatum in rodents (9). The study has several strengths, particularly compared with previous studies, reviewed above. These include use of the biomarker cotinine, a prospectively documented and reliable metabolite of nicotine, which obviates self-report bias and retrospective recall. The study focused on schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, rather than broader and less stringent definitions, including self-reported psychotic symptoms. We also employed a nationwide sample with the highest number of schizophrenia cases to date in a study of this type. Limitations of the study include the following. First, there is comorbidity between smoking and alcohol use (1). Unfortunately, data on maternal alcohol use during pregnancy were not available. However, the maternal psychiatric history variable, adjusted for in the multivariate analyses, included alcohol and other substance use disorders from the hospital discharge register. Second, nicotine is one of many potentially toxic compounds in tobacco (36) that could alter early neuronal development, but biomarker data on other toxic compounds were not available. However, as noted above, there is considerable evidence that nicotine is a biologically plausible disruptor of fetal development (36). Third, although there was no evidence of confounding following testing of numerous covariates, residual confounding may have occurred. Of note, we were able to adjust for schizophrenia in parents but not in other classes of relatives, which would have provided better control of genetic influences. Parenthetically, causal interpretations are not warranted given that other unmeasured maternal factors, including diet and life events, may have contributed to the relationship. However, these factors would need to be related to maternal smoking and schizophrenia to be confounders. Fourth, the sample was relatively young (median age 23.5), and thus further follow-up into later ages at onset will be necessary to determine whether the relationship is generalizable to these cases. Fifth, we cannot disentangle prenatal from postnatal nicotine exposure due to secondhand smoke, since no data are available on postnatal smoking in mothers or fathers. However, nicotine levels from secondhand smoke would be considerably lower than levels from fetal exposure to nicotine. Sixth, we do not have information on offspring nicotine use, which is associated with prenatal nicotine exposure (37) and may also increase the risk of offspring schizophrenia (38). Seventh, self-reported smoking was recorded as a binary variable only, and no data were available to correlate cotinine level and the number of cigarettes smoked. However, in a prior study using archived prenatal maternal serum samples from the Finnish Maternity Cohort (39), a correlation was found between the cotinine level in serum and the self-reported number of cigarettes smoked daily. Finally, we did not observe a dose-response effect in the relationship between maternal cotinine in the categorical analysis and schizophrenia. However, the sample size in the group with moderate cotinine exposure was very low compared with the high-exposure group, which may have contributed to a more imprecise odds ratio (wide confidence intervals). Conclusions Prenatal nicotine exposure during gestation was related to an increased odds of schizophrenia. Given the high frequency of smoking during pregnancy, these results, if replicated, may ultimately have important public health implications for decreasing the incidence of schizophrenia. Further studies are necessary to address potential residual confounders. More work is also needed on maternal smoking and other environmental, genetic, and epigenetic factors. Finally, it will be of interest in future studies to examine maternal cotinine in relation to bipolar disorder, autism, and other psychiatric disorders.

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OpenWebText2

Officials have acknowledged the stream of output from the country’s citizens, urging lawmakers to legalize same sex marriage in the new civil code. A spokesperson for the legislative affairs commission of China’s top legislative body reported that they had received 237,057 online suggestions and 5,635 letters, with same-sex marriage legalization among the top requested items. Related: This year, activists and citizens acted on a greater scale than ever before. Group demonstration and outward activism have proven difficult in China, and members of the public are increasingly turning to official channels in order to make their opinions known. In 2019, the number of suggestions under the category of Marriage and Family was the greatest under any section of the Civil Code. The news comes on the heels of a rare and significant case for trans rights. “A lot of people told me that this is the first time they’ve participated in the legal process,” said Peng Yanzi, director of LGBT Rights Advocacy China, one of several groups pushing a campaign for grassroots participation. Related: Still, the fight for same-sex marriage rights might still have a long road ahead. Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1997 and removed from China’s official list of mental disorders in 2001, but an absence of legislation and official policy leaves LGBTQ individuals unprotected against discrimination and unspoken for in issues of civil law. Meanwhile, the majority of China’s citizens, especially those outside first-tier cities like Shanghai and Beijing, are only now beginning to understand issues of LGBTQ rights. Nonetheless, this grassroots movement and resulting acknowledgment from legislative officials is an incredibly meaningful moment for the country’s LGBTQ community and its allies.

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OpenWebText2

HLA-class-I and -class-II expression on renal tumor xenografts and the relation to sensitivity for alpha-IFN, gamma-IFN and TNF. In this study we evaluated the usefulness of the histocompatibility leucocyte antigen (HLA) class-I and class-II expression on renal-cell carcinoma (RCC) xenografts as predictive markers for response to cytokine therapy. Eight different RCC xenografts growing in BALBC nu/nu mice were treated with 0.5 or 5.0 ng/g recombinant human alpha- or gamma-interferon (IFN), or 500 ng/g recombinant human tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Modulation of HLA class-I, -II expression was evaluated immunohistochemically using the monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) W6.32 and B8.11.2 and at the mRNA level using the plasmids pDP001 and DR alpha 120. HLA class-I expression in all lines was upregulated by alpha- and gamma-IFN and was highest in the high-IFN-dose-treated tumors. TNF also stimulated HLA-class-I expression and up-regulated class-I expression still further when combined with IFN. Highest up-regulation of HLA-class-I in all tumors was measured in the alpha-IFN-5.0/TNF-500-ng/g-treated mice, although this was not necessarily the treatment regimen resulting in the most pronounced effect on tumor growth. Hence, maximum upregulation of class-I antigens at a given regimen was not always indicative for the highest achievable anti-tumor effect. HLA-class-II expression which was present on only 3 of the untreated tumors was up-regulated by both alpha and gamma-IFN. TNF itself did not up-regulate class-II expression but enhanced the class-II expression on the alpha-IFN-treated tumors but not on the gamma-IFN-treated tumors. Irrespective of the basic expression level, inducibility of both HLA-class-I and -class-II antigens appear to be correlated to the direct effects on growth of renal-tumor xenografts towards alpha-IFN, gamma-IFN and TNF. Modulation of HLA antigens was studied in the nude mouse, hence T-cell-mediated effector mechanisms cannot explain the good correlation between inducibility and response. Nonetheless, our studies indicate that the extent of modulation of HLA-class-I and -II can serve as predictive marker for response to cytokine therapy, which may serve as a valuable criterion for inclusion of patients in cytokine treatment regimens.

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PubMed Abstracts

FlightGlobal attends World Routes 2018 SINGAPORE, September 12, 2018 – FlightGlobal will be attending World Routes 2018 in Guangzhou from September 16-18. Are you a Mastermind? Innovator? Investigator? Operative? Find out what kind of data person you are from the FlightGlobal booth at HNS420 with our short quiz, and quench your curiosity with a special cold brew coffee that was brewed for your personality! Don’t forget to take home a special edition of FlightGlobal coasters to go with your coffee, and follow us on WeChat for delicious seasonal mooncakes to celebrate the mid-autumn festival!

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Pile-CC

Well, it’s Tuesday morning after Super Bowl Sunday and the news is filled with wonderful highlights from the big game. However, who would have guessed that real estate issues would dominate the discussions. Yes, as fans and Cowboy haters all over the country blame and threaten Jerry for the ticket disaster, little does everyone know that the devil (no-not Jerry) is in the details (contracts and legal status) as opposed to the obvious fact that the stadium is owned by Jerry’s partnership. When you boil this down, I believe we will be focused on two sections of a lease which are commonly overlooked– the “alterations” paragraph and the “workletter” addendum. It is my understanding from talking to lawyers close to the Cowboys that the parties in the Superbowl set up this way: Landlord: Cowboys (Jerry’s ownership partnership), Tenant: NFL, and Licensees of Tenant: Fans. Based on what I can surmise from the serious crawfishing by the NFL, I am assuming that the NFL had control over the construction of those stands and simply realized way too late that, due to the enormity of the job and some unexpected weather problems, the record attendance was not going to happen. This high-profile screw up is going to put a magnifying glass on the interplay (or lack thereof) of the basic construction and alteration paragraphs of a lease. Normally, the Landlord will have complete discretion and consent over all alterations or construction done to its premises. However, even though it may have such consent, it may, nevertheless give to the Tenant control over the actual construction subject to the protection and indemnification of the Landlord. The infamous “workletter” which is buried as an addendum to the Lease is of major importance here because it addresses the scope, authority and liability of the various parties (including the contractor) in connection with the construction. I have always maintained that the most complex area of real estate law is in the construction area as, in this area, we have to delve into, and understand, other disciplines (engineers and architects) that are integral to the process. I am guessing from the way this is shaking out is that the NFL got Jerry’s consent (leave them there for next year!)to build the stands with the proper consent and indemnification back to Jerry. That’s just one simplistic reason the, the NFL, is taking the lead on resolving the issue. Now, what about the poor fans?As you can tell they are not happy http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/02/08/super-bowl-ticket-scandal-are-fans-planning-a-suit/?hpt=T1 and the NFL seems to be cratering like a cheap Super Bowl tent http://www.cnn.com/2011/SPORT/football/02/08/super.bowl.seating/index.html?hpt=T1# My opinion here is that the NFL (a) is trying to do the right thing for the fans and (b)is bracing itself for a huge image problem with the lockout on the horizon. Because, I believe the NFL has little exposure and, potentially, several defenses (force majeur??!)to the claims of these fans. The next time you attend a sporting event, read the back of your ticket and see what legal status you hold under that agreement. Generally by purchase of the ticket, you are purchasing a revocable license to enter upon the premises of the owner of the property. Sounds kind of screwy doesn’t it? All along we thought we were buying the ticket to support our team when, in reality and legally, we are buying a ticket for the privilege of watching their team. Ugh–the truth hurts. As a “licensee” (quote-Black’s Law Dictionary)-we have the privilege to enter upon land arising from the permission or consent, express or implied, of the possessor of the land but we go on the land for our own purpose rather than any purpose or interest of the possessor”. Make sense? Yeah, I didn’t think so. The only duty the possessor (Jerry and the NFL) owe us is the duty of reasonable or due care. Ergo, the reason the NFL pulled the plug (with the help of the City of Arlington) on the stands is that their liability for an injury to someone (because they knew of the dangerous condition of the stands from the fire marshal and the contractor) was much higher than denying access. Of course, everything I have just expressed is purely my opinion based on a ton of assumed facts and without seeing any of the documentation on this event; however, if I am a fan who got hosed on this deal I take my triple refund and tickets to next year’s bowl and run!! Nevertheless, a big thanks to all Steelers and Packer Fans for making this a great event. I have been to several Cowboy/Steelers/Packer games (Remember SB XXX!) and can attest to the class and quality of the Green Bay and Steelers faithful. (sorry about the weather-we were just trying to make you feel at home). Also, much thanks to the Bowl Committee for their tireless work and the citizens of the Metroplex for their Texas hospitality. It was a great time and super experience.

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Pile-CC

Must See: Beyonce Storms In ‘Toyota’ In New ‘Get Going’ Commercial As to attract a younger demographic and bite into the brand power that continues to shift major units for the likes of L’Oreal and Pepsi Co, Toyota calls on Beyonce to front their ‘Get Going‘ campaign this year! Featuring appearances from 2001’s ‘Survivor’ and 2013’s ‘XO‘, the commercial tells the story of the star’s unique rise to superstardom, endorsing the star’s ‘do it yourself’ modus operandi. If you are SINGLE and interested in black women dating white men, white women looking for black men, go to JOIN the best and largest Interracial dating site on —————- BlackMenDatingWhiteWomen. Ｏr g————. Thousands of Black Men, Black Women, White Men and White Women Free Join Here Everyday.Here a 100% safe, serious and real community for black & white single seeking interracial relationships, friendships, dating ,love and more. cvncvncvncvn Why is this s**** using Survivor?? Its not her song, its a DC song. Well I can’t say I’m surprised, she is the biggest fraud in music. She uses DC sales to inflate her pathetic sales. She adds festivals to inflate her tour gross. She steals from other artists videos. She steals writing credits. She and her husband buy her albums. She lipsyncs for the gods. She had a surrogate and lied about it. @cakelikeladygaga H**, i BEEN waiting on your vomit-soaked bumass for a good second! you have some nerve to come for the King in any sense, when your fave has to pull such pathetic tactics to get noticed. and YES bey did write survivor, all with the majority of the ‘Survivor’ album even though it’s a Destiny’s Child album. [sidebar] all you monsters need to ask for receipts cause your fave is cashing in 2 Mil from the ‘born to flop’ foundation and only giving $5000 of it to charity… mess mess mess Lady Gaga is a disgusting gimmick. Using bolemia to get attention. You have the nerve to talk about morals when you stan for shady pretentious flopping tranny who has resorted to that. Sad. Worry about getting Fartpoop back in the Billboard Top 100. Fawk!!!!!!! How can someone continuously KILL THE GAME!?!? This woman is Absolutely One of The Most Successful Artist of All Time! Her tour is currently #1 on Billboards Box Office! SLAYAGE!!! SLAYAGE!!! SLAYAGE!!! Anyway MTV like others are continuing to Praise and honor her. The Reigning queen of Music (and pretty much everything else) honoring her innovation and creativity.#MTV SAID IT …NOT THE HIVE Lmfao @ The Stupidity @Lady Caca stan….U do know Monica has been in the game for over 20years and still putting out music. She has longevity unlike Lady Caca. She’s on the way out with her 5years kiiiiii She looks amazing. I like the fact that Beyonce always finds a way to keep the music incorporated to everything she does. Some people may consider it a ploy to sell her music, but that’s exactly what it should be. At the end of the day, keep your music in the GP’s ears. She is the standard for how a star should handle a project or ‘era’ in my opinion. Wow! How many endorsements is she going to have?! I know many companies know she brings in the big dollars so they must all want her! Lol. But she looks gorgeous as always. The braids look beautiful. Her skin is always really glowing, she looks very young. Flawless queen! Omg queen bey is the best flawless their is no one like our bey I love Toyota I am a owner and my next car is going to be Toyota thanks queen bey you make my day I can’t stope watching the ad long live queen bey thanks Sam for posting Lawdy you young ones need to learn how to not compare these artist. Beyonce and Mariah are two different type of artist and genre. They are not on each other’s level. Mariah will never be Beyonce’ and Beyonce’ will never be Mariah…point, blank and the period. and BEYONCE outsold Artpop in 3 days of its release. So far Artpop has barely scraped $600,000 in the US in 5 months of sales, while the King smashed records in hours and outsold your fave in 3 days. let’s not talk about saltiness?

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Pile-CC

Q: How to get product availability with product id in magento? Is it possible to get product availability by passing a product ID to the Magento system? A: To fetch the quantity (in stock) for any given product $model = Mage::getModel('catalog/product'); $_product = $model->load($product_id); $stocklevel = (int)Mage::getModel('cataloginventory/stock_item') ->loadByProduct($_product)->getQty(); A: You can get stock info (Mage_CatalogInventory_Model_Stock_Item class) by product's ID without loading whole product data (at least in Magento 1.7) $stockItem = Mage::getModel('cataloginventory/stock_item') ->loadByProduct($productId); And then you can use getQty() and other methods on $stockItem object to get required info. You can find them in the source file for the class A: For some types of products zero qty of product doesn't mean it's out of stock. Then you can use $stockStatus = Mage::getModel('cataloginventory/stock_item') ->loadByProduct($product) ->getIsInStock(); For collection one of the ways is $collection = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->getCollection() ->addAttributeToFilter('status', 1) ->addFieldToFilter('visibility', Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Visibility::VISIBILITY_BOTH) ->addAttributeToSelect('*'); if (! Mage::helper('cataloginventory')->isShowOutOfStock()) { Mage::getSingleton('cataloginventory/stock')->addInStockFilterToCollection($collection); }

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

StackExchange

A dielectric multilayer filter, a color filter with dispersed colorant or the like is widely employed as a filter transmitting selectively a specified wavelength. As means for performing easier the same function as such, a wavelength-selective filter with a diffractive grating is proposed. The wavelength-selective filter comprises cyclic concave/convex portions formed on a transparent substrate. This wavelength selective filter can provide high transmission characteristics with respect to a specified wavelength when the phase difference of incident light to a concave portion and a convex portion of the filter is an integral multiple of the specific wavelength. Further, a diffractive dichloric filter (wavelength-selective filter) utilizing this technique is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2000-348366. In the diffractive dichloric filter of this patent document, an optical head device comprising two kinds of semiconductor lasers as light sources which emit wavelengths of 660 nm and 790 nm, is used wherein when the phase difference of incident light produced by the steps of concave and convex is about two time as much as 660 nm, light having a wavelength of 660 nm is transmitted and light having a wavelength of 790 nm is shielded by diffraction (hereinbelow, referred to as “diffraction-shield”), hence, it functions as the diffraction-shielding filter.

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USPTO Backgrounds

As well as good absorptive properties, primary requirements of absorbent articles are good fit and comfort. Various methods have been employed in the design and manufacture of absorbent articles so that they follow the contours of the user's body well and do not move out of place during use. Patent applications WO 03/053301, EP 0 956 844, WO 03/047484, WO 02/087484, WO 02/085270, WO 03/059222, WO 02/087483, WO 02/085269 and related applications describe absorbent products which comprise a stiffening element that is intended to contribute to the three-dimensional shape of the products during their use. EP 1 458 718 describes a disposable diaper having a region of low stiffness being a rectangular region along each side edge of the absorbent member. The low bending stiffness of this region allows the diaper to be bent upwards easily to join around the waist of the user. EP 1 275 358 describes an absorbent article having a front absorbent region and a rear cushion region. The stiffness is higher in the front absorbent region, such that the shape of the raised region is maintained. US 2004/0122407 discloses a sanitary napkin, the longitudinal central region of which has a higher flexure-resistance than the outer portions. In this way, the side regions are flexible enough that the sanitary napkin forms a cup-like trough under the wearers' genitals. EP 0 572 033 discloses an absorbent article having zones which vary in stiffness. The article resists bunching and twisting during use. EP 1 102 824 discloses a sanitary napkin, the edges of which are less stiff than the center for comfort. US2004/0204698 and US2003/0119401 describe an absorbent article having an air-formed unitary absorbent core. The core provides non-uniform lateral compression stiffness and predetermined bending in the article, as it has thinner regions at the edges. The core is thinner towards the front/rear edges as well as at the side edges. There is still room for improvement in the comfort and fit of absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins. In particular, many of the earlier approaches to this problem involve cutting or otherwise removing parts of the absorbent cores of absorbent articles. However, this reduces the total amount of absorbent material which is present and thus provides lower security against leakage. Furthermore, cutting or otherwise removing parts of the absorbent core often results in wasted material, as the cut-out parts cannot always be used. Furthermore, many known products require additional stiffening elements.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

USPTO Backgrounds

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a solid state image sensor and a method of driving the same. 2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the structure of an interline transfer type solid state image sensor. In the interline transfer type solid state image sensor shown in FIG. 1, on a semiconductor substrate 801 are arranged groups of vertical charge transfer registers 802, groups of photoelectric converting elements 803, and a group of horizontal charge transfer registers 804. Each of the groups of vertical charge transfer registers 802 is composed of a plurality of charge transfer registers in a vertical direction. Each of the group of photoelectric converting elements 803 is provided for one of the groups of vertical charge transfer registers 802. The group of horizontal charge transfer registers 804 are electrically connected to the one end of each of the groups of vertical charge transfer registers 802. Also, a charge detecting section 805 is provided to be electrically connected to the one end of the group of horizontal charge transfer registers 804. A signal outputted from the charge detecting section 805 is outputted outside through an output terminal 806. FIG. 2 is a diagram to explain the arrangement of transfer electrodes of the group of vertical charge transfer registers and the photoelectric converting elements and the connection between bus lines and the transfer electrodes. The solid state image sensor shown in FIG. 2, the group of vertical charge transfer registers are driven in 4-phase pulses signal. In FIG. 2, four vertical transfer electrodes 901 are provided for one photoelectric converting element 803 to form a unit pixel. The vertical transfer electrodes 901 are connected to the same bus line 902 for every four electrodes. Also, a horizontal transfer electrode 903 is provided for the one end of the group of vertical charge transfer registers. In such a solid state image sensor, two operations could be needed, one is the operation in which the signal charge of each photoelectric converting element is individually read, and the other is the operation in which the signal charges of two adjacent photoelectric converting elements in the vertical direction are added and read. When the signal charges of two photoelectric converting elements are added and outputted, the resolution of the solid state image sensor decreases. However, the time required to output the signal charges of all the photoelectric converting elements can be made short. Also, when the solid state image sensor is driven in an interlace mode, the signal charges of two adjacent photoelectric converting elements in the vertical direction are added and outputted. In the solid state image sensor, as a method of switching between an individual pixel read mode and a 2-pixel read mode in which the signal charges of two adjacent photoelectric converting elements in the vertical direction are added and read, there is a method in which the signal charges in the groups of vertical charge transfer registers are transferred twice in a horizontal blanking period. This method is described in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 4-262679). The charge transfer of the group of vertical charge transfer registers in the horizontal blanking period is performed once in the individual pixel read mode (the signal charge for one pixel is transferred) and twice in the 2-pixel read mode (the signal charges for two pixels are transferred). FIGS. 3A to 3E are timing charts of the pulses which are applied to the vertical transfer electrodes and the horizontal transfer electrode during the horizontal blanking period in the individual pixel read mode. In this case, only the pulse .phi.H1 which is applied to the horizontal transfer electrode 903 is shown as a horizontal drive pulse. FIGS. 4A to 4I are diagrams illustrating the accumulation states of the signal charges in the group of vertical charge transfer registers at each timing of FIGS. 3A to 3E. When a high voltage pulse is applied once to the vertical transfer electrodes during the horizontal blanking period, the signal charge is read from the photoelectric converting element 803 to the vertical charge transfer register 802 and then is transferred for one pixel in the group of vertical charge transfer registers. At this time, the signal charge of the last stage of vertical charge transfer register is transferred to the horizontal charge transfer register. When receiving the signal charges for one row from the groups of vertical charge transfer registers, the group of horizontal charge transfer registers transfer the received signal charges to the output section in order. By repeating the above operation for all pixels in the vertical direction, the signal charges of all the pixels of the imaging region are outputted. FIGS. 5A to 5E are timing charts of the pulses which are applied to the vertical transfer electrodes and the horizontal transfer electrode during the horizontal blanking period in the 2-pixel read mode. Also, FIGS. 6A to 6M are diagrams illustrating the accumulation states of signal charges in the groups of vertical charge transfer registers at each timing of FIGS. 5A to 5E. When a pulse is applied twice to each vertical transfer electrode during the horizontal blanking period, the signal charges are read from the photoelectric converting element 803 to the group of vertical charge transfer registers 802 and then are transferred for 2 pixels in the group of vertical charge transfer registers. At this time, the signal charge of the last stage of vertical charge transfer register and the signal charge of and the stage previous to the last stage of vertical charge transfer register are continuously transferred to the group of horizontal charge transfer registers to be added to each other in the horizontal charge transfer register. When receiving the signal charges for 2 pixels from the group of vertical charge transfer register, the group of horizontal charge transfer registers transfer the received signal charges to the output section in order. By repeating the above operation for a half of the number of pixels in the vertical direction, the signal charges of all the pixels of the imaging region are outputted. By the way, when a pulse is applied twice to each vertical transfer electrode during the horizontal blanking period in the 2-pixel read mode, the width of the pulse becomes short. In the conventional example of the solid state image sensor, when the width of the pulse becomes short, the amplitude of the drive pulse becomes substantially small because of the influence of the pulse propagation delay by the capacity and resistance of the transfer electrode. For this reason, the maximum transfer quantity of signal charge by the vertical charge transfer register decreases. Also, if the horizontal blanking period is made long so as to suppress the pulse propagation delay, the time given to output the signal charges from the group of horizontal charge transfer registers becomes short. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the frequency of pulses used to drive the group of horizontal charge transfer registers. As a result, the transfer failure in the group of horizontal charge transfer registers, and the increase of the power consumption in a driving circuit of the solid state image sensor. In addition to the above reference, a driving method in an solid state image sensor is known in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 2-196567). In this reference, a plurality of photoelectric converting elements are arranged in a matrix manner to form pixels. A vertical transfer stage is provided for each of the plurality of photoelectric converting elements and reads a signal charge from the photoelectric converting element and transfers in the vertical direction. A horizontal transfer stage is supplied with the signal charges transferred from a vertical transfer means composed of a plurality of vertical transfer stages in the vertical direction. The signal charge is transferred for two vertical transfer stages during one horizontal blanking period such that the signal charges are added in the horizontal transfer stage.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

USPTO Backgrounds

06/Apr/2014Zinc Essential Chemical IndustryUnder the conditions in the furnace zinc is a vapour (gas), whereas lead is produced as a liquid by a similar series of reactions. The other components of sinter such

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

In addition to being populated by cells of the innate and adaptive immune systems, mucosal sites are heavily innervated^[@R12],[@R13]^. Immunofluorescence staining of the neuronal marker SNAP-25 together with the ILC2 marker KLRG1^[@R14]^ and CD3ε revealed that ILC2s and T cells were closely associated with SNAP-25^+^ neurons in the intestine ([Fig. 1a](#F7){ref-type="fig"}). Surface reconstruction suggested that neurons and ILC2s form close inter-cellular contacts (Extended Data (ED) 1). To test whether neuron-derived signals might be sensed by ILC2s, we performed RNA-seq and KEGG pathway analysis of ILC subsets. Multiple genes associated with neuroactive-receptor-ligand-interactions were differentially expressed between ILC2s and ILC3s ([Fig. 1b](#F7){ref-type="fig"}). The most differentially expressed gene in ILC2s in this category was *Nmur1*, a receptor for the neuropeptide NMU, which has previously been reported to provoke anorexic effects in the central nervous system and promote cutaneous inflammation^[@R10],[@R11],[@R15],[@R16]^. We compared *Nmur1* expression to several highly differentially expressed genes found in ILC3s (*Rorc*, *Il17f*, *Il1r1* and *Il22*) or in ILC2s (*Gata3* and *Il1rl1*). *Nmur1* expression segregated in ILC2s to a comparable degree to that noted for other ILC2-associated genes ([Fig. 1c](#F7){ref-type="fig"}). The selective expression of *Nmur1* in ILC2s but not in other innate and adaptive lymphocyte lineages or myeloid cells was confirmed by qPCR analysis ([Fig. 1d](#F7){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 2a](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). In contrast, a second receptor for NMU (*Nmur2*), which is predominately expressed in the central nervous system^[@R10],[@R11]^, was not detected in any of the immune cell populations examined ([Fig. 1c,d](#F7){ref-type="fig"}). Expression of *NMUR1* was also detectable in human intestinal ILCs but not in B cells suggesting that human ILCs sense neuronal signals via NMUR1 ([Fig. 1e](#F7){ref-type="fig"}). Analysis of NMUR1 protein expression using a LacZ reporter revealed that 2% of all CD45^+^ cells in the small intestine were NMUR1^+^ in *Nmur1*^LacZ/+^ but not in control *Nmur1*^+/+^ mice that lacked the reporter ([Fig. 1f](#F7){ref-type="fig"}). Analysis of NMUR1^+^ cells revealed that 96% of NMUR1^+^ cells were negative for cell lineage markers such as CD3, CD5, FcεRI, CD11b, CD11c and B220 but expressed the ILC2 markers CD127 and KLRG1 ([Fig. 1f](#F7){ref-type="fig"}). Consistent with mRNA expression, ILC2s expressed *LacZ* under the control of the *Nmur1* promoter, while no expression was detected in B cells, T cells, ILC1s, ILC3s, eosinophils, mast cells, macrophages and basophils ([ED 2b-g](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). Thus, *Nmur1* is selectively expressed in ILC2s. The ligand of NMUR1 is the 23 amino acid long neuropeptide NMU^[@R10],[@R11]^. *Nmu* was not detectable by qPCR in the epithelial or lamina propria fractions of the small intestine isolated from mouse or human specimens but was expressed in the parenchymal tissue of the small intestine, suggesting that hematopoietic cells do not express NMU ([ED 2h,i](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). Immunofluorescence staining of intestinal tissue or use of *Nmu*^Gfp^ reporter mice revealed a network of NMU^+^ neurons including the plexus myentericus, plexus submucosus and nerve fibers that are located below the tips of the villi ([Fig. 1g](#F7){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 2j-l](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). Notably, NMU was expressed in cholinergic (marked by choline acetyl-transferase (Chat) expression) but not in catecholaminergic neurons (marked by tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expression) ([Fig. 1h](#F7){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 2m](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). NMU^+^ neurons co-localized with ILC2s and 68% of ILC2s had overlapping pixels with neurons ([Fig. 1i](#F7){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 3a,b](#F3){ref-type="fig"}). Further, co-culture of ILC2s together with enteric neurons that expressed NMU led to increased proliferation and blasting of ILC2s suggesting that enteric nerve-derived bioactive factors directly activate ILC2s ([ED 3c-e](#F3){ref-type="fig"}). Together, these data indicate that NMUR1 is specifically expressed by ILC2s, which co-localize with NMU^+^ cholinergic neurons in the intestine and that ILC2s might sense nerve-derived signals. To test whether NMU stimulates ILC2s, we isolated lamina propria lymphocytes (LPLs) from IL-13 reporter mice^[@R17]^ and incubated them *in vitro* with or without NMU. NMU potently activated ILC2s as measured by IL-13 expression ([Fig. 2a,b](#F8){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 4a](#F4){ref-type="fig"}). We confirmed the capacity of NMU to induce IL-5 and IL-13 production by intracellular cytokine staining ([Fig. 2c,d](#F8){ref-type="fig"}) and ELISA ([ED 4b,c](#F4){ref-type="fig"}). Further, a comparison of stimulation of ILC2s with NMU versus combinations of IL-2, IL-7, IL-25 and IL-33 or PMA and ionomycin (all stimuli known to stimulate ILC2s^[@R14],[@R18]--[@R20]^), revealed that NMU-induced expression of IL-5 and IL-13 in ILC2s was stronger than the effects of cytokines previously known to activate ILC2s. Indeed, only a combination of IL-2, IL-7, IL-25 and IL-33 or PMA and ionomycin stimulation resulted in comparable ILC2 activation as NMU stimulation ([Fig. 2e,f](#F8){ref-type="fig"}). Since NMU could trigger potent cytokine production from ILC2s lacking IL-33 responsiveness, we conclude that NMU can activate ILC2s independently of IL-33 ([ED 4d](#F4){ref-type="fig"}). In order to investigate whether NMU activation of ILC2s requires NMUR1 we examined *Nmur1*^−/−^ mice. ILC2s developed in comparable proportions in *Nmur1*^−/−^ mice and did not exhibit obvious defects at steady-state ([ED 4e,f](#F4){ref-type="fig"}). However, only ILC2s from *Nmur1*^+/+^ but not from *Nmur1*^−/−^ mice were activated by NMU to produce type 2 cytokines ([Fig. 2g](#F8){ref-type="fig"}). In contrast, ILC2s from both genotypes could be activated by PMA and ionomycin demonstrating that ILC2s from *Nmur1*^−/−^ were responsive to stimulation but had a specific defect in the NMUR1 signaling pathway ([Fig. 2g](#F8){ref-type="fig"}). In addition, chemical inhibition of Gαq family of proteins, which mediate NMUR1 signal transduction^[@R21]^, completely abolished activation of ILC2s but had only modest effects on ILC2 stimulation with IL-2, IL-7, IL-25 and IL-33 ([Fig. 2h](#F8){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 4g](#F4){ref-type="fig"}). Thus, NMU appears to trigger a NMUR1- and Gαq-dependent signaling pathway in ILC2s. To test whether the stimulation of NMUR1 signaling by NMU is ILC2-intrinsic, we isolated LPLs from CD45.1 *Nmur1*^+/+^ : CD45.2 *Nmur1*^−/−^ mixed bone marrow chimeras and stimulated them *in vitro* with NMU or PMA and ionomycin. Only CD45.1 *Nmur1*^+/+^ ILC2s but not CD45.2 *Nmur1*^−/−^ ILC2s expressed IL-5 and IL-13 following NMU stimulation, whereas ILC2s from both genotypes were activated by PMA and ionomycin ([ED 4h](#F4){ref-type="fig"}). In addition, NMU stimulation of sort-purified ILC2s resulted in blasting and a significant increase in IL-5, IL-9 and IL-13 production as measured by flow cytometry or by Legendplex bead-based assay ([Fig. 2i-m](#F8){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 4i-l](#F4){ref-type="fig"}). Therefore, we conclude that NMU promotes type 2 cytokine production from ILC2s through activating NMUR1 on ILC2s. To further elucidate the pathways activated in ILC2s by NMU stimulation, we sort-purified ILC2s from PBS- or NMU-treated mice and performed transcriptional profiling by RNA-seq. Transcripts from PBS- and NMU-treated ILC2s clustered separately ([Fig. 3a](#F9){ref-type="fig"}) and GO-term analysis revealed that NMU activates processes related to cell cycle regulation and cell division ([Fig. 3b](#F9){ref-type="fig"}), including expression of the cell cycle-associated genes *Kntc1*, *Chaf1a*, *Cdc6*, *Spag5*, *Brca1*, *Mki67* and *Cdca3* ([Fig. 3c](#F9){ref-type="fig"}). Flow cytometric analysis for Ki67, the protein encoded by *MKi67*, demonstrated that NMU administration resulted in significantly increased proliferation of ILC2s but not of ILC3s ([Fig. 3d,e](#F9){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 5a](#F5){ref-type="fig"}). Injection of NMU into CD45.1 *Nmur1*^+/+^ : CD45.2 *Nmur1*^−/−^ mixed bone marrow chimeras revealed an ILC2-intrinsic requirement for NMUR1 to respond to NMU *in vivo* ([Fig. 3f](#F9){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 5b-d](#F5){ref-type="fig"}). In addition, *in vivo* delivery of NMU induced blasting ([ED 5e](#F5){ref-type="fig"}) and maturation ([Fig. 3g](#F9){ref-type="fig"}) of ILC2s that was associated with prototypic type 2 inflammation marked by production of IL-13 ([Fig. 3h,i](#F9){ref-type="fig"}) and goblet cell hyperplasia ([Fig. 3j,k](#F9){ref-type="fig"}). Since the intestine is highly innervated by a network of NMU^+^ neurons ([Fig. 1i](#F7){ref-type="fig"}), we investigated the role of NMU in immunity to the helminth parasite *Nippostrongylus brasiliensis* (*N. brasiliensis*), an intestinal parasite infection model, in which immunity is critically dependent on activation of ILC2s^[@R17],[@R22],[@R23]^. Consistent with a role for NMU in regulating ILC2 responses during helminth infection, *Nmu* expression was up-regulated following infection with *N. brasiliensis* and was a conserved response following exposure to the related nematode parasites *Trichuris muris* (*T. muris*) and *Heligmosomoides polygyrus* (*H. polygyrus*) ([Fig. 3l](#F9){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 5f,g](#F5){ref-type="fig"}). Since NMUR1 is specifically expressed on ILC2s at steady-state ([Fig. 1d,f](#F7){ref-type="fig"},; [ED 2b-g](#F2){ref-type="fig"}), we sought to test whether NMUR1 is induced on other cell types following exposure to *N. brasiliensis* infection. Although increased Nmur1 expression was detected on ILC2s ([ED 5h](#F5){ref-type="fig"}), Nmur1 expression was still specific for ILC2s and not detected on sizable proportions of other immune cell populations including mast cells, basophils, macrophages, T cells or IL-4-producing Th2 cells, indicating that NMU is not acting directly on other hematopoietic cells ([Fig. 3m](#F9){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 5i-l](#F5){ref-type="fig"}). However, in order to rule out that some of the effects of NMU *in vivo* require mast cell or eosinophils, in which *Nmur1* was detected in previous publications^[@R15],[@R24]^, we injected NMU in mast cell-deficient or eosinophil-deficient mice. Consistent with *Nmur1* expression results, NMU elicited potent ILC2 activation in mast-cell-deficient *Cpa3*^Cre/+^ and eosinophil-deficient ΔdblGATA1 mice, demonstrating that ILC2 activation by NMU is independent of eosinophils and mast cells *in vivo* ([ED 5m-o](#F5){ref-type="fig"}). Delivery of NMU following *N. brasiliensis* infection was associated with elevated eosinophilia and accelerated worm expulsion ([Fig. 3n,o](#F9){ref-type="fig"}). *N. brasiliensis*-infected *Nmur1*-deficient mice and *Nmur1*^−/−^ bone marrow chimeras exhibited elevated worm burden and reduced ILC2 responses ([Fig. 3p,q](#F9){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 5p](#F5){ref-type="fig"}). To test whether there is a cell-intrinsic role for NMUR1 on ILC2s, we reconstituted *Rag2*^−/−^ *Il2rg*^−/−^ mice with ILC2 progenitors (ILC2p) derived from either *Nmur1*^+/+^ or *Nmur1*^−/−^ mice. Accelerated worm expulsion and increased ILC2 numbers were observed in recipients reconstituted with *Nmur1*^+/+^ ILC2ps compared to those reconstituted with *Nmur1*^−/−^ ILC2ps ([Fig. 3r,s](#F9){ref-type="fig"}). Administration of NMU to *Rag2*^−/−^ *Il2rg*^−/−^ mice reconstituted with ILC2ps derived from either *Nmur1*^+/+^ or *Nmur1*^−/−^ mice resulted in an enhanced worm expulsion and type 2 response in mice reconstituted with *Nmur1*^+/+^ precursors, indicating that NMU stimulates ILC2s *in vivo* and promotes ILC2-dependent immunity to infection ([Fig. 3t-v](#F9){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 5q](#F5){ref-type="fig"}). To investigate whether NMU can influence ILC2 responses at other mucosal barriers we delivered NMU intranasally. NMU administration stimulated maturation, cytokine expression and proliferation of lung ILC2s ([Fig. 4a-c](#F10){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 6a](#F6){ref-type="fig"}). Associated with this, NMU administration resulted in increased eosinophilia in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and lung tissue and enhanced mucus production compared to PBS-treated control animals ([Fig. 4d,e](#F10){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 6b](#F6){ref-type="fig"}). To directly test whether NMU-induced lung inflammation is dependent on ILC2s, NMU was administered to ILC2-sufficient *Rag2*^−/−^ versus ILC2-deficient *Rag2*^−/−^ *Il2rg*^−/−^ mice. NMU administration to *Rag2*^−/−^ mice resulted in robust ILC2 activation, eosinophil recruitment and airway inflammation compared to PBS-treated *Rag2*^−/−^ mice, while no recruitment of eosinophils was observed in *Rag2*^−/−^ *Il2rg*^−/−^ mice ([Fig. 4f,g](#F10){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 6c](#F6){ref-type="fig"}). Reconstitution of *Rag2*^−/−^ *Il2rg*^−/−^ mice with ILC2ps^[@R14]^ restored ILC2 populations in the lung ([ED 6d](#F6){ref-type="fig"}) and delivery of NMU resulted in robust ILC2 proliferation and eosinophilia that was absent in ILC2-deficient recipients ([Fig. 4h,i](#F10){ref-type="fig"}). Lastly, delivery of NMU to *Nmur1*^+/+^ or *Nmur1*^−/−^ mice demonstrated the requirement for *Nmur1* in eliciting NMU-dependent ILC2 responses *in vivo* ([Fig. 4j,k](#F10){ref-type="fig"}; [ED 6e](#F6){ref-type="fig"}). Taken together, these findings elaborate a new pathway that enables neuronal-immune system cross-talk and identify a previously unrecognized role for cholinergic neuron-derived NMU in promoting activation, proliferation and effector functions of ILC2s at mucosal sites. The discovery that NMU can promote ILC2 responses and accelerate type 2 inflammation provokes the hypothesis that beyond their capacity to respond to cytokines and alarmins, ILC2s may have selectively co-evolved with the enteric nervous system to coordinate early sensing and responsiveness to infectious and foreign stimuli at barrier surfaces. We propose that cholinergic enteric neuron-derived neuromedin U functions as a neuronal amplifier that primes ILC2s for rapid and optimal activation by promoting their entry into cell cycle or their responsiveness to other host-derived or environmental stimuli, which are essential activation and/or survival factors for ILC2s. Moreover, the appreciation that the immediate response capability of the nervous system can elicit a strong, rapid and selective activation of ILC2s provides new insights into the pathophysiology of innate type 2 cytokine responses associated with exposure to multiple infectious agents, environmental allergens and pollutants at mucosal sites. Experimental Procedures {#S1} ======================= Mouse strains {#S2} ------------- C57BL/6 mice and CD45.1 mice on C57BL/6 background (B6.SJL-Ptprca Pepcb/BoyJ) were purchased from The Jackson Laboratory. *Rag2*^−/−^ and *Rag2*^−/−^ *Il2rg*^−/−^ on a C57BL/6 background were from Taconic Farms. *Chat*^Gfp\ 25^, *Chat*^Cre\ 26^, Ai14 ^[@R27]^, *Id2*^Gfp\ 28^ on a C57BL/6 background and *Il13*^Yfp/+\ 17^, *Il4*^Gfp\ 29^ and ΔdblGATA1^[@R30]^ on a BALB/c background were originally from The Jackson Laboratory. These strains, together with *Cpa3*^Cre\ 31^, *Il1rl1*^−/−\ [@R32]^ and the strains mentioned below, were bred at Weill Cornell Medicine. *Nmur1*^LacZ/+^ (*Nmur1^tm1.1(KOMP)Vlcg^*) were generated by Velocigene using C57BL/6 ES cells in which the *Nmur1* gene was replaced by *LacZ* and a floxed neomyin cassette. The neomycin cassette was removed by crossing the mice to Cre deleter mice. Breeding of *Nmur1*^LacZ/+^ to homozygosity resulted in *Nmur1-deficient (Nmur1*^LacZ/LacZ^) *mice* referred to as *Nmur1*^−/−^*. Nmu*^Gfp^ were generated by Gensat and provided on a Swiss Webster background. Sex and age-matched animals between 6 and 16 weeks of age were used for experiments if not otherwise indicated. We did not use randomization to assign animals to experimental groups. Investigators were not blinded to group allocation during experiments. No animals were excluded from the analysis unless clearly indicated. All animal experiments were approved and are in accordance with the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee guidelines at Weill Cornell Medicine. Isolation of cells from the lamina propria and the lung {#S3} ------------------------------------------------------- Small intestine was removed, cleaned from remaining fat tissue and washed in ice-cold PBS (Corning). Peyer's patches were identified and eliminated. Small intestine was opened longitudinally and washed in ice-cold PBS. Dissociation of epithelial cells was performed by incubation on a shaker at 37°C in HBSS (Sigma-Aldrich) containing 10 mM Hepes and 5 mM EDTA (both Thermo Fisher Scientific) or 1mM DTT (Sigma-Aldrich) two times for 15 min. After each step, samples were vortexed and the epithelial fraction discarded. Afterwards, remaining tissue was chopped into small pieces and enzymatic digestion was performed using Dispase (5 U/ml; Thermo Fisher Scientific), Collagenase III (1 mg/ml; Worthington) and DNaseI (20 μg/ml; Sigma-Aldrich). Leukocytes were further enriched by a 40%/80% Percoll gradient centrifugation (Sigma-Aldrich). One PBS-perfused lung lobe was minced and incubated using same conditions and enzymatic cocktail as for the intestine for 45 min at 37°C. Afterwards lung was vortexed, mashed through a 70 μM cell strainer and purified over a 40%/80% Percoll gradient. Mesenteric lymph nodes were chopped and incubated in RPMI medium supplemented with 1% BSA (Sigma-Aldrich), DNaseI (20 μg/ml) and Collagenase II (1 mg/ml; Sigma-Aldrich) for 20 min at 37°C. Specimens were mechanically dissociated and filtered through a 70 μM cell strainer. Flow cytometry and cell sorting {#S4} ------------------------------- After saturating the Fc-receptors with CD16/CD32 blocking antibody (Biolegend), single cell suspensions were incubated on ice with conjugated antibodies in PBS (Ca^2+^ and Mg^2+^-free). Dead cells were routinely excluded with Fixable Aqua Dead Cell Stain or SYTOX Blue Dead Cell Stain (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Lineage-positive cells were excluded by staining for CD3ε (145-2C11), CD5 (53-7.3), FcεRI (Mar-1), B220 (RA3-6B2), CD11b (M1/70) and CD11c (N418). For surface staining KLRG1 (2F1), CD45 (30-F11), CD45.1 (A20), CD45.2 (104), CD25 (PC61), CD127 (A7R34), SiglecF (E50-2440), CCR6 (29-2L17), NKp46 (29A1.4), NK1.1 (PK136), c-kit (2B8), CD49b (HMα2), CD19 (eBio1D3), CD90.2 (53-2.1), ST2 (DIH9) and F4/80 (BM8) were used. Intracellular staining with IL-5 (TRFK5) and IL-13 (eBIO13A) antibodies was carried out by using the Cytofix/Cytoperm Fixation/Permeabalization Solution and Perm/Wash bufffer (BD Biosciences). GATA-3 (TWAJ), RORγt (B2D) and Ki67 (B56) were stained using the Foxp3 transcription factor staining buffer set (eBioscience). Human ILCs were sort-purified as CD45^+^ (HI30), CD3ε^−^ (UCHT1), CD5^−^ (UCHT2), CD19^−^ (HIB19), CD11b^−^ (CBRM1/5), CD11c^−^ (3.9) CD14^−^ (HCD14) and CD127^+^ (eBioRDR5) cells. All antibodies used in flow cytometry were purchased from eBioscience, Biolegend or BD Biosciences. LacZ was visualized by using the FluoReporter lacZ Flow Cytometry Kit according to the manufacture's protocol (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and 2 min incubation time. All flow cytometry experiments were acquired using a custom configuration Fortessa flow cytometer and the FACS Diva software (BD Biosciences) and analyzed with FlowJo V9.9.3 software (TreeStar) or sort-purified by using a custom configuration FACSAria cell sorter (BD Biosciences). Quantitative real-time PCR {#S5} -------------------------- Tissues and sorted cells were homogenized in Trizol (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and stored at -80°C. RNA was extracted with chloroform and RNA concentration was determined using a Nanodrop 2000 spectrophotometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Reverse transcription of total RNA was performed using the High Capacity cDNA Reverse Transcription kit according to the protocol provided by the manufacturer (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Reaction was detected on a QuantStudio 6 Flex Real-Time PCR (Thermo Fisher Scientific) using the following TaqMan Gene Expression Assays (Applied Biosystems): *Nmu* (Mm00479868_m1), *Nmur1* (Mm00515885_m1), *Nmur2* (Mm00600704_m1) for mouse and *NMU* (Hs00183624_m1), *NMUR1* (Hs00173804_m1) for human samples. Gene expression was normalized as n-fold difference to the gene *Hprt1* (Mm00446968_m1) for mouse and *HPRT1* (Hs02800695_m1) for human samples according to the cycling threshold. Calculation of mRNA levels was performed with the QuantStudio Real-Time PCR software version 1.0 (Thermo Fisher Scientific). *In vitro* stimulation and ELISA {#S6} -------------------------------- Bulk LPLs or sort-purified ILC2s were incubated in DMEM with high glucose supplemented with 10% FCS, 10 mM Hepes, 1 mM sodium pyruvate, non-essential amino acids, 80 μM 2-Mercaptoethanol, 2 mM Glutamine, 100 U/ml Penicillin and 100 μg/ml Streptomycin (all from Gibco) in 96-well microtiter plates (Corning) for 4h at 37°C and 5% CO~2~. Neuromedin U-23 (Phoenix Pharmaceuticals or Alpha Diagnostics) or a control peptide (Alpha Diagnostics) were added at 0.1 ([Fig, 2 e, f, h](#F8){ref-type="fig"}), 1 μg/ml ([Fig, 2 a-c, g, i](#F8){ref-type="fig"},) or 10 μg/ml ([Fig, 2 j-o](#F8){ref-type="fig"}) if not otherwise indicated. If indicated, the culture was supplemented with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA, 1 μg/ml) and ionomycin (Sigma-Aldrich, 1 μg/ml), IL-2, IL-7, IL-33 (R&D, 100 ng/ml, each) and/or IL-25 (eBioscience, 100 ng/ml). The inhibitor of Gαq proteins FR900359 was purified at the University of Bonn and used at 1 μM concentration. In experiments in which intracellular cytokine staining was performed, brefeldin A was added (Sigma-Aldrich, 10 μg/ml). Cytokines in the supernatant were detected with a sandwich ELISA using IL-5 (TRFK5) or IL-13 (eBio13a) as capture antibodies and IL-5 (TRFK4) or IL-13 (eBio1316H) as detection antibodies (all from eBioscience) or the Legendplex bead-based assay (Biolegend) for IL-5, IL-9 and IL-13 according to the manufacture's protocol. Helminth infection {#S7} ------------------ Third-stage larvae (L3) of *N. brasiliensis* were purified with a Baermann apparatus. After washing three times in PBS, living worms were counted. 500 purified larvae were injected subcutaneously in PBS. In addition, in some experiments PBS or NMU (20 μg, Phoenix Pharmaceuticals) was injected i.p. on day 2, 4, and 6 of infection. At day 7 of infection, mice were killed and analyzed if not otherwise indicated. For *T. muris* infection, 200 embryonated eggs were administered by oral gavage. At day 18, a piece from the proximal colon was removed and cleaned in PBS, after which RNA was extracted for qPCR. For *H. polygyrus*, 250 infective L3 larvae were administered by oral gavage. At day 18, a piece from the duodenum was removed and cleaned in PBS, after which RNA was extracted for qPCR. RNA-seq analysis {#S8} ---------------- For the RNA-seq data presented in [Figure 1](#F7){ref-type="fig"} ILC2 (Lin^−^ CD45^+^ CD90^+^ CD127^+^ KLRG1^+^) and ILC3 (Lin^−^ CD45^+^ CD90^+^ CD127^+^ CCR6^+^) lymphocytes were sort-purified from the small intestine of C57BL76 mice. For the RNA-seq data presented in [Figure 3](#F9){ref-type="fig"} PBS or NMU (20 μg, Phoenix Pharmaceuticals) was injected into Id2^Gfp/+^ mice. After one day, ILC2s from the small intestine were sort-purified as Lin^−^ CD45^+^ ID2 GFP^+^ CD127^+^ CD25^+^ KLRG1^+^ lymphocytes in Trizol and stored at -80°C. RNA was extracted by using chloroform and further purification with the RNAeasy mini spin columns (Qiagen). RNA samples with an average RNA integrity number (RIN) of 7.9 were further processed. Sorted cells were used to prepare RNAseq libraries by the Epigenomics Core at Weill Cornell Medicine using the Clontech SMARTer® Ultra® Low Input RNA Kit V4 (Clontech Laboratories). Sequencing was performed on an Illumina HiSeq 2500, yielding 50 bp single-end reads. Raw sequencing reads were demultiplexed with Illumina's CASAVA (v1.8.2). Adapters were trimmed from reads using FLEXBAR (v2.4)^[@R33]^ and reads were aligned to the NCBI GRCm38/mm10 mouse genome using the STAR aligner (v2.3.0)^[@R34]^ with default settings. Reads per gene were counted using Rsubread^[@R35]^. One sample was removed from the analysis, as its library size was anomalously small compared to those of the other samples. Genes with at least 10 counts in each sample were considered for further analysis. Differential expression was assessed using DESeq2 version 1.14.0 with default parameters and with a false discovery rate (FDR) of 0.1^[@R36]^. Principal component analysis was performed after using DESeq2's variance stabilizing transformation. GO and KEGG term enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes was performed using the goana and kegga functions of the limma R package^[@R37]^. Enrichment p values were then Bonferroni-corrected. NMU-induced inflammation {#S9} ------------------------ NMU (20 μg) or sterile PBS was intranasally administered in a total volume of 30 μl daily. Administration was either performed for 5 days and mice were analyzed after 3 days rest, or analyzed on day 5 after 4 days of administration. Generation of bone marrow chimeras {#S10} ---------------------------------- Mice were irradiated with 11 Gy from an X-ray irradiator split in two doses of 5.5 Gy and a 4h break between the two cycles. For mixed bone marrow chimeras CD45.1 mice were reconstituted with a 1:1 mixture of full bone marrow from CD45.1 *Nmur1*^+/+^ and CD45.2 *Nmur1*^−/−^ mice. For bone marrow chimeras C57BL/6 mice were reconstituted with either *Nmur1*^+/+^ or *Nmur1*^−/−^ bone marrow. Antibiotics (Sulfamethoxazol and Trimethoprim) were delivered for 2 weeks after bone marrow transplantation in the drinking water and mice were reconstituted for at least 6 weeks before experimentation. Reconstitution of *Rag2*^−/−^ *Il2rg*^−/−^ mice {#S11} ----------------------------------------------- Bones were cleaned, washed in 70% EtOH and subsequently in PBS and crushed using a pestle. Bones were rinsed with PBS and bone marrow was resuspended in PBS and filtered through a 70 μM cell strainer. Red blood cells were lysed using ACK buffer (Lonza) and lineage-positive cells were depleted using the Dynabeads untouched mouse CD4 cells kit according to the manufacture's protocol (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Remaining cells were stained and ILC2ps were sort-purified as Lin^−^ Sca-1^high^ CD127^+^ CD25^+^ cells ^[@R14]^. 1×10^4^ sort-purified ILC2ps were injected i.v. and mice were used at least 4 weeks after adoptive transfer. Clarity imaging and immunofluorescence {#S12} -------------------------------------- CLARITY imaging was performed following a modified protocol of *Chung et al*. ^[@R38]^. Briefly, mice were killed and transcardially perfused with 20 ml of ice-cold PBS followed by hydrogel solution combining 1% acrylamide (40%, BioRad), 0.025% bis-acrylamide (2%, BioRad), 0.25% VA-044 initiator (Wako) and 4% PFA in PBS. Intestines were immediately excised, opened longitudinally and cleaned. Tissue was placed in a 50 mL conical tube including 20 ml of cold hydrogel solution and incubated slowly shaking at 4°C for 2 days. The tube was degassed in a desiccation chamber to replace air with nitrogen gas and submerged in a 37°C water bath for 4h until polymerization of the hydrogel solution. Tissue was extracted and cleaned of excess gel followed by washing in clearing solution (200 mM Boric Acid, 4% Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (pH 8.5; both Sigma-Aldrich) at 37°C on a shaker. Clearing solution was changed every 2 days until tissue became transparent. Tissue was washed twice for 24h in 0.1% Triton X-100 in PBS and stained with indicated antibodies. For whole mount staining small intestine was cleaned, opened longitudinally and washed ice-cold HBSS with 5% FCS and HBSS with 1 mM DTT. The muscularis mucosa was then mechanically separated form the mucosa by using forceps and washed ice-cold HBSS with 5% FCS. The tissue was fixed in 4% PFA for 2h at room temperature. Afterwards the tissue was washed in ice-cold PBS and blocked with PBS 0.1% Triton X-100 and 10% serum and stained. The following antibodies were used: Rabbit anti-NMU (Santa Cruz), chicken anti-TH (Abcam), mouse anti-SNAP25 (SMI 81, Biolegend), rat anti-CD3ε (17A2, Biolegend), hamster anti-KLRG1 (2F1, eBioscience) followed by goat anti-rabbit Alexa 488, donkey anti-rabbit Alexa 647, goat anti-chicken Alexa 555, goat anti-hamster Alexa 546 (all Thermo Fisher Scientific), donkey anti-rat Alexa 647 (Jackson Immune Research), and images of representative tissue were captured under a LSM 880 confocal microscope and analyzed with Zen software (Zeiss). Surface reconstruction was performed by using Imaris software (Bitplane). For quantification of ILC2-neuron co-localization we performed background subtraction, and Gaussian smoothing. Then a surface was created and small objects were filtered out for the CD3ε channel. Afterwards, the KLRG1 channel was masked with CD3ε objects in order to remove these from the KLRG1 channel. Background subtraction, Gaussian smoothing, creation of surface and filtering of small objects were performed for KLRG1 channel. This mask was used to select pixels in the NMU channel that overlap with KLRG1. For the masked NMU channel, a surface was created and small objects were filtered out. The objects with and without overlap of the KLRG1 and NMU channel were manually counted. Enteric neuron culture {#S13} ---------------------- Neurosphere culture and differentiation was essentially carried out as described before^[@R39]^. In brief, the intestine were dissected from embryos approximately 18 days p.c., minced and washed four times in HBSS/2% FBS (4 min, at 400g). Tissue was digested for 15 min at 37°C in HBSS supplemented with 0.05% Trypsin-EDTA solution (Gibco) and 50 μg/ml DNaseI. After digestion the solution was vortexed and filtered through a 70 μM cell strainer. Cells were plated on an ultralow adherent plate (Corning) in DMEM/F12 supplemented with N2 and Antibiotic-Antimycotic solution (all Gibco) and expanded for 4-5 days. EGF and FGF (20 ng/ml, both R&D) were added to the culture. For differentiation, cells were plated on a 96-well flat-bottom adherent plate (Corning) coated with fibronectin (20 μg/ml in PBS, Sigma) in Neurobasal medium supplemented with B27 and Antibiotic-Antimycotic solution (all Gibco) for 15 days. For co-culture, sort-purified ILC2s were added to the culture with IL-2 and IL-7 (20 ng/ml each). Human tissues {#S14} ------------- Human tissues were obtained through an approved research protocol and material transfer agreement with LiveOnNY as described before^[@R40]^. Donors were tested to be HIV-, Hepatitis B-, Hepatitis C-negative and did not have chronic disease or cancer. This work does not qualify as'human subject'research as confirmed by the institutional review board of Columbia University. Tissues were collected after the donor organs were flushed with preservation solution. The intestinal tissue, was washed in PBS, cleaned from fat tissues and cut in smaller pieces, which were incubated in HBSS supplemented with 10 mM Hepes, 5 mM EDTA and 1 mM DTT for 1h at 37°C in a shaking incubator. The specimens were vortexed and filtered through a cell strainer. Epithelium and intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) were purified with a 20%/40% Percoll gradient. Digestion solution (collagenase D, Roche, 2 mg/ml), trypsin inhibitor (Thermo Fisher, 1 mg/ml), and DNaseI (0.1 mg/ml) in RPMI medium (Corning), was injected submucosally into the remaining tissue pieces. After incubation at 37°C for 30 min, the samples were chopped and moved to shaking incubator for another 30 min at 37°C. Afterwards, specimens were vortexed, filtered through a tissue sieve and purified over a 40%/80% Percoll gradient. Recovered LPLs were stained with fluorescent-label coupled antibodies and sort-purified. In addition, RNA was extracted from fractioned epithelium, intraepithelial lymphocytes, lamina propria lymphocytes, remaining parenchyma or whole unfractionated tissue using Trizol. Statistical analysis {#S15} -------------------- P value of mouse data sets was determined by paired or unpaired two-tailed Student's t-test with 95% confidence interval. Normal distribution was assumed. If equal variances between two groups could not be assumed, Welch's correction was performed. Data from human samples were analyzed using a two-tailed Mann-Whitney test with 95% confidence interval. All statistical tests were performed with Graph Pad Prism V7 software. (\*p \<0.05; \*\*p \<0.01 and \*\*\*p \<0.001; n.s., not significant). Extended Data {#S16} ============= {ref-type="fig"}. Scale bar 30 μm.](nihms896443f1){#F1} {#F2} {ref-type="fig"}. Scale bar 50 μm.\ (b) Percentage (Mean + SD, n= 4) of ILC2s, that have overlapping pixels with neurons. A total of 348 cells were counted and 236 cells exhibited pixels overlapping with NMU staining.\ (c) Expression of *Nmu* as determined by qPCR in enteric neuron (Mean + SD, n=5 pooled from two independent experiments) cultures and compared to the epithelial fraction or parenchyma of the small intestine (n=3).\ (d,e) Sort-purified ILC2s (3×10^4^) were cultured with or without enteric neurons for 5 days. Absolute number (d) and FSC (e) (Mean + SD, n= 3) of ILC2s are shown. Data are representative of three independent experiments.](nihms896443f3){#F3} {#F4} {#F5} {#F6} Supplementary Material {#S17} ====================== We thank I. Gabanyi and D. Mucida for help with the muscularis isolation, H-R Rodewald for providing *Cpa3*^Cre^ and G. Eberl for RORγt^Gfp^ mice. We thank the Epigenomics Core, the Imaging Core and the Mouse Genetics Core at Weill Cornell Medicine and MSKCC. *Nmur1*^LacZ/+^ mice were generated by Velocigene and *Nmu*^Gfp^ by GENSAT and provided by the KOMP or MMRRC Repository at UC Davis. The work was supported by grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG; KL 2963/1-1 to C.S.N.K.; FOR2372 to E.K. and G.M.K.), the Australian National Health and Medical Research Comission (NHMRC) early career fellowship (to L.C.R.), the Novo Nordic Foundation (14052; to J.B.M.), the Weill Cornell Department of Medicine Pre-Career Award (to L.A.M.), the Naito Foundation (to S.M.), JSPS Overseas Research Fellowships (to S.M.), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA; HR0011-16-C-0138 to X.S.), the National Institutes of Health (NIH; AI061570, AI087990, AI074878, AI083480, AI095466, AI095608, AI102942, AI106697 and AI097333 to D.A.; R01GM114254 and OT2-OD023849 to X.S.; AI106697 to D.L.F.), the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (to D.A.) and the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America (to T.M and D.A.). **Authorship contributions** C.S.N.K. carried out most experiments and analyzed the data. T.M., J.B.M., L.C.R., A.-L.F., H.K., L.A.M., S.M., N.R. and X.S. helped with experiments and E.K. and G.M.K provided the inhibitor FR900359 (previous commercial name UBO-QIC). G.G.P. performed RNA-seq analysis. T.S., D.C. and D.L.F. provided human tissue samples. D.A. and C.S.N.K. conceived the project, analyzed data, and wrote the manuscript with input from all co-authors. **Disclosure of conflicts of interest** The authors declare no competing conflict of interest. **Data availability** RNA-seq data are deposited as GSE101625 in the Gene Expression Omnibus database. {#F7} {ref-type="fig"}.\ (c,d) Percentage (Mean + SD, n=5) of IL-13^+^ (c) or IL-5^+^ (d) KLRG1^+^ cells as determined by intracellular cytokine staining.\ (e,f) Percentage (Mean + SD, n= 3) of IL-13 YFP^+^ (e) or IL-5^+^ (f) KLRG1^+^ cells.\ (g) Percentage (Mean + SD, n=6) of IL-5^+^ KLRG1^+^ cells. M: Medium; N: NMU; P: PMA/ionomycin.\ (h) Bulk LPLs were incubated for 30 min with DMSO or the inhibitor of Gαq proteins FR900359 before incubation with medium or NMU. Percentage (Mean + SD, n=3) of IL-13 YFP^+^ KLRG1^+^ cells.\ (i,j) Overnight incubation of sort-purified intestinal ILC2s. Percentage (Mean + SD; n=5) of IL-5^+^ (i) and IL-13^+^ (j) ILC2s.\ (k-m) 7 days incubation of sort-purified intestinal ILC2s. Concentration (Mean + SD, n=6) of IL-5 (k), IL-9 (l), IL-13 (m) in the supernatant.\ Data are representative of three (a-f, h-j) independent experiments with similar results. The data in g and k-l are pooled data from two independent experiments and representative for a total of four independent experiments.](nihms896443f8){#F8} {#F9} {#F10}

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

PubMed Central

It is through Ivan’s representation of Soloviev in The Brothers Karamazov that Dostoevsky unearths the grave implications and outcomes of totalitarian politics… Fyodor Dostoevsky’s final novel, The Brothers Karamazov, has rightly earned its place among the greatest books of all time. It warrants this stature in no small part because it addresses questions and [...] The Imaginative Conservative is sponsored by The Free Enterprise Institute (a U.S. 501(c)3 tax exempt organization). Your donation to the Institute in support of The Imaginative Conservative is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. (Gifts may be made online or by check mailed to the Institute at 9600 Long Point Rd., Suite 300, Houston, TX, 77055.)

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

692 P.2d 61 (1984) AMERICAN NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST COMPANY OF SHAWNEE, Shawnee, Oklahoma; Raymond Harber; Frances Robertson; Henry Harber Lampl; Maurice B. Lampl, II; David Allan Lampl; and William Dwight Harber, as Executors of the Estate of Winford Elmer Harber, Deceased, Appellees, v. CLARKE & VAN WAGNER, INC., a Professional Corporation; Sidney R. Clarke, III; and George Van Wagner, Appellants. No. 59060. Court of Appeals of Oklahoma, Division 2. July 17, 1984. Rehearing Denied September 6, 1984. Certiorari Denied November 20, 1984. Released for Publication November 21, 1984. Peter B. Bradford, Bradford, Haswell & Jones, Oklahoma City, for appellees. Val R. Miller, Crowe & Dunlevy, Oklahoma City, for appellants. Released for Publication by Order of Court of Appeals November 21, 1984. *62 MEANS, Presiding Judge. Attorneys who represented estate appeal from summary judgment granted in favor of executors. This court previously affirmed the order granting summary judgment in a summary opinion issued October 11, 1983. Upon direction for a reasoned opinion from the Oklahoma Supreme Court, we have re-examined all the issues presented. Order affirmed. Attorneys Sidney R. Clarke, III, and George Van Wagner, represented the executors in the estate of W.E. Harber. In 1975, pursuant to the terms of an order allowing fees, the attorneys were paid $275,000 for services rendered. The final decree of distribution was filed in the Harber estate in April 1976. This final order was appealed by certain of the legatees and devisees under the Harber will. Four of the executors were also appellants. As an assignment of error in that appeal, the appellants contended: 1. The trial court erred by granting an excessively large attorney fee, in the amount of Two Hundred and Seventy-Five Thousand Dollars ($275,000) to the firm of Clarke and Van Wagner, Inc., in that: (i) The court's decision and order is not sustained by sufficient evidence establishing the reasonableness of such a large attorney fee. On the contrary, the evidence establishes that a proper fee would be considerably less. (ii) The court's decision and order is contrary to the law requiring that attorneys' [sic] fees paid from the assets of an estate be only such amount as will reasonably compensate him for his services rendered for the benefit of said estate. Clarke and Van Wagner represented the executors who were the appellees in the previous appeal. We presume this representation included writing a brief which supported the reasonableness of the attorneys' fee which they had been awarded. Without a doubt, the attorneys knew that the reasonableness of the size of their fee was to be addressed by the appellate court. This previous appeal was assigned to the Oklahoma Court of Appeals, Division 1, which rendered a decision on March 7, 1978, in case number 49,669. Petition for certiorari was denied on April 30, 1979, and the decision was mandated.[1] The opinion shows that George Van Wagner represented *63 the estate on appeal and filed a brief in support of the final accounting and award of attorneys' fees. In its opinion, the court of appeals noted that the trial court had awarded the attorneys' fee based on the amount which the executors had received. In reversing that part of the order which had set the attorneys' fees at $275,000, the court of appeals stated: There is no valid reason for setting the attorneys' fees the same as the executors' fee. A percentage fee or a commission fee for attorneys in probate cases went out with the minimum fee schedule. In our opinion, in the light of the record herein, the allowance for the attorneys' fees was excessive, and we hereby reduce such fees, including work to date, to the sum of $150,000.00. (emphasis added) The executors who had paid Clarke and Van Wagner the excessive and unreasonable fee, made demand for a return of the $125,000 overpayment. When the attorneys refused to return the money, the executors filed this lawsuit against Clarke and Van Wagner, Inc., and the attorneys as individuals. In March 1982, the executors moved for summary judgment, contending that there was no substantial controversy as to any material fact. The trial court granted summary judgment for the executors and Clarke and Van Wagner appealed. I As their first proposition of error, the attorneys state that summary judgment was inappropriate because there were substantial controversies concerning material facts. As Clarke and Van Wagner point out, a motion for summary judgment may be sustained only-if no question concerning any material fact remains to be determined. Garner v. Johnson, 609 P.2d 760, 762-63 (Okla. 1980). However, the trial court's ruling on a motion for summary judgment must be made on the record which the parties have actually presented and not on a record which is potentially possible. Northrip v. Montgomery Ward & Co., 529 P.2d 489, 494 (Okla. 1974). The attorneys contend that the trial court entered judgment without hearing all the facts and "before the court even went to the trouble of determining" the issues of fact which would have precluded summary judgment. They assert that evidence of these issues of fact would have been presented "if the court had waited to hear the facts." In sustaining the motion for summary judgment, the attorneys state that the court denied them the opportunity "to fully present all of the facts and factors involved and have their day in court." In so contending, Clarke and Van Wagner ignore the procedure for summary judgment and the burdens on the parties established by District Court Rule 13, 12 O.S. 1981, ch. 2, app. Where the moving party offers evidence which shows that there is no substantial controversy as to any fact material to the cause of action, and that fact is in the movant's favor, the *64 party opposing the motion has the burden of showing evidence, not mere contentions, which would justify a trial. Weeks v. Wedgewood Village, Inc., 554 P.2d 780, 785 (Okla. 1976). The motion for summary judgment and attached evidence submitted by the executors clearly demonstrate no substantial controversy as to any material fact. The executors submitted evidence that the attorneys' fees were set by the court; paid to Clarke and Van Wagner, Inc., pursuant to a court order; appealed to the supreme court; determined to be excessive; requested to be returned; and still retained by Clarke and Van Wagner. From the evidence presented in support of the motion for summary judgment, it is clear that Clarke and Van Wagner were refusing to return $125,000 in attorneys' fees which had been determined to be excessive. In opposition to the motion for summary judgment, Clarke and Van Wagner attached an affidavit of Sidney R. Clarke, III, which in effect merely repeats the contentions found in the objection to the motion. Clarke stated that "there are additional facts to which he and George Van Wagner and Executors ... would testify to if called as witnesses." However, in neither the objection nor Clarke's affidavit did the attorneys set out any of these alleged "facts in controversy." On review to this court, all inferences and conclusions to be drawn from the underlying facts in the record presented below should be viewed in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion. Rose v. Sapulpa Rural Water Co., 631 P.2d 752, 754 (Okla. 1981). This court has the obligation to examine the items enumerated under Rule 13, which are found in the record, to determine what facts are material to the cause of action and to determine whether the evidentiary materials show no substantial controversy as to any material fact. Weaver v. Pryor Jeffersonian, 569 P.2d 967, 973 (Okla. 1977). In light of the above standard, we find that the evidence presented to the trial court in opposition to the motion for summary judgment neither shows a substantial controversy, nor complies with the requirements of Rule 13. The court in Weeks v. Wedgewood Village, Inc., specifically held that the "mere denial in a pleading, repeated in an affidavit unsupported by any proof is not sufficient to require the credibility of the opposing party to be determined on trial." 554 P.2d at 784. Rule 13 provides that the party opposing the motion may file an objection "to which he may attach affidavits and other materials containing facts that would be admissible in evidence, but the adverse party cannot rely on the allegations or denials in his pleading." The rule further specifies that where a party sets forth the specific material fact claimed to be in controversy, he must accompany that with references to pages and paragraphs found in materials in the record. The consequences of a party's failure to comply are found in the final sentence of Rule 13(b) which states: "If the motion for judgment is granted, the party or parties filing the objection cannot on appeal rely on any fact or material that is not referred to or included in the objection in order to show that a substantial controversy exists." From our examination of the record, the only fact which Clarke and Van Wagner attempt to put in controversy is an alleged agreement they had with the executors. Clarke's affidavit states that the fee was paid in accordance with such an agreement. However, Clarke and Van Wagner do not demonstrate the existence of an agreement, nor do they ever state the terms of the alleged agreement. Even if the terms of the agreement were material, in order to be considered by the court in ruling on the motion for summary judgment, the terms would have to be included in the record. Once again, only the actual record which the parties have presented is what is considered — not the potential record. Ross v. City of Shawnee, 683 P.2d 535, 55 O.B.J. 1353 (Okla. 1984). *65 The presence of an agreement is totally unsupported by the record, and in fact is contrary to what the record shows. Attached to the executors' motion is a copy of a letter from Judge Foster, the probate judge, stating: I am in receipt of the minutes of the Executors Meeting of September 18, 1975, I have noted in the minutes that there was a matter of executors and attorneys fees brought up at the Executors Meeting. I might advise parties that the matter of the attorneys and executors fees will be a matter that will be determined by the Court pursuant to a proper application and proper hearing — and until such time as these fees are set by the Court — the Executors need not concern themselves with the same... . The fees are a matter of law and of the Court's discretion and the Court will exercise the determination as to the amount of the fees at the proper time. (emphasis added) From the record presented to the trial court below, we find no substantial controversy as to any material fact. II Clarke and Van Wagner further contend that the trial court erred as a matter of law in finding that the executors were entitled to reimbursement of the excessive fee. The attorneys contend that they were hired by the executors and not the estate, therefore if any party should bear the loss as to the excessive fee, the loss should fall on the executors. We agree that where the conflict exists between executors and heirs, any loss for misappropriation of estate funds falls on the executors. In support of this proposition the attorneys cite State ex rel. Cohen v. District Court, 53 Mont. 210, 162 P. 1053 (1917); In re Godwin's Estate, 16 Wash.2d 310, 133 P.2d 281 (1943); and Corpus Christi Bank & Trust v. Cross, 586 S.W.2d 664 (Tex.Civ.App. 1979). However, we note that all these cases concern payments which the executor made voluntarily or without authority. None of the cases cited by the attorneys would permit an attorney to retain a fee paid pursuant to a court order which later is determined to be excessive. Nor do we find In re Ferguson's Estate, 124 N.J. Eq. 573, 3 A.2d 439 (1939), persuasive on this issue. In Ferguson, a legatee sued the personal representative for an attorney's fee paid from the estate. The executor had voluntarily paid the attorney's fee set by the court prior to the time when the right to appeal had expired. The executor himself did not challenge the reasonableness of the fee. When the size of the fee was attacked by a legatee on appeal a number of years later, the court found the executor responsible for the overpayment because he paid the attorney's fee prior to the time when an appeal might have been taken. However, such is not the fact situation in the instant case. Certain of the executors in the Harber estate did appeal the award of attorneys' fees. Clarke and Van Wagner misstate the facts in pointing out that none of the executors appealed the award. While we note that the executors as a party were listed as "appellees" in the previous appeal, we also note that four of the executors were listed as appellants. Clarke and Van Wagner would have this court believe that none of the executors challenged the award. The executors were required by law to pay certain estate expenses. 58 O.S. 1981 §§ 591 and 594. Oklahoma law permits payment of reasonable attorney's fees as appropriate estate expenses and grants these expenses priority. Tims Funeral Home v. Phillips, 501 P.2d 493, 496 (Okla. 1972). In the instant case the executors paid the attorneys' fee as ordered by the court and then challenged the reasonableness of that fee. If they had not appealed and obtained a modification of such a fee they would have been derelict in their fiduciary duties. These duties also require them now to seek reimbursement of the excessive fee. *66 III Attorneys argue that in the absence of fraud, mistake, or duress a party who pays money voluntarily cannot recover those funds. Clarke and Van Wagner have cited to no cases where an attorney who receives an unreasonable and excessive fee is allowed to retain that fee. The majority of jurisdictions require a forfeiture of attorneys' fees if those fees are determined excessive. See, e.g., Mclnerney v. Massasoit Greyhound Association, 359 Mass. 339, 269 N.E.2d 211 (1971). In In re Estate of Edwards, 41 Misc.2d 703, 246 N.Y.S.2d 489 (1963), the court ordered a return of attorneys' fees where those fees had been challenged and determined excessive. Part of the issue before the court concerned a controversy between two attorneys as to who should be responsible for return of the excessive fee. The court stated that it was uncontroverted that both attorneys performed some services for the estate and that both had shared the fee. The court thus found the attorneys jointly and severally liable for the refund of the fees. Indeed, the courts have even required an attorney to return part of a fee despite the client's consent to the amount. Matter of Cohen, 169 A.D. 544, 546-47, 155 N.Y.S. 517, 520 (1915). In Rice v. Perl, 320 N.W.2d 407, 411 (Minn. 1982), the Minnesota Supreme Court determined that forfeiture of a fee may occur irrespective of the intent and motives of the attorney. However, the outer limits of this forfeiture cannot exceed the amount of the earned fee. The rule that a person cannot recover money which he voluntarily paid cannot be applied to the fiduciary relationship between attorney and client. In Haunstein v. McCalister, 172 Okl. 613, 617, 46 P.2d 552, 556 (1935), the Oklahoma Supreme Court declared that even when an attorney has a contract with his client, the attorney "is not entitled to recover more than reasonable compensation for his services, regardless of the contract price." IV Lastly, Clarke and Van Wagner argue that under Oklahoma law the individual attorneys cannot be held liable to repay an excessive fee which was paid to their professional corporation, Clarke and Van Wagner, Inc. In support of this contention the attorneys cite Hall v. Sullivan-Dollars, Inc., 471 P.2d 453 (Okla. 1970). The court in Hall determined that as a general rule, the officers and employees of a corporation are not liable to creditors or third persons for acts or debts of the corporation unless they bind themselves individually. Hall recites this general rule concerning business corporations, corporate law and personal liability. Such is indeed the law in Oklahoma. However, the law which is applicable to Clarke and Van Wagner, Inc., the individual attorneys, and the facts of the instant case, is found in the Oklahoma Professional Corporation Act. Title 18 O.S. 1981 § 802, sets out the statutory policy for permitting professional corporations as follows: This act shall be so construed as to effectuate its general purpose of making available to professional persons the benefits of the corporate form for the business aspects of their practices while preserving the established professional aspects of the personal relationship between the professional person and those he serves. (emphasis added) The Act further provides in section 812 that the relationship between a person rendering professional services and a person receiving such services is not altered by use of a professional corporation. Section 813 states that nothing in the Act restricts or limits the authority and duty of the boards which license and regulate the professions. Finally, section 814 states: "No professional corporation may do any act which is prohibited to be done by individual persons licensed to practice a profession which the professional corporation is organized to render." In Deaton, Gassaway & Davison, Inc. v. Thomas, 564 P.2d 236, 239-40 (Okla. 1977), the Oklahoma Supreme Court recognized the differences in professional corporations *67 and business corporations. The court noted the legislative intent behind the Act was not to alter any liability or relationship of a licensed professional with the person receiving the services. An attorney in Oklahoma is clearly prohibited from receiving a fee which is excessive or unreasonable. As stated in State ex rel. Burk v. City of Oklahoma City, 598 P.2d 659, 661 (Okla. 1979) (emphasis supplied): "(A) A lawyer shall not enter into an agreement for, charge, or collect an illegal or clearly excessive fee. (B) A fee is clearly excessive when, after a review of the facts, a lawyer of ordinary prudence would be left with a definite and firm conviction that the fee is in excess of a reasonable fee." In the instant case, the court of appeals examined the record before it and determined that the $275,000 attorneys' fee was excessive. This court finds it incredible that Clarke and Van Wagner, as two licensed attorneys in this state, would even argue that they are not required to return the money. The professional corporation was never intended as a shield to protect individual attorneys from liability for their actions. This statement is echoedoln cases from sister states construing their professional corporation statutes. In In the Matter of the Florida Bar, 133 So.2d 554, 556 (Fla. 1961), the Florida Supreme Court stated: [T]he highly personal obligation of the lawyer to his client is in no way adversely affected. The individual practitioner, whether a stockholder in a corporation or otherwise, will continue to be expected to abide by all of the Rules and Canons of professional ethics heretofore or hereafter required of him. The corporate entity as a method of doing business will not be permitted to protect the unfaithful or the unethical. As a matter of fact, the corporate entity itself will automatically come within the ambit of our jurisdiction in regard to discipline. In addition to the individual liability and responsibility of the stockholder, the corporate entity will be liable for the misprisions of its members to the extent of the corporate assets. Similar statements were made by the New Hampshire Supreme Court in Petition of New Hampshire Bar Association, 110 N.H. 356, 266 A.2d 853, 854 (1970). There the court declared: "All attorneys as well as the professional association itself is [sic] subject to the disciplinary powers of the court. The professional association places no barrier between the authority of the court and the individual practitioner." (emphasis added) We note that some states have refused to limit the liability of incorporated attorneys for the malpractice of their associates. See, Petition of Bar Association of Hawaii, 55 Hawaii 121, 516 P.2d 1267, 1268 (1973). The Hawaii Supreme Court noted that the purpose of allowing attorneys to incorporate was to take advantage of tax benefits. In finding that incorporation would not affect the unlimited liability of individual attorneys, the court stated: "It is axiomatic, however, that the promulgation of any rule allowing incorporation shall not be in derogation of the attorney-client relationship to the detriment of the client." We find no special significance in Clarke and Van Wagner's contentions that the professional corporation and not the individual attorneys should be responsible for the return of the fee. The orders in the probate court as well as the previous appeal describe the fee as "their fee," which was paid to the "attorneys." It appears that the attorneys would seek to re-litigate the reasonableness of the fee in spite of a previous appellate court's determination that the fee was clearly excessive and unreasonable. In finding that the attorneys, as well as their professional corporation, must forfeit the excessive fee, we agree with the court in Street v. Sugerman, 202 So.2d 749, 751 (Fla. 1967), which stated: "The privilege of incorporation was most definitely not created or extended in order that those availing themselves of the benefits *68 could be cloaked with an immunity inimical to legal order and public interest." One of the most important public interests of the courts of this state is the integrity of the bar and regulation of its members. The excessive attorneys' fee must be returned to the estate, regardless of whether it comes from the professional corporation or the individual attorneys. The summary judgment is in all respects affirmed. REIF, J., concurs, and BACON, J., concurs in result. NOTES [1] Concerning the issue of the reasonableness of the attorneys' fees, we quote the following from the court of appeals' decision: Mr. Sid Clarke of Clarke & Van Wagner, Inc., the law firm that represented the executors all the way through this probate and in this appeal, testified in response to a question as to the number of hours spent on this case to December 22, 1976, as follows: "A Yes, our office keeps daily time records, which I have available for you and I, we keep our own, and we have totalled up those hours as 1,236 hours to date in the estate itself, these are the hours, the time, that we have recorded. We will, of course, miss hours. Regardless of the way we charge, we do nevertheless keep our time as a personal thing for us to find out what we are doing and in order to have a record of what we did if we ever need it, but we have kept records in the estate and those are our hours." And on cross-examination, Attorney Clarke testified: "Q And could you tell me what your fees are on an hourly basis for regular clients that come and wish to engage your professional services? A Well, it depends on what sort of work is being done, but you can use $40.00 an hour for those jobs in the office, those engagements, that we do charge on an hourly basis for. Q And $40.00 an hour is your standard charge for office work for both you and Mr. Van Wagner? A Well, it is mine, and it is an ordinary amount that we would charge on corporate and other matters. * * * * * * Q And have you put a pencil to determine how much you would be charging if you had based your time and your claim for fee on an hourly rate in this particular case? A Yes, I have, $200.00 an hour, give or take a few dollars. Q How about $222.00 an hour? A That would be fine, round it off at $225.00." Mr. Benjamin E. Butts, an attorney at law, was called as a witness on behalf of the objectors. He testified that based upon an hourly rate of $50.00 per hour, and on the basis of time testified by Mr. Clarke, the attorney fee would be $61,800.00, and he further testified: "A I figured a total fee on the matter based on just a raw time consideration of $65,000.00; Then I also considered the size of the estate, which quite frankly is considerably larger than anything I have ever had anything to do with, and I felt like and agree that there is an additional responsibility that attaches to you simply because of size of numbers and that there has been an additional problem in the matter because of having eight executors, the file discloses some controversy just on its face. I would double the $65,000.00 as the increment for responsibility, extraordinary difficulty, and that is how I got the $130,000.00."

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

FreeLaw

Mechanisms governing B cell developmental defects in invariant chain-deficient mice. Invariant chain (Ii)-deficient mice exhibit profound B cell defects that have remained poorly understood, because they could not be simply explained by impaired Ag presentation. We found that Ii deficiency induced cell autonomous defects of two distinct B cell lineages. The life span of mature follicular (FO) B cells was reduced, accounting for their markedly decreased frequency, whereas, in contrast, marginal zone (MZ) B cells accumulated. Other Ii-expressing lineages such as B1 B cells and dendritic cells were unaffected. Surprisingly, the life span of FO B cells was fully corrected in Ii/I-Abeta doubly deficient mice, revealing that Ii-free I-Abeta chains alter FO B cell survival. In contrast, the accumulation of MZ B cells was controlled by a separate mechanism independent of I-Abeta. Interestingly, in Ii-deficient mice lacking FO B cells, the MZ B cells invaded the FO zone, suggesting that intact follicules contribute to the retention of B cells in the MZ. These findings reveal unexpected consequences of Ii deficiency on the development and organization of B cell follicles.

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PubMed Abstracts

[The metabolic syndrome, its heredity, methods of detection and clinical significance]. The metabolic syndrome is a common denominator of a number of risk factors which are associated with type 2 diabetes and serious cardiovascular complications. The symptoms develop on the background of insulin resistance and are associated with hyperinsulinism. They are not manifestations of ageing, but are developing probably on a predisposed background already in young age. In the families of 39 probands with symptoms of the metabolic syndrome (MS) there were 58 offspring, mean age. 26.4 +/- 8.7 years. They were compared with 46 controls matched for age, BMI and sex without a family-history of metabolic diseases. The offspring from the families of probands with MS differed in particular by a lower HDL cholesterol level (1.38 mmol/l +/- 0.31 vs. 1.72 mmol/l 1-0.53, p < 0.001), a higher blood sugar level during the glucose tolerance test (p < 0.01) and a higher level of apolipoprotein B (Apo B, p < 0.01). The stimulated insulin concentration, the IRI sums were highly significantly raised (S IRI 240.9 microU/ml +/- 141 microU/ml vs. 177.1 microU/ml +/- 77.9 microU/ml, p < 0.01), similarly as the C peptide concentrations (S C peptide 7.61 pmol/ml +/- 2.84 pmol/ml vs. 5.02 pmol/ml +/- 1.49 pmol/ml, p < 0.001) which correlated mutually. The great majority of offspring came from parents with hypertension and hyperlipoproteinaemia resp., the rest from diabetic families and families with IHD. In offspring of families of hypertonics there was a lower ratio of linoleic acid in serum phospholipids, contrary to complement (= the other members of the group), in offspring of subjects with hyperlipoproteinaemia there were higher fibrinogen and uric acid levels. The offspring of diabetics had higher mean BMI values, in families of patients with myocardial infarction higher C peptide levels were found. Already at post-adolescent age there are convincing signs which suggest the possible development of metabolic syndrome in predisposed families, as ensues from a comparison with controls: raised IRI, C peptide and some MS component levels. Linoleic acid as well as fibrinogen, BMI and C peptide concentrations which differed in offspring with different types of family-history from the complement are also related directly or indirectly with hyperinsulinaemia.

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PubMed Abstracts

Category: WTF I was in the mood for a particularly dark book and came across this one in the Kindle store. I must admit, the cover sold me, and the title seemed promising, so I downloaded it without even reading the description. The Dominator starts us off as a 19-year old girl named Athena “Tia”. She is a foster kid who just graduated from high school, and has a promising future that she is looking forward to. For the past five years, she had been staying with a wonderful family, though she has been in foster care since the age of nine due to her father’s neglect and inability to be a father and her mother dead from suicide. Breaking Love left us off with so many questions and a cliffhanger that was so crazy, if I had to wait any amount of time to get my answers I would have been like Ralph. Fortunately for me, I read the last couple of books recently so This one was already available to put all those unanswered questions to bed, and to give me another dose of Kieran. Breaking Love while it does contain the whole crew that we know and love (namely Kieran) this book mostly revolves around the relationship and non-relationship of Dash and Willow. You remember them in the previous books as the best friends in those stories (Willow was Lake’s bestie and Dash is Kieran and Keenan’s). Dash was asked by Kieran in the first book to seduce Willow and then crush her as part of his evil plan to destroy Lake due to a huge misunderstanding. I am going to start this review off by stating how freakin’ scary-ugly this book’s cover is. This author needs to seriously stick to blue abs shots for her covers and not show faces. Leave it to me and my healthy imagination. While I’m sure this cover model is handsome, he looks like the stuff of nightmares with this Photoshop job. I’ve been having a good streak going with the Sci Fi romance genre, so I decided to check this recommendation out. What I expected, hot sexy times with an invading alien force. What I got, however, was the author trying to make go outside, find the first vegetarian I see, and punch them in the face. It’s not even that I hate vegetarians. One of my close friends is Radha Soami ( a religion that abstains from meat and alcohol), and when he comes over, I make him a Boca burger and we hang out as he stares in a jealous longing of my bacon and beer. What I do hate is when an author tries to push an agenda on me in the disguise of a book that was supposed to be filled with alien smutty goodness. Tears of Tess is a story about a woman named Tess who went on vacation with her boyfriend to Mexico. She is abducted by members of a sex slave ring, when at a restaurant on a seedier part of town, and she is then beaten, abused, and then sold in France during an auction. The buyer, a rich man who goes by the name Q, takes her back to his home, where he makes his intentions pretty damn clear. This is one of those books that I have seen the cover of on the Kindle store and GoodReads, but I never clicked on it. Today, I took the bait, wanting something rather quick to read because I had a lot of things to do today. When I clicked on it, I then recognized the author’s name as one that wrote a book that I enjoyed before, so I dived into this one without much of a thought. Undeniable is one of those books that I really wanted to like. It was edgy, gritty, and exactly what a MC book should be. If I take it as just a MC fiction and not a romance, it may have been rated higher, but alas it was supposed to be a romance, and that is where it fell short for me. Maybe I should have heeded the author’s warning a little bit more. Ummm…No. Just No. What started off pretty a pretty interesting read went from 0-100 on the domestic violence scale WAY TOO HARD for me. I understand the BDSM lifestyle, and if that is your kink then have at it. I’m not a prude by any means, I actually enjoy books that are on the darker side but this one…this one just made me want to choke the life out of the main character (male). Beating a woman with a belt because she didn’t finish her “chores” is not sexy. It’s sad. The fact that she let him do this… Yup. I shouldn’t have been surprised by the crazy WTF content of this book, with a title like Degradation, but I was. Delightfully so. This book is exactly what the description described and I was hooked from the very beginning, desperately wanting to see what would happen next. Flawed takes the dark genre, and times it by 1000. It is one of the most disturbing books I have read to date, and that is saying a lot. This is the story of a high school girl named Lacey, who is saving up for college, and providing for her family by working in the world’s oldest profession. Yup. She’s a child prostitute. Her mom is a druggie prostitute and her brother is a fuck-up of great proportions, so she can only rely on herself to survive and achieve her dreams.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

Kinetics of monoclonal anti-epidermal growth factor receptor antibody (IOR EGF/r3)-induced apoptosis in human carcinoma bearing nude mice. Apoptosis seems to play an important role in cancer immunotherapy outcome. We have studied the kinetic pattern of apoptosis induction in H125 human lung carcinoma xenografts after treatment with the monoclonal antibody (MAb) anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFr) IOR EGF/r3. Tumor-bearing nude mice were injected intravenously with a single 8 mg/kg dose of IOR EGF/r3 and tumor specimens were taken up to 30 days post treatment. Apoptosis was measured by morphometric analysis of the histological sections at each tumor specimen over time points. The results showed a significant apoptotic response in tumors within six days after injection of this MAb reaching a peak at 20 days post treatment. The kinetics were very broad, with apoptotic cells present over the entire time-frame. However, the time course of the apoptotic index showed a significant difference to the mitotic index. Finally, the MAb-induced apoptosis was related to tumor growth delay indicating a probable arrest of cell cycle and a corresponding inhibition of tumor progression, which was corroborated by the Ki67 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) biomarkers.

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PubMed Abstracts

Fericirea este departe de a fi doar o notiune psihologica. Pragmatismul unor domenii precum biochimia sau neurofiziologia s-a dovedit, cel putin in privinta acestui cuvant, intemeiat. Starea de fericire a omului e strans legata de hormonul cerebral numit endorfina, un adevarat drog natural. Atunci cand se dezlantuie, bateristul, profesionist sau amator, incearca o senzatie de plutire, in special cand e vorba de ritmuri lente. Asemenea frecvente induc organismului o stare de relaxare profunda, asociata totusi cu o acuta constiinta de sine. Senzatiile, chiar daca dureaza putin, pot imbunatati calitatea vietii celui care traieste printre ritmuri. Betia alergatorului Endorfinele le sunt bine cunoscute celor care practica sporturi de performanta, ele fiind raspunzatoare de starea denumita runner’ high (betia alergatorului). Cauza descarcarilor uriase de endorfine o reprezinta efortul dus la extrem. Unii sportivi gasesc aceasta stare atat de placuta, incat ajung dependenti de ea. Altii – mai putin amatori de atletism – invata sa declanseze secretia de endorfine supunandu-se la dureri tot mai mari: isi fac nenumarate tatuaje si piercing-uri sau se ranesc intentionat. Endorfina bebelusului Un nivel foarte mare de endorfine se inregistreaza si in sangele femeilor care nasc, cota maxima fiind atinsa imediat dupa expulzarea fatului pe cale vaginala. Si nou-nascutii care au avut de suferit in timpul travaliului au endorfine mai multe, tocmai pentru a se proteja de durere in mod natural. Emotiile prin ele insele provoaca descarcari de endorfine. Relatia chimica de inductie dintre emotii si centrul cerebral al placerii poate diminua anxietatea si depresiile, dand intaietate starilor de incredere in sine, de atitudine poziva si de veselie, printr-un mecanism intern de autoprotectie. Studiile mai arata ca perceptia durerii este considerabil redusa dupa un hohot de ras sanatos, deoarece endorfinele sunt capabile sa transforme un incident stresant intr-unul fara importanta sau chiar intr-o senzatie placuta (aviz masochistilor). Asa ca, daca sunteti atlet, gravida sau doar o persoana care, din cand in cand, mai intrece masura, bucurati-va ca endorfinele lucreaza: nu numai ca va inlatura senzatiile de durere, dar va si pot face sa radeti cu lacrimi. De retinut ca veti dori sa repetati conjunctura care a produs placere. Endorfinele actioneaza ca orice drog, iar data urmatoare s-ar putea sa fiti prea indrazneti si sa aflati care va sunt cu adevarat limitele. Foto: Science Photo Library, Guliver FACTS Scurta istorie Endorfina a fost identificata in 1960, de catre neurochimistul american Choh Hao Li, de la Universitatea California din San Francisco, fiind izolata din hipofiza de camila. Li investiga insa metabolismul grasimilor si nu a dat importanta descoperirii sale. Efectul endorfinei a fost descris abia 15 ani mai tarziu, de catre Hugh si Kosterlitz, care au numit substanta encefalina (o izolasera din creier de porc). Hao Li si-a dat seama ca e vorba de acelasi principiu activ si a facut noi experimente. Rezultatele au fost uimitoare: injectata in creier, endorfina avea un efect de 48 de ori mai puternic decat morfina, iar injectata intravenos, de 3 ori. Ca si morfina, dadea o dependenta extrem de puternica. Ce sunt, de fapt, endorfinele? Sunt o categorie de substante produse de creier, deci fac parte dintre neurotransmitatori (alaturi de dopamina si serotonina). Din punct de vedere chimic, endorfinele au structura de proteine complexe, iar rolul pe care li-l incredinteaza organismul este acela de analgezic, vizand suprimarea durerii de orice fel. Dupa cum le spune si numele, endorfinele au o structura chimica foarte asemanatoare cu a substantelor extrase din opiu si folosesc aceiasi receptori pentru a se „agata” de celule. Efectul de calmare a durerii este puternic, iar consecinta este o stare de relaxare, de bucurie chiar. Exista stimuli precisi care declanseaza secretia interna a acestei substante: expunerea la lumina, durerea, condimentele din mancaruri (piper, chilli), stresul sau rasul, sexul si efortul fizic in general. Rezultatul este, de fiecare data, atingerea unei stari euforice. Zaharul – un drog vandut la liber Un experiment pe care l-am parcurs cu totii, in special in copilarie, este starea de bine produsa de catre dulciuri. Mecanismul e destul de simplu: zaharul induce o usoara stare de veselie, prin multiple reactii chimice care au loc in creier. Mai intai, patratelul de ciocolata sau muscatura din gogoasa stimuleaza caile nervoase catre creier, ducand la eliberarea dopaminei si a endorfinelor. Mai mult, placerea este potentata de acumularile energetice ale organismului, care sunt o consecinta a cresterii nivelului de glucoza in sange. Din pacate, senzatia de fericire este de scurta durata, diminuandu-se o data cu revenirea glucozei din circulatie la niveluri normale. Pe masura ce glicemia scade (dupa o ora-doua de la servirea mesei), apare si o stare de tristete, de golire sufleteasca. Asa devenim dependenti de ceea ce ne place si incepem sa fim preocupati de urmatoarea „doza”. Angrenajul descris este valabil, in linii mari, pentru orice substanta care da dependenta, indiferent de faptul ca „drogul” este intern sau extern, legal sau ba. Gadilat, masaj si Cola-light In zonele axilare (la subsuori), dar si in spatele genunchilor, inervatia este foarte bogata, fapt care explica de ce stimularea acestor zone duce la eliberarea unor cantitati sporite de endorfine. Efectul de bine este la fel de pregnant si in cazul masarii capului: e posibil ca spalatul si periatul parului sa provoace o cascada de endorfine. De unde si aplecarea unora – in special a femeilor – pentru aceste activitati. In privinta gusturilor, cartea intitulata Food and Mood (Mancarurile si starile) sustine ca racoritoarele, ciocolata sau bomboanele indulcite cu substante sintetice precum aspartamul ar avea efecte si mai puternice decat zaharul obisnuit, ducand la eliberarea unor cantitati mai mari de endorfine. In conditiile date, nici nu-i de mirare ca ciocolata se afla pe lista substantelor cu virtuti afrodisiace. Efectul Mozart Se stie de multa vreme ca muzica are efecte asupra creierului. Muzicologul Julius Pornoy a descoperit ca ea modifica metabolismul, scade sau creste presiunea sangelui si influenteaza digestia – pozitiv sau negativ, in functie de tipul melodiei. Muzica generatoare de calm duce si la cresterea nivelului endorfinelor: o jumatate de ora de Bach sau Mozart are un efect comparabil cu inghitirea unei tablete de Valium. Ambele emisfere cerebrale participa la „drogarea” creierului, agentul producator de placere fiind nu versurile, ci muzica, melodia, sunetele, ritmul. Acesta din urma se pare ca are cel mai important rol, caci mai exista o categorie de persoane aflate frecvent sub influenta pronuntata a endorfinelor: cei care bat in tobe.

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OpenWebText2

The House of Representatives on Wednesday rejected a bill passed by the Senate that would extend current income tax rates to families earning less than $250,000 per year, and then approved a separate bill extending the rates for all income levels. Nineteen Democrats joined Republicans in voting against the Senate plan before the Republican bill to extend current rates to all income levels passed 256-171. The second measure had support from 19 Democrats; one Republican opposed it. The vote sets the stage for a battle over extending the tax rates set during George W. Bush's presidency that will likely be resolved in a lame-duck session after the November elections. If no action is taken, taxes on all income brackets will automatically increase on Jan. 1, 2013. The White House has vowed that President Barack Obama would veto a bill that extends tax rates on incomes over $250,000.

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OpenWebText2

Produced by Elaine Laizure [Transcriber's Note: The footnotes have been numbered and moved to the end of the document.] This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER TOGETHER WITH CERTAIN PAPERS ILLUSTRATIVE OF LITURGICAL REVISION 1878-1892 BY WILLIAM REED HUNTINGTON D. D. D. C. L. _Rector of Grace Church New York_ NEW YORK THOMAS WHITTAKER 2 and 3 Bible House Copyright, 1893, by THOMAS WHITTAKER, THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, RAHWAY, N. J. CONTENTS I. A Short History of the Book of Common Prayer: I. Origins, II. Vicissitudes, II. Revision of the American Common Prayer, III. _The Book Annexed_: Its Critics and its Prospects, Appendix: I. Permanent and Variable Characteristics of the Prayer Book--A Sermon Before Revision, 1878 II. The Outcome of Revision, 1892 III. Tabular View of Additions Made at the Successive Revisions, 1552-1892 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. The opening paper of this collection was originally read as a lecture before a liturgical class, and is now published for the first time. The others have appeared in print from time to time during the movement for revision. If they have any permanent value, it is because of their showing, so far as the writer's part in the matter is concerned, what things were attempted and what things failed of accomplishment. Should they serve as contributory to some future narrative of the revision, the object of their publication will have been accomplished. So much has been said as to the poverty of our gains on the side of "enrichment," as compared with what has been secured in the line of "flexibility," that it has seemed proper to append to the volume a Comparative Table detailing the additions of liturgical matter made to the Common Prayer at the successive revisions. W. R. H. New York, Christmas, 1892. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. I. ORIGINS. Liturgical worship, understood in the largest sense the phrase can bear, means divine service rendered in accordance with an established form. Of late years there has been an attempt made among purists to confine the word "liturgy" to the office entitled in the Prayer Book, _The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion_. This restricted and specialized interpretation of a familiar word may serve the purposes of technical scholarship, for undoubtedly there is much to be said in favor of the narrowed signification as we shall see; but unless English literature can be rewritten, plain people who draw their vocabulary from standard authors will go on calling service-books "liturgies" regardless of the fact that they contain many things other than that one office which is entitled to be named by eminence _the_ Liturgy. "This Convention," write the fathers of the American Episcopal Church in the Ratification printed on the fourth page of the Prayer Book, "having in their present session set forth a Book of Common Prayer and other rites and ceremonies of the Church, do hereby establish the said book; and they declare it to be the _Liturgy_ of this Church." For the origin of liturgy thus broadly defined we have to go a long way back; beyond the Prayer Book, beyond the Mass-book, beyond the ancient Sacramentaries, yes, beyond the synagogue worship, beyond the temple worship, beyond the tabernacle worship; in fact I am disposed to think that, logically, we should be unable to stop short until we had reached the very heart of man itself, that dimly discerned groundwork we call human nature, and had discovered there those two instincts, the one of worship and the other of gregariousness, from whence all forms of common prayer have sprung. Where three or two assemble for the purposes of supplication, some form must necessarily be accepted if they are to pray in unison. When the disciples came to Jesus begging him that he would teach them how to pray, he gave them, not twelve several forms, though doubtless James's special needs differed from John's and Simon's from Jude's--he gave them, not twelve, but one. "When ye pray," was his answer, "say Our Father." That was the beginning of Christian Common Prayer. Because we are men we worship, because we are fellow-men our worship must have form. But waiving this last analysis of all which carries us across the whole field of history at a leap, it becomes necessary to seek for liturgical beginnings by a more plodding process. If we take that manual of worship with which as English-speaking Christians we are ourselves the most familiar, the Book of Common Prayer, and allow it to fall naturally apart, as a bunch of flowers would do if the string were cut, we discover that in point of fact we have, as in the case of the Bible, many books in one. We have scarcely turned the title-page, for instance, before we come upon a ritual of daily worship, an order for Morning Prayer and an order for Evening Prayer, consisting in the main of Psalms, Scripture Lessons, Antiphonal Versicles, and Collects. Appended to this we find a Litany or General Supplication and a collection of special prayers. Mark an interval here, and note that we have completed the first volume of our liturgical library. Next, we have a sacramental ritual, entitled, _The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion_, ingeniously interwoven by a system of appropriate prayers and New Testament readings with the Sundays and holydays of the year. This gives us our second volume. Then follow numerous offices which we shall find it convenient to classify under two heads, namely: those which may be said by a bishop or by a presbyter, and those that may be said by a bishop only. Under the former head come the baptismal offices, the Order for the Burial of the Dead, and the like; under the latter, the services of Ordination and Confirmation and the Form of Consecration of a Church or Chapel. In the Church of England as it existed before the Reformation, these four volumes, as I have called them, were distinct and recognized realities. Each had its title and each its separate use. The name of the book of daily services was _The Breviary_. The name of the book used in the celebration of the Holy Communion was _The Missal_. The name of the book of Special Offices was _The Ritual_. The name of the book of such offices as could be used by a bishop only was _The Pontifical_. It was one of the greatest of the achievements of the English reformers that they succeeded in condensing, after a practical fashion, these four books, or, to speak more accurately, the first three of them, Breviary, Missal, and Ritual, into one. The Pontifical, or Ordinal, they continued as a separate book, although it soon for the sake of convenience became customary in England, as it has always been customary here, for Prayer Book and Ordinal to be stitched together by the binders into a single volume. Popularly speaking the Prayer Book is the entire volume one purchases under that name from the bookseller, but accurately speaking the Book of Common Prayer ends where _The Form and Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating Bishops, Priests, and Deacons_ begins. "Finis" should be written after the Psalter, as indeed from the Prayer Book's Table of Contents plainly appears. Setting aside now, for the present, that portion of the formularies which corresponds to the Ritual and Pontifical of the mediaeval Church, I proceed to speak rapidly of the antecedents of Breviary and Missal. Whence came they? And how are we to account for their being sundered so distinctly as they are? They came, so some of the most thoughtful of liturgical students are agreed, from a source no less remote than the Temple of Solomon, and they are severed, to speak figuratively, by a valley not unlike that which in our thoughts divides the Mount of Beatitudes from the Hill of Calvary. In that memorable building to which reference was just made, influential over the destinies of our race as no other house of man's making ever was, there went on from day to day these two things, psalmody and sacrifice. Peace-offering, burnt-offering, sin-offering, the morning oblation, and the evening oblation--these with other ceremonies of a like character went to make what we know as the sacrificial ritual of the temple. But this was not all. It would appear that there were other services in the temple over and above those that could strictly be called sacrificial. The Hebrew Psalter, the hymn-book of that early day, contains much that was evidently intended by the writers for temple use, and even more that could be easily adapted to such use. And although there is no direct evidence that in Solomon's time forms of prayer other than those associated with sacrificial rites were in use, yet when we find mention in the New Testament of people going up to the temple of those later days "at the hour of prayer," it seems reasonable to infer that the custom was an ancient one, and that from the beginning of the temple's history forms of worship not strictly speaking sacrificial had been a stated feature of the ritual. But whether in the temple or not, certainly in the synagogues, which after the return from the captivity sprang up all over the Jewish world, services composed of prayers, of psalms, and of readings from the law and the prophets were of continual occurrence. Therefore we may safely say that with these two forms of divine service, the sacrificial and the simply devotional and didactic, the apostles, the founders of the Christian Church, had been familiar from their childhood. They were at home in both synagogue and temple. They knew by sight the ritual of the altar, and by ear the ritual of the choir. They were accustomed to the spectacle of the priest offering the victim; they were used to hearing the singers chant the psalms. We see thus why it is that the public worship of the Church should have come down to us in two great lines, why there should be a tradition of eucharistic worship and, parallel to this, a tradition of daily prayer; for as the one usage links itself, in a sense, to the sacrificial system of God's ancient people and has in it a suggestion of the temple worship, so the other seems to show a continuity with what went on in those less pretentious sanctuaries which had place in all the cities and villages of Judea, and indeed wherever, throughout the Roman world, Jewish colonists were to be found. The earliest Christian disciples having been themselves Hebrews, nothing could have been more natural than their moulding the worship of the new Church in general accordance with the models that had stood before their eyes from childhood in the old. The Psalms were sung in the synagogues according to a settled principle. We cannot wonder, then, that the Psalter should have continued to be what in fact it had always been, the hymn-book of the Church. Moreover, they had in the synagogue besides their psalmody a system of Bible readings, confined, of course, to the Old Testament Scriptures. This is noted in the observation that fell from Simon Peter, at the first Council of the Church, "Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogue every Sabbath day." Scripture lessons, therefore, would be no novelty. We gather also from the New Testament, not to speak of other authorities, that in the apostolic days people were familiar with what were known as "hours of prayer." There were particular times in the day, that is to say, which were held to be especially appropriate for worship. "Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour." Again, at Joppa, we find the former of these two apostles going up upon the house-top to pray at "the sixth hour." Long before this David had mentioned morning and evening and noon as fitting hours of prayer, and one psalmist, in his enthusiasm, had even gone so far as to declare seven times a day to be not too often for giving God thanks. There was also the precedent of Daniel opening his windows toward Jerusalem three times a day. As the love for order and system grew year by year stronger in the Christian Church, the laws that govern ritual would be likely to become more stringent, and so very probably it came to pass. For aught we know to the contrary, the observance of fixed hours of prayer was a matter of voluntary action with the Christians of the first age. There was, as we say, no "shall" about it. But when the founders of the monastic orders came upon the scene a fixed rule took the place of simple custom, and what had been optional became mandatory. By the time we reach the mediaeval period evolution has had its perfect work, and we find in existence a scheme of daily service curiously and painfully elaborate. The mediaeval theologians were very fond of classifying things by sevens. In the symbolism of Holy Scripture seven appears as the number of perfection, it being the aggregate of three, the number of Deity, and four, the number of the earth. Accordingly we find in the theology of those times seven sacraments, seven deadly sins, seven contrary virtues, seven works of mercy, and also seven hours of prayer. These seven hours were known as Matins, Prime, Tierce, Sext, Nones, Vespers, and Complene. The theory of the hours of prayer was that at each one of them a special office of devotion was to be said. Beginning before sunrise with matins there was to be daily a round of services at stated intervals culminating at bedtime in that which, as its name indicated, filled out the series, Complene. To what extent this ideal scheme of devotion was ever carried out in practice it is difficult positively to say. Probably in the monastic and conventual life of the severer orders there was an approximation to a punctual observance of the hours as they successively arrived. Possibly the modern mind fails to do full justice to the conception of worship on which this system was based. Those principles of devotion of which the rosary is the visible symbol do not easily commend themselves to us. They have about them a suggestion of mechanism. They remind us of the Buddhist praying wheel, and seem to put the Church in the attitude of expecting to be heard for her "much speaking." Doubtless many a pure, courageous spirit fought the good fight of faith successfully in spite of all this weight of outward observances; but in the judgment of the wiser heads among English churchmen, the time had come, by the middle of the sixteenth century, when this complicated armor must either be greatly lightened or else run the risk of being cast aside altogether. Let Cranmer tell his own story. This is what he says in the Preface to the First Book of Edward VI. as to the ritual grievances of the times. The passage is worth listening to if only for the quaintness of its strong and wholesome English: "There was never anything by the wit of man so well devised or so surely established which, in continuance of time, hath not been corrupted, as, among other things, it may plainly appear by the common prayer, in the Church, commonly called divine service. The first original and ground whereof, if a man would search out by the ancient fathers, he shall find that the same was not ordained but of a good purpose, and for a great advancement of godliness, for they so ordered the matter that all the whole Bible, or the greatest part thereof, should be read over once in the year . . . But these many years past this godly and decent order of the ancient fathers hath been so altered, broken, and neglected by planting in uncertain stories, legends, responds, verses, vain repetitions, commemorations, and synodals that commonly, when any book of the Bible was begun, before three or four chapters were read out all the rest were unread. And in this sort the Book of Esaie was begun in Advent, and the Book of Genesis in Septuagesima, but they were only begun and never read through . . . And moreover, whereas St. Paul would have such language spoken to the people in the Church as they might understand and have profit by hearing the same, the service in this Church of England (these many years) hath been read in Latin to the people, which they understood not, so that they have heard with their ears only, and their hearts, spirit, and mind have not been edified thereby . . . Moreover, the number and hardness of the rules called the Pie, and the manifold changings of the service was the cause that to turn the Book only was so hard and intricate a matter that many times there was more business to find out what should be read than it was to read it when it was found out. These inconveniences therefore considered, here is set forth such an order whereby the same shall be redressed." As an illustration of what Cranmer meant by his curious phrase, "planting in uncertain stories," take the following Lessons quoted by Dr. Neale in his _Essays on Liturgiology_: "Besides the commemoration of saints," writes this distinguished antiquarian, "there are in certain local calenders notices of national events connected with the well-being of the Church. Thus, in the _Parisian Breviary_, we have on the eighteenth of August a commemoration of the victory of Philip the Fair in Flanders, A.D. 1304." Here is the fourth of the appointed lessons: "Philip the Fair, King of the French, in the year 1304, about the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, having set forth with his brothers Charles and Louis and a large army into Flanders, pitched his tent near Mons, where was a camp of the rebel Flemings. But when, on the eighteenth of August, which was the Tuesday after the Assumption of St. Mary, the French had from morning till evening stood on the defence, and were resting themselves at nightfall, the enemy, by a sudden attack, rushed on the camp with such fury that the body-guard had scarce time to defend him. "_Response_. Come from Lebanon, my spouse; come, and thou shalt be crowned, The odor of thy sweet ointments is above all perfumes. _Versicle_. The righteous judge shall give a crown of righteousness." Then, after this short interlude of snatches from Holy Scripture, there follows the Fifth Lesson: "At the beginning of the fight the life of the king was in great danger, but shortly after, his troops crowding together from all quarters to his tent, where the battle was sharpest, obtained an illustrious victory over the enemy"--and more of this sort until all of a sudden we come upon the Song of Solomon again. "_V_. Thou art all fair, my love; come from Lebanon. _R_. They that have not defiled their garments, they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy." Is not Cranmer's contemptuous mention of these uncertain legends and vain repetitions amply justified? And can we be too thankful to the sturdy champions of the Reformation, who in the face of no little opposition and by efforts scarcely appreciated to-day, cut us loose from all responsibility for such solemn nonsense? There are some who feel aggrieved that chapters from the Apocrypha should have found admission to our new lectionary, and there are even those who think that of the canonical Scriptures, passages more edifying than certain of those appointed to be read might have been chosen, but what would they think if they were compelled to hear the minister at the lecturn say: "Here beginneth the first chapter of the Adventures of Philip the Fair"? But the reformers, happily, were not discouraged by the portentous front of wood, hay, and stubble which the liturgical edifice of their day presented to the eye. They felt convinced that there were also to be found mixed in with the building material gold, silver, and precious stones, and for these they determined to make diligent search, resolved most of all that the foundation laid should be Jesus Christ. This system of canonical hours, they argued, this seven-fold office of daily prayer is all very beautiful in theory, but it never can be made what in fact it never in the past has been, a practicable thing. Let us be content if we can do so much as win people to their devotions at morning and at night. With this object in view Cranmer and his associates subjected the services of the hours to a process of combination and condensation. The Offices for the first three hours they compressed into _An Order for Daily Morning Prayer_, or, as it was called in Edward's first Book, _An Order for Matins_, and the Offices for the last two hours, namely, Vespers and Complene, they made over into _An Order for Daily Evening Prayer_, or, as it was named in Edward's first Book, _An Order for Evensong_. These two formularies, the _Order for Matins_ and the _Order for Evensong_, make the core and substance of our present daily offices. But the tradition of daily prayer is only one of the two great devotional heritages of the Church. With the destruction of the temple by the Roman soldiery, the sacrificial ritual of the Jewish Church came to a sudden end; but it was not God's purpose that the memory of sacrifice should fade out of men's minds or that the thought of sacrifice should be banished from the field of worship. Years before the day when the legionaries of Titus marched amid flame and smoke, into the falling sanctuary of an out-worn faith, one who was presently to die upon a cross had taken bread, had blessed it and broken it, and giving it to certain followers gathered about him, had said, "Take, eat; this is my body, which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me." Likewise also he had taken the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you." Certainly there must be a relation of cause and effect between this scene and the fact, which is a fact, that the most ancient fragments of primitive Christian worship now discoverable are forms for the due commemoration of the sacrifice of the death of Christ. These venerable monuments seem to exclaim as we decipher them: "Even so, Lord, it is done as thou didst say." "Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever and so doth thy memorial from generation to generation." Of the references to Christian worship discoverable in documents later than the New Testament Scriptures there are three that stand out with peculiar prominence, namely, the lately discovered _Teaching of the Twelve Apostles_, placed by some authorities as early as the first half of the second century; the famous letter of Pliny to the Emperor Trajan, a writing of the same period; and the Apology or Defence addressed by Justin Martyr to Antoninus Pius about the year 140 after Christ. The noteworthy fact in connection with these passages is that of the three, two certainly, and probably the third also, refer directly to the Holy Communion. In the _Teaching_ we have a distinct sketch of a eucharistic service with three of the prescribed prayers apparently given in full. In Justin Martyr's account, the evidence of a definitely established liturgical form is perhaps less plain, but nothing that he says would appear to be irreconcilable with the existence of a more or less elastic ritual order. Whether he does or does not intend to describe extemporaneous prayer as forming one feature of the eucharistic worship of the Christians of his time depends upon the translation we give to a single word in his narrative. Later on in the life of the Church, though by just how much later is a difficult point of scholarship, we are brought in contact with a number of formularies, all of them framed for the uses of eucharistical worship, all of them, that is to say, designed to perpetuate the commandment, "This do in remembrance of me," and all of them preserving, no matter in what part of the world they may be found, a certain structural uniformity. These are the primitive liturgies, as they are called, the study of which has in late years attained almost to the dignity of a science. As to the exact measure of antiquity that ought to be accorded to these venerable documents the authorities differ and probably will always differ. Dr. Neale's enthusiasm carried him so far that he was persuaded and sought to persuade others of the existence of liturgical quotations in the writings of St. Paul. This hypothesis is at the present time generally rejected by sober-minded scholars. Perhaps "the personal equation" enters equally into the conclusions of those who assign a very late origin to the liturgies, pushing them along as far as the sixth or seventh century. If one happens to have a rooted dislike for prescribed forms of worship, and believes them in his heart to be both unscriptural and unspiritual, it will be the most natural thing in the world for him to disparage whatever evidence makes in favor of the early origin of liturgies. Hammond is sensible when he says in the Preface to his valuable work entitled _Liturgies Eastern and Western_, "I have assumed an intermediate position between the views of those on the one hand who hold that the liturgies had assumed a recognized and fixed form so early as to be quoted in the Epistles to the Corinthians and Hebrews . . . and of those, on the other, who because there are some palpable interpolations and marks of comparatively late date in some of the texts, assert broadly that they are all untrustworthy and valueless as evidence. This view I venture to think," he adds, "equally uncritical and groundless with the former." To sum up, the argument in behalf of an apostolic origin for the Christian Liturgy may be compactly stated thus: The very earliest monuments of Christian worship that we possess are rituals of thanksgiving, having direct reference to the sacrifice of the death of Christ. Going back from these to the New Testament we find there the narrative of the institution of the Holy Communion by Christ himself, and in connection with it the command, "This do in remembrance of me." It is, I submit, a reasonable inference that the liturgies in the main fairly represent what it was in the mind of the apostle to recognize and establish as proper Christian worship. I do not call it demonstration, I call it reasonable inference. There is a striking parallelism between the argument for liturgical worship and the argument for episcopacy. In both cases we take the ground that continuity existed between the life of the Church as we find it a hundred years after the last of the apostles had gone to his rest and the life of the Church as it is pictured in the New Testament. That there were many changes during the interval must no doubt be granted, but we say that if those changes were serious ones affecting great principles of belief or order, those who maintain that such a hidden revolution took place are bound to bring positive evidence to the fact. This history of the Church during the second century has been likened with more of ingenuity than of poetical beauty to the passing of a train through a railway tunnel. We see the train enter, we see it emerge, but its movement while inside the tunnel is concealed from us. Similarly we may say that we see with comparative distinctness the Christian Church of the Apostolic Age, and we see with comparative distinctness the Church of the Age of Cyprian and Origen, but with respect to the interval separating the two periods we are not indeed wholly, but, we are, it must be confessed, very largely ignorant. And yet as in the case of the tunnel we confidently affirm an identity between what we saw go in and what we see coming out, so with the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Church, the usages of the third century, we argue, are probably in their leading features what the usages of the first century were. If reason to the contrary can be given, well and good; but in the absence of countervailing testimony we abide by our inference, holding it to be sound. I am far from wishing to maintain that these considerations bind liturgical worship upon the Christian Church as a matter of obligation for all time. It might be argued, and I think with great force, that liturgical worship having been universal throughout the ancient world, heathen as well as Jewish, the apostles and fathers of the Christian Church judged it unwise to make any departure at the outset from a custom so invariable, trusting it to the spirit of the new religion to work out freer and less formal methods of approaching God through Christ in the times to come. This, I confess, strikes me as a perfectly legitimate line of reasoning and one which is strengthened rather than weakened by what we have seen happen in Christendom since the sixteenth century. Great bodies of Christians have for a period of some three hundred years been worshipping Almighty God in non-liturgical ways, and have not been left without witness that their service was acceptable to the Divine Majesty. Moreover, the fact that absolute rigidity in liturgical use never was insisted upon in any age of the Church until the English passed their Act of Uniformity, makes in the same direction. And yet even after these allowances have been made, there remains a considerable amount of solid satisfaction for those who do adhere to the liturgical method, in the thought that they are in the line which is apparently the line of continuity, and that their interpretation of the apostolic purpose with respect to worship is the interpretation that has been generally received in Christendom as far back as we can go. II. VICISSITUDES. Certain of the necromancers of the far East are said to have the power of causing a tree to spring up, spread its branches, blossom, and bear fruit before the eyes of the lookers-on within the space of a few moments. Modern liturgies have sometimes been brought into being by a process as extemporaneous as this, but not such was the genesis of the Book of Common Prayer. There are at least eight forms under which the Prayer Book has been from time to time authoritatively set forth--five English, one Scottish, one Irish, and one American; so that, if we would be accurate, we are bound to specify, when we speak of "The Prayer Book," which of several Prayer Books we have in mind. The truth is, there exists in connection with everything that grows, whether it be plant, animal, or building, a certain mystery like that which attaches to what, in the case of a man, we call personal identity. Which is the true, the actual Napoleon? Is it the Napoleon of the Directory, or the Napoleon of the Consulate, or the Napoleon of the Empire? At each epoch we discern a different phase of the man's character, and yet we are compelled to acknowledge, in the face of all the variations, that we have to do with one and the same man. But just as a ship acquires, as we may say, her personal identity when she is launched and named, even though there may be a great deal yet to be done in the way of finishing and furnishing before she can be pronounced seaworthy, so it is with a book that is destined to undergo repeated revision and reconstruction, it does acquire, on the day when it is first published, and first given a distinctive title, a certain character the losing of which would be the loss of personal identity. There is many an old cathedral that might properly enough be called a re-edited book in stone. Norman architecture, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular, all are there, and yet one dominant thought pervades the building. Notwithstanding the many times it has been retouched, the fabric still expresses to the eye the original creative purpose of the designer; there is no possibility of our mistaking Salisbury for York or Peterborough for London. The first Book of Common Prayer was built up of blocks that for the most part had been previously used in other buildings, but the resulting structure exhibited, from the very moment it received a name, such distinct and unmistakable characteristics as have guaranteed it personal identity through more than three hundred years. Hence, while it is in one sense true that there are no fewer than eight Books of Common Prayer, it is in another sense equally true that the Book of Common Prayer is one. An identity of purpose, of scope, and of spirit shows itself in all its various forms under which the book exists, so that whether we are speaking of the First Prayer Book of King Edward the Sixth, or of the book adopted by the Church of Ireland after its disestablishment, or of the American Book of Common Prayer, what we have in mind is, in a very real and deep sense, one and the same thing. Let us proceed now to a rapid survey of the facts connected with the first issue of the Common Prayer. For a period long anterior to the Reformation there had been in use among the English brief books of devotion known as "primers," written in the language of the people. The fact that the public services of the Church were invariably conducted in the Latin tongue made a resort to such expedients as this necessary, unless religion was to be reserved as the private property of ecclesiastics. By a curious process of evolution the primer, from having been in mediaeval times a book wholly religious and devotional, has come to be in our day a book wholly secular and educational. We associate it with Noah Webster and the Harper Brothers. The New England Primer of the Puritans, with its odd jumble of piety and the three R's, marks a point of transition from the ancient to the modern type. But this by the way. The primer we are now concerned with is the devotional primer of the times just previous to the Reformation. This, as a rule, contained prayers, the Belief, the Ave Maria, a litany of some sort, the Ten Commandments, and whatever else there might be that in the mind of the compiler came under the head of "things which a Christian ought to know." There were three of these primers set forth during the reign of Henry the Eighth, one in 1535, one in 1539, and one in 1545. During the space that intervened between the publication of the second and that of the third of these primers, appeared "The Litany and Suffrages," a formulary compiled, as is generally believed, by Cranmer, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, and in substance identical with the Litany we use to-day. This Litany of 1544 has been properly described as "the precursor and first instalment of the English Book of Common Prayer." It was the nucleus or centre of crystallization about which the other constituent portions of our manual of worship were destined to be grouped. A quaint exhortation was prefixed to this Litany, in which it was said to have been set forth "because the not understanding the prayers and suffrages formerly used caused that the people came but slackly to the processions." Besides the primers and the Litany, there were printed in Henry's reign various editions of a book of Epistles and Gospels in English. There was also published a Psalter in Latin and English. All this looked rather to the edification of individual Christians in their private devotional life than to the public worship of the Church, but we are not to suppose that meanwhile the larger interests of the whole body were forgotten. So early as in the year 1542, Convocation, which according to the Anglican theory stands toward the Church in the same attitude that Parliament holds to the State, appointed a Committee of Eight to review and correct the existing service-books. We know very little as to the proceedings of this committee, but that something was done, and a real impulse given to liturgical revision, is evidenced by the fact that at a meeting of Convocation held soon after King Henry's death a resolution prevailed "That the books of the Bishops and others who by the command of the Convocation have labored in examining, reforming, and publishing the divine service, may be produced and laid before the examination of this house." The next important step in the process we are studying was the publication by authority in the early spring of 1548, of an Order of the Communion, as it was called, a formulary prepared by Cranmer to enable the priest, after having consecrated the elements in the usual manner, to distribute them to the people with the sentences of delivery spoken in English. The priest, that is to say, was to proceed with the service of the Mass as usual in the Latin tongue, but after he had himself received the bread and the wine, he was to proceed to a service of Communion for the people in a speech they could understand. Almost everything in this tentative document, as we may call it, was subsequently incorporated in the Office of the Holy Communion as we are using it to-day. We have, then, as an abiding result of the liturgical experiments made in anticipation of the actual setting forth of an authoritative Prayer Book, the Litany and this Order of the Communion. The time was now ripe for something better and more complete; a new king was upon the throne, and one whose counsellors were better disposed toward change than ever Henry had been. The great movement we know under the name of the Reformation touched the life of the Christian Church in every one of its three great departments--doctrine, discipline, and worship. In Henry's mind, however, the question appears to have been almost exclusively one of discipline or polity. His quarrel was not with the accepted theological errors of his day, for as Defender of the Faith he covered some of the worst of them with his shield. Neither was he ill-disposed toward the methods and usages of public worship so far as we can judge. His quarrel first, last, and always was with a certain rival claimant of power, whose pretended authority he was determined to drive out of the realm, to wit, the Pope. But while it was thus with Henry, it was far otherwise with many of the more thoughtful and devout among his theologians, and when the restraint that had been laid on them was removed by the king's death, they welcomed the opportunity to apply to doctrine and worship the same reforming touch that had already remoulded polity. An enlarged Committee of Convocation sat at Windsor in the summer of 1548, and as a result there was finally set forth, and ordered to be put into use on Whitsunday, 1549, what has become known in history as the "First Prayer Book of Edward VI." To dwell on those features of the First Book that have remained unaltered to the present day would be superfluous; I shall therefore, in speaking of it, confine myself to the distinctive and characteristic points in which it differs from the Prayer Books that have succeeded it. It is worthy of note that in the title page of the First Book there is a clear distinction drawn between the Church Universal, or what we call in the _Te Deum_ "the holy Church throughout all the world," and that particular Church to which King Edward's subjects, in virtue of their being Englishmen, belonged. The book is said to be "the Book of the Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of _The Church_, after the use of the Church of England." "_The Church_" is recognized as being a larger and, perhaps, older thing than the _Church of England_, while at the same time it is intimated that only through such use of these same prayers and sacraments as the English Church ordains and authorizes can English folk come into communion with the great family of believers spread over the whole earth. The Preface is a singularly racy piece of English, in which with the utmost plainness of speech the compilers give their reasons for having dealt with the old services as they have done. This reappears in the English Prayer Book of the present day under the title "Concerning the Service of The Church," and so described is placed after the Preface written in 1662 by the Revisers of the Restoration. The Order for Daily Morning Prayer, as we name it, is called in Edward's First Book "An Order for Matins daily through the year." Similarly, what we call the Order for Daily Evening Prayer was styled "An Order for Evensong." These beautiful names, "Matins" and "Evensong," which it is a great pity to have lost, for surely there is nothing superstitious about them, disappeared from the book as subsequently revised, and save in the Lectionary of the Church of England have no present recognition. One of them, however, Evensong, seems to be coming very generally into colloquial use. The Order for Matins began with the Lord's Prayer. Then, after the familiar versicles still in use, including two that have no place in our American book, "O God, make speed to save me. O Lord, make haste to help me," there followed in full the 95th Psalm, a portion of which is known to us as the _Venite_. From this point the service proceeded, as in the English Prayer Book of to-day, through the Collect for Grace, where it came to an end. The structure of Evensong was similar, beginning with the Lord's Prayer and ending, as our shortened Evening Prayer now does, with the Collect for Aid against Perils. Then followed the Athanasian Creed, and immediately afterward came the Introits, Collects, Epistles, and Gospels. These Introits, so-called, were psalms appointed to be sung when the priest was about to begin the Holy Communion. They had been an ancient feature of divine service, but were dropped from the subsequent books as a required feature of the Church's worship. The title of the Communion Service in Edward's First Book is as follows: "The Supper of the Lord and the Holy Communion commonly called the Mass." Immediately after the Prayer for Purity--_i_. _e_., in the place where we have the Ten Commandments, comes the _Gloria in Excelsis_. The service then proceeds very much as with us, except that the Prayer for the Church Militant and the Consecration Prayer are welded into one, and the Prayer of Humble Access given a place immediately before the reception of the elements. I note, in passing, certain phrases and sentences that are peculiar to the Communion Office of the First Book, as, for instance, this from the Prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church: "And here we do give unto thee most high praise and hearty thanks for the wonderful grace and virtue declared in all thy saints from the beginning of the world, and chiefly in the most glorious and blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord and God, and in the holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, whose examples, O Lord, and steadfastness in thy faith and keeping thy holy commandments grant us to follow. We commend unto thy mercy, O Lord, all other thy servants which are departed hence from us with the sign of faith and do now rest in the sleep of peace. Grant unto them, we beseech thee, thy mercy and everlasting peace, and that at the day of the general resurrection we and all they which be of the mystical body of thy Son may altogether be set on his right hand." And this from the closing portion of the Consecration: "Yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service, and command these our prayers and supplications by the ministry of thy holy angels to be brought up into thy holy tabernacle before the sight of thy divine majesty." Following close upon the Communion Service came the Litany, differing very little from what we have to-day, save in the memorable petition, "From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities, good Lord deliver us." The Baptismal Offices of the First Book contain certain unique features. The sign of the cross is ordered to be made on the child's breast as well as on his forehead. There is a form of exorcism said over the infant in which the unclean spirit is commanded to come out and to depart. There is also the giving of the "Crisome" or white vesture as a symbol of innocence. "Take this white vesture for a token of the innocency which by God's grace in this holy sacrament of Baptism is given unto thee, and for a sign whereby thou art admonished, so long as thou livest, to give thyself to innocency of living, that after this transitory life thou mayest be partaker of the life everlasting." The Catechism in Edward VI. First Book, as in the subsequent books down to 1662, is made a part of the Confirmation Office, although it does not clearly appear that the children were expected to say it as a preliminary to the service. The Office for the Visitation of the Sick contains provision for private confession and absolution, and also directs that the priest shall anoint the sick man with oil if he be desired to do so. The Office for the Communion of the Sick allows the practice of what is called the reservation of the elements, but contains also, be it observed, that rubric which has held its place through all the changes the Prayer Book has undergone, where we are taught that if the sick man by any "just impediment fail to receive the sacrament of Christ's body and blood, the curate shall instruct him that if he do truly repent him of his sins and steadfastly believe that Jesus Christ hath suffered death upon the cross for him . . . he doth eat and drink the body and blood of our Saviour Christ, profitably to his soul's health although he do not receive the sacrament with his mouth." The Burial Office contains a recognition of prayer for the dead, but except in the matter of the arrangement of the parts differs but little from the service still in use. A special Introit, Collect, Epistle, and Gospel are appointed "for the Celebration of the Holy Communion when there is a Burial of the Dead." A Commination Office for Ash-Wednesday, substantially identical with that still in use in the Church of England, concludes the book. The First Prayer Book of King Edward the Sixth, memorable as it was destined to become, proved, so far as actual use was concerned, but short-lived. It became operative, as we have seen, on Whitsunday, 1549, but it was soon evident that while the new services went too far in the direction of reform to please the friends of the ancient order of things, they did not go far enough to meet the wishes of the reforming party. Before the year was out no fewer than three translations of the Liturgy into Latin had been undertaken with a view to informing the Protestant divines of the Continent as to what their English colleagues were doing. "There was already within the Church" (of England), writes Cardwell, in his comparison of Edward's two books, "a party, though probably not numerous, which espoused the peculiar sentiments of Calvin; there were others, and Cranmer, it appears, had recently been one of them, adhering strictly to the opinions of Luther; there were many, and those among the most active and the most learned, who adopted the views of Bullinger and the theologians of Zurich; there was a still larger body anxious to combine all classes of Protestants under one general confession, and all these, though with distinct objects and different degrees of impatience, looked forward to a revision of the Liturgy, to bring it more completely into accordance with their own sentiments." As a result of the agitation thus vividly pictured by Cardwell, there came forth in 1552 the book known as the Second Prayer Book of King Edward VI., a work of the very greatest interest, for the reason that it was destined to become the basis of all future revisions. Whitsunday, 1549, was the day when the First Book began to be used. The Feast of All Saints, 1552, was the date officially appointed for the introduction of the Second Book. Presently King Edward died, and by an act of Mary passed in October, 1553, the use of his Book became illegal on and after December 20th of that year. It thus appears that the First Book was in use for two years and about four months, and the Second Book one year and about two months. A memorable three years and a half for the English-speaking peoples of all time to come, for it is not too much to say that while the language of Tyndale and of Cranmer continues to be heard on earth, the devotions then put into form will keep on moulding the religious thought and firing the spiritual imagination of this race. The points in which the second of King Edward's two books differs from the first are of such serious moment and the general complexion of the later work has in it such an access of Protestant coloring, that high Anglican writers have been in the habit of attributing the main features of the revision to the interference of the Continental Reformers. "If it had not been for the impertinent meddling," they have been accustomed to say, "of such foreigners as Bucer, Peter Martyr, and John a-Lasco, we might have been enjoying at the present day the admirable and truly Catholic devotions set forth in the fresh morning of the Reformation, before the earth-born vapors of theological controversy and ecclesiastical partisanship had beclouded an otherwise fair sky." But it does not appear that there is any solid foundation in fact for these complaints. The natural spread of the spirit of reform among the people of the realm, taken in connection with the changes of opinion which the swift movement of the times necessarily engendered in the minds of the leading divines, are of themselves quite sufficient to account for what took place. Certainly, if the English of that day were at all like their descendants in our time, it is in the highest degree unlikely that they would have allowed a handful of learned refugees to force upon them changes which their own sober judgment did not approve. The truth is, very little is certainly known as to the details of what was done in the making of Edward's Second Book. Even the names of the members of the committee intrusted with the revision are matter of conjecture, and of the proceedings of that body no authentic record survives. What we do possess and are in a position to criticise is the book itself, and to a brief review of the points in which it differs from its predecessor we will now pass. Upon taking up the Second Book after laying down the First, one is struck immediately with the changed look of Morning Prayer. This is no longer called Matins, and no longer begins as before with the Lord's Prayer. An Introduction has been prefixed to the office consisting of a collection of sentences from Holy Scripture, all of them of a penitential character, and besides these of an Exhortation, a Confession, and an Absolution. There can be little doubt that this opportunity for making public acknowledgment of sin and hearing the declaration of God's willingness to forgive, was meant to counterbalance the removal from the book of all reference, save in one instance, to private confession and absolution. The Church of England has always retained in her Visitation Office a permission to the priest to pronounce absolution privately to the sick man. This was a feature of the First Book that was not disturbed in the Second. But wherever else they found anything that seemed to look toward the continuance of the system familiarly known to us under the name of "the Confessional," they expunged it. Between the Exhortation and the Confession there is, in point of literary merit, a noticeable contrast, and it is scarcely to be believed that both formularies can have proceeded from one and the same pen. Another step in the Protestant direction was the prohibition of certain vestments that in the First Book had been allowed, as the alb and cope. The Introit Psalms were taken away. The word "table" was everywhere substituted for the word "altar." The changes in the Office of the Holy Communion were numerous and significant. The Ten Commandments, for instance, were inserted in the place where we now have them. The _Gloria in Excelsis_ was transferred from the beginning of the service to the end. The Exhortations were re-written. The supplication for the dead was taken out of the Prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church, and the words "militant here on earth" were added to the title with a view to confining the scope of the intercession to the circle of people still alive. The Confession, Absolution, Comfortable Words, and Prayer of Humble Access were placed before the Consecration instead of after it. Most important of all was the change of the words appointed to be said in delivering the elements to the communicants. In the First Book these had been, "The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life," and in the case of the cup, "The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." For these were now substituted in the one instance the words, "Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving," and in the other, "Drink this in remembrance that Christ's blood was shed for thee, and be thankful." From the Office for the Communion of the Sick the direction to reserve the elements was omitted, as was also the permission to anoint the sick man with oil. The Service of Baptism was no longer suffered to retain the exorcism of the evil spirit, or the white vesture, or the unction; and there were other items of less important change. Those mentioned reveal plainly enough what was the animus of the revisers. Most evidently the intention was to produce a liturgy more thoroughly reformed, more in harmony with the new tone and temper which the religious thought of the times was taking on. We come to the Third Book of Common Prayer. Bloody Mary was dead, and Elizabeth had succeeded to the throne. During the Roman reaction proclamation had been made that all the Reformed service-books should be given up to the ecclesiastical authorities within fifteen days to be burned. This is doubtless the reason why copies of the liturgical books of Edward's reign are now so exceedingly rare. Reprints of them abound, but the originals exist only as costly curiosities. Soon after Elizabeth's accession a committee of divines assembled under her authority for the purpose of again revising the formularies. The queen was personally a High-Churchwoman, and her own judgment is said to have been favorable to taking the first of Edward's two books as the basis of the revision, but a contrary preference swayed the committee, and the lines followed were those of 1552 and not those of 1549. The new features distinctive of the Prayer Book of Elizabeth, otherwise known as the Prayer Book of 1559, are not numerous. A table of Proper Lessons for Sundays was introduced. The old vestments recognized in the earlier part of King Edward's reign were again legalized. The petition for deliverance from the tyranny of the Pope was struck out of the Litany, and by a compromise peculiarly English in its character, and, as experience has shown, exceedingly well judged, the two forms of words that had been used in the delivery of the elements in the Holy Communion were welded together into the shape in which we have them still. Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book continued in use for five-and-forty years. Nothing was more natural than that when she died there should come with the accession of a new dynasty a demand for fresh revision. King James, who was not afflicted with any want of confidence in his own judgment, invited certain representatives of the disaffected party to meet, under his presidency, the Churchmen in council with a view to the settlement of differences. The Puritans had been gaining in strength during Elizabeth's reign, and they felt that they were now in position to demand a larger measure of liturgical reform than that monarch and her advisers had been willing to concede to them. King James convened his conference at Hampton Court, near London, and he himself was good enough to preside. Very little came of the debate. The Puritans had demanded the discontinuance of the sign of the cross in Baptism, of bowing at the name of Jesus, of the ring in marriage, and of the rite of confirmation. The words "priest" and "absolution" they sought to have expunged from the Prayer Book, and they desired that the wearing of the surplice should be made optional. Almost nothing was conceded to them. The words "or Remission of Sins" were added to the title of the Absolution, certain Prayers and Thanksgivings were introduced, and that portion of the Catechism which deals with the Sacraments was for the first time set forth. And thus the English Prayer Book started out upon its fourth lease of life destined in this form to endure unchanged, though by no means unassailed, for more than half a century. A stirring half century it was. The Puritan defeat at Hampton Court was redressed at Naseby. With the coming in of the Long Parliament the Book of Common Prayer went out, and to all appearances the triumph of the Commonwealth meant the final extinction of the usage of liturgical worship on English soil. The book, under its various forms, had lasted just a hundred years when he who Nothing common did or mean Upon that memorable scene suffered at Whitehall. They buried him in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and no single word of the Prayer Book he had loved and for which he had fought was said over his grave. On January 3, 1645, Parliament repealed the statutes of Edward VI. and of Elizabeth that had enjoined the use of the Book of Common Prayer, and took order that thereafter only such divine service should be lawful as accorded with what was called the _Directory_, a manual of suggestions with respect to public worship adopted by the Presbyterian party as a substitute for the ancient liturgy. With the restoration of the Stuarts in 1660 came naturally the restoration of the Prayer Book, and with equal naturalness a revision of it. But of what sort should the revision be, and under whose auspices conducted? This was an anxious question for the advisers, civil and ecclesiastical, of the restored king. Should the second Charles take up the book just as it had fallen from the hands of the first Charles, unchanged in line or letter, or should he seek by judicious alterations and timely concessions to win back for the national Church the good-will and loyalty of those who, eighteen years before, had broken down her hedge? The situation may be described as triangular. The king's secret and personal sympathies were probably all along with the Roman Church; his official allegiance was plainly due to the Church of England; and yet, at the same time, he owed much to the forbearance of the men who had been dominant under the Commonwealth. The mind of the nation had, indeed, reacted toward monarchy, but not with such an absolute and hardy renunciation of the doctrines of popular sovereignty as to make it safe for the returning king to do precisely as he chose. The glorious Revolution that was destined so soon to follow upon the heels of the gracious Restoration gave evidence, when it came, that there were some things the people of England prized even more highly than an hereditary throne. Misgivings as to the amount there might still be of this sort of electricity in the atmosphere suggested to the king and his counsellors the expediency of holding a conference, at which the leaders on either side might bring forward their strong reasons in favor of this or that method of dealing with the ecclesiastical question in general, and more especially with the vexed problem of worship. Accordingly, early in the spring of 1661 the King issued a royal warrant summoning to meet at the Savoy Palace in the Strand an equal number of representatives of both parties--namely, one-and-twenty Churchmen and one-and-twenty Presbyterians. The Episcopal deputation consisted of twelve bishops and nine other divines called coadjutors. The Presbyterians had also their twelve principal men and their nine coadjutors. Conspicuous among the Episcopalians for weight of learning were Bishops Sanderson, Cosin, and Walton, and Doctors Pearson, Sparrow, and Heylin. Baxter, Reynolds, Calamy, and Lightfoot were the most notable of the Presbyterians. The conference, which has ever since been known from its place of meeting (an old palace of the Piedmontese Ambassadors) as the Savoy Conference, convened on April 15, 1661. For various reasons, it was evident from the outset that the Churchmen were in a position of great advantage. In the first place, signs and tokens of a renewed confidence in monarchy and of a revived attachment to the reigning House were becoming daily more numerous. Before he had had a chance to test the strength of the existing political parties and to know how things really stood, Charles had borne himself very discreetly toward the Presbyterians, and had held out hopes to them which, as the event proved, were destined never to be realized. In a declaration put forth in the autumn of 1660, after he had been for some months on English soil, he had even gone so far as to say: "When we were in Holland we were attended by many grave and learned ministers from hence, who were looked upon as the most able and principal asserters of the Presbyterian opinions; with whom we had as much conference as the multitude of affairs which were then upon us would permit us to have, and to our great satisfaction and comfort found them persons full of affection to us, of zeal for the peace of the Church and State, and neither enemies, as they have been given out to be, to episcopacy or liturgy, but modestly to desire such alterations in either, as without shaking foundations might best allay the present distempers." By the time the conference met it had become evident, from votes taken in Parliament and otherwise, that the Churchmen could sustain toward their opponents a somewhat stiffer attitude than this without imperilling their cause. Another great advantage enjoyed by the Episcopalians grew out of the fact that they were the party in possession. They had only to profess themselves satisfied with the Prayer Book as it stood, in order to throw the Presbyterians into the position of assailants, and defense is always easier than attack. Sheldon, the Bishop of London, was not slow to perceive this. At the very first meeting of the conference, he is reported to have said that "as the Non-conformists, and not the bishops, had sought for the conference, nothing could be done till the former had delivered their exceptions in writing, together with the additional forms and alterations which they desired." Upon which Bishop Burnet in his _History of his own Times_ remarks: "Sheldon saw well what the effect would be of putting them to make all their demands at once. The number of them raised a mighty outcry against them, as people that could never be satisfied." The Presbyterians, however, took up the challenge, set to work at formulating their objections, and appointed Richard Baxter, the most famous of their number, to show what could be done in the way of making a better manual of worship than the Book of Common Prayer. Baxter, a truly great man and wise in a way, though scarcely in the liturgical way, was guilty of the incredible folly of undertaking to construct a Prayer Book within a fortnight. Of this liturgy it is probably safe to say that no denomination of Christians, however anti-prelatical or eccentric, would for a moment dream of adopting it, if, indeed, there be a single local congregation anywhere that could be persuaded to employ it. The characteristic of the devotions is lengthiness. The opening sentence of the prayer with which the book begins contains by actual count eighty-three words. It is probable that Baxter by his rash act did more to injure the cause of intelligent and reverential liturgical revision than any ten men have done before or since. In every discussion of the subject he is almost sure to be brought forward as "the awful example." A document much more to the point than Baxter's Liturgy was the formal catalogue of faults and blemishes alleged against the Prayer Book, which the Puritan members of the conference in due time brought in. This indictment, for it may fairly be called such, since it was drawn up in separate counts, is very interesting reading. Of the "exceptions against the Book of Common Prayer," as the Puritans named their list of liturgical grievances, some must strike almost any reader of the present day as trivial and unworthy. Others again there are that draw a sympathetic Amen from many quarters to-day. To an American Episcopalian the catalogue is chiefly interesting as showing how ready and even eager were our colonial ancestors of a hundred years ago to remove out of the way such known rocks of offence as they could. An attentive student of the American Prayer Book cannot fail to be struck with the number of instances in which the text gives evidence of the influence exerted over the minds of our revisers by what had been urged, more than a hundred years before, by the Puritan members of the Savoy Conference. The defeat of 1661 was, in a measure at least, avenged in 1789. It is encouraging to those who cast their bread upon liturgical waters to notice after how many days the return may come. But the conference, to all outward seeming, was a failure. Baxter's unhappy Prayer Book was its own sufficient refutation, and as for the list of special grievances it was met by the bishops with an "Answer" that was full of hard raps and conceded almost nothing. A few detached paragraphs may serve to illustrate the general tone of this reply. Here, for instance, is the comment of the bishops upon the request of the Puritans to be allowed occasionally to substitute extemporaneous for liturgical devotions. "The gift or rather spirit of prayer consists in the inward graces of the spirit, not in extempore expressions which any man of natural parts having a voluble tongue and audacity may attain to without any special gift." Nothing very conciliatory in that. To the complaint that the Collects are too short, the bishops reply that they cannot for that reason be accounted faulty, being like those "short but prevalent prayers in Scripture, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner. Lord, increase our faith." The Puritans had objected to the antiphonal element in the Prayer-Book services, and desired to have nothing of a responsive character allowed beyond the single word Amen. "But," rejoin the bishops, "they directly practise the contrary in one of their principal parts of worship, singing of psalms, where the people bear as great a part as the minister. If this way be done in Hopkin's why not in David's Psalms; if in metre, why not in prose; if in a psalm, why not in a litany?" Sharp, but not winning. The Puritans had objected to the people's kneeling while the Commandments were read on the score that ignorant worshippers might mistake the Decalogue for a form of prayer. With some asperity the bishops reply that "why Christian people should not upon their knees ask their pardon for their life forfeited for the breach of every commandment and pray for grace to keep them for the time to come they must be more than 'ignorant' that can scruple." The time during which the conference at the Savoy should continue its sessions had been limited to four months. This period expired on July 24, 1661, and the apparently fruitless disputation was at an end. Meanwhile, however, Convocation, the recognized legislature of the Church of England, had begun to sit, and the bishops had undertaken a revision of the Prayer Book after their own mind, and with slight regard to what they had been hearing from their critics at the Savoy. The bulk of their work, which included, it is said, more than six hundred alterations, most of them of a verbal character and of no great importance, was accomplished within the compass of a single month. It is consoling to those who within our own memory have been charged with indecent haste for seeking to effect a revision of the American Book of Common Prayer within a period of nine years, to find this precedent in ecclesiastical history for their so great rashness. Since Charles the Second's day there has been no formal revision of the Prayer Book of the Church of England by the Church of England. Some slight relaxations of liturgical use on Sundays have been made legal by Act of Parliament, but in all important respects the Prayer Book of Victoria is identical with the book set forth by Convocation and sanctioned by Parliament shortly after the collapse of the Savoy Conference. Under no previous lease of life did the book enjoy anything like so long a period of continued existence. Elizabeth's book was the longest lived of all that preceded the Restoration, but that only continued in use five-and-forty years. But the Prayer Book of 1661 has now held its own in England for two centuries and a quarter. When, therefore, we are asked to accept the first Edwardian Book as the only just exponent of the religious mind of England, it is open to us to reply, "Why should we, seeing that the Caroline Book has served as the vehicle of English devotion for a period seventy-five times as long?" The most voluminous of the additions made to the Prayer Book, in 1661, were the Office for the Baptism of Adults and the Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea. The wide diffusion, under the Commonwealth, of what were then called Anabaptist opinions, had brought it to pass that throughout the kingdom there were thousands of men and women who had grown up unbaptized. At the time of the Reformation such a thing as an unchristened Christendom seems not to have been thought possible. At any rate no provision was made for the contingency. But upon the spread of liberty of religious thought there followed, logically enough, the spread of liberty of religious action, and it was not strange that after a whole generation had spent its life in controversy of the warmest sort over this very point of Baptism, there were found to be in England multitudes of the unbaptized. Another reason assigned in the Preface of the English Prayer Book for the addition of this office was that it might be used for the baptizing of "natives in the plantations and other converts." This is the first hint of any awakening of the conscience of the English Church to a sense of duty toward those strangers and foreigners who in the "Greater Britain" of these later days fill so large a place. The composition of the office, which differs very little, perhaps scarcely enough, from that appointed for the Baptism of Infants, is attributed to Griffith, the Bishop of St. Asaph. The compiler of the Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea was Bishop Sanderson, famous among English theologians as an authority on casuistry. He must have found it rather a nice case of conscience to decide whether a Stuart divine in preparing forms of prayer for a navy that had been the creation of Oliver Cromwell ought wholly to omit an acknowledgment of the nation's obligation to that stout-hearted, if non-Episcopal Christian. Other additions of importance made at this revision were the General Thanksgiving, in all probability the work of Reynolds, a conforming Presbyterian divine, the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, the Prayer for Parliament, upon the lines of which our own Prayer for Congress was afterward modelled, and the Prayer for All Sorts and Conditions of Men. In the Litany the words "rebellion" and "schism" were introduced into one of the suffrages, becoming tide-marks of the havoc wrought in Church and State by what the revisers, doubtless, looked back upon as "the flood of the ungodly." The words "Bishops, Priests, and Deacons" were substituted for "Bishops, Pastors, and Ministers of the Church." New Collects were appointed for the Third Sunday in Advent and for St. Stephen's Day. Both of these are distinct gains, albeit had the opinion then prevailed that to introduce into the Prayer Book anything from the pen of a living writer is an impiety, we should have gained neither of them. Another important change made in 1662 was the adoption for the Sentences, Epistles and Gospels of the language of King James's Bible in place of that of earlier versions. This principle was not applied to the Psalter, to the Decalogue, or, in fact, to any of the portions of Scripture contained in the Communion Service. It is also interesting to note that the Confession in the Holy Communion, which the earlier rubric had directed should be said by one of the congregation, or else by one of the ministers, or by the priest himself, "was now made general and enjoined upon all the worshippers." Most suggestive of all, however, was the reinsertion at the end of the Communion Service of a certain Declaration about the significance of the act of kneeling at the reception of the elements, which had, as some say, irregularly and without proper authority, found its way into the Second Book of Edward VI., but had been omitted from all subsequent books till now. This Declaration, which from its not being printed in red ink is known to those who dislike it under the name of "the black rubric," was undoubtedly intended to ease the consciences of those who scrupled to kneel at the altar-rail for fear of seeming to countenance that superstitious adoration of the elements known to and stigmatized by the Reformers as "host-worship." The language of the black rubric as it stood in Edward's Second Book was as follows: "Although no order can be so perfectly devised but it may be of some, either for their ignorance and infirmity, or else of malice and obstinacy, misconstrued, depraved, and interpreted in a wrong part; and yet because brotherly charity willeth that so much as conveniently may be offences should be taken away; therefore we willing to do the same: whereas, it is ordained in the Book of Common Prayer, in the Administration of the Lord's Supper, that the communicants kneeling should receive the Holy Communion, which thing being well meant for a signification of the humble and grateful acknowledging of the benefits of Christ given unto the worthy receiver, and to avoid the profanation and disorder, which about the Holy Communion might else ensue, lest yet the same kneeling might be thought or taken otherwise; we do declare that it is not meant thereby, that any adoration is done or ought to be done, either unto the sacramental bread or wine there bodily received or unto any real and essential presence there being of Christ's natural flesh and blood. For as concerning the sacramental bread and wine they remain still in their very natural substances, and therefore may not be adored, for that were idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians: and as concerning the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ, they are in heaven and not here, for it is against the truth of Christ's true natural body to be in more places than in one at one time." In restoring this significant Declaration, the revisers of 1662 substituted the words "corporal presence" for the words "real and substantial presence," but probably with no intention other than that of making the original meaning more plain. The fact that in the teeth and eyes of the black rubric the practice known as Eucharistical adoration has become widely prevalent in the Church of England, only shows how little dependence can be placed on forms of words to keep even excellent and religious people from doing the things they have a mind to do. In taking leave of the Caroline revision, it may be permitted to dwell for a moment upon the serious character of the conclusion reached by the ecclesiastical leaders of that day. An opportunity was given them to conciliate dissent. Without going all lengths, without in any measure imperilling the great foundation principles of Anglican religion, they might, it would seem, have won back to the national church thousands of those whom their sternness not only repelled but permanently embittered. But it was the hour of victory with the Churchmen, and "Woe to the conquered" seems to have been their cry. They set their faces as a flint against concession; they passed their iron-clad act of uniformity, and now for more than two hundred years religion in Great Britain has been a household divided against itself. Perhaps nothing that the men of the Restoration could have done would have made it otherwise. Perhaps the familiar question of the cynical Dean of St. Patrick's, "What imports it how large a gate you open, if there be always left a number who place a pride and a merit in refusing to enter?" was a fair question, and fatal to any dream of unity. And yet one may be pardoned for believing that had a little of the oil of brotherly kindness been poured upon those troubled waters we whom the waves still buffet might to-day be sailing a smoother sea. As stated above, the Convocation of 1662 gave to the Prayer Book of the Church of England the form it has ever since retained. But it must not be supposed that no efforts have been made meanwhile to bring changes to pass. The books written upon the subject form a literature by themselves. The one really serious attempt to reconstruct the Liturgy in post-Caroline times was that which grew naturally enough out of the Revolution of 1688. In every previous crisis of political change, the Prayer Book had felt the tremor along with the statute-book. Church and State, like heart and brain, are sympathetically responsive to one another; revisions of rubrics go naturally along with revisions of codes. It was only what might have been anticipated, therefore, that when William and Mary came to the throne a Commission should issue for a new review. If Elizabeth had found it necessary to revise the book, if James had found it necessary, if Charles had found it necessary, why should not the strong hand of William of Orange be laid upon the pages? But this time the rule was destined to find its exception. The work of review was, indeed, undertaken by a Royal Commission, including among its members the great names of Stillingfleet, Tillotson, and Beveridge, but nothing came of their work. Convocation again showed itself unfriendly to anything like concessive measures, and so complete was the obscurity into which the doings of the Commission fell, that even as late as 1849, Cardwell, in the third edition of his _History of Conferences_, speaks as if he knew nothing of the whereabouts of the record. In 1854 the manuscript minutes of the Commission's proceedings were discovered in the Library of Lambeth Palace, and by order of Parliament printed as a Blue-book. The same document has also been published in a more readable form by Bagster. One rises from the perusal of this Broad Church Prayer Book--for such, perhaps, Tillotson's attempt may not unfairly be called--profoundly thankful that the promoters of it were not suffered to succeed. The Preface to our American Book of Common Prayer refers to this attempted review of 1689 "as a great and good work." But the greatness and the goodness must have lain in the motive, for one fails to discern them either in the matter or in the manner of what was recommended. Even Macaulay, Whig that he is, fails not to put on record his condemnation of the literary violence which the Prayer Book so narrowly escaped at the hands of the Royal Commission of 1689. Terseness was not the special excellency of Macaulay's own style, yet even he resented Bishop Patrick's notion that the Collects could be improved by amplification. One of the few really good suggestions made by the Commissioners was that of using the Beatitudes in the Office of the Holy Communion as an alternate for the Decalogue. There are certain festivals of the Christian year when such a substitution would be most timely and refreshing. We make a leap now of just a hundred years. From 1689 we pass to 1789, and find ourselves in the city of Philadelphia, at a convention assembled for the purpose of framing a constitution and setting forth a liturgy for a body of Christians destined to be known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. During the interval between the issue of the Declaration of Independence and the Ratification of the Constitution of the United States, the people in this country who had been brought up in the communion of the Church of England found themselves ecclesiastically in a very delicate position indeed. As colonists they had been canonically under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, a somewhat remote diocesan. But with this Episcopal bond broken and no new one formed, they seemed to be in a peculiar sense adrift. It does not fall to me to narrate the steps that led to the final establishment of the episcopacy upon a sure foundation, nor yet to trace the process through which the Church's legislative system came gradually to its completion. Our interest is a liturgical one, and our subject matter the evolution of the Prayer Book. I say nothing, therefore, of other matters that were debated in the Convention of 1789, but shall propose instead that we confine ourselves to what was said and done about the Prayer Book. In order, however, fully to appreciate the situation we must go back a little. In a half-formal and half-informal fashion there had come into existence, four years before this Convention of 1789 assembled, an American Liturgy now known by the name of _The Proposed Book_. It had been compiled on the basis of the English Prayer Book by a Committee of three eminent clergymen, Dr. White of Pennsylvania, Dr. William Smith of Maryland, and Dr. Wharton of Delaware. Precisely what measure of acceptance this book enjoyed, or to what extent it came actually into use, are difficult, perhaps hopeless questions. What we know for certain is that the public opinion of the greater number of Churchmen rejected it as inadequate and unsatisfactory. In the Convention of 1789 The Proposed Book does not seem to have been seriously considered in open debate at all, though doubtless there was much talk about it, much controversy over its merits and demerits at Philadelphia dinner-tables and elsewhere while the session was in progress. The truth is, the changes set forth in _The Proposed Book_ were too sweeping to commend themselves to the sober second-thought of men whose blood still showed the tincture of English conservatism. Possibly also some old flames of Tory resentment were rekindled, here and there, by the prominence given in the book to a form of public thanksgiving for the Fourth of July. There were Churchmen doubtless at that day who failed duly to appreciate what were called in the title of the office, "the inestimable blessings of Religious and Civil Liberty." Others again may have been offended by the treatment measured out to the Psalter, which was portioned into thirty selections of two parts each, with the _Benedicite_ added at the end, to be used, if desired, on the thirty-first day of any month. Another somewhat crude and unliturgical device was the running together without break of the Morning Prayer and the Litany. I speak of blemishes, but _The Proposed Book_ had its excellences also. Just at present it is the fashion in Anglican circles to heap ridicule and contempt on _The Proposed Book_ out of all proportion to its real demerits. Somehow it is thought to compromise us with the English by showing up our ecclesiastical ancestors in an unfavorable light as unlearned and ignorant men. It is treated as people will sometimes treat an old family portrait of a forebear, who in his day was under a cloud, mismanaged trust funds, or made money in the slave trade. Thus a grave historiographer by way of speaking comfortably on this score, assures us that the volume "speedily sunk into obscurity," becoming one of the rarest of the books illustrative of our ecclesiastical annals. And yet, curiously enough, _The Proposed Book_ was in some points more "churchly," using the word in a sense expressive of liturgical accuracy, than the book finally adopted. In the Morning Prayer it has the _Venite_ in full and not abridged. The _Benedictus_ it also gives entire. A single form of Absolution is supplied. The versicles following upon the Creed are more numerous than ours. In the Evening Prayer the great Gospel Hymns, _the Magnificat_ and the _Nunc dimittis_, stand in the places to which we with tardy justice have only just restored them. Again, if we consider those features of _The Proposed Book_ that were retained and made part of the Liturgy in 1789, we shall have further reason to refrain from wholesale condemnation of this tentative work. For example, we owe the two opening sentences of Morning Prayer, "The Lord is in his holy temple" and "From the rising of the sun," to _The Proposed Book_, and also the special form for Thanksgiving Day. And yet, on the whole, the Convention of 1789 acted most wisely in determining that it would make the Prayer Book of the Church of England, rather than _The Proposed Book_, the real basis of revision. It did so, and as a result we have what has served us so well during the first century of our national life--the _Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America_. The points wherein the American Prayer Book differs from the Prayer Book of the Church of England are too numerous to be catalogued in full. "They will appear," says the Preface (a composition borrowed, by the way, almost wholly from _The Proposed Book_), "and, it is to be hoped, the reasons of them also, upon a comparison of this with the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England." The most important differences are the following: The permissive use of "Selections of Psalms in place of the Psalms appointed for the day of the month." This was doubtless suggested by the wholesale transformation of the Psalter in _The Proposed Book_ into a series of selections. The permitted shortening of the Litany is an American feature. A number of the special prayers, as, for example, the prayer for a sick person, that for persons going to sea, the thanksgivings for a recovery and for a safe return, all these are peculiar to the American use. Extensive alterations were made in the Marriage Service and certain greatly needed ones in the Burial Office. The two most noteworthy differences, however, are the omission from our Prayer Book of the so-called Athanasian Creed, and the insertion in it of that part of the Consecration Prayer in the Communion Office known as the Invocation. The engrafting of this latter feature we owe to the influence of Bishop Seabury, who by this addition not only assimilated the language of our liturgy more closely to that of the ancient formularies of the Oriental Church, but also insured our being kept reminded of the truly spiritual character of Holy Communion. "It is the spirit that quickeneth," this Invocation seems to say; "the flesh profiteth nothing." Quite in line with this was the alteration made at the same time in the language of the Catechism. "The Body and Blood of Christ," says the English Book, "which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper." "The Body and Blood of Christ," says the American Book, "which are spiritually taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper." Many verbal changes are to be found scattered here and there through the book, some of them for the better, some, perhaps, for the worse. The prevailing purpose seems to have been to expunge all obsolete words and phrases while dealing tenderly with obsolescent ones. In this course, however, the revisers were by no means always and everywhere consistent. "Prevent," in the sense of "anticipate," is altered in some places but left unchanged in others. In the _Visitation of Prisoners_, an office borrowed from the Irish Prayer Book, the thoroughly obsolete expression, "As you tender," in the sense of "as you value," the salvation of your soul, is retained. From the Psalter has disappeared in the American Book "Thou tellest my Sittings," although why this particular archaism should have been selected for banishment and a hundred others spared, it is not easy to understand. Perhaps some sudden impatience seized the reviser, like that which moved Bishop Wren, while annotating his Prayer Book, to write on the margin of the calendar for August, "Out with 'dog days' from among the saints." Considering what a bond of unity the Lord's Prayer appears to be becoming among all English-speaking worshippers, it is, perhaps, to be regretted that our revisers changed the wording of it in two or three places. The excision of "Lighten our darkness" must probably be attributed to the prosaic matter-of-fact temper which had possession of everybody and everything during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The Ordinal, the Articles, the Consecration of Churches, and the Institution of Ministers made no part of the Prayer Book as it was set forth in 1789; nor do they, even now, strictly speaking, make a part of it, although in the matter of binding force and legal authority they are on the same footing. The Ordinal and Articles are substantially identical with the English Ordinal and Articles, save in the matter of a reference to the Athanasian Creed and several references to the connection of Church and State. The Consecration of Churches and the Institution of Ministers are offices distinctively American. If I add that the American Book drops out of the Visitation of the Sick a form of private absolution, and greatly modifies the service for Ash-Wednesday, we shall have made our survey of differences tolerably, though by no means exhaustively complete. And now what is the lesson taught us by the history of the Prayer Book? Homiletical as the question sounds, it is worth asking. We have reviewed rapidly, but not carelessly, the vicissitudes of the book's wonderful career, and we ought to be in a position to draw some sort of instructive inference from it all. Well, one thing taught us is this, the singular power of survival that lives in gracious words. They wondered at the "gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth," and because they wondered at them they treasured them up. Kind words, says the child's hymn, can never die; neither can kindly words, and kindly in the deepest sense are many, many of the words of the Common Prayer; they touch that which is most catholic in us, that which strongly links us to our kind. There is that in some of the Collects which as it has lasted since the days when Roman emperors were sitting on their thrones, so will it last while man continues what he is, a praying creature. Another thing taught us by the Prayer Book's history is the duty of being forever on our guard in the religious life against "the falsehood of extremes." The emancipated thinkers who account all standards of belief to be no better than dungeon walls, scoff at this feature of the Anglican character with much bitterness. "Your Church is a Church of compromises," they say, "and your boasted _Via media_ only a coward's path, the poor refuge of the man who dares not walk in the open." But when we see this Prayer Book condemned for being what it is by Bloody Mary, and then again condemned for being what it is by the Long Parliament, the thought occurs to us that possibly there is enshrined in this much-persecuted volume a truth larger than the Romanist is willing to tolerate, or the Puritan generous enough to apprehend. A third important lesson is that we are not to confound revision with ruin, or to suppose that because a book is marvellously good it cannot conceivably be bettered. Each accomplished revision of the Book of Common Prayer has been a distinct step in advance. If God in his wise providence suffered an excellent growth of devotion to spring up out of the soil of England in the days of Edward the Sixth, and, after many years, determined that like a vine out of Egypt it should be brought across the sea and given root on these shores, we need not fear that we are about to lose utterly our pleasant plant if we notice that the twigs and leaves are adapting themselves to the climate and the atmosphere of the new dwelling-place. The life within the vine remains what it always was. The growth means health. The power of adaptation is the guarantee of a perpetual youth. REVISION OF THE AMERICAN COMMON PRAYER. II. REVISION OF THE AMERICAN COMMON PRAYER.[1] The revision of long established formularies of public worship is, as it ought to be, a matter compassed about with obstacles many and great. A wise doubtfulness prompts conservative minds to throw every mover for change upon the defensive, when liturgical interests are at stake. So many men are born into the world with a native disposition to tamper with and tinker all settled things, and so many more become persuaded, as time goes on, of a personal "mission" to pull down and remake whatever has been once built up, esteeming life a failure unless they have contrived to build each his own monument upon a clearing, that lovers of the old ways are sometimes compelled in sheer self-defence to put on the appearance of being more obstinately set against change than they really are. It ought not to be absolutely impossible to alter a national hand-book of worship (which is what any manual calling itself a Common Prayer must aspire to become), but it is well that it should be all but impossible to do so. Logically it might seem as if the possession of a power to make involved a continuance of power to remake; and so it does, to a certain extent, but only to a certain extent. Living organisms cannot be remodelled with the same freedom as dead matter. A solemnity hangs about the moment of birth that attaches to no other crisis in a man's life until death comes. Similarly there are certain features which the founders of institutions, the first makers of organic law, imprint lastingly upon their work. We may destroy the living thing so brought to birth; to kill is always possible; but only by very gradual and plastic methods can we hope in any measure to reconstruct the actual embodiment of life once achieved. The men of 1789 had us in their power, even as the men of 1549 had had both them and us. In every creative epoch many things are settled by which unborn generations will be bound.[2] It may be urged that this is an argument against adopting liturgies in the first instance as vehicles of worship; and such undoubtedly it is in so far forth as immobility ought in such matters to be reckoned a disadvantage. But we are bound to take into account the gain which comes with immobility as well as the drawbacks. We must consider how large a proportion of the reverence which the great institutes of human life exact from us is due to the fixity of the things themselves. Mont Blanc loses nothing of its hold upon our admiration because we always find it in the same place. Men like to feel that there is something in the world stronger than the individual will, stronger simply because it expresses the settled common-sense of many as to what is fitting and right in contrast with the whim of one. Lawyers, as a class, are almost as conservative as ecclesiastics, and for the very reason that they also are charged with the custody of established forms which it is important that men should reverence. Laws affecting the tenure of property, the binding force of contracts, the stability of the marriage relation, not only cannot be lightly altered, the very phraseology in which they are couched must be carefully handled, for fear lest with the passing away of the form something of the substance go also. Moreover, the affections of men fasten themselves very tenaciously to such a trellis as a liturgy affords. The love for "the old words and the old tunes" against which all innovators in hymnody, however deserving, have to do battle, asserts itself under the form of love for the old prayers with ten-fold vehemence. An immense fund of latent heat smoulders beneath the maxim, "Let the ancient customs prevail"; and few of the victories achieved by the papacy are so startling as those that have resulted in the displacement of the liturgical uses of local Churches, that of Paris, for example, by the Roman rite. But true principles, as we are often reminded, become falsehoods when shoved across the line of proper measure. The very cycles of the astronomers have an end, and the clock-work of the most ancient heavens, or at least our reading of it, calls, from time to time, for readjustment. So long as man continues fallible his best intended workmanship will occasionally demand such alteration for the better as, within the limits already pointed out, may be possible. Many signs of the times suggest that the hour for a fresh review of the Anglican formularies of worship is nigh at hand. Some of these tokens are written on a sky broad enough to cover the whole English-speaking race, others of them are visible chiefly within our own national horizon. With respect to the English book, Cardwell [3] writing in 1840 and Freeman[4] in 1855, considered revision, however desirable in the abstract, to be a thing utterly out of reach, not within the circle, as the parliamentary phrase now runs, of "practical politics." But it may be fairly questioned whether these high authorities, were they living to-day, would not concur in the judgment of a more recent writer when he says--in language which, _mutatis mutandis_, applies to our own case: "The most weighty plea in favor of timely inquiry into the subject is that the process of revision is actually going on piecemeal, and with no very intelligent survey of the bearings as a preliminary to any one instalment. The New Lectionary of 1871, the Shortened Services Act, the debates in the Convocation of Canterbury on rubrical amendments, none of them marked by any sufficient care or knowledge, and all fraught with at least the possibility of serious consequence, are examples of formal and recognized inroads on the Act of Uniformity; while such practical though unauthorized additions to the scanty group of Anglican formularies as the Three Hours' Devotion, Harvest Thanksgivings, Public Institution of Incumbents, Ordination of Readers and Deaconesses, and Children's Services prove incontestably that the narrow limits of the Common Prayer Book are no longer adequate for the spiritual needs of the Church of England . . . "It is evident, then, that contented acquiescence with the old state of things already belongs to the past, and that a return to it is impossible. We must perforce advance, for good or ill, in the path of revision, and cannot even materially slacken the pace nor defer the crisis. One choice, however, is left in our power, and that is the most important of all, namely, the direction which revision shall take--that of conservative and recuperative addition, or that of further evisceration, ceremonial or devotional." [5] A measure looking in the direction towards which this reviewer points was actually passed by the General Convention of our own Church at its late session in October, 1880. The wording of the Resolution referred to was as follows: "_Resolved_: That a Joint Committee, to consist of seven bishops, seven presbyters, and seven laymen be appointed to consider and report to the next General Convention whether, in view of the fact that this Church is soon to enter upon the second century of its organized existence in this country, the changed conditions of the national life do not demand certain alterations in the Book of Common Prayer in the direction of liturgical enrichment and increased flexibility of use."[6] In the present article the writer proposes to inquire, in connection with this measure: (1) What motives may fairly be supposed to have actuated the Convention in allowing so important an initiatory step to be taken? (2) What measure of authority was conferred on and what scope given to the Joint Committee then constituted? (3) What reasons exist for considering the present a happy moment to attempt liturgical revision, within certain limits, should such a thing be determined upon? (4) What serious difficulties and obstacles are likely to be encountered in Committee, in Convention, and in the Church at large? (5) What particular improvements and adjustments of our existing system would be, in point of fact, best worth the effort necessary to secure them? I. The interpretation of motives, difficult enough in the case of individuals, becomes mere guess-work when the action under analysis is that of a large body of men. Which one of many considerations urged upon the Convention carried with it the supreme weight of persuasion in this particular instance it is impossible to say. Two or three arguments, however, from their frequent reappearance in the debate may fairly be judged to have exercised a controlling influence. One of these was hinted at in the language of the resolution itself, namely, the call for revision that has grown out of "the changed conditions of the national life." Shrewd and far-seeing as were William White and his coadjutors in their forecast of nineteenth century needs made from the standpoint of the Peace of Versailles, they would have been more than human had they succeeded in anticipating all the civil and ecclesiastical consequences destined to flow from that memorable event. Certainly it ought not to be held strange that this "new America" of ours, with its enormously multiplied territory, its conglomerate of races, its novel forms of association, its multiplicity of industries not dreamed of a generation ago, should have demands to make in respect to a better adaptation of ancient formularies to present wants, such as thoughtful people count both reasonable and cogent. That a Prayer Book revised primarily for the use of a half-proscribed Church planted here and there along a sparsely inhabited sea-coast, should serve as amply as it does the purposes of a population now swollen from four millions to fifty, and covering the whole breadth of the continent, is marvel enough; to assert for the book entire adequacy to meet these altered circumstances is a mistake. "New time, new favors, and new joys," so a familiar hymn affirms, "do a new song require." We have conceded the principle so far as psalmody is concerned, why not apply it to the service of prayer as well as to that of praise, and in addition to our new hymns secure also such new intercessions and new thanksgivings as the needs of to-day suggest? The reference in the resolution to the approaching completion of the century has since been playfully characterized as a bit of "sentimentalism."[7] The criticism would be entirely just if the mere recurrence of the centennial anniversary were the point chiefly emphasized. But when a century closes as this one of ours has done with a great social revolution whereby "all estates of men" have been more or less affected, the proposal to signalize entrance upon a fresh stretch of national life by making devotional preparation for it is something better than a pretty conceit; there is a serious reasonableness in it.[8] Every revision of the Common Prayer of the Church of England, and there have been four of them since Edward's First Book was put in print, has taken place at some important era of transition in the national life: and conversely it may be said that every civil crisis, with a single exception, has left its mark upon the formularies. To one who argues that because we in this country are evidently entering upon a new phase of the national life we ought similarly to re-enforce and readjust our service-book, it is no sufficient reply to urge the severance effected here between Church and State. The fact that ours is a non-established Church does not make her wholly unresponsive to the shocks of change that touch the civil fabric. In so far as a political renewal alters the social grading of society, bringing in education, for instance, where before it was not, or suddenly developing new forms of industrial activity, the Church, whether established or not, is in duty bound to take cognizance of the fresh field of duty thus suddenly thrust upon her, and to prepare herself accordingly. In the Preface added to the English Prayer Book at the Restoration, and commonly attributed to Sanderson, "that staid and well weighed man," as Hammond called him, there occurs a sentence which, both on account of its embodying in a few words the whole philosophy of liturgical revision and because of a certain practical bearing presently to be pointed out, it is worth while, in spite of its familiarity, to quote: "The particular forms of Divine worship, and the rites and ceremonies appointed to be used therein, being things in their own nature indifferent and alterable and so acknowledged, it is but reasonable, that upon weighty and important considerations, according to the various exigency of times and occasions, such changes and alterations should be made therein, as to those that are in place of authority should from time to time seem either necessary or expedient." Contemporaneously with this utterance there came into the Prayer Book, as a direct consequence of the enormous enlargement of the naval and commercial marine that had taken place under the Commonwealth, the "Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea." Here was a wise and right-minded recognition of a new want that had sprung up with a new time, a want which jealousy of the Puritans who had built up the naval supremacy did not prevent the Caroline bishops from meeting. But the change that passed on England during five years of Cromwell was as nothing compared with the transformation of America under ninety-five years of the federal constitution. Take a single illustration. The year 1789, the date of the Ratification of the American Prayer Book, saw sea-island cotton first planted in the United States, and it was about that time that upland cotton also began to be cultivated for home and foreign use. As the effect of this scarcely noticed experiment there straightway sprang up an industry, North and South, which has been to our country almost what her shipping interest is to Great Britain. Bishop White and his associates were not to blame for failure to provide bread that all this unanticipated multitude of toilers should eat. And yet a failure there has been. No one who has not labored at the task of trying to commend the Church of the Prayer Book to the working class, as it is represented in our large manufacturing towns, can know how lamentable that failure is. We gather in the rich and the poor, but the great middle class that makes the staple and the strength of American society stands aloof. Nowhere in this country, for instance, has the Church had a better opportunity to show what it could do for American people than in the city of Lowell, where cotton spinning had its first large development. It was a virgin soil: the Episcopal Church, as rarely happens, was earliest on the ground: and not only so, but it enjoyed for some years the friendly protection of the proprietors of the new settlement, almost a religious monopoly--was, in fact, an ecclesiastical preserve. Moreover, this beginning antedated the Irish occupation by many years, at least so far as skilled labor was concerned, for during a considerable period the operatives in the mills were of native New England stock, the best possible material to be made over into churchmen and churchwomen. And yet notwithstanding all this, and notwithstanding the patient and unintermitted toil through more than fifty years of perhaps the most laborious parish priest on the American clergy list, the Episcopal Church has to-day but a comparatively slender hold upon the affections and loyalty of the people of this largest of the manufacturing cities of New England. A similar failure to "reach the masses" betrays itself in Worcester and Fall River, the two cities of like character that come next in order of population, for in the former of these last named places only about two per cent, of the inhabitants have affiliations of any sort with the Episcopal Church. It was considerations of this sort, backed perhaps by memories of the ringing appeal sounded three years before at Boston by the Bishop of Connecticut, that moved the Convention to interpret as something better than a bit of sentimentalism the invitation to look the times in the face, and give the new century its infant baptism. But besides all this there pressed upon the mind of bishops and deputies a cumulative argument of a wholly different sort. The demand for revision seemed to be closing in upon the Church on converging lines. It was plain that, before long, hands of change must necessarily be laid upon certain semi-detached portions of the Prayer Book. There was the New Lectionary, for example, that would presently be knocking for hospitable reception within the covers, and the old Easter Tables, as they now stand, could not, it was observed, last very much longer. A new book, in the publisher's sense of that term, would soon have to be made. The sanctity of stereotype plates must be disturbed. Moreover, here was an admirable opportunity to settle the wrangle, now of nine years' standing, over the best way of bringing to pass shortened services for week-day use. Add to this the fact that the intrinsic weakness of the driblet method of revision[9] had been made so abundantly plain that even its former friends wisely refrained from all attempt to urge it, and our summing up of probable motives becomes approximately complete. II. As to the measure of authority conferred on, and scope allowed to the Committee of Twenty-one, it is possible to speak with more definiteness. A precisian might of course, were he so disposed, take up the ground that the report of the Committee when made ought to be monosyllabic, "Yes" or "No." The wording of the resolution admits of such a construction beyond a doubt; the Joint Committee was requested to consider and report whether, etc., etc. But no one who listened to the debate on the resolution could have been left in uncertainty as to the real _animus_ of the measure. The thing intended to be authorized was an experimental review, with implied reference to a limited revision at some time future, in case the fruits of the review should commend themselves to the mind of the Church. A distinction must be drawn between revision and review. Revision implies review as an antecedent step, but review is by no means necessarily followed by revision. The English book was reviewed and revised in 1662; it was reviewed but not revised in 1689. Review is tentative and advisory; revision is authoritative and final. In the present instance not an atom of power to effect binding change has been conveyed. No authority has been given to anybody to touch a line or a letter of the Prayer Book save in the way of suggestion and recommendation. Responsible action has been held wholly in reserve. Moreover, even the pathway of review was most scrupulously hedged. Applying to the resolution the legal maxim, _expressio unius est exclusio alterius_, one sees at a glance that doctrinal change is a matter left wholly on one side. The two points to which the Committee is instructed to bend all its studies are "liturgical enrichment" and "increased flexibility of use." Whatsoever is more than these is irrelevant. Accurate distinguishment between such "enrichments" as have and such as have not a doctrinal bearing is, no doubt, a delicate point, and must be set down among the difficulties to be encountered. As such it will be considered further on. For the present the fact to be noted is that the authorized reviewers are both in honor and in duty bound to keep themselves absolutely clear of controversial bias. The movement is not a movement to alter in any slightest respect the dogmatic teaching of the Church, not a movement to unsettle foundations, not a movement toward disowning or repudiating our past, but simply and only an endeavor to make the Common Prayer, if possible (and we are far from being sure, as yet, that it is possible), a better thing of its kind, more comprehensive, more elastic, more readily responsive to the demands of all occasions and the needs of "all sorts and conditions of men." Some who are deeply persuaded that only by doctrinal revision in one direction or another can the Prayer Book be made thoroughly to commend itself to the heart and mind of the American people will esteem the measure of change above indicated not worth the effort indispensable to the attainment of it. Be it so; other some there are who do think the attempt well advised and who are willing to waive their own pet notions as to possible doctrinal improvements of the book for the sake of securing a _consensus_ upon certain great practical improvements which come within the range of things attainable. Certain it is that any attempt of a body of reviewers like this to disturb, even by "shadowed hint," the existing doctrinal settlement under which we are living together, would be resented by the whole Church. There are divines among us who in the interest of a more sharply defined orthodoxy are conscientiously bent upon securing the reintroduction among our formularies of the so-called Athanasian Creed. There are others who consider that a more damaging blow at the catholicity of our dogmatic position as a Church could scarcely be dealt. Again, there are theologians who account the Prayer Book to be so thoroughly saturated in all its parts with the sacramental idea, that they would account it not only a piece of far-seeing statesmanship, but also a perfectly safe procedure to allow those who chose to do so to thank God after a child's baptism for the simple fact that he had thereby been "grafted into the body of Christ's Church." But over against these stand a much larger number who think nothing of the sort, and who would put up with the liturgical shortcomings of the Prayer Book, go without "enrichments" for a thousand years, rather than see the single word "regenerate" dropped out of the post-baptismal office. Sensible men not a few are to be found who hold that the incoming tide of host-worship with which, as they conceive, our reformed Church is threatened can never be stayed unless some carefully contrived definition inserted in the Prayer Book shall make impossible this subtile and refined species of idolatry. But men no whit less sensible laugh them in the face, pointing to the "black rubric" and its history as evidence that between the admitted doctrine of the real presence and the disallowed tenet of transubstantiation no impervious barrier of words can possibly be run. These illustrations of probable divergence in opinion, in case the field of doctrine were once entered, might be multiplied. The retranslation of the Nicene Creed and the more accurate punctuation of its sentences; the rendering of the word Sabbath in the Fourth Commandment into its English equivalent of Rest; the abolition of the curious misnomer under which we go on calling XXXVIII Articles XXXIX; the removal from the Catechism, or else the conversion into mother English of that sad _crux infantum_, the answer to the question, "What desirest thou of God in this prayer?" are a few examples of less importance than those previously cited; and yet, in the case of the least of them, it is most unlikely that the advocates of change would have the show of hands in their favor, so sensitive is the mind of the Church to anything that looks in the least degree like tampering with the standards of weight and measure, the shekels of the sanctuary. On the other hand, there are certain manifest and palpable instances of inaccuracy and, more rarely, infelicity of diction which the reviewers might very properly take occasion to amend even though such alterations could not be classified by a strict constructionist under either of the two heads "enrichment" and "flexibility." In the masterly Report of the Rev. Dr. T. W. Coit to the Joint Committee appointed by the Convention of 1841 to prepare a Standard Prayer Book,[10] a document of classical rank, there is more than one intimation of the hope that future reviewers would be given a larger liberty in this direction than he had himself enjoyed. He chafed, and naturally enough, under the necessity of reprinting in a "standard" book, evident and acknowledged solecisms and blunders. "We wanted," he says, "to correct one ungrammatical clause in the Consecration Prayer of the Communion Service. It is in the last sentence but one, at its close. It should be, not that he may dwell in them and they in him; but, that he may dwell in us and we in him. The prayer is made up out of two or three others; and anyone who will examine the parts put together will easily see how the thing was overlooked. A much greater error was overlooked elsewhere, showing that our American compilers were not sufficiently aware of the necessity which requires that the Prayer Book should always be consistent with itself. I allude to something in the office for the Private Baptism of Children. Suppose a clergyman to avail himself of the license given in the Rubric after the certification. He will then be made to talk thus: 'As the Holy Gospel doth witness to our comfort, on this wise--Dost thou in the name of this child,'" etc.[11] Other cases of evident inaccuracy, besides those referred to by this eminent critic, might be cited, even from the latest Standard Prayer Book, that of 1871. It is hard, for instance, to imagine even the veriest martinet in such matters objecting to the redress of a great wrong done on page 36 of the volume mentioned, where the prayer "to be used at the meetings of Convention" is entered under the general heading, "For malefactors after condemnation." Our ecclesiastical legislators have doubtless, like the rest of us, "erred and strayed" more than once, but to deal out to them such harsh measure as this is cruel. A strange uncertainty would seem from the Rubric to exist with reference to the limits of the Litany. On page 554 of the Standard Prayer Book, the words, "Here endeth the Litany," occur immediately after the prayer, "We humbly beseech thee, O Father," while on page 31 the same statement is placed immediately after the minor benediction. These are not faults for which it could ever be worth while to revise a Prayer Book, but they are blemishes of which the revisers of a Prayer Book ought to take note. It is a graver matter to speak of infelicities of diction in a book so justly famous as the Prayer Book for its pure and wholesome English. Wordsworth's curse on One who would peep and botanize Upon his mother's grave seems, in the judgment of many, fairly earned by the critic, whoever he may be, who ventures to suggest that in any slightest instance the language of the formularies might have been more happily phrased. But there are spots on the sun. In the prayer already referred to, that for use "at the meetings of Convention," the petition, "We beseech thee to be _present_ with the council of thy Church here assembled in thy name and _presence_" does seem open to the charge of tautology if nothing worse. It would be well if wherever the word occurs in the Prayer Book in connection with Deity the anthropomorphic plural "ears" could be replaced by the symbolic singular "ear." Considering also the great evil of having in a formulary of worship too many things that have to be laboriously explained, it might be well if in the Litany the adjective "sudden," which ever since Hooker's day has given perpetual occasion for cavil, were to yield to "untimely," or some like word more suggestive than "sudden" of the thought clumsily expressed in the "Chapel Liturgy" by the awkward phrase, "death unprepared for."[12] It must be again remarked that these are not points for the sake of which word-fanciers would be justified in disturbing an existing order of things; they are simply instances of lesser improvements that might very properly accompany larger ones, should larger ones ever be seriously undertaken. With so many pegs upon which controversies might be hung staring us in the face, can we think of it as at all likely that any considerable number of Churchmen assembled in committee (to say nothing of Convention) will be able to agree upon a common line of action with reference to an amendment of the formularies? That is the very point at issue, and how it is to be decided only the event can show. Certainly in the roll of the victories of charity, a favorable result, were it achieved, would stand exceeding high. This reflection naturally leads up to the inquiry whether there is any special reason to consider the present a happy moment to attempt within the limits already defined a revision of the Prayer Book. III. The argument for timeliness has been, in part, already stated. A revision will be timely, if the times imperatively demand it; and the main reasons for thinking that they do are before the reader. Something, however, is still left to be said in evidence that the movement now begun is opportune--not rudely thrust upon the Church. "To everything," saith the preacher, "there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven," and among the categories that follow this statement we find reckoned what answers to liturgical enrichment, for "there is," he observes, "a time to build up." Fifty years ago a persuasive argument against attempting to amend the Prayer Book, either in text or rubrics, might have been based upon the lack of hands competent to undertake so delicate a task. Raw material, well adapted to edification, was lying about in blocks, but skilled workmen were scarce. This can hardly be said to-day. Simultaneously with the beginning of the Oxford movement, there naturally sprang up a fresh interest in liturgical studies, an interest which has gone on deepening and widening until in volume and momentum the stream has now probably reached its outer limit. The convincing citation, "There were giants in those days," with which a late bishop of one of the New England dioceses used to enforce his major premise that wisdom died with Cranmer and his colleagues, no longer satisfies. Probably no period of corresponding length in the whole range of English Church history has shown itself so rich in the fruits of liturgical study as the fifty years that have elapsed since the introduction into the English Parliament of the first Reform Bill.[13] This particular historical landmark is mentioned on account of the close connection of cause and effect between it and the remarkable movement set on foot by Newman, Pusey, Keble, and Froude. To be sure, one of the earliest utterances in the Tracts ran in these words: "Attempts are making to get the Liturgy altered. My dear brethren, I beseech you consider with me whether you ought not resist the alteration of even one jot or tittle of it."[14] And yet, notwithstanding this disclaimer, one of the main impulses that lay behind the whole movement represented by the Tracts was an earnest desire to quicken the life of the Church of England in the region of worship. In the _Table of the Tracts, showing their arrangement according to Subjects_, the "Liturgical" section comes first. The present writer acknowledges but a very limited sympathy with the doctrinal motives and aims of either the earlier or the later Tractarians. But let us, above all things, be fair. With whatever prepossessions one looks back upon it, the ground traversed by the Church of England during the past fifty years cannot be otherwise regarded than as a field sown with mingled tares and wheat. Individuals will differ in judgment as to the proportion in which these two products of a common soil have coexisted, but even those who have most stoutly opposed themselves to the Oxford movement, as a whole, are fain to credit it with, at least, this one good result, the rescue of the usages of worship from slovenliness and torpor, and the establishment of a better standard of what is seemly, reverent, and beautiful in the public service of Almighty God. Not that there have not been, even in this respect, grave errors in the direction of excess; the statement ventured is simply this, that, up to a certain point, all Churchmen agree in admitting a genuine and wholesome improvement in the popular estimate of what public worship, as such, ought to be. An immense amount of devout study has been given, during the period mentioned, by many able men to liturgical subjects, and it would be strange indeed if fifty years of searching criticism had not resulted in the detection of some few points in which formularies originally compiled to meet the needs of the sixteenth century might be better adapted to the requirements of the twentieth. Or, to put the same point in another way, has not all this searching into the mines of buried treasure, all this getting together of quarried stone (with possibly a certain surplusage of stubble) been so much labor lost, if there is never to come the recognition of a ripe moment for the Church to avail itself of the results achieved? Are the studious toils of a Palmer, a Maskell, a Neale, a Scudamore, and a Bright to go for nothing except in so far as they have been contributory to our fund of ecclesiological lore? If so, the contempt often expressed for ritual and liturgical studies by students busy with other lines of research would seem to be not wholly undeserved. A good opportunity is now before the Church to give answer as to whether this form of investigation is or is not anything better than a species of sacred antiquarianism. Liturgiology as an aspirant for recognition among the useful sciences may be said at the present moment to be waiting for the verdict. To be sure, it can be asserted for liturgiology that to those who love it it is a study that proves itself, like poetry, "its own exceeding great reward." It is not worth while to dispute this point. Liturgiology pursued for its own sake may not be the loftiest of studies, but this, at least, can be said for it, that it is a not less respectable object of pursuit than many another specialty the devotees of which look down upon the liturgiologist with self-complacent scorn as a mere chiffonier. The forms which Christian worship has taken on in successive generations and among peoples of various blood are certainly as well worthy of analysis and classification as are the flora and fauna of Patagonia or New Zealand. But while the Patagonian naturalist secures recognition and is decorated, every jaunty man of letters feels at liberty to scoff at the liturgiologist as a laborious trifler. Moreover, remembering that in favorite studies, as in crops, there rules a principle of rotation, fashion affecting even staid divines with its subtle influence, we may look to see presently a decline of interest in this particular department of inquiry. Especially may serious men be expected to turn their attention in other directions, should it be found that a _Non possumus_ awaits every effort to make the fruits of their labor available for the nourishment of the Church's daily life. So then, instead of deferring action until liturgical knowledge shall have become more widely spread, and available liturgical material more abundant, we shall, if we are wise, perceive that only by moving promptly will it be possible in this case to take the tide at the full. Never again will opportunity be more ripe. Another evidence of timeliness is supplied by the present pacific condition of the Church. Previous movements toward liturgical revision have been of a more or less partisan and acrimonious temper. Now for the first time we seem to be taking up this subject without the expression of a fear from any quarter that if changes are made this or that party will get the advantage of some other. The peculiar conditions that ensure this unwonted truce of God are not likely to last forever, nor is it perhaps wholly desirable that they should do so; what is desirable, and very desirable, is that we should avail ourselves of the lull to accomplish certain changes for the better, which in ordinary times the prevalent heat of friction makes impossible. The Joint Committee of Twenty-one is confidently believed to contain within itself every shade of color known to belong to the Anglican spectrum; if white light should be found to emerge, three years hence, as a result of the Committee's labors, it will be said, and truly, that never before in our history could such a blending of the rays possibly have taken place. Still another consideration properly included under the general head of timeliness is said to have been urged with much force in the House of Bishops when the "enrichment" resolution was under discussion. Up to the present time the Episcopal Church of this country has stood easily at the head in the matter of providing for the people a dignified and beautiful order of divine service. In fact, there has been, until lately, no one to compete. But all this is changing. Ours are no longer the only congregations in which common prayer is to be found. It is true that thus far the attempts at imitation have been rather grotesque than formidable, but such, until recently, have also been, in the judgment of foreign critics, all of our American endeavors after art. We are to consider what apt learners our quick-witted countrymen have shown themselves to be, in so much that even Christmas Day, once the _bete noire_ of Puritan legislators, has come to be accounted almost a national festival, and we shall be convinced that our primacy in the field of liturgies is not an absolutely assured position. This argument is open to the criticism that it seems to lower and cheapen the whole subject by representing Anglican religion in a mendicant attitude bidding for the favor of the great American public, and vexed that others, fellow-suppliants, have stolen a good formula of appeal. Nevertheless there is a certain amount of reasonableness in this way of putting the thing. Certainly with those who reckon the liturgical mode of worship among the notes of the Church, the argument is one that ought to have marked influence; while with those who, not so persuaded, nevertheless view with pleased interest the general spread of a liturgical taste among the people of this country, seeing in it a token of better things to come, a harbinger of larger agreements than we have yet attained to, and of an approaching "consolation of Israel" once not thought possible--even with such the argument ought not to be wholly powerless.[15] The fact that the Convocations of Canterbury and York have taken in hand and carried through a revision of the rubrics of the Prayer Book will seem to those who hold that our Church ought to advance _pari passu_ with the Church of England, and no faster, another evidence of the timeliness of the American movement. Under the title of _The Convocation Prayer Book_ there has lately appeared in England an edition of the Prayer Book so printed as to show how the book would read were the recommendations of York and Canterbury to go into effect. It is true that the consent of Parliament must be secured before the altered rubrics can have the force of law; but whatever may come of the rubrics recommended, the existence of the book containing them is evidence enough of a wide-spread conviction among the English clergy that change is needed. Indeed never has this point been more powerfully put in the fewest possible words than by the brilliant, and no less logical than brilliant Bishop of Peterborough in a recent speech in the Upper House of Convocation.[16] "If the Church of England wants absolute peace, she should have definite rubrics." It is true he goes on to say that in his judgment the dangers of carrying the question of rubrical revision into Parliament are greater than the evil of letting it alone, but it is to be remembered that we in this country are hampered with no Parliamentary entanglements and are free to do of our own motion, and in a quiet, orderly way, that which the Church of England can only do at the risk of something very like revolution. But this matter of the rubrics and their susceptibility of improvement will come up later on. It seemed proper to refer to it, if no more, under the head of timeliness. If nothing else in the way of change be opportune at the present moment, it is an easy task to show that the rubrics, as they stand, cry aloud for a revision. IV. The obstacles to be encountered by any Committee undertaking so to carry forward a review of the Prayer Book that revision may eventually result, are of two sorts; there are the inherent difficulties of the work itself, such, for instance, as that of matching the literary style of the sixteenth century writers, and there is the wholesome dread of a change for the worse which is sure to assert itself in many quarters the moment definite propositions shall have reached a point at which the "yeas and nays" are likely to be called. Beginning, then, with the inherent difficulties, and taking them in the inverse order of arduousness, we see at once how hard it must be to secure unity and self-consistency in the revision of a book so complicated as the Common Prayer. It is like remodelling an old house. We think it a very easy matter, something that can be done in one's head, but the mistake is discovered when the new door designed to give symmetry to this room is found to have spoiled the looks of that, when the enlargement of the library turns out to have overtaxed the heating energy of the fireplace, and the ingenious staircase, instead of ending where it was expected to end, brings up against an intractable brick wall. Just such perils as these will beset anybody who ventures to disturb the adjustments of the "Prayer Book as it is" and to introduce desirable additions. But domestic architecture is not given up on account of the patient carefulness the practice of it demands, neither need Liturgical Revision be despaired of because it requires of the men who undertake it a like wisdom in looking before and after. The really formidable barrier to revision, so far as what have been called the "inherent difficulties" are concerned, is reached when we touch style. How to handle without harming the sentences in which English religion phrased itself when English language was fresher and more fluent than it can ever be again is a serious question. The hands that seek to "enrich" may well be cautioned to take heed lest they despoil. It is to be remembered, however, in the way of reassurance that the alterations most likely to find favor with the reviewers are such as will enrich by restoring lost excellencies, rather than by introducing forms fashioned on a modern anvil. The most sensitive critic could not, on the score of taste, find fault with the replacement in the Evening Prayer of the _Magnificat_ and the _Nunc dimittis_, nor of bringing back a few of the Versicles that in the English book follow the Lord's Prayer, nor yet of our being allowed to say, "Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, Lord," rather than "O Lord, our Heavenly Father, by whose Almighty power we have been preserved this day." Objections to these alterations may be readily imagined, but it would be necessary to base them on other grounds than those of literary fastidiousness. In the case of enrichments like these no one could raise the cry that the faultless English of the Prayer Book had been marred. But what shall be said of the composition of entirely new services and offices, if it should be judged expedient to give admission to any such? How can we be sure that such modern additions to the edifice would be sufficiently in keeping with the general tone of the elder architecture? It might be held to be an adequate answer to these questions to reply that if the living Church cannot now trust herself to speak out through her formularies in her natural voice as she did venture to do in the seventeenth century and the eighteenth, it must be that she has fallen into that stage of decrepitude where the natural voice is uncertain. But, really, what ought to be said is this--that if the same canons of style that ruled the sixteenth century writers are studied and obeyed, there is no reason in the world why a result equally satisfactory with the one then attained should not be reached now. There is nothing supernatural about the English of the Prayer Book. Cranmer and his associates were not inspired. The prose style of the nineteenth century may not be as good as that of the sixteenth, but, at its best, it is vastly superior to eighteenth century style, and of this last there are already no inconsiderable specimens in the American Book of Common Prayer. The Office for the Visitation of Prisoners, for example, is so redolent of the times of the Georges, when it was composed, that it might be appropriately enough interleaved with prints out of Hogarth. A bit of Palladian architecture in a Gothic church is not more easily recognized. Many worse things might happen to the Prayer Book than that the nineteenth century should leave its impress upon the pages. In fact, it is just as possible, if men will only think so, to use our language with effect for any good purpose to-day as it was three hundred years ago. All that is necessary is a willingness to submit to the same restrictions, and those mostly moral, that controlled the old writers; and our work, though not identical with theirs, will have the proper similarity. True, a modern author may not be able to reproduce, without a palpable betrayal of affectation and mannerism, the precise characteristics of a bygone style. Chattertons are not numerous. It is easier to secure for the brass andirons and mahogany dining chairs of our own manufacture the look of those that belonged to our grandfathers than it is to catch the tones of voices long dead; and just as good judgment dictates the wisdom of repeating the honest and thorough workmanship of the old cabinet-makers in place of slavishly imitating their patterns, so it will be well if the compilers of devotional forms for modern use seek to say what they have to say with sixteenth century simplicity rather than in sixteenth century speech. In letters, as in conduct, the supreme charm of style is the absence of self-consciousness. "Say in plain words the thing you mean, and say it as if you meant it," is good advice to any seeker after rhetorical excellence, be he young or old. The Reformers, that is to say, the men who Englished the Prayer Book, in seeking to meet the devotional needs of the people of their own time do not seem to have been at pains to tie themselves to the diction of a previous generation. They dared to "call a spade a spade" whenever and wherever the tool came into use, and they have their reward in the permanence of their work. Sweetnesses and prettinesses they banished altogether. Indeed, in those days it seems not to have occurred to people that such things had anything to do with religion. It was not that they did not know how to talk in the sweet way--never has sentimentalism been more rife in general literature than then, but they would not talk in that way; the stern traditions of Holy Church throughout all the world forbade. Religion was a most serious thing to their minds, and they would speak of it most seriously or not at all. Never since language began to be used have severity and tenderness been more marvellously blended than in the older portions of the English Prayer Book. This effect is largely due to an almost entire abstention on the part of the writers from figurative language, or at least from all imagery that is not readily recognized as Scriptural. Bread and beef are what men demand for a steady diet. Sweetmeats are well enough, now and then, but only now and then. It is the failure to observe this plain canon of style that has made shipwreck of many an attempt to construct liturgies _de novo_. Ambitious framers of forms of worship seem almost invariably to forget that there may be such a thing as a too exquisite prayer, an altogether too "eloquent address to the throne of grace." The longest and fullest supplicatory portion of the Prayer Book, the Litany, does not contain, from the first sentence to the last,[17] one single figurative expression, it is literally plain English from beginning to end; but could language be framed more intense, more satisfying, more likely to endure? Scriptural metaphor, whether because it comes to us with the stamp of authority or on account of some subtle intrinsic excellence, it may be difficult to say, does not pall upon the taste. And yet even this is used sparingly in the Prayer Book, some of the most striking exceptions to the general rule being afforded by the collects for the first and third Sundays in Advent, the collects for the Epiphany and Easter Even, and the opening prayer in the Baptismal Office. All these are instances of strictly Scriptural metaphor, and moreover it is to be kept in mind that they are designed for occasional, not constant use. In the orders for daily Morning and Evening Prayer, the "lost sheep" of the General Confession and the "dew" of God's blessing in the Collect for Clergy and People are almost the sole, if not the sole cases of evident metaphor, and these again are Scriptural. When in Jeremy Taylor's prayer, introduced by the American revisers into the Order for the Visitation of the Sick, we come upon the comparison of human life to a "vale of misery" we feel that somehow we have struck a new current in the atmosphere; for the moment it is the rhetorician who speaks, and no longer the earnest seeker after God. Besides this freedom from figures of speech, we notice in the style of Prayer Book English a careful avoidance of whatever looks like a metaphysical abstraction. The aim is ever to present God and divine things as realities rather than as mere concepts or notions of the mind. So far as the writer remembers, not a single prayer in the whole book begins with that formula so dear to the makers of extemporary forms of devotion, "O Thou." On the contrary, the approach to the Divine Majesty is almost always made with a reference to some attribute or characteristic that links Deity to man and man's affairs; it is "O God, the Protector of all that trust in thee," or "Almighty and everlasting God who of thy tender love toward mankind," or "Lord of all power and might who art the author and giver of all good things." Cardinal Newman in one of his theological works written before his departure from the Church of England, has a powerful passage bearing upon this point. He is criticising the evangelicals for their one-sided way of setting forth what it must mean to "preach the Gospel." No less a person than Legh Richmond is the object of his strictures. "A remarkable contrast between our Church's and this false view of religion," he says, "is afforded in the respective modes of treating a death-bed in the Visitation of the Sick, and a popular modern work, the Dairyman's Daughter. The latter runs thus: My dear friend, do you not FEEL _that you are supported_? The Lord deals very gently with me, she replied. Are not his promises _very precious to you?_ They are all yea and amen in Christ Jesus.. . Do you experience any _doubts or temptations_ on the subject of your eternal safety? No, sir; the Lord deals very gently with me and gives me peace. What are your _views_ of the dark valley of death now that you are passing through it? _It is not dark_. Now, if it be said that such questions and answers are not only in their place innocent but natural and beautiful, I answer that this is not the point, but this, viz., they are evidently intended, whatever their merits, as a pattern of what _death-bed examinations should be_. Such is the Visitation of the Sick in the nineteenth century. Now let us listen to the nervous and stern tone of the sixteenth. In the Prayer Book the minister is instructed to say to the person visited: Forasmuch as after this life there is an account to be given to the _Righteous Judge_ . . . I require you to examine yourself and your estate both toward God and man. Therefore I shall rehearse to you the _Articles of our Faith_, that you may know whether you do believe as a Christian man should or no . . . 'Then shall the minister examine whether he repent him truly of his sins, and be in _charity_ with all the world: exhorting him to forgive from the bottom of his heart all persons who have offended him, and if he hath offended any other to _ask their forgiveness_, and where he hath done injury or wrong to any man that he _make amends_ to the utmost of his power.' . . . Such is the contrast between the dreamy talk of modern Protestantism, and 'holy fear's stern glow' in the Church Catholic."[18] In this striking, though perhaps somewhat unnecessarily harsh way, Newman brings out a point which is unquestionably true, namely, that the language of the Prayer Book is of the sort which it is just now the fashion to call realistic, that is, a language conversant with great facts rather than with phases of feeling and moods of mind; which after all is only another way of saying that it is a Book of Common Prayer and not a manual for the furtherance of spiritual introspection. These, then, are the characteristics of the Prayer Book style: it is simple, straightforward, unmetaphorical, realistic. Seriously it looks almost like a studied insult alike to the scholarship and to the religion of our day, to say that these are excellencies attainable no longer. That revisers venturing upon additions to the Prayer Book would be bound to set the face as a flint against any slightest approach to sentimentality is true. But why assume that the men do not exist who are capable of such a measure of self-control? Grant that there are whole volumes of devotional matter, original and compiled, which one may ransack without finding a single form that is not either prolix, wishy-washy, or superstitious--it does not follow that if the Prayer Book is to be enriched, the enrichments must necessarily come from such sources. Moreover it is to be remembered that there is another vice of style to be shunned in liturgical composition quite as carefully as sentimentality, namely, jejuneness. We cannot escape being sentimental simply by being dull. Feeling must not be denied its place in prayer for fear that it may not prove itself a duly chastened feeling. There ought to be a heart of fire underneath the calm surface of every formulary of worship. Flame and smoke are out of place; but a liturgy should glow throughout. Coldness, pure and simple, has no place in devotion. Over and above the intrinsic difficulties in the way of revision growing out of the delicate nature of the work itself, obstacles of a different sort are certain to be encountered. In so large a body of men as the Joint Committee of the two Houses, entire and cordial agreement is almost too much to be expected; and then even supposing a unanimous report submitted, what is likely to follow? Why this--if the changes proposed are few, the cry will be raised, It surely is not worth while to alter the Prayer Book for the sake of so insignificant a gain; whereas if the changes proposed are considerable, the counter cry will be sounded, This is revolution. Then there is the anxious question, How will it look to the English? What will be the effect on the _Concordat_ if we touch the Prayer Book? To be sure, the Concordat does not seem to weigh very heavily on the shoulders of the other party, as indeed there is no reason why it should. Convocation does not much disturb itself as to the view General Convention is likely to take of its sayings and doings, and even disestablishment might proceed without our being called into consultation. And yet the Concordat difficulty will have to be reckoned with; and the dire spectre of a possible disowning of us by our mother the Church of England will have to be laid, before any alterations in the Book of Common Prayer will be accounted by some among us perfectly safe. But it is scarcely worth while to go on gratuitously suggesting opposition arguments. They will be sure to present themselves unsolicited in due time. For the present it is enough to add that if the movement for liturgical revision has not in it enough toughness of fibre to enable it to survive vigorous attack, it does not deserve success. V. Under the head of liturgical enrichment ought to be classed whatever alteration would really serve to enhance the beauty, majesty, or fitness, of accepted formularies of worship. Excision may, under conceivable circumstances, be enrichment. James Wyatt undoubtedly imagined that he was improving the English cathedrals when he whitewashed their interiors, added composition pinnacles to the west towers of Durham, and rearranged the ancient monuments of Salisbury; but an important part of the enrichment accomplished by our nineteenth century restorers has lain simply in the undoing of what Wyatt did. Again, substitution may be enrichment, as in the case where a wooden spire built upon a stone tower is taken down to be replaced by honest work. It would be an enrichment if in St. George's Chapel, the central shrine of British royalty, the sham insignia now overhanging the stalls of the knights of the garter were to give room to genuine armor. Not merely then by addition, but possibly, in some instances, by both subtraction and substitution, we may find the "Prayer-book as it is" open to improvement. Before, however, entering upon any criticism of the formularies in detail, it is important to draw a distinction between two very different things, namely, the structure of a liturgical office and the contents of it. By structure should be understood the skeleton or frame that makes the groundwork of any given office, by contents the actual liturgical material employed in filling out the office to its proper contour. The offices of the Roman Breviary, for example, continue, for the most part, identical in structure from day to day, the year through; but they vary in contents. For an illustration nearer home take our own _Order for Daily Morning Prayer_. The structure of it is as follows: 1. Sentences, 2. Exhortation, 3. Confession, 4. Absolution, 5. Lord's Prayer, 6. Versicles, 7. Invitatory Psalm, 8. The Psalms for the day, 9. Lection, 10. Anthem or Canticle, 11. Lection, 12. Anthem or Canticle, 13. Creed, 14. Versicles, 15. Collect for the day, 16. Stated Collects and Prayers, 17. Benediction. Now it is evident that without departing by a hair's breadth from the lines of this framework, an indefinite number of services might by a process of substitution be put together, each one of which would in outward appearance differ widely from every other one. The identical skeleton, that is to say, might be so variously clothed upon that no two of its embodiments would be alike. But is it desirable to run very much after variety of such a sort in a book of prayer designed for common use? Most assuredly, No. To jeopard the supreme _desideratum_ in a people's manual of worship, simplicity: to make it any harder than it now is for the average "stranger in the Church" to find the places, would be on the part of revisionists an unpardonable blunder. There are, however, a few points at which the Morning Prayer might advantageously be enriched, and no risk run. It would surely add nothing to the difficulty of finding the places if for one-half of the present opening sentences there were to be substituted sentences appropriate to special days and seasons of the ecclesiastical year. We should in this way be enabled to give the key-note of the morning's worship at the very outset. Having once departed, as in the case of our first two sentences, from the English precedent of putting only penitential verses of Scripture to this use, there is no reason why we should not carry out still more fully in our selection the principle of appropriateness. The sentences displaced need not be lost, for they might still stand, as now, at the opening of the Evening Prayer. Passing on to the declarations of absolution there is an opportunity to simplify the arrangement by omitting the alternate form borrowed from the Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, where only it properly belongs. This, however, is a change likely to be resisted on doctrinal grounds, and need not be urged. Coming to the _Venite_, we find another opportunity to accentuate the Christian Year. It may be said that the rubric, as it is already written, allows for the substitution of special anthems on the greater festivals and fasts. This is true; but by giving the anthem for Easter a place of honor, while relegating anthems for the other great days to an unnoticed spot between the Selections and the Psalter, the American compilers did practically discriminate in favor of Easter and against the rest. The real needs of the case would be more wisely met if the permission to omit _Venite_ now attached to "the nineteenth day of the month" were to be extended to Ash-Wednesday and Good Friday, and special New Testament anthems analagous to the Easter one were to be inserted along with the respective Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, for Christmas-day and Whitsunday. By this change we should put each of the three great festivals of the year into possession of an invitatory anthem of its own; and we should obviate on the fasting days, by the simple expedient of omission, the futile efforts of choir-master and organist to transform _Venite_ from a cry of joy into a moan of grief. This brings us to the Psalter. Here we have an opportunity to correct the palpable blunder by which it has come about that the greatest of the penitential psalms, the fifty-first, has no place assigned it among the proper psalms either for Ash-Wednesday or for Good Friday.[19] It would also be well to make optional, if not obligatory, the use of "proper psalms" on days other than those already provided with them; _e_. _g_., Advent Sunday, the Epiphany, Easter Even, Trinity Sunday, and All Saints' Day.[20] There would be a still larger gain in the direction of "flexibility of use," as well as a great economy of valuable space, if instead of reprinting some thirty of the Psalms of David under the name of Selections, we were to provide for allowing "select" psalms to be announced by number in the same manner that "proper" psalms are now announced. Instead of only the ten selections we now have, there might then be made available twenty or thirty groups of psalms at absolutely no sacrifice of room. It has been objected to this proposal that the same difficulty which now attaches to the finding of the "proper psalms" on great days would embarrass congregations whenever "select psalms" were given out; but this is fairly met by the counter consideration that if our people were to be educated by the use of select psalms into a more facile handling of the Psalter it would be just so much gained for days when the "proper psalms" must of necessity be found and read. The services, that is to say, would run all the more smoothly on the great days, after congregations had become habituated, on ordinary days, to picking out the psalms by number. Another step in the line of simplification, and one which it is in order to mention here, would be the removal from the Morning Prayer of _Gloria in Excelsis_, seeing that it is never, or almost never, sung at the end of the psalms unless at Evening Prayer. As to the expediency of restoring what has been lost of _Benedictus_ after the second lesson, the present writer offers no opinion. There are some who warmly advocate the replacement, and there is, unquestionably, much to be said in favor of it. It is unlikely that any doctrinal motive dictated the abbreviation. Pausing a moment at the Creeds for the insertion of a better title than "_Or this_" before the confession of Nicaea, we pass to the versicles that follow. Here again it would be enrichment to restore the words of the English book, although the task of finding an equally melodious equivalent for _O Lord, save the Queen_ might not be easy. Happily the other versicles are such as no civil revolution can make obsolete. It will never be amiss to pray, _Endue thy ministers with righteousness_. Answer. _And make thy chosen people joyful_. These are all the alterations for which the present Morning Prayer considered as a form of Divine Service for Sundays would seem to call. It will be observed that they are far from being of a radical character, that they affect the structure of the office not at all, and touch the contents of it but slightly. The case is altered when we come to the Order for Evening Prayer. Here there is a demand, not indeed for any structural change, but for very decided enrichment by substitution. The wording of the office is altogether too exact an echo of what has been said only a few hours before in Morning Prayer. It betokens a poverty of resources that does not really exist, when we allow ourselves thus to exhort, confess, absolve, intercede, and give thanks in the very same phrases at three in the afternoon that were on our lips at eleven in the morning. Doubtless liturgical worship owes a good measure of its charm to the subtle power of repetition; but the principle is one that must be handled and applied with the most delicate tact, or virtue goes out of it. We must distinguish between similarity and sameness. The ordered recurrence of accents is what makes the rhythm of verse; but for all that, there is a difference between poetry and sing-song, just as there is a difference between melody and monotony. Moreover, the taste of mankind undergoes change as to the sorts of repetition which it is disposed to tolerate. No modern poet of standing would venture, for instance, to employ identical epithets to the extent that Homer does, making Aurora "rosy-fingered" every time she appears upon the scene, and Juno as invariably "ox-eyed." People were pleased with it then, they would not be pleased with it now. It is possible in liturgies so to employ the principle of repetition that no wearying sense of sameness will be conveyed, and again it is possible so to mismanage it as to transform worship into something little better than a "slow mechanic exercise." Mere iteration, as such, is barren of spiritual power; witness the endless sayings over of _Kyrie Eleison_ in the Oriental service-books, a species of vain repetition which a liturgical writer of high intelligence rightly characterizes as "unmeaning, if not profane."[21] Now the common popular criticism upon the Evening Prayer of the Church is that it repeats too slavishly the wording of the Morning Prayer. If this is an unjust criticism we ought not to let ourselves be troubled by it. On the other hand, if it is a just criticism it will be much wiser of us to heed than to stifle the voice that tells us the truth. It might seem to be straining a point were one to venture to explain the present very noticeable disinclination of Churchmen to attend a second service on Sunday, by connecting it with the particular infelicity in question; but that the excuse, We have said all this once to-day; why say it again? may possibly have something, even if not much, to do with the staying at home is certainly a fair conjecture. Without altering at all the structure of the Evening Prayer, it would be perfectly possible so to refill or reclothe that formulary as to give it the one thing needful which now it lacks--freshness. In such a process the _Magnificat_ and the _Nunc dimittis_ would play an important part; as would also certain "ancient collects" of which we have heard much of late. Failing this, the next best thing (and the thing, it may be added, much more likely to be done, considering what a tough resistant is old usage) would be the provision of an alternate and optional form of Evening Prayer, to be used either in lieu of, or as supplementary to the existing office. In the framing of such a _Later Evensong_ a larger freedom would be possible than in the refilling of a form the main lines of which were already fixed. Still, the first plan would be better, if only it could be brought within the range of things possible. Next to Evening Prayer in the order of the Table of Contents comes the Litany. Here there is no call for enrichment,[22] though increased flexibility of use might be secured for this venerable form of intercessory prayer by prefixing to it the following rubric abridged from a similar one proposed in The Convocation Prayer Book: "_A General Supplication, to be sung or said on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and on the Rogation Days, after the third collect at Morning or Evening Prayer, or before the Administration of the Holy Communion; or as a separate Service_. "_NOTE.--The Litany may be omitted altogether on Christmas Day, Easter Day, and Whitsunday_" In connection with the Morning and Evening Service there is another important question that imperatively demands discussion, namely, a week-day worship. The movement for "shortened services," so-called, has shared the usual fate of all efforts at bettering the life of the Church, in being at the outset of its course widely and seriously misunderstood. The impression has gone abroad, and to-day holds possession of many otherwise well-informed people, that a large and growing party in the Episcopal Church has openly declared itself wearied out with overmuch prayer and praise. Were such indeed the fact, the scandal would be grave; but the real truth about the matter is that the promoters of shortened services, instead of seeking to diminish, are really eager to see multiplied the amount of worship rendered in our churches. "Shortened services" is a phrase of English, not American origin, and has won its way here by dint of euphony rather than of fitness. Readjusted services, though a more clumsy, would be a less misdirecting term. In the matter of Sunday worship, the liberty now generally conceded of using separately the Morning Prayer, the Litany, and the Holy Communion is all that need be asked. Whether these services, or at least two of them, do not in themselves admit of a certain measure of improvement is a point that has already been considered, but there certainly is no need of shortening them, whatever else it may be thought well to do. When what a Boston worthy once termed "a holy alacrity" is observed, on the part of both minister and singers, even the aggregated services of Morning Prayer, Litany, and "Ante-Communion," together with a sermon five-and-twenty minutes long, can easily be brought within the compass of an hour and a half--a measure of time not unreasonably large to be given to the principal occasion of worship on the Lord's Day. As for the Evening Prayer--there certainty ought to be no call for the shortening of that on Sundays; for it would be scarcely decent or proper to devote to such a service anything less than the half hour the existing office demands. What the advocates of shortened services really desire to see furthered is an increase in the frequency of opportunities for worship during the week, their conviction being that if the Church were to authorize brief services for morning and evening use, such as would not occupy much more time than family prayers ordinarily do, the attendance might be secured of many who, at present, put aside the whole question of going to church on week-days as impracticable. Supposing it could be proved that such a provision would work to the discouragement of family prayer, it would plainly be wrong to advocate it; no priesthood is more sacred than that which comes with fatherhood. But we must face the fact that in our modern American life family prayer, like sundry other wholesome habits, has fallen largely into disuse. If the Church can, in any measure, supplement the deficiencies of the household, and help to supply to individuals a blessing they would gladly enjoy at their own homes, if they might, it is her plain duty to do so. Moreover, many a minister who single-handed cannot now prudently undertake a daily service, as that is commonly understood, would acknowledge himself equal to the less extended requirement. Not a few careful and friendly observers of the practical working of Anglican religion have been reluctantly led to consider the daily service, as an institution, only meagrely successful. Looking at the matter historically we find no reason to wonder at such a conclusion. Our existing usage (or more correctly, perhaps, _non-user_) dates from the Reformation period. The English Church and nation of that day had grown up familiar with the spectacle of a very large body of clerics, secular and regular, whose daily occupation may be said to have been the pursuit of religion.[23] The religion pursued consisted chiefly in the saying of prayers, and very thoroughly, so far at least as the consumption of time was concerned, were the prayers said. What more natural than that, under such circumstances, and with such associations, the compilers of a common Prayer Book for the people should have failed to see any good reason for discriminating between the amount of service proper to the Lord's Day and the amount that might be reasonably expected on other days? Theoretically they were right, all time belongs to God and he is as appropriately worshipped on Tuesdays and Thursdays as on Sundays. And yet as a result of their making no such discrimination, we have the daily service on our hands--a comparative, even if not an utter failure. We may lament the fact, but a fact it is, that In spite of all its improved appliances for securing leisure, the world is busier than ever it was; and there will always be those who will insist that the command to labor on six days is as imperative as the injunction to rest upon the seventh. As a consequence of all this accelerated business, and of the diminution in the number of persons officially set apart for prayer, the unabridged service of the Church fails to command a week-day attendance. We have no "clerks" nowadays to fill the choir. The only clerks known to modern times are busy at their desks. It may be urged in reply to this that the practical working of the daily service ought to be kept a secondary consideration, and that its main purpose is symbolical, or representative; the priest kneeling in his place, day by day, as a witness that the people, though unable personally to be present, do, in heart and mind, approve of a daily morning and evening sacrifice of prayer. This conception of the daily service as a vicarious thing has a certain mystical beauty about it, but if it is to be adopted as the Church's own let us, at least, clear ourselves of inconsistency by striking out the word "common" from before the word "prayer" in characterizing our book. What is really needed for daily use in our parishes is a short form of worship specially framed for the purpose. If they could be employed without offence to the Protestant ear (and they are good English Reformation words) _Week-Day Matins_ and _Week-Day Evensong_ would not be ill chosen names for such services. The framework of these Lesser Orders for Morning and Evening Prayer, as they might also be called, were the other titles found obnoxious, ought to be modelled upon the lines of the existing daily offices, though with a careful avoidance of identity in contents. There should be, for instance, as unvarying elements, the reading of the lessons for the day, the use of the collect for the day, and the saying or singing of the psalms for the day. Another constant would be the Lord's Prayer; but aside from these the _Lesser Order_ need have nothing in common with the Order as we have it now. There might be, for example, after the manner of the old service-books, an invitatory opening with versicles and responses, or if the present mode of opening by sentences were preferred, specially chosen sentences, different from those with which the Sunday worship has made us familiar, could be employed. Moreover, the anthems or canticles and the prayers, with the exception of the two just mentioned, ought also to be distinctive, and, in the technical sense of the word, _proper_ to the week-day use. Again, it would serve very powerfully and appropriately to emphasize the pivot points in the ritual year if this same principle were to be applied to saints' days, and we were to have special _Holyday Matins_ and _Holy-day Evensong_, there still being required, on the greater festivals and fasts, the normal Morning and Evening Prayer proper to the Lord's Day.[24] The argument in favor of thus specializing the services for week-days and holydays, in preference to following the only method heretofore thought possible, namely, that of shortening the Lord's Day Order, rests on two grounds. In the first place permissions to skip and omit are of themselves objectionable in a book of devotions. They have an uncomely look. Our American Common Prayer boasts too many disfigurements of this sort already. Such a rubric as _The minister may, at his discretion, omit all that follows to, etc. _, puts one in mind of the finger-post pointing out a short cut to weary travellers. It is inopportune thus to hint at exhaustion as the probable concomitant of worship. That each form should have an integrity of its own, should as a separate whole be either said complete or left unsaid, is better liturgical philosophy than any "shortened services act" can show. In the second place, a certain amount of variety would be secured by the proposed method which under the existing system we miss. There is, of course, such a danger as that of providing too much liturgical variety. Amateur makers of Prayer Books almost invariably fall into this slough. Hymn-books, as is well known, often destroy their own usefulness by including too many hymns; and Prayer Books may do the same by having too many prayers.[25] To transgress in the compiling of formularies the line of average memory, to provide more material than the mind of an habitual worshipper is likely to assimilate, is to misread human nature. But here, as elsewhere, there is a just mean. Cranmer and his colleagues in the work of revision jumped at one bound from a scheme which provided a distinctive set of services for every day in the year to a scheme that assigned one stereotyped form to all days. Now nothing could be more unwise than any attempt to restore the methods of the Breviary, with its complicated and artificial forms of devotion; but so far to imitate the Breviary as to provide within limits for a recognition of man's innate love of change would be wisdom. By having a distinctive service for week-days, and a distinctive service for holydays, Ave might add just that little increment to the Church's power of traction that in many instances would avail to change "I cannot go to church this morning" into "I cannot stay away." It will be urged as a counter-argument to these considerations that the thing is impossible, that such a measure of enrichment is entirely in excess of anything the Church has expressed a wish to have, and that for reviewers to propose a plan so sweeping would be suicide. Doubtless this might be a sufficient answer to anybody who imagined that by a bare majority vote of two successive General Conventions new formularies of daily worship could be forced upon the Church. But suppose such formularies were to be made _optional_; suppose there were to be given to parishes the choice between these three things, viz.: (_a_) the normal Morning Prayer; (_b_) a shortened form of the normal Morning Prayer; and (_c_) such a special order as has been sketched--what then? Would the Church's liberty be impaired! On the contrary, would not the borders of that liberty have been most wisely and safely widened by the steady hand of law? This is perhaps the right point at which to call attention to the present state of the "shortened services" controversy, for wearisome as the story has become by frequent repetition, the nexus between it and the subject in hand is too important to be left out of sight. In the General Convention of 1877, where the topic under its American aspects was for the first time thoroughly discussed, the two Houses came to a deadlock. The deputies on the one hand, almost to a man, voted in favor of giving the desired relief by rubric, thus postponing for three years' time the fruition of their wish; while the bishops with a unanimity understood to have been equally striking insisted that a simple canon, such as could be passed at once, would suffice. And so the subject dropped. At the late Convention of 1880 an eirenicon was discovered. The quick eye of one of the legal members of the House of Deputies detected on the fourth page of the Prayer Book, just opposite the Preface, a loophole of escape, to wit, _The Ratification of the Book of Common Prayer_. Here was the very _tertium quid_ whereby the common wish of both parties to the dispute might be effected without injury to the sensibilities of either. The _Ratification_ certainly did not look like a canon; neither could anybody with his eyes open call it a rubric--why not amend that, and say no more about it? The suggestion prevailed, and by a vote of both Houses, the following extraordinary document is hereafter to stand (the next General Convention consenting) in the very fore-front of the Prayer Book: THE RATIFICATION OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. _By the Bishops, the Clergy, and the Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in General Convention assembled_. The General Convention of the Church having heretofore, to wit: on the sixteenth day of October in the year A. D. 1789, set forth a _Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church_, and thereby established the said book, and declared it to be the Liturgy of said Church, and required that it be received as such by all the members of the same and be in use from and after the first day of October in the year of our Lord 1790; the same book is hereby ratified and confirmed, and ordered to be the use of this Church from this time forth. "But note, however, that on days other than Sundays, Christmas-day, the Epiphany, Ash-Wednesday, Good Friday, and Ascension Day, it shall suffice if the Minister begins Morning or Evening Prayer at the General Confession or the Lord's Prayer preceded by one or more of the Sentences appointed at the beginning of Morning and Evening Prayer, and end after the Collect for Grace or the Collect for Aid against Perils, with 2 Cor. xiii. 14, using so much of the Lessons appointed for the day and so much of the Psalter as he shall judge to be for edification. "And note also that on any day when Morning and Evening Prayer shall have been duly said or are to be said, and on days other than those first aforementioned, it shall suffice, when need may require, if a sermon or lecture be preceded by at least the Lord's Prayer and one or more Collects found in this book, provided that no prayers not set forth in said book, or otherwise authorized by this Church, shall be used before or after such sermon or lecture.[26] "And note further also that on any day the Morning Prayer, the Litany, or the Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper may be used as a separate and independent service, provided that no one of these services shall be disused habitually." It may seem harsh to characterize this act as the mutilation of a monument; but really it does seem to be little else. The old Ratification of 1789 is an historic landmark; it is the sign-manual of the Church of White's and Seabury's day, and ought never to be disturbed or tampered with while the Prayer Book stands. The year 1889 might very properly see a supplemental Ratification written under it; and testifying to the fact of Revision; but to write into that venerable text special directions as to what may be done on days other than Ash-Wednesday, and what must not be done without 2 Cor. xiii. 14, is very much as if the City Government of Cambridge should cause to be cut upon the stone under the Washington elm which now records the fact that there the commander of the American armies first drew his sword, divers and sundry additional items of information, such as the distance to Watertown, the shortest path across the common, etc., etc. Why the Convention after having entrusted to a Joint Committee, by a decisive vote, the task of devising means for securing for the Prayer Book "increased flexibility of use," should have thought it necessary subsequently to take up with this compromise of a compromise (for such the proposal to amend the Ratification really is) it is difficult to say. Perhaps it was with the determination to have, at any rate, something to fall back upon in case the larger and more comprehensive measure should come to naught. The rubric is confessedly the proper place for directions as to how to use the services, and but for the very natural and defensible objection on the part of some to touching the Prayer Book at all, there never would have been any question about it.[27] This objection having been at last waived, a straight path is now open to the end desired, and it ought to be followed even at the cost of three years more of delay. Returning to the general subject, and still following the order of the Table of Contents, we come to Prayers and Thanksgivings upon several Occasions. Here it would be well to note more intelligibly than is done by the present rubric the proper places for the introduction of the Prayers and the Thanksgivings, providing for the use of the former before, and of the latter after the General Thanksgiving. As to the deficiencies in this department let the late Dr. Muhlenberg speak. "The Prayer Book," he says, "is not undervalued as to its treasures in asserting its wants. The latter cannot be denied. Witness the meagre amount of New Testament prayer and praise for the round of festivals and fasts; the absence of any forms suited to the peculiar circumstances of our own Church and country and to the times we live in; or for our benevolent and educational institutions. There are no prayers for the increase of Ministers, for Missions, or Missionaries, for the Christian teaching of the young; for sponsors on occasions of Baptism; for persons setting out on long journeys by land, quite as perilous as voyages by sea; for the sick desiring the prayers of the Church when there is no prospect of or desire for recovery; for the bereaved at funerals, and many other occasions for which there might as well be provision as for those few for which we already have the occasional prayers."[28] After the _Prayers and Thanksgivings_ come _The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels _. Here again there is some room for enrichment. Distinctive collects for the first four days of Holy Week, for Monday and Tuesday in Easter Week, and for Monday and Tuesday in Whitsun Week, would add very materially to our liturgical wealth, while there would seem to be no reason whatever why they should not be had. It would also serve to enhance the symmetry of the Christian Year if the old feast of the Transfiguration[29] (August 6) were to be restored to its place among the recognized holy days of the Church and given its proper collect, epistle, and gospel. There are some liturgists who desire the restoration of the introits of the First Book of Edward VI. The introit (so called from being the psalm sung when the priest goes within the altar-rails) has been in modern usage replaced by a metrical hymn. A sufficient reason for not printing the introit for each day in full, just before the collect, as was the mode in Edward's Book, is that to do so would involve a costly sacrifice of room. A compromise course would be to insert between the title of each Sunday or holyday and the collect proper to it, a simple numerical reference stating whereabouts in the Psalter the introit for the day is to be found, and adding perhaps the Latin catchwords. Any attempt to make the use of the introit obligatory in our times would meet with deserved failure; the metrical hymn has gained too firm a hold upon the affections of the Church at large ever to be willingly surrendered. Coming, next, to the orders for the administration of the two sacraments, we find ourselves on delicate ground, where serious change of any sort is out of the question. Permission, under certain circumstances, still further to abbreviate the Office of the Communion of the Sick might, however, be sought without giving reasonable cause of alarm to any, and general consent might perhaps also be had for a provision with respect to the Exhortation, "Dearly beloved in the Lord," that in "Churches where there is frequent Communion it shall suffice to read the Exhortation above written once in a month on the Lord's Day."[30] There are three liturgical features of the Scottish Communion Office which some have thought might be advantageously transferred to our own service. They are (_a_) the inserting after Christ's summary of the Law a response, _Lord, have mercy upon us and write these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee_; (_b_) the repeating by the people, after the reading of the Gospel, of a formula of thanks corresponding to the _Glory be to thee, O Lord_, that precedes it; and (_c_) the saying or singing of an Offertory sentence at the presentation of the alms. Upon these suggested enrichments the present writer offers no opinion. In the Order of Confirmation a substitution for the present preface[31] of a responsive opening, in which the bishop should charge the minister to present none but such as he has found by personal inquiry "apt and meet" for the reception of the rite would be a marked improvement. The remaining Occasional Offices would seem to demand no change either in structure or contents, although in some, perhaps in all of them, additional rubrics would be helpful to worshippers. Some addition to the number of Occasional Offices would be a real gain. We need, for instance, a short Office for the Burial of Infants and Young Children; a Daybreak Office for Great Festivals; an Office for Midday Prayer; an Office of Prayer in behalf of Missions and Missionaries; an Office for the Setting apart of a Layman as a Reader, or as a Missionary; a Form of Prayer at the Laying of a Corner-stone; and possibly some others. It is evident that these new formularies might give opportunity for the introduction of hitherto unused collects, anthems, and benedictions of a sort that would greatly enhance the general usefulness of the Prayer Book. This completes the survey of the field of "liturgical enrichment." A full discussion of the allied topic, "flexibility of use," would involve the examination in detail of all the rubrics of the Prayer Book, and for this there is no room. It is enough to say that unless the rubrics, the hinges and joints of a service-book, are kept well oiled, much creaking is a necessary result. There are turning-points in our public worship where congregations almost invariably betray an awkward embarrassment, simply because there is nothing to tell them whether they are expected to stand or to sit or to kneel. It is easy to sneer at such points as trifles and to make sport of those who call attention to them; but if it is worth our while to have ritual worship at all it is also worth our while to make the directions as to how people are to behave adequate, explicit, plain. A lofty contempt for detail is not the token of good administration either in Church or State. To the list of defective rubrics add those that are confessedly obsolete and such as are palpably contradictory and we have a bill of particulars that would amply justify a rubrical revision of the Prayer Book even if nothing more were to be attempted. There is another reason. Far more rapidly than many people imagine, we are drifting away from the position of a Church that worships by liturgy to that of a Church worshipping by directory. The multiplicity of "uses" that vexed the Anglican Reformers is in our day multiplied four-fold. To those who honestly consider a directory a better thing than a liturgy this process of relaxation is most welcome, but for others who hold that, until the binding clauses of a Book of Common Prayer have been formally rescinded, they ought to be observed, the spectacle is the reverse of edifying. They would much prefer seeing the channels of liberty opened at the touch of law, and this is one of their chief reasons for advocating revision. Two questions remain untouched, both of them of great practical importance. Could the Prayer Book be enriched to the extent suggested in this paper without a serious and most undesirable increase in its bulk as a volume? Even supposing this were possible, is it at all likely that the Church could be persuaded to accept the amended book? Unless the first of these two eminently proper questions can be met, there is, or ought to be, an end to all talk about revision. The advantage to a Church of being able to keep all its authoritative formularies of worship within the compass of a single volume is inestimable. Even the present enforced severance of the Hymnal from the Prayer Book is a misfortune.[32] Those were good days when "Bible and Prayer Book" was the Churchman's all sufficient formula so far as volumes were concerned. Rome boasts a much larger ritual variety than ours, but she secures it by multiplying books. The Missal is in one volume, the Breviary in four, the Pontifical, the Ritual, and the Ceremonial in one each, making eight in all.[33] This is an evil, and one from which we Anglicans have had a happy escape. It was evidently with a great groan of relief that the Church of England shook herself free from the whole host of service-books, and established her one only volume. It behooves us to be watchful how we take a single step towards becoming entangled in the old meshes.[34] But need the enrichment of the Prayer Book--such enrichment as has been described, necessarily involve an unwieldiness in the volume, or, what would be still worse, an overflow into a supplement? Certainly not; for by judicious management every change advocated in this paper, and more besides, might be accomplished without transgressing by so much as a page or a paragraph the limits of the present standard book. All the space needed could be secured by the simple expedient of omitting matter that has been found by actual experience to be superfluous. Redundancy and unnecessary repetition are to the discredit of a book that enjoys such an unrivalled reputation as the Common Prayer. They are blemishes upon the face of its literary perfectness. Who has not marvelled at the strange duplication of the Litany and the Office of the Holy Communion in the Ordinal, when the special petitions proper to those services when used in that connection might easily have been printed by themselves with a direction that they be inserted in the appointed place? Scholars, of course, know perfectly well how this came about. The Ordinal does not belong to the Prayer Book proper, but has a separate identity of its own. When printed as a book by itself it is all very well that it should include the Litany and the Holy Communion in full, but why allow these superfluous pages to crowd out others that are really needed?[35] It has already been explained how the room now occupied by the "Selections" might be economized, and by the same simple device the space engrossed by divers psalms here and there in the Occasional Offices, _e_. _g_., Psalm li in the Visitation of Prisoners, and Psalm cxxx in the Visitation of the Sick could be made available for other use. Again, why continue to devote a quarter of a page of precious space to the "Prayer for imprisoned debtors," seeing that now, for a long time past, there has been no such thing in the United States as imprisonment for debt? By availing ourselves of only a portion of these possible methods of garnering space, all that is desired might be accomplished, without making the Prayer Book bulkier by a single leaf than it is to-day. But would a Prayer Book thus enriched be accepted by the Church at large? Is there any reason to think that the inertia which inheres in all large bodies, and to a singularly marked degree in our own Communion, could be overcome? The General Convention can give an approximate answer to these questions; it cannot settle them decisively, for it is a body which mirrors only to a certain extent the real mind and temper of the constituencies represented in it. One thing is certain, that only by allowing fullest possible play to the principle of "local option" could any wholly new piece of work on the part of revisionists, however excellent it might be in itself considered, find acceptance. To allow features introduced into the body of an existing service to be accounted optional, would indeed be impossible, without gendering the very wildest confusion. Upon such points the Church would have to decide outright, for or against, and stand by her decisions. But as respects every additional and novel Office proposed, the greatest care ought to be taken to have the indefinite An rather than the definite _The_ prefixed to it. Before such new uses are made binding on all, they must have met and endured the test of thorough trial by some. This is only fair. But there is a limit, it must be remembered, in the Church's case to the binding power of precedent and prescription. The social order changes, and of these tides that ebb and flow it is our bounden duty to take note. Had mere aversion to change, dogged unwillingness to venture an experiment always carried the day, instead of having the "Prayer Book as it is," we should still be drearily debating the rival merits of Hereford and Sarum. The great question to be settled is, Does an emergency exist serious enough to warrant an attempt on our part to make better what we know already to be good? Is the Republic expecting of us, and reasonably expecting of us, greater things than with our present equipment we are quite able to accomplish? There are eyes that think they see a great future before this Church--are they right, or is it only mirage? At any rate ours is no return trip--we are outward bound. The ship is cutting new and untried waters with her keel at every moment. There is no occasion to question the sufficiency of either compass or helm, but in certain matters of a practical sort there is a demand upon us to use judgment, we are bound to give a place in our seamanship to present common-sense as well as to respect for ancient usage, and along with it all to feel some confidence that if the ship is what we think her to be, "the winds of God" may be trusted to bring her safely into port. THE BOOK ANNEXED: ITS CRITICS AND ITS PROSPECTS. THE BOOK ANNEXED: ITS CRITICS AND ITS PROSPECTS.[36] First, last, and always this is to be said with respect to the revision of the American Common Prayer, that unless we can accomplish it with hearty good feeling the attempt at improvement ought to be abandoned altogether. The day has gone by when new formularies of worship could be imposed on an unwilling Church by edict, and although under our carefully guarded system of ecclesiastical legislation there is little danger of either haste or unfairness, we must bear it well in mind that something more than "a constitutional majority of both houses" is needful if we would see liturgical revision crowned with real success. Of course, absolute unanimity is not to be expected. Every improvement that the world has seen was greeted at its birth by a chorus of select voices sounding the familiar anthem, "The old is better"; and the generation of those, who, in the sturdy phrase of King James's revisers, "give liking unto nothing but what is framed by themselves, and hammered on their anvil," will be always with us. But substantial unanimity may exist, even when absolute unanimity is impossible, and if anything like as general a consent can be secured for revision in 1886 as was given to it in 1883, the friends of the movement will have good reason to be satisfied. That there has been, since the publication of _The Book Annexed as Modified_, a certain measure of reaction against the spirit of change must be evident to all who watch carefully the pulse of public opinion in the Church. Whether this reaction be as serious as some imagine, whether it have good reasons to allege, and whether it be not already giving tokens of spent force, are points which in the present paper will be touched only incidentally, for the writer's purpose is rather irenic than polemical, and he is more concerned to remove misapprehensions and allay fears than to seek the fading leaf of a controversial victory. LIMITATIONS. No estimate of the merits and demerits of _The Book Annexed_ can be a just one that leaves out of account the limitations under which the framers of it did their work. These limitations were not unreasonable ones. It was right and proper that they should be imposed. There is no good ground for a belief that the time will ever come when a "blank cheque," to borrow Mr. Goschen's mercantile figure, will be given to any company of liturgical revisers to fill out as they may see fit. But the moulders of forms, in whatever department of plastic art their specialty lies, when challenged to show cause why their work is deficient in symmetry or completeness, have an undoubted right to plead in reply the character of the conditions under which they labored. The present instance offers no exception to the general rule. In the first place, a distinct pledge was given in the House of Deputies, in 1880, before consent to the appointment of the Joint Committee was secured, that in case such permission to launch a movement in favor of revision as was asked for were to be granted, no attempt would be made seriously to change the Liturgy proper, namely, the Office of the Holy Communion. The question was distinctly asked by a clerical deputy from the diocese of Maryland,[37] Do you desire to modify the Office of the Holy Communion? and it was as distinctly answered by the mover of the resolution under which the Joint Committee was finally appointed, No, we do not. It is true that such a pledge, made by a single member of one House, could only measurably control the action of a Joint Committee in which both Houses were to be represented; but it is equally plain that the maker of the pledge was in honor bound to do all in his power to secure the observance of its terms. Let this historical fact be noted by those who are disposed to complain that the Joint Committee did not pull to pieces and entirely rearrange the Anglo-Scoto-American Office, which now for a long time, and until quite recently, we have been taught to esteem the nearest possible approach to liturgical perfection. Under this same head of "limitations" must be set down the following resolutions passed by the Joint Committee itself, at its first regular meeting: _Resolved_, That this Committee asserts, at the outset, its conviction that no alteration should be made touching either statements or standards of doctrine in the Book of Common Prayer. _Resolved_, That this Committee, in all its suggestions and acts, be guided by those principles of liturgical construction and ritual use which have guided the compilation and amendments of the Book of Common Prayer, and have made it what it is. It was manifestly impossible, under resolutions like these, to depart very widely from established precedent, or in any serious measure to disturb the foundations of things. The first of them shut out wholly the consideration of such questions as the reinstatement of the Athanasian Creed or the proposal to make optional the use of the word "regenerate" in the Baptismal Offices; while the other forbade the introduction of such sentimental and grotesque conceits as "An Office for the Blessing of Candles," "An Office for the Benediction of a Lifeboat," and "An Office for the Reconciliation of a Lapsed Cleric."[38] Still another very serious limitation, and one especially unfriendly to that perfectness of contour which we naturally look to see in a liturgical formulary, grew out of the tender solicitude of the Committee for what may be called the vested rights of congregations. There was a strong reluctance to the cutting away even of what might seem to be dead wood, lest there should ensue, or be thought to ensue, the loss of something really valuable. It was only as the result of much painstaking effort, and only at some sacrifice of literary fastidiousness, that the Committee was enabled to report a book of which it could be said that, while it added much of possible enrichment, it took away almost nothing that had been in actual possession.[39] There could be no better illustration of this point than is afforded by certain of the alterations proposed to be made in the Order for Evening Prayer. The Committee felt assured that upon no point was the judgment of the Church likely to be more unanimous than in approving the restoration to their time-honored home in the Evening Office of _Magnificat_ and _Nunc dimittis_, and yet so unwilling were they to displace _Bonum est confiteri_ and _Benedic anima mea_ from positions they have only occupied since 1789 that they authorized the unquestionably clumsy expedient of printing three responds to each Lesson. Probably a large majority of the Committee would have preferred to drop _Bonum est confiteri_ and _Benedic anima mea_ altogether, retaining _Cantate Domino_ and _Deus miser eatur_ as the sole alternates to the two Gospel canticles, as in the English Book, but rather than have a thousand voices cry out, as it was believed they would cry out, "You have robbed us," the device of a second alternate was adopted, to the sad defacement of the printed page. In may be charged that, in thus choosing, the Committee betrayed timidity, and that a wise boldness would have been the better course; but if account be taken of the attitude consistently maintained by General Convention towards any proposition for the change of so much as a comma in the Prayer Book, during a period of fifty years prior to the introduction of _The Book Annexed_, it will perhaps be concluded that for the characterization of the Committee's policy timidity is scarcely so proper a word as caution. SPECIAL CRITICISMS. (_a_) _Foreign_. As there is reason to believe that opinion at home has been very considerably affected by foreign criticism of _The Book Annexed_, it will be well at this point to give some attention to what has been said in English journals in review of the work thus far accomplished. The more noteworthy of the foreign criticisms are those contained in _The Church Quarterly Review_, _The Church Times_, and _The Guardian_.[40] The Church Quarterly reviewer opens with an expression of deep regret at "the failure to take advantage of the opportunity for reinstating the Athanasian Creed." As already observed, no such opportunity existed. By formal vote the Joint Committee debarred itself from any proceeding of this sort, and the Convention, which sat in judgment on its work, was manifestly of opinion that in so acting the Committee had rightly interpreted its charter. The reviewer, who is in full sympathy with the movement for enrichment as such, goes on to recommend, as a more excellent way than that followed in _The Book Annexed_, the compilation of An Appendix to the Book of Common Prayer to contain the much needed _Additional Services_ for both Sunday and other use in churches, in mission chapels, and in religious communities, as well as a full supply of _Occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings_ for objects and purposes, missionary and otherwise, which are as yet entirely unrepresented in our Offices. There are obvious reasons why this device should commend itself to an English Churchman, for it is unlikely that anything better than this, or, indeed, anything one half so satisfactory, could be secured by Act of Parliament. For something very much better than this, however, a self-governed Church, like our own, has a right to look, and, in all probability, will continue to look until the thing is found. _An Appendix_ to a manual of worship, whether the manual be Prayer Book or Hymnal,[41] is and cannot but be, from the very nature of things, a blemish to the eye, an embarrassment to the hand, and a vexation to the spirit. Such _addenda_ carry on their face the suggestion that they are makeshifts, postscripts, after-thoughts; and in their lack of dignity, as well as of convenience, pronounce their own condemnation. Moreover, in our particular case, no "Appendix," "Prymer," or "Authorized Vade-mecum" could accomplish the ends that are most of all desired. Fancy putting the _Magnificat_, the _Nunc dimittis_, the Versicles that follow the Creed, and the "Lighten our darkness" into an "Appendix." It would be the defeat of our main object. Then, too, this is to be remembered, that in order to secure a "fully authorized Appendix," we, in this country, should be obliged to follow precisely the same legal process we follow in altering the Prayer Book. If an Occasional Office cannot pass the ordeal of the criticism of two successive Conventions, it ought not to be set forth at all; if it can and does stand that test, then it ought to be inserted in the Prayer Book in the particular place where it most appropriately belongs and may most readily be found. Moreover, it should be remembered that one, and by no means the least efficient, of the causes that brought the Common Prayer into existence in the sixteenth century was disgust at the multiplication of service-books. We American Churchmen have two already; let us beware of adding a third. The critic of _The Quarterly_ was probably unacquainted with the fact that in the American Episcopal Church the experimental setting forth of Offices "for optional and discretional use" is not possible under the terms of the Constitution. We either must adopt outright and for permanent use, or else peremptorily reject whatever is urged upon us in the name of liturgical improvement. Entering next upon a detailed criticism of the contents of The _Book Annexed_ the writer proceeds to offer a number of suggestions, some of them of great value. He pleads earnestly and with real force for the restoration of the Lord's Prayer to its "place of honor" between the Creed and the Preces, showing, in a passage of singular beauty, how the whole daily office "may be said to have grown out of, or radiated from, or been crystallized round the central _Pater noster_" even as "from the Words of Institution has grown the Christian Liturgy." The critic has only praise for the amendments in the Office for Thanksgiving Day; approves the selection of Proper Sentences for the opening of Morning and Evening Prayer; avers, certainly with truth, that the Office of the Beatitudes might be improved; welcomes "the very full repertory of special prayers"; thinks that the _Short Office of Prayer for Sundry Occasions_ "certainly supplies a want"; rejoices in the recognition of the Feast of the Transfiguration; and closes what is by far the most considerable, and, both as respects praise and blame, the most valuable of all the reviews that have been made of _The Book Annexed_ whether at home or abroad, with these words: On the whole, we very heartily congratulate our Transatlantic brothers on the labors of their Joint Committee. We hope their recommendations may be adopted, and more in the same direction; and that the two or three serious blemishes which we have felt constrained to point out and to lament may be removed from the book in the form finally adopted. And further, we very earnestly trust that this work, which has been very evidently so carefully and conscientiously done, may speedily, by way of example and precedent, bear fruit in a like process of enrichment among ourselves. Commending these last words to the consideration of those who take alarm at the suggestion of touching the Prayer Book lest we may hurt the susceptibilities of our "kin beyond sea," and unduly anticipate that "joint action of both Churches," which, at least until disestablishment comes, must always remain a sheer impossibility, we pass to a consideration of the six articles contributed to the _Church Times_ in July and August last, under the title, _The Revised American Prayer Book_. Here we come upon a writer who, if not always edifying, has the undoubted merit of being never dull. In fact, so deliciously are logical inconsequence and accidental humor mingled throughout his fifteen columns of discursive criticism that a suspicion arises as to the writer's nationality. It is doubtful whether anyone born on the English side of the Irish Sea could possibly have suggested the establishment of a Saint's Day in honor of the late respected Warden of Racine College, or seriously have proposed that Messrs. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Russell Lowell, Henry James, and W. D. Howells be appointed a jury of "literary arbitrament" to sit in judgment on the liturgical language of _The Book Annexed_; and this out of respect to our proper national pride. Doubtless it would add perceptibly to the amused sense of the unfitness of things with which these eminent liberals must have seen themselves thus named, if permission could be given to the jury, when empanelled, to "co-opt" into its number Mr. Samuel Clemens and Mr. Dudley Warner.[42] The general tenor of the writer in _The Church Times_ may fairly be inferred from the following extract from the first article of the series: The judgment that must be pronounced on the work as a whole is precisely that which has been passed on the Revised New Testament, that there are doubtless some few changes for the better, so obvious and so demanded beforehand by all educated opinion that to have neglected them would at once have stamped the revisers as blockheads and dunces; but that the set-off in the way of petty and meddlesome changes for the worse, neglect of really desirable improvements, bad English, failure in the very matter of pure scholarship just where it was least to be expected, and general departure from the terms of the Commission assigned to them (notably by their introduction of confusion instead of flexibility into the services, so that the congregation can seldom know what is going to happen) has so entirely outweighed the merits of the work that it cannot possibly be adopted by the Church, and must be dismissed as a dismal fiasco, to be dealt with anew in some more adequate fashion. This paragraph is not reproduced for the purpose of discrediting the writer of it as a judge of English prose, for there are various passages in the course of the six articles that would more readily lend themselves to such a use. The object in quoting it is simply to put the reader into possession, in a compact form, of the most angry, even if not the most formidable, of the various indictments yet brought against _The Book Annexed_. Moreover, the last words of the extract supply a good text for certain didactic remarks that ought to be made, with respect to what is possible and what is not possible in the line of liturgical revision in America. Worthless as the result of the Joint Committee's labors has turned out to be, their motive, we are assured, was a good one. The critic's contention is not that the work they undertook is a work that ought not to be done, but rather that when done it should be better done. The revision as presented must be "dismissed as a dismal fiasco," but only dismissed "in order to be dealt with anew in some more adequate fashion." But on what ground can we rest this sanguine expectation of better things to come? Whence is to originate and how is to be appointed the commission of "experts" which is to give us at last the "Ideal Liturgy"? Cardinal Newman in one of his lesser controversial tracts remarks: If the English people lodge power in the many, not in the few, what wonder that its operation is roundabout, clumsy, slow, intermittent, and disappointing? You cannot eat your cake and have it; you cannot be at once a self-governing nation and have a strong government.[43] Similarly it may be said that, however great the difficulties that beset liturgical revision by legislative process at the hands of some five hundred men, nevertheless the fact remains that the body known in law as The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America has provided in its Constitution that change in its formularies shall be so effected and not otherwise. It may turn out that we must give up in despair the whole movement for a better adaptation of our manual of worship to the needs of our land and of our time; it may be found that the obstacles in the way are absolutely insuperable; but let us dream no dreams of seeing this thing handed over, "with power," to a "commission of experts," for that is something which will never come to pass. Whether "experts" in liturgies are any more likely to furnish us with good prayers than "experts" in prosody are likely to give us the best poetry is a tempting question, but one that must be left, for the present, on one side. Perhaps, if the inquiry were to be pushed, we might find ourselves shut up to the curious conclusion that the framers of the very earliest liturgies, the authors of the old sacramentaries, were either verbally inspired or else were lacking in the qualifications which alone could fit them to do worthily the work they worthily did, for clearly "experts" they were not. But the question that immediately concerns us is one of simple fact. Assuming the present laborious effort at betterment to have been proved a "fiasco," how is the General Convention to set in motion any more promising enginery of revision? "Summon in," say our English advisers, "competent scholars, and give them _carte blanche_ to do what they will." But the Convention, which is by law the final arbiter, has no power to invite to a share in its councils men who have no constitutional right to a seat upon its floor. How thankfully should we welcome as participants in our debates and as allies in our legislation the eminent liturgical scholars who give lustre to the clergy list of the Church of England; but we are as powerless to make them members of the General Convention as we should be to force them into the House of Commons. The same holds true at home. If the several dioceses fail to discover their own "inglorious Miltons," and will not send them up to General Convention, General Convention may, and doubtless does, lament the blindness of the constituencies, but it cannot correct their blunder. The dioceses in which the "experts" canonically reside had had full warning that important liturgical interests were to be discussed and acted upon in the General Convention of 1883; why were the "experts" left at home? And if they were not returned in 1883, is there sufficient reason to believe that they will ever be returned in any coming year of grace? It must be either that the American Church is bereft of "experts," or else that the constituencies, influenced possibly by the hard sense of the laity, have learned hopelessly to confound the "expert" with the doctrinaire. Of "expert testimony," in the shape of the liturgical material gathered, mainly by English writers, during the last fifty years, the Joint Committee had no lack. That this material was carefully sifted and conscientiously used, _The Book Annexed_ will itself one day be acknowledged to be the sufficient evidence. There is still another point that must be taken into account in this connection, to wit, the attitude which the Episcopate has a right to take with respect to any proposed work of liturgical revision. Bishops have probably become inured to the hard measure habitually dealt out to them in the columns of the _Church Times_, and are unlikely to allow charges of ignorance and incompetency so far to disturb their composure as to make them afraid to prosecute a work which, from time immemorial, has been held to lie peculiarly within their province. It may be affirmed, with some confidence, that no revision of the American Offices will ever be ratified, in the conduct of which the Bishops of the Church have not been allowed the leadership which belongs to them of right. Then it is for the General Convention carefully to consider whether any House of Bishops destined to be convened in our time is likely to have on its roll the names of any prelates more competent, whether on the score of learning or of practical experience, to deal with a work of liturgical revision than were the seven prelates elected by the free voice of their brethren to represent the Episcopal Order on the Joint Committee of Twenty-one. Coming to details the reviewer of the _Church Times_ regrets, first of all, the failure of the Convention to change the name of the Church. He goes on to express a disapproval, more or less qualified, of the discretionary power given to bishops to set forth forms of prayer for special occasions, and of the continued permission to use Selections of Psalms instead of the psalms for the day. It is not quite clear whether he approves the expansion of the Table of Proper Psalms or not, though he thinks it "abstractedly desirable" that provision be made in this connection for "Corpus Christi and All Souls." He condemns the latitude allowed in the choice of lessons under the rules of the new lectionary, fearing that a clergyman who happens to dislike any given chapter because of its contents may be tempted habitually to suppress it by substituting another, but in the very next paragraph he gravely questions the expediency of limiting congregations to such hymns as have been "duly set forth and allowed by authority." Yet most observers, at least on this side of the water, are of opinion that liberty of choice within the limits of the Bible is a far safer freedom, so far as the breeding of heresy goes, than liberty of choice beyond the limits of the Hymnal has proved itself to be. The reviewer is pleased with the addition of the Feast of the Transfiguration to the Calendar, but "desiderates more," and would gladly welcome the introduction into the Prayer Book of commemorations of eminent saints, from Ignatius down,[44] but of this, mention has already been made, and it is unnecessary to revert to it. There follows next a protest against the selection of proper Sentences prefixed to Morning and Evening Prayer. The revisers seem to have a glimmering of what was the right thing to do . . . but they should have swept away the undevotional and unliturgical plan of beginning with certain detached texts, which has no fitness whatever, and has never even seemed to answer any useful end. This is stronger language than most of us are likely to approve. A Church that directly takes issue with Rome, as ours does, with respect to the true source of authority in religion has an excellent reason for letting the voice of Holy Scripture sound the key-note of her daily worship, whether there be ancient precedent for such a use or not. At the same time, the reviewer's averment that "the only proper opening is the Invocation of the Holy Trinity" is entitled to attention; and it is worth considering whether the latter portion of the nineteenth verse of the twenty-eighth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel might not be advantageously added to the list of opening Sentences, for optional use. In speaking of the new alternate to the Declaration of Absolution, the reviewer suggests most happily that it would be well to revive the form of mutual confession of priest and people found in the old service-books.[45] This proposal would probably not be entertained in connection with the regular Orders for Morning and Evening Prayer, but room for such a feature might perhaps be found in some optional office. After a grudging commendation of the steps taken in _The Book Annexed_ to restore the Gospel Canticles, the reviewer next puts in a strong plea for a larger allowance of versicles and responses after the Creed, contending that this is "just one of the places where enrichment, much beyond that of replacing the English versicles and responses now missing, is feasible and easy," to which the answer is that we, who love these missing versicles, shall think ourselves fortunate if we succeed in regaining only so much as we have lost. Even this will be accomplished with difficulty. It is most interesting, however, to notice that this stout defender of all that is English acknowledges the coupling together of the versicle, "Give peace in our time, O Lord," and the response, "Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God," to be "a very infelicitous _non-sequitur_." For correcting this palpable incongruity, the authors of _The Book Annexed_ have been sharply criticised here at home. What were they that they should have presumed to disturb ancient Anglican precedent in such a point? If we could not understand why the God of battles, as the God of battles, should be implored to "give peace in our time," so much the worse for our intelligence. But here comes the most acrid of all our critics, and shows how the collocation of sentences in the English Book has, from the beginning, been due to a palpable blunder in condensing an office of the Sarum Breviary. Of the American substitute for this "unhappy response" the best he can say, however, is that it is "well intentioned." Of the "Office of the Beatitudes" the reviewer declares that it "needs thorough recasting before it can stand," and in this we agree with him, as will hereafter appear, though wholly unable to concur in his sweeping condemnation, in this connection, of one of the most beautiful of Canon Bright's liturgical compositions, the Collect beginning, "O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment and light riseth up in darkness for the godly." Of this exquisite piece of idiomatic English, the reviewer allows himself to speak as being "a very poor composition, defective in rhythm." The criticism of the eucharistic portions of _The Book Annexed_ is mainly in the line of complaint that more has not been added in the way of new collects and proper prefaces, but upon this point it is unnecessary to dwell, the reasons having been already given why the Joint Committee and the Convention left the liturgy proper almost untouched. Neither is there anything that specially calls for notice or serious reply in what is said about the Occasional Offices. The Office for the Burial of Children is acknowledged to be a needed addition, but as it stands "is pitched in an entirely wrong key. The cognate offices in the _Rituale Romanun_ and the _Priest's Prayer Book_ ought to have shown the Committee, were it not for their peculiar unteachableness, a better way." To one who can read between the lines, this arraignment of the Americans for their lack of docility to the teachings of the Priest's Prayer Book is not devoid of drollery. It will happily illustrate the peculiar difficulties that beset liturgical revision to close this resume of the censures of _The Church Times_ by printing, side by side, the reviewer's estimate of the changes proposed in the Confirmation Office and the independent judgment of a learned evangelical divine of our own Church upon the same point. The Confirmation Service, as one of the very poorest in the Anglican rites, stood particularly in need of amendment and enrichment, especially by the removal of the ambiguous word "confirm" applied to the acts of the candidates, whereby the erroneous opinion that they came merely to confirm and ratify their baptismal promises, and not to be confirmed and strengthened in virtue of something bestowed upon them, has gained currency. Thus far the English Ritualist. Here follows the American Evangelical: I still hope you will see your way clear to modify the present draft of the proposed Confirmation Office, as it gives a much higher Sacramentarian idea of it than the present, a concession which will greatly please the Sacerdotalists, to which they are by no means entitled. The critic of _The Guardian_ is a writer of different make, and entitled every way to the most respectful attention. His fault-finding, which is invariably courteous, is mainly confined to the deficiencies of _The Book Annexed_. He would have had more done rather than less; but at the same time clearly points out that under the restrictions which controlled the Committee more could not fairly have been expected. He regrets that in restoring the lost portions of _Venite_ and _Benedictus_ the Convention did not make the use of the complete form in every case obligatory; and of the eight concluding verses of the latter canticle, which under the rubric of _The Book Annexed_ are only obligatory during Advent, he says, "Imagine their omission on Christmas Day!" To this criticism there are several answers, any one of which may be held to be sufficient. In the first place, it should be remembered that into the Committee's plan of enrichment there entered the element of differentiation. The closing portion of the _Venite_ has a special appropriateness to Lent; the closing portion of the _Benedictus_ a special appropriateness to Advent. Moreover, if any congregations desire the whole of these two canticles throughout the year, there is nothing in the rubrics of _The Book Annexed_ to forbid such an enjoyment of them. They may be sung in full always; but only in Lent in the one case, and in Advent in the other, mast they be so sung. The revision Committee was informed, on what was considered the highest authority, that in the Church of England the _Benedictus_, on account of its length, had been very generally disused. But, however this may be, there can be little doubt that the effort after restoration would have failed completely in the late Convention had the use of these two canticles in full been insisted upon by the promoters of revision. There is less of verbal criticism in _The Guardian's_ review than could have been wished, for any suggestions with respect to inaccuracies of style or rhythmical shortcomings would have been most welcome from the pen of so competent a censor. Attention is called to the unmusical flow of language in the alternate Confession provided for the Evening Office; the figurative features of the proposed Collect for Maundy-Thursday are characterized as infelicitous; and the Collect provided for the Feast of the Transfiguration is declared to be inferior to the corresponding one in the Sarum Breviary. Of this sort of criticism, at the hands of men who know their craft, _The Book Annexed_ cannot have too much. In fact, of such immeasurable importance is good English in this connection, that it would be no hardship were every separate clause of whatever formulary it may be proposed to engraft upon the Prayer Book to be subjected to the most searching tests. Let an epoch be agreed upon, if necessary, that shall serve as the criterion of admissibility for words and phrases. Let it be decided, for instance, that no word that cannot prove an Elizabethan parentage, or, if this be too severe a standard, then no word of post-Caroline origin, shall be admitted within the sacred precincts. Probably there are words in _The Book Annexed_ which such a canon would eject; but let us have them pointed out, and their merits and demerits discussed. Such criticism would be of infinitely more value to the real interests of revision than those vague and general charges of "crudeness" and "want of finish" which it is always so easy to make and sometimes so difficult to illustrate. The writer in _The Guardian_ closes an only too brief commentary upon what the Convention has laid before the Church with the following words: Many of the proposals now in question are excellent; but others will be improved by reconsideration in the light of fuller ritual study, such as will be seen to produce a more exact and cultured ritual _aesthesis_, perhaps we may, without offence, add, a more delicate appreciation of rhythm. What _The Book Annexed_ presents to us in the way of emendation is, on the whole, good; but, if subjected to a deliberate recension, it would, we predict, become still better. If thus improved by the Convention of 1886, it might be finally adopted by the Convention of 1889. This conspectus of English critical opinion would be incomplete were no account to be made of the utterances of the various writers and speakers who dealt with the general subject of liturgical revision at the recent Church Congress at Portsmouth. _The Book Annexed_ could scarcely ask a more complete justification than is supplied by these testimonies of men who at least may be supposed to be acquainted with the needs of the Church of England. The following catena, made up from three of the four Papers[46] read upon the Prayer Book, gives a fair notion of the general tone of the discussion. It will be worth anyone's while to collate it with the thirty Resolutions that make up the "Notification to the Dioceses." Can it be seriously doubted that there are requirements of this age which are not satisfied by the provision for public worship made in the sixteenth century? Can any really suppose that the compilers of that brief manual, the Prayer Book, however proud we may rightly be of their work, were so gifted with inspired foresight as to save the Church of future ages the responsibilities of considering and supplying the devotional wants of successive generations? Who has not felt the scantiness of holy association in our Sunday and week-day worship? . . . Much, I know, has been supplied by our hymnology, which has progressed nobly in proportion as the meagreness of our liturgical provision has been realized. But beyond hymns we need actual forms of service, which shall strike the ear and touch the heart by fresh and vivid adaptations of God's Word to the great mysteries of the Gospel faith . . . After-services on Sunday evenings have of late grown common; for them we need also the aid of regular and elastic forms. Most deplorably have we felt the need of intercessory services for Home and Foreign Missions; and, though there are beautiful metrical litanies which bear directly on these and other objects, yet these are not sufficient, and of course are limited to times when a good and strong choir can be secured; . . . and further we want very simple forms of prayer to accompany addresses given in homes and mission rooms.[47] I declare it as my conviction, after many years of (I hope) a not indolent ministry, and of many opportunities of observation and experiment, that the Church stands in pressing and immediate need of a few rearrangements and adaptations of some of her Offices; also of an enormous number of supplementary Offices or services--some for frequent use, others for occasional purposes within the consecrated buildings; and that besides these there is need of a supply of special Offices for the use of a recognized lay agency outside of the church edifices. Why limit our introductory sentences to seven deprecatory texts? . . . Why can we not introduce the anthem used on Easter-day, instead of the _Venite_, throughout the Octave; or at least on Easter Monday and Tuesday? Would not spiritual life be deepened and intensified, and, best of all, be strengthened, by the use in the same manner of a suitable anthem instead of the _Venite_ on Advent Sundays, on Christmas-day, at Epiphany, on Ash-Wednesday, on Good Friday, during Rogation days, at Ascension-tide, and on harvest festivals and the special annual Church festival of the year? I submit that an enrichment of the Book of Common Prayer is also required. For although, as already suggested, this may be provided to some extent by a Collect for occasional use before the final prayer of Morning Prayer or Evensong, the needs of the Church will not be fully supplied without some complete additional offices. Certainly an additional service for Sunday afternoon and evening . . . The times are very solemn, and we must wait no longer . . . We have talked for nearly twenty-five years--not vainly, I believe--but let us "go and do" not a little in the next five years . . . Prove yourself to be of the Church of God by doing all the work of the Church, and in the proper way. Proclaim before our God by your actions and your activities, and by providing all that is needed, not only for Churchmen, but for earnest Christians who are not Churchmen, and for the poor, weary sinners who are living as if there were neither Church nor Saviour, such services for the one, and such means for drawing the others to Christ, that they all may become one in him. And for all this you must have (as I think): 1. Possibly a small rearrangement of existing services. 2. Variety and additions in some of these services. 3. Enrichment by many services supplementary. 4. Services for use by laymen. I wish to alarm none, but I wish we were all astir, for there is no time to wait.[48] I should like to suggest, if it seems desirable, as it does to me, to make any further variation from the original arrangement of Morning Prayer, that on such days as Easter-day, Whitsunday, and Ascension-day we should begin in a little different fashion than we do now. Is it always needful to begin on such great days of rejoicing for Christians with the same sentences and the _same_ Exhortation and Confession, and have to wait, so to speak, to give vent to our feelings till we reach the special psalms for the day? Might we not on such days accept the glorious facts, and begin with some special and appropriate psalm or anthem? . . . Thus we should at once get the great doctrine of the day, and be let to rejoice in it at the very outset, and then go on to the Lord's Prayer and the rest as we have it now. Confession of sin and absolution are not left out in the services of the day, as, of course, they occur in the Holy Communion; but leaving them out in the ordinary services, and beginning in the way suggested, would at one and the same time mark the day more clearly, and give opportunity for Christian gladness to show itself . . . Only one other alteration would, I think, be needed, namely, that a good selection of psalms be made, and used, as in the American Church, at the discretion of the minister. I think all must feel that for one reason or another all the psalms are not adapted for the ordinary worship of a mixed congregation; and this plan would ease the minds of many clergy and laity. Also copying the American Church, it would be well to omit the Litany on Christmas-day, Easter-day, and Whitsunday.[49] In the light of this summary of Anglican desiderata, compiled by wholly friendly hands, it is plain that whatever we may do in this country in the line of liturgical revision, always supposing it to be gravely and carefully done, instead of harming, ought marvellously to help the real interests of the Church of England. Certain principles of polity adopted in our own Church a century ago, and notably among them those affecting the legislative rights of the laity in matters ecclesiastical, are beginning to find tardy recognition in the England of the present. Possibly a hundred years hence, or sooner, a like change of mind may bring English Churchmen to the approval of liturgical methods which, even if not wholly consonant to the temper of the Act of Uniformity, have nevertheless been found useful and effective in the work of bringing the truth and the power of God to bear upon the common life of a great nation. The Church of England is to-day moving on toward changes and chances of which she sees enough already to alarm and not yet enough to reassure her. The dimness of uncertainty covers what may yet turn out to be the Mount of her Transfiguration, and she fears as she enters into the cloud. How shall we best and most wisely show our sympathy? By passing resolutions of condolence? By childish commiseration, the utterance of feigned lips, upon the approaching sorrows of disestablishment? Not thus at all, but rather by a courageous and well-considered pioneering work, which shall have it for its purpose to feel the ground and blaze the path which presently she and we may find ourselves treading in company. Tied as she is, for her an undertaking of this sort is impossible. We can show her no greater kindness than by entering upon it of our own motion and alone. (_b_) American. Criticism at home has been abundant; much of it intelligent and helpful, and by no means so much of it as might have been expected captious. Of what may be called official reviews there have been three, one from the Diocese of Central New York, one from the Diocese of Wisconsin, and one from the Diocese of Easton. The subject has also been dealt with in carefully prepared essays published from time to time in _The Church Review_ and _The Church Eclectic_, while in the case of the weekly journals the treatment of the topic has been so frequent and so full that a mere catalogue of the editorial articles and contributed communications in Which, during the two years last past, liturgical revision has been discussed would overtax the limits of the present paper. The only practicable means of dealing with this mass of criticism is to adopt the inductive method, and to seek to draw out from the utterances of these many voices the four or five distinct concepts that severally lie behind them. _In limine_ however, let this be said, that the broadest generalization of all is one to which the very discordance of the critics bears the best possible witness. Of a scheme of re vision against which is pressed, in Virginia,[50] the charge of Mariolatry; in Ohio,[51] the charge of Latitudinarianism; and in Wisconsin[52] the charge of Puritanic pravity, this much may at least be said, that it possesses the note of fairness. From henceforth suggestions of partisan bias are clearly out of order. The Anglo-Catholic censures of _The Book Annexed_ are substantially summed up in the assertion that due regard is not had, in the changes proposed, to the structural principles of liturgical science. In the exceedingly well written, if somewhat one-sided document, already referred to as the Wisconsin Report, this is, throughout, the burden of the complaint. The accomplished author of the Report, than whom no one of the critics at home or abroad has shown a keener or a better cultivated liturgical instinct, is afraid that a free use of all the liberties permitted by the new rubrics of the daily offices would so revolutionize Morning and Evening Prayer as practically to obliterate the line of their descent from the old monastic forms. If there were valid ground for such an expectation the alarm might be justifiable; but is there? The practical effect of the rubrics that make for abbreviation will be to give us back, on weekdays almost exactly, and with measurable precision on Sundays also, the Matins and Evensong of the First Book of Edward VI. Surely this is not the destruction of continuity with the pre-Reformation Church. In his dislike of the provision for grafting the Beatitudes upon the Evening Prayer, the author of the Wisconsin Report will have many sympathizers, the present writer among them; but in his fear that in the introduction of the Proem to the Song of the Three Children, as a possible respond to the First Lesson,[53] there lurks a covert design to dethrone the _Te Deum_, he is likely to find few to agree with him. But after all, may not this scrupulous regard for the precedents set us in the old service-books be carried too far? It is wholesome, but there is a limit to the wholesomeness of it. We remember who it was that made war for the sake of "a scientific frontier." Some of the scientific frontiers in the region of liturgies are as illusory as his was. For example, _The Book Annexed_ may be "unscientific" in drawing as largely as it does on the language of the Apocalypse for versicles and responses. There has certainly been a departure from Anglican precedent in this regard. And yet it would scarcely seem that we could go far astray in borrowing from the liturgy of heaven, whether there be earthly precedent or not. Cranmer and his associates made a far bolder break with the old office-books than _The Book Annexed_ makes with the Standard Common Prayer. The statement of the Wisconsin Report, that "The Reformers of the English Church did not venture to write new Offices of Prayer," must be taken with qualifications. They did not make offices absolutely _de novo_, but they did condense and combine old offices in a manner that practically made a new thing of them. They took the monastic services and courageously remoulded them into a form suitable for the new era in which monasteries were to exist no longer. Happily they were so thorough in their work that comparatively little change is called for in adapting what they fitted to the needs of the sixteenth century to the more varied requirements of the nineteenth. Still, when they are quoted as conservatives, and we are referred for evidence of their dislike of change to that particular paragraph of the Preface to the English Prayer Book entitled, _Concerning the Service of the Church_[54] it is worth our while to follow up the reference and see what is actually there said. The Wisconsin Committee use very soft words in speaking of the mediaeval perversions and corruptions of Divine Service. "It was in the monasteries chiefly," they tell us, "that these services received the embellishments and wonderful variety which we find in the later centuries." But the following is the cruel manner in which, in the English Preface cited as authority, the "embellishments" and "wonderful variety" are characterized: But these many years past, this godly and ancient order of the ancient fathers hath been so altered, broken, and neglected, by planting in uncertain stories and legends, with multitudes of responds, verses, vain repetitions, commemorations, and synodals, that commonly when any book of the Bible was begun, after three or four chapters were read out, all the rest were unread. . . . And furthermore, notwithstanding that the ancient fathers have divided the Psalms into seven portions, whereof every one was called a Nocturn, now of late time a few of them have been daily said and the rest utterly omitted . . . So that here you have an Order for Prayer and for the Reading of the Holy Scripture much agreeable to the mind and purposes of the old fathers, and a great deal more profitable and commodious than that which of late was used. This is conservatism in the very best sense, for the object aimed at is plainly the conservation of purity, simplicity, and truth, but surely it is not the conservatism of men with whom inaction is the only wisdom and immobility the sole beatitude. We change our sky completely in passing from Anglo-Catholic to Broad Church criticism of _The Book Annexed_. This last has, in the main, addressed itself to the rubrical features of the proposed revision. "You promised us 'flexibility,'" the accusation runs, "but what you are really giving us is simply rigidity under a new form. Let things stay as they are, and we will undertake to find all the 'flexibility' we care to have, without help from legislation." This criticism has at least the merit of intelligibility, for it directly antagonizes what was, without doubt, one main purpose with the revisers, namely, that of reviving respect for the rubrics by making compliance with their terms a more practicable thing. Evidently what Broad Churchmen, or at least a section of them, would prefer is the prevalence of a general consent under which it shall be taken for granted that rubrics are not literally binding on the minister, but are to be stretched and adapted, at the discretion of the officiant, as the exigencies of times and seasons may suggest. It is urged that such a common understanding already in great measure exists; and that to enact new rubrics now, or to remodel old ones, would look like an attempt to revivify a principle of compliance which we have tacitly agreed to consider dead. The answer to this argument is not far to seek. If the Church means to allow the Common Prayer, which hitherto has been regarded as a liturgy, to lapse into the status of a directory; if, in other words, she is content to see her manual of worship altered from a book of instructions as to how Divine Service _shall_ be performed into a book of suggestions as to how it _may_ be rendered, the change ought to be officially and definitely announced, and not left to individual inference or uncertain conjecture. We are rapidly slipping into a position scarcely consistent with either the dignity or the honor of a great Church--that of seeming to be what we are not. To give it out to the public that we are a law-respecting communion, and then to whisper it about among ourselves that our laws bind only those who choose to be bound by them, may serve as a convenient device for tiding over a present difficulty, but is, oh the whole, a course of procedure more likely to harden than to relieve tender consciences. Take, by way of illustration, the case of a city clergyman who would gladly introduce into his parish the usage of daily service, but who is convinced, whether rightly or wrongly, that to secure even a fair attendance of worshippers he ought to have the liberty of so far condensing the Morning or the Evening Office as to bring it within the limits of a quarter of an hour. He seeks relief through the lawful channel of rubrical revision, and is only laughed at for his pains. In this busy nineteenth century it is nonsense, he is assured, to spend a dozen years in besieging so obdurate a fortress as the General Convention. The way to secure "shortened services" is to shorten services. This is easy logic, and applicable in more directions than one. Only see how smoothly it runs: If you want hymns that are not in the Hymnal, print them. If you want a confessional-box, set it up. If you want a "reserved sacrament," order the carpenter to make a tabernacle and the locksmith to provide a bolt.[55] This is a far less troublesome method of securing the ends desired than the tedious and roundabout process of proposing a change at one meeting of the General Convention, having your proposal knocked about among some forty or fifty dioceses, and brought up for final action three years later. And yet, superior as the former method may be to the latter in point of celerity and directness, the latter has certain advantages over the former that ought to be evident to men who are not frightened by having their scrupulousness called scrupulosity. Moreover, why should this whole matter be discussed, as so commonly it is discussed, wholly from the clerical side? Have the laity no rights in the liturgy which the clergy are bound to respect? When and where did the Protestant Episcopal Church confer on its ministers a general dispensing power over the ordinances of worship which it withheld from the body of the faithful? Heretofore it has been held that when a layman went to church he had a right to expect certain things guaranteed him by the Church's law. If all this has been changed, then formal notice ought to be served upon us by the General Convention that such is the fact. THE MOTIVE OF THE EFFORT AFTER REVISION. It is asked, and with no little show of plausibility, Why--in the face of such manifold hostility and such persistent opposition, why press the movement for revision any further? Is it worth while to divide public sentiment in the Church upon a question that looks to many to be scarcely more than a literary one? Why not drop the whole thing, and let it fall into the limbo, where lie already the _Proposed Book_ and the _Memorial Papers_? For this reason, and it is sufficient: There has arisen in America a movement toward Christian unity, the like of which has not been seen since the country was settled. It is the confident belief of many that the key to the situation lies with that Church which more truly than any other may be said to represent the historical Christianity of the peoples of English stock. One of the elements in this larger movement is the question of the form of worship. The chief significance of _The Book Annexed_ lies in the claim made for it by its friends, that more adequately than the present Standard it supplies what may fairly be demanded as their manual of worship by a people circumstanced like ours. While, in one sense, more English than the present book in that it restores liturgical treasures lost at the Revolution, it is also more thoroughly American, in that it recognizes and allows for many needs which the newly enfranchised colonists of 1789 could not have been expected to foresee. The question is, Shall we turn a cold shoulder on the movement churchward of our non-Anglican brethren of the reformed faith, doing our best to chill their approaches with a hard _Non possumus_, or shall we go out to meet them with words of welcome on our lips? Union under "the Latin obedience" is impossible. For us, in the face of the decrees of 1870, there can be "no peace with Rome." The Greeks are a good way off. Our true "solidarity," if "solidarity" is to be achieved at all, is not with Celts, but with our own kith and kin, the children of the Reformation. Is it wise of us to say to these fellow Christians of ours, adherents of the Catholic Faith as well as we, "Nay, but the nearer you draw to us the farther we mean to draw away from you; the more closely you approximate to Anglican religion, the more closely shall we, for the sake of differencing ourselves from you, approximate to Vatican religion?" In better harmony with the apostolic temper, in truer continuity with the early churchmanship, should we be found, were we to join voices thus: _V_. Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. _R_. And he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. II. _The Book Annexed_ may be said to hold to the possible standard Common Prayer of 1890 a relation not unlike that of a clay model to the statue which is to be. The material is still in condition to be moulded; the end is not yet. It was in anticipation of this state of things that the friends of revision in 1883 were anxious to carry through the preliminary stage of acceptance as many of their propositions as possible. To revert to our parable, the modeller, in treating the face of his provisional image, must be careful to lay on clay enough, or he may find himself barred at the last moment from giving the features just that finishing touch which is to make them ready for the marble. All the skill in the world will not enable him to secure for the face precisely the expression he would have it wear, if the _materia_ be insufficient. Looked at in this light, the suggestion made by the Joint Committee in the House of Deputies at an early stage of the session of 1883, that the entire Book Annexed, in precisely the form in which it had been submitted, should be passed, and sent down to the dioceses for consideration, instead of being the arbitrary and unreasonable demand it was reckoned by those who lifted their eyebrows at the very mention of such a thing, was really a sensible proposition which the Convention would have done well to heed. Few, if any, critics of _The Book Annexed as Modified_ have pronounced it an improvement to _The Book Annexed_ as presented. The Book came out of the Convention less admirable than it went in. As a school of Liturgies, the long debate at Philadelphia was doubtless salutary and helpful, but whether the immediate results, as shown in the emendation of the Joint Committee's work, were equally deserving of praise is another question. Nevertheless, as was argued in the paper of which this one is the continuation, we must take things as we find them, not as we wish they were; and since there is no other method of liturgical revision known to our laws than revision by popular debate, to revision by popular debate we must reconcile ourselves as best we may. Regrets are idle. Let us be thankful that the amicable struggle at Philadelphia had for its outcome so large rather than so small a mass of workable material, and instead of accounting _The Book Annexed_ to be what one of the signers of the Joint Committee's Report has lately called it, "a melancholy production," recognize in it the germ of something exceedingly to be desired. From the first, there has never been any disposition on the part of sober-minded friends of Revision to carry through their scheme with a rush; the delay that is likely to better things they will welcome; the only delay they deprecate is the delay that kills. The changes enumerated in the "Notification to the Dioceses," and illustrated to the eye in _The Book Annexed_ as Modified, may be broadly classified under the following heads: (_a_) Clearly desirable alterations, with respect to which there is practically unanimous consent, and for which there is immediate demand, _e_. _g_., shortened offices of week-day prayer. (_b_) Alterations desirable in the main, but likely to be more cordially acquiesced in, could still further improvement be secured, _e_. _g_., the new versicles introduced into Evening Prayer after the Creed. (_c_) Alterations generally accounted undesirable on any terms, e. g., the permissive rubrics with respect to the reading of certain psalms during Lent, instead of the regular responds to the First and Second Lessons of the Evening Prayer. The question arises, Is any course of action possible that will give us without delay the changes which for some fifteen years the whole Church has been laboring to secure; that will give us, with a reasonable delay of three years longer, the confessed improvements a little more improved; while at the same time we are kept from becoming involved in the wretched confusion sure to result from putting into circulation, within a brief period, two authorized but diverse books of Common Prayer? This threefold question it is proposed to meet with a threefold affirmative. THE STANDARD PRAYER BOOK OF 1890. The end we ought to have in view is the publication, in the year 1890, of a standard Book of Common Prayer, such as shall embody the ripe results of what will then have been a period of ten years of continuous labor in the work of liturgical revision. To this reckoning of ten years should properly be added the seventeen years that intervened between the presentation of "The Memorial" in 1853 and the passing of the "Enrichment Resolutions" in 1880: so that really our Revision would look back for its historical beginnings, not across a decade merely, but over almost the lifetime of a generation. No single one of the various revisions of the English Book has observed anything like so leisurely a movement. But by what methods of legislative procedure could such a result as the one indicated be reached? The precedent of the last century does not help us very much. The American Book of Common Prayer was set forth on the sixteenth day of October in the year of our Lord 1789; but with an express statutory provision that the "use" of the book, as so set forth, should not become obligatory till the first day of October, 1790. We cannot copy this line of procedure, for the simple reason that no such undertaking as that of 1789 is in hand. It is not now proposed to legislate into existence a new Liturgy. The task before us is the far humbler one of passing judgment upon certain propositions of change, almost every one of which admits of segregation, has an independent identity of its own, and may be accepted or rejected wholly without reference to what is likely to happen to the other propositions that accompany it. _The Book Annexed as Modified_ is in no proper sense a _Proposed Book_, nor can it without misrepresentation be called such; it is simply a sample publication[56] illustrative of what the Book of Common Prayer would be, were all the Resolutions of Revision that passed their first stage of approval in 1883 carried into final effect; a result most unlikely to occur. THE MEANS TO THE END. The most expeditious and every way satisfactory means to the end that has now been defined would be the appointment, at an early stage of the session in October, of a Joint Committee of Conference. To this committee should be referred: (_a_) The question: How many of the Resolutions of 1883, or of the "several recommendations therein contained," is it either practicable or desirable to approve at once? (_b_) The question: How may such of the Resolutions of 1883 as are too good to be lost, but not in their present form good enough to satisfy the Church, be so remoulded as to make their adoption probable in 1889? (_c_) All new propositions of improvement that may from time to time during the session be brought to the notice of the Convention, either by individual members or by memorials from Diocesan Conventions. Such a Committee of Conference, holding daily sessions of three or four hours each, would be able in due time to report a carefully digested scheme which could then be intelligently discussed. By this method a flood of frivolous and aimless talk would be cut off without in the slightest degree infringing or limiting the real liberty of debate. But even if the Convention were to show itself reluctant to give to a select committee so large a power as this of preparing an _agenda_ paper, it still would be possible to refer to such a committee the subject-matter of so many of the resolutions as might chance, when put upon their passage, to fail by a narrow vote. It is to be remembered that the various recommendations contained in the resolutions of 1883 are to be voted upon _in ipsissimis verbis_. There will be no opportunity for the familiar cry: "Mr. President, I rise to propose an amendment." The resolution, or the section of a resolution, as the case may be, will either be approved just as it stands or condemned just as it stands. In this respect there will be an immense saving of time. Most of the tediousness of debate grows out of the natural disposition of legislators to try each his own hand at bettering the thing proposed; hence "amendments," "amendments to amendments," and substitutes for the amendment to the amendment. Even the makers of parliamentary law (much enduring creatures) lose their patience at this point, and peremptorily lay it down that confusion shall no further go. But to return to the supposed case of a proposition lost because of some slight defect, which, if only our Medo-Persian law had permitted an amendment, could easily have been remedied. Surely the sensible course in such a case as that would be to refer the subject-matter of the lost resolution to the Committee of Conference, with instructions to report a new resolution to be finally acted upon three years hence. So then, whether there be given to the Committee of Conference either the large power to recommend a carefully thought out way of dealing with all the material _en bloc_, or the lesser function of sitting in judgment on new propositions, and of remoulding rejected ones, in either case there could scarcely fail to result from the appointment of such a committee large and substantial gains. IMPROVEMENTS. It follows, from what has been said, that if there are features that admit of improvement in the proposals which the Convention has laid before the Church for scrutiny, now is emphatically the time for suggesting the better thing that might be done. Even the bitterest opponents of _The Book Annexed_ can scarcely be so sanguine as to imagine that nothing at all is coming from this labored movement for revision. A measure which was so far forth acceptable to the accredited representatives of the Church, in council assembled, as to pass its first stage three years ago almost by acclamation, is not destined to experience total collapse. The law of probabilities forbids the supposition. The personal make-up of the next General Convention will be to a great extent identical with that of the last, and of the one before the last. Sober-minded men familiar with the work of legislation are not accustomed to reverse their own well considered decisions without weighty cause. The strong probability is that something in the line of emendation, precisely how much or how little no one can say, will, as a matter of fact, be done. In view of this likelihood, would not those who are dissatisfied with _The Book Annexed_ as it stands be taking the wiser course were they to substitute co-operative for vituperative criticism? So far as the present writer is in any sense authorized to speak for the friends of revision, he can assure the dissidents that such co-operation would be most welcome. A. B., a scholar thoroughly familiar, we will suppose, with the sources of liturgical material, is dissatisfied with the collects proposed for the successive days of Holy Week. Very well, he has a perfect right to his dissatisfaction and to the expression of it in the strongest terms at his command. He does only his plain duty in seeking to exclude from the Prayer Book anything that seems to him unworthy of a place in it. But seeing that he must needs, as a "liturgical expert," acknowledge that the deficiency which the Joint Committee sought to make good is a real and not a merely fancied deficiency, would not A. B. approve himself a more judicious counsellor if, instead of bending all his energy to the disparagement of the collects proposed, he should devote a portion of it to the discovery and suggestion of prayers more happily worded? And this remark holds good with reference to whatever new feature is to be found between the covers of The Book Annexed. If betterment be possible, these six months now lying before us afford the time of all times in which to show how, with the least of loss and most of gain, it may be brought about. The Diocese of Maryland is first in the field with an adequate contribution of this sort. A thoroughly competent committee, appointed in October, 1884, has recently printed its Report, and whether the Diocesan Convention adopt, amend, or reject what is presented to it, there can be little doubt that the mind of the Church at large will be perceptibly affected by what these representative men of Maryland have said.[57] Apart from a certain aroma of omniscience pervading it (with which, by the way, sundry infelicities of language in the text of the Report, only indifferently consort), the document, is a forcible one, and of great practical value. The Committee have gone over the entire field covered by the "Notification to the Dioceses," taking up the Resolutions one by one, and not only noting in connection with each whatever is in itself objectionable, but also (a far more difficult task) suggesting in what respect this or that proposition might be better put. The _apparatus criticus_ thus provided, while not infallible, is eminently helpful, sets a wholesome pattern, and if supplemented by others of like tenor and scope, will go far to lighten the labor of whatever committee may have the final recension of the whole work put into its hands.[58] It would be a poor self-conceit in the framers of _The Book Annexed_, that should prompt them to resent as intrusive any criticism whatsoever. What we all have at heart is the bringing of our manual of worship as nearly as possible to such a pitch of perfectness as the nature of things human will allow. The thing we seek is a Liturgy which shall draw to itself everything that is best and most devout within our national borders, a Common Prayer suited to the common wants of all Americans. Whatever truly makes for this end, it will be our wisdom to welcome, whether those who bring it forward are popularly labelled as belonging to this, that, or the other school of Churchmanship. To allow party jealousies to mar the symmetry and fulness of a work in which all Churchmen ought to have an equal inheritance would be the worst of blunders. By all means let the raiment of needlework and the clothing of wrought gold be what they should be for such sacred uses as hers who is the daughter of the great King, but let us not fall to wrangling about the vats in which the thread was dyed or the river bed from which the gold was gathered. In a later paper the present writer intends to venture upon a task similar to that undertaken by the Maryland Committee. He will do this largely in the hope of encouraging by example other and more competent critics to busy themselves in the same way. Meanwhile a few observations may not be amiss with respect to the sources of liturgical material, and the methods by which they can be drawn upon to the best advantage. There has been, first and last, a deal of ill considered talk about the boundlessness of the liturgical treasures lying unused in the pre-Reformation formularies of the English Church, as well as in the old sacramentaries and office-books of the East and the West. Wonder is expressed that with such limitless wealth at its command, an "Enrichment Committee" should have brought in so poverty-stricken a Report. Have we not Muratori and Mabillon? it is asked: Daniel and Assemani, Renaudot and Goar? Are there not Missals Roman, Ambrosian, and Mozarabic? Breviaries Anglican, Gallican, and Quignonian? Has Maskell delved and Neale translated and Littledale compiled in vain? To all of which there are two replies, namely: first, It is inexpedient to overload a Prayer Book, even if the material be of the best; and secondly, This best material is by no means so abundant as the volume of our resources would seem to suggest. It was for the very purpose of escaping redundancy and getting rid of surplusage that the Anglican Reformers condensed Missal, Breviary, and Rituale into the one small and handy volume known as the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. It was a bold stroke, doubtless denounced as perilously radical at the time; but experience has justified Cranmer and his friends. In the whole history of liturgies there is no record of a wiser step. It is scarcely possible so grievously to sin against a people's Prayer Book as by making it more complicated in arrangement and more bulky in volume than need actually requires. It was ground of justifiable pride with the "Enrichment Committee" that the Book which they brought in, despite the many additions it contained, was no thicker by a single page than the Prayer Book as it is. To be sure, the General Convention spoiled all this by insisting on retaining certain duplicated formularies which the Committee had very properly dropped in order to find room for fresh material. But of the Book as first presented, it was possible to say that in no degree was it more cumbrous than that to which the people were already accustomed. Doubtless it would have been still more to the Committee's credit could they have brought in an enriched Book smaller by a third than the Book in use; but this their conservatism forbade. Of even greater moment is the other point, which concerns the quality of the available material. It is the greatest mistake in the world to suppose that simply because a given prayer exists, say in an Oriental liturgy, and has been translated into English by an eminent scholar, it is therefore proper material to be worked into our services. As a matter of fact, a great deal of devotional language of which the Oriental liturgies is made up is prolix and tedious to a degree simply insufferable. Moreover in the case of prayers in themselves admirable in the original tongue in which they were composed, all is often lost through lack of a verbal felicity in the translation. If anyone questions this judgment, let him toil through Neale's and Littledale's _Translations of the Primitive Liturgies_ and see whether he can find six, nay, three, consecutive lines which he would be willing to see introduced into our own Communion Office. Or, as respects translations from the Latin office-books of the Church of England, let him scrupulously search the pages of the "Sarum Hours," as done into the vernacular by the Recorder of Salisbury, and see how many of the Collects strike him as good enough to be transplanted into the Book of Common Prayer. The result of this latter voyage of discovery will be an increased wonder at the affluence of the mediaeval devotions, combined with amazement at the poverty and unsatisfactoriness of the existing translations. It is with a Latin collect as with a Greek ode or an Italian sonnet: no matter how wonderful the diction, the charm of it is as a locked secret until the thing has been Englished by genius akin to his who first made it out of his own heart. Of others besides the many brave men who lived before Agamemnon might it be written: sed omnes illacrumabiles Urgentur, ignotique larga Nocte, carent quia vate sacro. It was the peculiar felicity of Schiller that he had Coleridge for a translator, and the shades of Gregory and Leo owe it to a living Anglican divine that we English-speaking Christians can think their thoughts after them, and pray their prayers. Such being the facts in the case, it is evident that the range of choice open to American revisers is far narrower than half-informed persons imagine it to be. The very best sources of liturgical material are the following: (_a_) King James's Bible, including the Apocrypha, and supplemented by the Prayer Book version of the Psalms; (_b_) The old Sacramentaries, Leonine, Gregorian, and Gelasian, chiefly as illustrated by the genius of Dr. Bright; (_c_) The Breviary in its various forms; (_d_) The Primers and other like _fragmenta_ of the era of the English Reformation;[59] (_e_) The devotional writings of the great Anglican divines of the school of Andrews, Ken, and Taylor;[60] and last and least, (_f_) The various manuals of prayer, of which the past twenty years have shown themselves so prolific.[61] Of the Anglican writers, Jeremy Taylor would be by far the most helpful, were it not for the efflorescence of his style. As it is, the best use that can be made of his exuberant devotions is to cull from them here and there a telling phrase or a musical cadence. The "General Intercession," for example, on page 50 of _The Book Annexed_, is a cento to which Taylor is the chief contributor. That the Enrichment Committee made the best possible use of the various quarries to which they had access is unlikely. Even if they credited themselves with having done so, it would be immodest of them to say it. Better material than any that their researches brought to light may still be lying near the surface, somewhere close at hand, waiting to be unearthed. Certainly this paper will not have been written in vain if it serves the purpose of provoking to the good work of discovery some of those who on the score both of quality and of quantity account what has been thus far done in the line of revision inadequate and meagre. III. It is next proposed to take up the Philadelphia Resolutions of Revision (1883) one by one, and to consider in what measure, if in any, the subject-matter of each of them lies open to improvement. Should the method of procedure recommended in the previous paper, or any method resembling it, find favor at the approaching Convention, and a Conference Committee of the two Houses be appointed to remould the work with reference to final action three years hence, criticism of this sort, even though inadequate, can scarcely fail of being in some measure helpful. RESOLUTION I. _The Title-page _. The proposals under this head are two in number: (_a _) that the words, "together with the Psalter or Psalms of David," be dropped from the title-page as superfluous, and (_b _) that a general title, "THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER," be printed on the first page of the leaf preceding the title-page. Neither of these suggestions is of any great importance, and the interest attaching to them is mainly bibliographical. Whenever any addition has been made to the Prayer Book of the Church of England, the rule has been to note it invariably in the Table of Contents, and sometimes also on the title-page. Until 1662 the Psalter formed no part of the Prayer Book; it was a volume by itself, and was cited as such. In fact, it was a sort of "Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer." In the revision of 1662 the Psalter was incorporated, and immediately there appeared upon the title-page of the Common Prayer, in addition to what had been there before, the words, "together with the Psalter or Psalms of David printed as they are to be sung or read in the churches." The present title-page of the English Book has a singularly crowded and awkward look, contrasting most unfavorably in this regard with those of 1559, 1552, and 1549.[62] But if the needless mention of the Psalter on our present title-page gives pleasure to any considerable number of people, it would be foolish to press the suggestion of a change. Let it pass. Of a more serious character would be the omission, which some urge, of the words "Protestant Episcopal" from the title-page. Should anything of this sort be done, which is most unlikely, Dr. Egar's suggestion to drop the words, "of the Protestant Episcopal Church," leaving it to read, "according to the use in the United States of America," would carry the better note of catholicity. But, after all, the remonstrants have only to turn the page to find the obnoxious "Protestant Episcopal" so fast riveted into the _Ratification_ that nothing short of an act of violence done to history could accomplish the excision of it.[63] RESOLUTION II. _The Introductory Portion_. (a) _Table of Contents_.--The suggestion[64] that all entries after "The Psalter" should be printed in italics, is a good one. (b) _Concerning the Service of the Church_.--This substitute for the present "Order how the Psalter is appointed to be read" and "Order how the rest of the Holy Scripture is appointed to be read" is largely based on the provisions of the so-called "Shortened Services Act" of 1872. The second paragraph relating to the use of the Litany appears to be superfluous. The enlarged Table of Proper Psalms and the Table of Selections of Psalms, which come under this same general heading, would be a very great gain. Why the Maryland Committee should have pronounced the latter Table "practically useless, since the psalms are not to be printed," it is hard, in the face of the existing usage with respect to "Proper Psalms," to understand; nor is there any special felicity in the proposal emanating from the same source that the number of the Selections be cut down to three, one for feasts and one for fasts and one for an extra service on Sunday nights. On the other hand, the Maryland Committee does well in recommending that permission be given to the minister to shorten the Lessons at his discretion, though the hard and fast condition, "provided he read not less than fifteen consecutive verses," apart from the questionable English in which it is phrased, smacks more of the drill-room than of the sanctuary. Far better would it be (if the suggestion may be ventured) to allow no liberty of abridgment whatever in the case of Proper Lessons, while giving entire freedom of choice on all occasions for which no proper lessons have been appointed. So far as "ferial" days are concerned, it would be much wiser to let the Table of Lessons be regarded as suggestive and not mandatory. The half-way recognition of this principle in the new Lectionary, in which such a freedom is allowed, _provided_ the Lesson taken be one of those appointed for "some day in the same week," seems open to a suspicion of childishness. The rubrical direction entitled "Hymns and Anthems" requires verbal correction, but embodies a wholesome principle. Under this same general head of "The Introductory Portion" come the new Lectionary and the new Tables for finding Easter. Of these, the former is law already, except so far as respects the Lessons appointed for the proposed Feast of the Transfiguration. The Easter Tables are a monument to the erudition and accuracy of the late Dr. Francis Harison. The Tables in our present Standard run to the year 1899. Perhaps a "wholesome conservatism" ought to discover a tincture of impiety in any proposal to disturb them before the century has expired. RESOLUTION III. _The Morning Prayer_. (a) _The First Rubric_.--The Maryland Committee is quite right in remarking that the language of this important rubric, as set forth by the Convention of 1883, is "inelegant and inaccurate," but another diocese has called attention to the fact that the substitute which Maryland offers would, if adopted, enable any rector who might be so minded to withhold entirely from the non-communicating portion of his flock all opportunity for _public_ confession and absolution from year's end to year's end. It is not for a moment to be supposed that there was any covert intention here, but the incident illustrates the value to rubric-makers of the Horatian warning--_Brevis esse labor o, obscurus fio_. Passing by the Proper Sentences for special Days and Seasons, against which no serious complaint has been entered,[65] we come to the proposed short alternative for the Declaration of Absolution. As it stood in the Sarum Use this Absolution ran as follows: "The Almighty and Merciful Lord grant you Absolution and Remission of all your sins, space for true penitence, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit. Amen."[66] With the single change of the word "penitence" to "repentance" this is the form in which the Absolution stood in the original _Book Annexed_. The Convention thought that it detected a "Romanizing germ" in the place assigned to "penitence," and an archaism in the temporal sense assigned to "space," and accordingly rearranged the whole sentence. But in their effort to mend the language, our legislators assuredly marred the music.[67] (e) _The Benedictus es, Domine_.--The insertion of this Canticle as an alternate to the _Te Deum_ was in the interest of shortened services for week-day use, as has been already explained. The same purpose could be served equally well, and the always objectionable expedient of a second alternate avoided, by spacing off the last six verses of the _Benedicite_, which have an integrity of their own, and prefixing a rubric similar to those that stand before the _Venite_ and the _Benedictus_ in "_The Book Annexed_"; e. g.: _On week-days, it shall suffice if only the latter portion of this Canticle be said or sung_. (n) _The Benedictus_.--With reference to the restoration of the last portion of this Hymn, it has been very properly remarked by one of the critics of _The Book Annexed_, that the line of division between the required and the optional portions would more properly come after the eighth than after the fourth verse. This would make the portion reserved for Advent begin with the reference to John the Baptist, as undoubtedly it ought to do: "And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest." (o) _De Profundis_.--There will probably be general consent to the omission of this alternate, as being what the Maryland Committee _naively_ call it, "too mournful a psalm" for this purpose.[68] RESOLUTION IV. _Daily Evening Prayer_. (c) The proposed words, "Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God," are justly thought by many to be inferior both in rhythm and in dignity to "Let us make humble confession to Almighty God." (i)-(l) There seems to be absolute unanimity in the judgment that _Magnificat_ and _Nunc Dimittis_ ought, as Gospel Hymns, to have the prior places after the Lessons which they follow. In the interest of simplicity of arrangement a like general consent to omit altogether _Bonum est confiteri_ and _Benedic anima mea_ would be most fortunate, but this point has been already enlarged upon in a previous paper.[69] The "Notes," permitting the use of Psalms xlii. and xliii. after the Lessons during Lent, seem to have found no favor in any quarter, and ought undoubtedly to be dropped. (n) If the lost versicles are to be restored after the Creed, as all who have learned to love them in the service of the Church of England must earnestly desire, some better substitute for "God save the queen," than "O Lord, save our rulers," ought surely to be found.[70] Moreover, the order of the versicles, as Prof. Gold has clearly pointed out,[71] is open to improvement. RESOLUTION V. _The Beatitudes of the Gospel_. This is the one feature of _The Book Annexed_ against which the fire of hostile criticism has been the most persistently directed. Whether the strictures passed upon the Office have been in all cases as intelligent as they have been severe, may be open to question, but there can be no doubt whatever that, in its present form, Resolution V. would, if put to the vote, be rejected. Passing by the more violent utterances of those whose language almost suggests that they find something objectionable in the very BEATITUDES themselves,[72] it will suffice to consider and weigh what has been said in various quarters, first, about the unprecedented character of the Office, and secondly, concerning the infelicity of the appointed response, "Lord, have mercy upon us, and be it unto thy servants according to thy word." So far as concerns precedent, it ought to be enough to say that the words are our Lord's words, and that they were thrown by him into a form which readily lends itself to antiphonal use. The very same characteristics of parallelism and antithesis, that make the Psalms so amenable to the purposes of worship, are conspicuous in the BEATITUDES. If the Church of England, for three hundred years, has been willing to give place in her devotions to the Curses of the Old Testament,[73] we of America need not to be afraid, precedent or no precedent, to make room among our formularies for the Blessings of the New. Those who allow themselves to characterize the liturgical use of these memorable sayings of the Son of Man as "fancy ritual" and "sentimentalism" may well pause to ask themselves what manner of spirit they are of. The BEATITUDES are the charter of the kingdom of heaven. If they are "sentimental," the kingdom is "sentimental"; but if, on the other hand, they constitute the organic law of the People of God, they have at least as fair a right as the Ten Commandments to be published from the altar, and answered by the great congregation. But is the complaint of "no precedent" a valid one, even supposing considerations of intrinsic fitness to have been ruled out? The Liturgy of St. Chrysostom provides that the Beatitudes shall be sung on Sundays in room of the third antiphon.[74] The learned Bishop of Haiti, in a paper warmly commending the liturgical use of the BEATITUDES,[75] calls attention to the further fact that the Eight Sayings have a place in some of the service-books of the Eastern Church in the Office for the Sixth and Ninth Hours, and notes the suggestive and touching circumstances that, as there used, they have for a response the words of the penitent thief upon the cross. We might all of us well pray to be "remembered" in that kingdom to which these Blessings give the law. In _The Primer set forth by the King's Majesty and his Clergy_ in 1545, a sort of stepping-stone to the later "Book of Common Prayer," we find the BEATITUDES very ingeniously worked into the Office of The Hours, as anthems; beginning with Prime and ending with Evensong. Appropriate Collects are interwoven, some of them so beautiful as to be well worth preserving.[76] But the most interesting precedent of all remains still to be studied. In the first year of the reign of William and Mary, a Royal Commission was appointed to revise the Book of Common Prayer. The most eminent Anglican divines of the day, including Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Patrick, and Beveridge, were among the members. To all outward appearance the movement came to naught; for the proposed revision was not even put into print, until in 1854, the House of Commons, in response to a motion of Mr. Heywood, ordered it to be published as a Blue-book. And yet in some way our American revisers of 1789 must have found access to the original volume as it lay hidden in the archbishop's library at Lambeth; for not only does their work show probable evidence of such consultation, but in their Preface they distinctly refer to the effort of King William's Commission as a "great and good work,"[77] a thing they would scarcely have done had they possessed no real knowledge of the facts. Macaulay's sneering reference to the work of the Commission is well known, but, strangely enough, the justice which a Whig reviewer withholds, a high Anglican divine concedes, for no less exacting a critic than Dr. Neale, while manifesting, as was to be expected, a general dislike of the Commissioners of 1689, and of their work, does yet find something to praise in what they recommended.[78] Among the real improvements suggested by the Commission was the liturgical use of the BEATITUDES, and this in two places, once in "The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper," as an alternate to the Ten Commandments; and again in the Commination Office as a proper balance to the Anathemas of the Law. But the Commission, like the late Joint Committee on the Book of Common Prayer, was unfortunate in its choice of a response; and no wonder, for the task of finding the proper one is difficult.[79] A Beatitude differs from a Commandment in that while the latter enjoins the former only declares. The one therefore simply calls for assent, or, at most, assent coupled with petition, while the other peremptorily demands a cry for mercy. The immemorial form of the cry for mercy in the devotions of Christendom is the "Kyrie eleison," _Lord, have mercy upon us_; the immemorial form of assent the word _Amen_. Can we do better, therefore, in adapting the BEATITUDES to liturgical use than to treat them precisely as the Curses are treated in the Commination Office of the Church of England, namely, by inserting after each one of them a plain _Amen_. This recommendation has the great merit of simplicity. Two or three strikingly ingenious schemes for supplying each of the Eight Sayings with a proper response of its own have been suggested;[80] but the objection to them is that, beautiful though they are, their complexity would embarrass and distress the kneeling worshipper. In these matters, practical drawbacks have to be taken into account as well as abstract excellencies, and no matter how felicitous the antiphonal responses, they would be worse than useless were a puzzled congregation to refuse to join in them. There will be found appended to this Paper a plan for recasting the Office of the BEATITUDES in such a way as to make it coincide structurally, as far as it goes, with the introductory portion of the Holy Communion.[81] Were the Office to be thus set forth, it would be possible on week-days, and with singular appropriateness on Saints' Days, to substitute the BEATITUDES for the Commandments, without encumbering the Communion Office with an alternate. Should this suggestion find acceptance, the two Collects in the present Office of BEATITUDES, which are far too good to be lost, one of them being the modified form of a Leonine original, and the other one of the very best of Canon Bright's own compositions, might be transferred to a place among the "Occasional Prayers." RESOLUTION VI. _The Litany_. The rubrics prefixed to the Litany are a gain, but except by the addition of the two new suffrages, the one for the President and the other for the increase of the ministry, it will probably be best to leave the text of this formulary untouched. Even in the case of the new petitions it would be well if they could be grafted upon suffrages already existing, a thing that might easily be done.[82] It would be a liturgical improvement if the Litany, in its shortened form, were to end at the _Christe_, _audi_, and the minister directed to return, at this point, to the General Thanksgiving in the Morning Prayer. This would divide the Litany symmetrically, instead of arbitrarily, as is now done, and would remove the General Thanksgiving from a place to which it has little claim either by historical precedent or natural congruity. The greatest improvement of all would be the restoration of the august and massive words of invocation which of old stood at the beginning of the Litany. The modern invocations have a dignity of their own, but they are not to be compared for devotional power and simple majesty with the more ancient ones. But for an "enrichment" so good as this, it is too much to hope. RESOLUTION VII. _Prayers and Thanksgivings_. The Maryland Committee[83] have much to say in criticism of this section, and offer many valuable suggestions, the best of them being a recommendation to print the Prayer entitled, "For Grace to speak the Truth in Love," in Canon Bright's own words. Some of their comments, on the other hand, suggest canons of criticism which, if applied to "The Prayer Book as it is," would make havoc of its choicest treasures.[84] The Committee of Central New York[85] go much further in the line of destructive criticism than their brethren of Maryland, and after excepting four of the proposed prayers, condemn all the rest to dismissal. Possibly this is just judgment, but those who have searched diligently the storehouses of devotional English, will think twice before they consent to it. No doubt the phraseology of some of the proposed prayers might be improved. In view of the searching criticism to which for three years it has been exposed, it would be strange indeed if such were not found to be the case. But the collection as a whole, instead of suffering loss, ought to receive increment. At least three or four more prayers for the work of missions in its various aspects ought to be added, also a Prayer for the furtherance of Christian Education in Schools and Colleges. As Br. Dowden shrewdly asks, in speaking of spiritual needs which we postpone expressing for lack of language sufficiently artistic in form, "What is the measure of our faith in the efficacy of united prayer, when we are content to go on, year after year, and never come together to ask God to supply those needs?"[86] There is one consideration connected with this supply of special prayers too frequently lost out of sight. While it is perfectly true that the Book of Common Prayer was never designed to be a _Treasury of Devotion_ for individuals, it is equally true that for thousands and hundreds of thousands of our fellow-countrymen who live remote from "Church book-stores," or lack the means of patronizing them, the Prayer Book is, as a matter of fact, their only devotional help. In countless households, moreover, many of them beyond "Protestant Episcopal" borders altogether, the Prayer Book is doing a work only less beneficent than it might do, were we to concede a very little more to that outwardly illogical but spiritually self-consistent policy which, breaking away, a century ago, from the chain of precedent, inserted in the American Book "The Forms of Prayer to be used in Families." RESOLUTION VIII. _Penitential Office for Ash-Wednesday_. This is the English Commination Office, with the introductory portion omitted. It would add to the merit of the formulary, especially when used as a separate office, were it to be prefaced by the versicle and response, similarly employed in the Hereford Breviary: _V_. Let us confess unto the Lord, for he is gracious. _R_. And his mercy endureth forever. In view of the great length of the Morning Service on Ash-Wednesday, and the close similarity between the closing portion of the Litany and the intermediate portion of this Office, the following emendation of the first Rubric is suggested, a change which would carry with it the omission of the Rubric after psalm li. a little further on. _On the_ First Day of Lent, _at_ Morning Prayer, _the Office ensuing shall be read immediately after the words_, Have mercy upon us, _in the Litany, and in place of what there followeth_. In the third Rubric it might be well to add to "_shall be said_" the words, "_or sung_." The blessing at the end of the office should stand, as in the English Book, in the precatory form; otherwise we might have the anomaly of a benediction pronounced before the end of the service. RESOLUTION IX. _Thanksgiving-day or Harvest-home_. The only alteration needed in this office is the restoration of the beautiful prayer for unity to its own proper wording as given in the so-called "Accession Service" appended to the English Prayer Book. As it stands in _The Book Annexed_ the language of the prayer is possibly ungrammatical and certainly redundant. A critic, already more than once quoted,[87] protests against the prominence given to this office in _The Book Annexed_, ascribing it to influences born of the associations of New England. But although the motive of the revisers might have had a worse origin than that of which the reviewer complains, the actual fact is that the formulary was placed where it is purely in consideration of the liturgical fitness of things; it having been held that the proper position for an Office of Thanksgiving must be in immediate sequence to an Office of Penitence. It is with sincere diffidence that the present writer differs with _The Seminarian_, on a point of historical precedent, but he ventures to suggest that to find the prototype of Harvest-home we must go back far beyond New England, and for that matter far beyond Old England, nay, beyond the Christian era itself, even to the day when it was said, "Thou shalt observe the Feast of Tabernacles, seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine." Doubtless there is a joy greater than the "joy of harvest," and to this we give expression in the Eucharist; but doubtless also the joy of harvest is in itself a proper joy and one which finds fitting utterance in such forms of prayer and praise as this. RESOLUTION XI. _Collects, Epistles, and Gospels_. No department of liturgical revision calls for a nicer touch than that which includes the Collects. That new collects for certain unsupplied feasts and fasts would be a genuine enrichment of The Book of Common Prayer, has long been generally acknowledged among Anglican scholars. The most weighty fault to be found with the collects added by the revisers is that in too large proportion they are addressed to the second and third Persons of the Holy Trinity. The Eucharist itself, as a whole, is properly conceived of as addressed to the Eternal Father. The Collects, as forming part of the Eucharistic Office, ought, strictly speaking, to be also so addressed. It is true that there are exceptions to this rule, and they are found, some of them, in the Prayer Book as it is. But the revisers ought not to have altered the proportion so markedly as they have done, for whereas in our present Book the collects addressed to the Father are as eighty-three to three compared with those not so addressed, the ratio in _The Book Annexed_ is that of eleven to three. Moreover, there would seem to be no good reason for reverting to the usage of the First Book of Edward VI., which provides a second Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the two great feasts of Christmas and Easter. A better way would be to take these additional collects, which are among the most beautiful in the language, and assign them respectively to the Sunday after Christmas, and the Monday in Easter-week. RESOLUTION XII. _The Holy Communion_. To the few changes proposed in this Office, comparatively slight exception has been taken in any quarter. It will probably be wise to leave the language of the Prayer of Consecration wholly untouched, notwithstanding the alleged grammatical error near the end of it. The Rubric which it has been proposed to append to the Office, touching the number of communicants without which it shall not be lawful to administer the Sacrament, being of a disciplinary rather than of a liturgical character, ought not to be urged. The proposal to transfer the Prayer of Humble Access to a place immediately before the Communion appears to be very generally acceptable. It would relieve many worshippers who scruple as Christians at responding to the Fourth Commandment on the score of its Judaic character, if the language of the rubric prefixed to the Decalogue could contain, as did the corresponding rubric in Laud's Book for Scotland, a clause indicative of the mystical and spiritual sense in which the Law should be interpreted by those who live under the Gospel. But such a proposal would probably be accounted "of doctrine," and so be self-condemned. Of the desirability of allowing a week-day use of the BEATITUDES in the room of the COMMANDMENTS enough has been already said. RESOLUTION XVI. _Confirmation_. The permission to use a form of presentation instead of, or in addition to, the Preface is likely to be widely welcomed. The other _addenda_ to this office, being apparently distasteful (for unlike reasons) to all the "schools of thoughts" in the Church, are likely to fail of acceptance; and on the whole may easily be spared. RESOLUTION XVIII. _Visitation of the Sick_. The proposed Commendatory Prayer, though in some of its features strikingly felicitous, is open to formal improvement. The addition of a short _Litany of the Dying_ would be appreciated by those whose ministry is largely exercised among the sick. RESOLUTION XX. _Burial of the Dead_. By far the most important section of this Resolution is the one providing for the insertion of special features when the office is used at the burial of children. The provision, or at least the suggestion, of a more appropriate Lesson would be wise, but for the rest, the office is almost all that could be wished. A recent critic[88] raises the question, "Why single out infants alone for a special service? Why not forms for rich men and poor men--old men and maidens--widows and orphans?" And yet our Lord Jesus Christ did single out little children in a very striking and wonderful manner, and drew a distinction between them and us which may well justify our treating their obsequies with a peculiar tenderness. Even Rome, _Mater dura infantum_ as she has been sometimes thought, is studious to consult in this point the natural affections of the bereaved, and appoints a funeral mass distinct from that appointed for the dead in general. Bishop Seabury felt the need of a rite of this sort and prepared one, but whether it was ever in actual use among the clergy of Connecticut the writer is not informed. Many, very many, since Seabury's day, have felt the same need, and it is safe to say that no one feature of _The Book Annexed_ has enjoyed so universal a welcome as this rightful concession to the demands of the parental heart. CONCLUSION. The survey of corrigenda is now complete. The list looks like a long one, but really the points noted are few compared with those which have passed unchallenged. Here and there in the Resolutions that have not been considered are words or phrases that admit of improvement, and which in an actual and authorized re-review by a Committee of Conference would undoubtedly be improved. The bulk of the work has, for a period of three years, stood the incessant fire of a not always friendly criticism far better than could have been anticipated by those who in the first instance gave it shape. The difficulties of the task have been immense. That they have not all of them been successfully overcome is clear enough, but that they were faced with an honest purpose to be just and fair, and that this purpose was clung to persistently throughout, is a credit which Churchmen of the next generation will not withhold from those who sought to be of service to them. It remains to be seen whether the representatives of the Church will take up this work and perfect it; or _per contra_ in response to the demand for a "Commission of Experts," or the specious but utterly impracticable[89] proposal of concerted action with the Church of England, will decide to postpone the whole affair to the Greek Kalends. One thing is certain, to wit, that the death of this movement will mean inaction for at least a quarter of a century. The men do not live who will have the courage to embark on a fresh enterprise of the like purport while the shipwreck of this one is before their eyes. There are many who, out of a conscientious fear of disturbing what they like to think of as permanently settled, would view such a conclusion of the whole matter with profound gratitude to God. But there are many more to whom such a confession of the Church's inability to appreciate and unwillingness to meet the spiritual needs of a civilization wonderfully unlike anything that has preceded it would be most disheartening. Least of all is there valid ground for hope in the case of those who fancy that if they can only annihilate this project, the day will speedily come when they can revise the Prayer Book in a manner perfectly conformable to their own conception of the "Ideal Liturgy," and after a fashion which the most ardent Anglo-Catholic must fain approve. The American Book of Common Prayer bears the impress to-day of two controlling minds, the mind of Seabury and the mind of White. Doubtless it stood written in the councils of the Divine Providence that so it should be. The two men represented respectively the two modes of apprehending spiritual truth which have always been allowed counterplay and interaction in the history of English religion, and which always will be allowed such counterplay and interaction while English religion remains the comprehensive thing it is. No scheme of liturgical revision, no matter how scientifically constructed, will ever find acceptance with the people of this Church which does not do even-handed justice to both of the great historic growths which find their common root in Anglican soil. When the spirit of Seabury shall have completely exorcised the spirit of White, or the spirit of White shall have completely exorcised the spirit of Seabury from the Church and from the Prayer Book, logic will have triumphed, as sixteen years ago it triumphed under the dome of St. Peter's--logical consistency will have triumphed, but catholicity will have fled. NOTE. THE BEATITUDES OF THE GOSPEL. _On_ Christmas-day, Easter-day, _and_ Whitsunday, _and on any week-day save_ Ash-Wednesday _and_ Good Friday, _this Office may be used in lieu of so much of_ The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper _as precedeth the Epistle for the Day_. _This Office may also be used separately on occasions for which no proper Order hath been provided_. _The Minister standing up shall say the Lord's Prayer and the Collect following, the People kneeling, but the Lord's Prayer may be omitted if it hath been said immediately before_. Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil. _Amen_. _The Collect_. Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. _Amen_. _Then shall the Minister, turning to the People, rehearse the Eight Sayings of our Lord commonly called_ THE BEATITUDES; _and the People, still kneeling, shall after every one of them reverently say_ Amen. _Minister_. Jesus went up into a mountain; and his disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. _Answer_. Amen. _Minister_. Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted. _Answer_. Amen. _Minister_. Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth. _Answer_. Amen. _Minister_. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled. _Answer_. Amen. _Minister_. Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God. _Answer_. Amen. _Minister_. Blessed are the peace-makers; for they shall be called the children of God. _Answer_. Amen. _Minister_. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. _Answer_. Amen. _Minister_. Hear also what the voice from heaven saith. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. _Answer_. Even so, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors. _Minister_. Let us pray. Almighty and Eternal God, to whom is never any prayer made without hope of mercy; Bow thine ear, we beseech thee, to our supplications, and in the country of peace and rest cause us to be made partners with thy holy servants; through Jesus Christ our Lord. _Amen_.[90] _Then shall be said the Collect for the Day and, unless the Holy Communion is immediately to follow, such other prayer or prayers, taken out of this Book, as the Minister shall think proper_. APPENDIX: _SERMONS BEFORE AND AFTER_. APPENDIX. PERMANENT AND VARIABLE CHARACTERISTICS OP THE PRAYER BOOK. A SERMON PREACHED IN ST. STEPHEN'S CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE BISHOP WHITE PRAYER BOOK SOCIETY, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1878. One generation passeth away; and another generation cometh.--Eccles. i.4. Against the background of this sombre fact of change, whatever there is in life that is stable stands out with a sharpness that compels notice. Just because the world is so full of variableness, our hearts' affections fasten with the tighter grip upon anything that seems to have the guarantees of permanence. The Book of Common Prayer appeals to us on this score, precisely as the Bible, in its larger measure, does: it is the book of many generations, not of one, and there is "the hiding of its power." We have received the Prayer Book from the generations that are gone; we purpose handing it on when "another generation cometh"; we hold it for the use and blessing of the generation which now is. Our thoughts about the book, therefore, if we would have the thinking rightly done, must take hold upon the past, the present, and the future, a breadth of topic covered well enough perhaps by this phrase, The Permanent and the Variable Characteristics of the Prayer Book. I make no apology for asking you to take up the subject in so grave a temper. Now, for more than three hundred years, the Common Prayer has been the manual of worship in use with the greater number of the people of that race which, meanwhile, in the providence of God, has been growing up to be the leading power on earth. Everywhere the English language seems to be going forth conquering and to conquer, and whithersoever it penetrates it carries with it the letters and the social traditions of a people whose character has been largely moulded by the influences of the Prayer Book. Africans, Indians, Hindoos are to-day, even in their heathenism, feeling the effects of waves of movement which throb from this centre. Men in authority, the world over, are living out, with more or less of consistency and thoroughness, those convictions about our duty toward God, and our duty toward our neighbor, which were early inwrought into their consciences through the instrumentality of these venerable forms. Surely no one can afford to think or speak otherwise than most seriously and carefully with regard to a book which has behind it a history so worthy, so rich, so pregnant with promise for the future. Look first, then, at the power which the Prayer Book draws from its affiliations with the past. It is a common remark, so common as to be commonplace, that our liturgy owes its excellence to the fact of its not having been the composition or compilation of any one man. So much is evident enough upon the face of it: for a form of worship devised off-hand by an individual, or even put together by a committee sitting around a table, could scarcely be wholly satisfactory to any save the maker or the makers of it. But it is more to the purpose to observe that not only is the Prayer Book not the result of any one man's or any one committee's labors; it is not the work even of any one generation, or of any one age. The men who gradually put the Prayer Book into what is substantially its present shape, in the days of Edward VI. and of Elizabeth, were no more the makers of the Prayer Book than were the men who, in a later reign, set forth what we call "the authorized version" of the Holy Scriptures, the first translators of the Bible. In both cases the work done was a work of review and revision. A much more severe review, a vastly more sweeping revision in the case of the Prayer Book than in the case of the Bible, I grant; but still, mainly a work of review and revision after all. "Continuity," that characteristic so precious in the eye of modern science, continuity marked the whole process. The first Prayer Book of the Reformed Church of England was a condensed, simplified, and purified combination of formularies of worship already in use in the National Church. A certain amount of new material, some of it home-made, some of it drawn from foreign sources, was added; but the great bulk of the new service-book had been contained in one or other of the older manuals. The Reformers did but clip and prune, with that exquisite taste and judgment which belong by tradition to English gardeners, the overgrowth and rank luxuriance of a too long neglected, "careless-ordered" garden. But whence came the earlier formularies themselves, from which Cranmer and the rest quarried the stone for the new building?--to change the metaphor as Paul, you remember, does so suddenly from husbandry to architecture.[91] Whence came Missal, and Breviary, and Book of Offices--the best portions of which were merged in the English Common Prayer? From the far past; the Missal from those primitive liturgies or communion services, some of which we trace back with certainty to the later portion of the ante-Niceneage, and by not unreasonable conjecture to the edge of apostolic days; the Breviary or daily prayers from the times when Christians first took up community life; the Offices from periods of uncertain date all along the track of previous Church history. But what advantage, asks someone full of the modern spirit, what advantage has the Common Prayer in that it can trace a genealogy running up through ages of such uncertain reputation? Have we not been accustomed to regard those times as hopelessly corrupt, impenetrably dark, universally superstitious? Ought we not to be mortified, rather than gratified, to learn that from the pit of so mouldy a past our book of prayer was digged? Would not a brand-new liturgy, modernized expressly to meet the needs of nineteenth century culture, with all the old English idioms displaced, every rough corner smoothed and every crooked place made straight--would not that be something far worthier our respect, better entitled to our allegiance, than this book full of far-away echoes, and faint bell-notes from a half-forgotten past? Yes, if modern man were only modern man and nothing more, such reasoning would be extremely cogent. But what if modern man be really, not the mere creature of the century in which he lives, but the gathered sum and product of all that has preceded him in history? What if you and I, from the very fact that we are living now, have in the dim groundwork of our nature something that would not have been there had we lived one, three, twelve hundred years ago? What if there be such a thing as cumulative acquirement for the race of men, so that a new generation starts with an available capital of associations and ideas of which the generation last preceding it owned but a part? Take such words as "feudalism," "the Crusades," "the Renaissance," "the printing press," consider how much they mean to us, and then remember that to a man of the third century they would have been empty sounds conveying absolutely no meaning. What all this goes to show is that human nature is a map which is continually unrolling. To say that the entirety of it lies between the two meridians that bound the particular tract in which our own little life happens to be cast is stupid. The whole great past belongs to us--river and island, ocean, forest, continent, all are ours. You and the man in armor, you and the Venetian merchant, you and the cowled monk have something, be it ever so little, something in common. That which was in the foreground of their life is now in the background or in the middle distance of yours. It has become a part of you.[92] So, then, if we would have a liturgy that shall speak to our whole nature, and not to a mere fraction of it, it must be a liturgy full of voices sounding out of the past. There must be reminders and suggestions in it of all the great epochs of the Church's story. Yes, echoes even from those very ages which we call dark (perhaps as much because we are in the dark about them as on account of any special blackness attaching to the times themselves), some echoes even from them may have a rightful place in the worship which is to call out responsively all that is in the heart of the most modern of modern men. As there were heroes before Agamemnon, so were there holy and humble men of heart before Cranmer and Luther, yes, and before Jerome and Augustine. If any cry that ever went up from any one of them out of the depths of that nature which they share with us and we with them, if any breath of supplication, any moan of penitence, any shout of victory that issued from their lips has made out to survive the noise and tumult of intervening times, it has earned by its very persistency of tone a _prima facie_ title to be put into the Prayer Book of to-day.[93] And this is why a prayer book may survive the wreck of many systems of theology. A prayer book holds the utterance of our needs; a theological system is the embodiment of our thoughts. Now our thoughts about things divine are painfully fallible and liable to change with change of times; but a want which is genuinely and entirely human is a permanent fact; the great needs of the soul never grow obsolete, and though the language in which the lips shall clothe the heart's desire may alter, as tastes alter, yet the substance of the prayer abides, and in some happy instances the form also abides. To an eye that looks wisely and lovingly on such sights, there is the same keen sense of enjoyment in finding here and there in the Prayer Book suggestions of forgotten customs, reminders of famous persons and events, that there is in detecting in the masonry of an old castle or minster tell-tale stones which betray the different ages, the "sundry times and divers manners" which the fabric represents. Who, for instance, that has traced the history of that apostolic ordinance, "the kiss of peace," down through the liturgical changes and revolutions of eighteen hundred years, can fail to be interested in finding in a single clause of one of the exhortations of our communion service that which corresponds to the literal kiss of primitive times, as well as to the petrified symbol of the original reality, the silver, ivory, or wooden "osculatory" of the mediaeval Church?[94] So with "Ash-Wednesday," a single syllable opens a whole chapter of Church history. Again, the Latin headings to the psalms of the Psalter; with what an impatient gesture can we imagine a spruce reviser brushing these away as so much trash! They are not trash, they are way marks that tell of times when devout men loved those catchwords, as we love the first lines of our favorite hymns. A few of the headings, such as "_De Profundis_" and "_Miserere_," still possess such associations for ourselves. There was a time when very many more of them meant to men now dead and gone as much as "Rock of Ages," or "Sun of my Soul," or "Lead, kindly Light," can mean to you or me.[95] Then, too, the monuments of specially revered heroes of the faith that dot the paths of the Common Prayer, how precious they are! We like to think of Ambrose as speaking to us in the lofty sentences of the _Te Deum_. It is pleasant to associate Chrysostom with the prayer that bears his name, and to know that he who swayed the city's multitude still prized the Master's promise to the "two or three gathered together" in his name. So also, in our American Book, Jeremy Taylor, the modern Chrysostom, meets us in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick, in that solemn prayer addressed to Him "whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered." All these things help to make the Prayer Book the large-hearted, wide-minded book we all of us feel it to be, so like a friend whom we revere because he is kindly in his tone, generous in his judgments, quick to understand us at every point. So much for the past of the Prayer Book. We have touched it in no image-breaking mood, but with reverence. "One generation passeth away, another generation cometh," and it has been the peculiar felicity of this book to stand A link among the days, to knit The generations each to each. We pass on to consider the present usefulness of the Prayer Book and the possibility of extending that usefulness in the future. And now I shall speak wholly as an American to Americans, not because the destinies of the Prayer Book in the New World are the more important, though such may in the end turn out to be the fact, but simply because we are at home here and know our own wants and wishes, our own liabilities and opportunities, far better than we can possibly know those of other people. As a Church we have always tied ourselves too slavishly to English precedent. Our vine is greatly in danger of continuing merely a potted ivy, an indoor exotic. The past of the Common Prayer we cannot disconnect from England, but its present and its future belong in part at least to us, and it is in this light that we are bound as American Churchmen to study them. Let us agree, then, that the usefulness of the book here and now lies largely in the moulding and formative influence which it is quietly exerting, not only on the religion of those who use it, but also largely on the religion of the far greater number who publicly use it not. It has interested me, as it would interest almost anyone, to learn how many prayer books our booksellers supply to Christian people who are not Churchmen. Evidently the book is in use as a private manual with thousands, who own no open allegiance to the Protestant Episcopal Church. They keep it on the devotional shelf midway between Thomas a Kempis and the Pilgrim's Progress, finding it a sort of interpreter of the one to the other, and possessed of a certain flavor differencing it from both. This is a happy augury for the future. Much latent heat is generating which shall yet warm up the dullness of the land. The seed-grain of the Common Prayer will not lie unproductive in those forgotten furrows. The fitness of such a system of worship as this to counteract some of the flagrant evils of our popular religion can scarcely fail to commend it to the minds of those who thus unobserved and, "as it were in secret," read and ponder. Much of our American piety, fervid as it is, shows confessedly a feverish, intermittent character which needs just such a tonic as the Prayer Book provides in what Keble happily called its "sober standard of feeling in matters of practical religion." Then, too, there is the constantly increasing interest which it is such a pleasure to observe among Christians of all names in the order of the ritual year, in Christmas and Easter, Lent and Good-Friday--who can tell how much of this may not be due to the leavening influence of the Prayer Book, over and above what is effected by the public services of the Church? "I wonder," said a famous revivalist to a friend, a clergyman of our Church, "I wonder if you Episcopalians know what a good thing you have in that year of yours. Why don't you use it more?" And true enough, why do we not? That we might learn to do so was a wish very near to the heart of that holy and true man who, if anyone, deserves the title of the saint among our priests, the late Dr. Muhlenberg, the man who twenty-five years ago headed the not wholly abortive movement known as the "Memorial."[96] One fruit of that movement is perhaps to be seen in the earnest desire now prevalent throughout the Church to see the scope of the Prayer Book's influence enlarged. In General Conventions and Church Congresses nowadays no topic excites greater interest than the question how better to adapt the services of the Church to the present needs and special conditions of all classes of the population. To be sure, the apparent impotence of the governing body to find or furnish any lawful way of relief is a little discouraging, but it is something to see an almost universal assent given in terms, to the proposition that relief ought to be had. What we have to fear is that during the long delay which puts off the only proper and regular method of giving more elasticity to the services, there may spring up a generation of Churchmen from whose minds the idea of obligation to law in matters of ritual observance will have faded out altogether. There is a conservatism so conservative that it will stand by and see a building tumble down rather than lay a sacrilegious hand on a single stone, will see dam and mill and village all swept away sooner than lift the flash-boards that keep the superabundant water from coming safely down. It is among the things possible, that for lack of readjustment and timely adaptation of the laws regulating worship, just such a fate may befall our whole liturgical fabric. The plausible theory of "the rubric of common sense," about which we have heard so much, a theory good within limitations, is threatening, by the wholesale application it receives, presently to annul all other rubrics whatsoever. When, by this process, uniformity and even similarity shall have been utterly abolished, when it shall have become impossible for one to know beforehand of a Sunday whether he is going to mass, or to meeting, or to church, the inquiry will be in order, What has conservatism of this sort really conserved? "The personal liberty of the officiating clergyman," I fear will be the only answer; certainly not, "The liberty of the worshipping congregation." The straight and only honest way out of our embarrassment will, some day or other, be found, I dare not believe very soon, in a careful, loving, fair-minded revision of the formularies; a revision undertaken, not for the purpose of giving victory to one theological party rather than to another, or of changing in any degree the doctrinal teaching of the Church, but solely and wholly with a view to enriching, amplifying, and making more available the liturgical treasures of the book. "One generation passeth away, another generation cometh." As we have seen in these words an argument in favor of not breaking with the past, so let them also speak to us of our plain duty to the present. True, the great needs are, as I have said, common alike to all the generations, to those that pass and those that come; but the lesser needs are variable, and unless we are prepared to take the ground that because "lesser" they maybe disregarded altogether, we are bound, with the changed times, to provide for the new wants new satisfactions. Take, simply by way of illustration, the need we stand in of an appropriate form of third service for use on Sundays in city churches, when Morning and Evening Prayer have been already said according to the prescribed order. Why have we no such service? Simply because no such need existed in our American cities when the Prayer Book, as we have it now, was taking shape, at the close of the last century. Just as no form for the administration of Adult Baptism was put into Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book, simply because the usage of Infant Baptism was universal in that day, and there were no unbaptized adults; but such service was inserted at the Restoration to meet the need that had sprung up under the Puritan regime; so was it unnecessary in Bishop White's day to provide for a form of service which has only become practicable and desirable since modern discovery has enabled us to make the public streets almost as safe at night as in the daytime, and church-going as easy by gaslight as by sunlight. Now it is perfectly possible, of course, under the present order of things, and with no change in rubric or canon law, for any clergyman to provide an additional service, to provide it in the form of a mosaic made up of bits of the liturgy wrenched out of their proper places, and so irregularly put together that no stranger among the worshippers can possibly, with the book in hand, thread his way among its intricacies. But when we consider how many exquisite gems of devotional speech there are still left outside the covers of the Prayer Book; when we consider how delightful it would be to have back again the _Magnificat _, and the _Nunc Dimittis _, and some of the sweet versicles of the Evensong of the Church of England; when we consider the lamentable mistake already made in our existing formularies of introducing into Morning and Evening Prayer identically the same opening sentences, the same General Exhortation, the same General Confession, the same Declaration of Absolution, the same Prayer for the President, and the same General Thanksgiving--is it not evident that an additional, or, if you please, an alternative service, composed of material not elsewhere employed, would be for the worshippers a very great gain? The repetition which wearies is only the repetition which we feel need not have been. We never tire of the Collect for Peace any more than we tire of the sunset. It is in its place, and we always welcome it. In a perfect liturgy no form of words, except the Creed, the Doxology, and the Lord's Prayer, would at any time reappear, but as in arabesque work every square inch of space differs from every other square, so each clause and sentence of the manual of worship would have a distinctive beauty of its own, to be looked for precisely there and nowhere else. This is but one illustration of what may be called a possible enrichment of our Book of Common Prayer. Impoverishment under the name of revision may very justly be deprecated, but who shall find any just fault with an enrichment that is really such? We must remember that the men who gave us what we now have were, in their day and generation, the innovators, advocates of what the more timid spirits accounted dangerous change. We cannot, I think, sufficiently admire the courageous foresight of those Reformers who, at a time when public worship was mainly associated in men's minds with what went on among a number of ecclesiastics gathered together at one end of a church, dared to plant themselves firmly on the principle of "common" prayer, and to say, Henceforth the worship of the National Church shall be the worship not of priests alone, but of priests and people too. What a bold act it was! The printing-press, remember, although it had given the impulse to the Reformation, was far from being at that time the omnipresent thing it is now; books were scarce; popular education, as we understand it, was unknown; there were no means of supplying service-books to the poorer classes (no Prayer Book Societies, like this of yours), nor could the books have been used had they been furnished. And yet in the face of these seemingly insuperable obstacles, the leaders of religious thought in the England of that day had the sagacity to plan a system of worship which should involve participation by the people in all the acts of divine service, including the administration of the sacraments. Here was genuine statesmanship applied to the administration of religion. Those men discerned wisely the signs of their own times. They saw what the right principle was, they foresaw what the art of printing was destined in time to accomplish, and they did a piece of work which has bravely stood the wear and tear of full three hundred years. No Churchman questions the wisdom of their innovations now. Is it hopeless to expect a like quickness of discernment in the leaders of to-day? Surely they have eyes to see that a new world has been born, and that a thousand unexampled demands are pressing us on every side. If the Prayer Book is not enriched with a view to meeting those demands, it is not for lack of materials. A Saturday reviewer has tried to fasten on the Church of England the stigma of being the Church which for the space of two centuries has not been able to evolve a fresh prayer. If the reproach were just it would be stinging indeed; but it is most cruelly unjust. In the devotional literature of the Anglicanism of the last fifty years, to go no further back, there may be found prayers fully equal in compass of thought and depth of feeling to any of those that are already in public use. Not to single out too many instances, it may suffice to mention the prayers appended to the book of Ancient Collects edited a few years since by a distinguished Oxford scholar. The clergy are acquainted with them, and know how beautiful they are. Why should not the whole Church enjoy the happiness of using them?[97] Why is there not the same propriety in our garnering the devotional harvest of the three hundred years last past that there was in the Reformers garnering the harvest of five times three hundred years? "One generation passeth away, another generation cometh." I have spoken of the present and the past, what now of the future? We know that all things come to an end. What destiny awaits the book to which our evening thoughts have been given? That is a path not open to our tread. The cloudy curtain screens the threshold of it. Still we may listen and imagine that we hear sounds. What if such a voice as this were to come to us from the distance of a hundred years hence--a voice tinged with sadness, and carrying just the least suggestion of reproach? "Our fathers," the voice says, "in the last quarter of the last century, forfeited a golden opportunity. It was a time of reconstruction in the State, social life was taking on the form it was destined long to retain, a great war had come to an end and its results were being registered, all things were fluent. Moreover, there happened, just then, to be an almost unparalleled lull in the strife of religious parties; men were more disposed than usual to agree; the interest in liturgical research was at its greatest, and scholars knew and cared more than they have ever done since about the history and the structure of forms of prayer. Nevertheless, timid councils prevailed; nothing was done with a view to better adapting the system to the needs of society, and the hope that the Church might cease to wear the dimensions of a sect, and might become the chosen home of a great people, died unrealized. We struggle on, a half-hearted company, and try to live upon the high traditions, the sweet memories of our past." God forbid, my friends, that the dismal prophecy come true! We will not believe it. But what, you ask, is the pathway to any such betterment as I have ventured roughly to sketch to-night? I will not attempt to map it, but I feel very confident which way it does not run. I am sure it does not run through the region of disaffection, complaint, threatening, restlessness, petulance, or secession. Mere fretfulness never carries its points. No, the true way to better things is always to begin by holding on manfully to that which we already are convinced is good. The best restorers of old fabrics are those who work with affectionate loyalty as nearly as possible on the lines of the first builders, averse to any change which is made merely for change's sake, not so anxious to modernize as to restore, and yet always awake to the fact that what they have been set to do is to make the building once more what it was first meant to be, a practicable shelter. THE OUTCOME OF REVISION--A SERMON[98] " . . . We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house that was builded these many years ago."--Ezra v.11. This was the reply of the rebuilders of Jerusalem to certain critical lookers-on who would fain be informed by what authority a picturesque ruin was disturbed. It is a serviceable answer still. There are always those to whom the activity of the Christian Church is a standing puzzle. Religion, or at any rate revealed religion, having, as they think, received its death-blow, the unmistakable signs of life which, from time to time, it manifests take on almost the character of a personal affront. They resent them. What right have these Christians to be showing such a lively interest in their vanquished faith? they ask. What business have they to be holding councils, and laying plans, and acting as if they had some high and splendid effort in hand? Are they such fools as to imagine that they can reconstruct what has so evidently tumbled into ruin? But the wonderful thing about this great building enterprise known as the kingdom of God is that, from the day when the corner-stone was laid to this day, the workmen on the walls have never seemed to know what it meant to be discouraged. In the face of taunt and rebuff and disappointment, they have kept on saying to their critics: "We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house that was builded these many years ago." This is just what the Church Council which has been holding its sessions in Baltimore during the last three weeks has to say for itself. Its task has been an architectural task. According to its lights, it has been at work upon the walls of the city of God. Let me give you, as my habit has been under similar circumstances in the past, some account of its doings. The General Convention of 1892 will be memorable in our ecclesiastical annals for having closed one question of grave moment only to open a kindred one of still larger reach. The question closed was the question of liturgical revision; the question opened is the question of constitutional revision. I should like to speak to you this morning retrospectively of the one, and prospectively of the other. It is now about twenty years since the question of modifying, to some extent, the methods of our public worship began to be mooted. While it was acknowledged that the need was greater in the mother country than here, many of the repetitions and superfluities of the English Church service having been set aside by Bishop White and his compeers in the American Revision of 1789, it was felt that further improvements were still possible, and that the time had fully come for making them. Since the beginning of the so-called "tractarian movement" in the Church of England a great deal of valuable liturgical material had been accumulating, and it was discerned that if ever the fruits of the scholarship of such men as Palmer and Neale and Maskell and Bright were to be garnered the harvest-day had arrived. To the question often asked why it would not have been wiser to wait until the Church of England had led the way and set the pattern, the answer is that the hands of the Church of England were tied, as they have been tied these many years past, and as they may continue to be tied, for aught we know to the contrary, for many years to come. The Church of England cannot touch her own Prayer Book, whether to mend or to mar it, except with the consent of that very mixed body, the House of Commons--a consent she is naturally and properly most loth to ask. Immersed in a veritable ocean of accumulated liturgical material, she is as helpless as Tantalus to moisten her lips with so much as a single drop. It was seen that this fact laid upon us American Churchmen a responsibility as urgent as it was unique, viz., the responsibility of doing what we could to meet the devotional needs of present-day Christendom, not only for our own advantage, but with a view to being ultimately of service to our Anglican brethren across the sea. An experiment of the greatest interest, which for them was a sheer impossibility, it lay open to us to try. After various abortive attempts had come to nought, a beginning was at length made in the General Convention of 1880, a joint committee of bishops and deputies being then appointed to consider whether, in view of the fact that this Church was soon to enter upon the second century of its organized existence in America, the changed condition of the national life did not demand certain alterations in the Book of Common Prayer in the direction of liturgical enrichment and increased flexibility of use. Few were of the opinion at the time that anything definite would come of the deliberations of this committee, and the fact, never before publicly stated till this moment, that of the deputies appointed to serve upon it the greater number were men who had not voted in favor of the measure, makes it all the more interesting to remember that the report, when brought in at Philadelphia three years later, was signed by every member of the committee then living. This Philadelphia report recommended very numerous changes in the direction both of "flexibility" and "enrichment," and by far the greater number of the recommendations met with the approval of the convention. There is, however, a very wise provision of our Church constitution, a provision strikingly characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon mind, which, by way of making allowance for second thought, requires that liturgical changes, before being finally adopted, shall run the gauntlet of two successive conventions. Much was accepted at Philadelphia; it remained to be seen how much would pass the ordeal of its second reading at Chicago three years later. Into the war of words waged over the subject during that interval period, I have neither the time nor the disposition to carry you. The three years, while they gave opportunity for reaction, also allowed space for counter-reaction; so that when, at last, the question came once more before the Church in council assembled whether the work done at Philadelphia should be approved or disallowed, men's minds had sufficiently recovered balance to permit of their exercising discrimination. Accordingly in 1886 some things were rejected, some adopted, and some remanded for further revision. But why should I confuse your minds by an attempt to tell in detail the whole story of the movement? No matter how clear I might make the narrative it would be difficult to follow it, for in the progress of the work there have been surprises many, successes and reverses not a few; enough that, at last, the long labor is ended and in this Columbian year the ship comes into port. As to results, their number and their quality, opinions will of course differ. In connection with this, as with all similar undertakings, there are many to cry: "Who will show us any good?" Certainly nothing that could be called a radical change has been brought to pass; but then, is there any reason to suppose that radical changes were either sought or desired by those who have been active in the movement? Certain distinct and indisputable gains may be counted up. The recovery of the great Gospel hymns come under this head. There are some of us who think that only to have succeeded in replacing the _Magnificat_ and the _Nunc Dimittis_ in the Evening Prayer is of itself a sufficient reward for years of effort, but this is only a small part of our harvest. The new opening sentences for Morning and Evening Prayer, which have so "adorned and beautified" our observance of great festivals, the remodelling of the Ash-Wednesday service, the recovered Feast of the Transfiguration, the various provisions for adapting the Church's worship to the exigencies of times and seasons, the increased freedom in the use of the Psalter, all these go to make up an aggregate of betterment the measure of which will be more fully understood as time goes on. "_Parturiunt montes_" is an easy verdict to pronounce; it remains to be proved whether in this case it is a just one to render. If there are some (as doubtless some there are) who hold that the sample book presented at Philadelphia in 1883, faulty as it confessedly was, is still, all things considered, a better book for American needs than the standard finally adopted at Baltimore, week before last, if there are some who deeply regret the failure to include among our special offices one for the burial of little children, and among our prayers intercessions for the country, for the families of the land, for schools of good learning, for employers and those whom they employ, together with many other forms of supplication gathered from the wide field of English liturgiology--if, I say, there arc some who are of this mind they must comfort themselves with the reflection that, after all, they are a minority, that the greater number of those upon whom rested the responsibility of decision did not wish for these additions, and that the things which finally found acceptance were the things unanimously desired. For, when we think of it, this is perhaps the very best feature of the whole thing, looked at in its length and breadth, that there is no defeated party, no body of people who feel that they have a right to fret and sulk because unpalatable changes have been forced upon them by narrow majorities. It is a remarkable fact, that of the many scores of alterations effected, it can be truly said that, with rare, very rare exceptions, they found, when it came to the decisive vote, what was practically a unanimous consent. They were things that everybody wanted. As to the annoyance and vexation experienced by worshippers during the years the revision has been in progress, perhaps the very best thing that can be done, now that the end is so near at hand, will be to forget all about it. In a few months, at the furthest, the Prayer Book, in its complete form, will be available for purchase and use, and the hybrid copies which have been so long in circulation, to the scandal of people of fastidious taste, will quickly vanish away. Meanwhile, it is interesting to know that all through this stretch of years while the Prayer Book has been "in solution," as some have been fond of phrasing it, the Episcopal Church has exhibited a rate of growth quite unparalleled in its history. Of course nobody can say with certainty what has caused the increase. But it is at least conceivable that among the accelerating forces has been this very work of liturgical revision. People at large have been made aware that this Church was honestly endeavoring to adapt its system of worship to the needs of our time and country; and the mere fact of their seeing this to be the case has served to allay prejudice and to foster a spirit of inquiry. Finding us disposed to relax something of our rigidity, they, on their part, have been first attracted, then conciliated, and finally completely won. I cannot leave this subject without paying a personal tribute to a prelate but for whose aid in the House of which he is a distinguished ornament, liturgical revision would, humanly speaking, have long ago come to nought. To the fearlessness, the patience, the kindly temper, and the resolute purpose of William Croswell Doane, Bishop of Albany, this Church for these results stands deeply and lastingly indebted. When others' courage failed them, he stood firm; when friends and colleagues were counselling retreat, and under their breath were whispering "Fiasco!" and "Collapse!" his spirit never faltered. He has been true to a great purpose, at the cost of obloquy sometimes, and to the detriment even of old friendships. Separated from him by a dozen shades of theological opinion and by as many degrees of ecclesiastical bias, I render him here and now that homage of grateful appreciation which every Churchman owes him. So much for the ship that has dropped anchor. I have left my self but a few moments in which to say God-speed to the other craft which is even now sliding down the ways, ready for the great deep. Put perhaps it is just as well. History is always a safer line to enter upon than prophecy; and were I to say all that is in my mind and heart as to the possibilities of this new venture of faith on the Church's part, constitutional revision, I might be betrayed into expressions of hopefulness which would strike most of you as overwrought. Suffice it to say, that never since the Reformation of Religion in the sixteenth century has a fairer prospect been opened to the Church of our affections than is opened to her to-day. No interpretation of the divine purpose with respect to this broad land we name America has one-half so much of likelihood as that which makes our country the predestined building plot for the Church of the Reconciliation. All signs point that way. To us, if we have but the eyes to see it, there falls, not through any merit of our own, but by the accident, if it be right to use that word, by the accident of historical association, the opportunity of leadership. It is possible for us, at this crisis of our destiny, so to mould our organic law that we shall be brought into sympathetic contact with hundreds of thousands of our fellow-countrymen who worship the same God, hold the same faith, love the same Christ. On the other hand, it is possible for us so to fence ourselves off from this huge family of our fellow-believers as to secure for our lasting heritage only the cold privileges of a proud and selfish isolation. There could be no real catholicity in such a choice as that. We have the opportunity of growing into a great and comprehensive Church. We have the opportunity of dwindling into a self-conscious, self-conceited, and unsympathetic sect. Which shall it be? With those to whom, under God, the remoulding of our organic law has been intrusted it largely rests to say. COMPARATIVE TABLE OF ADDITIONS MADE TO THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER AT THE SEVERAL REVISIONS SINCE 1549. 1552 1559 1604 1662 1789 1892 Scripture Sentences 11 8 31 Collects 3 1 3 Epistles 2 1 3 Gospels 1 1 3 Offices 13 8 1 1 Prayers 15 2 7 18 13 9 Proper Psalms (days) 2 10 Selections of Psalms 10 10 Canticles 8 2 Versicles 4 3 11 Litany Suffrages 1 1 Catechetical Questions 12 Exhortations 3 2 NOTES Notes for a Short History of the Book of Common Prayer [1] First printed in the _American Church Review_, April, 1881. [2] Much confusion of thought and speech in connection with our ecclesiastical legislation grows out of not keeping in mind the fact that here in America the organic genetic law of the Church, as well as of the State, is in writing, and compacted into definite propositions. We draw, that is to say, a far sharper distinction than it is possible to do in England between what is constitutional and what is simply statutory. There is no function of our General Convention that answers to the "omnipotence of Parliament." This creative faculty was vacated once for all at the adoption of the Constitution. [3] _Conferences_, p. 461. [4] _Principles of Divine Service_, vol. i. p. 390. [5] _Church Quarterly Review_, London, October, 1876. [6] The votes of the House of Bishops are not reported numerically. In the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies the vote stood as follows: "Of the Clergy there were 43 Dioceses represented--Ayes, 33; nays, 9; divided, 1. Of the Laity there were 35 Dioceses represented--Ayes, 20; nays, 11; divided, 4."--_Journal of Convention of_ 1880, p. 152. [7] _Church Eclectic_ for November, 1880. [8] Remembering the deluge of "centennial" rhetoric let loose upon the country five years ago, another critic may well feel justified in finding in the language of the resolution what he considers "an unnecessary _raison d'etre_." But it is just possible that centennial changes rest on a basis of genuine cause and effect quite independent of the decimal system. A century covers the range of three generations, and the generation is a natural, not an arbitrary division of time. What the grandfather practises the son criticises and the grandson amends. This at least ought to commend itself to the consideration of the lovers of mystical numbers and "periodic laws." [9] The real argument against the "driblet method" (by which is meant the concession of improvement only as it is actually conquered inch by inch) lies in what has been already said about the undesirability of frequent changes in widely used formularies of worship. It may be true, as some allege, that a revision of the Prayer Book would shake the Church, but it is more likely that half a dozen patchings at triennial intervals would shatter it. After twenty years of this sort of piecemeal revision, a _variorum_ edition of the Prayer Book would be a requisite of every well furnished pew. The late Convention has been twitted with inconsistency on the score of having negatived outright the proposal for a Commission to overhaul the Constitution of the Church while consenting to send the Prayer Book to a committee for review. Discernment would be a better word than inconsistency, for although on grounds of pure theory the Constitution and the Prayer Book seem to stand in corresponding attitudes as respects methods of amendment, in practice the difference between the two is very wide. Triennial changes in the letter of the Constitution (and these have often been made) involve no inconvenience to anybody, for the simple reason that that document must of necessity be reprinted with every fresh issue of the Journal. Old copies do not continue in use, except as books of reference, but old Prayer Books do hold their place in parish churches, and the spectacle of congregations trying to worship in unison with books some of which contained the reading of 1880, others that of 1883, and still others that of 1886 would scarcely edify. Theoretically, let it be freely granted, the "driblet method" of amendment is the proper one for both Prayer Book and Constitution, but the fact that the Convention had eyes to see that this was a case to which the maxims of pure mathematics did not apply should be set down to its credit, rather than its discredit. [10] Reprinted together with a supplementary Letter in the Journal of the Convention of 1868. [11] Dr. Coit's Letter of 1868, also reprinted in Journal of that year. [12] See _Book of Common Prayer according to the use of King's Chapel, Boston_. Among the rhetorical crudities of this emasculated Prayer Book (from the title-page of which, by the way, the definite article has been with praiseworthy truthfulness omitted) few things are worse than the following from the form for the Burial of Children, a piece of writing which in point of style would seem to savor more of the Lodge than of the Church: "My brethren, what is our life? It is as the early dew of morning that glittereth for a short time, and then is exhaled to heaven. Where is the beauty of childhood? Where is [sic] the light of those eyes and the bloom of that countenance?" . . . "Who is young and who is old? Whither are we going and what shall we become?" And yet the author of this mawkish verbiage probably fancied that he was improving upon the stately English of the Common Prayer. It is a warning to all would-be enrichers. [13] A list of the more noticeable Anglican works on Liturgies published during the period named, arranged in the order of their appearance, will serve to illustrate the accuracy of the statement made above, and may also be of value to the general reader for purposes of reference. 1832. Origines Liturgicae, William Palmer. 1833-41. Tracts for the Times. 1840. Conferences on the Book of Common Prayer, Edward Cardwell. 1843. The Choral Service of the Churches of England and Ireland, John Jebb. 1844. The Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England, William Maskell. 1845. Pickering's Reprints of the Prayer Books of 1549, 1552, 1559, 1603, and 1662. 1846. Monumenta Ritualia, William Maskell. 1847. Reliquiae Liturgicae, Peter Hall. 1848. Fragmenta Liturgica, Peter Hall. 1849. Book of Common Prayer with Notes legal and historical, A. J. Stephens. Manuscript Book of Common Prayer for Ireland, A. J. Stephens. Tetralogia Liturgica, John Mason Neale. 1853. Two Liturgies of Edward VI., Edward Cardwell. 1855. Principles of Divine Service, Philip Freeman. History of the Book of Common Prayer, F. Proctor. 1858. History of the Book of Common Prayer, T. Lathbury. 1859. Directorium Anglicanum, J. Purchas. 1861. Ancient Collects, William Bright. 1865. Liber Precum Publicarum, Bright and Medd. 1865. The Priest's Prayer Book. 1865. History of the Book of Common Prayer, R. P. Blakeney. 1866. The Prayer Book Interleaved, Campion and Beaumont. 1866. The Annotated Book of Common Prayer, J. H. Blunt. 1870. The Liturgy of the Church of Sarum, Translated, Charles Walker. 1870. The First Prayer Book of Edward VI. with the Ordinal, Walton and Medd. 1872. Psalms and Litanies, Rowland Williams. 1872. Notitia Eucharistica, W. E. Scudamore. 1875-80. Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Smith and Cheetham. 1876. First Prayer Book of Edward VI., compared with the successive Revisions, James Parker. 1877. Introduction to the History of the successive Revisions of the Book of Common Prayer, James Parker. 1878. Liturgies--Eastern and Western, C. E. Hammond. 1880. The Convocation Prayer Book. [14] Tract No. 3. _Thoughts respectfully addressed to the Clergy on alterations in the Liturgy_. [15] One of the most curious illustrations of the spread of Anglican ideas about worship now in progress is to be found in the upspringing in the very bosom of Scottish Presbyterianism of a CHURCH SERVICE SOCIETY. Two of the publications of this Society have lately fallen in the present writer's way. They bear the imprint of Wm. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, and are entitled respectively, _A Book of Common Order_, and _Home Prayer_. With questionable good taste the compilers have given to the former work a Greek and to the latter a Latin sub-title (_Evxolioyiov_ and _Suspiria Domestica_). Both books have many admirable points, although, in view of the facts of history, there is a ludicrous side to this attempt to commend English viands to Northern palates under a thin garniture of Scottish herbs which probably has not wholly escaped the notice of the compilers themselves. [16] See _The Guardian_ (London), February 9, 1881. [17] Unless "finally to beat down Satan under our feet," be reckoned an exception. [18] _Lectures on Justification_, p 380. [19] The rationale of this curious lapse is simple. The American revisers, instead of transferring the Commination Office _in toto_ to the new book, wisely decided to engraft certain features of it upon the Morning Prayer for Ash-Wednesday. In the process, the fifty-first Psalm, which has a recognized place in the Commination, dropped out, instead of being transferred, as it should have been, to the proper psalms. [20] See the Convocation Prayer Book. [21] _Prayer Book Interleaved_, p. 65. [22] A curious illustration of the sensitiveness of the Protestant Episcopal mind to anything that can be supposed even remotely to endanger our doctrinal settlement was afforded at the late General Convention, when the House of Deputies was thrown into something very like a panic by a most harmless suggestion with reference to the opening sentences of the Litany. A venerable and thoroughly conservative deputy from South Carolina had ventured to say that it would be doctrinally an improvement if the tenet of the double procession of the Holy Ghost were to be removed from the third of the invocations, and a devotional improvement if the language of the fourth were to be phrased in words more literally Scriptural and less markedly theological than those at present in use. Eager defenders of the faith instantly leaped to their feet in various parts of the House, persuaded that a deadly thrust had been aimed at the doctrine of the Trinity. Never was there a more gratuitous misconception. The real intrenchment of the doctrine of the Trinity, so far as the Litany is concerned, lies in the four opening words of the second and the five opening words of the third of the invocations, and these it had not been proposed to touch. In confirmation of this view of the matter, it is pertinent to instance the _Book of Family Prayers_ lately put forth by a Committee of the Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury. This manual provides no fewer than six different Litanies, all of them opening with addresses to the three Persons of the adorable Trinity, and yet in no one instance is the principle advocated by the deputy from South Carolina unrecognized. Every one of the six Litanies begins with language similar to that which he recommended. [See also in witness of the mediaeval use, which partially bears out Mr. McCrady's thought, the ancient Litany reprinted by Maskell from _The Prymer in English_. Mon. Hit. ii. p. 95.] If the Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury, fondly supposed by us Anglicans to be the very citadel of sound doctrine, be thus tainted with heresy, upon what can we depend? Polemical considerations aside, probably even the most orthodox would allow that the invocations of the Litany might gain in devotional power, while losing nothing in august majesty, were the third to run--_O God the Holy Ghost, Sanctifier of the faithful, have mercy upon us miserable sinners_. And the fourth as in Bishop Heber's glorious hymn, _Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, have mercy upon us miserable sinners_. But all this is doctrinal and plainly _ultra vires_. [23] A very natural explanation, by the way, of the fact, often noticed, that there is no petition in the Litany for an increase of the ministry. [24] Here, _i_. _e._, in connection with Saints' Day services, would be an admirable opportunity for the introduction into liturgical use of the Beatitudes. What could possibly be more appropriate? And yet these much loved words of Christ have seldom been given the place in worship they deserve. They do find recognition as an antiphon in the _Liturgy of St. Chrysostom_. To reassert a usage associated in the history of liturgies with the name of this Father of the Church and with his name only, would be to pay him better honor than we now show by three times inserting in our Prayer Book the collect conjecturally his--a thing the Golden-mouthed himself, when in the flesh, would not have dreamed of doing. "Once," he would have said, "is enough." [25] The Priest's Prayer Book has 688 (!!) mostly juiceless. [26] In connection with this clause there sprang up an animated and interesting debate in the House of Deputies as to the wisdom of thus seeming to cut off every opportunity for extemporary prayer in our public services. Up to this time, it was alleged, a liberty had existed of using _after_ sermon, if the preacher were disposed to do so, the "free prayer" which _before_ sermon it was confessedly not permitted him to have--why thus cut off peremptorily an ancient privilege? why thus sharply annul a traditional if not a chartered right? At first sight this distinction between before and after sermon looks both arbitrary and artificial, but when examined there is found to be a reason in it. The sermon, especially in the case of emotional preachers, is a sort of bridge of transition from what we may call the liturgical to the spontaneous mood of mind, and if the speaker has carried his listeners with him they are across the bridge at the same moment with himself. The thing that would have been incongruous before, becomes natural after the minister has been for some time speaking less in his priestly than in his personal character. The notion that the points at issue between the advocates of liturgical and the advocates of extemporaneous worship can be settled by a promiscuous jumbling together of the two modes, is a fond conceit, as the Reformed Episcopalians will doubtless confess when they shall have had time enough to make full trial of the following rubrics in their Prayer-book: _Then shall the Minister say the Collects and Prayers following in whole or in part, or others at his discretion_. _Here may be used any of the occasional Prayers, or extemporaneous Prayer_. This is bad philosophy. It need not be said that such directions are undevotional--for doubtless they were piously meant; but it must be said that they are inartistic (if the word may be allowed), at variance with the fitness of things and counter to the instinct of purity. Formality and informality are two things that cannot be mingled to advantage. There is place and time for each. The secret of the power of liturgical worship is wrapped up with the principle of order. A certain majesty lies in the movement which is without break. On the other hand the charm of extemporaneous devotion, and it is sometimes a very real charm, is traceable to our natural interest in whatever is irregular, fresh, and spontaneous. To suppose that we can secure at any given time the good effects of both methods by some trick of combination is an error--as well attempt to arrange on the same plot of ground a French and an English garden. If indeed Christian people could bring themselves to acknowledge frankly the legitimacy of both methods and provide amicably for their separate use, a great step forward in the direction of Church unity would have been achieved; but for a catholicity so catholic as this, public opinion is not yet ripe, and perhaps may not be ripe for centuries to come. Those who believe in the excellency of liturgies, while not believing in them as _jure divino_, would be well content in such a case to wait the working of the principle of the survival of the fittest. [27] The able and fair-minded jurist who first hit upon this ingenious scheme for patching the Ratification has lately, with characteristic frankness, said substantially this under his own signature. "The proper place for the amendment," he writes, "is at the end of the first rubric preceding the sentences of Scripture for both Morning and Evening Prayer, after the word Scripture, as everyone can see by looking." He adds: "This, however, is only a question of form, and ought not to interfere with the adoption of the amendment at the next Convention. It is to be hoped that the resolution for enrichment, so called, will present a variety of additions out of which an acceptable selection can be made; and when they are finally carried that the Book of Common Prayer will be not only the standard book, but a sealed book, so to speak, for as many generations as have passed since the present book was adopted."--Letter of the Hon. J. B. Howe of Indiana in _The Churchman_ for January 29, 1881. [28] See page 578 of _Evangelical Catholic Papers_. A collection of Essays, Letters, and Tractates from "Writings of Rev. Wm. Augustus Muhlenberg, D. D." during the last forty years. The failure of this devout and venerated man to secure sundry much desired liturgical improvements (although it yet remains to be seen whether the failure has been total) was perhaps due to a certain vagueness inherent in his plans of reform. A clear vision of the very thing desired seems to have been lacking, or at least the gift of imparting it to others. But even as no man has deserved better of the American Episcopal Church than he, so it is no more than right that his deeply cherished wishes should be had in careful remembrance. [29] Now a "black-letter day" in the English Calendar. [30] The Convocation Prayer Book, _in loc_. [31] Originally only an explanatory rubric. See Procter, p. 397. [32] Let us hope that before long there may be devised some better way of providing relief for our Widows and Orphans than that of the indirect taxation of the singers of hymns. [33] The Greek Office Books, it is said, fill eighteen quartos. [34] In that naive and racy bit of English (omitted in our American book) entitled _Concerning the Service of the Church_, one of the very choicest morsels is the following: "Moreover, the number and hardness of the Rules called the Pie, and the manifold changings of the Service, was the cause, that to turn the Book only was so hard and intricate a matter, that many times there was more business to find out what should be read than to read it when it was found out." [35] It may be wise to buttress the position taken with a quotation out of Dr. Coit. "We really, however, do not see any necessity for either of these Services in American Books, as with us the Ordinal always, now, makes a part of the Prayer Book in all editions. It would be a saving to expunge them and no change would be necessary, except the introduction of such a litanical petition and suffrage with the Services for Deacons and Priests, as already exists in the Service for Bishops. The Church of England retains the Litany in her Ordinal, for that, until latterly, was printed in a separate book, and was not to be had unless ordered expressly. And yet with even such a practice she has but one Communion Service. We study cheapness and expedition in our day. They can both be consulted here, _salvafide et salva ecclesia_."--Report of 1844. [36] First printed in _The Church Review_, 1886. [37] The Rev. Dr. Orlando Hutton. [38] _Priest's Prayer Book_, Fifth edition, pp. 238, 243, 281. [39] The _Prayer for Imprisoned Debtors_ is believed to be the only formulary actually dropped. [40] _The Church Quarterly Review_ for April, 1884, and July, 1884. _The Church Times_ for August 29, 1884; also July 31, August 7, 14, 21, 28, September 4, 1885. _The Guardian_ for July 20, 1885. [41] Recall the "Additional Hymns" of 1868. [42] This proposal of arbitration has occasioned so much innocent mirth that, in justice to the maker of it, attention should be called to the ambiguity of the language in which it is couched. The wording of the passage is vague. It is just possible that by "the question" which he would be content to submit to the judgment of the four specified men of letters, he means, not, as he has been understood to mean, the whole subject-matter of _The Book Annexed_, but only the abstract question whether verbal variations from the English original of the Common Prayer be or be not, on grounds of purity of style, desirable. Even if this be all that he means there is perhaps still room for a smile, but, at all events, he ought to have the benefit of the doubt. [43] _Discussions and Arguments_, p. 341. [44] "The list might be brought down as late as the authorities pleased to bring it, even to include, if they chose, such names as John Keble, James De Koven, and Ferdinand Ewer."--_The Church Times_ for August 14, 1885. [45] This form of absolution suggested as an alternate in _The Book Annexed_ is taken from the source mentioned. [46] The paper read by the Dean of Worcester dealt exclusively with the legal aspects of the question as it concerns the Church of England. [47] The Rev. Edgar Morris Dumbleton (Rector of St. James's, Exeter). [48] The Rev. George Venables (Hon. Canon of Norwich and Vicar of Great Yarmouth). [49] The Rev. Arthur James Robinson (Rector of Whitechapel). [50] See letter of "J. L. W." in _The Southern Churchman_ for August 6, 1885. [51] See letter of "Ritualist" in _The Standard of the Cross_ for July 2, 1885. [52] See the "Report of the Committee of the Council of the Diocese of Wisconsin," _passim_. [53] The evident intention of the Joint Committee in the introduction of this Canticle was to make it possible to shorten the Morning Prayer on week-days, without spoiling the structure of the office, as is now often done, by leaving out one of the Lessons. It is certainly open to question whether a better alternate might not have been provided, but it is surprising to find so well furnished a scholar as the Wisconsin critic speaking of the _Benedictus es Domine_ as a liturgical novelty, "derived neither from the Anglican or the more ancient service-hooks." As a matter of fact the _Benedictus es Domine_ was sung daily in the Ambrosian Rite at Matins, and is found also in the Mozarabic Breviary. [54] See Wisconsin Report, p. 5. [55] See the precautions recommended in _The Living Church Annual_ for 1886, p. 132, art. "Tabernacle." [56] In this respect _The Book Annexed_ may be compared to _The Convocation Prayer Book_ published by Murray in 1880, for the purpose of showing what the English Book would be like if "amended in conformity with the recommendations of the Convocations of Canterbury and York, contained in reports presented to her Majesty the Queen in the year 1879." [57] The Report was adopted. [58] In addition to the Maryland Report we have now a still more admirable one from Central New York. [59] Strangely enough the Elizabethan period, so rich in genius of every other type, seems to have been almost wholly barren of liturgical power. Men had not ceased to write prayers, as a stout volume in the Parker Society's Library abundantly evidences; but they had ceased to write them with the terseness and melody that give to the style of the great Churchmen of the earlier reigns so singular a charm. [60] The liturgical manuscripts of Sanderson and Wren, made public only recently by the late Bishop of Chester, ought to be included under this head. [61] Many of these "Treasuries," "Golden Gates," and the like, have here and there something good, but for the most part they are disfigured by sins against that "sober standard of feeling," than which, as a high authority assures us, nothing except "a sound rule of faith" is more important "in matters of practical religion." Of all of them, Scudamore's unpretentious little "Manual" is, perhaps, the best. [62] For a _conspectus_ of the various title-pages, see Keeling's _Litugiae Britannicae_, London, 1842. [63] The question of a change in the name of the Church is a constitutional, and in no sense a liturgical question. Let it be considered at the proper time, and in a proper way, but why thrust it precipitately into a discussion to which it is thoroughly foreign? [64] By the Maryland Committee. [65] This paragraph was written before the author had been privileged to read Prof. Gold's interesting paper in _The Seminarian_. It is only proper to say that this accomplished writer and very competent critic does object emphatically to the theory that the opening Sentences are designed to give the key-note of the Service. But here he differs with Blunt, as elsewhere in the same paper he dissents from Freeman and from Littledale, admirably illustrating by his proper assertion of an independent judgment, the difficulty of applying the Vicentian rule in liturgical criticism. Such variations of opinion do, indeed, make against "science," but they favor good sense. [66] Chambers's Translation. [67] This is not to be understood as an acknowledgment that the doctrinal and philological objections to the formulary as it originally stood were sound and sufficient. On the lips of a Church which declares "repentance" to be an act whereby we "forsake sin," a prayer for time does not seem wholly inappropriate, while as for this use of the word "space" of which complaint was made, it should be noticed that King James's Bible gives us nineteen precedents for it; and the Prayer Book itself one. [68] In _The Book Annexed_, as originally presented, there stood in this place the beautiful and appropriate psalm, _Levavi oculos_. But the experts declared that this would never do, since from time immemorial _Levavi oculos_ had been a Vesper Psalm, and it would be little less than sacrilege to insert it in a morning service, however congruous to such a use the wording of it might, to an unscientific mind, appear. Accordingly the excision was made; but upon inquiry it turned out that the monks had possessed a larger measure of good sense, as well as a better exegesis, than the Convention had attributed to them, for _Levavi oculos_, it appears, besides being a Vesper psalm, stood assigned, in the Sarum Breviary, to Prime as well; the fact being that the psalm is alike adapted to morning and to evening use, and singularly appropriate both to the "going out" and the "coming in" of the daily life of man. [69] See p. 6. [70] "O Lord, bow thine ear," has been suggested as a substitute. It is in the words of Holy Scripture, it is the precise metrical equivalent of "O Lord, save the queen," and it is directly antiphonal to the versicle which follows. There being no Established Church in the United States, it is doubtful whether any prayers for "rulers" are desirable, over and above those we already have. And if this point be conceded, the other considerations mentioned may be allowed to have weight in favor of "O Lord, bow thine ear." [71] _The Seminarian_, 1886, pp. 29, 30. [72] It may be well to throw, into a foot-note a single illustration of what might otherwise be thought an extravagant statement. The Rev. W. C. Bishop, writing in _The Church Eclectic_ for February, 1884, says: "The service of the Beatitudes proposed by the Committee is just one of 'fancy-liturgy making,' which ought to be summarily rejected. We have more than enough of this sort of thing already; the commandments, comfortable words, _et hoc genus omne_, are anything but 'unique glories' of our Liturgy. Anything of which we have exclusive possession is nearly certain to be a 'unique _blunder_,' instead of anything better, because the chances are a thousand to one that anything really beautiful or edifying would have been discovered by, and have commended itself to, some other Christians in the last two thousand years." If such is to be the nomenclature of our new "science," Devotion may well stand aghast in the face of Liturgies. [73] See the Commination Office in the Prayer Book of the Church of England. [74] Daniel's _Codex Liturgicus_, vol. iv. p. 343. Quoted in _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_. The translation of makapismoi has been doubted; but Dr. Neale and Prof. Cheetham agree that the reference is to the BEATITUDES of the Gospel. [75] _Church Eclectic_ for April, 1884. [76] The following will serve as an illustration: _The Anthem_; Blessed are the merciful, for they shall get mercy; blessed are the clean in the heart, for they shall see God. _The Versicle_: Lord hear my prayer. _The Answer_: And let my cry come to thee. _Let us pray_. Lord Jesu Christ, whose property is to be merciful, which art alway pure and clean without spot of sin; Grant us the grace to follow thee in mercifulness toward our neighbors, and always to bear a pure heart and a clean conscience toward thee, that we may after this life see thee in thy everlasting glory, which livest and reignest God, world without end. _Amen_. [77] It is interesting and suggestive to observe with how much less frequency our attention is called to this paragraph of the Preface than to the later one which asserts historical continuity with the Church of England. [78] _Essays on Liturgiology_, p. 226. [79] The response proposed by the Commissioners ran, "Lord have mercy upon us, and make us partakers of this blessing," a prayer unobjectionable for substance, but painfully pedestrian in style. [80] Notably one in which the responses are all taken from Psalm li. [81] See Note at the end of this Paper. [82] _E_. _g_.: "That it may please thee to send forth laborers into thy harvest, and to have mercy upon all men." [83] See Report, pp. 6-9. [84] "Strike it out," said the literalist of a certain committee on hymnody, many years ago, as he and his colleagues were sitting in judgment on Watts's noble hymn, "There is a land of pure delight." "Either strike out the whole hymn or alter that word, 'living.' "'Bright fields, beyond the swelling flood, Stand dressed in living green.' What sense is there in '_living_' green? It is the grass that lives, not the green." Happily the suggestion failed to find a seconder. But revisers, whose work is to be passed upon by ballot, may well be shy of idiomatic English. Take such a phrase as, "Now for the comfortless trouble's sake of the needy"; Lindley Murray, were he consulted, would have no mercy on it: and yet a more beautiful and touching combination of words is not to be found anywhere in the Psalter. It is the utter lack of this idiomatic characteristic that makes "Lambeth prayers" proverbially so insipid. [85] See Report, p. 12. [86] Quoted in _The Church Eclectic_ for August, 1886. [87] Prof. Gold in _The Seminarian_, p. 34. [88] The Rev. Dr. Robert in _The Churchman_ for July 17, 1886, [89] Specious, because our continuity with the Church life of England is inestimably precious; impracticable, because there is no representative body of the English Church authorized to treat with us. [90] This Prayer has been gathered from the _Dirige_ in _The Primer set forth by the King's Majesty and his Clergy_, 1545; the same source (it is interesting to note) to which we trace the English form of the _Collect for Purity_ at the beginning of the office. [91] 1 Cor. iii. 9. [92] Born into life!--man grows Forth from his parents' stem, And blends their bloods, as those Of theirs are blent in them; So each new man strikes root into a far foretime. Born into life!--we bring A bias with us here, And, when here, each new thing Affects us we come near; To tunes we did not call our being must keep chime. _Empedocles on Etna_. [93] "Parliaments, prelates, convocations, synods may order forms of prayer. They may get speeches to be spoken upward by people on their knees. They may obtain a juxtaposition in space of curiously tessellated pieces of Bible and Prayer Book. But when I speak of the rareness and preciousness of prayers, I mean such prayers as contain three conditions--permanence, capability jot being really prayed, and universality. Such prayers primates and senates can no more command than they can order a new Cologne Cathedral or another epic poem."--_The Bishop of Berry's Hampton Lectures_, lect iv. [94] The following _catena_ is curious: "Salute one another with an holy kiss."--Rom. xvi. 10. "Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity."--1 Pet. v. 14. "_And let the bishop salute the church, and say_: Let the peace of God be with you all. "_And let the people answer_, And with thy spirit. "_And let the deacon say to all_, Salute one another with a holy kiss. "_And let the clergy kiss the bishop; and of the laity, the men the men, and the women the women, and let the children stand by the Bema. _"--_The Divine Liturgy of St. Clement_ (Bretts's Translation, corrected by Neale). "_At Solemn High Mass, the deacon kisses the altar at the same time with the celebrating priest, by whom he is saluted with the kiss of peace, accompanied by these words_, PAX TECUM."--Rubric of the Roman Missal. "PAX OR PAXBREDE. A small plate of gold, or silver, or copper-gilt, enamelled, or piece of carved ivory or wood overlaid with metal, carried round, having been kissed by the priest, after the Agnus Dei in the Mass, to communicate the kiss of peace."--_Pugin's Glossary_. _St. George's Chapel, Windsor_. "Item, a fine PAX, silver and gilt enamelled, with an image of the crucifixion, Mary and John, and having on the top three crosses, with two shields hanging on either side. Item, a ferial PAX, of plate of silver gilt, with the image of the Blessed Virgin."--_Dugdale's Monasticon_ quoted in above Glossary. "Ye who do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, _and are in love and charity with your neighbors_, and intend to lead a new life . . . Draw near with faith, and take this holy sacrament to your comfort."--Shorter Exhortation in the Communion Office of the Prayer Book. [95] A friend who heard the sermon preached has kindly sent me the following apt illustrations. They do not, indeed, come from history technically so-called, but they report the mind of one to whose eye the whole life of the Middle Ages was as an open book. "There was now a pause, of which the abbot availed himself by commanding the brotherhood to raise the solemn chant, _De profundis clamavi_"--_The Monastery_, chap, xxxvii. "'To be a guest in the house where I should command?' said the Templar; 'Never! Chaplains, raise the psalm, _Quare fremuerunt Gentes_? Knights, squires, and followers of the Holy Temple, prepare to follow the banner of _Beau-seant_!'"--_Ivanhoe_, chap. xliv. [96] So many good things are washed oat of men's memory by the lapse of even a quarter of a century that possibly some even of those who knew all about the "Memorial" in 1852 may be willing to be reminded what its scope and purpose were. The petition was addressed to the bishops "in council," and prayed for the appointment of a commission to report upon the practicability of making this Church a central bond of union among the Christian people of America, by providing for as much freedom in opinion, discipline, and worship as might be held to be compatible with the essential faith and order of the Gospel. The desired commission was appointed, Bishops Otey, Doane, A. Potter, Burgess, and Williams being the members of it. Their Report, subsequently edited in book form by Bishop Potter, is one of the most valuable documents of American Church history. The following extract from Bishop Burgess' portion of the Report will be read with interest by all who ever learned to revere that theologian for the largeness of his learning, the calmness of his judgment, and the goodness of his heart. He has been speaking of liturgical changes as contemplated and allowed for by the framers of our ecclesiastical system. Then he says: "There would seem to be five contingencies in which the changes, thus made possible and thus permitted, become also wise and salutary. "The first is simply when it is evident that in any respect the liturgy or its application may be rendered more perfect. To hazard for this result the safety or unity of the Church may be inexcusable, and the utmost certainty may be demanded before a change of this kind shall be practically ventured. But should it be once established, beyond the smallest doubt, that any addition or alteration would increase the excellence or the excellent influence of the liturgy in any degree sufficient to compensate or more than compensate for the inconveniences incident to all change, it seems as difficult to say that it should not be adopted by the Church, as to excuse any Christian from adding to his virtues or his usefulness. "The other 'contingencies' recognized are briefly these: "(2) When in process of time words or regulations have become obsolete or unsuitable. "(3) When civil or social changes require ecclesiastical changes. "(4) When the earnest desire of any respectable number of the members of the Church, or of persons who are without its communion, is urged in behalf of some not wholly unreasonable proposal of alteration. "(5) When error or superstition has been introduced; when that which was at first good and healthful has been perverted to the nourishment of falsehood or wickedness; or when that which was always evil has found utterance, and is now revealed in its true character." The Memorial failed for the reason that the promoters of it had not a clearly defined notion in their own minds of what they wanted--the secret of many failures. Out of its ashes there may yet rise, however, "some better thing" that God has kept in store. [97] _Ancient Collects and Other Prayers selected for Devotional Use from Various Rituals_. By William Bright, M. A. J. H. & Jas. Parker, Oxford and London. From the Appendix I take the following illustrations of the statement ventured above: "_For Guidance_--O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light riseth up in darkness for the godly; grant us in all our doubts and uncertainties the grace to ask what thou wouldest have us to do; that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in thy light we may see light, and in thy straight path may not stumble: through Jesus Christ our Lord. "_For those who live in sin_.--Have mercy, O compassionate Father, on all who are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin; vouchsafe them grace to come to themselves, the will and power to return to thee, and the loving welcome of thy forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord. "_For all who do the work of the Church_.--O Lord, without whom our labor is but lost, and with whom thy little ones go forth as the mighty, be present to all works in thy Church which are undertaken according to thy will, and grant to thy laborers a pure intention, patient faith, sufficient success upon earth, and the bliss of serving thee in heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord. "_For grace to speak the Truth in love_.--O Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who earnest not to strive nor cry, but to let thy words fall as the drops that water the earth: grant all who contend for the faith once delivered, never to injure it by clamor and impatience, but speaking thy precious truth in love, so to present it that it may be loved, and that men may see in it thy goodness and thy beauty: who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end." Both as regards devotional flavor and literary beauty these prayers will, I feel sure, be judged worthy, by such as will read them more than once, to stand by the side certainly of many of the collects already in the Prayer Book. [98] Preached in Grace Church, N. Y., on the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, that being the Sunday next following the adjournment of the General Convention of 1892. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Short History of the Book of Common Prayer, by William Reed Huntington ***

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Proposed Gay Curriculum Causes Problems Fox News: “Gay Curriculum Proposal Riles Elementary School Parents” Should children as young as five be exposed to curricula that normalize homosexuality? That’s the central question of a new debate in a California school district. Parents in Alameda, California, are upset at a new “acceptance” curriculum instituted by the local school district that includes “compulsory lessons about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community that will be taught to children as young as 5 years old,” Fox News reports. The question is whether the lessons are appropriate material for young children to receive at school. While the official purpose of the lessons is to promote respect and reduce bullying, the question is whether the lessons are appropriate material for young children to receive at school. Among the materials is the children’s book And Tango Makes Three, which tells the story of gay penguins “struggling to create a family.” According to the report, part of the motivation for the new curriculum are teachers’ complaints that even kindergarten students are using such slurs as “fag.” Ryan Schwartz of GroundSpark, one of the curriculum providers, stated: “Instead of having to police the schoolyard for bullying, this curriculum is designed to prevent it from the beginning.” Preventing bullying is certainly an admirable goal, but Karen England of California family values watchdog Capitol Resource Institute tells a different story: “Under law, there are five categories of protected classes when it comes to discrimination. The curriculum focuses on only one subgroup protected under anti-discrimination laws: sexual orientation [and not others, such as religion]. This indicates an agenda is being pushed, as opposed to an altruistic attempt to teach tolerance.” More importantly, the fact that parents would not be able to exempt their children from the lessons has many unhappy. “These children are far too young to be learning about what these issues mean. These are adult issues and they are being thrust upon the children,” explained parent Alaina Stewart. We’ll admit that there is a dilemma at the heart of this debate: can a public school teach anti-bullying and pro-respect lessons when it comes to sexual orientation without effectively taking a stance in the debate over gay rights, or without appearing to endorse homosexuality? However, it seems disingenuous for school board officials to presume that presenting elementary schoolchildren with materials like And Tango Makes Three and That’s a Family! wouldn’t be controversial. More importantly, denying parents the ability to exempt their children from such seeming indoctrination reinforces the allegation that the motivation for this new curriculum is a political agenda. In any case, the debate serves as a reminder of why parents can’t expect public schools (or even many private schools) to be “neutral” when it comes to worldviews and religious issues. Only by taking a proactive stance can parents dutifully train up their children the way they should go. For more information: Remember, if you see a news story that might merit some attention, let us know about it! (Note: if the story originates from the Associated Press, Fox News, MSNBC, the New York Times, or another major national media outlet, we will most likely have already heard about it.) And thanks to all of our readers who have submitted great news tips to us. (Please note that links will take you directly to the source. Answers in Genesis is not responsible for content on the websites to which we refer. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy.) Newsletter Thank You! Thank you for signing up to receive email newsletters from Answers in Genesis. Whoops! Your newsletter signup did not work out. Please refresh the page and try again. Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively. We focus on providing answers to questions about the Bible—particularly the book of Genesis—regarding key issues such as creation, evolution, science, and the age of the earth.

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Our Church OUR CHURCH Providence United Reformed Church of Strathroy is a congregation of God’s people. We exist to offer God sincere worship, to serve His people in brotherly love, and to show God’s glory in this world by following Jesus and obeying His commandments. We offer many opportunities for all family members to become involved. This involvement helps us to draw closer together as a family of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. In 1999, Providence United Reformed Church of Strathroy was organized and began meeting in the upper room of the Strathroy Family Flea Market. In 2003, we moved into our new church building on Second Street and continue to meet there. Since 2000, Rev. Harry Zekveld has served as pastor of our congregation, proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ each Lord’s Day. OUR HERITAGE Providence United Reformed Church of Strathroy is a member congregation of the United Reformed Churches in North America, a federation whose roots go back to the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation. We are indebted to such men as Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Knox and John Calvin, who directed the church in the 16th century back to the infallible teachings of the Holy Scriptures. OUR AUTHORITY We believe that the Bible – the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments is God’s inspired, infallible (unfailing), and inerrant (unerring) Word. It is the final authority on matters of doctrine and life. The Holy Spirit sovereignly applies the Gospel to us by working repentance and faith into the hearts of God’s chosen, covenant people. The Head of our church is Jesus Christ, who has appointed minsters, elders and deacons for the care and nurture of His body. These leaders are elected by the congregation and are called to oversee the doctrine and life of the congregation, and to supervise the care of the needy. The consistory (pastor and elders) oversees the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments and the exercise of church discipline to see to it that the Word of Jesus Christ our Head is being honoured in the church’s ministry The confessional standards of our church to which we subscribe are the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Belgic Confession of Faith (1561), and the Canons of Dordt (1619). These “Three Forms of Unity” we believe are a faithful and systematic (orderly) summary of the truths found in Holy Scripture. OUR SAVIOUR AND LORD There is only one name under heaven, given among men, whereby we are saved: Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God (See Acts 4:12). By His sacrificial death on the cross He has paid the penalty of our sins. By His perfect life He has merited for us the righteousness which is imputed (given) to us by grace through faith. These are all God’s gifts, graciously given to us. Righteous and holy lives of thanksgiving, which God requires of us, are the result of the gracious, sanctifying (renewing) work of God’s Holy Spirit. We trust in the power and grace of God to cause us to persevere in true faith until the glorious appearing of our Lord, who will come to judge the living and the dead. When He comes again He will make our mortal bodies like unto His glorified body, to live and reign with Him forever. Following the command of our Lord, we call all people to repent of their sin and believe in the Lord, Jesus Christ, for their salvation and to faithfully and thankfully serve Him in fellowship with other believers. We welcome you to join with us to worship God and service for others. CONTACT US If you would like further information, or if you would like to speak with us, please feel free to contact us directly: Contact Us

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$25.00 Black & Decker Pruning Combo Set, 3-Piece From the smallest plant to a larger tree, this set has everything you need to care for your lawn and garden. Each tool is equipped ... longer and handle tough stems and branches. For hardcore gardening and home improvement enthusiasts, this 3-piece combo set is a must have for landscaping needs. Robert Welch Malvern Bright Serving Set, 3Piece ... piece meticulously crafted and carrying that unique Robert Welch stamp of functionality and style - making them perfect gifts for any discerning chef or accomplished host. Beautifully designed to complement any contemporary setting, this 3-pieceset forms part of the Malvern cutlery range and is the perfect way to serve side ... Details... Giulia Planter Set (3pieces) ... decor. Our pieces provide value pricing, premium materials, unique designer detail, and superior craftsmanship. All of our Campania International planters are manufactured entirely in the USA. Shipping for this planter set is available ...

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

Eisenhower on the Second Berlin Crisis (2 min)tv-pg In November 1958, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev demanded that Western forces pull out of West Berlin in six months. On March 16, 1959, in a radio and television report to the American people, President Eisenhower speaks of the escalating Cold War tensions over Berlin, stressing that the United States will not give in to pressure from the USSR.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

A test of seasonal responses to sugars in four populations of the termite Reticulitermes flavipes. Several studies have shown that Reticulitermes termites prefer food with certain types of sugars. However, the specific sugars that were preferred by the termites in each study differed. The difference between the results of these studies might be explained by differences between populations or changes in feeding responses during the active season. To address these variables, we examined the feeding response to a food source food containing glucose, sucrose, or xylose versus a food source without sugar in several populations of termites and observed whether these responses changed during the year. Termites were collected from colonies from four field sites in Missouri during the spring (May and June), summer (July and August), and fall (September and October) and tested for their response to all three sugars under laboratory conditions. Results show there are distinct differences in response to sugars between populations but only a slight seasonal effect.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

PubMed Abstracts

In this project I will analyze the activities of the Public Health Service in the late 1920s and the ambitions of its leaders as to the Service's future role, especially as embodied in the Parker bill, which reorganized the Service, and the Ransdell bill, which created the National Institute of Health. I will seek to understand the mixture of conflict and cooperation between supporters of the Parker bill, particularly Surgeon General Hugh S. Cumming, and advocates of the competing Ransdell bill, led principally by Dr. Charles Holmes Herty. I will trace the legislative history of these bills, both of which became law in 1930. I will then study the setting up of the National Institute of Health and its early activities, ending with the establishment of the National Cancer Institute in 1937. Principal primary sources for this study are PHS and Bureau of the Budget documents in the National Archives; Library of Congress documents on the legislative history of the bills; the National Library of Medicine collection; the Smithsonian Institution Archives; the Charles Holmes Herty papers at Emory University; the Hugh S. Cumming papers at the University of Virginia; PHS annual reports and publications; and interviews with Dr. Sanford M. Rosenthal and Dr. Henry Sebrell, surviving scientists of this period. Long range objectives of the study are: 1) to examine the history of the Public Health Service in a significant transition period and 2) to study public and private sector interactions during years when chemotherapy was a hope without as yet much substance.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

NIH ExPorter

EDIT: Turns out CARGO_PKG_NAME does exactly what I need, and I had just misread the output of my debugging. Unfortunately I seem unable to delete this post. When specifying a custom build script, the CARGO_PKG_NAME environment variable holds the name of the top-level crate being built. Is there a way to get the name of the current crate being built? Concretely, if crate foo depends on crate bar, and bar has a build script, is there a way for that build script to discover that it’s being run on crate with the name bar? This may sound like an odd question, but I’m trying to write a generic build.rs script that performs a particular task for any crate.

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Pile-CC

Associated Press and Reuters, May 23, 2018 Democratic voters in Georgia nominated a candidate on Tuesday who could make history as the first African-American female governor in the United States. Stacey Abrams won her party’s nomination in a closely watched race showcasing divergent Democratic strategies on how to win in a Republican-dominated southern state. {snip} The Atlanta attorney and former state General Assembly leader also has been unabashed in her insistence that the way to dent Republican domination in Georgia isn’t by cautiously pursuing the older white voters who’ve abandoned Democrats over recent decades. Rather, she believes the path is to widen the electorate by attracting young voters and nonwhites who haven’t been casting ballots. She’ll test her theory as the underdog against either Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle or Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who will meet in a July runoff. {snip} Several races were also a referendum on long-simmering divisions within the Democratic Party. Early returns in a metro-Houston matchup showed attorney Lizzie Fletcher leading activist Laura Moser in what became a proxy for Democrats’ fight between liberals and moderates. National Democrats’ campaign committee never endorsed Fletcher, but released opposition research against Moser amid fears that she’s too liberal to knock off vulnerable Republican Rep. John Culberson in the fall. {snip} In the governor’s race, Democrats tapped former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez to take on Republican incumbent Greg Abbott in November. Valdez is Texas’ first openly gay and first Latina nominee for governor. In the Texas governor’s race, Democrats tapped former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez to take on Republican incumbent Greg Abbott in November. Valdez is Texas’ first openly gay and first Latina nominee for governor Kentucky Democrats picked a female former Marine fighter pilot, Amy McGrath, in a snub to the party establishment for a U.S. House seat district that Democrats hope to put into play. {snip}

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

OpenWebText2

Background ========== Nearly half of the patients with symptoms and signs of heart failure have a normal ejection fraction(EF) \[[@B1],[@B2]\], a condition termed \"heart failure with normal ejection fraction\" (HFnEF). The overall mortality in patients with HFnNF is similar to that in patients with systolic heart failure (SHF) \[[@B1],[@B3]\]. Furthermore, asymptomatic left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD), which is considered as a precursor of HFnEF, is a powerful and independent predictor of death \[[@B4]\]. Nevertheless, randomized trials in patients with HFnEF have failed to demonstrate a reduction in mortality \[[@B5]\]. This is presumably related to the considerable heterogeneity among patients with HFnEF and the lower proportion of specific heart failure related death in this population \[[@B6]\]. It is likely that the non-cardiovascular mortality in HFnEF patients contributes disproportionately to their all-cause mortality. Therefore, better characterization and accurate diagnosis of patients with HFnEF at greatest risk for heart failure related death would allow a more effective use of a specific therapy. In this regard, the diagnostic accuracy of echocardiography has been limited. Circulating biomarkers have become increasingly important in diagnosing and risk stratifying patients with chronic heart failure (HF) \[[@B7],[@B8]\]. N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) has become an established diagnostic marker of heart failure and has been integrated in the guidelines \[[@B8],[@B9]\], including diagnosis of HFnEF \[[@B10]\]. Recently, a highly sensitive commercial assay of cardiac troponin T (hsTnT) became available \[[@B11],[@B12]\]. Using this assay, increased hsTnT levels were detected in the majority of patients with chronic systolic heart failure (SHF) \[[@B13]\] or ischemic heart disease, providing independent prognostic information with respect to heart failure admission and cardiovascular death \[[@B14],[@B15]\]. Likewise, heart fatty acid binding protein (hFABP) has been reported to be associated with an increased risk of death in patients with SHF \[[@B16]-[@B18]\]. However, the use as a screening tool in subjects with LVDD or HFnEF remains to be established. This study sought to evaluate whether hsTnT and hFABP are elevated in patients with LVDD or HFnEF independent of coronary anatomy. Methods ======= Study population ---------------- One hundred thirty consecutive hospitalized subjects referred to elective coronary angiography for the diagnostic workup of exercise intolerance, stable or suspected coronary heart disease (CAD) were enrolled in this study. Patients with the need for coronary revascularization either with angioplasty or coronary bypass surgery were excluded from further analysis. The protocol was approved by the local ethics committee, and signed informed consent was obtained from all patients. Inclusion criteria were scheduled coronary angiography, age 18-80 years and normal left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) ≥ 50%. Exclusion criteria were hypertrophic or infiltrative cardiomyopathy, moderate-to-severe valvular disease, atrial fibrillation or other severe arrhythmias, alcoholism, or serum-creatinine \> 2.5 mg/dl. Considering the association between diabetes, HFnEF \[[@B19],[@B20]\] and hsTnT release \[[@B21]\], we performed a standardized oral glucose tolerance test (oGTT, 75 g glucose) as previously described \[[@B22]\] in all patients without diabetes. Echocardiography ---------------- Echocardiography was performed using a standard ultrasound system (Vivid 7, General Electrics, Milwaukee, Wisconsin). Standard echocardiographic 2D measurements were performed according to current guidelines \[[@B23]\]. Conventional transmitral flow was measured with pw-Doppler. Early (E), late atrial (A) transmitral peak flow velocities and the ratio (E/A) were measured. Pulsed wave tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) was performed at the junction of the left ventricular (LV) wall with the septal and lateral mitral annulus and three consecutive beats were averaged. Early diastolic velocities (E″medial, E″ lateral) were recorded; the mean value (E″ average) from E″ at the medial and lateral mitral annulus was determined. Ratios of E/E″ medial, E/E″ lateral and average E/E″ ratio were calculated. Patients were classified to have HFnEF when the diagnostic criteria as recommended by the European Society of Cardiology were met \[[@B10]\]. In summary, there criteria include an E/E″ratio \> 15 and NT-proBNP levels \> 220 pg/ml. Mild asymptomatic left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) was defined as E″ medial \< 8 cm/s, the E/E″ medial ratio 8-15, NT-proBNP levels \< 220 pg/ml and an E/A ratio \< 0.8 cm/s. Biomarker --------- Before coronary angiography, blood samples were collected. The plasma supernatant was separated and stored frozen at -80°C until analysis. All laboratory measurements on the new hsTnT, NT-proBNP and hFABP were performed in the research laboratory of Roche Diagnostics, Penzberg, Oberbayern. Troponin T concentrations were measured with high sensitive troponin T reagents on an Elecsys 2010 analyzer (Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, Indiana), with an analytical measurement range of 3-10000 ng/L or pg/mL. In studies performed with the Elecsys Troponin T high sensitive assay involving 533 healthy volunteers, the upper reference limit (99th percentile) for troponin T was 14 ng/L (pg/mL), 95% confidence interval 12.7-24.9 ng/L (pg/mL). Heart acid fatty binding protein levels were measured on a human H-FABP ELISA kit (Hycult biotech) with an analytical measurement range of 102 to 25.000 pg/ml. Details of NT-proBNP measurements have been described previously \[[@B24]\]. Statistical Analysis -------------------- All analyses were performed using SPSS statistical software (SPSS 19.0, Chicago, IL). The data are presented as median with 25^th^/75^th^percentiles (interquartile range) for continuous variables or absolute number (%) for categorical variables unless otherwise specified. Log transformed values were used for analysis as appropriate. A p value \< 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to analyze differences between the medians of two groups and the Kruskal Wallis test to test the equality of medians among more than two distinct groups. Fisher″s Test was used for the comparison of two sets of binary variables and the χ2 test to evaluate differences in proportions in more than 2 sets of categorical variables. High sensitive troponin T and hFABP were compared across subjects with normal diastolic function, mild LVDD and HFnEF by the Jonckheere-Terpstra test. We used the Spearman rank correlation to identify variables associated with biomarkers. Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to identify factors that were independently associated with hsTnT and hFABP levels. Results ======= Patient characteristics ----------------------- We included 130 patients with normal EF ≥ 50% (median age 67 \[59-73\] years, 49% woman) in the study, 62% of whom had stable CAD (defined as coronary stenosis \> 50% in ≥ 1 coronary artery) without the need for coronary revascularization. The study group was subdivided as having either HFnEF (n = 49), asymptomatic left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD, n = 51) and normal diastolic function (controls, n = 30). An oGTT was performed in 95 individuals, of whom 38 (29%) had a normal glucose tolerance (NGT), 34 (26%) had impaired glucose tolerance and 23 (18%) had a new detected diabetes mellitus. Thirty-five patients had a history of type 2 diabetes mellitus before inclusion; therefore, 58 (45%) individuals included in the study were identified with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The clinical characteristics in patients classified as to the presence or absence of LVDD or HFnEF are shown in table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"}, the laboratory data and parameter of cardiac assessment are highlighted in table [2](#T2){ref-type="table"}. ###### Clinical characteristics Normal DF (n = 30) mild LVDD (n = 51) HFnEF (n = 49) p-value All (n = 130) --------------------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ---------------- ----------- --------------- **Clinical variables** Age (years) 60 (50-66) 65 (57-69) 72 (67-76) \<0.001\* 67 (59-73) Female gender 15 (50) 21 (41) 28 (57) 0.278 64 (49) BMI (kg/m^2^) 26 (24-32) 27 (25-31) 28 (25-31) 0.236 27 (25-32) Systolic BP (mmHg) 123 (110-130) 130 (126-142) 138 (130-140) \<0.001\* 130(122-140) Diastolic BP (mmHg) 76 (70-80) 80 (76-86) 80 (70-84) 0.023\* 80(70-83) CAD 16 (53) 31 (61) 34 (69) 0.346 81 (62) Previous MI 7 (23) 7 (14) 14 (29) 0.189 28 (22) Previous stroke 0 2 (4) 2 (4) 0.339 4 \[[@B39]\] Previous PTCA 14 (46) 25 (496) 25 (51) 0.905 64 (49) **Cardiovascular risk factors** Treated hypertension 23 (77) 46 (90) 47 (96) 0.010\* 116 (89) Smoking 7 (23) 8 (16) 6(12) 0.041\* 21 (16) Family history CAD 15 (50) 29 (57) 20 (42) 0.669\* 64 (50) Hyperlipidaemia 14 (46) 38 (74) 33 (67) 0.037\* 85 (65) **Glucose metabolism status** NGT 13 (43) 13 (25) 12 (24) 0.013\* 38 (29) IGT 11 (37) 13 (25) 10 (20) 34 (26) New detected T2DM 3 (10) 8 (16) 12 (24) 23(18) Known T2DM 3 (10) 17 (33) 15 (31) 35 (29) **Medications** ACE inhibitor 17 (56) 29 (57) 34 (69) 0.359 80 (61) AT1 blocker 2 (7) 8 (16) 11 (22) 0.179 21 (16) Diuretics 5 (17%) 12 (24) 24 (49) 0.003\* 41 (32) Ca^2+^blocker 4 (13) 6 (12) 17 (34) 0.011\* 27 (21) ß-Blocker 21 (70%) 32 (63) 42 (86) 0.032\* 95 (73) Insulin therapy 0 8 (20) 6 (15) 0.128 14 (11) OAD 1 (6) 13 (34) 5 (12) 0.012\* 19 (15) Values are median (interquartile range) or n (%), \* statistically significant (p \< 0.05). BMI = Body mass index, BP = blood pressure, CAD = Coronary Artery Disease, CABG = coronary bypass graft, DF = diastolic function, HFnEF = heart failure with normal ejection fraction, IGT = impaired glucose tolerance, LVDD = left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, NGT = normal glucose tolerance, OAD = oral anti-diabetic therapy, PTCA = percutaneous coronary angioplasty, T2DM = type 2 diabetes mellitus ###### Laboratory data and echocardiographic parameter of cardiac assessment Normal DF (n = 30) mild LVDD (n = 51) HFnEF (n = 49) p-value ------------------------ -------------------- -------------------- ------------------ ----------- **Biomarker** NT-proBNP (pg/ml) 89 (43-120) 81 (54-118) 444 (251-937) \<0.001\* hsTnT (pg/ml) \< 3 (\< 3-6.4) 5.6 (\< 3-9.8) 8.5 (3.9-17.5) 0.001\* hFABP (pg/ml) 2361 (1860-3081) 3029 (2533-3761) 3669 (2918-4839) \<0.001\* **Routine parameter** LDL (mg/dl) 106 (92-130) 106 (84-134) 111 (84-137) 0.927 HDL (mg/dl) 53 (45-68) 53 (39-63) 49 (42-60) 0.823 Triglyceride (mg/dl) 125 (100-210) 146 (103-233) 152 (115-206) 0.762 Creatinin (mg/dl) 0,9 (0,7-1,0) 0,9 (0,8-1,0) 0,9 (0,8-1,2) 0.050 Hba1c (%) 5,7 (5,5-6,1) 6,1 (5,8-7,0) 6,2 (5,7-6,6) 0.004\* **Systolic function** Ejection fraction (%) 63(60-67) 67 (61-71) 67 (63-73) 0.103 GLS ( -,%) 19,0 (19,9-17,3) 20,3 (21,8-16,9) 18,6 (21,2-16,5) 0.323 **LV geometry** LVEDD (mm) 43 (41-48) 43 (39-47) 45 (40-48) 0.413 LVMi (g/m^2^) 75 (64-97) 84 (68-104) 100 (76-135) 0.011\* **Diastolic function** LA- Index (ml/m^2^) 27,5 (23,9-29,2) 28,1 (23,7-31,1) 39,1 (34,2-49,1) \<0.001\* E (cm/s) 60 (50-60) 60 (60-70) 70 (60-90) \<0.001\* A (cm/s) 70 (50-70) 80 (70-90) 80 (70-90) \<0.001\* E/A ratio 0,86 (0,71-1,18) 0,78 (0,71-0,89) 0,88 (0,77-1,25) 0.055 E\' septal (cm/s) 8,0 (7,1-8,9) 5,9 (5,1-7,1) 5,6 (4,8-6,2) \<0.001\* E\' lateral (cm/s) 10,4 (8,8-11,6) 8,2 (6,7-9,2) 7,3 (5,8-9,0) \<0.001\* E/E\' septal ratio 7,1(6,2-7,7) 10,6 (8,8-12,2) 12,8 (10,9-16,4) 0.001\* E/E\' average ratio 6,50(5,6-6,9) 9,0 (7,8-10,5) 11,2 (9,5-14,5) \<0.001\* Values are median (interquartile range). \* Statistically significant (p \< 0.05). A = late diastolic transmitral inflow velocity, EF = ejection fraction. DF = diastolic function, GLS = global longitudinal strain, LA = left atrial, E = early diastolic transmitral inflow velocity, E″ septal = early diastolic tissue doppler velocity septal, E″lateral = early diastolic tissue doppler velocity lateral, HFnEF = heart failure with normal ejection fraction, hFABP = heart fatty acid binding protein, hsTnT = high sensitive troponin T, LVEDD = left ventricular end-diastolic diameter, LV = left ventricular, LVMi = left ventricular muscle mass index, NT-proBNP = amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide. High sensitive troponin T, hFABP and diastolic function ------------------------------------------------------- High sensitive troponin T and hFABP levels increase significantly from controls to asymptomatic LVDD and HFnEF (both p \< 0.001, figure [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"} and [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). {#F1} {#F2} Furthermore, hsTnT and hFABP levels were higher in subjects with HFnEF compared to asymptomatic LVDD (p = 0.015 and p = 0.022, respectively). In multivariate analysis including age, sex, CAD, EF, body mass index and diabetes, the presence of HFnEF remains the only factor significantly associated with hsTnT levels (p = 0.009). Furthermore, hFABP was significantly higher in the asymptomatic LVDD group compared to those with normal diastolic function (3029 \[2533-3761\] pg/ml in LVDD vs. 2361 \[1860-3081\] in controls; p = 0.007), whereas hsTnT was not significantly different between the LVDD and controls (p = 0.068). Excluding subjects with CAD, we found that hsTnT was detectable, at a level of 3.0 pg/ml or greater, in 87% of HFnEF patients, in 65% of the LVDD group, and in 36% of the control group subjects (p = 0.017). Furthermore, hsTnT was detectable above the upper reference limit of 14.0 pg/ml in 33% of HFnEF patients, in 15% of the LVDD group, and in 0% of the control group subjects (p = 0.05). Overall, in subjects without CAD, hsTnT and hFABP levels remain significantly associated with the presence and severity of diastolic dysfunction (p \< 0.001, table [3](#T3){ref-type="table"}). ###### Laboratory data in subjects with or without stable coronary artery disease Normal DF mild LVDD HFnEF p-value ------------------- -------------------- ------------------ ------------------ ----------- **No CAD** **n = 14** **n = 20** **n = 15** NT-proBNP (pg/ml) 66 (38-91) 90 (56-116) 381 (236-1147) \<0.001\* hsTnT (pg/ml) \< 3 (\< 3-5.6) 4.5 (\< 3-8.9) 8.5 (5.4-18.7) 0.001\* hFABP (pg/ml) 2066 (1822-2432) 3138 (2637-3818) 3710 (3126-8354) \<0.001\* **CAD** **n = 16** **n = 31** **n = 34** NT-proBNP (pg/ml) 95 (55-137) 78 (54-122) 481 (253-4685) \<0.001\* hsTnT (pg/ml) \< 2.85 (\< 3-8.7) 6.9 (\< 3-10.0) 9.2 (3.6-17.5) 0.023\* hFABP (pg/ml) 3017 (2210-3661) 2956 (2533-3340) 3390 (2825-4685) 0.048\* Values are median (interquartile range. CAD = coronary artery disease, hFABP = heart fatty acid binding protein; HFnEF = heart failure with normal ejection fraction; hsTnT = high sensitive troponin T, LVEDD = left ventricular end-diastolic diameter; NT-proBNP = amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide. \* Statistically significant (p \< 0.05). Overall, in subjects without CAD, hsTnT and hFABP levels remain significantly associated with the presence and severity of diastolic dysfunction (p \< 0.001, table [3](#T3){ref-type="table"}). The relationship between hsTnT and hFABP quartiles, cardiac assessment and NT-pro-BNP levels is shown in table [4](#T4){ref-type="table"} and [5](#T5){ref-type="table"}. Particularly among the association with echocardiographic parameters of diastolic dysfunction, hsTnT and hFABP levels were significantly increasing across the E/E″ ratio, a parameter indicative for elevated ventricular filling pressures. There was a weak linear correlation between NT-proBNP levels with hsTnT (r = 0.331, p \< 0.001) and hFABP levels (r = 0.330, p \< 0.001). ###### Parameter of cardiac assessment according to hsTnT quartiles 1rd Quartile 2nd Quartile 3rd Quartile 4th Quartile p- value ------------------------------------- ------------------ ------------------- ------------------- -------------------- ---------- **hsTnT (pg/ml) Systolic function** \<3 (n = 44) \<3-5.6 (n = 18) 5.7-11.3(n = 37) 11.3-92.1 (n = 31) Ejection fraction (%) 66 (62-72) 62 (57-69) 66 (63-70) 65 (61-74) 0.267 GLS ( -,%) 19,8 (21,6-18,0) 19,2 (21,0-16,8) 18,9 (21,4-16,6) 18,3 (21,1-16,0) 0.477 **LV Geometry** LVEDD (mm) 44 (41-48) 43 (42-50) 45 (39-48) 43 (40-47) 0.804 LVMi (g/m^2^) 81 (68-89) 94 (74-121) 90 (70-107) 107 (69-138) 0.013\* **Diastolic function** LA- Index (ml/m^2^) 28 (23-34) 30 (24-33) 30 (27-37) 35 (29-39) 0.012\* E/A ratio 0,86 (0,75-1,20) 0,75 (0,68-0,85) 0,80 (0,71-1,00) 0,87 (0,75-1,00) 0.128 E\' septal (cm/s) 7,3 (5,3-8,0) 6,2 (4,7-7,3) 5,9 (5,3-7,1) 5,7 (4,5-6,2) 0.004\* E\' lateral (cm/s) 9,0 (7,2-10,43) 9,2 (6,1-10,8) 8,1 (6,7-9,1) 7,2 (5,6-8,2) 0.025\* E/E\' septal ratio 9,0 (7,5-12,1) 10,4 (9,18-11,6) 11,2 (8,3-13,1) 11,8 (8,9-15,7) 0.023\* E/E\' average ratio 7,83 (6,60-9,76) 8,89 (7,16-10,59) 9,45 (7,72-12,05) 10,4 (8,15-13,37) 0.015\* **Laboratory** NT-proBNP (pg/ml) 104 (49-166) 102 (52-223) 150 (93-265) 261 (78-926) 0.005\* Values are median (interquartile range). \* Statistically significant (p \< 0.05). A = late diastolic transmitral inflow velocity, EF = ejection fraction. GLS = global longitudinal strain, LA = left atrial, E = early diastolic transmitral inflow velocity, E″septal = early diastolic tissue doppler velocity septal, E″lateral = early diastolic tissue doppler velocity lateral, hsTnT = high sensitive troponin T, LV = left ventricular, LVEDD = left ventricular enddiastolic diameter, LVMi = left ventricular muscle mass index, NT-proBNP = amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide. ###### Parameter of cardiac assessment according to hFABP quartiles 1rd Quartile 2nd Quartile 3rd Quartile 4th Quartile p-value ------------------------------------- ------------------ -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ----------- **hFABP (pg/ml) Systolic function** 0-2405 (n = 33) 2406-3057 (n = 34) 3057-3908 (n = 32) \>3908 (n = 32) EF (%) 64 (60-68) 67 (61-72) 64 (62-70) 68 (63-74) 0.103 GLS ( -,%) 19.0 (20.6-17.0) 18.5 (21.4-16. 2) 19.0 (21.2-16.6) 20.3 (22.4-17. 3) 0.323 **LV Geometry** LVEDD (mm) 43 (40-48) 45 (40-49) 44 (41-51) 43 (40-47) 0.413 LVMi (g/m^2^) 76 (66-103) 94 (74-107) 83 (63-104) 97 (71-118) 0.011\* **Diastolic function** LA- Index (ml/m^2^) 27 (23-30) 28 (24-35) 31 (26-37) 36 (29-40) \<0.001\* E/A ratio 0.86 (0.75-1.00) 0.82 (0.75-1.00) 0.86 (0.71-1.11) 0.88 (0.71-1.13) 0.055 E\' septal (cm/s) 7.2 (5.5-8.0) 5.8 (5.3-6.6) 6.2 (5.2-7.3) 5.6 (4.4-6.5) \<0.001\* E\' lateral (cm/s) 10.3 (6.8-11.0) 8.1 (7.0-9.0) 8.9 (7.6-9.6) 6.8 (5.5-8.7) \<0.001\* E/E\' septal ratio 8.3 (7.5-10.6) 10.8 (8.6-12.3) 11.2 (8.5-13.2) 12.3 (10.3-15.7) \<0.001\* E/E\' average ratio 6.84 (6.47-8.77) 9.06 (7.80-10.70) 9.46 (7.59-10.71) 10.94 (9.33-14.51) \<0.001\* **Laboratory** NT-proBNP (pg/ml) 71 (39-197) 119 (62-201) 152 (95-257) 294 (98-572) \<0.001\* Values are median (interquartile range). \* Statistically significant (p \< 0.05). A = late diastolic transmitral inflow velocity, EF = ejection fraction. GLS = global longitudinal strain, LA = left atrial, E = early diastolic transmitral inflow velocity, E″septal = early diastolic tissue doppler velocity septal, E″lateral = early diastolic tissue doppler velocity lateral, hFABP = heart fatty acid binding protein, LV = left ventricular, LVEDD = left ventricular enddiastolic diameter, LVMi = left ventricular muscle mass index, NT-proBNP = amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide. In contrast to diastolic function parameter, left ventricular ejection fraction and the global longitudinal strain values, a very sensitive tool to detect systolic dysfunction disregarding a normal EF, were not associated with hsTnT or hFABP levels (both p \> 0.05). Discussion ========== We have demonstrated for the first time that hsTnT and hFABP plasma levels are associated with the diagnosis of HFnEF. The association is in proportion to the severity of the disease. Furthermore, hFABP was significantly different in subjects with normal DF and asymptomatic LVDD, whereas whereas hsTnT was not significantly different between the LVDD and controls. Both hsTnT and hFABP levels correlate significantly with multiple echocardiographic criteria implemented in guidelines for the diagnosis and classification of LVDD and HFnEF. High sensitive troponin T ------------------------- The recent introduction of a new generation hsTnT has not only improved the early diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes, but also suggested that there are several causes for troponin T release other than myocardial ischemia. Particularly patients with SHF were found to have detectable levels of hsTnT with a persistent relationship between magnitude and outcome. In several cohorts of patients with SHF, the magnitude of troponin elevation has been correlated with the severity of the disease and with adverse outcomes \[[@B25],[@B26]\]. The Val-HeFT trial \[[@B13]\] showed an almost linear increase in the risk of adverse clinical event with hsTnT concentration in patients with SHF, even in a range of very low concentrations that could not be measured with the traditional assay. In this trial, measurement of hsTnT adds to the prognostic information provided by natriuretic peptides alone. Patients with both cardiac markers elevated had a worse prognosis than those with a single elevated marker. Furthermore, in the general population, hsTnT was associated with structural heart disease and subsequent risk for all-cause mortality \[[@B27]\]. A recent study has shown that low levels of hsTnT are associated with new-onset heart failure and cardiovascular death in older adults \>65 years without underlying cardiovascular disease, independent of other risk factors \[[@B28]\], and a large observation study in Europe has shown an association between low levels of circulating troponin T and the future development of HF in completely asymptomatic subjects \[[@B29]\]. We were able to demonstrate a strong association between hsTnT and the diagnosis of HFnEF, independent of CAD. Therefore, analogous to SHF, we hypothesize that hsTnT might improve diagnostic accuracy and risk stratification in HFnEF. Heart fatty acid binding protein -------------------------------- Heart fatty acid binding protein is abundant in the cytosol of cardiomyocytes and is released when cell surface membrane is injured \[[@B30]\]. In advanced SHF, hFABP levels are increased because of the leakage of cytosolic proteins from cardiomycates affected by the ongoing myocardial damage \[[@B17],[@B24],[@B31],[@B32]\]. Circulating levels of hFABP have a prognostic value regarding the future deterioration of congestive heart failure in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy \[[@B16],[@B33]\], and persistently increased serum concentrations of hFABP predict adverse clinical outcomes in patients with SHF \[[@B16]\]. Our data show a significant association between hFABP and the severity of diastolic dysfunction. In contrast to hsTnT, hFABP was significantly increased in the asymptomatic LVDD group compared to controls. hFABP is a cytosolic protein, whereas troponin is a myofibrillar protein with a cytosolic pool estimated at only 6% to 8% \[[@B34]\]. A reversible myocyte injury resulting in increased membrane permeability would cause an early hFABP release, while a more extensive injury must occur before significant amounts of troponin are released. LVDD, which is considered as a precursor of HFnEF, carries a substantial risk for the subsequent development of HFnEF and reduced survival, even when it is asymptomatic \[[@B4]\]. Considering the large number of patients at risk for or with asymptomatic LVDD, early identification of LVDD may provide an opportunity to manage the underlying cause and prevent progression to symptomatic diastolic heart failure. Accordingly, hsFABP may be a more sensitive and reliable indicator of low-level myocardial damage in LVDD, especially when used together with troponins \[[@B16],[@B17]\]. Pathophysiological considerations --------------------------------- Elevated hsTnT and hFABP levels in patients with HFnEF may suggest ongoing myocardial damage at a very low rate \[[@B31]\], indicating that these biomarkers may serve as a marker for the progression of heart failure \[[@B35]\]. In our study, hsTnT and hFABP were increased in patients with HFnEF independent of CAD. Hence, this phenomenon seems to be independent of an ischemic injury. Stretching of myocytes might lead to leakage of troponins and hFABP by transient loss of cell membrane integrity without cell death \[[@B36]\]. This reversible damage may contribute to the increase in circulating cardiac troponins caused by irreversible damage of myocytes \[[@B26]\]. Nevertheless, persistently elevated hsTnT and hFABP values in HFnEF patients should lead to an evaluation for ischemic heart disease, if not already performed. According to the diagnostic criteria as recommended by the European Society of Cardiology in 2007 \[[@B10]\], N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is regarded as the preferred biomarker for the detection of HFnEF. Nevertheless, in our study, the correlation between NTproBNP and hsTnT or hFABP was only moderate, suggesting that BNP and specific myocardial proteins convey different and complementary features of the pathophysiologic process. The former is released in response to the pressure overload and the latter reflects structural alterations in the myocardium and ongoing myocardial damage. In patients with SHF, it has been reported that the combined measurement of BNP and troponin can predict adverse cardiac events \[[@B37]\]. Consequently, these biomarkers may provide different diagnostic or prognostic information in patients with HFnEF. Clinical considerations ----------------------- In daily clinical practice, although specific recommendations have been proposed \[[@B10],[@B38]\], affirmation of HFnEF is challenging because the HFnEF population is heterogeneous, and HFnEF is probably not necessarily a single entity. This implies a high risk for either a false positive or false negative diagnosis by the defining diagnostic criteria. Consequently, identification of potentially pathophysiologically distinct subgroups of HFnEF patients could advance diagnosis and therapy. Particularly, a test that identifies which patients with HFnEF are at increased risk for cardiovascular events would be desirable. In this regard, changes in different biomarker levels in HFnEF are of scientific interest, as they reflect distinct disease mechanisms in heart failure. Limitations =========== Interpreting the present data is limited by the small number of the patients studied, resulting in a limited statistical power. Furthermore, the rates of CAD and cardiovascular risk factors were high in this study population. Therefore, the present results may not be readily representing the general population. Nevertheless, the association between diastolic function, hsTnT and hFABP remains significant after adjustment for CAD, glucose metabolism and hypertension as covariates into multivariate regression models. Furthermore, for risk stratification, follow-up and association of the biomarkers with clinical events is needed. Lastly, we did not perform serial measurements and only focused on baseline values. Accordingly, our cross sectional study design does not permit any conclusions on causality. Conclusions =========== This is the first study to show that circulating hsTnT and hFABP are elevated in patients with HFnEF independently of CAD. Nevertheless, the mechanisms of cardiac injury in HFnEF resulting in hsTnT and hFABP release need to be further elucidated. Incorporation of a multimarker strategy, reflecting distinct pathophysiological mechanisms, may improve diagnostic accuracy and risk prediction in HFnEF beyond traditional risk indicators. Further studies assessing mortality and morbidity are needed to evaluate whether the use of hsTnT and hFABP can guide the identification of HFnEF at high risk. Competing interests =================== The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors\' contributions ======================= WD wrote manuscript, researched data, performed echocardiographic measurements and statistical analysis. WN researched data and contributed to discussion. RF performed echocardiographic measurements and ML reviewed manuscript and contributed to the discussion. GH and DZ performed laboratory analysis. MCB researched data, TS, KT, DZ and MS researched data, edited manuscript and contributed to discussion. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Pre-publication history ======================= The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: <http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2261/11/41/prepub> Acknowledgements ================ The study was supported by the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Foundation and the Heinz-Dieter Oberdick Foundation, Wuppertal. Parts of this study were included in Daniel Scheyer\'s doctoral thesis.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

PubMed Central

Who We Are Our values are built on the traits of the Quokka, known as the happiest animal in the world. With our unique patented "Quo Pro 3D” lumbar support system you will feel the joy & happiness with our product.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

Las Vegas police are investigating Wednesday morning after a man shot at a burglar standing in the bedroom in his east Las Vegas home. Las Vegas police investigate a call of a home intruder on Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018, at a house on San Vincente St. (Max Michor/Las Vegas Review-Journal) Las Vegas police are investigating Wednesday morning after a man shot at a burglar standing in the bedroom in his east Las Vegas home. Police were called about 3:30 a.m. to a home at 2727 San Vincente St., near Pecos Road and Carey Avenue, according to Metropolitan Police Department Lt. David Gordon. The man was home alone when he woke up to a noise and saw another man in his bedroom, Gordon said. He grabbed a handgun and fired three shots at the other man, who ran away. Gordon said police didn’t find any evidence inside the home that indicated the would-be burglar had been shot, but are still searching for him. Contact Max Michor at [email protected] or 702-383-0365. Follow @MaxMichor on Twitter.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

OpenWebText2

Q: ActionController::UrlGenerationError in Home#home No route me atches {:action=>"edit", :controller=>"users", :id=>nil} missing required keys: [:id] I get the error: ActionController::UrlGenerationError in Home#home No route matches {:action=>"edit", :controller=>"users", :id=>nil} missing required keys: [:id] in my home controller. When I am sign in, I get errors in the home/home mostly about No route matches...:controller=>"users", :id=>nil} missing required keys: [:id]. For some reason, it looks like the sign_in is not working or the current_user is nil . Any idea on how to solve this error ? I am using devise and omniauth. Here is my users_model: class User < ActiveRecord::Base TEMP_EMAIL_PREFIX = 'change@me' TEMP_EMAIL_REGEX = /\Achange@me/ # Include default devise modules. Others available are: # :lockable, :timeoutable devise :database_authenticatable, :registerable, :confirmable, :recoverable, :rememberable, :trackable, :validatable, :omniauthable validates_format_of :email, :without => TEMP_EMAIL_REGEX, on: :update def self.find_for_oauth(auth, signed_in_resource = nil) # Get the identity and user if they exist identity = Identity.find_for_oauth(auth) # If a signed_in_resource is provided it always overrides the existing user # to prevent the identity being locked with accidentally created accounts. # Note that this may leave zombie accounts (with no associated identity) which # can be cleaned up at a later date. user = signed_in_resource ? signed_in_resource : identity.user # Create the user if needed if user.nil? # Get the existing user by email if the provider gives us a verified email. # If no verified email was provided we assign a temporary email and ask the # user to verify it on the next step via UsersController.finish_signup email_is_verified = auth.info.email && (auth.info.verified || auth.info.verified_email) email = auth.info.email if email_is_verified user = User.where(:email => email).first if email # Create the user if it's a new registration if user.nil? user = User.new( name: auth.extra.raw_info.name, #username: auth.info.nickname || auth.uid, email: email ? email : "#{TEMP_EMAIL_PREFIX}-#{auth.uid}-#{auth.provider}.com", password: Devise.friendly_token[0,20] ) user.skip_confirmation! user.save! end end # Associate the identity with the user if needed if identity.user != user identity.user = user identity.save! end user end def email_verified? self.email && self.email !~ TEMP_EMAIL_REGEX end end Here is my shared/user_info.html.erb: <h1><%= current_user.email %></h1> <span><%= link_to "view my profile", current_user %></span> <span><%= pluralize(current_user.posts.count, "post") %></span> <%end%> Here is my app/views/layouts/header.html.erb: <header class="navbar navbar-fixed-top navbar-inverse"> <div class="container"> <%= link_to "UNSTARV ALPHA", '#', id: "logo" %> <nav> <ul class="nav navbar-nav navbar-right"> <li><%= link_to "Home", root_path %></li> <li><%= link_to "Groups", groups_path %></li> <% if signed_in? %> <li><%= link_to "Users", users_path %></li> <li class="dropdown"> <a href="#" class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown"> Account <b class="caret"></b> </a> <ul class="dropdown-menu"> <li><%= link_to "Profile", current_user %></li> <li><%= link_to "Settings", edit_user_path(current_user) %></li> <li class="divider"></li> <li> <%= link_to "Log out", logout_path, method: "delete" %> </li> </ul> </li> <% else %> <li><%= link_to "Log in", login_path %></li> <li><%= link_to "Sign up", signup_path %></li> <% end %> </div></li> </ul> </nav> </div> Here is my routes.rb: Rails.application.routes.draw do get 'groups/new' get 'groups/create' get 'groups/show' get 'groups/edit' get 'groups/update' get 'groups/destroy' get 'groups' => 'groups#index' get 'groups/new' get 'signup' =>'users#new' get 'rooms' =>'home#rooms' match '/users/:id/finish_signup' => 'users#finish_signup', via: [:get, :patch], :as => :finish_signup devise_for :users, :controllers => { omniauth_callbacks: 'omniauth_callbacks' } resources :users do member do get :following, :followers end end root 'home#home' get 'terms' => 'home#terms' get 'privacy' => 'home#privacy' get 'about' => 'home#about' get 'login' => 'sessions#new' post 'login' => 'sessions#create' delete 'logout' => 'sessions#destroy' resources :posts do member { post :vote } resources :comments do member { post :vote } end end resources :groups resources :relationships, only: [:create, :destroy] Here is my full trace: actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:219:in `raise_generation_error' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:192:in `optimized_helper' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:178:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:270:in `block (2 levels) in define_url_helper' app/views/layouts/_header.html.erb:20:in `_app_views_layouts__header_html_erb__4827727_36507960' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/template.rb:145:in `block in render' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:161:in `instrument' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/template.rb:339:in `instrument' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/template.rb:143:in `render' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/renderer/partial_renderer.rb:306:in `render_partial' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/renderer/partial_renderer.rb:279:in `block in render' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/renderer/abstract_renderer.rb:38:in `block in instrument' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:159:in `block in instrument' activesupport (4.1.8)lib/active_support/notifications/instrumenter.rb:20:in `instrument' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:159:in `instrument' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/renderer/abstract_renderer.rb:38:in `instrument' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/renderer/partial_renderer.rb:278:in `render' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/renderer/renderer.rb:47:in `render_partial' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/helpers/rendering_helper.rb:35:in `render' app/views/layouts/application.html.erb:14:in `_app_views_layouts_application_html_erb__798221577_35492700' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/template.rb:145:in `block in render' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:161:in `instrument' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/template.rb:339:in `instrument' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/template.rb:143:in `render' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/renderer/template_renderer.rb:67:in `render_with_layout' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/renderer/template_renderer.rb:53:in `render_template' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/renderer/template_renderer.rb:17:in `render' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/renderer/renderer.rb:42:in `render_template' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/renderer/renderer.rb:23:in `render' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/rendering.rb:99:in `_render_template' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/streaming.rb:217:in `_render_template' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/rendering.rb:82:in `render_to_body' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/rendering.rb:32:in `render_to_body' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/renderers.rb:32:in `render_to_body' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/abstract_controller/rendering.rb:25:in `render' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/rendering.rb:16:in `render' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:41:in `block (2 levels) in render' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/core_ext/benchmark.rb:12:in `block in ms' C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.0.0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/benchmark.rb:296:in `realtime' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/core_ext/benchmark.rb:12:in `ms' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:41:in `block in render' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:84:in `cleanup_view_runtime' activerecord (4.1.8) lib/active_record/railties/controller_runtime.rb:25:in `cleanup_view_runtime' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:40:in `render' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/implicit_render.rb:10:in `default_render' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/implicit_render.rb:5:in `send_action' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:189:in `process_action' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/rendering.rb:10:in `process_action' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/abstract_controller/callbacks.rb:20:in `block in process_action' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:113:in `call' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:113:in `call' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:229:in `block in halting' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:229:in `call' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:229:in `block in halting' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:166:in `call' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:166:in `block in halting' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:166:in `call' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:166:in `block in halting' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:166:in `call' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:166:in `block in halting' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:86:in `call' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:86:in `run_callbacks' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/abstract_controller/callbacks.rb:19:in `process_action' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/rescue.rb:29:in `process_action' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:31:in `block in process_action' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:159:in `block in instrument' activesupport (4.1.8)lib/active_support/notifications/instrumenter.rb:20:in `instrument' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:159:in `instrument' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:30:in `process_action' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/params_wrapper.rb:250:in `process_action' activerecord (4.1.8) lib/active_record/railties/controller_runtime.rb:18:in `process_action' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:136:in `process' actionview (4.1.8) lib/action_view/rendering.rb:30:in `process' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:196:in `dispatch' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal/rack_delegation.rb:13:in `dispatch' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:232:in `block in action' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:82:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:82:in `dispatch' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:50:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:73:in `block in call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:59:in `each' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:59:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:678:in `call' omniauth (1.2.2) lib/omniauth/strategy.rb:186:in `call!' omniauth (1.2.2) lib/omniauth/strategy.rb:164:in `call' omniauth (1.2.2) lib/omniauth/builder.rb:59:in `call' warden (1.2.3) lib/warden/manager.rb:35:in `block in call' warden (1.2.3) lib/warden/manager.rb:34:in `catch' warden (1.2.3) lib/warden/manager.rb:34:in `call' rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/etag.rb:23:in `call' rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/conditionalget.rb:25:in `call' rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/head.rb:11:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/params_parser.rb:27:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/flash.rb:254:in `call' rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/session/abstract/id.rb:225:in `context' rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/session/abstract/id.rb:220:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/cookies.rb:560:in `call' activerecord (4.1.8) lib/active_record/query_cache.rb:36:in `call' activerecord (4.1.8)lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:621:in `call' activerecord (4.1.8) lib/active_record/migration.rb:380:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:29:in `block in call' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:82:in `run_callbacks' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:27:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/reloader.rb:73:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/remote_ip.rb:76:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/debug_exceptions.rb:17:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/show_exceptions.rb:30:in `call' railties (4.1.8) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:38:in `call_app' railties (4.1.8) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:20:in `block in call' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/tagged_logging.rb:68:in `block in tagged' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/tagged_logging.rb:26:in `tagged' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/tagged_logging.rb:68:in `tagged' railties (4.1.8) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:20:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/request_id.rb:21:in `call' rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/methodoverride.rb:21:in `call' rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/runtime.rb:17:in `call' activesupport (4.1.8) lib/active_support/cache/strategy/local_cache_middleware.rb:26:in `call' rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/lock.rb:17:in `call' actionpack (4.1.8) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/static.rb:84:in `call' rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/sendfile.rb:112:in `call' railties (4.1.8) lib/rails/engine.rb:514:in `call' railties (4.1.8) lib/rails/application.rb:144:in `call' rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/lock.rb:17:in `call' rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/content_length.rb:14:in `call' rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/handler/webrick.rb:60:in `service' C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.0.0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/webrick/httpserver.rb:138:in `service' C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.0.0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/webrick/httpserver.rb:94:in `run' C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.0.0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/webrick/server.rb:295:in `block in start_thread' Here is my omniauth_callbacks_controller.rb: class OmniauthCallbacksController < Devise::OmniauthCallbacksController def self.provides_callback_for(provider) class_eval %Q{ def #{provider} @user = User.find_for_oauth(env["omniauth.auth"], current_user) if @user.persisted? sign_in_and_redirect @user, event: :authentication set_flash_message(:notice, :success, kind: "#{provider}".capitalize) if is_navigational_format? else session["devise.#{provider}_data"] = env["omniauth.auth"] redirect_to new_user_registration_url end end } end [:twitter, :facebook, :linked_in].each do |provider| provides_callback_for provider end def after_sign_in_path_for(resource) #if resource.email_verified? super resource current_user = @user #else # finish_signup_path(resource) #end end end And my users controller: class UsersController < ApplicationController before_action :set_user, only: [:show, :edit, :update, :destroy, :finish_signup] def index @users = User.all end # GET /users/:id.:format def show # authorize! :read, @user end # GET /users/:id/edit def edit # authorize! :update, @user end def new @user = User.new end # PATCH/PUT /users/:id.:format def update # authorize! :update, @user respond_to do |format| if @user.update(user_params) sign_in(@user == current_user ? @user : current_user, :bypass => true) format.html { redirect_to @user, notice: 'Your profile was successfully updated.' } format.json { head :no_content } else format.html { render action: 'edit' } format.json { render json: @user.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity } end end end # GET/PATCH /users/:id/finish_signup def finish_signup # authorize! :update, @user if request.patch? && params[:user] #&& params[:user][:email] if @user.update(user_params) @user.skip_reconfirmation! sign_in(@user, :bypass => true) redirect_to @user, notice: 'Your profile was successfully updated.' else @show_errors = true end end end # DELETE /users/:id.:format def destroy # authorize! :delete, @user @user.destroy respond_to do |format| format.html { redirect_to root_url } format.json { head :no_content } end end def set_user @user = User.find(params[:id]) end def following @title = "Following" @user = User.find(params[:id]) @users = @user.following.paginate(page: params[:page]) render 'show_follow' end def followers @title = "Followers" @user = User.find(params[:id]) @users = @user.followers.paginate(page: params[:page]) render 'show_follow' end private def user_params accessible = [ :name, :email ] # extend with your own params accessible << [ :password, :password_confirmation ] unless params[:user][:password].blank? params.require(:user).permit(:database_authenticatable, :registerable, #:confirmable, :recoverable, :rememberable, :trackable, :validatable, :omniauthable,:encrypted_password, #:confirmed_at) end end A: I am not too familiar with Omniauth to be honest, and I don't know if this is the right answer but here are my 2 cents. I am thinking maybe your <li><%= link_to "Settings", edit_user_path(current_user) %></li> is not getting the id from current_user. Try deleting that line to see if the error goes away. Maybe when a user signs in using omniauth, it does NOT create the user and it only creates a user once the user verifies his email, or it only creates a user if the email is valid in Facebook/Twitter/whatnot. So when you call on current_user, current_user does not exists. Sign in using omniauth using a valid (facebook/twitter/whatnot) email, then check your database to see if it created a user. Try <li><%= link_to "Settings", edit_user_path(@user) %></li> or try <li><%= link_to "Settings", edit_user_path(@user.id) %></li> That might work. I hope this helps.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

StackExchange

Jean Muller "Heard here in mostly familiar Chopin, Muller makes everything enthrallingly fresh and unfamiliar. Indeed, you seem to be hearing the Four Ballades for the First time, such is the pianist's recreative urgency." - Bryce Morrison, Gramophone 2012/04 Jean Muller was born in Luxembourg in 1979. At the age of six he took his first lessons with Marie-José Hengesch at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg. Only one year later, he made his first public appearance, premiering a work of his compatriot Alexander Mullenbach. During his year at the Academy of Music in Riga in 1995 on a European exchange programme, TEMPUS, studying under Teofíls Bikís, he took the decision to devote his life to music. Until 2006, he studied in Europe – Brussels, Paris and Munich – gaining exposure to the most diverse schools of piano in the classes of Evgeny Moguilevsky, Gerhard Oppitz, Eugen Indjic, and lastly, Michael Schäfer. Outside the formal structure of the schools, his father and mentor Gary Muller, piano teacher at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg, has had a decisive influence on his musical development. Jean Muller’s education has been complemented by guidance from musicians such as Anne Queffélec, Leon Fleischer, Janos Starker, and Fou T’song. Since 1994, Jean Muller has been awarded first prize at several international competitions: Jean Françaix, Francis Poulenc and Arcachon to name but a few. He was a winner of the International Forum of Young Performers, a European competition organised by the Union Européenne de Radio-Télévision (UER) on behalf of UNESCO and the International Music Council. Jean Muller has performed on several occasions during state visits of Their Royal Highnesses Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa of Luxembourg. In 2007 His Royal Highness Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg made him Chevalier de l’Ordre de Mérite Civil et Militaire d’Adolphe de Nassau. Jean Muller regularly performs internationally, at major concert halls such as Megaron in Athens, the NCPA in Beijing, the Luxembourg Philharmonic Hall, the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre, the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Arsenal in Metz, the Munich Philharmonic Hall and the Liederhalle in Stuttgart. Muller is regularly invited to prestigious festivals, such as Festival Bourglinster, Festival A*Devantgarde Munich, Festival Echternach, Festival de Saintes, KotorArt, Incontri pianistica di Cosenza and PianoTexas. He has made solo performances with orchestras such as the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, the Heidelberger Sinfoniker, the Münchner Symphoniker, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and Les Solistes Européens Luxembourg, conducted by renowned conductors including Frédéric Chaslin, Thomas Fey, Jack-Martin Händler, Zubin Mehta and Bramwell Tovey. The international press acclaims the fact that he uses his exceptional virtuosity in the service of intense, well thought-out interpretations. At the Poulenc Competition, Jean-Claude Pennetier, president of the jury and renowned pianist, said, “Everything is there: fingers, head and heart”. His CDs, published by JCH-Productions, Turtle Records, Polymnie, Bella Musica and Fondamenta Productions, have been acclaimed by the musical press, receiving the Excellentia and Supersonic awards from Pizzicato magazine, Coup de Coeur from Piano Magazine, 4 étoiles from Classica, 4 Diapasons, and the Arte CD Selection. Jean Muller’s performance of the complete Beethoven sonatas, performed in Ettelbruck, Luxembourg, has been warmly welcomed by both the public and the press. The recording of this cycle of concerts has been released under the Bella Musica label. In 2009-2010 he was in residence for the CAMERATA cycle organised by the Solistes Européens in collaboration with the Soirées de Luxembourg at the Philharmonie Luxembourg. This season, he will be releasing a CD with works of Chopin for Fondamenta Productions, and undertaking a third tour in China. Since 2011 Jean Muller is also a professor at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

Introduction {#Sec1} ============ Information received from the visual and chemical senses is qualitatively different. For prey species in aquatic environments, visual cues of predation are spatially and temporally reliable but risky as the prey and predator often have to be in close proximity due to short visualization distances (Lythgoe [@CR33]). Chemical cues, by contrast, can be distorted by currents or linger and thus provide less reliable spatial and temporal information, but can be detected from a safe distance or while in hiding (Brown and Magnavacca [@CR10]). For this reason, chemical cues can be considered long-distance cues in moving water (Dusenberry [@CR15]) and may often be the first cue an animal receives (McLennan [@CR36]). Previous studies indicate that the first cue received alerts the recipient to the potential presence of a second cue, enhancing the detectability and discriminability of the second cue and therefore reducing the chance of overlooking vital information (Rowe [@CR40], Rowe and Guildford [@CR41]). This effect may be particularly strong when the cues are detected by different sensory modalities ("multimodal"; Rowe [@CR40]). The detection of predation risk is an ideal process with which to test hypotheses relating to multimodal sensory ecology: prey response to cues of predation risk is vital for survival, but responding to non-threatening cues in the same way is a waste of resources (Helfman [@CR26], Lima and Dill [@CR31]), so prey are likely to be under strong selection to use all available information to make appropriate decisions (Munoz and Blumstein [@CR38]). As a result, the interaction between sensory modalities, particularly the visual and chemosensory systems, in prey response to the cues of predation risk has received considerable research attention (reviewed by Munoz and Blumstein [@CR38]). Many studies of this process in aquatic systems have used the chemical cue I use in this study, "alarm cue," which is released from fish skin damaged during predation events and, if detected, provides reliable information about predation risk in the immediate environment regardless of predator identity (Brown [@CR9]). Typically, fish exposed to alarm cue reduce activity and increase shoaling behavior (Brown [@CR9], Ferrari et al. [@CR17], Whitlock [@CR49]). In many fishes, the innate response to alarm cue is sufficiently strong that a single associative conditioning event can enhance existing antipredator behavior (e.g., Berejikian et al. [@CR6]) and condition a response to the odors of novel predators (Ferrari et al. [@CR17]), non-predatory fish (Larson and McCormick [@CR28]), sound (Wisenden et al. [@CR51]), areas of habitat in the wild (Kim et al. [@CR27]), and non-biological visual cues (Hall and Suboski [@CR22], Yunker et al. [@CR52]). Additionally, the concentration of chemical alarm cue can indicate the level of predation risk on a temporal or spatial scale; several species use cue concentration to change their behavior in a "threat-sensitive" way, i.e., as the level of perceived risk increases, inferred from the concentration of alarm cue, the intensity of response also proportionally increases (Helfman [@CR26]; e.g., ambon damselfish, *Pomacentrus amboinensis*, see Lönnstedt and McCormick [@CR32]; Trinidadian guppies, *Poecilia reticulata*, see Brown et al. [@CR12]; and Atlantic salmon, *Salmo salar*, see Hawkins et al. [@CR24]). Studies using chemical alarm cue have led to the development of several models of multimodal cue used in predation risk assessment. Hartman and Abrahams ([@CR23]) proposed the sensory compensation model, that one sensory modality should take precedence over others as the primary source of risk assessment information. This model explains their observation and that of others that fish in conditions preventing the use of visual cues (hypothesized as the more important cues) typically show stronger responses to chemical alarm cue and predator cues (Hartman and Abrahams [@CR23], Leduc et al. [@CR30], Leahy et al. [@CR29]). More recently, however, studies have revealed the opposite pattern: fish unable to use chemical alarm cue show stronger responses to visual cues (e.g., Elvidge et al. [@CR16]). Further empirical work has confirmed that visual and chemical cues instead act synergistically to determine fish response to predation risk and provide qualitatively and quantitatively different information: the sensory complement model (Ferrari et al. [@CR18]). Specifically, visual and chemical cues combined provide prey with more information about local risks than either visual or chemical cues in isolation. For example, the response of glowlight tetras, *Hemigrammus erythrozonus*, to visual cues of a predator is greater when fish are pre-exposed to alarm cue than the response to either the visual or chemical cue in isolation (Wisenden et al. [@CR50]), even when pre-exposure is to concentrations of alarm cue too low to elicit an overt behavioral responses (Brown et al. [@CR11]). Although this body of work demonstrates that cues from different sensory modalities interact in determining fish behavior, in each case, the visual and chemical cues were unambiguously those of predation or a predator (e.g., chemical alarm cue paired with a model predator; reviewed by Munoz and Blumstein [@CR38]). No study, to my knowledge, has yet investigated how threatening cues detected by one modality affect an individual's response to subsequent ambiguous cues in other modalities. Here, I use the guppy, *P. reticulata*, to test two outstanding hypotheses in this field. Guppies are typically considered a highly visual species and have excellent vision (Anstis et al. [@CR1]), but recent research has revealed that they also use chemical cues: they show graded responses proportional to the concentration of alarm cue presented (Brown et al. [@CR12]); respond most strongly to alarm cue from individuals from their own population (Brown et al. [@CR13]); and can use chemical cues to assess the sex (Shohet and Watt [@CR42]), reproductive status (Brask et al. [@CR8]), and health (JFS, unpublished data) of conspecifics. In this experiment, I exposed guppies to either one of two concentrations of conspecific chemical alarm cue (100 or 10 %), the chemical cues of unharmed conspecifics (as a non-threatening control cue), or a water control. Given that chemical cues are often the first received by aquatic organisms (McLennan [@CR36]), I tested whether guppies use these cues to infer the context (sensu Hebets and Papaj [@CR25]) in which to respond to subsequent, ambiguous cues in different modalities: a water disturbance and visual cue (the "context hypothesis"). These cues can be considered ambiguous because in natural guppy habitat of shallow, gravel-bottomed streams, water disturbance and visual cues could come from a number of different sources: for example the movement of conspecifics, predators, or abiotic processes. Second, I test whether, particularly in the "predation risk" context, exposure to chemical cues alerts (sensu Hebets and Papaj [@CR25]) guppies to visual cues using a standard test of visual sensitivity ("alerting hypothesis"): the "optomotor" response. The optomotor response can be elicited using the movement of alternating black and white stripes; fish swim to remain in the same place relative to the stripes. This response has been used to measure the visual sensitivity of a number of fish species, including guppies (Anstis et al. [@CR1]). In a natural setting, this response enables fish to maintain their position relative to the substrate in flowing water, or to maintain their position in a group. Consistent with the context hypothesis, I predicted that guppies exposed to chemical alarm cue would show a reduction in activity following the water disturbance, proportional to cue concentration, whereas those exposed to other chemical cues would not. Following the alerting hypothesis, I predicted that alarm cue-exposed guppies would be more responsive to visual cues (i.e., spend a higher proportion of time following the stripes) than those exposed to other chemical cues. The results broadly supported these predictions. Methods {#Sec2} ======= Fish origin and maintenance {#Sec3} --------------------------- Test fish used in this study were wild caught in the Caura River, Trinidad, in June 2012 (UTM 20 P; E: 679527.7 m, N: 1180376.4 m, based on WGS84 Datum; elevation 112 m). They were shipped to Cardiff University (Cefas APB authorization number CW054-D-187A), treated for infection using Binox® (nitrofurazone; Jungle Laboratories Corporation®, Cibolo, Texas), and held for 3 weeks before testing. Fish were housed in 70-L aquaria at 24 ± 1 °C, on a 12-h light/12-h dark lighting schedule (overhead fluorescent lighting) and fed daily on Aquarian® flakes supplemented with *Artemia* and bloodworm. Each tank had pea gravel substrate, an under gravel filter and standardized enrichment. Chemical cue production {#Sec4} ----------------------- All chemical cues were produced in two batches. In each batch of alarm cue and the cue of unharmed conspecifics ("fish cue"), mature laboratory-bred females from the same wild population as the test fish were selected as donors. Exclusively, female donors were used because males of some fish species produce alarm cue intermittently (e.g., Smith [@CR43]). While this is an interesting phenomenon, it was not the focus of this study, so only donors known to reliably produce alarm cue, i.e., females (Brown et al. [@CR12]), were selected. These donors were held separately from the test fish at all times and had been in the laboratory for several years before the test fish arrived; there was therefore no possibility of familiarity between the test and donor fish. To make fish cue, seven donors per batch were held together for 20 h in 2 L blank dechlorinated water. They were not fed during this isolation to avoid the cues becoming contaminated with uneaten food or feces and were subsequently returned to breeding tanks and were not used as either alarm cue donors or test fish. The holding water was divided into 10-mL aliquots and frozen until required. Alarm cue production followed the protocol of Brown et al. ([@CR12]). Seven donors were cold anaesthetized and immediately decapitated. The tail and viscera were also removed, leaving skeletal muscle and skin. All carcasses were added to 50 mL of chilled, dechlorinated water, homogenized and the solution filtered through glass wool. The concentration was adjusted to 0.1 cm^2^ of skin/mL, following Brown et al. ([@CR12]). This 100 % alarm cue solution was either divided into 10-mL aliquots and frozen at −20 °C until required, or diluted with dechlorinated water to make a 10 % alarm cue solution which was then similarly divided and frozen. The same volume of "control" dechlorinated water was held overnight, divided, and frozen until use. Optomotor apparatus {#Sec5} ------------------- The optomotor apparatus was adapted from Stephenson et al. ([@CR45], [@CR46]) and consisted of a cylindrical glass tank (diameter 18 cm, depth 10 cm) suspended from a steel frame (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}) The tank was surrounded by a drum (diameter 28 cm, depth 14 cm), which could be rotated in either direction by a motor at a constant speed of 10 rpm. The drum supported a visual cue consisting of alternating black and white stripes, each covering 20° of the arc of the drum circumference. The fish were viewed and behavior recorded using an infrared-sensitive video camera (Henelec 300c CCTV IR) supported from the top of the frame. The sides of the frame were covered in blackout fabric, and the top was covered with an MDF board. A 1-cm-diameter circular hole was drilled into the board ("light hole"), and a halogen fiber optic light source (Schott KL 1500 LCD) was positioned above it to provide 1.5 lx of light at the surface of the water (approximately 2 × 10^17^ photons/s/m^2^ using the calculations described by Stephenson et al. [@CR45], [@CR46]). In order to attenuate the light further, 7 × 7 cm squares of neutral-density (ND) filters (LEE filters; one layer of 299 and six of 209; nominal absorbances 1.2 and 0.3, respectively) were laid over the light hole. This light level was chosen during preliminary work as one at which the fish could see and respond to visual cues, but their response was limited compared to that at ambient light levels. This light level therefore provided the opportunity to observe any increase in visual sensitivity above the baseline level due to olfactory stimulation, as has been observed in zebrafish (Stephenson et al. [@CR45], [@CR46]). During trials, chemical cues were introduced to the experimental tank in water using separate funnels and Nalgene® tubing. The tube was fed through a covered hole in the screen surrounding the frame, and the end hung 2 cm above the surface of the water in the experimental tank. The experimental room was held at 24 ± 0.5 °C.Fig. 1The apparatus used to elicit the optomotor response of guppies and to use this response to test how visual behavior was affected by chemical cues Experimental protocol {#Sec6} --------------------- Fish to be tested were held individually overnight in opaque white 1-L tanks and were not fed during their isolation. These tanks were wiped with 70 % ethanol and rinsed thoroughly with dechlorinated water between uses. The experimental tank was filled with dechlorinated water to a depth of 4 cm, and a naïve test fish was added. An opaque board was placed over the light hole for 25 min to allow the fish to acclimatize and dark-adapt. Each trial began with the drum being rotated at 10 rpm for 30 s in each direction for 2 min. During the third minute, the chemical cue (100 % alarm cue, 10 % alarm cue, fish cue, or control) was injected into the tank. Because the input tube hung 2 cm above the surface of the water, chemical cue input caused a disturbance at the surface of the water and therefore visual and mechanosensory as well as chemical cues. The rotation of the drum (30 s in each direction) was repeated during the four minutes immediately following chemical cue input. The visual cues were therefore rotated following this pattern during minutes 1 and 2 of each trial and in minutes 4 to 7 (i.e., the four minutes following chemical cue input), but not during minute 3 (in which chemical cue input took place). At the end of each trial, the chemical cue input tube was rinsed with dechlorinated water. The fish was removed, weighed and measured, and returned to a breeding tank. Equal numbers of male and female guppies were tested using each of the four chemical cues. Ten replicates of these eight treatments were completed over the course of 14 days. Trials were run such that no treatment was repeated before a complete set of the eight treatments, or "experimental block," had been run. Treatment order was randomized within block, and the order of the treatments was changed between blocks following a Latin square design. Data analysis {#Sec7} ------------- The proportion of each 30-s period that the fish spent following the stripes was calculated from the trial videos using JWatcher™ 1.0 ([www.jwatcher.ucla.edu/](http://www.jwatcher.ucla.edu/)). The observer additionally scored the number of times the fish swam through a quarter of the tank (e.g., a full circuit of the tank would count as an activity score of 4, as would half the tank in one direction plus half in the other) as a measure of activity. To minimize observer bias, blinded methods were used during the video analysis. For the four minutes immediately after the input of the chemical cues, both fish activity (square-root transformed; model 1 in Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}) and the proportion of each minute the fish spent following the stripes (arcsine transformed; model 2 in Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}) were used as the response variables in two linear mixed models in the lme4 package in R 3.0.2 (LMM; Gaussian error family with identity link function; Bates et al. [@CR4], R Core Team [@CR39]). In each model, fish identity was included as the random term to account for repeated measures through time. The experimental block in which a trial was conducted was additionally included as a random term. The sex of the fish, the chemical cue to which it was exposed ("treatment"), activity (model 2 only), standard length, time since the chemical cue had been input, and the experimental block in which the trial was conducted were all included as fixed effects, as well as the two-way interactions between them (Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}). Non-significant fixed effects were sequentially deleted from the starting models to minimize the Akaike's information criteria (AIC), and only significant effects are reported. The [supplementary material](#Sec11){ref-type="sec"} provides further details of these analyses, including histograms of the residuals of the full and final models and model tables at each step of simplification. These analyses were conducted on the raw (transformed) data, but the data were converted to cumulative values for Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"} for clarity.Table 1Starting models used to test the hypothesis that chemical cues affect the way guppies respond to ambiguous disturbance and visual cuesModel and response variableError familyLink functionMain effectsTwo-way interactionsRandom effects1. Activity (square-root transformed)GaussianIdentityLength (n)Time × lengthFish identity\ BlockSex (c)Time × treatment^a^Time (n)^a^Time × sexTreatment (c)^a^Sex × lengthTreatment × sex2. Proportion of time spent following the stripes (arcsine transformed)Activity (n)^a^Activity × time^a^Length (n)Activity × treatment^a^Sex (c)^a^Activity × sexTime (n)^a^Time × lengthTreatment (c)^a^Time × treatmentTime × sex^a^Sex × lengthTreatment × sexThese starting models were simplified using backwards stepwise deletion of non-significant fixed effects to minimize the Akaike's information criteria (AIC). Fixed effects were included as categorical (*c*) or numeric (*n*) variables*Block* the experimental block in which a particular trial was conducted, *Treatment* the chemical cue to which the fish was exposed (100 % or 10 % alarm cue, fish cue, or control water), *Time* the experimental time elapsed since the introduction of the chemical cue^a^Factors that remained in the final model (see also Tables [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"} and [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"})Fig. 2Guppy activity level depended on the nature of the chemical cue, and the time since chemical cue input (**a**), whereas the proportion of time fish spent following the visual cues depended on time since chemical cue input alone (**b** alarm cue (*AC*) of different concentrations; dechlorinated water (*control*), or the cues of unharmed conspecifics (*fish cue*)). *Before* refers to the mean value across all four time points before the chemical cue input. The analyses described in the main text were conducted on the transformed raw data, but raw data were converted to cumulative values for these plots for clarity. *Error bars* are the standard errors of the means Results {#Sec8} ======= Consistent with the context hypothesis, the chemical cue a fish was exposed to affected how its activity level changed through the four minutes following the disturbance caused by the chemical cue input (Fig. [2a](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}; model 1 in Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}: treatment × time interaction in Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}: *F*~3,\ 483.2~ = 11.73, *P* \< 0.0001). Post hoc tests showed that guppies exposed to the chemical cues of unharmed conspecifics and control water did not differ in activity level (*F*~1,\ 29.1~ = 0.67, *P \>* 0.4), but showed significantly less of a decrease in activity level and recovered more quickly (*F*~1,\ 558~ = 24.31, *P* \< 0.0001) than the two alarm cue treatment groups (which did not differ from one another: *F*~1,\ 29~ = 1.60, *P \>* 0.2; Fig. [2a](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}).Table 2The final model explaining variation in fish activity level (square-root transformed)ParameterParameter levelEstimate*F*Degrees of freedom*P* valueIntercept1.90Time0.12120.881, 483.2**\<0.0001**Treatment (reference control)10 % alarm cue−1.600.973, 67.160.412100 % alarm cue−0.85Unharmed conspecific0.57Time × treatment (reference control)Time × 10 % alarm cue0.1211.733, 483.2**\<0.0001**Time × 100 % alarm cue0.03Time × unharmed conspecific−0.08Significant terms (at *α* = 0.05) in this final model are highlighted in bold Exposure to 100 % alarm cue thus reduced fish activity levels, but it increased the extent to which this activity was focused on responding to the visual cues: there was no significant difference in the proportion of time fish exposed to different chemical cues spent following the visual cues over the whole four minutes after chemical cue input (Figs. [2b](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"} and [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}; model 2 in Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}: treatment main effect in Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"}: *F*~3,\ 64.6~ = 0.89; *P \>* 0.4). Additionally, the positive correlation between activity level and response to visual cues was steepest among fish exposed to alarm cue (Fig. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}; model 2 in Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}: activity × treatment interaction in Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"}: *F*~3,\ 535.2~ = 3.93, *P* = 0.009). These results support the prediction from the alerting hypothesis that fish exposed to alarm cue are more responsive to visual cues than those exposed to either the cues of unharmed conspecifics or dechlorinated water. Additionally, the proportion of time fish spent following the visual cues increased through time after the input of the chemical cue, but not among fish that remained highly active throughout (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}; model 2 in Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}: activity × time interaction in Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"}: *F*~1,\ 563.4~ = 27.6, *P* \< 0.0001).Fig. 3Guppies exposed to concentrated alarm cue (*100 % AC*) showed a significant reduction in activity level, but no significant decrease in the proportion of time they spent following the visual cues, relative to those exposed to dilute alarm cue (*10 % AC*), the cues of unharmed conspecifics (*fish cue*), or dechlorinated water (*control*). Data points show the raw data means across the four minutes following chemical cue input, and the *error bars* are the 95 % confidence intervalsTable 3The final model explaining variation in the proportion of time fish spent following the stripes (arcsine transformed)ParameterParameter levelEstimate*F*Degrees of freedom*P* valueIntercept−0.26Sex (reference female)−0.101.661, 68.00.202Time0.067.971, 581.7**0.005**Activity0.0791.051, 544.1**\<0.0001**Treatment10 % alarm cue−0.070.893, 64.60.45100 % alarm cue−0.06Unharmed conspecific−0.06Fish weight0.0013.621, 43.30.063Activity × treatment (reference control)Activity × 10 % alarm cue0.013.933, 535.2**0.009**Activity × 100 % alarm cue0.03Activity × unharmed conspecific0.01Activity × time−0.00527.61, 563.4**\<0.0001**Significant terms (at *α* = 0.05) in this final model are highlighted in boldFig. 4For a given activity level, guppies exposed to 100 % alarm cue spent significantly more time following the visual cues than those exposed to 10 % alarm cue, unharmed conspecifics, and dechlorinated water. There was no difference between the proportion of time guppies exposed to cues of unharmed conspecifics and 10 % alarm cue spent following the visual cues, but both groups spent more time following than those exposed to dechlorinated water (see main text for statistical tests). The *points* are the raw data and the *lines* are binomial regressions fitted to each treatment group Discussion {#Sec9} ========== As predicted by the context hypothesis, guppies used chemical cues to respond to a disturbance in a threat-sensitive manner. Those exposed to either concentration of conspecific alarm cue (10 or 100 %) reduced their activity level significantly more than those exposed to the chemical cues of unharmed conspecifics or dechlorinated water (Fig. [2a](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). Despite this difference in activity level, there was no overall difference between the groups exposed to the different chemical cues in their response to visual cues (Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}), and the positive correlation between activity level and response to visual cues was steepest in fish exposed to alarm cue (Fig. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}). Consistent with the alerting hypothesis, these results indicate that guppies exposed to chemical alarm cue are more responsive to visual cues than those exposed to control chemical cues. Exposure to dilute and concentrated conspecific alarm cue increased visual responsiveness to the same extent, but the activity level of guppies exposed to the dilute cue recovered more quickly (Fig. [2a](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}) and was higher overall (Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}) than that of those exposed to the concentrated cue. Previous studies indicate that at concentrations below the "minimum behavioral response threshold" (Mirza and Chivers [@CR37]), overt antipredator behaviors are not elicited and prey instead exhibit covert responses, such as changes in foraging posture (Foam et al. [@CR19]), or the acquisition of novel predator cues (Ferrari et al. [@CR17]). The results of the present study suggest that increased visual responsiveness could be a further covert response. Guppies exposed to the chemical cues of unharmed conspecifics, in contrast to those exposed to chemical alarm cue, were not affected by the disturbance; both their activity level and response to the visual cues barely changed after the disturbance of the chemical cue input (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). The guppy is a social animal; assessing risk through attending to the cues emitted by individuals in close proximity is a common feature of sociality across taxa, including fish (reviewed by Griffin [@CR21]). The chemical cues of conspecifics can affect the extent to which fish respond to cues of predation risk. For example, rainbow trout, *Oncorhynchus mykiss*, in receipt of the chemical cues from undisturbed conspecifics show a reduced response to alarm cue compared to those exposed to cues from disturbed conspecifics (Ferrari et al. [@CR18]). Further, fathead minnows, *Pimephales promelas*, trust the response of conspecifics to ambiguous cues more than their own learned response (Crane and Ferrari [@CR14]). The results of the present study reflect that this process may act across sensory modalities: guppies in receipt of the chemical cues of unharmed, undisturbed conspecifics use this information to infer the non-threatening nature of the ambiguous water disturbance and subsequent visual cues and hence show no change in behavior. Guppies therefore appear to use information from chemical cues to reduce the uncertainty inherent in ambiguous (and therefore unreliable) cues in other modalities. This process has recently been called "cue linking": responding to unreliable cues only if they are linked to other cues that can increase their reliability (Ben-Ari and Inbar [@CR5]). Recent research indicates cue linking may be widespread among animals; for example, humans infer the context of ambiguous video clips using the music that accompanies them (Blumstein et al. [@CR7]). Similarly, aphids use hot, humid air as a reliable cue of the presence of a mammalian predator and respond to plant vibration either as further evidence of predator presence, or as wind action, based on the time lag between these two cues (Ben-Ari and Inbar [@CR5]). The present study additionally indicates that there may be differences in sensory physiology between fish families. Evidence from both electrophysiological and ethological studies indicate that the fish visual system is affected by chemical cues (Maaswinkel and Li [@CR34]; Stephenson et al. [@CR45]), including alarm cue (Stephenson et al. [@CR46]). Whereas these studies demonstrated that visual sensitivity increases with chemical stimulation using the zebrafish and invoked the terminal nerve as the physiological pathway, I found no evidence of such an effect in guppies: following behavior never exceeded the pre-chemical cue level. Currently, all studies of the role of the terminal nerve in this interaction between sensory systems have been conducted on the cyprinids zebrafish, *Danio rerio* (see Maaswinkel and Li [@CR34]; Stephenson et al. [@CR45], [@CR46]) and goldfish, *Carassius auratus* (see Stell et al. [@CR44]; Fujita et al. [@CR20]); this study could therefore indicate that the results from these previous studies are not applicable to other families of fish. My results indicate that guppy response to the visual cues increased as these cues were repeated through time; this pattern might be considered indicative of the fish becoming sensitized to the cues. "Behavioral sensitization" refers to increased responsiveness following arousal by rewarding or punishing experiences, with responsiveness increasing through repeated exposure, and is common to animals across taxa (e.g., honeybees, *Apis mellifera*, see Mallon et al. [@CR35]; mice, *Mus musculus*, see Banasikowski et al. [@CR3]; and humans, *Homo sapiens*, see Strakowski et al. [@CR47]). However, I consider this explanation of the results unlikely: if sensitization were driving the results, given the number of times the visual cues were repeated after the disturbance, I would have expected the response to the visual cues to exceed the levels attained in the early stages of the trials. Additionally, the role of negative experiences in sensitization would predict higher overall levels of following behavior in those groups exposed to alarm cue. Figure [2b](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"} illustrates that neither of these conditions were met. This study builds on previous work by indicating that prey fish use the first cue they receive, in this case chemical, to assign a context to subsequent ambiguous cues received by other modalities in order to respond to them in an appropriate, threat-sensitive manner. The observation that fish exposed to chemical cues indicative of predation also tend to respond more strongly to visual cues of predation (e.g., Wisenden et al. [@CR50]) could therefore, at least in part, be due to an increase in responsiveness to visual cues in general. This work thus provides further evidence for the importance of multimodal cues in driving adaptive animal behavior (Rowe [@CR40]; McLennan [@CR36]). Ethical approval {#Sec10} ================ All applicable international, national, and institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. All procedures performed involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of Cardiff University, the institution at which the study was conducted. This work was conducted under the UK Home Office license (PPL 30/2876) with approval by the Cardiff University Animal Ethics Committee. As described above, during the course of this experiment, fish were subjected to social isolation, abnormal lighting conditions, and startling stimuli. Although these factors are likely to have temporarily elevated their stress levels, no fish showed any signs of having suffered lasting harm and resumed normal behavior less than an hour after being returned to a breeding tank. Donor fish were not fed for 20 h during cue production. No lasting welfare effects of this treatment were observed or expected: guppies maintain normal behavior after 5 days of food deprivation (Archard et al. [@CR2]). Throughout the maintenance and use of these fish, I adopted the principle that "the best animal welfare is a prerequisite for the best science," following the "Guidelines for the treatment of animals in behavioral research and teaching" recommended by The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour ([@CR48]). Electronic supplementary material ================================= {#Sec11} ###### (DOCX 147 kb) This work was funded by the Fisheries Society of the British Isles (Ph.D. studentship to J.F.S.), Cardiff University, and the Adaptation to a Changing Environment (ACE) center at ETH Zürich. I am grateful to Sophie France and Joanne Cable for the technical assistance. Joanne Cable, Darren Croft, Constantino Macías Garcia, Cock van Oosterhout, Julian Partridge, Rob Thomas, Kyle A. Young, and three anonymous reviewers made helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. [^1]: Communicated by C. M. Garcia

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PubMed Central

Before jumping into the debate of Palm oil Good Or Bad, let's know some facts of this oil. What is Palm oil ? Palm oil is produced from the fruit of the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis). Since thousand of years this oil is being used in our daily life. The main source of palm oil is the Elaeis guineensis tree, which is originally native to Africa, specially South And West, it's used in this region more than 5000 years. But in current days most of the Tropical regions are now growing this oil palm. The main plantation areas are in Indonesia and Malaysia.

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Categories Check out the Archives Awards & Nominations Vice feels at once like an extension of both Adam McKay’s work on The Big Short and recent innovations on the biographic picture format codified by I, Tonya. At its core, Vice is the biography of a man whose defining attribute is how unassuming he appears. The opening text lays out the challenges facing the production team in trying to structure a biographical film around a man who has spent his life lurking at the edge of the frame, how hard it can be to extrapolate his inner workings from the outline of his journey through the world. Dick Cheney worked very hard to erase his own footprint; it is with no small irony that the film notes how thoroughly Cheney cleared his own email servers. No need to be a Dick about it. The film’s anonymous narrator, himself framed as perfectly average individual, repeatedly stresses how “ordinary” the central character presents himself. At one point, he advises a former colleague that the new standard operating procedure is “softly, softly.” Similarly, the documentary acknowledges the lacunas in the narrative that is constructing, how difficult it is – to evoke a different Shakespearean play than he chooses to quote – “to see the mind’s construction in the face.” The result is fascinating, a character study that becomes an exploration of systemic flaws and inequities. Vice is a story about a man who appears to have no fixed political beliefs, no strong political identity, no clear political voice. Instead, Vice is a study of the politics of power as politics of itself, a tale about a man whose central political motivation is not ideological or existential, but purely practical. Vice is the tale of the will to power of a perfectly mundane and average individual, and the carnage wrought on his journey towards that power. Vice City. The most connections between Vice and films like The Big Short or I, Tonya are purely structural in nature. Vice is an incredibly self-aware piece of work, a biographical film that is well aware with the fact that it is a biographical film. McKay doesn’t so much break the fourth wall as install a set of sliding doors. Characters speak to the camera to deliver exposition, important phrases are blown up into supersized text on screen, subtext is rendered as text, entire scenes play out as wry and knowing jokes. The film’s best joke even hinges on the audience’s familiarity with the format. These touches are sly and postmodern, but they also invite the criticism that the film might be shallow or superficial. However, there is something very clever happening just beneath the surface of Vice. The film repeatedly and consciously breaks the fourth wall, but in a way that suggests that the story is fracturing or cracking when McKay tries to apply a conventional narrative structure to it. The narrator points out scenes that had to be invented for the film to work. There is a false ending at a particular point. The film jumps backwards and forwards in time. All (Vice) President and Accounted for. These moments are not just clever attempts to maintain the audience’s interest and attention. Instead, they demonstrate how awkward it would be to try to construct a biography around Dick Cheney. Vice is not really a conventional biography of Dick Cheney, even if it has all the hallmarks of an awards-chasing biopic, right down to Christian Bale’s absurd body transformation. Instead, the difficulty in applying all of these narrative elements to Cheney underscores that how different the character is from the usual subjects of such films. As with The Big Short, McKay is much more invested in the idea of systemic corruption and decay, the idea of how power-structures operate and how the people in charge of these structures inevitably betray the very interests of the people that they are supposed to serve. To McKay, Cheney is not a particularly interesting character in the sense of having lived a particularly full or eventful life. Instead, Cheney is interesting as an illustration of how deeply warped contemporary politics have become. No need to be so Secretary of Defensive about it. Vice repeatedly underscores that Cheney has no real ideological adherence to the Republican Party. When he arrives in Washington, he works with Republicans because he happens to be impressed with Donald Rumsfield’s public speaking ability. When an intern is setting up assignments he ask, “What is that guy’s party?” When he is told that Rumsfield is a Republican, he replies, “That’s what I am.” Later, a still young Cheney asks Rumsfield, “Um… what do we… um… what do we believe?” Rumsfield responds with laughter so loud that it echoes through mahogany doors. Vice returns time and again to the relationship between Cheney and his daughter Mary. Mary is gay. Much is made of Cheney’s support of his daughter’s lifestyle. He seems to genuinely love her. He does not believe that she is an abomination or that she is wrong. He does not even see her as a political liability. In an early meeting with George W. Bush, Cheney outlines that he understands as a political necessity the need to push homophobic politics in certain states, but that he will not be a part of it. Cheney does not believe in the party platform, even as he accepts its necessity. The times, they are a-Cheney-in’. The closest thing that Vice articulates to a coherent political philosophy from Dick Cheney is the concept of “the Unitary Executive Theory.” Those three words keep coming up. They are presented as something close to a holy grail for Cheney. He has multiple experts hunted through legal tomes for arguments supporting the theory. However, it is not an ideological position so much as a practical one. It is a philosophy that hinges on the application of power not as a tool of morality or legality, but as an end of itself from which those other things flow. Cheney is fond of this logic, as are the characters around him. “If the president does it, then it must be legal,” the narrator explains of the theory. It is no coincidence that Cheney and Rumsfield spent their first term at the White House under Richard Nixon. When characters around him grow uncomfortable with the treatment of detainees, Cheney helpfully explains, “The United States does not torture. So, by definition, this cannot be torture.” Cheney reverse-engineers the traditional understanding of morality and legality, rendering them instruments (rather than the basis) of power. In it to Lynne it. Befitting that approach, Vice presents Cheney and his family as characters who have forsaken even their own identities in pursuit of power and influence. Within the Cheney household, Dick is much more comfortable with his children than Lynne. He plays with them, he jokes with them. Lynne cannot get the macaroni and cheese to cook properly, but Dick understands the issue even over the phone. When Mary comes out to her parents, Lynne immediately does the political calculations while Dick rushes to reassure his daughter that he will always love her. This is as close as Vice comes to sympathy for the Cheney family, but it also works as a grim and wry joke played on them. Lynne is ambitious and organised. The film makes the point that Lynne is a much better politician than her husband, to the point that she appears to have won the biggest election of his career while he was recovering from a heart attack. In contrast, Dick is nurturing and caring in a way that Lynne could never be. There is a sense that either would be happier living the other’s life, but the choices that they have made have left both deeply unfulfilled. Oval officious. That said, Vice is a also something of a horror story, revealing how thoroughly Cheney’s cynicism has warped and eroded the existing political structures, the damage wrought by a political operator without any central ideology but who also completely understood the power of an ideology to serve him. Vice anchors Cheney’s evolution in the broader context of shifting American culture during his ascent to the highest office. It is never clear how canny Cheney was in manipulating the political environment, but he certainly understood and encouraged it. As with The Big Short, Vice is very invested in the structures and mechanics of broader culture as they enable and encourage moral lapses. Cheney’s story is intercut with brief meditations on the slipping living conditions of the American population, working longer hours for less pay and the development of multimedia infrastructure like Fox and the emergence of other minor factors like reality television. Vice teases the audience with the question of to what extent a figure like Cheney might be a product or the architect of such broader factors in American culture. No more Mister Vice Guy. Vice is elevated by a strong set of central performances. The film is often more invested in the big ideas around Cheney than it is in the man himself. However, McKay assembles a strong enough cast that they can anchor these characters as actual people, even with the film’s focus on the structures that are at work around them. Christian Bale is fantastic as Dick Cheney, understanding exactly what McKay requires of him in a given scene. Amy Adams is great as Lynne Cheney, creating a character much more interesting and engaging than most wives in these sorts of films. Vice is a tremendous piece of work. It not so much a sketch of a man as a portrait of a world that he left shaped in his own image.

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Sure does, but that's exactly what the Billings City Council did while most of its residents were sleeping last week. In a meeting that lasted long into the morning hours, the city council used its zoning powers to effectively make it impossible for any medical marijuana store to open in the city limits. Remember that by law, these dispensaries cannot sell to a patient without a medical doctor's prescription. Remember that Montana voters supported the use of medical marijuana so much so that they've taken on the Legislature twice to make sure stores stay open for patients in need. There will be as much danger for drugs falling into the wrong hands as there is anytime you walk into your neighborhood drugstore to have a prescription filled. Many have rallied around the medical marijuana issue, including some doctors, who recognize the benefits for patients with cancer, glaucoma, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, and brain injuries. Because of that, Montanans have said that their fellow residents should be allowed to access marijuana for medical reasons. The most recent legislation also put stronger rules in place for marijuana dispensaries as a means of safeguarding the community. Well, the only reason that was given was because marijuana is still considered an illegal drug by the federal government. But, we'd point out that opiates, including morphine and oxycontin, are also illegal drugs — when not prescribed by a doctor. And yet, when was the last time Billings said no to a Walgreens, CVS or any other pharmacy? Medical marijuana dispensaries would join a small list of other banned businesses from city limits. The only two other things we can think of which are outlawed are toxic waste dumps and porn stores. The Billings City Council actions seems to disregard the will of Montana voters who clearly want marijuana to be available to those who need it for medical purposes. In this case, the council cannot even claim it is siding with the wishes of its residents. The council's decision seems to cast all the medical marijuana dispensaries in an equally unfavorable light. Though they are selling a product with medical benefit only to prescription holders, putting them outside the city limits — effectively banishing them — makes them appear as if they're engaged in some type of lawless, nefarious behavior. In fact, they're simply providing relief to many individuals who could not otherwise be helped with more traditional medicine. Billings Mayor Tom Hanel got it wrong when he said, "What this has to do with is zoning and language regarding dispensaries. There are people that need medical marijuana desperately, and I respect that." Subscribe to Breaking News Get breaking stories sent to you as they develop * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Hanel wants residents to believe that this was something much more technical, as if the debate was not about marijuana. But that's lying by half-truth. The conversation centered on zoning because that was a convenient way to work around a harder conversation about the stigma of marijuana. He and the other councilmembers knew by working on zoning, it would effectively push dispensaries outside the limits. It was convenient to blame zoning and language, but the council did not have to act. If, as Hanel said, he knows that some people "need medical marijuana desperately," why would he make their already painful lives harder? Why would anyone do that? No one wants to make it harder for someone with multiple sclerosis or glaucoma. Instead, Hanel and the other six (Dick Clark, Al Swanson, Chris Friedel, Rich McFadden, Larry Brewster and Mike Yakawich) just made those who need marijuana desperately (Hanel's word) a little more desperate. Laws already protect drugs of any kinds getting into the wrong hands, so all the city council seems to have done is make it a little harder on those already suffering. So go ahead, City Council, pick on those who aren't even healthy enough for the fight. Meanwhile, it's time for those healthy enough to stand up to tell the council to reverse its course, and set up places where a dispensary can operate within the city. The issue comes back to the council on Monday night for a second reading. Councilmembers, it's time to reconsider those zoning and, as Hanel said, language. A good way to start with the language is to begin by saying sorry to those whose only crime would be suffering from conditions most of us are lucky to not have. Subscribe to Breaking News * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.

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Hypable talked with Linden Ashby about the second half of Teen Wolf season 5 and what is in store for Sheriff Stilinski going forward. Teen Wolf season 5, episode 11, entitled “The Last Chimera,” saw Sheriff Stilinski suffering from wounds inflicted in the mid-season finale. Once the culprit was identified as Noah, a chimera who had been crossed with a Berserker, Stiles was able to deduce that a piece of bone marrow was poisoning his father. It was removed, and the sheriff began to improve. Article Continues Below Does Teen Wolf season 5B feel different from season 5A? I think [season 5B] is kind of a continuation of [5A]. It really was because 5A didn’t have a conclusion. It was sort of a cliff hanger, and it really was a continuation. It was interesting, last night, that I went and watched [the Redeyes Marathon], and I watched the first episode of 5A, I watched 501, and it was amazing to me how, that entire story…you don’t really see that kind of attention to detail in TV a lot. It’s difficult to do, and my hat’s off to Jeff. How will the sheriff react to learning the real story about Donovan given his acceptance of Theo’s story? I think it’ll be an entirely different dynamic [with Stiles]. That’s a burden that you never want your child to have to deal with. You never want them to bear that burden, to take a life. I think it will be very painful for me to have my kid going through that. It’s something that I never would’ve wished upon him in any way shape or form. Stiles has obviously blamed Scott for what happened to his father, but does the sheriff feel the same way? I would never blame [Scott] for what happened. Ever. I know that he’s doing absolutely the best that he can. We’re all dealing with forces that are so much larger than we are and stuff that we have never dealt with before. so no I would never blame him or hold him responsible in any way. Why has Stilinski been keeping Parrish out of the field? Is he trying to protect him, or does he just not trust him? I think it’s two-fold. I want to protect Parrish, but I also have no idea what Parrish is. He is a liability. He’s the joker in the deck. I look at it as a law enforcement officer and I go, “I can’t have this guy out there if I don’t know what he is. I know he has a part in this, but I have no idea what he is.” That’s an extreme liability. I know in my gut that he’s a good person, but that’s not enough. I need to protect him and I need to protect the community — from him, possibly. I also maybe need to protect him from himself. Will Sheriff Stilinski now change his opinion about no exceptions? I think it’s just seeing that doing it the old fashioned way, doing it by the book, it doesn’t work in these circumstances. You need to adapt and you need to make amends. You need to change the way you’re doing things. I think it’s been a gradual process, but luckily he’s one of those people who sees that something’s not working, and unlike me, he actually adapts instead of just continuing to do the same dumb thing over and over again. I think he will realize that it’s a new paradigm. He needs to approach it differently than he has ever before in his life. Is the sheriff coming around to Melissa’s point of view, then? She was right. How’s that? Even when it’s make believe it’s hard for me to say. [laughs] You know what I loved about that? There was no right and there was no wrong. It was two people believing in something and neither of what they believed in was wrong. I think that I had been pushed to such a point that you fall back on what you know. You fall back on what you’ve been trained to do. It’s like in military, in fighting, you do drills and you do drills and you do drills until they become automatic. These rules are there for a reason. When it gets hazy and when it gets blurry, there are a set of rules and protocols that you go to that take, for the lack of a better word, the guesswork out of it. Not the thought process, but they’re the tools you pull out of your bag. I think I’d gotten to a place where I didn’t have any answers, and I had no solutions. You go to what you know at that point. How do you film an entire episode where you just lie in bed the whole time? I love the special effects makeup guys. They’re amazing. We laugh a lot. It’s really a creative process. As you saw, the symptoms kept evolving and the makeup kept changing. It was nice and cool on set, I think, and I got in my bed and took a little nap sometimes. And then I’d get new makeup and come back. Yeah, it was pretty easy. It was probably three or four days [of that]. Special effects are great to look at, but they’re not always that fun to do. It can be a bit tedious and the makeup can be a bit uncomfortable and tedious. But like I say, we laughed a lot in the special effects trailer. Will the sheriff be experiencing any future complications? He doesn’t bounce back like a supernatural creature. It’s the real world. It takes time. Not as well as a werewolf and not as well as an 18-year-old. Can you tease us about anything to do with 5B or beyond? The layers just keep peeling and people’s motivations and what people are…you find out. I couldn’t have seen it coming a mile away. A hundred miles away. A million miles away. Couldn’t see it coming. And when it finally happened and all was explained, I was like, “Oh my god!” But it works. It makes sense. It ties [everything] up. It’s pretty phenomenal storytelling. I think it’s going to be a hell of a ride and I think people are really going to like it. The acting is really good. I mean across the board, good stuff. And the storytelling is good and the effects are good and the look of the show is great. I’m pretty proud to be a part of it. You know, someone was talking to me the other day, and they asked me in an interview and I said the toughest thing for Jeff, and it carries through to everyone on this set, [is] there’s no compromise. And that’s really what I love about it. He would rather die than produce a mediocre show. He wouldn’t do it. He would just not do it. And I think that’s the way we sort of all feel. It’s hard. It’s hard to be good. It’s hard in the story telling, in the performing, in the making of the actual show. It takes time. It takes a lot of hours. It takes a lot of hard work from an entire group of people. When you actually see it on film, it all pays off. You don’t remember the hard work when you watch it. You’re just proud of what you did. The story for season 6, as it’s been explained to me, is phenomenal. It’s great. I’m incredibly excited to film season 6. It’s really dealing with scary, scary stuff, but not necessarily monster scary stuff. Very kind of adult themes are being explored in season 6. And complex. And I’m just sitting here with a big grin on my face because it’s just going to be fucking good. How do you think the cast will react to Tyler Posey directing an episode? I think everyone will be incredibly supportive. I think he’ll be good at it. It’s family, man. We all want each other to succeed. We’ve got his back. He’s got a good support system in place. It’s a whole different skill set, directing. It’s a lot of preparation and a lot of homework. And it requires…[laughs] well I don’t know if it requires a long attention span because Russell Mulcahy is pretty brilliant at it. Need I say more? Hear about all this and more in our full interview with Linden Ashby on episode #115 of Not Another Teen Wolf Podcast. Teen Wolf airs Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. on MTV

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Products Every once in a while I switch the TV channel from Fox to CNBC to see what the liberals are saying. After listening awhile I get a deep sense of hopelessness and foreboding for our country. The most important thing for the left is giving money to people. They are happy to see the growth of food stamps, disability payments, housing subsidies, free healthcare and all the other welfare benefits. They utterly fail to see the damage it is doing to the recipients. Whole cities that once flourished have deteriorated into rotting eyesores populated with shambling hulks of chemically dependent drones. These people are no longer employable. They have become incompetent and helpless and the liberals can’t see that it’s their doing. “I’ll tell you a little secret about gold and silver that no one knows. Gold and silver don’t go up because of “inflation” as “market experts” inform their viewers on T.V. What goes up because of inflation are the stock, bond and real estate markets. The “policy makers” wouldn’t have it any other way. What drives gold and silver higher is deflation in the stock, bond and real estate markets as wealth flees for its life from crashing market values in paper assets.” Mark J. Lundeen, Analyst “As the Venezuelan government continues to starve its own people through regulations and kill for protesting their own starvation, the resolve of those living under the oppression of socialism seem to continue to harden. Venezuela destroyed its own economy with socialist policies.” Mac Slavo, Editor “When things start going really bad, people are going to call and say, ‘You must save me. It’s Western civilization. It’s going to collapse.’ And the Fed, who is made up of bureaucrats and politicians, will say, ‘Well, we better do something.’ And they’ll try but it won’t work. It’ll cause some rallies but it won’t work this time.” Jim Rogers, Author “CFTC investigators supposedly spent 5 years searching for illegal market manipulation, but somehow, managed to find nothing. Cheating became hard to ignore after Deutsche Bank turned over voice recordings and 350,000 pages of documents which revealed bank trading desks being run like the back office of a crooked casino.” Clint Siegner, Editor “China's securities regulator said it will encourage wealth management firms to invest in commodity futures in a bid to promote its domestic derivatives industry and raise the amount of commodities in the nation's assets under management. The regulator will loosen restrictions that limit how commercial banks, insurance companies and pension funds invest in commodity futures.” Reuters “No one cares when the party is still raging and investors, drunk with the liquor of loose money, are blind to the inevitable catastrophe that lies ahead.” Albert Edwards, Analyst “‘Good’ economic news is bearish because it will keep the Fed on its announced course of reducing the size of the balance sheet. That’s what will generate the real pain in the markets. And that’s why you should begin to execute a plan of orderly exit now, before any panic begins.” Lee Adler, Economist “The coming six month period and especially the autumn, is likely to contain a lot of shocks. The investment community is totally oblivious to the risks they are taking by having most of their money in assets that have reached stratospheric values whether it is the stock market at a 30 p/e or property prices at bubble values worldwide or bonds at zero percent. All these asset markets only have one way to go and that is massively down. Investors must not believe that they will be saved by central banks again. The world is past the point of being saved and must now suffer the consequences.” Egon von Greyerz, Analyst June 23, 2017 “The alleged need for monetary central planning, progressive taxation and income redistribution, are mainly self-serving inventions, concoctions and lies. They are designated to keep the foot of the state firmly on the neck of free markets, free citizens and liberty.” David Stockman, Economist “The U.S. and Europe intend to keep subsidizing green energy as long as the domestic voters give them permission to do so, because the whole point of being in office is to redirect resources to interest groups best able to reward politicians for doling out the goodies.” Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.,Author “When share prices are low, as they were in the fall of 2008 into early 2009, actual risk is usually quite muted while perception of risk is very high. By contrast, when securities prices are high, as they are today, the perception of risk is muted, but the risks to investors are quite elevated.” Seth Klarman, Hedge Fund Manager “The ballyhooed threat that global temperatures will soar if Al Gore and his anti-carbon Gestapo do not get their way is about as historically ignorant as it gets.” David Stockman, Economist “If the left wins, America loses. And if America loses, evil will engulf the world.” Dennis Prager, Author June 9, 2017 “When the majority of the people of any nation give up their inherited prerogative right to make their own way through struggle, history shows clearly that the entire nation is in a tailspin of decay that inevitably must end in extinction.” Napoleon Hill, Author “A student at the University of Florida lost points on an essay assignment for his decision to use the word ‘man,’ instead of the word ‘humankind.’” Alicia Colon, Author “The Wall Street Journal had an article on the blood bath in retail. Waves of store closings, collapsing sales; it read like news from the 1930’s. Yet the Dow Jones Retail Broadline Group ended the week at a new all-time high.” Mark Lundeen, Editor “The left rules as a shadow government of judges and reporters, bureaucrats and activists. Its tactics range from riots in the streets to subversion in government agencies.” Daniel Greenfield, Author “Slowing money supply and credit growth and historically extremely high stock market valuations far more often than not turn out to be uneasy bedfellows. In fact, usually the latter will eventually fall out of bed. Circumspection remains advisable.” Pater Tenebrarum, Editor “The political and media hysteria surrounding the Trump administration lies somewhere on the repulsiveness scale between the Jacobin excesses of the French Revolution and the McCarthy era.” Ted Van Dyk, Author “The longer a bull market exists, the more it is believed that it will last indefinitely.” Lance Roberts, Editor “The left wing of American politics has indeed become unhinged and unstable. President Trump truly has turned these people absolutely mad.” Joey Clark, Editor May 29, 2017 “We live in an age of asset bubbles rather than true economic growth.” Chris Whalen, Economist “The American economy is now at a point where several dollars of additional credit is required to produce one dollar of GDP.” Egon von Greyerz, Editor “Capitalism is the only thing that can save us. Socialism is the only thing that can destroy us.” James Cook, Author “The price of silver, relative to gold, is hovering near a multi-year low at 75:1. Even though the price is 75:1, the new supply of silver is only 9:1. In theory, if the new metal supply is 9:1, then the price should be 9:1 (which would be a silver price of $136.67).” Simon Black, Editor “In America alone, bad debt held by companies could reach $4 trillion, or almost a quarter of corporate assets considered. That debt could undermine financial stability if mishandled.” IMF “At this stage of the cycle, setting new records is a reason for caution, not optimism.” Dr. Lacy Hunt, Analyst “With the current expansion now in its 83rd month, it is more than 20 months longer than the average since the end of World War II.” Lance Roberts, Analyst “To say that Baltimore is in a state of decline would be a major understatement. Everywhere you look there are abandoned buildings and homes, and as you drive through some of the worst areas you can actually see drug addicts just lying in the streets. Just like so many other communities all over this country, decades of liberal policies have taken a brutal toll, and now the city is just a rotting, decaying shell of the glorious metropolis that it once was.” Michael Snyder, Author “The world economy now has $215 trillion of debt. This makes it extremely vulnerable to interest rate increases. The Fed will never be able to get far in its ‘tightening cycle’ before it turns around and offers more emergency funding.” Bill Bonner, Editor “In an era when governments print unlimited amounts of money and expand credit ad infinitum, precious metals is the only asset that will maintain purchasing power and preserve wealth.” Egon von Greyerz, Analyst “A fascinating report by the Devonshire Research Group finds that the accepted definition of inflation, or CPI, is dramatically understated for various reasons, both political and economic.” ZeroHedge “In the very short time Donald Trump has been president, he is probably the most besieged leader since Abraham Lincoln presiding over a super polarized nation. This polarization is not based on the serious issue of slavery but on the lies and malicious machinations of a hostile opposition party and the lapdog media minions. They have successfully turned half this nation into blithering, infantile, angry non-thinkers who base their anger on faux news.” Alicia Colon, Author May 10, 2017 “Acts of violence and physical intimidation aimed at conservatives on American campuses are growing – and college administrators, who sympathize with the progressive fascist lynch mobs doing the misdeeds, are generally fine with the mayhem.” Matthew Vadum, Author “There is abundant evidence that borrowing and squandering immense sums has not boosted growth rates in a sustainable fashion – rather, the staggering debt loads are squeezing current spending and shackling future policy-makers with an ever-grimmer slate of self-reinforcing bad choices.” Charles Hugh Smith, Author “We are basically borrowing our way to economic disaster.” David Stockman, Economist “There’s hell to pay for 100 years of ever escalating financial insanity. Take it in stride. The downside is here and it’s not going away any time soon.” M. N. Gordon, Editor “Thousands of new store doors opened and rents soared. This created a bubble, and like housing, that bubble has now burst.” Richard Hayne, CEO “In the last few decades, over a couple of quadrillions of dollars of debt, unfunded liabilities and derivatives have been created out of thin air. Before this bubble period is over, those quadrillions of debts and liabilities will return to just air. And so will all the assets that were backed by this debt.” Egon von Greyerz, Economist “What is evolving now regarding silver is one of the most dramatic situations in commodity market history. JP Morgan has got their way for six years and they are trying to keep their 16-trade winning streak going. There is SOMEONE going against them like never before. IF, and that is a big IF, these astounding new forces have tied up the market, you will see one of the swiftest commodity moves to all-time highs ever.” Mark Gasparre, Analyst “The bulls explain that traditional valuation metrics no longer apply to certain stocks. The longs are confident that everyone else who holds these stocks understands the dynamic and won’t sell either. With holders reluctant to sell, the stocks can only go up – seemingly to infinity and beyond. We have seen this before. There was no catalyst that we know of that burst the dot-com bubble in March 2000, and we don’t have a particular catalyst in mind here.” David Einhorn, Hedge Fund Manager “When the silver manipulation ends, as it must and will, the price reset in silver to the upside will shock the world.” Theodore Butler, Analyst “Every year, Portland, Oregon kicks off the city’s annual Rose Festival with a family-friendly parade. Except this year, there will be no parade. Organizers have cancelled the event amid threats of violence. According to The Washington Post, the reasoning behind the threats is outrage over the fact that the county’s Republican Party was given one of the nearly 100 spots in the parade.” Mac Slavo, Editor “Most investors enter a market after a big rise and then often sit through a major part of the correction before they bail out. The best time to enter is when an investment is unloved and undervalued but few have the courage to do that. Instead they wait until the media start talking about it.” Egon von Greyerz, Analyst “Both U.S. stocks and the U.S. dollar are well beyond sustainable levels.” John Williams, Economist “Investors are facing record high stock valuations that are levitating on top of a record amount of margin debt. However, this equity bubble is being undermined by near-zero percent GDP growth, a tightening yield spread, tepid EPS growth, bank loan growth that is rolling over, a record-high total debt-to-GDP ratio and a Fed that suddenly wants to fight inflation. This means the market is overripe for a significant correction and investors would be wise to position their portfolios to protect and profit from the coming reality check.” Michael Pento, Author “Hoodwinking Americans is part of the environmentalist agenda.” Walter Williams, Author April 28, 2017 “The record of history is absolutely crystal clear. There is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.” Milton Friedman, Economist “Since the low point in September 2015, commercial bankruptcies have soared 65%. The Fed’s monetary policies have purposefully encouraged businesses and consumers to borrow. But debt doesn’t just go away. It accumulates. By now, an increasing number of businesses and consumers are suffocating under this debt overhang in an economy that never developed the ‘escape velocity’ needed – and hyped by Wall Street for years – to outgrow this debt. Rising bankruptcies are a turning point in the ‘credit cycle.’” Wolf Richter, Editor “The Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama era had much in common, and it was not free market principles. It was an era of unrestrained crony capitalism, in which special interests formed stronger and stronger alliances with government in order to secure economic monopolies and other privileges.” Hunter Lewis, Economist “Why are some people fixated on gold? The huge chasm that divides those of us who the world calls ‘gold bugs’ and those of us who think little of gold and silver is their awareness of the history of money.” Mark J. Lundeen, Editor “Interest rates can never rise because rolling over this much debt at historically-normal rates would blow up the budgets of both the developed and developing worlds. The only solution – if you can call it that – is massive currency devaluation to make these debts manageable. Since the debt binge has apparently gone parabolic, the reckoning is fairly close at hand. 2018 might be one for the history books.” John Rubino, Editor “The dollar is living on borrowed time, literally. And so we just don’t know. It’s like a bomb with a fuse, but we just don’t really know how long the fuse is.” Peter Schiff, Author “I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a new sense of optimism that the whole issue of a silver manipulation is coming to a head.” Theodore Butler, Analyst April 7, 2017 “Silver today can be purchased for less than half of what it sold for in 1953. And when one is buying something for investment purposes; cheap is good!” Mark J. Lundeen, Editor “The more people who receive and come to depend on entitlements, the sooner society will collapse economically.” Dennis Prager, Author “Socialism often leads to economic and societal collapse, hyperinflation, shortages, and shrinking personal freedom. This has happened most recently in Venezuela. The truth is, it can happen anywhere. The U.S. is not immune. In fact, it’s extremely vulnerable. Increasing socialism, bad financial decisions, and massive debt levels will cause another financial crisis sooner rather than later. We believe the coming crash is going to be much worse, much longer, and very different than what we saw in 2008 and 2009.” Jeff Thomas, Editor “While there has been much touting of the strength of the consumer in recent years, it has been a credit-driven mirage. With income growth weak, debt levels elevated and rent and health care costs chipping away at disposable incomes, in order to make payments even remotely possible, terms are often stretched to 84 months.” Lance Roberts, Analyst “The big N.Y. banks are counterparty to tens of trillions of interest rate derivatives, which only made them obscene profits as long as interest rates went down. But like T-bond yields, corporate and municipal bond yields bottomed last summer and are now rising. Not good for Wall Street! After a four-decade-long bull market, it’s time for Mr. Bear to make his presence felt in the fixed income market. Should bond yields return to where they were in 2008, I expect the big banks will once again come knocking on Congress’s door asking for another bailout. And for the same reason – their interest rate derivative positions are underwater by a few tens of trillions of dollars.” Mark J. Lundeen, Editor “For those who are skeptical about North Korea’s capabilities, there is an excellent article presented by The Hill, entitled ‘How North Korea Could Kill 90 Percent of Americans.’ The article is authored by none other than R. James Woolsey, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and by Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, the Executive Director of the EMP Task Force.” Jeremiah Johnson, Author “Our economy is awash in cheap money and financial bubbles that threaten to wipe out tens of trillions of dollars’ worth of savings, investments, and assets. Everyone can close their eyes and hum while they hope that everything is going to be just fine, but it won’t be.” Daniel Lang, Analyst March 13, 2017 “Other than an ounce of silver, or digital computing power, what else is cheaper today than it was in January 1980? A tube of toothpaste? A gallon of gas? And the commercial and industrial uses for silver over the past decades have exploded, as its above ground inventories have been reduced from multi-billion to a few hundred million ounces. Silver today is actually rarer than gold.” Mark J. Lundeen, Editor “Trump is killing the Dodd-Frank bank reserve requirement rules at roughly the same time as the Fed hikes rates again. That creates a powerful incentive for the banks to move money out of the Fed and put it into the fractional reserve banking system. As that happens, money velocity is going to reverse and it could literally ‘skyrocket.’” Stewart Thompson, Analyst “It’s only a matter of time before mortgage rates begin their inevitable advance to double digits, exactly as they did from the 1950’s to 1981. When will this happen? With mortgage rates in the chart above seeing their bottom at 2.43% in October 2012, it may be happening now. Mortgage rates just haven’t crossed above their threshold of panic yet. But that threshold is lurking somewhere above the current high of 4.35% seen in September 2013, and we will cross above it in the years to come.” Mark J. Lundeen, Editor “The culture of the Left in the U.S. is beginning to embrace zealotry and the path can only get more ugly from here. This is evident not only in the violent behavior of more vocal groups, but also in the lack of self-criticism by many on the left that would consider themselves more moderate. There are very few voices among liberals and “progressives” today that are openly admonishing the counterproductive and thuggish actions of their more extreme members. In many cases, ‘moderate’ leftists even cheer such actions.” Brandon Smith, Editor March 6, 2017 “Get prepared, because we’re going to have the worst economic problems in your lifetime and a lot of people are going to disappear.” Jim Rogers, Author “The dizzying borrowing by consumers and businesses that the Fed with its ultra-low interest rates and in its infinite wisdom has purposefully encouraged to fuel economic growth, and to inflate asset prices, has caused debt to pile up. That debt is now eating up cash flows needed for other things, and this is causing pressures, just when interest rates have begun to rise, which will make refinancing this debt more expensive and, for a rising number of consumers and businesses, impossible.” Wolf Richter, Editor “Unless the Trump administration somehow finds a way to contain the unbridled expansion of "cheap" student debt, which is encumbering an entire generation with loans that can never be paid off, we are confident that it will be virtually impossible for the U.S. economy to truly undergo a sustained period of strong growth in the foreseeable future.” ZeroHedge “The inflation drumbeat has grown more insistent lately, stoked by Fed blather about raising rates to prevent the economy from overheating. I’m not buying any of it, particularly statistics that purport to show inflation even in Europe. An epic deflation still awaits and eventually will be triggered by the implosion of a largely uncollateralized, quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble.” Rick Ackerman, Analyst “Never in nine years has JPMorgan ever taken a loss on any short position in COMEX silver, a record that’s impossible to achieve legitimately but easy to prove and an indelible stain of shame on the regulators at the CFTC and CME.” Theodore Butler, Analyst “In response to an intensifying economic downturn, financial market expectations should shift towards renewed Fed “easing,” with the effect of triggering a massive U.S. dollar sell-off, accompanied by a sharp upturn in oil prices, domestic inflation and a heavy flight to the safe-haven qualities of physical gold and silver.” John Williams, Economist “Earlier this week the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its biannual report of farm incomes which paints a very bleak picture for the American farmer. In its first forecast for 2017, the USDA sees real farm cash receipts down 14% versus 2015 and 36% from the previous high set in 2012 as farm debt continues to soar and leverage surges to all-time highs. The deadly combination of rising input costs, lower grain prices, a strong dollar and excessive leverage will likely force many of America's Midwest farmers out of business in 2017.” ZeroHedge “Police are not powerless in the face of left-wing protesters hell-bent on destruction, but their political masters refuse to let them do their jobs.” Matthew Vadum, Author “Islamic immigration is unique in today’s world. It amounts to colonization by immigration. Radical Muslim theologians admit that they are following this strategy and extol its likely results.” Dick Morris, Author “Bull markets are born on pessimism, grown on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria. The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy, and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell.” John Templeton February 20, 2017 “The price of silver seems to be one area in which investors can realize a lot of gain as a percentage of their money.” Darren Capriotti, Analyst “If we hope to live within our means interest rates can never be allowed to rise. But if interest rates don’t rise, the Fed is forced to create a tsunami of new dollars to keep rates low, and must take its chances with inflation, currency war, crack-up boom, and all the other black swans that live in the land of monetary excess.” John Rubino, Editor “Uncle Sam is flat broke; and that reality will be the driving force that will upend the Trump administration before it barely gets started.” David Stockman, Economist “Jorge Castañeda Gutman, former Secretary of Foreign Affairs in Mexico suggested that Mexico’s previous cooperation with the U.S. in curbing the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants could end. Instead, the cartels could be essentially unleashed upon the U.S. – retribution for tough policies on Mexico.” Mac Slavo, Editor “Whereas the average inflation expectation was just 1.4% last summer, the expected inflation rate has now reached its highest level in almost 3 years, and the St. Louis Fed is now expecting the inflation rate to be 2.18%. Indeed, that’s an increase of 50% in just a few months and as the velocity of money in the monetary system starts to pick up again, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the inflation expectations head even higher.” Secular Investor “The current credit cycle is already rolling over. Only policies an order of magnitude larger than the QE and TARP programs of 2008 can reignite the bubble. A few bridges and a wall aren’t going to solve the Chinese overcapacity problem, or the European banking problem, or Latin American commodity overinvestment, or mis-pricing in American stocks and bonds.” Daniel Oliver, Analyst “Every collapse of a credit expansion is a bankruptcy, and the magnitude of the bankruptcy will be proportionate to the magnitude of the debt.” Freeman Tilden, 1936, Economist “As time progresses, it appears more certain than ever that silver will climb vastly higher in price over the longer term based on just about every objective measurement available.” Theodore Butler, Analyst “To keep the gold industry supplied, we need to discover 90 million ounces a year. We are discovering only 10 million to 15 million ounces a year.” Mark Bristow, CEO Rand Gold February 6, 2017 “There's been billions and billions of dollars in fines paid by the banks for manipulating a variety of different markets. Yet, for some reason people have said, ‘Oh, no the gold and silver market are unique. They're not manipulated.’ Of course, they are manipulated and have been manipulated for over thirty years. It's nice to see that one of the banks has come out and actually admitted to it. And I think that's going to create a whole series of events. I'm optimistic that the banks will get out of the market and we will see true price discovery as a result.” Keith Neumeyer, CEO First Majestic “Given the current state of knowledge, it is inconceivable that the precious metal silver could be replaced, since no other material fulfills the requirement for ‘cost in relation to performance’ in a comparable manner.” Dr. Arne Stassen, Technologist “If you thought voting Trump into the office of the president constituted a victory, you are badly misreading historical precedent. The fight is just beginning. The leftist social justice warriors, their wealthy elite puppeteers, the neo-con military industrial complex warmongers, globalists, multi-culturists, and surveillance state apparatchiks have all made it clear they will violently and rhetorically resist Trump and his common man revolution. I don’t know if the normal people who supported Trump realize how abnormal, deviant, and despicable their opponents are. Blood will be spilled. Violence will beget violence. The country is already split and the divide will only grow wider. Someone will win and someone will lose. Our choices will matter.” Jim Quinn, Editor “In the event of a still-likely, massive debasement of the U.S. dollar physical holdings of gold and silver remain the primary stores of wealth that can maintain purchasing power in a form that is both liquid and portable.” John Williams, Economist “Advocates for limited government continue to debate the proper extent of state power. For those who want states to provide certain amenities, many modern states are far, far greater in size and scope that what is necessary to provide those amenities. Unfortunately, the primary effect of bigness in these states is to enhance the power of the state and limit the ability of citizens to escape the state's taxes and impoverishing regulations.” Ryan McMaken, Author “I view steep financial market losses to be inevitable over the completion of this cycle.” John Hussman, Fund Manager “Responsibility is the single most important component of social uplift – and therefore of equality.” Shelby Steele, Author “After decades of state-administered benefits and services being poured into Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods, the Obama administration, in a consent decree, formally blamed the current anarchy on the police. This is the tacit admission of public failure.” Danial Henninger, Author “Panic buying, which can empty the shelves of a major big-box retailer like Wal-Mart in just a few hours, is so commonplace even in the event of a minor, predictable weather event, what will happen when a serious crisis like a severe economic crash or an escalation of global conflict breaks out?” Mac Slavo, Editor “Silver has defied expectations early in 2017, showing not only signs of life, but signs that it could be headed for greater and higher prices.” Darren Capricotti, Analyst January 30, 2017 “Consider what you would do if you were JPMorgan and were aware that the idea was growing that you were manipulating silver and gold prices. Your choice would be to explain and justify your actions, or to end the scam before more learned of your illegal activities.” Theodore Butler, Analyst “Starting in December 2015, JPMorgan purchased and took physical delivery of over 31 metric tons worth of bars of gold for its house account at COMEX alone. It now has a physical gold pile which, at minimum, is worth over $1.1 billion.” Avery Goodman, Analyst “Kids are learning that America is nothing more than a series of incidents that oppress people, whether it’s Native Americans or women or blacks or Hispanics or Asian people. That’s what they’re learning.” Larry Elder, Radio Host “We have heard from the Swiss refiners that in recent weeks they have at times had to pay premiums to buy gold due to shortages. So no one should believe that the paper price has anything to do with the real gold and silver markets. We are getting nearer to the point when the truth will hit this market. I would not like to be a holder of paper gold or silver at that point.” Egon von Greyerz, Asset Manager “We expect global monetary authorities to protect the dollar as long as they can and we expect them to fail. Stocks and bonds will react violently; stocks and weak credits falling, Treasury prices rising (at first). That failure will lead to hyperinflation – not driven by demand, but rather by central bank money printing. A new global monetary understanding will then emerge.” Paul Brodsky, Asset Manager “Silver prices are currently low by many measures so the probable move higher should be substantial. Risk of lower prices is small.” G. E. Christenson, Editor January 6, 2017 Two quotes from the man who does the economic thinking for the left: “To join Trump admin, you have to be white nationalist conspiracy theorist, but must also be always wrong in your supposed area of expertise.” Paul Krugman, December 2016 “By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine.” Paul Krugman, 1998 “Despite the continuing strong U.S. dollar rally subsequent to the election and the Fed’s rate hike, a tremendous threat to the dollar and systemic liquidity and stability continues, tied to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s inability to resolve fundamentally the 2008 financial collapse.” John Williams, Economist “Right now, the U.S. dollar is extremely overbought while precious metals are the most oversold in many years.” Jeb Handwerger, Editor “China embodies a Keynesian dystopia that results from central planning gone mad. Its mirage of prosperity should soon be coming to an unpleasant end. The misguided belief any government can print unlimited amounts of money and issue a massive amount of new credit; while providing the conditions that are the antitheses necessary for viable growth, has one significant Achilles' heel: eventually, it will destroy your currency.” Michael Pento, Author “In Chicago and New York, two of the homicide capitals of America, blacks and Hispanics commit more than 95% of the murders. If one removes from the equation the criminal elements of the black and Hispanic populations of this country, America’s violent crime rates shrink astronomically until America looks more like European countries whose citizenries have no guns.” David Horowitz, Author “The left envisions a fundamentally transformed America where individual rights are secondary to the collective rights of races, ethnicities, genders and classes.” David Horowitz, Author “A picture emerges of a system that can’t handle rising interest rates, but is nonetheless getting them. The result? At best a global slowdown and at worst an epic crisis.” John Rubino, Editor “For decades we have known that the time would come when Social Security & Medicare costs would begin a rapid and explosive growth upwards. That time is no longer the distant future – but something that will take place next year, and the year after, and the year after.” Daniel R. Amerman, CFA “The cost to produce silver will continue to increase due to falling ore grades and the increased cost to extract, transport and process larger amounts of ore to produce the same amount of silver.” SRS Rocco “Deutsche Bank is a defendant in more than 7,000 lawsuits worldwide. In two of them it has recently agreed to settlements and is prepared to pay tens of millions of U.S. dollars in restitution and fines. This includes the settling of lawsuits over gold and silver price manipulation. Associated court proceedings against other financial institutions are still underway.” Dmitri Speck, Analyst “Mr. Trump’s turbo-charged growth expectations and the resultant inflation will result in a budgetary binge of colossal proportions. And thus, ironically, the King of Debt will be good for gold.” John Ing, Analyst “Last week Bitcoin prices climbed to as much as $918.95, a 17.7% gain since the start of the week. Bitcoin is a proxy for gold and silver, for the uncertainty in the markets, especially the currency markets. Bitcoin is an easy way to evade capital, banking and transport restrictions though ultimately it is a virtual digital currency and can’t compete with real gold and silver. Be aware everything that is digital can be hacked and ask yourself who is going to be willing to sell physical gold for a digital algorithm when the U.S. dollar, still the anchor of the financial system, is failing.” Gijsbert Gruenewager, Analyst December 26, 2016 “In the first quarter of 2016, $10 in new debt was needed to generate just $1 in new economic growth!” Gijsbert Groenewegen, Economist “Now that Trump has appointed two Wall Street speculators – Steven Mnuchin at Treasury and Wilbur Ross at Commerce – to lead his economics team, a renewed fiscal calamity is virtually certain. Neither have the slightest clue that Uncle Sam is truly bankrupt and that 3-4% real growth in a nation buried under $64 trillion of public and private debt is a snare and a delusion. The stock market is the shorting opportunity of a lifetime.” David Stockman, Economist “The Silver Institute just published its 2016 Silver Interim Report. According to their forecast for 2016, global silver production will decline to 887 million ounces (Moz), down from 893 Moz in 2015. Declining total supply is expected to be a key driver of annual deficits in the silver market going forward.” Silver Institute “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” Winston Churchill “At least since the sixties, the left-liberal consensus in America has worked to undermine traditional notions of decency, order, merit, and achievement. So monolithic was that consensus that a sudden reversion to normality came as a terrifying disillusionment. Hence the surreal, paranoid, tantrum-filled response of the coddled beneficiaries of our society.” Roger Kimball, Author “For leftists, fighting carbon emissions means saving human existence on Earth. Now, how often does anyone get a chance to literally save the world? Therefore, to most leftists, if you voted for Trump, you have both negated their reason for living and are literally destroying planet Earth. Why would they have Thanksgiving or Christmas with such a person?” Dennis Prager, Editor “So what is the [Dakota Access] pipeline dispute really about? Political expediency in a White House that does not see itself as being bound by the rule of law.” Kevin Cramer, Representative “While the world celebrates the political demise of the wicked witch of the west and braces for a Trump-style president, the real crisis is coming, in the form of a financial avalanche that could dump on everyone’s parade.” Mac Slavo, Analyst “Physical gold and silver are priced as if they are abundant when they are not. What is abundant is the paper derivative that is used to set the price.” Craig Hemke, Analyst “There’s no froth in the current prices for gold and silver. This means precious metal assets are cheap, and cheap is good when one is buying. On the other hand, valuations in the stock market are priced for perfection, with little allowance for disappointments.” Mark J. Lundeen, Editor December 14, 2016 “Debt monetization was the term that used to be used by economists to describe the undesirable outcome of a country’s central bank becoming the exclusive financier of its national debt. Inflation and currency devaluation were expected to be the results of this brash approach to fiscal policy. This will likely be our future under Trump. Investors would be wise to recognize this and to diversify appropriately.” Peter Schiff, Author “The world is sitting at the edge of a massive deflationary cliff. Even though central banks are desperately trying to keep the world’s financial assets from plunging down into the great depression below, signs suggest they are losing the battle.” SRSrocco, Analysts “Despite the euphoria that is presently being felt by Mister Trump’s supporters, the fundamentals that plague the U.S. economy remain present and not only is it impossible for him to reverse the pre-existent slide toward economic collapse, it’s not really even a part of the agenda.” Jeff Thomas, Editor “There’s a reason today’s climate movement increasingly devotes its time and energy to persecuting heretics – because it’s the most efficient way to suppress reasoned examination of policies that cost taxpayers billions without producing any public benefit whatsoever.” Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., Editor “The systemic risks that existed prior to the presidential election have not suddenly vanished. Most important among these is a massive bond market bubble. Close behind, equity valuations remain at historically extreme levels.” John Hathaway, Portfolio Manager December 7, 2016 “It is also becoming increasingly likely that the next fiscal year will be characterized by growing price inflation and belated increases in interest rates, against a background of rising raw material prices. That being the case, public finances are not only already fragile, but they are likely to become moreso from now on.” Alasdair Macleod, Economist “Trump’s individual policies sound attractive. Who does not want better infrastructure? Who does not want better defense? But when you add them all up, this is going to mean much larger deficits.” James Rickards, Author “If Trump does plan to massively increase government debt to pay for military and infrastructure spending, he is going to find out quickly that interest rates will not stay low for long.” Guy Manno, Editor “If the Federal Reserve loses control and interest rates return to more historically normal levels, this will lead to an extraordinary increase in annual deficits that would send the national debt soaring upwards and out of control. But if rates don’t rise, then saver wealth could decrease by as much as 95% compared to historical norms, which creates an extraordinary conflict of interest between the government and savers.” Daniel Ammerman, Analyst December 1, 2016 “Pre-1965 90% silver quarters and dimes are essential for any barter stash. During an economic panic or retail silver shortage, premiums on pre-1965 silver coins could surge. It’s best to stock up on these historic, no-longer-minted coins while premiums are still low, as they are now.” Mike Gleason, Analyst “We take in $3.1 trillion and we spend $3.7 trillion, and that $600 billion deficit at the rate of $50 billion a month. Our government is printing money and it’s degrading the living standard of every person in America. It’s the cause of frustration, anger and confusion.” Steve Wynn, Hotelier “A recent Baseline Magazine survey found that 75% of employers said that two or more hours of productivity are lost per employee every workday due to distractions. According to employers, the leading productivity killers are mobile phones and texting.” Fred Hickey, Analyst “If gold priced in dollars today bore the same relationship to the quantity of dollars in existence some eighty years ago, the price range in today’s dollars would be between $4,000 and $11,640.” Alasdair MacLeod, Editor “With rising energy costs, soaring medical costs, record high home prices and rent expense, the average new car price at a record $34,000, and food prices rising steadily, the standard of living continues to plunge. Sit back and enjoy our journey to Third World status.” Jim Quinn, Editor “The current financial system will not survive because it is based on principles which are not sustainable. In such a defective system, there is no sound money.” Egon von Greyerz, Asset Manager November 4, 2016 “Holding physical gold and silver remains the primary hedge in preserving the purchasing power and liquidity of one’s wealth and assets in the difficult times ahead. The hedge needs to be held into and through the crisis, in order to provide its full benefit.” John Williams, Economist “These are extraordinarily dangerous times. Desperation is forcing investors to take risks that they shouldn’t take. It ‘cannot end well’ and it might end in ‘chaos.’ When it comes, Paul Singer expects the market breakdown to be ‘sudden, intense and large.’ In other words, the Wall Street herd will be completely unprepared.” Fred Hickey, Editor “The stock averages are now floating precariously in the nosebleed section of historical valuation, waiting for an unexpected shock to send them spiraling downward. Indeed, we believe the market could drop by 40% or more from current levels, and that it could happen in a sudden violent plunge.” David Stockman, Economist “Most European banks would be bankrupt if they valued their toxic assets at market rather than maturity value. Currently many European banks are on the verge of failure whether it is German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or French banks. Share prices of many major European banks are down 80-95% which clearly indicates that the markets consider their chances of survival to be very small. Deutsche Bank is one example of a bank that is unlikely to survive. Its market value is now less than 1% of its balance sheet.” Egon von Greyerz, Analyst “By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.” John Maynard Keynes, Economist “The people of this country should be scared about the debt. But instead they are focused like a laser beam on Kim Kardashian’s latest escapade, Twitter wars, Facebook pictures of a distant cousin’s toe fungus, and the latest adventures of the Housewives of New Jersey.” Jim Quinn, Editor “The industrial uses for silver grow by the day and it is one of the most important ‘commodities’ on the planet. It is used in such a wide variety of products that our world would be completely different without silver.” William Middelkoop, Author “For a long time, Columbus Day was a big deal in this country. All of this began to change, however, once the left began seizing control of those of our institutions that function as centers of opinion-shaping. Courtesy of this fundamental transformation of the cultural landscape, the image of Columbus himself has been transformed from a hero of Western Civilization to its archetypal villain.” Jack Kerwick, Editor “The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.” Dr. Adrian Rogers, Author October 31, 2016 “Given a choice between maintaining a stronger dollar, propped by higher rates, or attempting to salvage collapsing equity prices, the U.S. financial system will opt for propping the stock market every time. Such helps to doom the system eventually to expanded quantitative easing after the election, irrespective of any near-term rate hikes, and irrespective of any fears as to the horrendous inflation problems suggested by that circumstance. The ultimate hedge and asset/wealth protection remains to buy and to hold physical gold and silver.” John Williams, Economist “Something BIG is afoot ‘behind the scenes’ in the financial system. I believe that something is a banking crisis in the EU. The clear signal is coming from Deutsche Bank (DB). DB is the proverbial ‘canary in the coalmine’ for Europe. Perched atop the largest derivatives book in Europe, DB has ties to most major financial institutions in the region. Which is why as soon as DB starts nose-diving, you know something big is up. DB shares are down 16% since September 15th and nearly 20% from September 9th. Put another way, this bank has lost a FIFTH of its market cap in less than two weeks.” Graham Summers, Editor “It makes sense to own some bullion (gold and silver) as the experiment central bankers are conducting has never been done before.” Sol Palha, Analyst “The stage has been set for the greatest economic and financial implosion in U.S. history, and the pain that is coming is going to affect every man, woman and child in this country. Trump and Clinton talk about tinkering with tax rates and regulations, but those measures are going to be meaningless when compared to the massive economic tsunami that is coming. The next president is going to inherit the biggest economic problems that this nation has ever faced.” Michael Snyder, Editor “The fate of the U.S. dollar is in the hands of academic maniacs, doing the bidding of malignant-narcissist bankers and political scoundrels.” Mark J. Lundeen, Editor “We have reached the switchover point at which the costs of additional monetary stimulus exceed any benefits.” Adam Taggart, Analyst “Off-balance sheet debt liabilities, including Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, at an estimated $5 to $6 trillion; unfunded liabilities for Medicare, Medicaid, and social security, estimated between $60 trillion and $150 trillion; plus other liabilities, equals a range of about $85 trillion to $175 trillion. Factor in that U.S. GDP is a mere $18 trillion, and we can see that our obligations are between 4x and 8x our productive capacity. And how long can this charade continue?” John Embry, Editor “Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero.” Voltaire, French Philosopher “Considering how low existing silver inventories are after more than a half-century of depletion, the current and prospective levels of world inventories can hardly be considered bearish and, in fact, must be considered wildly bullish.” Theodore Butler, Silver Analyst October 17, 2016 “It is often argued that there is a limit to monetary easing, but I do not share such a view.” Haruhiko Kuroda, Governor, Bank of Japan “It is undeniable that the stage is set for a crisis that will absolutely dwarf 2008. Our national debt has nearly doubled since the beginning of the last crisis, corporate debt has doubled, student loan debt has crossed the trillion dollar mark, auto loan debt has crossed the trillion dollar mark, and total household debt has crossed the 12 trillion dollar mark. We are living in the greatest debt bubble in world history, and there are signs that this giant bubble is now starting to burst. And when it does, the pain is going to be greater than most people would dare to imagine.” Michael Snyder, Editor “Silver is a unique commodity with great diversification potential, protection against systematic financial failure, and extreme upside!” Palisade Research “One in six prime-age guys has no job; it’s kind of worse than it was in the Depression in 1940.” Nicholas Eberstadt, Economics September 8, 2016 “Sovereign debt is my nomination for the number one overvalued market around the world. You are earning nothing or less than nothing for the privilege of lending your money to a government that has pledged to depreciate the currency that you’re investing in. The central banks of the world are striving to achieve a rate of inflation of 2% or more and you are lending certainly at much less than 2% and in many cases at less than nominal 0%. The experience of losing money is common in investing. But where is the certitude of loss even before your check clears? That’s the situation with sovereign debt right now.” Jim Grant, Analyst “The truth is the economy is most likely already in a recession and there never was a viable economic recovery. Just an anemic, ersatz and transitory bounce in GDP derived from artificial, record-low interest rates and asset bubbles. Investors need to keep their eyes open as equity prices march further into all-time high territory. And, most importantly, have a strategy to protect their portfolios once sanity returns to the market.” Michael Pento, Analyst “In order to counter falling productivity, households, companies, as well as the government have taken on unsustainable amounts of debt to keep consumption going.” Valentin Schmid, Editor “The end result of today’s massive central bank intrusion in financial markets will be yet another thundering crash of high flyers and a resulting financial crisis of unprecedented extent.” David Stockman, Economist September 2, 2016 “The most dynamic religion of the last hundred years has been leftism. Not Christianity, and not Islam, but leftism. Leftism has taken over the world’s leading educational institutions, the world’s news media and the world’s popular entertainment.” Dennis Prager, Commentator “While economists, media, and analysts wish to blame those ‘stingy consumers’ for not buying more stuff, the reality is the majority of American consumers have likely reached the limits of their ability to consume.” Lance Roberts, Editor “The current path of monetary and credit expansion is unsustainable and will eventually burst, leaving investors struggling for the return of their capital, instead of return on their capital, an extremely bullish scenario for gold and other real assets.” Diego Parrilla, Author “There is no means of avoiding a final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.” Ludwig von Mises, Economist “The most important question for the future of America is how we treat our entrepreneurs. If our government continues to smear, harass, overtax, and oppressively regulate them, we will be dismayed by how swiftly the engines of American prosperity deteriorate. We will be amazed at how quickly American wealth flees to other countries.” George Gilder, Author “The U.S. economy remains in intensifying crisis, with no chance of near-term recovery. A U.S. dollar collapse looms as the Fed inches closer to a highly likely, renewed and expanded quantitative easing. The dollar collapse and related dumping of dollar-denominated assets should trigger the early stages of serious domestic inflation, with spiking commodity prices. Heavily bloated U.S. equity markets should suffer along with heavy flight from the U.S. dollar and related assets. Flight-to-safety will spike the dollar prices of store-of-wealth assets such as physical gold and silver, the ultimate hedges for those living in a U.S. dollar-denominated world.” John Williams, Economist “The ultimate breakdown [in the stock market] from this environment is likely to be surprising, sudden, intense, and large.” Paul Singer, Asset Manager “I think the market is at literally very high levels because of zero interest rates. There's going to be a day of reckoning here. I've seen it many times in my life. When things look good, they look great. You go into the sky. But that's when you have to really pull down and really stop buying.” Carl Icahn, Capitalist “Cathay Pacific announced earnings earlier this week which paint a fairly ominous picture for China. The airline posted a 9.3% YoY drop in revenue and an 82% decline in net profit which they attributed to ‘weak passenger demand, particularly in the premium class.’” Cathay Pacific August 31, 2016 “The U.S. economy is like a guy that jumped out of a plane with no parachute and because he hasn’t hit the ground yet, he thinks he’s ok.” William C. Alexander, Philosopher “This whole speculative mania will end tragically. How did we not learn this from 2000-2002, or 2007-2009, or the collapse of every other mania in history?” John Hussman, Analyst “With the monetary system we have now, the careful saving of a lifetime can be wiped out in an eye blink.” Larry Parks, Economist “To most people today, five-figure gold, or four-figure silver prices seem farfetched. Then most people today have never made the effort to investigate the miserable five-thousand-year history of what government has done to their coin of the realm. As current “monetary policy” is to support stocks and bond prices far above fair market value, while subduing price gains for gold and silver, now seems the time to allow the “policy makers” to pay top dollar for your stocks and bonds, and then purchase as much subsidized gold and silver as you can, and still get a good night’s sleep.” Mark J. Lundeen, Analyst “Food stamps can be used to have groceries delivered right to a recipient’s door. Service with a smile. The Obama administration says it is too much of a hardship for those on welfare to actually travel to the grocery store. What’s next? Cooking the meal for them?” Stephen Moore, Economist “The world has caught on, and the gig is up. Under Obama’s stewardship, the U.S. national debt has gone from $10 trillion, to what will be $20 trillion by the time he leaves office, with nothing more than 100 million Americans out of work, and 50 million in poverty and on food stamps. That’s what cheap money bought for us. It was all “borrowed” cheap money too, making it infinitely worse, and the world is tired of lending.” Mac Slavo, Analyst “Weaker-than-expected GDP news triggered some flight from the U.S. dollar to gold and oil, but those circumstances still await a major negative economic shock to trigger the onset of a massive flight from the U.S. currency. Such shocks loom in headline monthly economic detail in the next month or so.” John Williams, Economist “The belief in the power of institutional racism allows black civil rights to denounce America as a racist society, when it is actually the only society on earth – black, white, brown or yellow – whose defining creed is anti-racist; a society to which blacks from black-ruled nations regularly flee in search of opportunity and refuge.” David Horowitz, Author “The Bank of Japan and European Central Bank money-printing programs combined are larger than anything the world’s seen before. Starting soon, the Bank of England will add to the record levels of newly printed money sloshing around the planet. And I do mean slosh.” Fred Hickey, Analyst “Buy gold and save yourself.” Michael Lewitt, Author “The official unemployment number has grown increasingly useless as a reliable economic indicator, for the simple reason that millions of people have simply quit looking for a job. Since the unemployment rate is based only on those who are actively looking for work, the more people who drop out of the labor force, the lower the unemployment rate becomes.” Investor’s Business Daily “When government overspends, overtaxes and over-regulates, economic freedom is suppressed and economic growth vanishes. When growth fades, it takes the American dream with it. Give America back its economic system of freedom and opportunity, and the ensuing growth will bring back the American Dream.” Phil Gramm, Economist “The deepest mine in the world is the Mponeng gold mine, southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, where miners now drill more than 3.9 kilometers below ground (2.4 miles). Rock temperatures reach 55°C (131°F). Huge refrigeration and pumping equipment cool the air to a more bearable 28°C (82.” Visual Capitalist August 25, 2016 “America has become the least racist multiracial, multiethnic country in world history.” Dennis Prager, Author “Silver is now performing more positively, despite the best efforts of the usual suspects to suppress the price. And this is confirmed by the Open Interest being near all-time record levels, which just shows how hard they are working to keep the price at low levels. I firmly believe we are on the cusp of an explosion in the silver price that will ultimately see silver trade at many multiples of the current $20 price. And if the hyperinflation occurs, which I believe is inevitable due to the current global monetary policy, who knows how high the price can go? I cannot encourage readers enough to get as much exposure as possible in silver.” John Embry, Economist “So it’s my view that [helicopter money] would be sort of the next step if we ever found ourselves in a situation where we wanted to be more accommodative.” Loretta Mester, President, Cleveland Federal Reserve “‘Helicopter money’ isn’t some kind of new wrinkle in monetary policy, at all. It’s an old as the hills rationalization for monetization of the public debt – that is, purchase of government bonds with central bank credit conjured from thin air. It’s the ultimate in ‘something for nothing’ economics.” David Stockman, Economist “What the West fails to recognize, is that gold is a flight to safety and alternative currency of choice for 5 billion people on the planet.” Joni Tevis, Analyst “In the Democratic Party platform, the word ‘invest’ shows up more than 45 times. The Democrats took a page from Orwell and changed the word ‘spend’ to ‘invest.’ After all, who could be opposed to the government making investments? Today’s Democratic Party firmly believes that the only way to grow the economy is to forcibly remove still more money from the pockets of private investors, and put it into the hands of unaccountable government bureaucrats, political hacks and politically connected businesses.” Investor’s Business Daily “The gigantic silver war continues unabated. Hedge funds keep piling in on the long side while Commercials keep selling them all they want. The hedge fund net long is at a new all-time high. Commercial net shorts are fast approaching the all-time high set back in October 2009.” Dan Norcini, Analyst “Despite ever larger and constantly growing expenditures, the ‘welfare mess’ in the United States is getting steadily worse. In fact, a strong case can be made – and has been made – that the poor in America…have become the poorer, the more helpless, the more disadvantaged, the more welfare money is being spent to help them. American welfare spending encourages dependence. It paralyzes rather than energizes.” Peter Drucker, Author “America’s 20th-century experiment with the welfare state desolated our cities, created a permanent underclass of promiscuity, illegitimacy, welfare and crime, and gave us children and adults full of race hatred instead of the social discipline and work ethic necessary to civilization.” Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Economist July 29, 2016 “Several communists and radical anti-American socialists now serve on the influential Democratic Party Platform Drafting Committee. Marxists will set the policy direction for the Democratic party. Most of these individuals could not pass an FBI background security check to sell you stamps at the Post Office. They would not be allowed to clean the toilets on any military base in this country. Yet they are drafting policies that will shape the lives of more than 300 million Americans.” Trevor Louden, Author “Our system of immigration, legal and illegal, is a rigged game meant to produce the outcome that is most favorable to the political ambitions of the Democrats and their left-wing political allies. From its country quotas to its refugee programs to its current underground amnesty, it was set up as a means of maximizing the number of potential Democrat voters, allies and clients in the United States.” Daniel Greenfield, Author “The public is walking into a trap again as they did in 2007.” Carl Icahn “U.S. stocks are now about 80% overvalued.” Andrew Smithers, Economist “Silver presents a bigger problem for the big banks than gold. The fact that it is now reacting higher at a much higher rate than gold shows that this belief is shared by people with the funds to act on it and to buy silver before supply gets threadbare. Readers who are not yet partially invested in silver in metal form may have little time to do so. Apart from the price running steeply higher, the problem of limited supply is not far away.” Daan Joubert, Editor “In the World Gold Council's Gold Investor magazine, Jiao Jinpu, Chairman of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, reports that ‘In its first month, the Shanghai Gold Benchmark Price’s trading volume was 105.91 metric tons of gold kilo bars. 102.10 metric tons of gold were physically settled, addressing the market’s need for physical gold.’ I emphasize the physical nature of settlements on the Shanghai Gold Exchange as a requirement that will have significant impact on the gold market in the years to come. Over 96% of the volume on the SGE is settled in physical metal. Speculation on the price sans delivery, which drives activity on New York's COMEX, is discouraged on the SGE.” Michael Kosares, Editor “With its relentless pursuit of fracking driving down the cost of natural gas, America has made a momentous switch from coal to gas that has done more to drive down carbon-dioxide emissions than any recent climate policy. Turns out that those who gathered in Paris, France, could learn a little from Paris, Texas.” Bjorn Lomborg, Author “Holding physical gold and silver will preserve the purchasing power of today’s U.S. dollar through the extraordinary financial and currency turmoil.” John Williams, Economist “Add it all up and a picture emerges of a global crisis with Europe at its epicenter. Brexit, contrary to conventional wisdom, is a side-effect of this mess rather than a cause. Italy’s banks were always going to need a bail-out and Deutsche Bank was always going to blow up.” John Rubino, Editor “This is the second time this year that silver has made its intentions clear – i.e. that it is going parabolic.” Chris Vermeulen, Editor “Despite the headline numbers (like Friday’s largely-fictitious jobs report) that imply a stable, modest expansion, under the surface the financial system – composed of business loans, bank profits, etc. – is deteriorating fast. John Rubino, Editor July 14, 2016 “The collapse of the Soviet Empire in 1989, laid bare the degree of devastation which the command economy, or socialism, or Communism, or whatever you care to call the Marxist-Leninist way of running things, has inflicted on the environment in Eastern Europe and West and Central Asia. We are only now beginning to understand the magnitude of the damage which has been done, some of it irreparable. The Soviet Union ruined the entire Aral Sea and some of the largest river systems in the world. What is notable is that the environmentalist lobbies, once so noisy in contrasting capitalist shame with socialist pride, have made no apology at all for thus misleading the world. They have simply passed to fresh battles, usually against Western governments and international companies.” Paul Johnson, Author “The government monopoly of money leads not just to the suppression of innovation and experiment, not just to inflation and debasement, not just to financial crises, but to inequality too.” Matt Ridley, Author “With likely mounting financial stresses on a troubled banking system, deteriorating federal fiscal performance and Treasury funding needs, and increasing turmoil in the domestic equity markets, the Federal Reserve appears to have put its heretofore aggressive credit-tightening talk into hibernation.” John Williams, Economist “Currently the Fed is neither fighting inflation, as they did from 1954 to 1981; nor deflation as they did from 1981 to 2007, just before the mortgage crisis. Today they are fighting for their professional lives, because they know exactly what they have done, and the horrific consequences that are going to follow. Everyone is going to suffer. But to mitigate the damage coming our way, owning gold and silver bullion makes sense in today’s world.” Mark J. Lundeen, Editor “Now watch central banks. The crazier the world becomes, the more the BoJ, Fed and ECB will feel compelled to flood the markets with liquidity. Problem is, capital will soon be flowing out of financial assets even faster than central banks can pump it in.” John Rubino, Editor “What we are in essence witnessing in many European welfare states these days is what happens when socialists are running out of other people’s money. The battle between different strands of French socialism/welfare statism over the remaining scraps of wealth is nothing new or special. We have seen similarly inspired protests and riots in Spain, in Greece and other places. On the one hand, it is great fun to see socialists fighting amongst each other, but unfortunately it is also a symptom of what is coming – and what is coming is not going to be fun at all.” Pater Tenebrarum, Economist “Nearly four in 10 millennials (39%) say they interact more with their smartphones than they do with their significant others, parents, friends, children or co-workers.” Catey Hill, Author “Second-quarter 2016 industrial production appears set to become the third consecutive quarter showing both annual and quarterly contractions, and the fifth quarter out of the last six, to decline quarter-to-quarter. Nothing like this ever has been seen outside of formally recognized recessions, in the history of the Index of Industrial Production, which goes back to 1918. The United States is in recession, and formal recognition of that remains likely in the next several months.” John Williams, Economist “Brexit showed that it is possible for a great nation to defy its leaders and its establishment thinkers to throw off its multinational chains.” Daniel Greenfield, Editor June 30, 2016 “The great promise of socialism is something for nothing. It is one of the signs of today’s dumbed-down education that so many college students seem to think that the cost of their education should – and will – be paid by raising taxes on ‘the rich.’” Thomas Sowell, Economist “We’ve got a deflationary recession emerging everywhere in the world…China is a massive speculative mania that’s going to collapse any day.” David Stockman, Economist “In Detroit, 96 percent of eighth graders are not proficient in math. Ninety-three percent are not proficient in reading. In Baltimore, 91 percent of the students fail the math exam. In Chicago, 77 percent of students fall below standards in achievement. In 17 of our 50 largest cities, fewer than half of all students graduate from high school.” Newt Gingrich, Author “A system built on making promises it cannot keep is bound to crash…and crash again.” Martin Wolf, Commentator “The old-time American mainstream, working-and middle-class white males and their families, is mad as hell about political correctness and the havoc it has wreaked for 40 years – havoc made worse by the flat refusal of most serious Republicans to confront it.” David Gelernter, Editor “In both England and the United States, the massive expansion of the welfare state since the 1960’s has been accompanied by a vast expansion in the amount of crime, violence, drug addiction, fatherless children and other signs of social degeneration.” Thomas Sowell, Economist “The rapidly approaching big problem for the U.S. Federal Reserve is that the U.S. economy likely will be in a formal ‘new’ recession by mid-August. Market speculations under such a circumstance likely would move rapidly towards some expanded form of Quantitative Easing (QE4). Such considerations increasingly should savage the exchange-rate value of the U.S. dollar, placing meaningful upside pressure on the prices of gold, silver and oil. The more troubled the economy and the more intense the selling pressure on the U.S. currency, the more difficult circumstances also will become for the U.S. equity markets.” John Williams, Economist “The Fed has pumped the third financial bubble of this century with even more reckless abandon than it did during the dotcom boom and the housing boom.” David Stockman, Economist June 22, 2016 “In the media and the classroom, entrepreneurs are smeared as greedy and destructive, when in fact they are heroes, essential to human flourishing. Instead, we are supposed to worship politicians and officials who are no better than common thieves. Yet far more destructive.” Llewellyn Rockwell, Jr., Economist “The left is destroying the foundational values of this country, including, but hardly limited to, free speech.” Dennis Prager, Radio Host “A high risk of extreme flight from the U.S. dollar – a massive dollar debasement – continues to threaten an increasingly rapid upturn in energy and global commodity inflation, which would drive headline U.S. consumer inflation much higher. That process continues, and it should accelerate in tandem with renewed tumbling in U.S. economic activity.” John Williams, Economist “My generation gave former tenured economics professors discretionary authority to fabricate money and to fix interest rates. We put the cart of asset prices before the horse of enterprise. We entertained the fantasy that high asset prices made for prosperity, rather than the other way around. We actually worked to foster inflation, which we called 'price stability' (this was on the eve of the hyperinflation of 2017). We seem to have miscalculated.” Jim Grant, Economist “One of the hoariest progressive clichés is that they are the party of enlightenment, reason, and fact, while conservatives are ignorant obscurantists, ‘bitter clingers’ to the superstitions of religion and tradition. The prejudice is false.” Bruce Thornton, Author “Continued dependence upon relief, induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1935 “Confidence is easily lost among investors when a nation is on an unsustainable trajectory.” Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Economist “The Keynesian gods have failed, and as a result, we’re in the eye of a global financial hurricane.” Charles Hugh-Smith, Editor “Without government intervention, green energy moguls like Elon Musk would need to invest and risk their own money on costly solar power projects. Without U.S. taxpayers to foot the bill for these dubious schemes, government intervention would not be possible.” Daniel Greenfield, Author “Historians have long known the rise and fall of empires have much to do with the quality of the coins of their realms. At their peaks, Rome, Byzantium, Spain, Great Britain and yes the United States all had sound currencies, and a political class that for the most part refused to resort to monetary inflation to fund government operations. But for all of the above that was to change; and with the change began their declines. William Durant in 1935 addressed China’s 11th century experiment with paper money, and its impact on global history. ‘Such were the sources of that flood of paper money which, ever since, has alternatively accelerated and threatened the economic life of the world.’ - William Durant: Our Oriental Heritage, (1935) pg. 780.” Mark J. Lundeen, Editor “It should be self-evident that eight years’ worth of unprecedented money printing and interest rate manipulations have caused the greatest distortion of asset prices in history. Therefore, the inevitable conclusion is for an unprecedented economic contraction to occur once the party inevitably comes to a close. The primary questions for investors are to know how to best ride this bubble, when to get out and how to profit from its collapse.” Michael Pento, Editor “Debt drains away vital resources from economic growth. Fighting a debt crisis with more debt is doomed to failure, yet that is not only what global central banks did during the crisis, but long after markets stabilized (though the crisis never truly ended, just slowed). This was an epic policy failure that continues today.” Michael Lewitt, Analyst “China’s economy resembles a spinning top that is running out of momentum. It is wobbling and gyrating erratically.” Richard Duncan, Economist “There are limits on what the Fed can do when this bubble bursts, as it inevitably will, as surely as night follows day. It's no secret that virtually every pension fund is a dead man walking, doomed by central banks' imposition of low yields on safe investments.” Charles Hugh-Smith The left, without remorse, appoints activist judges, whom they view not as protectors of the Constitution and law, but as vehicles to advance its political agenda by any means necessary, including twisting the meaning of constitutional and statutory provisions and often inventing rights out of whole cloth.” David Limbaugh June 8, 2016 “We have a condition of stagflation here in the U.S. This is occurring in the context of a record $45.2 trillion total non-financial debt, which is growing at an incredible 3.44 times GDP. This is the truth as to why the Fed cannot normalize rates. If it did bring the Fed Funds rate back towards the pre-Great Recession level of around 5%, asset bubbles would collapse along with the tax base of the economy. This would make that already unsustainable ratio of debt-to-GDP growth explode even higher. You and your portfolio should be on high alert, the market chaos has just begun.” Michael Pento, Author and Asset Manager “In 2005, I argued that Greenspan Fed was sowing the seeds of an historical housing bubble fed by reckless sub-prime borrowing that would end very badly. Those policy excesses pale in comparison to the duration and extent of today’s monetary experiment.” Stan Druckenmiller, Legendary Hedge Fund Manager “The goal of socialism is communism.” Vladimir Lenin “Socialism is mutually shared poverty. It is the ultimate liberal fantasy and is built on envy, a sense of entitlement and greed.” Victor Hanson, Editor “Artistic standards have been destroyed. In music, art and architecture, nonsense and ugliness have replaced the pursuit of meaning, edification and beauty.” Dennis Prager, Editor “Ultimately, gold and silver will see dollar prices that would shock most people today.” Mark J. Lundeen, Editor “As a Western revolutionary, Obama has been relentless in his efforts over the last seven years to use all the machinery and influence of government, whether illegally or legally, to fundamentally transform America into the neo-Marxist democracy he and his father have long dreamed about.” Mark Hanna, Editor “In Canada, one pocket of free-market medicine: clinics offer cutting-edge, life-saving technology without waiting lines. But you need four legs to get that treatment. If Canadians want a C.T. scan, the waiting list is a month. But a private veterinary clinic will scan your dog today.” John Stossel, Commentator “There has been entirely too much emphasis on what students want to learn and how students think about courses, admissions and faculty. Since when have schools existed to teach students what they want to learn? Race, gender and multiculturalism are now the basis for degrees – pieces of paper that are useless in the fields that drive the economy and create our nation’s wealth and health. The marriage of political correctness and affirmative action has turned colleges into timid, regressive race-conscious mills where brains are addled and interests coddled lest someone’s feelings get hurt.” Richard Klitzberg, Writer “The most likely future path of U.S. equities involves a lower valuation.” Goldman May 17, 2016 “More good news for silver bulls: there’s supply trouble brewing. Output from mines will fall for the first time since 2011, while demand for the metal in uses including industrial products and jewelry is heading for a fourth straight gain, supporting prices, according to CPM Group. The market is entering what is ‘likely to be a pivotal year,’ the New York-based researcher said in its Silver Yearbook 2016.” Bloomberg “There is heavy buying in silver in Shanghai.” Reuters – Roland Leung “Silver officially entered a new bull market. decisively crossing the necessary +20% threshold. Speculators and investors alike are returning as awareness spreads of how radically undervalued silver is compared to prevailing gold prices. When silver awakens to a new bull market after a long bearish slumber, massive gains are usually unleashed. Silver’s tiny advance so far is just the tip of the iceberg.” Adam Hamilton, Editor “Keith Neumeyer explains how a large electronics manufacturer recently contacted his company, First Majestic, regarding the acquisition of silver for their manufacturing processes. This screams of a very, very tight supply of silver in large quantities.” Rory Hall, Editor “1) Can an economy grow when its banks, energy companies and tech giants are all losing ground? 2) Can a hyper-leveraged global financial system survive if its main economies can't grow? The answer to both questions is almost certainly ‘no.’ So either something extraordinary happens to ignite sustainable growth, or the dissolution of the fiat currency/fractional reserve banking/central planning model will begin. Expect developed world governments to do almost literally anything to stop that from happening.” John Rubino, Editor “This month, Stanford University students voted on a campus resolution that would have their college require a course on Western civilization, as it did until the 1980s. Stanford students rejected the proposal 1,992 to 347. A columnist at the Stanford Daily explained why: Teaching Western civilization means ‘upholding white supremacy, capitalism and colonialism, and all other oppressive systems that flow from Western civilizations.’” Dennis Prager, Radio Host “But government doesn’t make anything great, including itself. It is a necessary evil that always and everywhere is driven toward self-aggrandizement and mission creep by the politicians and special interest lobbies which control its operations. What government actually does is thwart the capacity of the people to pursue their own vision of greatness by encumbering their economic lives with burdensome taxation, regulation, roadblocks to opportunity and monetary fraud while saddling their public lives with endless Nanny State impositions and encroachments upon their personal liberty.” David Stockman, Economist “Not only has the U.S. economy continued to weaken, but also a number of other major central banks have taken recent, unusual easing and monetary-policy actions, suggestive more of a global financial system in extraordinary crisis, than one that is moving forward on a happy and healthy basis. Circumstances appear ready to turn particularly negative against the U.S. dollar, with corresponding rallies likely in the prices for gold, silver and oil.” John Williams, Shadow Stats “Millionaires fearing civil unrest are fleeing Chicago by the thousands… Roughly 3,000 millionaires have left the city over the past year alone, which amounts to about 2 percent of their wealthy population.” Chicago Tribune “There is nothing more exhilarating then stumbling across an asset that is insanely undervalued – and that is being ignored by the uninformed masses.” A. G. Thorson, Editor “The silver/gold ratio by global deposits is 18.75; that is, for every troy ounce (oz.) of gold, you can find 18.75/oz. of silver in the earth’s crust. The great Sir Isaac Newton fixed the ratio of gold/silver at 1:15.5 while he was the master of the Royal Mint, in 1717. If the ratio comes down to its actual historical average of 1:16. If gold prices remain where they are at $1200/oz., silver will quote at a price of $75/oz.” Chris Vermeulen, Analyst “When you pay three times as much for a pound of hamburger as you paid a mere ten years earlier, you’re purchasing the same pound of meat – it’s just your currency which has lost two-thirds of its value. Two-thirds of the wealth you used to have stored in that paper has been stolen.” Jeff Nielson, Analyst “Be very careful. The U.S. economic expansion is long in the tooth and starting to hit the time-honored constraints that mark the last phase of the business cycle. Wall Street equities are more stretched by a host of measures than they were at the peak of the sub-prime bubble just before the Lehman crisis.” Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Editor “Last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued new guidelines to landlords, warning that bans against renters with criminal convictions violate the Fair Housing Act because they disproportionately affect minorities. In effect, the Obama regime is now outlawing criminal background checks for apartment rentals, even though such screening is critical for the protection and security of tenants and property.” Investor’s Business Daily “Barak Obama has demonstrated what disasters a president can create when he ignores the warnings of the country’s top military leaders, as he did when he pulled American troops out of Iraq, setting the stage for the emergence of ISIS. Obama dealt with that problem, as he has dealt with other problems, by coming up with glib rhetoric – in this case, dismissing ISIS as the junior varsity. The horrors that have followed wherever ISIS has taken over the Middle East – especially for women and girls – make Obama’s slick words grotesque.” Thomas Sowell, Author “Thanks to fracking and horizontal drilling technologies, we are producing more natural gas than ever before. Natural gas is a wonder fuel: It is cheap. It is abundant. America has more of it than anyone else – enough to last several hundred years. And it is clean-burning. Meanwhile, the left has declared war on a technology that has done more to reduce carbon emissions and real pollution emissions than all the green programs ever invented.” Stephen Moore, Economist “A chilling new report finds the number of police officers murdered in the line of duty has doubled so far this year vs. the same period last year. Yet the president remains silent about the spike in cop killings.” Investor’s Business Daily “Underlying fundamentals to consumer economic activity, such as liquidity, have been severely impaired in the last decade, having driven economic activity into collapse and prevented sustainable economic rebound, recovery or ongoing growth.” John Williams, Shadow Stats “The Fed-induced auto loan bubble is bursting, as default rates on the billions of subprime slime loans issued in the last few years skyrocket, and the prices of used cars crash as the millions of leases come due. Dealer lots are overflowing with overpriced automobiles with no demand. The implications of this bubble bursting are far-reaching. The fallacious demand created by easy money kept the union manufacturing plants humming and allowed Obama to crow about saving the auto industry. As demand collapses, layoffs will surge, and the minimal profits being generated by GM, Ford, and Chrysler will turn to huge losses again.” Jim Quinn, Editor “All calls for unity by Democrats are particularly fraudulent. Dividing Americans by race, gender and class is how the left views America and how Democratic candidates seek to win elections.” Dennis Prager, Editor April 28, 2016 “Lonnie Holmes, 21, lives in Richmond, a working-class suburb north of San Francisco. Four of his cousins have died in shootings. He was a passenger in a car involved in a drive-by shooting, police said. And he was arrested for carrying a loaded gun. When Holmes was released from prison last year, officials in this city offered something unusual to try to keep him alive: money. They began paying Holmes as much as $1,000 a month not to commit another gun crime.” ZeroHedge “The only escape is a deflationary depression on a global scale the likes of which the world has never seen.” Gordon Long, Analyst “Silver is largely a by-product of zinc and lead mining. At the moment, zinc and lead mines are closing as a result of the incredibly low prices of commodities. Because these mines are closing, they are not producing their primary by-product…silver! This is leading to declines in silver production.” Joshua Rodriguez, Analyst “More observers than ever are recognizing the artificiality of silver’s price and how COMEX positioning is the root cause. Still yet to be widely recognized is that when the artificial silver pricing is no longer in force, the new price level will be shocking both in how high it will be and in how quickly it will occur.” Theodore Butler, Analyst “The stock market has been desperately trying to correct for months now because even the casino regulars can read the tea leaves. That is, earnings are plunging, global trade and growth are swooning and central bank “wealth effects” pumping has not trickled down to the main street economy.” David Stockman, Economist March 25, 2016 “The world’s central banks have collectively put more than $14 trillion into the financial system since 2008. To put that number into perspective, it’s equal to roughly 17% of global GDP. This kind of money printing is literally unheard of in modern history. And it has set the stage for a roaring wave of inflation to hit the financial system.” Graham Summers, Editor “During strong gold bull markets, the price of gold often hits a one-to-one ratio with the Dow Jones industrial average. That means gold could surge to U.S. $8,000 an ounce or even higher. In 1980, gold was at U.S. $800 and the Dow was at 800. Do you know it’s going to go back to 1:1 – I don’t know…even if it gets to 2:1, that’s U.S. $8,000.” Pierce Lassonde, Chairman Franco-Nevada “Today you can trade 1 ounce of gold for 80 ounces of silver. If you’re a speculator in precious metals, now may be a good time to consider trading in some gold for silver.” Simon Black, Editor “An important reason why the state would like to see a cashless society is that it would make it easier to seize our wealth electronically.” Thomas DiLorenzo, Economist “The tenuous and anemic state of the U.S. economy is merely held together by the tape and glue provided by the Fed’s artificially-low interest rates.” Michael Pento, Author “It’s no secret to the precious metal community that silver is one of the most undervalued assets in the market, however 99% of mainstream investors are still in the dark.” SRSrocco, Analyst “The world will eventually run out of silver, and it will happen soon. Roughly one billion ounces of stockpiled silver have been consumed over just the last decade alone. The numbers don’t tell us that this silver default might happen, they tell us that it will happen.” Jeff Nielson, Analys March 21, 2016 “In what could well be a final act of desperation, central banks are abdicating effective control of the economies they have been entrusted to manage… the shift to negative rates will only compound the risks of financial instability and set the stage for the next crisis.” Stephen Roach, Asset Manager “Does this generation that has grown up with a greater sense of entitlement and protection than any other in history really want the revolution Mr. Sanders is selling? Can they have so little sense of the past not to know that the promise of socialism – ‘democratic socialism,’ the senator would interject here – has ended up in gulags and brutal cultural upheaval?” Joseph Epstein, Author “The largest bills of each currency account for over 2/3 of all bank notes in circulation. Hence, all the problems we think will emerge with a complete phase-out of cash would materialize by eliminating the largest bills.” Wieler and Crumb, Analysts “Deutsche Bank, the current poster child for European banking problems is apparently having problems with its $70 trillion dollar derivative book. Because these derivatives function in a totally unregulated market, no outsider can really say with certainty what is happening with Deutsche Bank’s derivatives. But should their counterparty failures total into the trillions their failure will bring down many of their counter parties as well. Wall Street’s banks will not escape Deutsche Bank’s downfall unscathed.” Mark J. Lundeen, Editor “The equity and bond markets have become absolute wards of central bankers and central banks cannot stop buying government debt without causing markets and economies to crash. Of course, they will eventually have to stop in order to avoid runaway inflation. That is the huge dilemma facing global central banks. And unfortunately, this means the real economic and market volatility is yet to come.” Michael Pento, Investment Advisor “When I look at the $8 billion that’s gone into gold funds this month, you couldn’t begin to get that into silver in a year! There’s only 25 million ounces of silver on the COMEX and that’s worth only $400 million; you’d clean out the COMEX! I think only 20% of silver is available for investment, so that’s only 160 million ounces annually.” Eric Sprott, Asset Manager “The major global economies had a staggering debt of $199 trillion as of Q2 of 2014. The most recent figures will be closer to $230 trillion because, after 2014, the ECB, Japan and China have all resorted to massive monetary easing programs while the U.S. debt continues to escalate, with every passing second.” Chris Vermeulen, Analyst March 17, 2016 “Millions upon millions of Americans are not prepared for what is ahead, and most of them are going to get absolutely blindsided by the coming crisis.” Michael Snyder, Editor “I don’t see anything different in the agendas of the people who call themselves progressives today and the Communists I grew up with in the Stalin era. They were for income redistribution and the coddling of criminals; their sympathies were with America’s enemies – and have remained so ever since.” David Horowitz, Author “The sole prop under the global ‘recovery’ since 2008-09 has been private credit growth in China. From $4 trillion to over $21 trillion in seven years. In other words, the faltering global ‘recovery’ and all the tenuous asset bubbles around the world both depend on a continued hyper-velocity rocket rise in China's private credit. What are the odds of this happening?” Charles Hugh Smith, Analyst “Civilization seems to have no concept of the peril it has created for itself.” David Haggith, Analyst “Bear markets are a process, and our current process is still in the denial stage, but when it eventually shifts into the liquidation phase you’ll know it. Stock indexes will be down 70% or more, dividend and bond yields will be well into double digits and gold, silver and mining shares will reach prices that are unimaginable today.” Mark J. Lundeen, Editor “The use of silver is still climbing and we're in a deficit. We're consuming around 1.1 billion ounces of silver annually. And the miners are producing about 800 million ounces. This deficit is increasing. Silver is a much rarer metal than people realize. We're consuming more silver today than we ever have. And above ground supplies are dropping substantially. I think we're going to have a huge supply squeeze in silver.” Keith Neumeyer, Mining Executive “The political class has completely disrupted the American structure of production, made American workers uncompetitive, snuffed the life out of entrepreneurs, and burdened the entire nation with a debt obligation the size of Jupiter. The U.S. economy is not the strongest and most durable in the world – it is an unskilled thirty-two-year-old waiter crashing at his parent’s place and trying to pay down an $80,000 international relations degree.” Yonathan Amselem, Economist “The big problem ahead will be hyperinflation, not hyper-deflation.” John Williams, Economist “If the central bankers keep debasing, we will see multi-thousand-dollar levels for the price of gold.” Fred Hickey, Editor “It’s not just the U.S. markets that are screaming recession. Indeed, equity market havoc is evident in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.” Michael Pento, Editor “Harvard economist Larry Summers is a reliable source of claptrap. ‘It’s time to kill the $100 bill,’ he wrote in the Washington Post (another reliable source of claptrap).” Bill Bonner, Editor “There is one reason alone for the sudden campaign to abolish large denomination bills. It is a necessary predicate for the imposition of NIRP. That is to say, it would pave the way for central bank-mandated confiscation of the wealth and savings of millions of American citizens in the pursuit of a cockamamie theory that would bring about the final destruction of honest price discovery and financial discipline in the Wall Street casino.” Michael Pento, Economist “The marketplace is a crime and punishment world, and this Federal Reserve credit expansion is the greatest monetary crime of all time. Accordingly the punishment will be far and away the greatest punishment of all time.” John Exter, Economist “It costs 1.7 cents to make a penny and 8 cents to make a nickel, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The U.S. government loses tens of millions of dollars every year putting these coins into circulation. Why is it wasting money and time making coins almost no one uses? Because phasing out the penny and nickel would mean acknowledging currency debasement. And governments never like to do that. It would reveal their incompetence and theft from savers.” Nick Giambruno, Analyst “Can you imagine a world where commercial banks pay their customers to borrow money? Sure, scoff now. But mark my words. Central banks are so desperate to kick start the economy and credit creation, they will do almost anything. So, if they have to bribe you to borrow money to start acquiring more things, then that’s exactly what they’ll do.” Robert Romano, Analyst “China's Subprime Crisis Is Here: The dynamic is clear. A splurge of new lending can help to dilute existing bad loans, but only at a cost. This is a game that can't continue forever, particularly if credit is being foisted onto an already over-leveraged and slowing economy. At some point, the music will stop and there will have to be a reckoning. The longer China postpones that, the harder it will be.” Mark G., Correspondent “No cause, ever, in the history of all mankind, has produced more cold-blooded tyrants, more slaughtered innocents, and more orphans than socialism with power. It surpassed exponentially all other systems of production in turning out the dead. The bodies are all around us. Until socialism is confronted with its lived reality, the greatest of atrocities of all recorded human life, we will not live ‘after socialism.’” Alan Charles Kors, Historian March 10, 2016 “I’m convinced we’re in the early phase of a massive bear market. There’s no way to say how far the Dow Jones could fall. But knowing how poorly the ‘policy makers’ have managed the economy and financial markets over the past three decades, my expectations are for a market decline of similar proportions to that of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The one thing I feel confident about is that this is not a time to be a buyer of what Wall Street is selling to the public. This is a time to get out, take your money with you and not come back to the market for a few years. Buy some gold and silver bullion. As the market becomes painfully aware of counterparty failure, you’ll be glad you did.” Mark J. Lundeen, Analyst “If you want to know where equities are going, look at the spread in yield between junk bonds and Treasuries. That spread has been widening sharply. And look at the Expected Default Frequency (IF), a measure of the probability that a company will default over the next 12 months. It has been soaring. Junk bonds will sink stocks.” Wolf Richter, Editor “The fact that the policies recommended by Keynesians and monetarists, i.e., deficit spending and money printing, routinely fail to bring about the desired results is not seen as proof that they simply don’t work. It is regarded as evidence that there hasn’t beenenoughspending and printing yet.” Pater Tenebrarum, Editor “The utter fools running Japan Inc. have become so befuddled by Keynesian groupthink that they are self-inducing a monetary Hiroshima on their entire economy and society.” David Stockman, Economist “The admission that the economy is so weak that it needs more QE is going to destroy the narrative that the U.S. economy is in great shape and it’s no longer going to be the safe haven for capital around the world…it’s going to prick the bubble in the dollar…and people are going to realize that we’ve never recovered from anything, the economy is sicker than ever, the Fed’s going to make it even sicker with more of its toxic monetary policy, the dollar’s going to tank and the price of gold is going to skyrocket – and people need to prepare for that now.” Peter Schiff, Author “It would be a lot easier to be bullish today if the entire financial system wasn’t based on fraud and B.S.” Graham Summers, Editor March 3, 2016 “I have always said that if inflating asset prices via loose monetary policy were the route to economic prosperity, Argentina would be the richest country in the world by now, and it’s not.” Albert Edwards, Analyst SocGen “Morgan Stanley has said oil could fall to $20 a barrel, while Standard Chartered has predicted an even bigger slide, to as low as $10. Standard said: ‘Given that no fundamental relationship is currently driving the oil market towards any equilibrium, prices are being moved almost entirely by financial flows caused by fluctuations in other asset prices, including the U.S. dollar and equity markets. We think prices could fall as low as $10 a barrel before most of the money managers in the market concede that matters have gone too far.’” Nick Fletcher, Editor “Asia is the manufacturing hub of the world. If China devalues, all the other countries in the region will follow suit in order not to jeopardize their competiveness. Consequently, export goods from Asia will become significantly cheaper, which will lead to price pressures which will also affect Western competitors. They in turn will also be forced to lower the prices of their products, which will hurt earnings. A devaluation of the yuan will lead to a global deflationary shock.” Felix Zulauf, Asset Manager “Sell everything except high quality bonds. This is about return of capital, not return on capital. In a crowded hall, exit doors are small.” RBS Economists “Rig for stormy weather, expect surprises, markets regressing to the mean, pricing mechanisms failing, political systems collapsing, and Middle East politics exploding. There will be blood and trauma. Do not trust the supposed value of paper assets and find security in real assets such as silver and gold bars and coins stored outside the financial system.” Gary Christenson, Editor “The days of blaming China for a contraction of world trade are over: the downturn is now far larger and more widespread. Decades of accumulated market distortions appear to be on the brink of a great unwind, most of which can be blamed on expansionary monetary policies.” Alasdair Macleod “Everything continues to suggest that the economic recovery is in the process of screeching to a halt.” Pater Tenebrarum, Analyst “In the current environment, oversold conditions are prone to becoming even more deeply oversold, not only because internals are weak, but because the economic evidence is quickly confirming an oncoming recession that remains almost universally denied by market participants.” John Hussman, Analyst “The next financial crisis is not coming. The next financial crisis is already here. An angry bear has been released after nearly seven years in hibernation, and the entire world is going to be absolutely shocked by what happens next.” Michael Snyder, Editor “Was this whole exercise with zero rates and purchases of trillions of dollars’ worth of Treasury and agency securities simply a delaying tactic to avoid deflation and debt liquidation? The FOMC says that QE and ZIRP are all about restoring jobs and growth, but when you examine the situation carefully, it seems hard to avoid the conclusion that the Fed's actions were really about managing a world that is drowning in a sea of uncollectible debt.” Christopher Whalen, Managing Director “Austrian Business Cycle Theory tells us that the depth of the bust will be proportional to the boom. Since we just witnessed a tripling of stock prices over a 6 year period, we expect the ensuing bust to be historic. As Austrians, we also know to look for areas of malinvestment on the short side, typically long-term grandiose projects (like record high skyscrapers in China) or consumer goods where long-term financing is offered (such as 7 year auto loans).” Bill Laggner and Kevin Duffy, Fund Managers “China has set off a major correction and it is going to snowball. Equities and credit have become very dangerous.” Andrew Roberts, RBS Credit Chief “Ben Bernanke famously told the world in July 2005 that there wouldn’t be a nationwide decline in home prices in the United States.” Simon Black, Editor “Yes, the bull market came to an end last spring. A new bear market has begun. The coming downturn will be proportional to the excesses that were built up during the boom years.The bull market lasted for a very long time and was primarily fueled by monetary excesses. And these excesses will now be corrected. And bear in mind, there is no longer any backstop for markets.” Felix Zulauf, Asset Manager “Hard to believe, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average could fall by another 1,000 to 5,000 points and still not be ‘cheap’ compared with long-term stock-valuation measures.” Brett Arends, Analyst February 4, 2016 “The most important outbreak or story of 2015 had to have been the junk bond reversal.” Jeffrey Snider, Asset Manager “The Fraser Institute says that in 2015, Canadians waited an average of 18 weeks to see a specialist.” Investor’s Business Daily “The statistics on student-loan default rates are indeed mindboggling. The ineptitude of the government to manage the student-loan program again demonstrates clearly why socialism doesn’t work.” Ralph Tibiletti, Writer “No one knows how the global markets will react to the collapsing economy in China. This is a major risk factor as there are no concrete actions that can be implemented to avoid this deteriorating situation.” Chris Vermeulen, Analyst “More than ever, considering the shocking facts of how little actual silver exists in the world in dollar terms, there is no way the price cannot exceed true free-market equilibrium levels. Instead the price will rip up through those equilibrium levels as if they don’t exist. Knowing that is coming provides me with the patience and stamina to wait this out.” Theodore Butler, Analyst “The day is coming when the world will once again realize why gold and silver are ‘precious metals,’ because unlike units of currency managed by central banks, gold and silver truly are rare.” Mark J. Lundeen, Analyst “We believe the Credit Cycle has turned and with it will come some massive unexpected shocks. One of these will be the fall out in the Bond Market, centered around the dramatic growth explosion in Bond ETFs coupled with the post financial crisis regulatory changes that effectively removed banks from making markets in corporate bonds. It is a ‘Witch’s Brew’ with a flattening yield curve bringing it to a boil.” Gordon T. Long, Analyst “There’s really one supreme element that you must keep in view at all times:a society based on debt that will never be paid back is certain to crack up. Its institutions will stop functioning. Its business activities will seize up. Its leaders will be demoralized. Its denizens will act up and act out. Its wealth will evaporate.” Howard Kunstler, Editor “The U.S. financial markets, particularly equities and low-grade debt, are in a late-stage top formation of the third speculative bubble in 15 years. Current extremes imply 40-55% market losses over the completion of the current market cycle, with negative real total returns for the S&P 500 on a 10-12 year horizon. These are not worst-case scenarios, but run-of-the-mill expectations.” John P. Hussman, Fund Manager “From a historical perspective, the emerging economies seem to be headed toward a major crisis.” Carmen Reinhart, Economist “The big question around Asia is whether China can navigate its way out of the blind alley it’s trapped in: a banking system steeped in crony corruption, bad debt, and malinvestment like unto nothing the world has ever seen before.” Howard Kunstler, Editor “A credit report for a Chinese company is not worth the paper it’s written on.” Violet Ho, Managing Director “If you needed evidence of just how precarious things truly are, look no further than a recent report from Macquarie which showed that a quarter of Chinese firms with debt are currently unable to cover their annual interest expense.” ZeroHedge “The real issue in China is not simply that profits have peaked. The real issue is the size of their banking system. In China, in dollar terms their banking system is almost $35 trillion against a GDP of $10 and their banking system has grown 400% in 8 years with non-performing loans being nonexistent. So what we are going to see next is a credit cycle, and in a credit cycle you see some losses, but if China's banking system loses 10%, you are going to see them lose $3.5 trillion.” Kyle Bass, Asset Manager “China is confronting a massive debt problem, the scale of which the world has never seen.” Charlene Chu, Ratings Expert “The focus on China as if their problems were only Chinese is highly misplaced.” Jeffrey Snider, Asset Manager “The Chinese government has some ammunition left, but not that much considering losses already present in the economy.” Albert Gallo, Analyst “The Beijing regime is going to take steps to defend itself, or at least insulate itself, from the growing narrative that they are incompetent. Heads will roll. Literally, in all likelihood. But the incompetence genie is very hard to stuff back into the bottle, and depending on whose head is on the chopping block, regime stability can deteriorate very quickly. Now that's what will make me change my bullish stance on China fundamentals, and that's what will make the U.S. market swoon of last August look like a gentle spring rain.” Ben Hunt, Analyst January 27, 2016 “The end of the ZIRP era is very bearish for today’s super-overvalued stock market.” Adam Hamilton, Editor “The universities of this country have become a laughingstock. They have degenerated into anti-intellectual, anti-Western, anti-rational institutions with their ludicrous ‘safe spaces,’ trigger warnings that infantilize students, and all the lies about racism and a rape culture that allegedly pervade the campuses and American society.” Dennis Prager, Editor “A perfect example of something completely out of whack, but melded into the new ‘normal,’ are negative interest rates throughout much of the world. These negative interest rates are no longer for only short dated maturities. Rates are negative in some cases out past 7-10 years! How can this possibly be? Investors are willing to lock in a guaranteed loss for 10 years or more?” Aubie Baltin, Editor “Free-market commerce is the only system of human organization yet devised where ordinary people are in charge – unlike feudalism, communism, fascism, slavery and socialism.” Matt Ridley. Author “The markets are not remotely prepared for the deflationary recession that is now engulfing the world economy. As the signs of global deflation and recession become increasingly frequent and obvious, the casino gamblers will come to realize that the fed is out of dry powder. It will be powerless in the face of the coming downturn. Central banks are pushing on a string.” David Stockman, Economist “What did the CFTC do after being presented with this proof of futures trading corruption in the gold and silver markets? It did nothing. Well, technically, it “probed” the silver market for five years (or so it claimed). And after studying the most corrupt market in the history of human commerce for five years, it proclaimed that it had found nothing. Absolute corruption.” Jeff Nielson, Analyst “The Fed’s flood of cheap credit has not boosted productivity, it’s only boosted speculation. Why is this fatal? Productivity is the engine of wealth creation. Speculation is the engine of wealth inequality and devastating boom/bust cycles.” Charles Hugh-Smith, Analyst “Total U.S. public and private debt levels have climbed to the staggering level of 327% of GDP, which is nearly 600% of Federal tax revenue. Therefore, humongous debt levels and massive capital imbalances have set up the stock market for its third major collapse since the year 2000. Investors should proceed with extreme caution now that the warning signs have been blatantly explained.” Michael Pento, Editor “If you can afford to lose 50% of your retirement savings, now is the time to buy some Facebook, Netflix, Google, or Amazon on margin.” Jim Quinn, Editor “I view the stock market as being in the late-phase of an extremely overvalued top formation that will likely be followed by profound losses over the completion of this market cycle, and the U.S. economy as being on the cusp of a new recession.” John Hussman, Editor “There is a Category 5 deflationary hurricane forming off the Chinese coast as Beijing accelerates the devaluation of the Yuan against the dollar under the guise of ‘reform.’” Ben Hunt, Analyst “Wall Street has a new hobby use good money to create the illusion that all is well; only unlike most hobbies, the intent is to distort reality and reward lazy insiders for doing next to nothing. Gone are the days of actually trying to improve the bottom line, by improving efficiency, find new markets, etc. Now the idea is simply cut the supply of outstanding shares, thereby magically boosting the EPS. Why are executives doing this with such impunity? The ‘safe harbor’ rule passed in 1982, essentially allows corporations to repurchase shares without having to face charges of manipulating the price of their shares.” Sol Palha, Editor “The Fed’s drastic spree of so-called extraordinary policies - zero interest rates (ZIRP) and quantitative easing (QE) - have backfired. They inflated the Wall Street casino and crushed honest savers and retirees. They’ve also left the Main Street economy stranded in the weakest recovery since World War II.” David Stockman, Economist “Some thought the IRS would be punished after harassing conservative organizations. Instead the tax man gets the new power of revoking your passport.” Investor’s Business Daily “The silver market and industry are experiencing serious changes, and it’s only a matter of time before investors realize it is one of the most undervalued assets in the world.” Steve St. Angelo, Analyst “You will often hear people say that free markets have been discredited, as they sip cups of coffee while sitting on chairs, wearing clothes and checking text messages – each of which was supplied by hundreds, thousands of producers whose beautifully coordinated collaboration was unplanned but achieved by ‘market forces.’” Matt Ridley, Author “Richer and more urban people , contrary to what the magazines of opinion sometimes suggest, are less materialistic, less violent, less superficial than poor people.” Deirdre McCloskey, Author January 7, 2016 ldquo;In an era of stagnant household incomes, every additional dollar devoted to rising healthcare insurance, outrageously unaffordable medications and soaring co-pays is one less dollar that's available to be saved, invested or spent on something other than healthcare. Rising healthcare costs are tightly correlated with recessions; as healthcare expenses consume more oxygen, the rest of the economy starts gasping for air.” Charles Hugh-Smith, Editor “Margin debt is now 11% off its peak, a strong warning sign. Margin debt always begins to decline a few months before the market peaks.” Pater Tenebrarum, Analyst “In Europe, Asia, and America, central bankers, we are told, have the situation in hand. But these policies – in fact all central bank policies for the last 30 years – are either a mistake or flimflam.” Bill Bonner, Publisher “The arguments for progressive taxation range from the feeble to the sinister. The case for it is not uneasy; it is nonexistent.” George Will, Editor “QE has distorted the prices of all financial assets, fueled growing social inequality, and enriched many within the financial sector at the expense of everyone else.” Tim Price, Editor “The simple truth is all currencies, bonds and equities have all been so massively manipulated by the heavy hand of governments that there is now no easy escape.” Michael Pento, Analyst “This current ‘recovery,’ engineered by the largest monetary experiment in history, that has left us with trillions of dollars of new debt that we will likely never be able to repay, is quickly running out of what little steam it had.” Peter Schiff, Author “The end of capitalism will be due to the unbelievable amount of debt that is currently being created. This will create monster inflation that will destroy every currency. The only currency that cannot be destroyed is gold. When investors realize this, we’ll have the makings of the greatest bull market in gold ever seen.” Richard Russell, (1924-2015) “Silver will follow gold’s upward climb and the gold/silver exchange ratio will compress in the future. It will go from the current high of 75:1 to potentially as low as 16:1.” Rob McEwen, Mining Executive. “Junk bonds are the canary in the coal mine for stocks. When credit tightens, the dynamics change for much of corporate America. Financial engineering gets more expensive and fizzles. M&A gets more difficult to pull off. Bond-funded dividends and share buybacks get cut or come to a halt. Defaults wipe out shareholders. Suddenly, risk shows up on the scene. And eventually, stocks start chasing junk bonds lower.” Wolf Richter, Editor

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

Q: Event for when Flickity reaches the next or previous slide Flickity has event binding. Is there an event for when the next or previous slide is moved to? For example the settle event is fired after a slide settles. This does do what I need but the problem here is it also fires if Flickity settles on the same slide, this would happen if you swiped but didn't swipe enough and Flickity settles back where it was. The cellSelect demo appears to do much the same thing. In my mind something like this perhaps explains what I'm trying to achieve: $carousel.on( 'nextSlideReached', function() { console.log( 'Flickity has settled on the next slide' ); }); A: Using the settle event we can check if we've settled at a new slide or not: var selectedIndex = flkty.selectedIndex; $carousel.on( 'settle', function() { if ( flkty.selectedIndex !== selectedIndex ) { console.log('settled at new cell', flkty.selectedIndex); selectedIndex = flkty.selectedIndex; // do stuff } });

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

StackExchange

Morphology and tissue distribution of four kinds of endocrine cells in the digestive tract of the Chinese yellow quail (Coturnix japonica). To describe the tissue distribution, density, and the morphological characteristics of 4 kinds of endocrine cells in the digestive tract of the Chinese yellow quail (Coturnix japonica). The streptavidin-biotin-peroxidase complex immunohistochemical method was used to identify the distribution of somatostatin (SS), serotonin (5-HT), gastrin and neuropeptide Y (NPY) in digestive tracts including proventriculus, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and rectum. SPSS 19.0 software was used to perform biological statistical analysis. The results showed that the SS and 5-HT secreting cells were mainly distributed in the proventriculus (19.2 +/- 6.9 and 16.1 +/- 3.4 cfu/mm2) and duodenum (2.9 +/- 2.0 and 1.9 +/- 0.6 cfu/mm2). Gastrin and NPY were not detected in each section of the digestive tract. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the quantitative distribution and morphological characteristics of SS and 5-HT secreting cells in the digestive tract between male and female quails. The distribution and morphological characteristics of endocrine cells were closely related to the physiological functions of different parts in the digestive tract. The preferential location of endocrine cells provides additional information for future studies on the physiological roles of gastrointestinal peptides in the gastrointestinal tract of the Chinese yellow quail.

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PubMed Abstracts

398 Mass. 731 (1986) 500 N.E.2d 794 SHARON ALDOUPOLIS, administratrix,[1] vs. THE GLOBE NEWSPAPER COMPANY & another.[2] Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk. October 8, 1986. December 3, 1986. Present: HENNESSEY, C.J., LIACOS, NOLAN, & LYNCH, JJ. S. Elaine McChesney (Carol J. Paquin with her) for the defendants. Stephen Hrones for the plaintiff. NOLAN, J. The defendants, The Globe Newspaper Company and Ellen Goodman, appeal from the denial of their motion for summary judgment in a defamation action brought by *732 Alexander Aldoupolis. Aldoupolis claimed that he was defamed by a column written by Goodman and published in the Boston Globe on July 26, 1983. We reverse and order judgment to be entered for the defendants. The facts can be summarized as follows. About six weeks prior to the publication of Goodman's column entitled, "There's a moral in the case of the beaten-up car," Aldoupolis and four other defendants were acquitted of rape charges. The criminal trial was popularly referred to as the "Holbrook Five" rape case, and Goodman's column was a commentary about the outcome of the criminal trial. The criminal charges were initially brought against Aldoupolis and the others because of an incident which took place on January 23, 1980. See Aldoupolis v. Commonwealth, 386 Mass. 260, cert. denied sub nom. Savoy v. Massachusetts, 459 U.S. 864 (1982). Aldoupolis and several friends met a woman in a bar and accompanied her to a wooded area in Holbrook. Aldoupolis admitted having sexual relations with the woman, but he claimed that the woman had consented. At the trial, the complaining witness (victim) did not testify, and the two issues which arose were the victim's consent and the credibility of the Commonwealth's chief witness, a participant in the incident who had been granted immunity. Ultimately, Aldoupolis and the other defendants were acquitted of the rape charges, but were found guilty of malicious destruction of property for damaging the victim's car.[3] About six weeks later, Goodman's column appeared in the Boston Globe on the page opposite the editorial page, commonly called the "op-ed" page.[4] The following portion of the article is challenged by Aldoupolis as being defamatory: "What is agreed upon by everyone is that the men took turns. While one was jumping her, the others were jumping on her car." *733 A motion for summary judgment is particularly appropriate in defamation cases because if the allegedly libelous material is not actionably defamatory, there is no genuine issue of material fact for trial. Godbout v. Cousens, 396 Mass. 254, 258 (1985). See Mass. R. Civ. P. 56 (e), 365 Mass. 824 (1974). We begin by noting that statements of pure opinion as distinguished from mixed opinion are protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and are, therefore, not actionable in a defamation suit. Pritsker v. Brudnoy, 389 Mass. 776, 778 (1983). The reason for this protection is that, "[h]owever pernicious an opinion may seem, we depend for its correction not on the conscience of judges and juries but on the competition of other ideas." Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 339-340 (1974). In accord with Gertz, several of our recent opinions have found statements which were challenged as defamatory to be nonactionable statements of opinion. See, e.g., Myers v. Boston Magazine Co., 380 Mass. 336, 341 (1980) (statement in a satirical magazine article that a sports announcer was "enrolled in a course for remedial speaking" [he was not so enrolled] was opinion); Cole v. Westinghouse Broadcasting Co., 386 Mass. 303, 305-306 (1982) ("sloppy and irresponsible reporting" and "history of bad reporting techniques" were statements of opinion). Similarly, statements that plaintiff restaurant owners were "pigs" and that a State trooper who stopped a radio commentator for a traffic violation was a "dictator" were held to be nonactionable statements of opinion. Pritsker v. Brudnoy, supra at 782. Fleming v. Benzaquin, 390 Mass. 175, 183 (1983). Thus, if Goodman's statement that Aldoupolis took a turn "jumping" the woman is an opinion, the suit must be dismissed. In passing, it may be noted that nowhere in the column does Aldoupolis's name appear, or the names of the other defendants or the name by which the group was known in the newspaper reports of the case, the "Holbrook Five." The determination whether a statement is a factual assertion or an opinion is a question of law if the statement unambiguously constitutes either fact or opinion. Myers, supra at 339. However, if a statement is susceptible of being read by a *734 reasonable person as either a factual statement or an opinion, it is for the jury to determine. Id. at 339-340. In resolving whether the statement constitutes an opinion or an assertion of fact as a matter of law, the court must "examine the statement in its totality in the context in which it was uttered or published. The court must consider all the words used, not merely a particular phrase or sentence. In addition, the court must give weight to cautionary terms used by the person publishing the statement. Finally, the court must consider all of the circumstances surrounding the statement, including the medium by which the statement is disseminated and the audience to which it is published." Id. at 341-342, quoting Information Control Corp. v. Genesis One Computer Corp., 611 F.2d 781, 784 (9th Cir.1980). In applying this test, we conclude that the statement challenged by the plaintiff cannot reasonably be read as anything but a statement of opinion. The plaintiff urges us to focus on the two sentences at the beginning of the fifth paragraph of Goodman's column. However, we review the statement in its totality and in the context in which it was uttered or published. Read in context, the challenged statement is part of an opinion by Goodman that the judicial system treats automobiles better than it does women. This is evident from the comparison of an automobile and a woman which Goodman makes throughout the column. She uses the rhetorical device of personification to make an automobile a person and by an adroit cadence of parallel sentences compares the favorable treatment of a motor vehicle to the shabby treatment of women in rape cases. We must also consider cautionary terms used in a challenged statement, and here Goodman clearly stated that the plaintiff was found "innocent of damaging the woman." Finally, we must consider the medium by which the challenged statement is disseminated and the audience to which it is published. This inquiry confirms our conclusion that Goodman's column was a statement of opinion. The statement was disseminated to its readers on the op-ed page of the Boston Globe. The op-ed page consists of signed columns by a host of writers who express their opinions on a variety of topics. Moreover, readers *735 of the op-ed page no doubt expect to read columnists' views and opinions as opposed to factual news stories. Although the appearance of the column on the op-ed page, without more, is not at all dispositive, it is nevertheless some indication that the statements made in the column are opinions. See Loeb v. Globe Newspaper Co., 489 F. Supp. 481, 483, 486 (D. Mass. 1980) (defendant entitled to summary judgment because statements were opinions). More to the point is the absence of undisclosed, defamatory facts. Goodman recited the facts and the result of the criminal cases and left the reader in no position to draw inferences as to undisclosed, defamatory facts. See Fleming v. Benzaquin, supra at 187; Restatement (Second) of Torts § 566 (1977). Thus, the statements challenged by the plaintiff are constitutionally protected statements of opinion. In sum, Goodman exercised that precious privilege "to speak her mind" about the judicial system. One need not agree with all that she wrote to acknowledge her fundamental right to express her disdain for the operation of our judicial system. May the day not dawn when such opinion is suppressed. Judgment reversed. Judgment for the defendants. APPENDIX. THERE'S A MORAL IN THE CASE OF THE BEATEN-UP CAR Ellen Goodman At last, the sweet smell of justice. After 3 1/2 years, the five young men who once upon a time pleaded guilty to the gang-rape of a 39-year-old woman in Holbrook were finally punished for a crime. Last Wednesday they were handed a two-year suspended sentence and ordered to pay damages for assaulting the woman's car. How, you may ask, are these men finally brought down by the harsh hammer of justice? For those who have forgotten the details of this nationally publicized case, a brief chronology: *736 On Jan. 23, 1980, a group of young men met the woman in a bar. This woman, forever after referred to as "a former beauty queen," went with them to a nearby wooded area. So did her car. There, five of the men maintained that she offered to have sex with them all for $200 and she maintained that they raped her. What is agreed upon by everyone is that the men took turns. While one was jumping her, the others were jumping on her car. At the end, the bruised auto was rolled over an embankment. The bruised woman was left naked in the January night. A sixth man, who later testified against his friends, may have saved the woman's life by returning to the scene and driving the woman to a nearby fire station. On Oct. 5, 1981, in a plea bargain, the five men agreed to plead guilty to rape. In return, the judge — who called this "a consensual sexual adventure that went off track" — gave them a suspended sentence and $500 fines to be paid in $5 weekly installments. Four days of public outrage later, the judge revoked the suspended sentences, ordered their guilty pleas withdrawn and ordered the case to trial. After many legal machinations that included one trip in the US Supreme Court and another to the Massachusetts Supreme Court, and a mistrial, the quintet went to trial in April 1983. This time they pleaded innocent to rape and to malicious damage to the woman's personal property. On June 17, they were found innocent of damaging the woman but — hosanna and pass the scales of justice — guilty of damaging the car. Last week, they found out that crime doesn't pay. Well, what have we learned from the successful prosecution of the gang bang-up of a car? That it's easier to convict men of battering a chassis if the chassis is made of tin? There are several things to be considered by the legal profession, especially by those who have the misfortune to be on the side of a woman in a rape case. Here is one of them: it is better to have a car as a client than a woman. This car, unlike this woman, was not penalized for being unable to testify at the trial. Nor did anyone in the courtroom bring up the automobile's private history or reputation, although it is suspected that the car had once received bruises for which it was at fault. There are even rumors that the car once plunged willfully into a fender-bender. In addition, cars cannot be judged harshly for frequenting a bar, although occasionally they guzzle gas. A car is rarely remembered as "a former beauty queen," even though it may once have been the star of a local showroom somewhere. Moreover, jurors do not generally care about the appearance of automobiles: What was the color of the seat covers? Was it wearing a see-through sun roof? Was it a racy foreign number? It is rare that a Mercedes 450SL is suspected of enticing vandals. *737 It should also be noted that this particular car was a perfect client because it had been totalled. Who could dispute that it was the victim? There was the dead body. It would have been neater, legally speaking, if the woman in this case had not been rescued, but had been a frozen stiff. What is the moral to this tale of the Banged-up Car? Sex muddies the legal water. If five men had done nothing more than leave a bruised and naked woman alone in the middle of the January night, I'm convinced they would have received sterner punishment. Stay tuned until next October, when the famous New Bedford rape case goes on trial. They'll probably get the guys for ruining the felt on the pool table. NOTES [1] Of the estate of Alexander Aldoupolis. The action was commenced by Alexander Aldoupolis in August, 1983. A suggestion of death of the plaintiff was filed on November 15, 1984. The administratrix filed a motion to substitute plaintiff on March 21, 1985. We do not reach the issue of the survival of an action for defamation because we reverse on other grounds. [2] Ellen Goodman. [3] On appeal by three of the five defendants, it was held that the evidence was insufficient to warrant a conviction based either on their own acts or on a joint venture theory. See Commonwealth v. Savoy, 21 Mass. App. Ct. 519 (1986). [4] The entire column can be found in the Appendix to this opinion.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

FreeLaw

Tuesday’s news from Massachusetts, where the Boston city councilwoman Ayanna Pressley beat the congressman Michael Capuano, a ten-term incumbent, in a Democratic congressional primary, wasn’t notable because of the ideological stakes of the contest—the two candidates “agree on almost everything,” Boston Magazine said in a recent feature—but in spite of them. “Capuano made his political name as the mayor of Somerville, Massachusetts. And he was mayor during a time when Somerville got much more attractive and vital. He’s been a congressman for nearly twenty years, and he’s been notably progressive and quite prominent within the Massachusetts delegation,” The New Yorker’s Benjamin Wallace-Wells told me on Wednesday, when we talked about race. “But the last decade has been a time when the Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives has not been especially successful. And Pressley, in running, made a kind of Overton-window argument, saying, ‘We need to be pushing the buck more. We need to be more aggressive in moving the party to the left. You need, in this district—because of how progressive this district is—you need someone who is going to be out front, leading the charges.’ ” Pressley wasn’t putting herself forward as a democratic socialist like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who successfully challenged the New York congressman Joe Crowley from the left. And she wasn’t a first-time Democratic candidate like Conor Lamb, a more moderate figure who, in March, won a special House election in Pennsylvania, in a district that had voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016. Pressley is a veteran politician—she joined the Boston City Council in 2009, the first black woman elected to that body—who had come up working as an aide to Representative Joseph Kennedy II and Senator John Kerry. An insider’s outsider. “From the beginning of the primary campaign, she had sought to position herself as a more unabashedly progressive figure,” Wallace-Wells said. “I think there is something significant in that. As we end the primaries and go into the general-election campaigns, what we’re seeing again and again is a kind of radicalization of the Democratic establishment. Andrew Gillum in Florida. Beto O’Rourke in Texas. These are candidates, who have been seen as talented up-and-comers within the Democratic Party for many years, feeling a freedom to be a more progressive version of themselves.” Something else that unites Pressley with O’Rourke and Gillum is her age. “We’ve seen in these midterms that there are many politicians in their forties who have been able to speak very effectively to the current mood within their party, and to marry a sense of the Democratic coalition with a more progressive policy vision for the country,” Wallace-Wells said. “Pressley is among these—in her victory over Capuano, the clearest differentiation between the two candidates was not ideological, but generational.”

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OpenWebText2

Modulation of monoamine neurotransmitters in fighting fish Betta splendens exposed to waterborne phytoestrogens. Endogenous estrogens are known to affect the activity of monoamine neurotransmitters in vertebrate animals, but the effects of exogenous estrogens on neurotransmitters are relatively poorly understood. We exposed sexually mature male fighting fish Betta splendens to environmentally relevant and pharmacological doses of three phytoestrogens that are potential endocrine disruptors in wild fish populations: genistein, equol, and β-sitosterol. We also exposed fish to two doses of the endogenous estrogen 17β-estradiol, which we selected as a positive control because phytoestrogens are putative estrogen mimics. Our results were variable, but the effects were generally modest. Genistein increased dopamine levels in the forebrains of B. splendens at both environmentally relevant and pharmacological doses. The environmentally relevant dose of equol increased dopamine levels in B. splendens forebrains, and the pharmacological dose decreased norepinephrine (forebrain), dopamine (hindbrain), and serotonin (forebrain) levels. The environmentally relevant dose of β-sitosterol decreased norepinephrine and dopamine in the forebrain and hindbrain, respectively. Our results suggest that sources of environmental phytoestrogens, such as runoff or effluent from agricultural fields, wood pulp mills, and sewage treatment plants, have the potential to modulate neurotransmitter activity in free-living fishes in a way that could interfere with normal behavioral processes.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

PubMed Abstracts

I'm not sure how many of you have seen this video, circulating on Facebook and YouTube. It has over 3.2 million hits, and for good reason. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am not the most emotional person in the world, but 2 minutes into this video and I was in tears. If anyone reading this has children, this could be your child... I'm not going to say much because I think this video says more than I ever could. MSNBC reports that 1 in 6 children are bullied, many of them on a daily basis. And that's just the children who speak up. With bullying becoming an issue for even younger children, who don't know how to process their feelings or don't know who they can turn to, more and more victims end up cutting themselves, or even committing suicide. Despite being termed "bullycide", there are no real estimates on just how many kids choose to end their own lives due to constant attacks. I'm willing to bet that most people over the age of 18 have been bullied at least once in their lives. But I don't remember hearing about anyone cutting themselves or committing suicide over it. So what's the difference now? For one thing, media. Gone are the days when issues were only known to the bully and their victim. Now, everything that anyone says can be immediately projected to thousands, even millions of other people. It's bad enough when one person calls you a faggot or a retard. But having the entire school - and countless others outside the school - know? That brings a very different and more intense world of hurt. There really is no answer to "why" bullying exists. It pretty much always has. Many of us may have been bullies at some point in our lives, whether we choose to admit it or not. While you all know that I'm not a fan of tact, it IS important to think twice about how our words may affect someone else. It is equally important to think about how much kind words or a hug can help. If you are an adult, keep an eye on the children around you. Listen to what they say and pay attention. If you hear someone being a bully, or hear any mention of being bullied, don't just dismiss it as "kids will be kids". Speak up for them, be a friend. Let them know that they don't have to deal with stuff like this on their own. Tell them that, like Jonah Mowry, they're stronger than bullies and have a million reasons to be here.

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Pile-CC

[Prognostic value of metastatic axillary lymph node ratio in node-positive breast cancer treated by breast conserving surgery]. To evaluate the prognostic value of lymph node ratio (LNR) as compared with the number of pN staging in patients with axillary lymph node-positive breast cancer treated by breast conserving surgery. We performed a retrospective analysis of the clinical data of patients who received breast conserving surgery and with positive lymph nodes (n = 152) between 1998 and 2007. The disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared based on the LNR and pN staging. A total of 152 patients were classified as pN1 in 114, pN2 in 23, and pN3 in 15 cases. Among the 152 cases, 114 cases had a LNR ≤ 0.20, 26 cases had 0.21-0.65, and 12 cases had a LNR>0.65. Univariate analysis showed that number of dissected lymph nodes, LNR, pN stage, ER/PR status and radiotherapy were significant prognostic factors for DFS and OS (P < 0.05 for all). Age and chemotherapy were prognostic factors only for OS (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis indicated that LNR was an independent prognostic factor for DFS and OS (P < 0.05 for both). pN stage had no significant effect on DFS or OS (P > 0.05 for both). In the pN subgroup analysis, LNR was also showed to be significantly correlated with the prognosis of patients. LNR is superior to pN staging as a prognostic factor in axillary lymph node-positive breast cancer patients treated by breast conservation surgery, and can be used as one of independent prognostic predictors for the patients.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

PubMed Abstracts

Julia Roberts's Red-Carpet Style Evolution When someone says "Julia Roberts," you think teeth. You think hair. But while you may not immediately think fashion, she has had a pretty consistent—and consistently pretty—style since her Mystic Pizza days: clean, classic, menswear-inspired looks that let her natural beauty—and rightly famous smile—take center stage. Here's how she has elevated that look over the years. 1989: MISS FIRECRACKER PREMIERE Roberts's love affair with menswear and the color black can be traced all the way back to the '80s, and this oversize jacket certainly brought the era's power-suit obsession to mind. But the boyish duds—and were those bicycle shorts?—were pretty tailored for the time, and they were balanced by that big mess of sexy hair.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

--- abstract: 'We give a detailed and refined proof of the Dobrushin-Pechersky uniqueness criterion extended to the case of Gibbs fields on general graphs and single-spin spaces, which in particular need not be locally compact. The exponential decay of correlations under the uniqueness condition has also been established.' address: - 'Fakutät für Mathematik, Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld D-33615, Germany' - 'Fakutät für Mathematik, Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld D-33615, Germany' - 'Instytut Matematyki, Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Sk[ł]{}odowskiej, 20-031 Lublin, Poland' - 'Fakutät für Mathematik, Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld D-33615, Germany' author: - Diana Conache - Yuri Kondratiev - Yuri Kozitsky - Tanja Pasurek title: 'Gibbs Fields: Uniqueness and Decay of Correlations. Revisiting Dobrushin and Pechersky' --- Introduction ============ A random field on a countable set ${\sf L}$ is a collection of random variables – [*spins*]{}, indexed by $\ell \in {\sf L}$. Each variable is defined on some probability space and takes values in the corresponding [*single-spin*]{} space $\Xi_\ell$. Typically, it is assumed that each $\Xi_\ell$ is a copy of a Polish space $\Xi$. In a ‘canonical version’, the probability space is $(\Xi^{\sf L}, \mathcal{B}(\Xi^{\sf L}), \mu)$, where $\mu$ is a probability measure on the Borel $\sigma$-field $\mathcal{B}(\Xi^{\sf L})$. Then also $\mu$ is referred to as random field. A particular case of such a field is the product measure of some single-spin probability measures $\sigma_\ell$. [*Gibbs random fields*]{} with pair interactions are constructed as ‘perturbations’ of the product measure $\otimes_{\ell \in {\sf L}} \sigma_\ell$ by the ‘densities’ $$\exp\left(\sum W_{\ell \ell'} (\xi_\ell, \xi_{\ell'} ) \right)$$ where $W_{\ell \ell'}: \Xi\times \Xi \to \mathbb{R}$ are measurable functions – [*interaction potentials*]{}, whereas the sum is taken over the set ${\sf E} \subset {\sf L}\times {\sf L}$ such that $W_{\ell\ell'}\neq 0$ for $(\ell,\ell')\in {\sf E}$. The latter condition defines the underlying graph ${\sf G} = ({\sf L}, {\sf E})$. For bounded potentials, the perturbed measures usually exist. Moreover, there is only one such measure if the potentials are small enough and the underlying graph is enough ‘regular’. If the potentials are unbounded, both the existence and uniqueness issues turn into serious problems of the theory. Starting from the first results in constructing Gibbs fields with ‘unbounded spins’ [@Lebow], attempts to elaborating tools for proving their uniqueness were being undertaken [@COPP; @DobP; @Mal]. However, except for the results of [@Mal] obtained for the potentials and single-spin measures of a special type, and also for methods applicable to ‘attractive’ potentials, see [@KP; @Pasurek; @Diana], there is only one work presenting a kind of general approach to this problem. This work is due to R. L. Dobrushin and E. A. Pechersky [@DobP], which was first published in Russian and later on translated to English. In spite of its great importance, the work remains almost unknown (it has been cited only few times) presumably for the following reasons: (i) the English translation in [@DobP] was made with numerous typos and errors of mathematical nature, whereas the Russian version is inaccessible for the most of the readers; (ii) most of the proofs in [@DobP] are very involved and complex, and essential parts of them are only sketched or even missing. In the present publication, we give a refined and complete proof of the Dobrushin-Pechersky result extended in the following directions: (a) we do not employ the compactness arguments crucially used in [@DobP]; (b) we settle (in Proposition \[TVpn\] below) the measurability issues not even discussed in [@DobP]; (c) instead of the cubic lattice $\mathbb{Z}^d$ we consider general graphs as underlying sets of the Gibbs fields. The refinement consists, among others, in explicitly calculating the threshold value of $K$ in (\[K\]) and the constants in the basic estimates in Lemma \[R3lm\]. Due to (a), as the single-spin spaces $\Xi$ one can consider just standard Borel spaces, e.g., infinite dimensional spaces which are not locally compact, see [@KP; @Pasurek]. Due to (c), one can apply the criterion to varios models employing graphs as underlying sets. One can also apply the criterion to the equilibrium states of continuum particle systems, see [@Diana Chapter 4] and Section \[222\] below. The structure of this paper is as follows. In Section \[2SEC\], we give necessary preliminaries and formulate the results in Theorems \[1tm\] and \[2tm\]. Section \[3SEC\] contains the proof of these theorems based on the estimates obtained in Lemmas \[R3lm\] and \[dclm\], respectively, as well as on a number of other facts proved thein. In Section \[4SEC\], we perform detailed constructions yielding the proof of the mentioned lemmas. Setup and the Result {#2SEC} ==================== Notations and preliminaries --------------------------- The underlying set for the spin configurations of our model is a countable simple connected graph $({\sf L}, {\sf E})$. For a vertex $\ell \in {\sf L}$, by $\partial \ell$ we denote the neighborhood of $\ell$, i.e., the set of vertices adjacent to $\ell$. The vertex [*degree*]{} $\varDelta_\ell$ is then the cardinality of $\partial \ell$. The only assumption regarding the graph is that $$\label{1} \sup_{\ell\in {\sf L}}\varDelta_\ell=: \varDelta < \infty,$$ i.e., the vertex degree is globally bounded. A given ${\sf V}\subset {\sf L}$ is said to be an [*independent set*]{} of vertices if $$\label{2} \forall \ell \in {\sf V} \quad \partial l \cap {\sf V} = \emptyset.$$ The [*chromatic number*]{} $\chi\in \mathbb{N}$ is the smallest number such that $$\label{3} {\sf L} = \bigcup_{j=0}^{\chi-1} {\sf V}_j, \qquad {\sf V}_j \ - \ {\rm independent}, \ j=0, \dots , \chi-1.$$ Obviously, $\chi \leq \varDelta+1$. However, by Brook’s theorem, see, e.g., [@Lovasz], for our graph we have that $\chi \leq \varDelta$. For a measuarble space $(E, \mathcal{E})$, by $\mathcal{P}(E)$ we denote the set of all probability measures on $\mathcal{E}$. All measurable spaces we deal with in this article are standard Borel spaces. The prototype example is a Polish space endowed with the corresponding Borel $\sigma$-field. For $\sigma \in \mathcal{P}(E)$ and a suitable function $f:E \to \mathbb{R}$, we write $$%\label{4} \sigma(f) = \int_{E} f d \sigma.$$ For our model, the single-spin spaces $(\Xi_\ell, \mathcal{B}(\Xi_\ell))$, $\ell \in {\sf L}$, are copies of a standard Borel space $(\Xi, \mathcal{B}(\Xi))$. Then the configuration space $X = \Xi^{\sf L}$ equipped with the product $\sigma$-field $\mathcal{B}(X)=\mathcal{B}(\Xi^{\sf L})$ is also a standard Borel space. Likewise, for a nonempty ${\sf D} \subset {\sf L}$, $\Xi^{\sf D}$ is the product of $\Xi_\ell$, $\ell \in {\sf D}$. Its elements are denoted by $x_{\sf D} = (x_\ell)_{\ell \in {\sf D}}$, whereas the elements of $X$ are written simply as $x= (x_\ell)_{\ell \in {\sf L}}$. For $y,z\in X$, by $y_{\sf D} \times z_{{\sf D}^c}$ we denote the configuration $x\in X$ such that $x_{\sf D} = y_{\sf D}$ and $x_{{\sf D}^c} = z_{{\sf D}^c}$, ${\sf D}^c:= {\sf L} \setminus {\sf D}$. For ${\sf D}\subsetneq {\sf L}$, we denote $\mathcal{F}_{\sf D} = \mathcal{B}(\Xi^{{\sf D}^c})$ and write $\mathcal{F}_\ell$ if ${\sf D}=\{\ell\}$. \[0df\] Given $\ell \in {\sf L}$, let $ \pi_\ell:=\{\pi_\ell^x : x \in X\}\subset \mathcal{P}(\Xi_\ell)$ be such that the map $X\ni x \mapsto \pi^x_\ell (A)\in \mathbb{R}$ is $\mathcal{F}_\ell$-measurable for each $A\in \mathcal{B}(\Xi_\ell)$. A family $\pi=\{\pi_\ell\}_{\ell \in {\sf L}}$ of the maps of this kind is said to be a [*one-site*]{} specification. \[1df\] A given $\mu \in \mathcal{P}(X)$ is said to be [*consistent*]{} with a one-site specification $\pi$ in a given ${\sf D}\subseteq {\sf L}$ if $\mu(\cdot|\mathcal{F}_\ell)(x) = \pi_\ell^x$ for $\mu$-almost all $x$ and each $\ell \in {\sf D}$. By $\mathcal{M}_{\sf D}(\pi)$ we denote the set of all $\mu\in \mathcal{P}(X)$ consistent with $\pi$ in ${\sf D}$. We say that $\mu$ is consistent with $\pi$ if it is consistent in ${\sf L}$, and write just $\mathcal{M}(\pi)$ in this case. Obviously, $\mu\in \mathcal{M}(\pi)$ if and only if it satisfies the following equation $$\begin{aligned} \label{5} \mu(A)& = & \int_X \int_X \mathbb{I}_A (x) \pi_\ell^y (dx_\ell) \prod_{\ell'\neq \ell} \delta_{y_{\ell'}} (d x_{\ell'}) \mu (dy)\\[.2cm] & = & \int_X \left(\int_\Xi \mathbb{I}_A (\xi \times y_{\{\ell\}^c}) \pi_\ell^{y} (d\xi) \right) \mu (dy),\nonumber\end{aligned}$$ which holds for every $\ell\in {\sf L}$ and $A\in \mathcal{B}(X)$. Here, for $\eta\in \Xi$, $\delta_\eta\in \mathcal{P}(\Xi)$ is the Dirac measure centered at $\eta$ and $\mathbb{I}_A$ stands for the indicator of $A$. For a standard Borel space $(E, \mathcal{E})$, let $(E^2, \mathcal{E}^2)$ be the product space. For $\sigma, \varsigma \in \mathcal{P}(E)$, let $\varrho\in \mathcal{P}(E^2)$ be such that $\varrho(A\times E)= \sigma(A)$ and $\varrho(E\times A) = \varsigma (A)$ for all $A\in \mathcal{B}(E)$. Then we say that $\varrho$ is a [*coupling*]{} of $\sigma$ and $\varsigma$. By $\mathcal{C}(\sigma, \varsigma)$ we denote the set of all such couplings. For $\xi, \eta \in \Xi$, we set $$%\label{up} \upsilon(\xi, \eta) = \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} 0, \quad {\rm if} \ \ \xi = \eta;\\[.3cm] 1, \quad {\rm otherwise}, \end{array} \right.$$ which is a measurable function on $\Xi^2$ since $\Xi$ is a standard Borel space. Then we equip $\mathcal{P}(\Xi)$ with the [*total variation distance*]{} $$\label{TV} d(\sigma, \varsigma) = \sup_{A \in \mathcal{B}(\Xi)} |\sigma (A) - \varsigma (A)|,$$ that, by duality, can also be written in the form $$% \label{6} d(\sigma, \varsigma) = \inf_{\varrho\in \mathcal{C}(\sigma, \varsigma)} \int_{\Xi^2} \upsilon (\xi, \eta) \varrho( d \xi , d \eta).$$ \[TVpn\] For each $\ell \in {\sf L}$ and $(x,y)\in X^2$, there exists $\varrho^{x,y}_\ell \in \mathcal{C}(\pi_\ell^x, \pi_\ell^y)$ such that: (a) for each $B\in \mathcal{B}(\Xi^2_\ell)$, the map $X^2\ni (x,y)\mapsto \varrho^{x,y}_\ell(B)$ is $\mathcal{F}_\ell^2$-measurable; (b) the following holds $$\label{7} d(\pi_\ell^x, \pi_\ell^y) = \int_{\Xi^2} \upsilon (\xi, \eta) \varrho_\ell^{x,y}( d \xi , d \eta).$$ Set $$%\label{7TV} (\pi_\ell^x \wedge \pi_\ell^y) (A) = \min\{\pi_\ell^x (A); \pi_\ell^y(A) \}, \qquad A\in \mathcal{B}(\Xi_\ell).$$ In view of the measurability as in Definition \[0df\], the map $X^2\ni (x,y) \mapsto (\pi_\ell^x \wedge \pi_\ell^y) (A)$ is $\mathcal{F}_\ell^2$-measurable since, given $a\in [0,1]$, we have that $$\begin{aligned} \{ (x,y): a \leq (\pi_\ell^x \wedge \pi_\ell^y) (A) \} = \{ x: a\leq \pi_\ell^x (A)\}^2.\end{aligned}$$ Then both maps $(x,y) \mapsto (\pi^x_\ell - \pi_\ell^x \wedge \pi_\ell^y)(A)$ and $(x,y) \mapsto (\pi^y_\ell - \pi_\ell^x \wedge \pi_\ell^y)(A)$ are $\mathcal{F}_\ell^2$-measurable. By (\[TV\]) also $(x,y) \mapsto d (\pi_\ell^x, \pi_\ell^y)$ is measurable in the same sense. Set $D_\ell = \{(\xi, \xi): \xi \in \Xi_\ell\}$. Since $\Xi_\ell$ is a standard Borel space, the map $\xi \mapsto \psi (\xi) = (\xi, \xi)\in D_\ell$ is measurable. Then, for each $B\in \mathcal{B}(\Xi^2_\ell)$, we have that $\psi^{-1} (B\cap D_\ell) \in \mathcal{B}(\Xi_\ell)$, which allows us to define $\omega_\ell^{x,y} \in \mathcal{P}(\Xi^2_\ell)$ by setting $$\omega_\ell^{x,y} (B) = (\pi_\ell^x \wedge \pi_\ell^y) \left( \psi^{-1} (B\cap D_\ell) \right).$$ The coupling for which (\[7\]) holds has the form, see [@Lind Eq. (5.3), page 19], $$% \label{Lind1} \varrho_\ell^{x,y} = \omega_\ell^{x,y} + (\pi^x_\ell - \pi_\ell^x \wedge \pi_\ell^y) \otimes (\pi^y_\ell - \pi_\ell^x \wedge \pi_\ell^y)/ d (\pi_\ell^x, \pi_\ell^y).$$ Then the $\mathcal{F}_\ell^2$-measurability of the maps $(x,y) \mapsto \varrho^{x,y}_\ell (A_1 \times A_2)$, $A_1,A_2 \in \mathcal{B}(\Xi_\ell)$, follows by the arguments given above. This yields the proof of claim (a) as $\mathcal{B}(\Xi^2_\ell)$ is a product $\sigma$-field. Let $\varpi$ be the family of $\varpi_\ell = \{\varpi_\ell^{x,y}: (x,y) \in X^2\}$, $\ell \in {\sf L}$, such that each $\varpi_\ell^{x,y}$ is in $\mathcal{P}(\Xi^2_\ell)$ and, for any $B\in \mathcal{B}(\Xi^2_\ell)$, the map $(x,y) \mapsto \varpi_\ell^{x,y} (B)$ is $\mathcal{F}_\ell^2$-measurable. Then $\varpi$ is a one-point specification in the sense of Definition \[1df\], which determines the set $\mathcal{M}(\varpi)$ of $\nu\in \mathcal{P}(X^2)$ consistent with $\varpi$. Like in (\[5\]), $\nu \in \mathcal{M}(\varpi)$ if and only if it satisfies $$\begin{aligned} \label{8} \nu(B) & = & \int_{X^2} \int_{X^2} \mathbb{I}_B(x,y) \varpi_\ell^{y,\tilde{y}}(dx_\ell, d\tilde{x}_\ell)\\[.2cm] & \times & \prod_{\ell'\neq \ell} \delta_{y_{\ell'}} (d x_{\ell'})\delta_{\tilde{y}_{\ell'}} (d \tilde{x}_{\ell'})\nu(dy, d\tilde{y}),\nonumber\end{aligned}$$ which holds for all $\ell\in {\sf L}$ and $B\in \mathcal{B}(X^2)$. \[1pn\] Suppose that $\varpi^{x, \tilde{x}}_\ell\in \mathcal{C}(\pi_\ell^x, \pi_\ell^{\tilde{x}})$ for all $\ell\in {\sf L}$ and $x, \tilde{x}\in X$. Then each $\nu\in \mathcal{M}(\varpi)$ is a coupling of some $\mu_1 , \mu_2 \in \mathcal{M}(\pi)$. The equality $\mu_1(A)= \nu(A\times X)$, $A\in \mathcal{B}(X)$, determines a probability measure on $X$. Thus, for $A\in \mathcal{B}(X)$, by (\[8\]) we get $$\begin{aligned} \mu_1(A) & = & \int_{X^2} \int_{X^2}\mathbb{I}_A (x) \varpi_\ell^{y,\tilde{y}}(dx_\ell, d\tilde{x}_\ell) \prod_{\ell'\neq \ell} \delta_{y_{\ell'}} (d x_{\ell'})\delta_{\tilde{y}_{\ell'}} (d \tilde{x}_{\ell'})\nu(dy, d\tilde{y})\\[.2cm] & = & \int_{X^2} \int_{X}\mathbb{I}_A (x) \pi_\ell^y (dx_\ell) \prod_{\ell'\neq \ell} \delta_{y_{\ell'}}(dx_{\ell'})\nu(dy, d\tilde{y})\\[.2cm] & = & \int_{X} \int_{X}\mathbb{I}_A (x) \pi_\ell^y (dx_\ell) \prod_{\ell'\neq \ell} \delta_{y_{\ell'}}(dx_{\ell'}) \int_X \nu(dy, d\tilde{y})\nonumber \\[.2cm] & = & \int_{X} \int_{X}\mathbb{I}_A (x) \pi_\ell^y (dx_\ell) \prod_{\ell'\neq \ell} \delta_{y_{\ell'}}(dx_{\ell'}) \mu_1(dy).\end{aligned}$$ Therefore, $\mu_1$ solves (\[5\]) and hence $\mu_1\in \mathcal{M}(\pi)$. The same is true for the second marginal measure $\mu_2$. The results ----------- Our main concern is under which conditions imposed on the family $\pi$ the set $\mathcal{M}(\pi)$ contains one element at most. If each $\pi_\ell^x$ is independent of $x$, the unique element of $\mathcal{M}(\pi)$ is the product measure $\otimes_{\ell \in {\sf L}} \pi_\ell$, which readily follows from (\[5\]). Therefore, one may try to relate the uniqueness in question to the weak dependence of $\pi_\ell^x$ on $x$, formulated in terms of the metric defined in (\[7\]). Thus, let us take $x,y\in X$ such that $x=y$ off some $\ell' \in \partial \ell$, and consider $d(\pi_\ell^x, \pi_{\ell}^y)$. If this quantity were bounded by a certain $\kappa_{\ell\ell'}$, uniformly in $x$ and $y$, this bound (Dobrushin’s estimator, cf. [@Beth pp. 20, 21]) could be used to formulate the celebrated Dobrushin uniqueness condition in the form $$\label{9} \sup_{\ell \in {\sf L}} \sum_{\ell'\in \partial \ell} \kappa_{\ell \ell'} =: \bar{\kappa} < 1.$$ However, in a number of applications, especially where $\Xi$ is a noncompact topological space, the mentioned boundedness does not hold. The way of treating such cases suggested in [@DobP] may be outlined as follows. Assume that there exists a matrix $(\kappa_{\ell \ell'})$ with the property as in (\[9\]) such that, for each $\ell \in {\sf L}$, the following holds $$\label{10} d(\pi_\ell^x, \pi_{\ell}^y) \leq \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell} \kappa_{\ell\ell'} \upsilon(x_{\ell'}, y_{\ell'}),$$ for $x$ and $y$ belonging to the set $$\label{11} X_\ell (h,K) := \{ x \in X: h(x_{\ell'}) \leq K \ \ {\rm for} \ {\rm all} \ \ell' \in \partial \ell\}.$$ Here $K>0$ is a parameter and $h:\Xi \to [0,+\infty)$ is a given measurable function. Clearly, if $h$ is bounded, then $X_\ell (h,K)=X$ for big enough $K$, and hence (\[10\]) turns into the mentioned Dobrushin condition. Thus, in order to cover the case of interest we have to take $h$ unbounded and $\pi_\ell^x$-integrable, with an appropriate control of the dependence of $\pi_\ell^x(h)$ on $x$. Namely, we shall assume that, for each $\ell\in {\sf L}$ and $x \in X$, the following holds $$\label{12} \pi_\ell^x (h) \leq 1 + \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell} c_{\ell \ell'} h(x_{\ell'}),$$ for some matrix $c=(c_{\ell \ell'})$, which satisfies $$\label{13} (a) \quad c_{\ell\ell'} \geq 0; \qquad \quad (b) \quad \sup_{\ell \in {\sf L}} \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell} c_{\ell \ell'} =:\bar{c} < 1/ \varDelta^\chi.$$ In the original work [@DobP], the first summand on the right-hand side of (\[12\]) is a constant $C>0$, the value of which determines the scale of $K$, see (\[11\]). We thus take it as above for the sake of convenience. \[2df\] Let $h$, $K$, $\kappa$, and $c$ be as in (\[9\]) – (\[13\]). Then by $\Pi(h,K,\kappa,c)$ we denote the set of one-site specifications $\pi$ for which both estimates (\[10\]), (\[11\]) and (\[12\]) hold true for each $\ell \in {\sf L}$. Given $\mu\in \mathcal{M}(\pi)$, the integrability assumed in (\[12\]) does not yet imply that $h$ is $\mu$-integrable. For $\pi$ satisfying (\[12\]), by $\mathcal{M}(\pi, h)$ we denote the subset of $\mathcal{M}(\pi)$ consisting of those measures for which the following holds $$\label{14} \mu(h):=\sup_{\ell \in {\sf L}} \int_{X} h(x_\ell) \mu(d x) < \infty.$$ In a similar way, we introduce the set $\mathcal{M}_{\sf D}(\pi, h)$ for a given ${\sf D}\subset {\sf L}$, cf. Definition \[1df\]. From now on we fix the graph, the function $h$, and the matrices $c$ and $\kappa$. Thereafter, we set $$\label{K} K_* = \max\left\{\frac{4 \varDelta^{\chi+1}}{\bar{c}(1 - \bar{\kappa})} ; \ \ \frac{2 \varDelta^{\chi+1} (2 \varDelta^{\chi-1} +1-\bar{c} \varDelta^\chi)}{(1-\bar{\kappa})^2( 1- \bar{c} \varDelta^\chi)}\right\}.$$ \[1tm\] For each $K>K_*$ and $\pi \in \Pi(h,K,\kappa,c)$, the set $\mathcal{M}(\pi, h)$ contains at most one element. An important characteristic of the states $\mu\in \mathcal{M}(\pi)$ is the decay of correlations. Fix two distinct vertices $\ell_1, \ell_2 \in {\sf L}$ and consider bounded functions $f, g:X\to \mathbb{R}_{+}$, such that $f$ is $\mathcal{B}(\Xi_{\ell_1})$-measurable and $g$ is $\mathcal{B}(\Xi_{\ell_2})$-measurable. Set $${\rm Cov}_\mu (f;g) = \mu(fg) - \mu(f)\mu(g),$$ and let $\delta$ denote the path distance on the underlying graph. \[2tm\] Let $\pi$ and $K$ be as in Theorem \[1tm\], and $\mathcal{M}(\pi, h)$ be nonempty and hence contain a single state $\mu$. Let also $f$ and $g$ be as just described and $\|\cdot \|_\infty$ denote the sup-norm on $X$. Then there exist positive $C_K$ and $\alpha_K$, dependent on $K$ only, such that $$\label{dc} | {\rm Cov}_\mu (f;g)| \leq C_K \|f\|_\infty \|g\|_\infty \exp\left[- \alpha_K \delta(\ell_1 , \ell_2) \right].$$ Comments and applications {#222} ------------------------- Let us make some comments to the above results. For further comments related to the proof of these results see the end of Section \[3SEC\]. - According to [@Preston Section 8], the elements of $\mathcal{M}(\pi)$ as in Definition \[1df\] are one-site Gibbs states. In [@Ge Theorem 1.33, page 23] and [@Preston Section 8], there are given conditions under which the elements of $\mathcal{M}(\pi)$ are ‘usual’ Gibbs states, e.g., in the sense of [@Ge Definition 1.23, page 16]. This, in particular, holds if $\pi$ is a subset of the set of all local kernels $\Pi_{\sf D}$ defined for all finite ${\sf D}\subset {\sf L}$, which determine the states. In this case, Theorem \[1tm\] yields the existence and uniqueness of the usual states, see [@Diana]. - The condition in (\[14\]) is usually satisfied for [*tempered*]{} measures, i.e., for those elements of $\mathcal{M}(\pi)$ which are supported on [*tempered*]{} configurations, cf., e.g., [@Lebow]. - As mentioned above, we do not require that $h$ be [*compact*]{} in the sense of [@DobP]. This our extension gets important if one deals with single-spin spaces which are not locally compact, e.g., with spaces of Hölder continuous functions as in [@Mon; @KP; @Pasurek]. - In contrast to [@DobP Theorem 1], in (\[K\]) we give an explicit expression for the threshold value $K_*$, which depends only on the parameters of the underlying graph and on the norms $\bar{c}$ and $\bar{\kappa}$. - The novelty of Theorem \[2tm\] consists in the following. The decay of correlations under the uniqueness condition was proven only for compact single-spin spaces, see [@Ku], where the classical Dobrushin criterion can be applied. For ‘unbounded spins’, the corresponding results are usually obtained by cluster expansions, see, e.g., [@PS], where the correlations are shown to decay due to ‘weak enough’ interactions’ and no information on the number of states is available. - The parameters $C_K$ and $\alpha_K$ in (\[dc\]) are also given explicitly, see (\[constan\]) below. Now we turn to briefly outlining possible applications of Theorems \[1tm\] and \[2tm\]. A more detailed discussion of this issue can be found in [@Diana], see also the related parts of [@Pasurek]. Further results in these directions will be published in forthcoming articles. By means of Theorems \[1tm\] and \[2tm\] the uniqueness of equilibrium states and the decay of correlations can be established in the following models: - Systems of classical $N$-dimensional anharmonic oscillators described by the energy functional $$H(x) = \sum_{\ell \in {\sf L}} V(\xi_\ell) + \sum_{(\ell, \ell')\in {\sf E}} W_{\ell \ell'} (\xi_\ell, \xi_{\ell'}), \qquad \xi_\ell \in \mathbb{R}^N, \ N \in \mathbb{N}$$ - Systems of quantum $N$-dimensional anharmonic oscillators described by the Hamiltonian $$H = \sum_{\ell \in {\sf L}} H_\ell + \sum_{(\ell, \ell')\in {\sf E}} W_{\ell \ell'} (q_\ell, q_{\ell'}),$$ where $q_\ell= (q^{(1)}_\ell, \dots , q^{(N)}_\ell)$ is the position operator and $H_\ell$ is the one-particle Hamiltonian defined on the corresponding physical Hilbert space. States of such models are constructed in a path integral approach as probability measures on the products of continuous periodic functions, which are not locally compact, see [@Mon; @KP; @Pasurek]. - Systems of interacting particles in the continuum (e.g. $\mathbb{R}^d$), including the Lebowitz-Mazel-Presutti model [@LMP], and systems of ‘particles’ lying on the cone of discrete measures introduced in [@Hagedorn]. Note that to continuum systems the original version [@DobP] of the Dobrushin-Pechersky criterion was used in [@BP; @Pechersky]. The Proof of Theorems \[1tm\] and \[2tm\] {#3SEC} ========================================= The ingredients of the proof ---------------------------- First we introduce the notion of [*locality*]{}. By writing ${\sf D}\Subset {\sf L}$ we mean that $\sf D$ is a nonempty finite subset of $\sf L$. For such $\sf D$, elements of $\mathcal{B}(\Xi^{\sf D})\subset \mathcal{B}(X)$ are called local sets. A function $f:X \to \mathbb{R}$ is called local if it is $\mathcal{B}(\Xi^{\sf D})$-measurable for some ${\sf D}\Subset {\sf L}$. Likewise, $B\in \mathcal{B}(X^2)$ is local if $B\in\mathcal{B}((\Xi\times \Xi)^{\sf D})$ for such ${\sf D}$. Locality of functions $f:X^2 \to \mathbb{R}$ is defined in the same way. \[1lm\] Given a one-site specification $\pi$ and $\mu_1, \mu_2 \in \mathcal{M}(\pi)$, suppose there exists $\nu_*\in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1, \mu_2)$ such that $$\label{15} \int_{X^2} \upsilon (x_\ell , y_\ell) \nu_* (d x, dy) = 0,$$ holding for all $\ell \in {\sf L}$. Then $\mu_1 = \mu_2$. Local sets $A\subset X$ are measure defining, that is, $\mu_1 , \mu_2 \in \mathcal{P}(X)$ coincide if they coincide on local sets. For $A\in \mathcal{B}(\Xi^{\sf D})$ and the indicator $\mathbb{I}_A$, we have $$|\mathbb{I}_A (x) - \mathbb{I}_A (y)| \leq \sum_{\ell \in {\sf D}} \upsilon (x_\ell, y_\ell),$$ and then $$|\mu_1(A) - \mu_2 (A) | \leq \sum_{\ell \in {\sf D}} \int_{X^2} \upsilon (x_\ell, y_\ell) \nu_* (d x, dy) = 0,$$ which yields the proof. The proof of Theorem \[1tm\] will be done by showing that, for each $\mu_1 , \mu_2 \in \mathcal{M}(\pi,h)$, the set $\mathcal{C}(\mu_1 , \mu_2)$ contains a certain $\nu_*$ such that (\[15\]) holds. This coupling $\nu_*$ will be obtained by taking the limit in the topology of local setwise convergence, cf. [@Ge], which we introduce as follows. \[3df\] A net $\{\nu_\alpha\}_{\alpha \in I} \subset \mathcal{P}(X^2)$ is said to be convergent to a $\nu_*\in \mathcal{P}(X^2)$ in the topology of local setwise convergence ($\mathfrak{L}$-topology, for short), if $\nu_\alpha (B) \to \nu_* (B)$ for all local $B\in \mathcal{B}(X^2)$. Or, equivalently, $\nu_\alpha (f) \to \nu_*(f)$ for all bounded local functions. The same definition applies also to nets $\{\mu_\alpha\}_{\alpha \in I} \subset \mathcal{P}(X)$. Note that the $\mathfrak{L}$-topology is Hausdorff, but not metrizable if $\Xi$ is not a compact topological space. \[2lm\] Given $\mu_1 , \mu_2 \in \mathcal{P}(X)$, let $\{\nu_\alpha \}_{\alpha \in I} \subset \mathcal{C}(\mu_1 , \mu_2)$ be convergent to a certain $\nu\in \mathcal{P}(X^2)$ in the $\mathfrak{L}$-topology. Then $\nu\in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1 , \mu_2)$. The proof of this lemma is rather obvious. The coupling in question $\nu_*$ will be constructed within a step-by-step procedure based on the mapping $$\label{16} (R_\ell \nu)(f) = \int_{X^2} \left( \int_{\Xi^2} f( \xi\times x_{\{\ell\}^c}, \eta\times y_{\{\ell\}^c }) \varrho^{x,y}_\ell (d \xi, d\eta)\right) \nu( d x, d y),$$ where $\ell \in {\sf L}$, $\varrho_\ell^{x,y}$ is as in (\[7\]), and $f:X^2 \to \mathbb{R}$ is a function such that both $\nu(f)$ and the integral on the right-hand side of (\[16\]) exist. \[Rlm\] For each $\ell \in {\sf L}$, the mapping (\[16\]) has the following properties: (a) if $\nu\in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1, \mu_2)$ for some $\mu_1, \mu_2\in \mathcal{M}(\pi)$, then also $R_\ell \nu \in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1, \mu_2)$; (b) if $f$ is $\mathcal{F}_\ell (X^2)$-measurable and $\nu$-integrable, then $(R_\ell \nu)(f) = \nu(f)$. Claim (a) is true since $\varrho_\ell^{x,y} \in \mathcal{C}(\pi_\ell^x, \pi_\ell^y)$ for all $x, y \in X$. Claim (b) follows by the fact that the considered $f$ in (\[16\]) is independent of $\xi$ and $\eta$, and that $\varrho_\ell^{x,y}$ is a probability measure. Given $\ell \in {\sf L}$, we set $$% \label{17} Y_\ell = \{(x^1, x^2)\in X^2: \upsilon (x_\ell^1, x_\ell^2) \leq \sum_{\ell'\in \partial \ell} \upsilon (x_{\ell'}^1, x_{\ell'}^2) \}.$$ \[R1lm\] For each $\nu\in \mathcal{P}(X^2)$ and $\ell \in {\sf L}$, it follows that $(R_\ell \nu)(Y_\ell) =1$. If $(x^1, x^2)$ is in $Y_\ell^c$, then $\upsilon (x_\ell^1, x_\ell^2) =1$ and $\upsilon (x_{\ell'}^1, x_{\ell'}^2)=0$ for all $\ell'\in \partial \ell$, which follows by the fact that $\upsilon$ takes values in $\{0,1\}$. This means that $x_\ell^1 \neq x_\ell^2$ and $x_{\ell'}^1 = x_{\ell'}^2$ for all $\ell'\in \partial \ell$. For such $(x^1, x^2)$, the definition of $\pi$ implies that $\pi_\ell^{x^1} = \pi_\ell^{x^2}$, and hence $$\int_{\Xi^2} \upsilon (\xi, \eta) \varrho^{x^1,x^2}_\ell (d\xi, d\eta) = d(\pi^{x_1}_\ell, \pi^{x_2}_\ell) = 0,$$ which by (\[16\]) yields $(R_\ell \nu)(Y_\ell^c) = 0$. The proof of Theorem \[1tm\] will be done by showing that, for each $\mu_1, \mu_2 \in \mathcal{M}(\pi, h)$, there exists $\nu_* \in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1, \mu_2)$, for wich (\[15\]) holds. To this end we construct a sequence $\{\hat{\nu}_n\}_{n\in \mathbb{N}_0} \subset \mathcal{C}(\mu_1, \mu_2)$ such that $$\label{18} \gamma(\hat{\nu}_n):= \sup_{\ell \in {\sf L}} \int_{X^2} \upsilon (x^1_\ell , x_\ell^2) \hat{\nu}_n (d x^1 , d x^2) \to 0, \qquad n \to +\infty.$$ This sequence will be obtained by a procedure based on the mapping (\[16\]) and the estimates which we derive in the next subsection. The proof of Theorem \[2tm\] will be obtained as a byproduct. The main estimates ------------------ In the sequel, we use the following functions indexed by $\ell \in {\sf L}$ $$\label{19} I_\ell (x^1, x^2) = \upsilon (x^1_\ell , x_\ell^2), \qquad H^i_\ell (x^1, x^2) = h(x_\ell^i), \ \ i = 1,2.$$ By claim (b) of Lemma \[Rlm\], we have that $$%\label{20} (R_\ell \nu)(I_{\ell_1}) = \nu (I_{\ell_1}), \quad (R_\ell \nu)(I_{\ell_1}H^i_{\ell_2}) = \nu(I_{\ell_1}H^i_{\ell_2}) \quad {\rm for} \ \ell \neq \ell_1, \ \ell \neq \ell_2,$$ whenever $H^i_\ell$ is $\nu$-integrable. We recall that $\varrho_\ell^{x,y}$ in (\[16\]) is a coupling of $\pi_\ell^x$ and $\pi_\ell^y$, for which (\[10\]) and (\[12\]) hold true. \[R2lm\] Let $\nu \in \mathcal{P}(X^2)$ be such that the integrals on both sides of (\[16\]) exist for $f=H^i_\ell$, $\ell \in {\sf L}$ and $i=1,2$. Then the following estimates hold $$\begin{gathered} \label{21} (R_\ell \nu)(I_{\ell}) \leq \sum_{\ell' \in\partial \ell} \kappa_{\ell \ell'} \nu(I_{\ell'}) + K^{-1} \sum_{i=1,2} \sum_{\ell_1 , \ell_2 \in \partial \ell} \nu(I_{\ell_2}H^i_{\ell_1}), \\[.2cm] \label{22} (R_\ell \nu)(I_{\ell_1}H^i_{\ell}) \leq \nu (I_{\ell_1}) + \sum_{\ell_2 \in \partial \ell}c_{\ell\ell_2} \nu(I_{\ell_1}H^i_{\ell_2}),\\[.2cm] \label{23} (R_\ell \nu)(I_{\ell}H^i_{\ell_1}) \leq \sum_{\ell_2 \in \partial \ell} \nu(I_{\ell_2}H^i_{\ell_1}), \qquad \ell_1 \neq \ell, \\[.3cm] \label{24} (R_\ell \nu)(I_{\ell}H^i_{\ell}) \leq \sum_{\ell_1 \in \partial \ell} \nu(I_{\ell_1}) + \sum_{\ell_1 , \ell_2 \in \partial \ell}c_{\ell \ell_2} \nu(I_{\ell_1}H^i_{\ell_2}).\end{gathered}$$ The proof of (\[23\]) readily follows by Lemma \[R1lm\]. Let us prove (\[21\]). By (\[7\]) and (\[16\]), we have $$\begin{aligned} %\label{25} (R_\ell \nu)(I_{\ell}) & = & \int_{X^2} d(\pi_\ell^{x^1}, \pi_\ell^{x^2}) \nu(dx^1 , dx^2)\\[.2cm] & = & \int_{X^2} \mathbf{1}_\ell (x^1)\mathbf{1}_\ell (x^2) d(\pi_\ell^{x^1}, \pi_\ell^{x^2}) \nu(dx^1 , dx^2)\nonumber \\[.2cm] & + & \int_{X^2} \left[ 1 - \mathbf{1}_\ell (x^1)\mathbf{1}_\ell (x^2) \right] d(\pi_\ell^{x^1}, \pi_\ell^{x^2}) \nu(dx^1 , dx^2) ,\nonumber\end{aligned}$$ where $\mathbf{1}_\ell$ is the indicator of the set defined in (\[11\]). By (\[10\]), we have $$\int_{X^2} \mathbf{1}_\ell (x^1)\mathbf{1}_\ell (x^2) d(\pi_\ell^{x^1}, \pi_\ell^{x^2}) \nu(dx^1 , dx^2) \leq \sum_{\ell' \in\partial \ell} \kappa_{\ell \ell'} \nu(I_{\ell'}),$$ which yields the first term of the right-hand side of (\[21\]). By (\[11\]), we have $$\left[ 1 - \mathbf{1}_\ell (x^1)\mathbf{1}_\ell (x^2) \right] \leq \sum_{i=1,2} \sum_{\ell_1 \in \partial \ell} \left[1 - \mathbb{I}_{h\leq K} (x_{\ell_1}^i)\right],$$ where $\mathbb{I}_{h\leq K}$ is the indicator of $\{\xi \in \Xi: h(\xi) \leq K\}$. Then the second term of the right-hand side of (\[21\]) cannot exceed the following $$\begin{aligned} & & \sum_{i=1,2} \sum_{\ell_1 \in \partial \ell} \int_{X^2} \left[1 - \mathbb{I}_{h\leq K} (x_{\ell_1}^i)\right] d(\pi_\ell^{x^1}, \pi_\ell^{x^2}) \nu(dx^1 , dx^2)\\[.2cm] & & \qquad \leq K^{-1} \sum_{i=1,2} \sum_{\ell_1 \in \partial \ell} \int_{X^2} h(x^i_{\ell_1}) d(\pi_\ell^{x^1}, \pi_\ell^{x^2}) \nu(dx^1 , dx^2)\\[.2cm] & & \qquad \leq K^{-1} \sum_{i=1,2} \sum_{\ell_1 , \ell_2\in \partial \ell} \nu(I_{\ell_2} H^i_{\ell_1}).\end{aligned}$$ The latter line has been obtained by (\[23\]). Let us prove now (\[22\]). By (\[16\]) and the fact that $\varrho_\ell^{x,y} \in \mathcal{C}(\pi_\ell^x, \pi_\ell^y)$, we have $$\begin{aligned} (R_\ell \nu)(I_{\ell_1}H^i_{\ell}) & = & \int_{X^2} \left( \int_{\Xi} h (\xi) \pi^{x^i} (d\xi) \right) \upsilon(x^{1}_{\ell_1} , x^{2}_{\ell_1}) \nu(dx^1, dx^2)\\[.2cm] & \leq & {\rm RHS}(\ref{22}),\end{aligned}$$ where we have used (\[12\]). To prove (\[24\]) we employ Lemma \[R1lm\], by which we get $${\rm LHS}(\ref{24}) \leq \sum_{\ell_1 \in \partial \ell} (R_\ell \nu) (I_{\ell_1} H^i_\ell) \leq {\rm RHS}(\ref{24}) ,$$ where the latter estimate follows by (\[22\]). From the lemma just proven it follows that along with the parameter $\gamma(\nu)$ defined in (\[18\]) one has to control also the following $$\label{26} \lambda (\nu) = \max_{i=1,2} \sup_{\ell, \ell' \in {\sf L}} \nu(I_\ell H^i_{\ell'}),$$ where $\nu\in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1 , \mu_2)$, $\mu_1, \mu_2 \in \mathcal{M}_h(\pi)$, and $\pi \in \Pi(h,K,\kappa, c)$, see Definition \[2df\]. The proof of Theorem \[1tm\] ---------------------------- The proof is based on constructing a sequence with the property (\[18\]). Given $\mu_1, \mu_2 \in \mathcal{M}(\pi,h)$ with $\pi \in \Pi(h,K,\kappa, c)$, we take an arbitrary $\nu_0\in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1, \mu_2 )$ and construct $\nu \in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1, \mu_2 )$ by applying the mapping defined in (\[16\]) to the initial $\nu_0$ with $\ell$ running over the set ${\sf L}$. Each time we use the estimates derived in Lemma \[R2lm\]. Then the first two elements of the sequence in question are set $\hat{\nu}_0 = \nu_0$ and $\hat{\nu}_1 = \nu$. Afterwards, we produce $\hat{\nu}_2$ from $\hat{\nu}_1$, etc. Recall that the underlying graph is supposed to have the property defined in (\[1\]) and $\chi\leq \varDelta$ is its chromatic number. Set $$\label{26a} A = \frac{2 \varDelta^{\chi +1}}{1 - \bar{\kappa}}.$$ Then, for $K>K_*$, see (\[K\]), the following holds $$\label{26b} K^{-1} < \frac{\bar{c}(1 - \bar{\kappa})}{4 \varDelta^{\chi+1}}, \qquad A K^{-1} < \bar{c}/2.$$ \[R3lm\] For $K> K_*$, take $\pi \in \Pi(h,K,\kappa, c)$ and $\mu_1 , \mu_2 \in \mathcal{M}(\pi, h)$. Then for each $\nu_0 \in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1 , \mu_2)$ there exists $\nu \in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1 , \mu_2)$ for which the following estimates hold $$\begin{gathered} \label{27} \gamma(\nu) \leq \left[\bar{\kappa} + AK^{-1} \right] \gamma(\nu_0) + 2 A K^{-1} \lambda (\nu_0),\\[.3cm] \label{28} \lambda (\nu) \leq \Delta^{\chi-1} \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c} \varDelta^\chi \lambda(\nu_0).\end{gathered}$$ The proof of the lemma will be given in the subsequent parts of the paper. .1cm [*Proof Theorem \[1tm\]:*]{} As already mentioned, we let $\hat{\nu}_1\in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1, \mu_2)$ and $\hat{\nu}_0\in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1, \mu_2)$ be the measures on the left-hand sides and right-hand sides of (\[27\]) and (\[28\]), respectively. Then we apply to $\hat{\nu}_1$ the same reconstruction procedure and obtain $\hat{\nu}_2 \in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1, \mu_2)$, for which both estimates (\[27\]), (\[28\]) hold with $\hat{\nu}_1$ on the right-hand sides. We repeat this due times and obtain $\hat{\nu}_n \in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1, \mu_2)$ such that $$\label{28a} \left(\begin{array}{ll} \gamma(\hat{\nu}_n)\\[.3cm] \lambda (\hat{\nu}_n) \end{array} \right) \leq\left[ M(K) \right]^n \left(\begin{array}{ll} \gamma(\nu_0)\\[.3cm] \lambda (\nu_0) \end{array} \right),$$ where $M(K)$ is the matrix defined by the right-hand sides of (\[27\]) and (\[28\]). Its spectral radius is $$\label{srM} r_K = \frac{1}{2}\left[\bar{\kappa} + A K^{-1} + \bar{c}\varDelta^\chi + \sqrt{(\bar{\kappa} + A K^{-1} - \bar{c}\varDelta^\chi)^2 + 8 \varDelta^{\chi} AK^{-1}} \right].$$ For $K>K_*$, see (\[K\]), we have $r_K < 1$, which by (\[28a\]) yields (\[18\]) and thereby completes the proof. The proof of Theorem \[2tm\] ---------------------------- The proof of this theorem is based on the version of the estimates in Lemma \[R3lm\] obtained in a subset ${\sf D}\subset {\sf L}$. For such $\sf D$, we define $$%\label{dc1} \partial {\sf D} = \{\ell' \in {\sf D}^c: \partial \ell' \cap {\sf D}\neq \emptyset\},$$ which is the external boundary of ${\sf D}$. For $\nu \in \mathcal{P}(X^2)$ such that all $H^{i}_\ell$, $i=1,2$, $\ell \in {\sf D}\cup \partial {\sf D}$ are $\nu$-integrable, see (\[19\]), we set, cf. (\[18\]) and (\[26\]), $$\label{dc2} \gamma_{\sf D} (\nu) = \sup_{\ell \in {\sf D}} \nu(I_\ell), \qquad \lambda_{\sf D}(\nu) = \max_{i=1,2}\sup_{\ell_1, \ell_2 \in {\sf D}} \nu(I_{\ell_1} H^{i}_{\ell_2}).$$ Next, for $\ell_1$ as in (\[dc\]) and $N= \delta (\ell_1 , \ell_2)$, we set $$%\label{dc4} {\sf D}_0 = \{\ell_1\}, \quad {\sf D}_{k} = {\sf D}_{k-1} \cup \partial {\sf D}_{k-1}, \quad k=1, \dots , N-1.$$ Let $\mu^x(\cdot)$ denote the conditional measure $\mu (\cdot|\mathcal{F}_{{\sf D}_{N-1}})(x)$. For brevity, we say that $\nu^x \in \mathcal{P}(X^2)$ is $\mathcal{F}_{{\sf D}_{N-1}}$-measurable if the maps $x\mapsto \nu^x(B)$ are $\mathcal{F}_{{\sf D}_{N-1}}$-measurable for all $B\in \mathcal{B}(X^2)$. Clearly, $\nu_0^x = \mu^x \otimes \mu$ possesses this property. The version of Lemma \[R3lm\] which we need is the following statement. \[dclm\] Let $\pi$, $K$, and $\mu$ be as in Theorem \[2tm\] and $\nu_0^x = \mu^x \otimes \mu$. Then there exist $\nu_1^x, \dots , \nu_{N-1}^x \in \mathcal{C}(\mu^x, \mu)$, all $\mathcal{F}_{{\sf D}_{N-1}}$-measurable, such that for the parameters defined in (\[dc2\]) the following estimates hold $$\label{dc3} \left(\begin{array}{ll} \gamma_{{\sf D}_{N-s-1}}(\nu^x_{s})\\[.3cm] \lambda_{{\sf D}_{N-s-1}} (\nu^x_s) \end{array} \right) \leq M(K) \left(\begin{array}{ll} \gamma_{{\sf D}_{N-s}}(\nu^x_{s-1})\\[.3cm] \lambda_{{\sf D}_{N-s}} (\nu^x_{s-1}) \end{array} \right),$$for all $s=1, \dots , N-1$ and $\mu$-almost all $x\in X$. .1cm [*Proof of Theorem \[2tm\]:*]{} Since $g$ is $\mathcal{F}_{{\sf D}_{N-1}}$-measurable, we have $$%\label{dc5} \int_{X} f(x) g(x) \mu(dx) = \int_{X} g(x)\left(\int_X f(y) \mu^x(d y) \right)\mu(dx),$$ which yields $$\label{dc6} {\rm Cov}_\mu (f;g) = \int_X g(x) \Phi(x)\mu(dx),$$ where $$\begin{aligned} \label{dc7} \Phi (x) = \int_{X^2} \left( f(y)-f(z)\right)\mu^x (dy) \mu(dz).\end{aligned}$$ For each $\nu^x_s$, $s=0, \dots , N-1$, as in Lemma \[dclm\], we then have $$\label{dc8} \Phi(x) = \int_{X^2} \left( f(y)-f(z)\right) \nu^x_s(d y, dz),$$ and hence $$\label{dc9} \left\vert \Phi(x) \right\vert \leq 2 \|f\|_{\infty} \nu^x_{N-1}(I_{\ell_1}) = 2 \|f\|_{\infty} \gamma_{{\sf D}_0} (\nu^x_{N-1}).$$ Note that the function defined in (\[dc7\]), (\[dc8\]) is related to the quantity which characterizes mixing in state $\mu$, cf. [@Ku Proposition 2.5]. Let $v_s$ and $v_{s-1}$ denote the column vector on the left-hand and right-hand sides of (\[dc3\]), respectively. Set $$%\label{dc10} \xi = \frac{\varDelta^{\chi-1}}{r_K - \bar{c}\varDelta^\chi} = \frac{r_K - \bar{\kappa} - AK^{-1}}{2 AK^{-1}} >0,$$ and let $T$ be the $2\times 2$ diagonal matrix with $T_{11} = \xi$ and $T_{22} =1$. Then the matrix $$\label{dc11} \widetilde{M}(K) := T M(K) T^{-1},$$ cf. [@BL Corollary 2.9.4, page 102], is positive and such that both its rows sum up to $r_K$. Set $\tilde{v}_s = T v_s$ and let $\tilde{v}_s^{i}$, $i=1,2$, be the entries of $\tilde{v}_s$. By (\[dc3\]) we then get $$\|\tilde{v}_s\|:= \max\{\tilde{v}_s^{1}; \tilde{v}_s^{2}\} \leq \|\widetilde{M}(K)\| \|\tilde{v}_{s-1}\| = r_K \max\{\tilde{v}_{s-1}^{1}; \tilde{v}_{s-1}^{2}\},$$ which yields $$\label{dc12} \gamma_{{\sf D}_0} (\nu^x_{N-1}) \leq r_K^{N-1} \max\{ \gamma_{{\sf D}_{N-1}}(\nu^x_0); \xi^{-1} \lambda_{{\sf D}_{N-1}}(\nu^x_0)\}.$$ Applying this estimate in (\[dc9\]) and then in (\[dc6\]) we arrive at (\[dc\]) with, cf. (\[srM\]) and (\[14\]), $$\label{constan} \alpha_K = - \log r_K, \qquad C_K = 2 r_K^{-1} \max\{1; \xi^{-1} \mu(h)\}.$$ Let us make now further comments on the above results and their proof. - The mapping in (\[16\]), which is the main reconstruction tool, see Section \[4SEC\] below, was first introduced in another seminal paper by R. L. Dobrushin [@Dob]. In a rather general context, it was used in [@dl]. The main feature of this mapping, which was not pointed out in [@DobP], is the measurability of the coupling $\varrho_\ell^{x,y}$ in $(x,y)\in X^2$. A similar property of the couplings in Lemma \[dclm\] was crucial for the proof of Theorem \[2tm\]. - We avoid using ‘compactness’ of $h$, and hence the related topological properties of the single-spin space $\Xi$, by employing the $\mathfrak{L}$-topology, see Definition \[3df\]. - In contrast to the estimates obtained in [@DobP Lemma 5], our estimate in (\[28\]) is independent of $K$. The only constant in (\[27\]) is given explicitly in (\[26a\]). This allowed us to calculate explicitly the spectral radius (\[srM\]), which was then used to obtain the decay parameter $\alpha_K$, see (\[constan\]). - The proof of Lemma \[dclm\] was performed in the spirit of the proof of Proposition 2.5 of [@Ku]. Our $\Phi(x)$ in (\[dc7\]), (\[dc8\]) can be used to prove a kind of mixing in state $\mu$. However, here we cannot estimate this function uniformly in $x$, and hence employ its measurable estimate (\[dc9\]) which is then integrated in (\[dc6\]). - The transformation used in (\[dc11\]) allowed us to find explicitly the operator norm of $M(K)$ equal to its spectral radius $r_K$. This then was used to find in (\[dc12\]) the exact rate of the decay of correlations in $\mu$. Proof of Lemmas \[R3lm\] and \[dclm\] {#4SEC} ===================================== For the partition (\[3\]) of the set of vertices ${\sf L}$, which has the property (\[2\]), we set $$\label{29} {\sf U}_j = \bigcup_{i=0}^j {\sf V}_i, \qquad {\sf W}_j = {\sf L}\setminus {\sf U}_j, \quad j=0, \dots , \chi-1.$$ The measure $\nu$ in (\[27\]), (\[28\]) will be obtained in the course of consecutive reconstructions with $\ell\in {\sf V}_j$. The first step is .1cm Reconstruction over ${\sf V}_0$ {#sec:1} ------------------------------- Let $\{\ell_1, \ell_2, \dots , \}$ be any numbering of the elements of ${\sf V}_0$. Set $$\label{30} {\sf V}_0^{(n)} = \{\ell_1, \dots , \ell_n\}, \qquad \nu_0^{(n)} = R_{\ell_n} R_{\ell_{n-1}}\cdots R_{\ell_1} \nu_0, \quad n \in \mathbb{N}.$$ Our first task is to estimate $\nu_0^{(n)} (I_\ell)$. By claim (b) of Lemma \[Rlm\] we have that $$\label{31} \nu_0^{(n)} (I_\ell) = \nu_0 (I_\ell), \qquad {\rm for} \ \ \ell \notin {\sf V}_0^{(n)}.$$ For $k\leq n$, by (\[2\]) and claim (b) of Lemma \[Rlm\], and then by (\[21\]) and (\[31\]), we have $$\begin{aligned} \label{32} \nu_0^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k}) = \nu_0^{(k)} (I_{\ell_k}) & \leq & \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k} \kappa_{\ell_k\ell} \nu_0(I_{\ell}) + K^{-1} \sum_{i=1,2} \sum_{\ell, \ell' \in \partial \ell_k} \nu_0 (I_\ell H^i_{\ell'})\nonumber \\[.2cm] & \leq & \bar{\kappa} \gamma(\nu_0) + 2 \varDelta^2 K^{-1} \lambda (\nu_0),\end{aligned}$$ see also (\[9\]), (\[18\]), and (\[26\]). Next we turn to estimating $\nu_0^{(n)} (I_\ell H^i_{\ell'})$. As in (\[31\]) we have $$%\label{33} \nu_0^{(n)} (I_\ell H^i_{\ell'}) = \nu_0 (I_\ell H^i_{\ell'}) \qquad {\rm for} \ \ \ell, \ell' \notin {\sf V}_0^{(n)}.$$ For $k<m \leq n$, by claim (b) of Lemma \[Rlm\], and then by (\[22\]), (\[21\]), (\[32\]), and (\[23\]), we have $$\begin{aligned} %\label{34} & & \nu_0^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_{m}}) = \nu_0^{(m)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_{m}}) \leq \nu_0^{(k)}(I_{\ell_k}) + \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_m} c_{\ell_m \ell} \nu^{(k)}_0(I_{\ell_k}H^i_{\ell}) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \qquad \leq \bar{\kappa} \gamma(\nu_0) + 2 \varDelta^2 K^{-1} \lambda (\nu_0) + \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_m} c_{\ell_m \ell} \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k} \nu_0 (I_{\ell'} H^i_{\ell}) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \qquad \leq \bar{\kappa} \gamma(\nu_0) + \left[\varDelta \bar{c} + 2 \varDelta^2 K^{-1} \right] \lambda (\nu_0). \end{aligned}$$ For $k\leq n$, by (\[24\]) we have $$\begin{aligned} %\label{35} \nu_0^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_{k}}) = \nu_0^{(k)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_{k}}) & \leq & \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k} \nu_0(I_\ell) + \sum_{\ell, \ell' \in \partial \ell_k} c_{\ell_k \ell'} \nu_0( I_\ell H^i_{\ell'}) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & \leq & \varDelta \gamma(\nu_0) + \varDelta \bar{c} \lambda (\nu_0). \end{aligned}$$ Next, for $m < k \leq n$, by (\[23\]) and (\[22\]) we have $$\begin{aligned} %\label{36} \nu_0^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_{m}})& = & \nu_0^{(k)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_{m}}) \leq \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k} \nu_0^{(m)} (I_\ell H^i_{\ell_m}) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & \leq & \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k} \left( \nu_0 (I_\ell) + \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m} c_{\ell_m \ell'} \nu_0 (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell'}) \right) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & \leq & \varDelta \gamma(\nu_0) + \varDelta \bar{c} \lambda (\nu_0).\end{aligned}$$ Now we consider the case where $k\leq n$ and $\ell \notin {\sf V}_0^{(n)}$. Then by (\[23\]) we have $$%\label{37} \nu_0^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell}) = \nu_0^{(k)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell}) \leq \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k} \nu_0 (I_{\ell'} H^i_\ell) \leq \varDelta \lambda (\nu_0).$$ For $k\leq n$ and $\ell \notin {\sf V}_0^{(n)}$, we also have by (\[22\]) that $$\begin{aligned} \label{38} \nu_0^{(n)} (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell_{k}}) = \nu_0^{(k)} (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell_{k}}) & \leq & \nu_0 (I_\ell) + \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k} c_{\ell_k \ell'} \nu_0 (I_\ell H^i_{\ell'}) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & \leq & \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c} \lambda (\nu_0).\end{aligned}$$ Now let us consider the sequence $\{\nu_0^{(n)}\}_{n\in \mathbb{N}_0}$ defined in (\[30\]). By claim (b) of Lemma \[Rlm\] it stabilizes on local sets $B\in \mathcal{B}(X^2)$, and hence is convergent in the $\mathfrak{L}$-topology. Let $\nu_1$ be its limit. By Lemma \[2lm\] we have that $\nu_1 \in \mathcal{C}(\mu_1, \mu_2)$. At the same time, by (\[29\]), (\[31\]), and (\[32\]) it follows that $$\label{39} \nu_1 (I_\ell) \leq \left\{\begin{array}{ll} \bar{\kappa} \gamma(\nu_0) + 2 \varDelta^2 K^{-1} \lambda (\nu_0),& \qquad {\rm for} \ \ \ell\in {\sf V}_0 ; \\[.3cm] \gamma(\nu_0), & \qquad {\rm for} \ \ \ell\in {\sf W}_0 . \end{array} \right.$$ Similarly, by (\[32\]) – (\[38\]) we obtain $$\label{40} \nu_1 (I_\ell H^{i}_{\ell'}) \leq \left\{\begin{array}{ll} \varDelta \gamma(\nu_0) + \left[ \varDelta \bar{c} + 2 \varDelta^2 K^{-1} \right] \lambda(\nu_0), & \ \ell, \ell' \in {\sf V}_0;\\[.3cm] \varDelta \lambda (\nu_0), & \ \ell \in {\sf V}_0, \ell' \in {\sf W}_0 ;\\[.3cm] \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c} \lambda(\nu_0), & \ \ell\in {\sf W}_0, \ell' \in {\sf V}_0;\\[.3cm] \lambda (\nu_0), & \ \ell, \ell' \in {\sf W}_0. \end{array} \right.$$ These estimates complete the reconstruction over ${\sf V}_0$. .1cm Reconstruction over ${\sf V}_j$: Proof of Lemma \[R3lm\] {#sec:2} -------------------------------------------------------- Here we assume that $\nu_j$ satisfies the following estimates, cf. (\[39\]), where $A$ is as in (\[26a\]): $$\label{41} \nu_j (I_\ell) \leq \left\{\begin{array}{ll} \left[\bar{\kappa} + A K^{-1}\right] \gamma(\nu_0) + 2 A K^{-1} \lambda (\nu_0),& \qquad {\rm for} \ \ \ell\in {\sf U}_{j-1} ; \\[.3cm] \gamma(\nu_0), & \qquad {\rm for} \ \ \ell\in {\sf W}_{j-1} . \end{array} \right.$$ And also, cf. (\[40\]), $$\label{42} \nu_j (I_\ell H^{i}_{\ell'}) \leq \left\{\begin{array}{ll} \varDelta^j \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c}\varDelta^{j+1} \lambda(\nu_0), & \ \ell, \ell' \in {\sf U}_{j-1};\\[.3cm] \varDelta^j \lambda (\nu_0), & \ \ell \in {\sf U}_{j-1}, \ell' \in {\sf W}_{j-1} ;\\[.3cm] j \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c} \lambda(\nu_0), & \ \ell\in {\sf W}_{j-1}, \ell' \in {\sf V}_{j-1};\\[.3cm] \lambda (\nu_0), & \ \ell, \ell' \in {\sf W}_{j-1}. \end{array} \right.$$ Since ${\sf W}_{\varDelta-1} = \emptyset$, see (\[29\]), for $j= \varDelta -1$ we have just the first lines in (\[41\]) and (\[42\]), which yields (\[27\]) and (\[28\]), respectively, and thus the proof of Lemma \[R3lm\]. Note that (\[39\]) agrees with (\[41\]) as $\varDelta^2 < A$, see (\[26a\]). Also (\[40\]) agrees with (\[42\]), which follows from the fact that $$\bar{c} \varDelta + 2 \varDelta^2 K^{-1} < \bar{c} \varDelta + A K^{-1} \leq \bar{c} \varDelta + \bar{c}/2 < \bar{c} \varDelta^2 \leq \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1}, \quad j = 1, \dots \chi-1,$$ see (\[26a\]) and (\[26b\]). Thus, our aim now is to prove that the estimates as in (\[41\]) and (\[42\]) hold also for $j+1$. Note that the last lines in these estimates follow by claim (b) of Lemma \[Rlm\]. As above, we enumerate ${\sf V}_j = \{\ell_1 , \ell_2 , \cdots \}$ and set $$\nu_j^{(n)} = R_{\ell_n}R_{\ell_{n-1}} \cdots R_{\ell_1}\nu_j.$$ For $k\leq n$, by (\[21\]) we have, cf. (\[32\]), $$\begin{aligned} %\label{44} \nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k}) & = & \nu_j^{(k)} (I_{\ell_k}) \leq \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}}\kappa_{\ell_k\ell} \nu_j(I_\ell) + \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}}\kappa_{\ell_k\ell} \nu_j(I_\ell)\qquad \nonumber \\[.2cm] & + & K^{-1} \sum_{i=1,2} \sum_{\ell, \ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} \nu_j (I_\ell H^i_{\ell'}) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & + & K^{-1} \sum_{i=1,2} \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} \sum_{ \ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j} } \nu_j (I_\ell H^i_{\ell'}) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & + & K^{-1} \sum_{i=1,2} \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j} }\sum_{ \ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1} } \nu_j (I_\ell H^i_{\ell'}) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & + & K^{-1} \sum_{i=1,2} \sum_{\ell, \ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}} \nu_j (I_\ell H^i_{\ell'}).\end{aligned}$$ Now we use the assumptions in (\[41\]) and (\[42\]) and obtain herefrom $$\begin{aligned} \label{45} \nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k}) & \leq & \left[\bar{\kappa} + K^{-1} \left( \bar{\kappa} A + 2 \varDelta^j \varDelta^2_j + 2 j \varDelta_j \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \right) \right]\gamma(\nu_0) \\[.2cm] & + &2 K^{-1} \left[\bar{\kappa} A + \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1} \varDelta_j^2 + \varDelta^j \varDelta_j\widetilde{ \varDelta}_j \right. \nonumber \\[.2cm] & + & \left. \bar{c} \varDelta_j\widetilde{ \varDelta}_j + \widetilde{ \varDelta}^2_j \right]\lambda (\nu_0) ,\nonumber\end{aligned}$$ where $$\varDelta_j := | \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}| , \qquad \widetilde{\varDelta}_j:= | \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}|.$$ To prove that $$\bar{\kappa} A + 2 \varDelta^j \varDelta^2_j + 2 j \varDelta_j \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \leq A$$ see the first line in (\[41\]), we use (\[26a\]), take into account that $\varDelta \geq 2$ (hence, $j \leq \varDelta^j$, $j=1, 2 , \dots \chi -1$) and obtain $$2 \varDelta^j \varDelta^2_j + 2 j \varDelta_j \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \leq 2 \varDelta^j \varDelta_j\left( \varDelta_j + \widetilde{\varDelta}_j (j/\varDelta^j)\right)\leq 2 \varDelta^{j+2} \leq A (1 - \bar{\kappa}),$$ where we have taken into account that $j+2 \leq \chi+1$, see (\[26a\]). To prove that the coefficient at $\lambda (\nu_0)$ in (\[45\]) agrees with that in (\[41\]) we use the following estimates $$\begin{aligned} & & \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1} \varDelta_j^2 + \varDelta^j \varDelta_j\widetilde{ \varDelta}_j + \bar{c} \varDelta_j\widetilde{ \varDelta}_j + \widetilde{ \varDelta}^2_j \\[.2cm] & & \quad = \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1} \varDelta_j \left( \varDelta_j + \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \varDelta^{-j}\right) + \varDelta^{j}\widetilde{\varDelta}_j \left( \varDelta_j + \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \varDelta^{-(j+1)}\right)\\[.2cm] & & \quad \leq \varDelta^2 + \varDelta^{j+2} \leq 2\varDelta^{j+2} \leq A (1 - \bar{\kappa}).\end{aligned}$$ For $\ell \in {\sf U}_{j-1}$, $\nu_j^{(n)}(I_\ell) = \nu_j (I_\ell)$ and hence obeys the first line of (\[41\]). For $\ell \in {\sf W}_{j}$, again $\nu_j^{(n)}(I_\ell) = \nu_j (I_\ell)$ and hence obeys the second line of (\[41\]). Here we also used that $\bar{c} < 1/\varDelta^\chi$ and $j+1\leq \chi$, see (\[13\]). Thus, (\[41\]) with $j+1$ holds true. Now we turn to estimating $\nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell'})$. In the situation where $\ell, \ell' \in {\sf U}_{j-1}\cup {\sf W}_j$, we have that $\nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell'}) = \nu_j (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell'})$ and hence obeys (\[42\]). Let us consider first the cases where only one vertex of $\ell, \ell'$ lies in ${\sf V}_j$. For $\ell' \in {\sf U}_{j-1}$ and $k \leq n$, by (\[23\]) and the first and third lines in (\[42\]) we obtain $$\begin{aligned} %\label{46} & & \nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell'}) = \nu_j^{(k)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell'}) \leq \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}}\nu_j (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell'}) + \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}}\nu_j (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell'}) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \quad \leq \left[\varDelta^j \varDelta_j + j \widetilde{ \varDelta}_j \right] \gamma(\nu_0) + \left[\bar{c}\varDelta^{j+1} \varDelta_j + \bar{c} \widetilde{ \varDelta}_j \right] \lambda(\nu_0)\nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \quad \leq \varDelta^{j+1} \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+2}\lambda(\nu_0), \end{aligned}$$ which yields the first line in (\[42\]) with $j+1$. For $\ell' \in {\sf W}_{j}$ and $k \leq n$, by (\[23\]) and the second and fourth lines in (\[42\]) it follows that $$\begin{gathered} %\label{47} \nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell'}) = \nu_j^{(k)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell'}) \leq \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}}\nu_j (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell'}) + \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}}\nu_j (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell'}) \nonumber \\[.2cm] \leq \left(\varDelta^j \varDelta_j + \widetilde{ \varDelta}_j \right) \lambda(\nu_0) \leq \varDelta^{j+1} \lambda(\nu_0), \end{gathered}$$ which agrees with the second line in (\[42\]). For $\ell \in {\sf U}_{j-1}$ and $k \leq n$, by (\[22\]) and the first and second lines in (\[42\]) we get $$\begin{aligned} %\label{48} & & \nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell_k}) = \nu_j^{(k)} (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell_k}) \leq \nu_j (I_\ell) + \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}}c_{\ell_k\ell'}\nu_j (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell'}) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \quad + \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_k\ell'}\nu_j (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell'}) \leq \left[ \bar{\kappa} + A K^{-1} \right] \gamma(\nu_0) \\[.2cm] & & \quad + 2A K^{-1} \lambda (\nu_0) + \left[\varDelta^j \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1} \lambda (\nu_0) \right] \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}}c_{\ell_k\ell'} \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \quad + \varDelta^j \lambda (\nu_0) \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_k\ell'}. \nonumber \end{aligned}$$ In order for this to agree with the first line in (\[42\]), it is enough that the following holds $$\begin{aligned} \label{48a} & &\qquad \bar{\kappa} + AK^{-1} + \varDelta^{j} \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}}c_{\ell_k\ell'} \leq \varDelta^{j+1}, \\[.2cm] & & 2 AK^{-1} + \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1} \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}}c_{\ell_k\ell'} + \varDelta^{j} \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}}c_{\ell_k\ell'} \leq \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+2}. \nonumber \end{aligned}$$ Recall that we assume $\varDelta \geq 2$. By (\[26b\]) and (\[13\]) we get that the left-hand side of the first line in (\[48a\]) does not exceed $$\bar{\kappa} + \bar{c}/2 + \varDelta^{-1} < 2 < \varDelta^{j+1}, \qquad {\rm for} \ \ j=1, \dots , \chi-1.$$ Likewise, the left-hand side of the second line in (\[48a\]) does not exceed $$\bar{c} + \bar{c} + \bar{c} \varDelta^{j} \leq \bar{c}( 2 + \varDelta^{j} ) < \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+2} \qquad {\rm for} \ \ j=1, \dots , \chi-1.$$ For $\ell \in {\sf W}_{j}$ and $k \leq n$, by (\[22\]) and the third and fourth lines in (\[42\]) we get $$\begin{aligned} \label{49} & & \nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell_k}) = \nu_j^{(k)} (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell_k}) \leq \nu_j (I_\ell) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & + \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}}c_{\ell_k\ell'}\nu_j (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell'}) + \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_k\ell'}\nu_j (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell'}) \\[.2cm] & & \leq \gamma(\nu_0) + \left[j \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c} \lambda (\nu_0)\right] \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}}c_{\ell_k\ell'} + \lambda (\nu_0) \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_k\ell'} \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \leq (1 + j \bar{c}) \gamma(\nu_0) + \left( \bar{c}\sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}}c_{\ell_k\ell'} + \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}}c_{\ell_k\ell'} \right) \lambda(\nu_0), \nonumber \end{aligned}$$ which clearly agrees with the third line in (\[42\]). Now we consider the cases where both $\ell, \ell'$ lie in ${\sf V}_j$. For $k< m\leq n$, by first (\[22\]) and (\[23\]), and then by (\[21\]), we have $$\begin{aligned} \label{50} \nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_m}) & = & \nu_j^{(m)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_m}) \leq \nu_j^{(k)} (I_{\ell_k}) + \sum_{\ell'\in \partial \ell_m} c_{\ell_m\ell'} \nu_j^{(k)}(I_{\ell_k}H^i_{\ell'}) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & \leq &\sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k} \kappa_{\ell_k\ell}\nu_j (I_\ell) + K^{-1} \sum_{s=1,2} \sum_{\ell, \ell'\in \partial \ell_k} \nu_j (I_\ell H^s_{\ell'}) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & + & \sum_{\ell'\in \partial \ell_m} c_{\ell_m\ell'} \sum_{\ell\in \partial \ell_k} \nu_j(I_{\ell}H^i_{\ell'}).\end{aligned}$$ The next step is to split the sums in (\[50\]) as it has been done in, e.g., (\[49\]), and then use (\[41\]) and (\[42\]). By doing so we get $$\begin{aligned} %\label{51} & & \nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_m}) \leq \left[ (\bar{\kappa} + A K^{-1}) \gamma (\nu_0) + 2A K^{-1} \lambda (\nu_0)\right] \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} \kappa_{\ell_k\ell} \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \quad + \gamma(\nu_0) \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}} \kappa_{\ell_k\ell} + 2 K^{-1} \varDelta_j^2 \left[\varDelta^j \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c}\varDelta^{j+1} \lambda (\nu_0) \right] \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \quad + 2K^{-1} \varDelta_j \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \left[ \varDelta^j \lambda (\nu_0) + j \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c}\lambda( \nu_0) \right] + 2 K^{-1} \widetilde{\varDelta}_j^2 \lambda (\nu_0) \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \quad + \varDelta_j \left[\varDelta^j \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c}\varDelta^{j+1} \lambda (\nu_0) \right] \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_m\ell'} \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \quad + \varDelta^j \varDelta_j \lambda (\nu_0) \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_m\ell'} + \widetilde{\varDelta}_j (j \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c} \lambda (\nu_0) ) \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_m\ell'} \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \quad + \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \lambda (\nu_0) \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_m\ell'}. \end{aligned}$$ In order for this to agree with the first line in (\[42\]), it is enough that the following two estimate hold $$\begin{aligned} \label{51a} & & (\bar{\kappa} + A K^{-1}) \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} \kappa_{\ell_k\ell} + \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}} \kappa_{\ell_k\ell} + 2K^{-1} \varDelta_j^2 \varDelta^j \\[.2cm] & & \quad + 2K^{-1} j \varDelta_j \widetilde{ \varDelta}_j + \varDelta_j \varDelta^j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_m\ell'} + \widetilde{ \varDelta}_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_m\ell'} \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \quad \leq \varDelta^{j+1}\nonumber \\[.3cm] \label{51b} & & 2 A K^{-1} \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} \kappa_{\ell_k\ell} + 2K^{-1} \varDelta_j^2 \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1} + 2K^{-1} \varDelta_j \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \varDelta^{j} \\[.2cm] & & \quad + 2K^{-1} \bar{c} \varDelta_j \widetilde{\varDelta}_j + 2K^{-1} \widetilde{\varDelta}_j^2 + \bar{c} \varDelta_j \varDelta^{j+1} \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_m\ell'} \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \quad + \varDelta_j \varDelta^{j} \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_m\ell'} + \bar{c} \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_m\ell'} \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & + \quad \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_m\ell'} \leq \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+2}. \nonumber\end{aligned}$$ Taking into account that $\bar{\kappa} < 1$ and (\[26b\]) one can show that the left-hand side of (\[51a\]) does not exceed $$\begin{gathered} 1 + \bar{c}/2 + 2 K^{-1} \varDelta^j \varDelta_j \left( \varDelta_j + \widetilde{\varDelta}_j (j/\varDelta^j)\right) + \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1} \\[.2cm]\leq 1 + \bar{c}/2 + \bar{c}/2 + \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1} < 2 + \frac{1}{\varDelta^{\chi}} < \varDelta^{j+1}.\end{gathered}$$ To prove (\[51b\]) we use (\[26b\]), (\[13\]), the inequality $\varDelta_j \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \leq \varDelta^2/4$, and perform the following calculations $$\begin{gathered} {\rm LHS(\ref{51b})} \leq 2AK^{-1} \bar{\kappa} + \frac{1}{2} K^{-1} \varDelta^{j+2} + 2K^{-1} \left(\varDelta_j^2 + \bar{c} \varDelta_j \widetilde{\varDelta}_j + \widetilde{\varDelta}^2_j\right) \\[.2cm] + \varDelta_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_m\ell'} + \varDelta^j \varDelta_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_m\ell'} \\[.2cm] + \bar{c} \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_m\ell'} + \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m\cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_m\ell'}\\[.2cm] \leq \bar{c} + \frac{\bar{c} \varDelta^{j+2}}{8 \varDelta^{\chi+1}} + \frac{\bar{c} \varDelta^{2}}{2 \varDelta^{\chi+1}} + \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1} + \bar{c} \varDelta < \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+2},\end{gathered}$$ which holds even for $j=1$, $\chi = 2$, and $\varDelta = 2$. Next, for $k\leq n$, by (\[24\]) we have $$\label{52} \nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_k})= \nu_j^{(k)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_k}) \leq \sum_{\ell\in \partial \ell_k} \nu_j (I_\ell) + \sum_{\ell, \ell'\in \partial \ell_k} c_{\ell_k \ell'} \nu_j(I_\ell H^i_{\ell'})$$ As above, we split the sums in (\[52\]) and then use (\[41\]) and (\[42\]), and obtain $$\begin{aligned} \label{53} & & \nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_k}) \leq \varDelta_j \left[\bar{\kappa} + A K^{-1} \right] \gamma(\nu_0) + \varDelta_j 2A K^{-1} \lambda (\nu_0) \nonumber\\[.2cm] & & \quad + \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \gamma(\nu_0) + \varDelta_j \left[ \varDelta^j \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1} \lambda(\nu_0) \right]\sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_k \ell'} \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \quad + \varDelta_j \varDelta^j\lambda (\nu_0) \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_k \ell'} + \widetilde{\varDelta}_j (j \gamma(\nu_0) + \bar{c} \lambda (\nu_0)) \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_k \ell'} \nonumber \\[.2cm] & & \quad + \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \lambda(\nu_0) \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_k \ell'}.\end{aligned}$$ In order for this to agree with the first line in (\[42\]), it is sufficient that the following two inequalities hold $$\begin{aligned} \label{53a} & & \varDelta_j \left[\bar{\kappa} + A K^{-1} \right] + \widetilde{\varDelta}_j + \left( \varDelta^j \varDelta_j + j \widetilde{\varDelta}^j \right) \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_k \ell'} \leq \varDelta^{j+1}, \qquad \quad \\[.3cm] \label{53b} & & 2 A K^{-1} \varDelta_j + \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1} \varDelta_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_k \ell'} + \varDelta^{j} \varDelta_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_k \ell'}\\[.2cm] & & \quad + \bar{c} \widetilde{\varDelta_j} \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_k \ell'} + \widetilde{\varDelta}_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_k \ell'} \leq \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+2}. \nonumber\end{aligned}$$ By means of (\[26b\]) we get $$\begin{gathered} {\rm LHS(\ref{53a})} \leq \varDelta + \varDelta AK^{-1} + \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1} < \varDelta + \frac{1}{2 \varDelta^{\chi-1}} + 1 < \varDelta^{j+1}.\end{gathered}$$ Similarly, $$\begin{gathered} {\rm LHS(\ref{53b})} \leq \bar{c} \varDelta_j + \varDelta_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_k \ell'} + \varDelta^{j} \varDelta_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_k \ell'} \\[.2cm] + \bar{c}\widetilde{\varDelta}_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf U}_{j-1}} c_{\ell_k \ell'} +\widetilde{\varDelta}_j \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_k \cap {\sf W}_{j}} c_{\ell_k \ell'} \\[.2cm] \leq \bar{c} \varDelta + \bar{c} \varDelta^j \varDelta_j + \bar{c} \widetilde{\varDelta}_j < \bar{c} \varDelta + \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+1} \leq \bar{c} \varDelta^{j+2}.\end{gathered}$$ Now we consider the case where $ m <k \leq n$. By (\[23\]), and then by (\[22\]), we have $$\begin{aligned} \label{54} \nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_m})& = & \nu_j^{(k)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_m}) \leq \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k} \nu_j^{(m)} (I_\ell H^i_{\ell_m}) \\[.2cm] & \leq & \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k} \nu_j(I_\ell) + \sum_{\ell \in \partial \ell_k} \sum_{\ell' \in \partial \ell_m}c_{\ell_m\ell'} \nu_j (I_{\ell} H^i_{\ell'}). \nonumber\end{aligned}$$ Again we split the sums in (\[54\]) and then use (\[41\]) and (\[42\]), and obtain that $$\nu_j^{(n)} (I_{\ell_k} H^i_{\ell_m}) \leq {\rm RHS}(\ref{53}).$$ Thus, we have that (\[42\]) with $j+1$ holds also in this case. The proof is complete. The proof of Lemma \[dclm\] --------------------------- Assume that we have given $\nu^x_{s-1}\in \mathcal{C}(\mu^x, \mu)$ with the properties in question. Then we split ${\sf D}_{N-s-1}$ into independent subsets by taking intersections with the sets ${\sf V}_j$, as in (\[3\]). Let $\ell^1 , \dots , \ell^m$ be a numbering of ${\sf D}_{N-s-1}\cap {\sf V}_0$. Set $$\tilde{\nu}^x_0 = \nu^x_{s-1} \quad {\rm and} \quad \tilde{\nu}^x_k = R_{\ell^k} \tilde{\nu}^x_{k-1}, \qquad k=1, \dots , m,$$ where $R_\ell$ is defined in (\[16\]). Thus, $\tilde{\nu}_m^x$ is $\mathcal{F}_{{\sf D}_{N-1}}$-measurable, and $\tilde{\nu}_m^x (I_\ell)$ and $\tilde{\nu}_m^x (I_\ell H^i_{\ell'})$, $\ell, \ell' \in {\sf D}_{N-s-1}$, satisfy the inequalities in (\[39\]) and (\[40\]), respectively, in which the right-hand sides contain $\gamma_{{\sf D}_{N-s}} (\nu^x_{s-1})$ and $\lambda_{{\sf D}_{N-s}} (\nu^x_{s-1})$. Then we perform the reconstruction over the remaining independent subsets of ${\sf D}_{N-s-1}$ and obtain an element of $\mathcal{C}(\mu^x, \mu)$, which we denote by $\nu^x_s$. Its $\mathcal{F}_{{\sf D}_{N-1}}$-measurability is then guarateed by construction, and the parameters $\gamma_{{\sf D}_{N-s-1}} (\nu^x_{s})$ and $\lambda_{{\sf D}_{N-s-1}} (\nu^x_{s})$ satisfy the first-line inequalities in (\[41\]) and (\[42\]), respectively, and hence (\[dc3\]) with $\gamma_{{\sf D}_{N-s}} (\nu^x_{s-1})$ and $\lambda_{{\sf D}_{N-s}} (\nu^x_{s-1})$ on the right-hand side. The $\mathcal{F}_{{\sf D}_{N-1}}$-measurability of $\nu_0^x$ is straightforward. [ll]{} S. Albeverio, Yu. Kondratiev, Yu. Kozitsky, and M. Röckner, [*The statistical mechanics of quantum lattice systems. A path integral approach.*]{} EMS Tracts in Mathematics, 8. European Mathematical Society (EMS), Zürich, 2009. G. R. Belitskii and Yu. I. Lyubich, [*Matrix norms and their applications.*]{} Translated from the Russian by A. Iacob. Operator Theory: Advances and Applications, 36. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 1988. V. Belitsky and E. A. 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[*Probability theory and mathematical statistics (Tbilisi, 1982),*]{} 97–110, Lecture Notes in Math., 1021, Springer, Berlin, 1983. H.-O. Georgii, [*Gibbs measures and phase transitions.*]{} Studies in Mathematics, 9, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin New York, 1988. D. Hagedorn, Y. Kondratiev, T. Pasurek, and M. Röckner, Gibbs states over the cone of discrete measures, [*J. Func. Anal.*]{} [**264**]{}, 2550–2583 (2013). Y. Kozitsky and T. Pasurek, Euclidean Gibbs measures of interacting quantum anharmonic oscillators, [*J. Stat. Phys.*]{} [**127**]{}, 985–1047 (2007). H. Künsch, Decay of correlations under Dobrushin’s uniqueness condition and its applications, [*Comm. Math. Phys.*]{} [**84**]{}, 2017–222 (1982). J. L. Lebowitz, A. Mazel, and E. Presutti, Liquid-vapor phase transitions for systems with finite-range interactions, [*J. Stat. Phys.*]{} [**94**]{}, 955–1025 (1999). J. L. Lebowitz and E. Presutti, Statistical mechanics of systems of unbounded spins, [*Comm. Math. Phys.*]{} [**50**]{}, 195–218 (1976). T. Lindvall, [*Lectures on the coupling method,*]{} Wiley Series in Probability and Mathematical Statistics: Probability and Mathematical Statistics. A Wiley-Interscience Publication. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1992. L. Lov[á]{}sz, Three short proofs in graph theory, [*J. Combinatorial Theory Ser. B*]{} [**19**]{}, 269–271 (1975). V. A. Malyshev and I. V. Nickolaev, Uniqueness of Gibbs fields via cluster expansions, [*J. Stat. Phys.*]{} [**53**]{}, 375–379 (1984). T. Pasurek, [*Theory of Gibbs measures with unbounded spins: probabilistic and analytic aspects.*]{} Habilitation Thesis, Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld, 2008; available as SFB 701 Preprint 08101, 2008 at [https://www.math.uni-bielefeld.de/sfb701/preprints/view/292]{}. E. Pechersky and Yu. Zhukov, Uniqueness of Gibbs state for nonideal gas in ${\bf R}^d$: the case of pair potentials, [*J. Stat. Phys.*]{} [**97**]{}, 145–172 (1999). Ch. Preston, [*Specifications and their Gibbs states,*]{} Universität Bielefeld, 2005, available at [http://www.mathematik.uni-bielefeld.de/ preston/rest/gibbs/files/specifications.pdf]{} A. Procacci and B. Scoppola, On decay of correlations for unbounded spin systems with arbitrary boundary conditions, [*J. Stat. Phys.*]{} [**105**]{}, 453–482 (2001). D. Putan, [*Uniqueness of equilibrium states of some models of interacting particle systems.*]{} PhD Thesis, Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld, 2014; available at [http://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=2691509&fileOId=2691511]{}

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

ArXiv

Gastric vs Small Bowel Feeding in Critically Ill Neurologically Injured Patients: Results of a Multicenter Observational Study. To evaluate gastric compared with small bowel feeding on nutrition and clinical outcomes in critically ill, neurologically injured patients. International, prospective observational studies involving 353 intensive care units (ICUs) were included. Eligible patients were critically ill, mechanically ventilated with neurological diagnoses who remained in the ICU and received enteral nutrition (EN) exclusively for at least 3 days. Sites provided data, including patient characteristics, nutrition practices, and 60-day outcomes. Patients receiving gastric or small bowel feeding were compared. Covariates including age, sex, body mass index, and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score were used in the adjusted analyses. Of the 1691 patients who met our inclusion criteria, 1407 (94.1%) received gastric feeding and 88 (5.9%) received small bowel feeding. Adequacy of calories from EN was highest in the gastric group (60.2% and 52.3%, respectively, unadjusted analysis; P = .001), but this was not significant in the adjusted model (P = .428). The likelihood of EN interruptions due to gastrointestinal (GI) complications was higher for the gastric group (19.6% vs 4.7%, unadjusted model; P = .015). There were no significant differences in the rate of discontinuation of mechanical ventilation (hazard ratio [HR], 0.86; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66-1.12; P = .270) or the rate of being discharged alive from the ICU (HR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.72-1.23; P = .641) and hospital (HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.87-1.55; P = .307) after adjusting for confounders. Despite a higher likelihood of EN interruptions due to GI complications, gastric feeding may be associated with better nutrition adequacy, but neither route is associated with better clinical outcomes.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

PubMed Abstracts

--- abstract: 'We present a spectroscopic and photometric determination of the distance to the young Galactic open cluster Westerlund 2 using *WFPC2* imaging from the *Hubble Space Telescope* and ground-based optical spectroscopy. *HST* imaging in the F336W, F439W, F555W, and F814W filters resolved many sources previously undetected in ground-based observations and yielded photometry for 1136 stars. We identified fifteen new O-type stars, along with two probable binary systems, including MSP 188 (O3 + O5.5). We fit reddened SEDs based on the Padova isochrones to the photometric data to determine individual reddening parameters $R_{V}$ and $A_{V}$ for O-type stars in Wd2. We find average values $\langle R_{V} \rangle = 3.77 \pm 0.09$ and $\langle A_{V} \rangle = 6.51 \pm 0.38$ mag, which result in a smaller distance than most other spectroscopic and photometric studies. After a statistical distance correction accounting for close unresolved binaries (factor of 1.08), our spectroscopic and photometric data on 29 O-type stars yield that Westerlund 2 has a distance $\langle d \rangle = 4.16 \pm 0.07$ (random) $+0.26$ (systematic) kpc. The cluster’s age remains poorly constrained, with an upper limit of 3 Myr. Finally, we report evidence of a faint mid-IR PAH ring surrounding the well-known binary candidate MSP 18, which appears to lie at the center of a secondary stellar grouping within Westerlund 2.' author: - 'Carlos A. Vargas Álvarez, & Henry A. Kobulnicky' - 'David R. Bradley, Sheila J. Kannappan, & Mark A. Norris' - 'Richard J. Cool' - 'Brendan P. Miller' title: 'THE DISTANCE TO THE MASSIVE GALACTIC CLUSTER WESTERLUND 2 FROM A SPECTROSCOPIC AND *HST* PHOTOMETRIC STUDY[^1][^2][^3]' --- Introduction ============ The open cluster Westerlund 2 [hereafter Wd2, @west], at 1 – 3 Myr, is one of the youngest massive stellar clusters known, similar in many respects to better-known clusters such as the Arches [@figer05], Quintuplet [@figer99], and NGC 3603 [@sto04; @sto06]. Located in the Carina arm at $(\alpha,~\delta) = (10^h~24^m~01\fs1, ~-57\degr~45\arcmin~32\arcsec)$, $(l,~b) = (284\fdg3,-0\fdg3)$, it powers the surrounding giant region RCW 49 [@rodger]. Figure \[glimpsergb\] shows a three-color image of Wd2 and RCW 49 as seen in the [*Spitzer Space Telescope*]{} mid-IR *Galactic Legacy MidPlane Survey Extraordinaire* mosaic images [GLIMPSE, @benjamin]. Blue represents the *Infrared Array Camera* [IRAC, @fazio] 4.5 $\mu m$ band which highlights the reddened ($A_{V} \simeq6$) stellar cluster, while green (5.8 $\mu m$) and red (8.0 $\mu m$) highlight the photodissociation region (PDR) where PAHs excited by soft UV photons re-radiate stellar energy at mid-IR wavelengths. The seminal imaging study on Wd2 by @moffat (hereafter MSP91) suggested that the cluster may contain more than 80 O-type stars. @churchwell and @whitney used *Spitzer* mid-IR images to discover a complex network of dust pillars, filaments, and young stellar objects (YSOs) within RCW 49, suggesting that star formation may be ongoing, or even triggered in the surrounding clouds by winds and ionizing radiation from the central cluster. @dame and @furu used millimeter-wave CO spectroscopy to conclude that the mass of the molecular cloud associated with Wd2 is $7.5 \times 10^{5}$ [$M_{\sun}$]{} and $1.7 \pm 0.8 \times 10^{5}$ [$M_{\sun}$]{}, respectively, sufficient to produce the massive stellar cluster Wd2. The only study that has tried to estimate Wd2’s stellar mass is @asc. They found that the cluster’s mass function is consistent with a @salpeter power law with an index of $-1.20 \pm 0.16$. They estimated a total stellar mass of 7000 [$M_{\sun}$]{}, assuming a distance of 2.8 kpc, but the mass may be larger if greater distances are adopted. If this is so, then Wd2 is among the most massive clusters in the Galaxy, similar to the Quintuplet cluster [$6.3 \times 10^{3}$ [$M_{\sun}$]{}, @figer99], Arches [$2 \times 10^{4}$ [$M_{\sun}$]{}, @figer05], or NGC 3603 [$7 \times 10^{3}$ [$M_{\sun}$]{}, @sto04; @sto06]. Wd2 and RCW 49 have attracted considerable attention because of ongoing star formation [@whitney; @churchwell], and the possible association with two very-high-energy (VHE) $\gamma$-ray source HESS J1023–575 and HESS J1023–5746, detected in the *High Energy Stereoscopic System* [HESS, @aha; @Reimer; @hess], whose positions are coincident with the pulsars PSR J1023–5746, and PSR J1028–5819, respectively [@saz; @ack; @abdo]. This discovery has suggested possible new mechanisms for VHE emissions, such as $\gamma$-ray production in the colliding wind zone of WR 20a, collective effects of stellar winds from the Wd2 cluster, shocks and magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) turbulent motion inside the hot bubble, or shocks driven by supernova explosions into the interstellar medium (ISM). This cluster is rich in X-ray sources, the most luminous ones being the very massive eclipsing binary Wolf-Rayet stars WR 20a and WR 20b [@tsu; @naze]. Many of the brightest X-ray detections correspond to O-type stars, implying the possibility of many close binaries in this cluster [@naze]. Since the discovery of Wd2 there has been much controversy over the distance to this cluster. MSP91 used *UBV* charge-coupled device photometry and spectroscopy to obtain a distance of $7.9^{+1.2}_{-1.0}$ kpc. @piatti obtained spatially integrated optical spectra of the cluster and reanalyzed a subset of cluster O stars from MSP91 to infer a revised distance of $d = 5.7 \pm 0.3$ kpc. @carraro analyzed new *UBVRI* photometry for the cluster, finding $d = 6.4 \pm 0.4$ kpc and an age $\leqslant 2$ Myr, based on isochrone fitting. Using *GLIMPSE* photometry and spectra for a single O4 star, MSP 18, @brian found a distance of $d = 3.23^{+0.54}_{-0.53}$ kpc. Analyzing optical spectra, light curves, and published photometry of the massive eclipsing binary system WR 20a (WN6ha+WnNha), along with stellar atmosphere models, @rauw05 concluded that this system is a member of Wd2, giving it $d = 7.9 \pm 0.6$ kpc. The apparent association between Wd2 and nearby molecular and atomic clouds led @dame to derive a kinematic distance of $d = 6.0 \pm 1.0$ kpc. @tsu used *Chandra X-Ray Observatory* and near-IR imaging to identify a population of $\sim$2 [$M_{\sun}$]{} T-Tauri stars that serve as X-ray “standard candles”; they obtained a loose distance constraint of $d = $2 – 5 kpc. Obtaining new photometry and new spectral classification of 12 O-type stars from MSP91 and the binary WR 20a, @rauw (hereafter R07) found $d = 8.0 \pm 1.4$ kpc. Comparing deep near-IR photometry in the $J$, $H$, and $K_{s}$ bands with main-sequence and pre-main-sequence isochrones, @asc found $d\simeq2.8$ kpc and an age of $2.0\pm0.3$ Myr. In one of the most recent works, @furu used CO($J = 2 - 1$) observations to infer a kinematic distance of $5.4^{+1.1}_{-1.4}$ kpc. In summary, Wd2 has been placed at distances between $\sim$2 and $\sim$8 kpc. In view of this range of distances for Wd2, we have undertaken a program of optical photometry with the *Hubble Space Telescope* (*HST*) and spectral classification of additional MSP91 sources with the *Magellan* and the *Southern Astrophysical Research* (*SOAR*) telescopes in an attempt to resolve this discrepancy. In §\[data-red\] we describe the reduction of the *HST WFPC2* imaging, photometry comparison with previous works, astrometry, and long-slit spectral data. In §\[data-ana\] we analyze the color-magnitude diagrams (CMD), describe our spectral classification method, and individually comment on each observed source. In §\[results\] we analyze the *HST* photometry in conjunction with model isochrones and stellar spectroscopy to infer the reddening, distance, and age of the cluster. WFPC2 Imaging, Photometry, & Optical Spectroscopy {#data-red} ================================================= Observations ------------ ### *HST* The cluster Wd2 was observed using the *Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2* (*WFPC2*) on the *HST*. The observations were performed during Cycle 13, proposal ID 10276, PI H. Kobulnicky, and *HST* program *8zt*. A two-orbit *HST* imaging program was performed on 2005 May 19 & 20 using the standard three-point line dither pattern with $1/3$ pixel spacing. On the first orbit the cluster was centered on the PC1 chip, and a series of three exposures, dubbed the “long exposures", were obtained in each of the filters F336W (160 sec), F439W (40 sec), F555W (8 sec), and F814W (20 sec). On the second orbit the cluster was centered on the WF3 chip, and a series of three exposures, dubbed the “short exposures", were obtained in the same four filters with exposure times of 50 sec, 12 sec, 2 sec, and 2 sec, respectively. Table \[obs-pro\] summarizes the observations. The solid and dashed polygons in Figure \[glimpsergb\] depict the locations of the “short” and “long” exposures, respectively. The exposure times achieve a $5\sigma$ detection at $V = 20$ on the “short” exposure images and at $V = 21.5$ on the “long” exposure images. The *UBV* magnitudes of MSP91 were used to derive the exposure times to avoid saturation and bleeding of bright stars, but at the same time go as deep as possible down the mass function (MF) of the cluster. ### Optical Spectroscopy Longslit spectra were obtained for 10 MSP91 sources with the 6.5 m *Magellan I Walter Baade Telescope* and the 4.1 m *SOAR* telescope, using the *Inamori-Magellan Areal Camera & Spectrograph* (IMACS) and the *Goodman High Throughput Spectrograph* (GHTS), respectively. Owing to the crowding in the Wd2 core, other sources were caught serendipitously on the slit and augmented the number of observed sources to 34. Spectra for six stars (\#528, \#640, \#714, \#738, \#857, and \#906 in our numeration system, introduced in § [2.2.1]{}) were obtained on 2011 April 6/7 with the *Magellan Telescope*. Each source was exposed for 300 sec along with a 5 sec exposure of NeHeAr calibration lamps with a $0\farcs9$ wide slit and a grating of 300 l mm$^{-1}$ which yields a reciprocal dispersion of 1.34 Å pixel$^{-1}$. The typical seeing was 1$\arcsec$ FWHM. The observations used 1$\times$1 pixel readout modes yielding a scale of $0\farcs2$ pixel$^{-1}$. The *Magellan* observations provided a wavelength coverage 4640 Å $\le \lambda \le$ 10,113 Å. Ultimately, only the spectral range from 4640 Å – 6581 Å had a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) to be usable. The sources \#137, \#549, \#1004, and \#1031 were observed on 2011 June 9 & 10 with *SOAR*. Typical seeing was $1\farcs5$ FWHM at *SOAR* on June 9/10, and $2\farcs2$ FWHM on June 10/11, as measured from the cross-dispersion width of the stellar profile. The charge-coupled device readout mode employed 2$\times$8 pixel binning yielding a cross-dispersion scale of $1\farcs2$ pixel$^{-1}$. Hence, the spectra are undersampled in the cross-dispersion direction. Three exposures of 60 sec each were obtained on each source and calibrated with 15 sec FeAr lamps. The $1\farcs68$ wide slit and the KOSI 600 l mm$^{-1}$ grating yielded a reciprocal dispersion of 1.3 Å pixel$^{-1}$. The wavelength coverage includes the range 4600 Å $\le \lambda \le$ 7300 Å. We obtained spectra of stars \#714 and \#738 with the *Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle* (MIKE) spectrograph on the *Magellan II Clay* telescope on 2011 November 14 using a $1\arcsec \times 5\arcsec$ slit in $\sim$1$\farcs2$ seeing. Exposure times were $2 \times 600$ sec for \#714 and $1 \times 900$ sec for \#738. The usable wavelength range covered 3900 Å – 5050 Å in 27 orders at a nominal spectral resolution of 0.09 Å FWHM at 5000 Å. Reduction --------- ### *HST* Photometry We performed photometry on the long and short exposures in each filter using the PSF-fitting stellar photometry package *HSTphot* [@dolphin] that was specially designed for the under-sampled PSF of the *WFPC2*. *HSTphot* provides both instrumental and standard *UBVI* magnitudes, using the standard reduction recipe and transformations of @holtz06 as updated by @dolphin09. This procedure includes masking out the bad pixels, generating sky images, masking cosmic rays, and cleaning hot pixels. *HSTphot* performs a two-pass search for stars in each *WFPC2* chip to locate brightness peaks, performs PSF-fitting photometry in an iterative manner, and produces a “refined" photometric measurement and position for each star with an astrometric precision of 0.03 pixels. The code matches positions of stars detected in more than one filter to provide source-matched multi-color photometry. The initial run of *HSTphot* yielded 2251 and 577 candidate detections in at least one filter for the “long" and “short" images, respectively. It is a known characteristic of *HST* *WFPC2* images that spurious sources arising from, for example, diffraction spikes near bright stars, are included in this list. In an attempt to remove false sources we applied a series of additional criteria to the initial source list. *HSTPhot* reports a series of “global” parameters for each source, based on the combined detections in one or more exposures and one or more filters. These include the source’s roundness, sharpness, $\chi$ (as a goodness of fit), object type (point source or extended), and S/N. We determined a threshold roundness parameter, used to discriminate between point-like and elongated objects, by fitting a one-sided Lorentzian profile to the distribution of roundness values and retaining only sources having roundness parameter less than $1 \sigma$ above zero, corresponding to roundness $< 0.37$ and $< 0.19$ for the “long” and “short” exposures, respectively. This retains 64% and 79% of the sources for the “long"/“short" exposures, respectively. The rejected stars are invariably those with the lowest S/N below $\sim$10. Next, as per the *HSTphot* manual suggestion, we retained only sources having $|$sharpness$| \leq 0.5$. This criterion removes only a handful of stars that have not already been rejected by the roundness cut. Finally, we retained only sources with global $S/N \geq 10$ in order to ensure that the final catalog contains only highly reliable sources. Applying these criteria, the final list contains 967 and 360 stars in at least one filter for the “long" and “short" images, respectively: 194/171 in F336W, 227/185 in F439W, 348/286 in F555W, and 918/343 in F814W. We performed a visual inspection of the images to confirm that these selection criteria retained real stars while rejecting obvious spurious sources such as diffraction spikes. Figure \[maguncer\] shows the photometric uncertainty as a function of instrumental magnitude for the short exposures (dots; colored blue in the electronic edition) and long exposures (asterisks; colored red in the electronic edition) in each filter. Typical uncertainties are $< 0.01$ mag for stars $< 15$ mag in both the long and the short exposures for all filters. Uncertainties rise to 0.2 mag at the faint end. This occurs for stars with F555W $\simeq 20$ in the short exposures and F555W$\simeq 21.5$ in the long exposures. Stars with uncertainties exceeding 0.1 mag appear in these plots because, on a per-filter basis, the S/N may be greater than the threshold global S/N of 10:1. The sudden drop in source density in the F814W panel (lower right) above uncertainties of $\sim$0.1 mag arises because of the global S/N criterion imposed. Since F814W is least affected by reddening, most sources are detected more strongly in this band and, therefore, the F814W photon statistics drive the global S/N values. For the 190 sources detected on both the “short” and “long” exposure images, we compared the photometry in each *HST* filter to assess any systematic differences between the two orbits observations. Figure \[HSTresidual\] plots the differences between the short- and long-exposure instrumental magnitudes for each *HST* filter as a function of long exposure magnitude. This figure shows that there are no systematic differences between exposures, except at the faintest levels where the asymmetric nature of Poisson noise produces a systematically brighter magnitude measured in the short exposures relative to the long exposures. However, the rms deviation from zero is much larger than the typical photometric uncertainty. The reduced $\chi^{2}$ exceeds 8 in all cases, indicating that there are additional sources of photometric uncertainty that are not included in the errors calculated by *HSTphot*. This is not an effect of chip position or crowding, but rather is a known limitation of existing *HST* photometry packages when dealing with very short exposures [@dolphin]. Therefore, we adopt photometry from the long-exposure images, when available. For stars appearing on only the short-exposure images (138 of the 1136 stars), we adopt a larger photometric uncertainty that is the quadrature sum of the uncertainty estimated by *HSTphot* and an uncertainty determined empirically from the dispersion in Figure \[HSTresidual\] using 1-magnitude wide intervals. This procedure yields $\chi^{2}_{\nu}$ values of less than two in all of the filters. Stars detected on the “short” or “long” exposure images are identified as such in the last column in Table \[mach-tab\]. Coordinates for each star were obtained using the task *METRIC* in the Space Telescope Science Data Analysis System (STSDAS) package. For a subset of 120 bright isolated stars we identified counterparts in the *2MASS Point Source Catalog* (PSC) and used the mean differences between positions to correct the headers of the *HST* images. The position header parameters obtained from the guide stars were corrected by $(\Delta \alpha, \Delta \delta) = (0\farcs27182, -0\farcs57479)$ for the “short" exposure images, while the “long" exposure images required a correction of $(\Delta \alpha, \Delta \delta) = (-0\farcs01137, -0\farcs52219)$. After astrometric correction, the rms deviation between positions measured on the *HST* images and the 2MASS coordinates is $0\farcs1$ in R.A. and Dec. This is consistent with the limitations imposed by the *WFPC2* pixel size coupled with the precision of the *PSC* astrometry. Table \[mach-tab\] lists the final band- and exposure-merged photometry in each filter, totaling 1136 unique source IDs ordered by right ascension. A few lines appear in the printed journal as a sample of the table format. The entire content is available as a machine-readable table in the electronic edition. Column 1 gives the ID number from this work. Column 2 provides a cross-identification with the nomenclature of MSP91. In many instances the angular resolution of *HST* reveals several sources within a $\sim2\arcsec$ radius of the nominal MSP91 star. These are denoted by the MSP91 (MSP) designation with an alphanumeric suffix “a” for the brightest component, “b” for the next brightest component, as measured in the F555W band, etc. Columns 3 and 4 give the (J2000) Right Ascension and Declination in degrees. Columns 5 through 12 list the instrumental magnitudes and uncertainties in the *HST* filter system. Columns 13 through 16 list the transformed magnitudes in the standard *UBVI*. Column 17 lists the global S/N value. Column 18 lists whether the photometry is from the “long” exposure image (l) or the “short” exposure image (s). We caution that the transformations from the *HST* to Johnson system used by *HSTphot* are based on stars having a limited range of color, and that many of the Wd2 stars fall at the extreme red end of those calibrations. These reddest stars are late-type, low-gravity giants rather than heavily reddened early type stars with high surface gravity that typify the Wd2 membership. @holtz95 further caution that the transformation are known to depend on metallicty and surface gravity. We conducted our own synthetic photometry on reddened O-star spectra to assess the extent to which the *HSTphot* transformations are appropriate to our targets ($(B - V) \simeq 1.4$; $(U - B) \simeq 0.3$.) We found that, for the $B$ and $V$ bands, the transformations are appropriate (within 0.02 mag) for reddened O stars. In the $U$ and $I$ bands, systematic uncertainties exceeding 0.05 mag may be present, as noted by @holtz95. Hence, where high levels of photometric accuracy are required, the *HST* instrumental magnitudes are preferred over the *UBVI* magnitudes. We use the *HST* instrumental magnitudes hereafter in our analysis, but we provide the *URVI* magnitudes as a convenience and compare them to the MSP91 values in the next subsection. Transformations from F336W to the standard $U$-band are particularly problematic. One complication is the red leak in the F336 filter, which becomes more significant for redder stars. However, for the great majority of Wd2 stars in the range, $-0.5 \la ($F336W – F439W$) \la 0.5$, or $(U-B)\simeq0.3$ (MSP91), this only amounts to $\sim$2–3%, as shown by Figure 3 of @holtz95 and confirmed by our own synthetic photometry of reddened early type stars. Accordingly, we correct all of the reported $U$ and F336W magnitudes by +0.02 mag, acknowledging that this is only a zeroth-order correction appropriate to the mean Wd2 stars. More problematic is that the standard Johnson $U$ band straddles the Balmer discontinuity while the F336W filter lies short ward of it. @holtz95 provides a discussion of difficulties in transforming the F336W magnitudes into standard $U$-band magnitudes, notes that the F336W zero points and $U$-band transformations are based on stars having $(U - B) < -0.1$ and $(V - I) < 1.0$, a regime that excludes the reddened O stars of Wd2. Accordingly, we urge caution in any interpretation of the transformed $U$-band values. Nevertheless, our U-band photometry agrees well with that of MSP91. Figure \[coord\] displays the positions of the 1136 detected stars in equatorial coordinates. The concentration of cluster stars located on the PC1 chip of the “long" exposure images and in the WF3 chip of the “short" exposure images, is the dominant feature of the cluster, a secondary concentration of stars about $45\arcsec$ to the north is also apparent. Equally striking is the near-total absence of stars over a $\sim$25$\arcsec$ diameter area to the northeast of the Wd2 core. This corresponds to a minimum in the mid-IR \[5.8\] and \[8.0\] emission in Figure \[glimpsergb\], suggesting the presence of an infrared dark cloud (IRDC) having extremely high extinction. Our examination of the CO molecular maps of @furu reveals no obvious molecular clouds at this location, although the angular resolution of those data is $1\farcm5$, several times the size of the region of interest. The *JHK$_{s}$* infrared images of @asc show no obvious dearth of stars at this location, lending credence to the hypothesis of a localized region of high extinction that affects the optical wavelength data most significantly. Figures \[hstrgb\] – \[hstrgb3\] show three-color *WFPC2* images of Wd2 with F439W in blue, F555W in green, and F814W in red. The star ID numbers on the figures denote stars of interest to this study according to the numeration of Table \[mach-tab\]. The color scale reveals that the core cluster stars are red compared to other bright foreground field stars that appear white, such as MSP 158 (\#436), confirmed as a foreground object by R07. The excellent angular resolution reveals that many of the bright core stars identified by MSP91 have close neighbors that are blended or unresolved at ground-based resolutions. ### Photometry Comparison {#photcomp} We compared the photometry obtained with *HSTphot* to that presented by MSP91 and R07 for the 75 and 11 stars in common with those works, respectively.[^4] The catalog provided by MSP91 does not contain positions, so it was necessary to do a visual match between our images and their finding chart. Since the MSP91 observations were performed with ground-based telescopes that do not possess the resolution of the *HST*, some of the MSP stars are actually blends of several stars that are now resolved in our data. For such cases we choose the brightest star in the *HST* image to be the one that was originally identified by MSP91. In 63 of the 75 cases, either the MSP star is isolated and unambiguous, or we can identify the MSP source with the brightest of several close sources in our photometry. In 8 cases, we found two or more stars of roughly equal brightness within a radius of $2 \arcsec$, so the cross identifications with MSP91 are ambiguous. Figures \[moffatphotcomp\] and \[rauwphotcomp\] show differences between our photometry and the works of MSP91 and R07 ($\Delta m = m_{HST} - m_{them}$) versus *HST* magnitudes transformed to the Johnson system. Numbered points indicate the nomenclature of MSP91 in both Figures. Where significant photometric differences exist, they are seen in both the $V$ and $B$ bands. The median differences compared with MSP91 are 0.06, 0.19 and 0.15 mag, for the $U$, $B$ and $V$ bands, respectively. Compared with R07 the median differences are 0.22 and 0.12 mag for the $B$ and $V$ bands respectively. Both figures show that our measurements are systematically fainter than theirs in both the $BV$ bands, particularly for the brightest stars which lie in the most crowded regions. Part of this effect can be explained as a result of ground-based photometry that inevitably includes close neighbors in the measurement of the central star. These neighbors are well-resolved and individually measured in the *HST* data. To further investigate this systematic magnitude offset we performed a series of tests on the *HST* images. First, we verified that the images are processed using the latest calibration pipeline routine, which in this case is the OPUS version 2009\_2k with *calwp2* version 2.5.5 (Apr 17, 2009)[^5]. This represents the final and best calibration of the WFPC2. Next, we performed aperture photometry using the Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF)[^6] package and compared it with the PSF results of *HSTphot*. To this photometry we applied the corresponding filter’s zeropoint and Charge Transfer Efficiency (CTE) corrections according to @dolphin09 and subsequent updates from the *WFPC2 Calibration and CTE Corrections* webpage[^7]. We found excellent agreement between the results of the aperture and PSF photometry. Furthermore, the *HST* zeropoints are well calibrated and their uncertainties range between 0.02 – 0.04 magnitudes, depending on the filter used [@zpt]. Another possible source of discrepancy with ground-based observations could be the color transformations applied to the *HST* flight system filters. The color transformation of @holtz95 was made using unreddened standard stars and stars from the cluster $\omega$ Cen rather than reddened O stars like those that dominate the population of Wd2. We used the *IRAF/STSDAS* [**synphot**]{} package to create synthetic photometry of reddened O stars and compare it with the color transformations of @holtz95. We found the transformations for reddened O stars to be compatible with the color transformations based on late-type stars, to within a few percent. In most cases the color transformations are indeed small and the *HST*’s flight system filters can be used as a proxy for standard filters, given the @holtz95 transformations. For example, the differences between the F555W and the standard $V$-band are on the order of $\sim0.01$ mag for a wide range of stellar colors [see Figure 4 in @holtz95]. We also investigated the known long-short exposure difference [@longshort] and the low background level [@backillu] problems that affect the *WFPC2* camera. Both effects are well-calibrated by *HSTphot*, and any residuals in the current CTE corrections are small ($\sim$0.15 mmag/row for images with low-to-moderate background signal of $< 50~e^{-}$) and cannot account for the systematic difference between the ground-based and *WFPC2* observations. Others have also noticed discrepancies between *HST* and ground-based observations. For example, @dotter reported offsets in the $V$ and $I$ bands of 0.068 and 0.007 mag, respectively. @turner12 also reports offsets with $UBV$ photometry. From his Figure 2 we estimated an offset of $\sim 0.2$ magnitudes. At the moment we can only conclude that there is an offset of unknown origin between the values reported here and those of MSP91 and R07. ### Spectral Reductions Optical spectra from *Magellan* and *SOAR* were bias-subtracted, flat-fielded, wavelength-calibrated and normalized using the standard IRAF procedures. The rms of the wavelength calibration was 0.09 Å for the *Magellan* data and 0.28 Å for the *SOAR* data. The spectral resolution determined from the width of arc lamp exposures was 4.1 Å FWHM, measured at 6172 Å, and 7.6 Å FWHM, measured at 6172 Å, for the *Magellan* and *SOAR* spectra, respectively. Signal-to-noise ratios of the reduced spectra range between 15:1 and 91:1 pixel$^{-1}$ at 6000 Å for the *Magellan* data and 11:1 to 80:1 pixel$^{-1}$ for the *SOAR* data. For purposes of spectral classification, we used a subsection of the observed spectral range from 4600 Å – 6600Å having good S/N and a number of temperature-sensitive and lines. The blue spectral range ($<$ 4600 Å) commonly used for spectral classification was either not observed (*Magellan*) or unusable (*SOAR*) because of low S/N. The MIKE spectra of \#714 and \#738 were reduced using flat fields from the internal quartz lamps with a diffuser screen. Spectra were extracted for each star and wavelength calibrated to an RMS of 0.004 Å using ThAr lamps. Multiple spectra and spectral orders were combined, discarding data of low S/N within 10 Å of the edge of each order, and continuum normalized using a 7th order Legendre polynomial before being Doppler corrected to the Heliocentric velocity frame. S/N ratios were 23 and 11 per pixel for \#714 and \#738, respectively, at 4500 Å with 0.04 Å pixels, but we smoothed the spectra to $\sim$1 Å resolutions, yielding S/N ratios of 85 and 50, respectively. Data Analysis {#data-ana} ============= Color Magnitude Diagrams ------------------------ Figure \[cmdccd\] shows the CMD for Wd2 in the *HST*’s standard filters. The CMD is the F555W magnitude vs. the (F439W – F555W) color. Detections with MSP91 counterparts, 81 stars, are identified by an asterisk (colored red in the electronic edition). Stars of relevance to this work are labeled using the numeration system of this work. The CMD clearly show shows two distinct populations. On the CMD the blue “arm" represents the field stars, while the redder “arm" clearly shows the cluster’s members. Two stars, MSP 91 and 158 (\#832 and 436, respectively), fall on the field “arm" and are likely foreground objects, consistent with the conclusions of R07. We attempted to clean the CMD of field stars by using the 3D field star decontamination algorithm developed by @bona07 and then improved in @bica and @bona09. Unfortunately, the limited *WFPC2* field of view means that we lack off-source observations of field stars needed to make a proper field star decontamination. However, given the richness of the cluster core in the center of the small *WFPC2* field, these data are dominated by cluster stars and, at the brightest magnitudes, suffer little field star contamination in the red arm. Spectral Classification {#classification} ----------------------- The vast majority of the new spectra for Wd2 exhibit lines of neutral and/or ionized He, indicative of O or early-B type stars. Four sources exhibit H$\alpha$ in emission. Figures \[spec1\] and \[spec2\] show the normalized spectra for early-type stars labeled according to the IDs of this work and organized by decreasing value of temperature/spectral type from top to bottom. Figure \[spec3\] shows the spectra for stars having spectral type consistent with late-O/early-B, undetermined, or field stars. The main stellar absorption lines, interstellar lines (mainly Na I D lines $\lambda\lambda$5889,5895), and Diffuse Interstellar Bands (DIB) are labeled. We classified stars having new spectra using the ratio of the equivalent width (EW) of ($\lambda$5411) to the EW of ($\lambda$5876) using the diagram and analytic fit from @kobulnicky12: $$\frac{EW(\lambda5411)}{EW(\lambda5876)} = 1.16208 \times 10^{-12} T^{3} - 1.19205 \times 10^{-7} T^{2} + 4.22137 \times 10^{-3} T - 50.5093. \label{equ}$$ This calibration is based on model spectra from the @lanz Tlusty models and hot stars from the @jacoby spectral atlas. Because we have not observed spectral standards using our spectral setup, this may introduce additional uncertainty into our procedure for placing our targets on the MK system. We used the robust curve fitting package MPFIT [@mark] as implemented in IDL to measure the EW of the $\lambda$5411 and $\lambda$5876 lines and their uncertainties. To improve the robustness of the fit for weak lines, we constrained the Gaussian width to that measured for the stronger of the two lines. Table \[spec-tab\] list the stars having spectral types determined using the above procedure. Columns 1 and 2 are the stars’ identification numbers according to this work and MPS91, where available. Columns 3 and 4 are the photometry, $V$ mag and $B - V$ color, for such stars. Columns 5 and 6 are the measured EW for and lines having detections above $2 \sigma$; negative values correspond to emission lines, and upper limits are indicated. Column 7 is the ratio of the / EW and column 8 is the stellar effective temperature corresponding to the ratio as determined by the relation in equation \[equ\]. Column 9 is the spectral type determined from the temperature approximation to one subtype [@martins05]. Because our SOAR/IMACS data do not cover the blue portion of the optical spectrum typically used for classification, we are not able to constrain the luminosity class, thus we adopt a default of dwarf (V). This is likely to be correct in most cases, since our targets are not among the brightest cluster members, assigned V or III by R07. A constraint on the luminosity is obtained when analyzing the *MIKE* spectra for stars \#714, and \#738. The lack of $\lambda \lambda$4634,4640,4662 in emission in spectra of Figures \[mike714\], and \[mike738\] confirms that these stars are not evolved. Remarkably, there are no known supergiants in the cluster, consistent with it being very young. [*\#137 (MSP 165)*]{}— We tentatively classify this star as O4 on the basis of the relatively large EW (0.97 $\pm$0.09 Å) and relatively small EW ($0.30 \pm 0.07$ Å) in the *SOAR* spectrum (S/N = 50). This ratio indicates a very hot star with $\sim$43,000 K, very close to the maximum range calibrated in the @kobulnicky12 diagnostic diagram. However, the detection of precludes classification as a true O3 given the @walborn71 criteria requiring its absence. This star is among the brightest in the sample at $V = 15.5$ and also one of the reddest with $B - V = 1.66$. It does not have detectable H$\alpha$ emission. Its location on the cluster outskirts near a region of diffuse IR emission (see Figures \[glimpsergb\] & \[hstrgb2\]) is consistent with higher dust extinction at a location that has not yet been fully evacuated by the powerful winds of the central cluster. [*\#260 (MSP 201)*]{}— Located on the cluster outskirts not far from \#137 (see Figure \[hstrgb2\]), we classify as a late O or early B because of the lack of a line from our *SOAR* spectrum (S/N = 21). H$\alpha$ appears in emission, along with \[\] $\lambda\lambda$4959,5007, despite our best attempts at background subtraction, indicating the presence of small-scale variations in nebular emission near the star. [*\#463 (MSP 125)*]{}— This star, together with \#483 at $1\farcs5$ to the E, constitute MSP 125. Our *SOAR* spectrum of this star (S/N = 11) has insufficient S/N for spectral classification. With $(B - V)$ = 0.87, this star is unusually blue for a cluster member. [*\#505 (MSP 196)*]{}— This particular spectrum from *SOAR* (S/N = 27) is dominated by light from \#505 but may contain contributions from \#495 and \#502 located within about 1. Hence, MSP 196 is a blend of at least three stars. The dominant component, \#505, has $(B - V) = 1.3$ and spectral type O8.5, consistent with cluster membership. [*\#528 (MSP 229)*]{}— This source and its companion \#523, separated by $\sim$$0\farcs4$, constitute MSP 229. Our two spectra of this object, one from *Magellan* (S/N = 42) and one from *SOAR* (S/N = 53), yield O8.5 and O8, respectively, so we adopt O8 as a weighted mean of the brighter component which dominates the spectrum. [*\#547 (MSP 28)*]{}— This $V = 17.4$ source has \[\] emission and H$\alpha$ emission. is a non-detection, and is marginally detected in our S/N = 22 *SOAR* spectrum, making this a late-O or early-B star. The position of this star is interesting since it is located near the secondary cluster, centered on MSP 18, and it lies upon a ring of diffuse mid-IR emission which surrounds the secondary cluster. Figure \[ring\] is a *Spitzer* 3-color image of the region surrounding MSP 18 showing this $\sim36\arcsec$ diameter ring-like structure, which is present in all IRAC bands but best seen at \[8.0\], consistent with PAH emission from a photo-dissociation region. We believe that this is the first recognition of this feature, which possibly demarcates the boundary of the region surrounding MSP 18, although MSP 18 does not lie at its geometric center. [*\#548 (MSP 151)*]{}— Although this star is located $\sim$13NW of the cluster core in an area that may be affected by small-scale dust extinction. Observed with *SOAR* (S/N = 80), a spectral type of O4 was determined. This classification is at odds with MSP91 and R07 classification of O6 – 7III. The is very strong with EW $= 0.94 \pm 0.04$ Å and is rather weak with EW $= 0.31 \pm 0.06$ Å. Nebular lines are well subtracted, so we do not have an explanation for the earlier spectral type compared to R07. [*\#549 (MSP 44)*]{}— Star \#549, along with the faint companion \#538 constitute the source MSP 44. Indeed, @rauw11 identify this system as a P = 5.176 d eclipsing binary ($\Delta V = 0.6$ mag) composed of an B1V + pre-main-sequence star, or possibly even a triple system. We obtained two spectra for this source, one as target (S/N = 59), and the second being serendipitous (S/N = 28). Both observations, obtained with the *SOAR* telescope, yield consistent spectra where the He lines are very weak or non-detections. For this star we also detected emission at \[\] and H$\alpha$. The presence of emission lines may indicate a localized knot of nebular emission. The residual emission may affect the stellar EW measurement, rendering stellar classification unreliable, but consistent with a very late-O or early-B star, in agreement with R11. R11 reports nebular emission associated with MSP 18, MSP 223, and several other stars. Evidently, the nebular structure in the Wd2 region is complex both spatially and, as indicated by R11, in velocity as well. Like \#547, which also exhibits nebular emission, \#549 lies near the ring of mid-IR emission encircling MSP 18. Mid-IR PAH emission usually traces the UV-heated surfaces of molecular clouds. Such a location could indicate that the MSP 44 system is very young, consistent with the interpretation of R11 that the secondary star is a pre-main-sequence object. [*\#556*]{}— Located $\sim$66 to the north of the cluster core, \#556 ($V = 17.1$) seems to be surrounded by diffuse IR emission, very likely coming from the ring surrounding MSP 18. is detected in our S/N = 23 *SOAR* spectrum with an EW of $0.53 \pm 0.11$ Å, but is not detected, yielding only an upper limit on the spectral type of late O or early B. [*\#584 (MSP 157b)*]{}— Located at $\sim$10 from the cluster core where blending becomes problematic, MSP 157 contains contributions from as many as seven stars, the brightest three of which are stars \#597, \#584, and \#568 located within $\sim1\farcs2$ radius. Our *Magellan* spectrum (S/N = 58) and classification implies an O8. This is “slightly" later type than the O5.5 – 6.5V by R07, but their spectrum is likely dominated by the brighter component, MSP 157a (\#597). [*\#620 (MSP 96)*]{}— Located in a relatively isolated region at $\sim$26 to the north of the main cluster, \#620 along with \#663, constitute MSP 96, and its photometry is consistent with the measurement from MSP91. Both He lines are non-detections in our S/N = 43 *SOAR* spectrum. This limits our classification to a very late O or early B star. [*\#640 (MSP 233)*]{}— This $V = 16.2$ source is relatively isolated and lies close to diffuse IR emission at $\sim14\arcsec$ to the SW of the main cluster. The clear detections of the He lines in our *Magellan* spectrum (S/N = 36) provide a classification of about O9.5. [*\#664 (MSP 188)*]{}— This bright star has two faint ($\Delta V = 4.3$ mag) neighbors at $\sim$$1\farcs5$. The very strong and the weak in our S/N = 91 *Magellan* spectrum yield an EW ratio of the He lines of $8.99 \pm 4.20$, placing this star at the upper limit of our classification scheme; therefore, we type it as an O4 or earlier. This is in agreement with R07 who revised the MSP91 spectral type to O4. As portrayed in the velocity plot of the and lines in Figure \[664vel\] the spectrum shows that both He lines are double-peaked, with showing two approximately equal-depth absorption lines, and displaying different strength absorption lines. We measure the velocity difference between the peaks for to be $\Delta v \approxeq 360.5 \pm 103.$ [km s$^{-1}$]{}and for to be $\Delta v \approxeq 489.6 \pm 36.8$ [km s$^{-1}$]{}. The He lines were deblended to calculate individual EW and EW ratios, so as to determine the spectral types of what we infer to be a binary system. The two components have EW ratios of $5.70 \pm 3.32$ and $2.04 \pm 1.18$, implying spectral types of at least O4 and O5.5, respectively. The binary nature of this system partially explains why \#664 is so luminous compared to other very early members of Wd2. [*\#704 (MSP 175)*]{}— Star \#704, along with the faint and close neighbor \#713 (lying $\sim$$0\farcs44$ away, midway between \#704 and \#714), forms MSP 175. It shows very strong in our S/N = 47 *Magellan* spectrum, while is very weak (EW $= 0.15 \pm 0.05$), implying a spectral type near O4. This is slightly earlier than the O5V – O6V type assigned by R07. R07 notes that the He lines in MSP 175 are broad making classification uncertain; He II lines appear asymmetric with a blue wing in Figure 3 of R07. Our *Magellan* spectrum shows asymmetry with a red wing in both the He II and He I lines, suggesting a possible binary system. [*\#714*]{}— Star \#714, located at $\sim$3to the W of the main cluster core, is in a region of heavy crowding. Stars \#664 (MSP 188), and \#704 (MSP 175) lie in a crowded region near the cluster core within $1\farcs5$ of several other stars, including \#714 (no MSP identification) and \#713. Figure \[mike714\] shows the MIKE spectrum of \#714 (S/N = 91), smoothed to a resolution of about 1 Å with key spectral features of hot stars labeled. This spectrum is consistent with the lower resolution IMACS spectrum in that $\lambda$4471 is extremely weak (not detected here), while the lines are very strong, indicating an extremely hot star. By comparison with the O-star atlases of @wal and @walborn02 we assign this star an O3 spectral type and dwarf (V) luminosity class. Signatures of O2 spectral types, such as $\lambda\lambda$4604,4620 absorption or strong emission lines of $\lambda$4058 and $\lambda\lambda$4634,4640,4642 are not seen, although these latter N features are weakly present. The lack of He emission lines and lack of strong N emission lines further supports a dwarf luminosity classification. Nebular \[\] $\lambda\lambda$4959,5007 and H$\beta$ lines also appear in this spectrum, but we consider these to originate from the diffuse ionized gas that pervades the RCW49 region; these emission lines remain after background subtraction, presumably because of small scale variations in the nebular emission along the slit. In our single spectrum we find no evidence of binarity. However, all of the principle spectral stellar features in \#714 are redshifted by about 1 Å (67 [km s$^{-1}$]{}) compared to expected rest wavelengths, and compared to molecular gas associated with the cluster which spans the range -11 to 11 [km s$^{-1}$]{} LSR [@ohama]. This redshift may constitute evidence of being a single-lined spectroscopic binary or may indicate that \#714 has a peculiar velocity sufficient to unbind it from the cluster. [*\#738 (MSP 168)*]{}— Figure \[mike738\] shows our single MIKE spectrum of \#738 ($V = 14.9$) boxcar smoothed to about 1 Å resolution (S/N = 48). $\lambda4471$, with an equivalent width of 0.29 Å, appears in this spectrum, making \#738 later than O3. The EW ratio EW($\lambda4686$)/EW($\lambda4471$) is 1.86, similar to O5 – O6 stars from the @wal atlas. The radial velocity, as judged from the mean of key spectral features, is consistent with zero [km s$^{-1}$]{} LSR, making it consistent with the molecular gas surrounding the cluster [@ohama]. We adopt a classification of O5.5. [*\#769 (MSP 219)*]{}— This star is located at $\sim9\arcsec$ to the S of the main cluster core in a relatively isolated area. is a marginal detection in the Magellan spectrum (S/N = 31) but is strong with EW $= 0.85 \pm 0.05$. This suggests that \#769 is O9.5 or later. [*\#771 (MSP 167)*]{}— MSP 167 is a blend of the stars \#804, \#771, \#765, \#777, and \#772. A broad line and a well-defined line produced an EW ratio of $1.00 \pm 0.13$ implying that this star is O8. [*\#857 (MSP 444)*]{}— MSP 444 is one of those hard-to-identify stars owing to its position in the cluster core and its close proximity to \#843 (MSP 203; $\sim$$0\farcs6$). With *HST* MSP 444 was resolved into three components, \#857 and \#895, and \#824. The Magellan spectrum (S/N = 78) of \#857 possesses a strong and well-defined line while the is broader and weaker than , implying a hot star of type O4.5, consistent with O4 – O5 by R11. With $(B - V) = 1.4$, its color and magnitude are about right to be an early type cluster member. [*\#878*]{}— Located at $\sim$8to the SW at the outskirts of the main cluster, the two Magellan spectra obtained for this faint star ($V = 16.6$) have insufficient S/N (S/N = 15) to perform a reliable classification. is not detected, and is weak, hinting at a late O or early B. [*\#879 (MSP 235)*]{}— This star is in relative isolation at $\sim$16 to the SE of the main cluster. The *Magellan* observations, with a S/N = 36, show strong but minimal , implying a spectral type of O9.5. [*\#896 & \#903 (MSP 183 subcomponents)*]{}— These stars are located on the outskirts of the main cluster core where heavy blending in ground-based observations is inevitable. Within a radius of $\sim$$1\farcs5$ there are seven stars that could contribute to the brightness of MSP 183, namely, \#869, \#896, \#903, \#826, \#880, \#887, and \#856. These two stars, separated by $\sim1\farcs5$, became partially blended on the longslit observations with the *Magellan Telescope* (S/N = 43 for \#896 & S/N = 39 for \#903). The strong He lines in both stars resulted in an EW ratio of $0.83 \pm 0.13$ for \#896 and $0.90 \pm 0.14$ for \#903, implying an O8.5 type for both. [*\#1004 (MSP 32), \#1012 (MSP 24), and \#1026 (MSP 20)*]{}— This stellar trio, observed spectroscopically with SOAR, is located on the diffuse mid-IR ring that surrounds the secondary cluster, at about $\sim12\arcsec$ to the W of MSP 18. Star \#1004’s spectrum (S/N = 53) possesses strong He lines, although is noisy and broad, implying a classification of O9.5. The spectra of both \#1012 (S/N = 36) and \#1026 (S/N = 14) display \[\] and H$\alpha$ in emission and have insufficient S/N for reliable classification. [*\#1028*]{}— With $V = 14.3$, and $(B - V) = 0.37$, this star is clearly a field star in the vicinity of the cluster core. The serendipitous *SOAR* spectrum (S/N = 62) shows only strong Balmer lines with EW(H$\alpha$) = 7.67 Å, making it a probable A star. [*\#1031*]{}— Greatly isolated from the cluster core at $\sim$73 to the SE it lies projected against a bright mid-IR rim illuminated by the central cluster. The S/N = 32 SOAR spectrum is heavily contaminated by emission lines, and no spectral type determination is possible. Interestingly, as shown in Figure \[spec3\], \#1031 shows $\lambda5173$ Å absorption lines. Results ======= De-Reddening {#dered} ------------ We measured the extinction, $A_{V}$, and the ratio of selective to total extinction $R_{V} = A_{V}/E(B - V)$, for each star by individually fitting a spectral energy distribution (SED) based on the known spectral type/temperature of the star and the theoretical absolute magnitudes intrinsic colors of the Padova stellar evolution tracks and isochrones (CMD v.2.2)[^8] [@girardi00; @marigo; @girardi02]. Each SED was reddened by each of three reddening laws [@cardelli; @F04; @FM07] (hereafter CCM89, F04, and FM07 respectively) and compared, after appropriate normalization, with the *HST*[^9] and @asc *JHK$_{s}$* photometry to find a global chi-squared minimum over all plausible values for $R_{V}$, and $A_{V}$. We note here that, while CCM89 provide an analytical approximation of the mean interstellar extinction with $R_{V}$ and $A_{V}$ as free parameters, FM04 tabulates 38 reddening parameterizations as a function of $R_{V}$, and FM07 tabulates parameterizations of 328 sightlines, creating 328 discrete reddening laws. As an additional method to estimate $R_{V}$ we also used the method of @FM09 which is based on an average relation between *BVK$_{s}$* photometry in their Figure 7. The fitted methods are sightly dependent on the anchor point used to normalize the Padova magnitudes to the data. To eliminate this dependency the fitting was done using each of the seven photometric values, when available, as anchors points and the resultant values of $R_{V}$, $A_{V}$ and $A_{\lambda}$ are weighted averages of all seven fits. Figure \[sed-plot\] shows examples of the best fits for stars \#137, 528, 704, and 1039. Each subplot displays the *HST* photometry as squares and the @asc IR photometry as circles. The lines are the best fit to the photometry after reddening the predicted magnitudes for the appropriate star’s spectral type. For comparison purposes the best fit for each method was included: the solid lines is the CCM89, the dash line is the F04, and the dotted line is the FM07 reddening laws (each one is colored in blue, cyan and magenta in the electronic edition). Table \[reddening-compilation\] compiles the fit results and shows that best-fitting values range between $5.71< A_{V} < 7.54$ and $3.44 < R_{V} < 4.31$. Column 1 lists the star’s ID according to this work, column 2 lists the adopted spectral type, columns 3 – 6 are the best-fitting $R_{V}$ using the methods of CCM89, F04, FM07, and FM09 respectively, and columns 7 – 10 are the the best-fitting $A_{V}$ values. The results indicate that $R_{V}$ is significantly higher than the mean interstellar value of $R_{V} = 3.1$, meaning that the obscuring dust produces more extinction for a given amount of reddening, often interpreted as a result of a population of larger “gray” dust grains. On the other hand FM07 and FM09 argue that there is no universal reddening law or extinction curves and that extinction cannot be parameterized in terms of a single variable such as $R_{V}$. The so-called “anomalous" dust would, in reality, be “normal" for the Wd2 region and may be different from any other dust in the Galaxy. Stars \#664, 869, 889 are not included in Table \[reddening-compilation\] since these only have photometry in three bands (F336W, F439W, F555W) because of saturation or blending. We regard that the adopted fit procedure provides unreliable results and we adopt, for these stars, the average $R_{V}$ and $A_{V}$ from the 29 other stars. Excluding these three stars, the average values for the cluster are $\langle R_{V} \rangle = 3.77 \pm 0.09$ and $\langle A_{V} \rangle = 6.51 \pm 0.38$ mag where the uncertainties are the dispersions of the sample. We conclude that the mean $R_{V}$ is substantially larger than mean interstellar values, and that all stars are consistent, within the uncertainties, of this mean. On the other hand, there appears to be a significant scatter in $A_{V}$, consistent with appreciable internal extinction variations. Table \[reddening-table\] compiles the corresponding $A_{\lambda}$ for the *HST* filters corresponding to the best model fit in Table \[reddening-compilation\]. Column 1 lists the star’s ID according to this work, column 2 lists the adopted spectral type, columns 3, 4 & 5 are the $A_{F336W}$ values for CCM89, F04 and F07, and column 6 contains the weighted average of columns 3, 4, & 5. The same pattern is followed by columns 5 thru 18 for filters F439W, F555W, and F814W. We use the values of Table \[reddening-table\] to deredden the listed stars in the HST filter system and correct for the heavy, patchy extinction toward Wd2 which produces considerable dispersion in the raw CMD (Figure \[cmdccd\]). The (F336W – F439W) vs (F439W – F555W) color-color diagram (CCD) in Figure \[ccd-iso-fit\] shows a portion of a reddened Zero-Age Main Sequence (ZAMS) Padova isochrone[^10] using the global $A_{\lambda}$ averages from Tables \[reddening-compilation\] & \[reddening-table\] ($R_{V} = 3.77$, and $A_{V} = 6.51$ with corresponding color excess of $E$(F336W – F439W) = 1.47 and $E$(F439W – F555W) = 1.81). The dashed line (magenta in the electronic edition) is part of the reddening vector connecting the unreddened ZAMS O stars and the reddened Wd2 stars. Asterisks (red in the electronic edition) represent Wd2 stars having spectral types that we used to obtain the reddening parameters. The reddened isochrone provides a good match to the cluster stars, given that these stars exhibit a dispersion that is parallel to the vector, indicating substantial differential reddening and consistency with the mean reddening parameters found for this sightline. Additionally, the dotted curve (cyan in the electronic edition), is a reddening track that takes into account small systematic color trends due to the broadband nature of the *HST* filters and the large reddening towards Wd2. The curve was constructed by performing synthetic photometry with the software package [**synphot**]{} using a CCM89 reddening law. As pointed out by @schmidt and @turner89, the effective wavelength of a filter changes as a function of spectral type and reddening, leading to curved reddening tracks. Along this curve we label points that correspond to particular extinction values $A_{V}$. According to @turner89 the difference between a linear and a curved reddening track is $\sim$2% per $E$($B - V$). Although this is a small factor we included it in Figure \[ccd-iso-fit\] for illustrative purposes. When compared to the random and systematic errors of the intrinsic and observed colors that are discussed previously and in the next section, this difference is small so we adopt the straight vector in our reddening analysis. From the figure it is evident that there exists a systemic offset between the linear vector and the curved track, but this is small when compared to the dispersion in the photometry. This offset can be explained by the method we used in the creation of the linear vector. This vector was created using the average $A_{\lambda}$ from the reddening laws of CCM89, FM04, and FM07. Such values do not necessary have to reproduce the curve created by [**synphot**]{} that only uses the CCM89 reddening law. Support for the “anomalous” value of $R_{V}$ toward Wd2 can be found in the studies of other open clusters and their Cepheid stars in the vicinity of the Carina arm. The open cluster Ruprecht 91, Collinder 236, and Shorlin 1; with projected distances of $\sim$$3\fdg2$, $\sim$$5\fdg6$, and $\sim$$6\fdg4$, respectively, away from Wd2, also have different values from the nominal $R_{V} = 3.1$; Ruprecht 91 with $R_{V} = 3.82 \pm 0.13$ [@turner05], Collinder 236 with $R_{V} = 3.82 \pm 0.13$ [the $R_{V}$ was an adopted value because of similar reddening law with Ruprecht 91; @turner09], and Shorlin 1 with $R_{V} = 4.0 \pm 0.1$ [@turner12]. Furthermore @turner12 made a compilation showing that various clusters in the Carina complex have values greater than 3.1 in general (see his Table 1). Distance Determination {#distance} ---------------------- We adopt the Padova isochrones to determine the cluster’s distance modulus ($DM$). Isochrones with ages between 1 – 4 Myr and solar metallicity ($Z = 0.019$) were chosen to match the expected properties of Wd2. The Padova database provides absolute magnitudes (and therefore intrinsic colors) for stars in the *HST* filter system which we use to compute a spectroscopic and photometric distance for each star, following the prescription used by @hanson in finding the distance to Cygnus OB2. We adopt either our own spectral classifications or those of R07 and R11 (based on the @wal calibration) in order to calculate the appropriate $M_{\mbox{F555W}}$ and (F439W – F555W)$_{0}$ values and their associated uncertainties by interpolating the Padova data tables. For stars typed using our procedure described above, we estimate absolute magnitude and color uncertainties by propagating errors from our determination of the effective temperature. For stars typed by R07, we adopt temperature uncertainties given in that work. We deredden each star according to the values in Table \[reddening-table\] and then solve for the distance modulus of each. Table \[dis-table\] displays the results of our distance analysis. The columns list (1) the star ID numbers according to this work, (2) the MSP91 identification numbers, (3) the star’s spectral type, (4) the observed apparent F555W magnitude, (5) the observed (F439W - F555W) color, (6) the absolute F555W magnitude, (7) the intrinsic (F439W – F555W) color, (8) the extinction $A_{\mbox{F555W}}$, (9) the distance modulus, and (10) the distance, in kpc, obtained for each star. The weighted mean are $\langle DM \rangle = 12.98 \pm 0.03$, and $\langle d \rangle = 3.85 \pm 0.06$ kpc (the simple mean yields $\langle d \rangle = 4.20 \pm 0.06$ kpc). This weighted mean is taking into account uncertainties in the spectral/luminosity classification. We exclude from this calculation stars \#664, 869, 889, which, as stated in the previous section, lack complete photometry. This distance is substantially smaller than the estimate that would result if we were to assume the canonical $R_{V} = 3.1$. If we were to assume such, along with $\langle A_{V} \rangle = 5.16$ (calculated from the $A_{V}$ values in R07), then the resulting distance modulus becomes $\langle DM \rangle = 14.246 \pm 0.038$ and $\langle d \rangle =7.07 \pm 0.12$ kpc, about twice the distance than when using $\langle R_{V} \rangle = 3.77$. Figure \[unred-cmd\] shows the extinction- and distance-corrected Wd2 CMD in the HST filter system, illustrating the application of the results from Table \[dis-table\], along with ZAMS, 1 – 4, and 10 Myr isochrones. Each star was individually dereddened, extinction corrected, and then shifted by the weighted mean $DM$. For easier comparison, key spectral types are labeled at the right edge of the figure. Each star is labeled with its ID and spectral type. The dispersion around the ZAMS is minimal, and very few stars have an observed spectral type inconsistent with the spectral type expected along the ZAMS isochrone. Star \#889 (MSP 18) is not shown in the figure because of its odd position in the CMD after adopting the average $A_{\lambda}$ (overcorrection in color). Since this star lies to the north of the main cluster, it is very likely that the average reddening determined for the main cluster is not applicable to this star. The presence of close, unresolved binaries in a stellar population produces brighter apparent magnitudes than if no binaries were present. Consequently, the derived distances are systematically low compared to the single-star case. @kiminki modeled the light contribution from secondary components among massive binaries in Cygnus OB2 and found that they contribute 16% of the luminosity, on average. This translates into a systematic distance error of 8%, in the sense that the derived distances are too small unless binaries are taken into account. We apply this statistical correction to find a distance of $4.16 \pm 0.07$ kpc. A possible source of systematic error in our distance measurement is the intrinsic colors adopted for massive stars. There is a difference in the intrinsic colors of stars between the Padova isochrones and @martins colors. The @martins $(B - V)_0$ colors are, on average, 0.04 mag redder than those that result from the Kurucz models or the photometric measurements of @johnson and @fitzgerald. This difference implies a smaller color excess and, therefore, a smaller extinction and larger distance modulus. @martins warn that a redder intrinsic color introduces a difference of $\Delta A_{V} \sim$0.124 mag assuming $R_{V} = 3.1$. For our mean value of $R_{V} = 3.77$, the change in extinction required is $\Delta A_{V} = 0.15$, equivalent to a systematic distance error of $+ 0.26$ kpc. We conclude that our measurement of the Wd2 distance is $4.16 \pm 0.06$ (random) $ + 0.26$ (systematic) kpc. The distance that we determined favors a small value, like some in the literature, but not as small as the 2.8 kpc suggested by @asc. @asc measured a distance by fitting deep *JHK$_{s}$* CMDs to pre-main-sequence isochrones after correcting for reddening, assuming a single value for $A_{V}$ derived from the four brightest cluster stars. Despite adopting an $A_{V}$ smaller than our preferred value, they obtain a smaller distance, which we attribute to uncertainties in the pre-main-sequence models and the inherent ambiguities of fitting such models to the data. Furthermore, the distance calculation is based on a predetermined age for Wd2, which has not yet been properly constrained. Our measurement, like that of @brian, falls in the middle of the $d =$ 2 – 5 kpc constraints determined in the X-ray study of pre-main-sequence stars in Wd2 [@tsu]. Our result is also very close to the 4.2 kpc kinematic distance adopted by @churchwell on the basis of 21-cm absorption arguments [@caswell]. Other kinematic estimates from the CO radial velocity of the associated molecular cloud [@dame; @furu] are slightly larger, 5 – 6 kpc — still broadly consistent with our result but with larger uncertainties owing to the range of molecular cloud velocities along this sightline. However, our measurement is inconsistent with distances larger than 5 kpc. The main reason why our preferred distance is smaller than that found by @piatti [@carraro], R05, R07, and R11 is that all of these works adopted a standard $R_{V} = 3.1$ which leads to a substantially larger distance. Our adopted distance of 4.16 kpc places Wd2 comfortably within the Carina spiral arm and near the solar circle, about 40% further away than where it is pictured in Figure 3 of the review of massive stellar clusters by @review. Due to the discrepancy between our transformed $UBVI$ photometry and that reported via ground-based observations, as attested in § \[photcomp\], we consider here what would happen if we brighten our flight system photometry by 0.2 magnitudes to achieve better agreement with those works. When such is the case, we find that Wd2 has a slightly smaller reddening, $\langle R_{V} \rangle = 3.60 \pm 0.10$ and $\langle A_{V} \rangle = 6.23 \pm 0.39$. This smaller $A_V$ more than offsets the 0.2 mag photometric correction and yields $\langle DM \rangle = 13.26 \pm 0.03$, and $\langle d \rangle = 4.38 \pm 0.07$ kpc. After corrections for binary stars this becomes $4.73 \pm 0.08$ (random) $ + 0.26$ (systematic) kpc. In summary, the photometric offset compared to other works has only a small impact on the final distance determination. This alternative distance is still much smaller than the “far” distances in the literature, substantially larger than some of the “near” distances, and still broadly consistent with the kinematic distance estimates. Cluster Age {#age} ----------- In Figure \[unred-cmd\] we used the values of Table \[reddening-table\] to deredden all the available photometry from Figure \[cmdccd\], and we compared the data with 1 – 4 Myr isochrones in order to constrain Wd2’s age. From the inspection it becomes evident that isochrones with ages 1 – 3 Myr are degenerate, and it can be “safely” assumed the majority of the stars are dwarf class. The 4 Myr isochrone shows that there should be a population of evolved giant stars that is absent in the data. At the most we can conclude that Wd2 has an age between 1 and 3 Myr. Other authors have determined the same age constraint on the basis of integrated spectra, CMD fitting, and the lack of evolved stars within the cluster [@piatti; @asc]. We attempt here a different kind of age constraint using the size of the cavity carved in the ISM by the winds of massive stars [@churchwell]. @weaver77 derives (Equation 51) the radius of an interstellar bubble as a function of time $t_{6}$ in Myr, ambient density $n_{0}$, and mechanical energy injection $L_{36}$, in units of $10^{36}$ erg s$^{-1}$ . We invert this expression to find $$t_{6} = \left[ \left( \frac{R_{2}(pc)}{27} \right)^{5} \frac{n_{0}}{ L_{36}} \right]^{1/3} Myr.$$ From the angular size of the cavity in Figure \[glimpsergb\] [see also @churchwell] we adopt a radius of $105\arcsec$ or 2.0 pc at the adopted distance. We assume $n_{0} = 10^{5}$ cm$^{-3}$, typical of molecular clouds. Based on the wind speeds and (highly uncertain) mass loss rates for O stars from @mokiem07 we estimate a time-averaged energy injection rate of $L_{36} = 1.0$ from the ensemble of massive stars. The mechanical wind luminosity is dominated by the few most massive stars, so the exact number and type of stars later than about O5 is inconsequential. The resulting expansion timescale of the (still ill-defined) interstellar cavity is $\sim$0.6 Myr, indicating extreme youth, consistent with the abundance of molecular material just outside the cluster core. We caution that the @weaver77 analysis was developed for interstellar bubbles in uniform media and densities more typical of the diffuse ISM. The presence of a radio “blister” structure on the west side of the Wd2 region [@whiteoak77] suggests that the uniform density assumption is not valid and that the bubble may be expanding asymmetrically into a region of lower density on that side. The derived expansion timescale should be considered a lower limit. Conclusions =========== We have used *Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2* imaging to obtain photometry for 1136 stars in the Wd2 field, many of which are blends of multiple sources that are difficult to distinguish using ground-based observations. With *Magellan* and *SOAR* optical spectroscopy we identified fifteen new O-type stars, including two new probable binary systems: \#664 (O3 + O5.5) (MSP 188) and \#714 (O3 + ?). The photometry and spectral type information allowed us to determine the reddening parameters $R_{V}$ and $A_{V}$ individually for the 15 new O stars and 14 additional O stars from the literature. The mean $R_{V}$ of 3.77 is larger than the canonical Galactic value and leads to a larger inferred extinction and a smaller distance modulus compared to most previous studies. Using Padova stellar isochrones we determined a new spectroscopic and photometric distance to Westerlund 2 of $\langle d \rangle = 4.16 \pm 0.06$ (random) $+ 0.26$ (systematic) kpc. In archival *Spitzer GLIMPSE* images we discovered a faint mid-IR PAH ring that surrounds \#889 (MSP 18) which seems to lie at the center of a secondary cluster located $\sim$55 to the north of the cluster core. The distance revision of Wd2 calls into question whether the Wolf-Rayet star WR 20a and the TeV $\gamma$-ray sources HESS J1023–575 and HESS J1023–5746 are indeed cluster members or even located at a similar distance. Our distance determination allows that the HESS objects could be cluster members, but they would be almost twice as luminous when placed at 4.16 kpc instead of 2.4 kpc [@ack]. The distance of 4.16 kpc potentially leaves WR 20a in isolation and calls into question ideas about the formation of massive WR stars. If WR 20a is at a distance of $\sim$8 kpc like @rauw05 [@rauw] and @rauw11 conclude, then, did it form in isolation, and its relative position to Wd2 is just coincidence? It could be argued that neither the WR star nor the $\gamma$-ray sources belong to Wd2. However, if we use R07’s photometry for WR 20a in conjunction with our $R_{V}$ determination, then this star would lie at a distance of $\sim$4.44 kpc, well within the uncertainties of our new distance, thus making its association with Wd2 likely. Our new distance determination also motivates a revision of Wd2’s mass. A distance of 4.16 kpc will revise its mass downward compared to estimates using larger distances and will make Wd2 less comparable to the more massive clusters of the Milky Way. Acknowledgments: We thank Evan Skillman, Daniel Weiss, and Matthew Povich, Giovanni Carraro for helpful discussions throughout this work, and our referee, Anthony Moffat, whose comments improved this article. Our deepest gratitude goes to Andrew Dolphin for his support and help in the *WFPC2* data reduction. The extended *GLIMPSE* team contributed to the scientific motivation for an *HST* study of Wd2. This publication has made use of SAOImage DS9, developed by Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory; and data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. 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R., 1971, , 167, L31 Walborn, N. R., & Fitzpatrick, E. L. 1990, , 102, 379 Walborn, N. R., Howarth, I. D., Lennon, D. J., et al. 2002, , 123, 2754 Weaver, R., McCray, R., Castor, J., Shapiro, P., & Moore, R. 1977, , 218, 377 Westerlund, B. 1961, Arkiv for Astronomi, 2, 419 Whiteoak, J. B., & Gardner, F. F. 1977, Australian Journal of Physics, 30, 187 Whitney, B. A., et al. 2004, , 154, 315 [^1]: [Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with program \# 8zt.]{} [^2]: [This paper includes data gathered with the 6.5 meter Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.]{} [^3]: [Based on observations obtained at the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope, which is a joint project of the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, e Inovação (MCTI) da República Federativa do Brasil, the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and Michigan State University (MSU).]{} [^4]: Unfortunately, *WR 20a* (MSP 240) is saturated on the F555W and F814W images so no photometry is available in those bands. [^5]: An older version of the pipeline, OPUS version 2008\_5c with *calwp2* version 2.5.3 (Sept 4, 2008) produces the same photometry when using *HSTphot*. [^6]: IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. [^7]: http://purcell.as.arizona.edu/wfpc2\_calib/ [^8]: Available from the website: http://stev.oapd.inaf.it/cgi-bin/cmd\_2.2 [^9]: @holtz95 caution that reddening determinations should be made in the *HST* filter system rather than the transformed Landolt *UBVI* system. [^10]: The Padova isochrones are based on the non-overshoot models of ATLAS9 by @castelli, which in turn recommends using @martins05 observational values for O stars to transform effective temperatures and surface gravities into spectral types. We adopt the @martins05 observational calibration.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

ArXiv

345 S.C. 216 (2001) 546 S.E.2d 665 June P. ANDRADE, Appellant, v. Jimmy JOHNSON, Sea Island Air, Inc., and South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., Inc., Defendants, of whom South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., Inc., is Respondent. No. 3321. Court of Appeals of South Carolina. Heard September 12, 2000. Decided March 19, 2001. Rehearing Denied June 11, 2001. *219 J. Brent Kiker and Anne S. Douds, both of Kiker & Douds, of Beaufort, for appellant. A. Parker Barnes, Jr., and David S. Black, both of A. Parker Barnes, Jr. & Associates, of Beaufort, for respondent. STILWELL, Judge. In this action alleging negligence, violation of the South Carolina Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act (UTPA), fraud, and breach of contract, June Andrade appeals the trial court's order which: (1) dismissed her action against South Carolina Electric & Gas which was based on its vicarious or derivative liability due to the negligence of the installer; (2) held SCE&G exempt from the UTPA; and (3) directed a verdict against her on the negligence claims against SCE&G. We affirm in part and reverse in part. FACTS In the fall of 1994, June Andrade decided to replace the existing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system in her Beaufort townhouse and selected two installers from the phone book from which to request estimates. One of these installers was Sea Island Air, which attracted Andrade *220 with its advertisement proclaiming it to be an SCE&G Quality Dealer. After Andrade contacted Sea Island, its president, Jimmy Johnson, visited her at home. Johnson emphasized his SCE&G Quality Dealer designation and described himself as "the biggest dealer in the area." Johnson extolled the virtues of the Quality Dealer program and SCE&G's financing program that was only available to purchasers who used a Quality Dealer as their installer. While Johnson was preparing an estimate for the proposed work, Andrade went to an SCE&G office and obtained a brochure which explained the Great Appliance Trade-Up Program. The brochure explained that to qualify for a special rebate or credit toward the monthly bill, a customer must: Be an electric customer of SCE&G on rates 1, 7, 8 or 9. Purchase one of the high-efficiency units ... and have it installed by an SCE&G Quality Dealer. SCE&G-certified Quality Dealers are the only contractors whose installation work qualifies for rebates in our Great Appliance Trade-Up Program, as well as for special energy rates for the SCE&G Good Cents or Rate 7 homes. Call your local heating and air conditioning contractors to find out if they are certified Quality Dealers. Or call SCE&G for a list of participating dealers in your area. Andrade testified the brochure "confirmed everything that Mr. Johnson had told me, that the only way that I could get into this program sponsored by SCE&G was to go through a Quality Dealer and he was a Quality Dealer." Andrade agreed to have two new HVAC systems installed in her home and experienced difficulty almost immediately. She was initially disappointed when what she described as five or six teenage boys arrived on January 17, 1995 to install the new systems because Johnson had assured her he had a "highly professional team" working for him. These workers used both her bathroom and telephone without permission, played radios loudly and, according to Andrade, "it was just like a party atmosphere." After Andrade complained, an older, more professional crew arrived the following day. *221 The new crew worked for approximately two days, did not complete the installation, and disappeared. Andrade continued to complain to Johnson and SCE&G, but received little if any satisfaction or response to her entreaties from either. Finally, a crew returned, worked sporadically for a week, and concluded their work on February 28, 1995. Andrade immediately observed difficulties with the operation of the system and informed Johnson of the deficiencies. However, she did sign the financing forms authorizing SCE&G to pay Sea Island for the work. She testified she signed the forms even though the systems were not operating properly because Johnson was "very intimidating." Andrade was forced to buy electric heaters to warm her house for the balance of the winter. At Andrade's request, the Beaufort codes department inspected the installation and listed approximately fifteen code violations committed by Sea Island. Andrade also arranged to have the head of the local SCE&G Quality Dealer program inspect the installation. When this proved unproductive, Andrade saw the general manager of SCE&G's Beaufort office and asked him to intervene with Johnson and Sea Island to remedy the problems. When all else failed, Andrade was forced to hire another contractor to remove and replace the systems installed by Sea Island, and to file this suit. Prior to trial, Andrade settled with Johnson and executed a covenant not to sue in his favor. The covenant expressly reserved any and all claims Andrade had against SCE&G. The court granted summary judgment to SCE&G on Andrade's UTPA claim and on her claims based on SCE&G's vicarious or derivative liability. The court directed a verdict in SCE&G's favor on Andrade's remaining causes of action alleging independent negligence and misrepresentation. LAW/ANALYSIS I. Effect of Covenant Not to Sue Andrade first argues the court erred in finding the covenant not to sue released both Jimmy Johnson and SCE&G, therefore granting summary judgment to SCE&G. We disagree. *222 Summary judgment is appropriate when it is clear there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Rule 56(c), SCRCP; see Vermeer Carolina's, Inc. v. Wood/Chuck Chipper Corp., 336 S.C. 53, 59, 518 S.E.2d 301, 304 (Ct.App.1999). In determining whether any triable issue of fact exists such as to preclude summary judgment, the evidence and all inferences reasonably drawn therefrom must be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Strother v. Lexington County Recreation Comm'n, 332 S.C. 54, 61, 504 S.E.2d 117, 121 (1998). In the covenant Andrade agreed to "never institute any action or suit at law or in equity against covenantee, nor ... in any way aid in the institution or prosecution of any claim ... for damages ... or compensation ... arising out of the installation of two Rheem Air Conditioner systems in [Andrade's] home ..." However, in the same document Andrade also reserved "all rights of action, claims, and demands against any and all persons other than [Johnson], including but not limited to South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., Inc. and/or SCANA Corp." A covenant not to sue is an agreement not to sue to enforce a right existing at the time of the making of the agreement. See Wade v. Berkeley County, 339 S.C. 513, 520, 529 S.E.2d 743, 747 (Ct.App.2000). A covenant not to sue is not a release. Id. The common law rule governing releases until relatively recently was that the release of one tortfeasor automatically released all joint tortfeasors. The rule, and the reason for the advent of a covenant not to sue, has been explained as follows: At the base of this rule was the theory that there could be but one compensation for the joint wrong. If the injured party was paid by one of the wrongdoers for the injury he had suffered, each wrongdoer being responsible for the whole damage, his cause of action was satisfied in exchange for a release, and he could not proceed against the others. Thus a release of one joint wrongdoer released all. But when the consideration received for the release was not full compensation for the injury, the purpose for the harsh rule *223 did not exist. To allow for this, the covenant not to sue was developed. Ackerman v. Travelers Indem. Co., 318 S.C. 137, 146-47, 456 S.E.2d 408, 413 (Ct.App.1995) (quoting James W. Logan, Jr., Insurance—Covenant Not to Sue, 21 S.C. L.Rev. 282 (1969)). Our supreme court in Bartholomew v. McCartha changed the common law rule. 255 S.C. 489, 491-92, 179 S.E.2d 912, 913-14 (1971). The court held unless it was the intention of the parties, or the plaintiff had received full compensation amounting to a satisfaction, the release of one tortfeasor did not release others who wrongfully contributed to the plaintiffs injuries. Id. at 492, 179 S.E.2d at 914. This principle was codified in the South Carolina Contribution Among Tortfeasors Act (UCATA).[1] Andrade argues this provision prohibits the release of SCE&G and urges this court to expand the definition of tortfeasor under the UCATA to include vicariously liable parties. We decline to do so. Other jurisdictions are divided as to whether a covenant not to sue a primarily liable party while reserving rights against a secondarily liable party preserves causes of action against the latter. See generally Vitauts M. Gulbis, Annotation, Release of, or Covenant Not to Sue, One Primarily Liable for Tort, But Expressly Reserving Rights Against One Secondarily Liable, as Bar to Recovery Against Latter. 24 A.L.R.4th 547, 552 (1983). Courts that hold a covenant not to sue a primarily liable party discharges the secondarily liable party have generally *224 fallen into one of the following categories: (1) courts that find the agreement discharges the primary liability and thus extinguishes the secondary liability;[2] (2) courts that find the secondarily liable party's right to indemnification renders the covenant illusory;[3] and (3) courts that hold the secondarily liable party is not a true tortfeasor.[4] While some of the cases on this subject deal with covenants not to sue and others with releases, this distinction should not be the determining factor in the end result. The most important factor is the type of liability and the relationship inter se of the various allegedly liable parties rather than the type of document used to discharge liability. It must be determined whether the liability arises only vicariously because of the negligence of another party or whether the parties are true joint tortfeasors, both being independently negligent toward the third party. In Craven v. Lawson, the Tennessee Supreme Court concluded that the UCATA is not applicable to cases involving indemnity resulting from vicarious liability. 534 S.W.2d 653, 656 (Tenn.1976). The court concluded the UCATA did not apply to situations involving vicarious liability such as that between master and servant. The court recognized "the right of the master or principal to obtain indemnity from the servant or agent in a derivative liability situation. Where the right of full indemnity exists between persons liable in tort, no right of contribution exists." Id. at 656 (emphasis added) (citation omitted). Both the Tennessee and South Carolina versions of the UCATA specifically preserve the common law rule relating to indemnity.[5] *225 However, there is division even among jurisdictions that have adopted the UCATA. Some jurisdictions have construed the act's definition of "tortfeasor" to include parties that are liable vicariously and have then applied other provisions of the act to prevent the release of the secondarily liable party. See generally Yates v. New South Pizza, Ltd., 330 N.C. 790, 412 S.E.2d 666 (1992) (holding plaintiff could maintain action against employer based on respondeat superior after executing covenant not to sue in favor of negligent employee pursuant to North Carolina's UCATA statute). Indemnity has been defined as "[a] contractual or equitable right under which the entire loss is shifted from a tortfeasor who is only technically or passively at fault to another who is primarily or actively responsible." Black's Law Dictionary 769 (6th ed.1990) (emphasis added). In contrast, "contribution" is defined as the: [r]ight of one who has discharged a common liability to recover of another also liable, the aliquot portion which he ought to pay or bear. Under principle of `contribution,' a tort-feasor against whom a judgment is rendered is entitled to recover proportional shares of judgment from other joint tort-feasors whose negligence contributed to the injury and who were also liable to the plaintiff. Id. at 328. In South Carolina, a master or principal only vicariously liable does not have an aliquot or proportional portion he or she ought to pay, but rather may shift the entire loss to the servant or agent actively responsible, and may recover in full from the servant. See Sky City Stores v. Gregg Sec. Servs., 276 S.C. 556, 558, 280 S.E.2d 807, 808 (1981); Addy v. Bolton, 257 S.C. 28, 34, 183 S.E.2d 708, 710 (1971); Johnson v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 142 S.C. 125, 141, 140 S.E. 443, 448 (1927); Bell v. Clinton Oil Mill, 129 S.C. 242, 256-57, 124 S.E. 7, 12 (1924); Humphries v. Whitlock Combing Co., 309 S.C. 356, 359-60, 422 S.E.2d 154, 156-57 (Ct.App.1992); South *226 Carolina Ins. Co. v. James C. Greene & Co., 290 S.C. 171, 186, 348 S.E.2d 617, 625-26 (Ct.App.1986). When Andrade issued a covenant not to sue in Johnson's favor, any claims she had against him were terminated. Thus, SCE&G's derivative liability based upon Johnson's conduct was extinguished. Were we to find the covenant released Johnson but not SCE&G, it would necessarily follow that SCE&G could seek indemnification from Johnson and recover the entire amount of any verdict against it from him. This would effectively strip the covenant not to sue of any real meaning and result in what the court in Nelson v. Gillette described as a "corrosive circle of indemnity." 571 N.W.2d 332, 339 (N.D.1997). The right of contribution exists only in situations involving joint tortfeasors. See Vermeer, 336 S.C. at 64, 518 S.E.2d at 307 ("Under South Carolina law, there can be no indemnity among mere joint tortfeasors.") (emphasis added). The corollary of this proposition is that the right of indemnity exists only in vicarious liability situations, and there is no right to contribution between such parties. See Craven, 534 S.W.2d at 656 ("Where the right of full indemnity exists between persons liable in tort, no right of contribution exists."); see also § 15-38-20(F). Thus, the UCATA controls only in situations involving joint tortfeasors. Just as the Tennessee version of the UCATA statute discussed in Craven, South Carolina law does not change the common law of indemnity. See § 15-38-20(F). The common law of this state provides that a covenant not to sue an employee operates as an acquittal of the employer who is only derivatively liable. "[A] covenant not to sue, which ordinarily does not release another joint-tortfeasor from liability, does operate as a release of the master, liable only under respondeat superior, if given to the servant responsible." Seaboard Air Line R.R. v. Coastal Distrib., 273 F.Supp. 340, 343 (D.S.C.1967); see Wade, 339 S.C. at 520, 529 S.E.2d at 747 (stating "`a covenant not to sue is ... merely an agreement not to enforce an existing cause of action, and, although it may operate as a release between the parties to the agreement, it will not release a claim against joint obligors or joint tortfeasors' ") (quoting 76 C.J.S. Release § 4 (1994)). *227 We hold the covenant not to sue issued in favor of Johnson, the agent, released SCE&G, the vicariously liable principal. In conclusion, we note even were we to expand the definition of tortfeasor as North Carolina has done, we find the UCATA simply is not applicable to cases involving indemnity. Consequently, contribution cases cited by Andrade in support of her argument are inapposite to the facts of this case. Thus, we affirm the grant of summary judgment to SCE&G on this issue. II. Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act Andrade next argues the trial court erred in finding SCE&G was exempt from the UTPA, S.C.Code Ann. §§ 39-5-10 to -160 (1985 & Supp.2000), and in subsequently granting SCE&G's motion for summary judgment on this cause of action. We agree. The UTPA declares unlawful "[u]nfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce. ..." S.C.Code Ann. § 39-5-20(a) (1985). Trade and commerce includes "the advertising, offering for sale, sale or distribution of any services. ..." S.C.Code Ann. § 39-5-10(b) (1985). Section 39-5-40 governs exemptions from the act and states in part: Nothing in this article shall apply to: (a) Actions or transactions permitted under laws administered by any regulatory body or officer acting under statutory authority of this State or the United States or actions or transactions permitted by any other South Carolina State law. S.C.Code Ann. § 39-5-40 (1985). This section has been interpreted to exempt actions or transactions allowed or authorized by regulatory agencies or by other statutes. Taylor v. Medenica, 324 S.C. 200, 218, 479 S.E.2d 35, 44 (1996); see Ward v. Dick Dyer & Assocs., 304 S.C. 152, 156, 403 S.E.2d 310, 312 (1991) (stating only those activities that are specifically authorized by a regulation or another statute are exempt from the UTPA); Carr v. United Van Lines, Inc., 289 S.C. 194, 199, 345 S.E.2d 734, 737 (Ct.App.1986) (holding transaction involved was exempt under the UTPA because the action was authorized *228 under regulations and tariffs administered by the Interstate Commerce Commission); Trident Neuro-Imaging Lab. v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of South Carolina, Inc., 568 F.Supp. 1474, 1483 (D.S.C.1983) (concluding Blue Cross was exempt under the UTPA because the South Carolina Commission on Insurance specifically approved Blue Cross' exclusion of coverage on physician-owned CAT scans). In support of its summary judgment motion based on its alleged exemption under the UTPA, SCE&G presented a copy of the June 7, 1993 order from the South Carolina Public Service Commission approving SCE&G's application for a rate increase. The order indicates the PSC is required by section 58-37-20 of the South Carolina Energy Conservation and Efficiency Act of 1992 to encourage utilities to invest in costeffective energy-efficient technologies and energy conservation programs. Andrade argues that in regard to the Quality Dealer Program, "[t]he PSC Order did not specifically authorize the program ..." We agree. We find the thrust of the PSC's order deals primarily with SCE&G's rate structure. The order does not specifically authorize, regulate, or describe how the Quality Dealer Program should be designed or implemented. In fact, the words "Quality Dealer Program" are not specifically mentioned anywhere in the PSC's lengthy order. The order does discuss expenses allocated to SCE&G's demand-side management programs which are "designed to either reduce energy demand (kw), reduce energy usage (kwh) or to shift usage to non-peak periods, increasing efficiency, thereby reducing SCE&G's requirements to build new capacity." SCE&G's Great Appliance Trade-Up program is one such demand-side management program.[6] However, in the *229 supplemental stipulation of the PSC staff and SCE&G, the Quality Dealer Program is not listed as one of SCE&G's demand-side management programs. Even if the PSC's order can be construed as authorizing the program, it falls far short of providing any regulatory control over its creation or implementation. Thus, while the PSC noted Quality Dealers would install the air conditioners, it neither defined what a Quality Dealer was nor placed criteria upon the selection of Quality Dealers. SCE&G submitted an affidavit from David Butler, General Counsel for the PSC, in support of its motion for summary judgment. Butler stated the PSC would investigate any complaint filed regarding the Quality Dealer Program and take the appropriate action. However, this investigation would be based on: (1) the PSC's general power to supervise and regulate the rates of public utilities under S.C.Code Ann. § 58-3-140 (Supp.2000), and (2) the required compliance of electric utilities with the PSC's orders pursuant to S.C.Code Ann. § 58-27-40 (1977). It apparently would not take place pursuant to any preauthorized plan of regulating or controlling the Quality Dealer Program. These sections cited by SCE&G and the PSC's order are broad grants of authority and too general for us to conclude as a matter of law that the Quality Dealer Program was specifically authorized by an agency or by a statute to such an extent that it should be exempt from the provisions of the UTPA. In Taylor, the court found that a medical laboratory's conduct in billing for numerous medically unwarranted tests was not exempt under the UTPA. 324 S.C. at 218, 479 S.E.2d. at 44. Similarly, we find the PSC's order indicating that SCE&G was directed to create a program encouraging energy conservation and efficiency does not exempt SCE&G's conduct in allegedly failing to oversee its Quality Dealer Program, a program it created pursuant to general statutory and regulatory directions. In the final analysis, SCE&G had discretion in creating the Quality Dealer Program and in determining the qualifications for and criteria of those selected as Quality *230 Dealers thereunder. We therefore reverse the grant of summary judgment in favor of SCE&G on this issue. III. Directed Verdict on Negligence Andrade contends the trial court erred in granting SCE&G a directed verdict on her negligence cause of action. We agree. "When this court reviews a grant of directed verdict, the evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom must be viewed in the light most favorable to the nonprevailing party." Davis v. Tripp, 338 S.C. 226, 238, 525 S.E.2d 528, 534 (Ct.App.1999). "If the evidence is susceptible to more than one reasonable inference, the case should be submitted to the jury." Id. (quoting Quesinberry v. Rouppasong, 331 S.C. 589, 594, 503 S.E.2d 717, 720 (1998)). "The elements for a cause of action for the tort of negligence are: (1) a duty owed to the plaintiff by the defendant, (2) a breach of that duty by the defendant, and (3) damages proximately resulting from the breach of duty." Hubbard v. Taylor, 339 S.C. 582, 588, 529 S.E.2d 549, 552 (2000). To maintain a negligence action, the defendant must owe a legal duty of care to the plaintiff. Id. Duty is generally defined as "the obligation to conform to a particular standard of conduct toward another." Id. (quoting Shipes v. Piggly Wiggly St. Andrews, Inc., 269 S.C. 479, 483, 238 S.E.2d 167, 168 (1977)). "The existence of a duty owed is a question of law for the courts." Washington v. Lexington County Jail, 337 S.C. 400, 405, 523 S.E.2d 204, 206 (Ct.App.1999). As the court in Hubbard stated, "an affirmative legal duty to act may be created by statute, contract, relationship, status, property interest, or some other special circumstance." 339 S.C. at 589, 529 S.E.2d at 552 (emphasis added). Andrade argues the court erred in holding SCE&G did not owe her a duty under the Quality Dealer Program. Viewing the record in the light most favorable to Andrade, we agree. The evidence[7] raises the inference SCE&G owed a *231 duty of care to Andrade to ensure the proper installation of her HVAC systems. SCE&G's Quality Dealer Program Guidelines stated "SCE&G's HVAC Quality Dealer Program is designed to encourage proper installation of high efficiency heating and cooling systems. The program incorporates high standards of system design, installation, and maintenance." (emphasis added). Under the agreement between SCE&G and its Quality Dealers, the Quality Dealers agreed to meet and adhere to all installation requirements, mediation procedures, and to abide by the inspection policy. In turn, SCE&G agreed to promote high efficiency HVAC equipment and quality HVAC installations to its customers. The program agreement further contained a long list of installation requirements that must be met by each Quality Dealer.[8] The agreement also required Quality Dealers to have certain credentials, provide prompt service to all customers, and to participate in yearly training provided by SCE&G. The agreement further committed SCE&G to a specific procedure involving mediation toward the handling of customer complaints which set forth specific requirements for certain action to be taken and concluded that discrepancies were expected to be corrected within thirty days after their report. We conclude the Quality Dealer Agreement provides evidence of a contractual duty undertaken by SCE&G to oversee the proper installation of HVAC systems and to address customer complaints regarding improper installation. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Andrade, we find the trial court committed reversible error in granting SCE&G a directed verdict on Andrade's negligence claim. *232 For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the trial court is hereby AFFIRMED IN PART AND REVERSED IN PART. HOWARD and SHULER, JJ., concur. NOTES [1] S.C.Code Ann. §§ 15-38-10 to -70 (Supp.2000). Section 15-38-50 provides: When a release or a covenant not to sue or not to enforce judgment is given in good faith to one of two or more persons liable in tort for the same injury or the same wrongful death: (1) it does not discharge any of the other tortfeasors from liability for the injury or wrongful death unless its terms so provide, but it reduces the claim against the others to the extent of any amount stipulated by the release or the covenant, or in the amount of the consideration paid for it, whichever is the greater; and (2) it discharges the tortfeasor to whom it is given from all liability for contribution to any other tortfeasor. S.C.Code Ann. § 15-38-50 (emphasis added). [2] See, e.g., Simpson v. Townsley, 283 F.2d 743 (10th Cir.1960) (holding exoneration of primary liability removed basis for imputation of negligence). [3] See, e.g., Holmstead v. Abbott G.M. Diesel, Inc., 27 Utah 2d 109, 493 P.2d 625 (1972) (finding covenant would not serve its purpose because of master's right to indemnity). [4] See, e.g., Bacon v. United States, 321 F.2d 880 (8th Cir.1963) (stating secondarily liable employer was not a true joint tortfeasor and thus, covenant not to sue employee released employer). [5] South Carolina law provides: This chapter does not impair any right of indemnity under existing law. Where one tortfeasor is entitled to indemnity from another, the right of the indemnity obligee is for indemnity and not contribution, and the indemnity obligor is not entitled to contribution from the obligee for any portion of his indemnity obligation. S.C.Code Ann. § 15-38-20(F) (Supp.2000). [6] The evidence shows SCE&G considered the Quality Dealer Program a separate program from the Great Appliance Trade-up Program because it had a separate agreement with its Quality Dealers, as well as descriptions of the program. For example, in the Great Appliance Trade-Up Program Training Guidelines for Quality Dealers, SCE&G provided the following guidelines for its Quality Dealers: Receiving Training Credit 1. Quality Dealers must install Heat Pumps which meet the 1993 GATU Program guidelines. 2. Installations must meet the Quality Dealer Program guidelines (emphasis added). [7] Andrade's brief discusses evidence proffered but not admitted at trial. The depositions discussed during argument to the trial court are not included in the record. Consequently, we have not considered such evidence in our deliberations. [8] Andrade testified fifteen code violations occurred as a result of Sea Island's faulty installation of her HVAC systems. In the SCE&Quality Dealer agreement, SCE&G instructed the Quality Dealers to "[s]elect and install systems and accessory equipment in accordance with all local, state and national codes." (emphasis added).

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

FreeLaw

Water security is one of the most intractable challenges confronting Asia’s future. It is widely recognised that climate change combined with other stress factors relating to population growth, urbanisation, and unsustainable development are leading to negative impacts on the availability and quality of the region’s water resources. Equally worrying are the lack of formal multilateral mechanisms to encourage water sharing on a region-wide basis. Under these conditions, the potential exists for water conflicts to escalate, and even the spectre of water wars between states seems possible. But a worst-case scenario is by no means inevitable. A critical question is whether Asia’s emerging powers – China and India – will take a leadership role in building cooperation. Collectively the rivers flowing from the Himalayan-Hindu Kush constitute the lifelines of South and East Asia, sustaining the world’s largest irrigation systems and providing food, energy, and water for up to 40 per cent of the world’s population. The region as a whole contains 27 percent of the world’s freshwater with an average per capita supply of only 2,870 cubic metres per annum – the lowest of any continent. It is easy to think in Malthusian terms of a rising population and dwindling resources. But the situation is more complex. Home to a diversity of ecosystems and agro-climatic conditions that range from vast drought prone areas to flood affected plains and areas with the highest rainfall in the world, this is a region of both abundance and scarcity. As noted by the eminent Indian water specialist, Ramaswany Iyer, “scarcity is a problem, but a greater problem is how we manage the water we have.” In recent years, collaborative scientific investigations have advanced our understanding of the region’s hydrological cycle, although limits on open access data constrain research on transboundary water flows. Knowledge on consumption patterns, withdrawals, and sector usage is also increasing slowly over time. Some of the most useful studies are interdisciplinary in nature, seeking to identify the linkages between geophysical processes and land use change. However, significant gaps exist in understanding the inter-relationships between science, politics, and diplomacy. From this perspective, three fundamental factors define water as a critical security challenge: First, increasing competition over water use is a major driver of conflict. At all levels, from the local to the international, conflicts are usually triggered by competition over water use. Whereas historically water has been predominantly used for navigational and agricultural purposes, it is now used more for hydropower. In an era of resource competition, the trade-offs between water, food, and energy security are becoming more acute. Some of the most intense conflicts over water occur domestically as in the case of the dispute between the Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the sharing of the Cauvery waters. Second, climate change is creating uncertainty over water distribution. Climate is a natural driver of the hydrological system. It affects water resources by melting glaciers, altering rainfall patterns, or exacerbating water-related disasters such as floods and droughts. It is increasingly clear that climate change is now damaging the seasonal regulating capacity of glacial water flows. Evidence also suggests that a weaker Monsoon is occurring during the dry season. In general, over the past decade, annual mean rainfall has declined in north and northeast China, the arid plains of Pakistan, and northeast India. An increase in extreme rainfall has occurred in parts of India, Nepal, and Bangladesh as well as in western and southern parts of China. Third, geopolitical tensions undermine the potential for transboundary cooperation. The essence of the regional security problem lies in the fact that the Himalayan waters cross disputed political boundaries and flow through conflict prone regions – the Yarlung Tsangpo/Brahmaputra flows through Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh and the Indus flows through Jammu and Kashmir before entering Pakistan and Afghanistan. The bordering states of Northeast India and Southwest China are resource rich, politically unstable, and economically poor. To stimulate development, these regions are now involved in a dam building frenzy. Recent tensions between China and India over the planned damming of the Brahmaputra are but one example of how the quest for clean energy resources is leading to a spiral of fear and contestation between riparian states. While all riparian states share a common interest in strengthening cooperation, China and India are likely to play a defining role in the region’s water future. These emerging global powers are the largest hydrostates in the world with considerable leverage in global and regional institutions. On the surface, political tensions over Tibet, China’s support for Pakistan, and the Sino-Indian border dispute appear to undermine prospects for joint water stewardship. At a deeper level, it is evident that national, and regional interests are more aligned. Asia’s rising powers in the 21st Century are not simply reliant on economic growth and military modernisation; they also need to respond to systemic problems relating to water, energy, and food. The key to unlocking the water and conflict dynamic lies in the realisation that water is not exogenous to national security. Safe access to water is central to long term economic development, inter-ethnic reconciliation, and regional peace and stability. A central question remains: Is the impetus to control waters likely to determine the region’s future, or will a longer-term vision prevail? Katherine Morton is Senior Fellow, Department of International Relations, The Australian National University. Image credit: CC by runner PL/Flickr One thought on “Transnational Water Security in Asia: A Leadership Role for Rising Powers?” excellent post by Kathy Morton. Readers might like to know that transboundary water, cooperation, lack of it and related matters are covered on http://www.thethirdpole.net and on wwww.chinadialogue.net. Readers and contributors welcome.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is a future Hall of Famer, a six-time Super Bowl champion and has been the big game's MVP four times -- but there's one title he says he's not playing for: G.O.A.T. Brady, 41, told Michael Strahan on "Good Morning America" that he would rather be criticized than complimented as the "Greatest Of All Time." “A lot of people, myself included, call you the G.O.A.T., the greatest of all time,” Strahan told Brady on Tuesday. PATRIOTS' DURON HARMON TO SKIP WHITE HOUSE VISIT, SAYS IT 'WOULD BE DOPE' TO MEET WITH OBAMA INSTEAD “I don’t even like it,” Brady responded. “It makes me cringe.” He added: “I wish you would say, ‘You’re trash, you’re too old, you’re too slow, you can’t get it done no more.' And I would say, ‘Thank you very much, I’m going to prove you wrong.’” “You’re driven by criticism more than you’re driven by success?” Strahan asked. “Yeah, absolutely,” Brady replied. BROS GOTTA BRO: GRONK, IN GRONK STYLE, CELEBRATES PATRIOTS' 6TH SUPER BOWL WIN Strahan, the former New York Giants defensive end, asked Brady how old he would be before he threw in the towel and retired from football. “50 is too long, I think 45 is the goal,” the quarterback said, referring to his age. Brady, so far, isn't showing signs of slowing down, securing his latest Super Bowl victory Sunday in a 13-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams. Along with earning a ring, he became the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl at age 41. He's now won a Super Bowl in his 20s, 30s and 40s.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

OpenWebText2

Discover Find Work Looking for Android wallpaper source code Workers or Work? Need help with Android wallpaper source code? Hire a freelancer today! Do you specialise in Android wallpaper source code? Use your Android wallpaper source code skills and start making money online today! Freelancer is the largest marketplace for jobs in the world. There are currently 17,764 jobs waiting for you to start work on! We need graphic assets (Wallpaper, decals) in bulk quantities. The number could be in the range of 2000-5000. The content should not be directly bought/copied from Shutterstock and other such sites. Only reply with your quotes (Per hour basis/Project basis). We are currently a successful store that has been running for 27 years. We are now extending our shop into a Local Department Store, growing in size (approx 400 sqm) and specialising even futher in all the fields mentioned below: -Stationery - Back 2 School -Office Supplies -News Agent -Art/Craft and Hobby -Party Items -Toys -House Hold Gifts -Seasonal Gifts - Mothers Day, Christmas, Eas... I need a website gathers wedding wedding gown (bridal dress) sellers&designers and brides. The basic idea is similar to this website that gathers designers and requesters. The sellers and customers will have profiles. With this profiles, the customers can comment about sellers. The admin will be able to approve the memberships and also comments to be shown. There will be a contract to be acce... We need a simple yet attractive logo featuring the words "Alice Wondervan" and some or all of the key themes below to become the brand of our tastefully renovated and restored huge retro/vintage caravan - "Alice Wondervan". It will need to appeal to the van’s minimalist retro/vintage style and its target audience of fun-loving twenty-thirty-somethings seeking to “fi... Nice to e-meet you, I am Carole, Talent & Quality Manager at TextMaster. TextMaster is the leading online professional translation service available entirely online. We combine advanced technology with a network of verified expert translators in over 50 languages. We work with native professional translators only and in various domains. Projects from German into UK English are regula... Be creative and create an cool wallpaper background using the colours / parts of our logo or the logo itself (without text). Please have in mind that we want to print and apply it afterwards so it should be scalable (vector file). I need a upgraded icon of my existing app icon. 1. Use rectangular layouts similar to originals because it is a mobile/pc wallpaper application icon. here rectangular = Mobile Screen 2. Use nice colors which is there in my uploaded two photo icon...or nice(better) colors combination like that........i have uploaded it for reference. 3. layers should be transparent like example file uploa... Hello, We are looking for an individual who can source pictures of video games, edit them and resize them to our specification. We are are retail video games company. We are looking for a vertical (1050 px w x 1500 px h) and horizontal (500px w x 247 px h) game covers, 5 x game screenshots (1920 x 1080 px) and a wallpaper (1920px x 1080 px) for each video game. There will be a few hundred... Need a wallpaper app designed like Backgrounds HD: [url removed, login to view] Also need an admin panel so I can upload the wallpapers. Need many more in the future, Please state your quotes, I'll select the cheapest and best developer for this. i would like the ONLY THE following items to consist of a corporate identity branding set in a sleek simplistic modern design i have added previous versions of my business cards to take inspiration from i have also attached ai version of the logo the Items which i would like for the Corporate identity set are as follows 1 Business card 2 PC screen background wallpaper 3D 3 Letterhead 4 USB... We are a business publication out of Toronto. We have a functioning Wordpress site that we recently migrated to, we need help making sure all the functionality is up to par and that the following elements work on our site smoothly. Web Ads (leaderboards, big box, etc.) • Wallpaper Advertising • Email Subscription • Magazine Subscription (paid) • Social Media Integration... I need an Android app. I would like it designed and built. Objective Of The Proposed Application 1. Write On Photos & create a stunning portfolios of your writings. 2. Make your quotes google searchable. 3. Claim your copyrights, credit and followers. 4. Best place to find great writers. 5. Crosspost across platforms. 6. For English and Hindi Language. User Module(Functions user ca...

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

GEN News Highlights In a side-by-side comparison, a noninvasive, multitarget stool DNA test proved to be more sensitive than a fecal immunochemical test (FIT). This result, published March 19 in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that the DNA test, which includes quantitative molecular assays for genetic abnormalities related to cancer, could significantly improve the effectiveness of colon cancer screening. The FIT test detects hidden blood in the stool, a potential signal for cancer. In contrast, the DNA test includes quantitative molecular assays for KRAS mutations, aberrant NDRG4 and BMP3 methylation, and β-actin, plus a hemoglobin immunoassay. The effectiveness of the DNA test was established in a study that evaluated nearly 10,000 asymptomatic patients who were deemed to be at average risk of developing colorectal cancer. It turned out that 65 (0.7%) of these patients had colorectal cancer, and 757 (7.6%) had advanced precancerous lesions. When these patients were screened, the study determined that the sensitivity for detecting colorectal cancer was 92.3% with DNA testing and 73.8% with FIT. The investigators who evaluated the DNA and FIT tests published their results in an article entitled “Multitarget Stool DNA Testing for Colorectal-Cancer Screening,” which indicated that “sensitivity is the most important characteristic for screening tests because the primary role of such testing is to rule out diseases such as cancer.” Other results related to sensitivity were as follows: “The sensitivity for detecting advanced precancerous lesions was 42.4% with DNA testing and 23.8% with FIT. The rate of detection of polyps with high-grade dysplasia was 69.2% with DNA testing and 46.2% with FIT.” The study added that although high sensitivity is the most important attribute of cancer-screening tests, specificity is also important, since it affects the number of persons who have positive test results, a majority of whom will have false-positive results because of the low prevalence of cancer: “The specificity of FIT (94.9 to 96.4%) was superior to that of the DNA test (86.6 to 89.8%), with false positive rates of 3.6 to 5.1% and 10.2 to 13.4%, respectively.” The article was accompanied by an editorial entitled “Stool DNA and Colorectal-Cancer Screening.” It took note of the specificity issue and raised a couple of additional caveats: “First, the number of participants who were excluded from the study because of problems with sample collection or assay application was far greater in the stool DNA group. Given that colorectal cancer was detected in nearly 1 of 154 participants on colonoscopy, it is possible that four cancers would have been missed simply because of the complexity of the test. Second, this study compared only the one-time sensitivity of these two tests. Given the lower specificity and greater expense of stool DNA testing as compared with FIT, it is unlikely that the test would be performed annually in the way that FIT testing is recommended.” Nonetheless, the editorial (by a pair of authors affiliated with the Veterans Administration) concluded that the “new multitarget stool DNA test is clearly an improvement over its predecessors, and the results of this study will help to inform the current effort of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to reevaluate screening tests.” A press release issued by the Mayo Clinic emphasized the development of the DNA test, which is called Cologuard. “Cologuard detection rates of early-stage cancer and high-risk precancerous polyps validated in this large study were outstanding and have not been achieved by other noninvasive approaches,” said David Ahlquist, M.D., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist, co-inventor of the Cologuard test, and one of the study’s authors. “It is our hope that this accurate and user-friendly test will expand screening effectiveness and help curb colorectal cancer rates in much the same way as regular Pap smear screening has done for cervical cancer.” Exact Sciences, the co-developer of Cologuard, is in the process of seeking approval from the FDA for the use of the DNA test for colorectal cancer screening. The company is scheduled to appear before the Molecular and Clinical Genetics Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee on March 27. Jobs GEN Jobs powered by HireLifeScience.com connects you directly to employers in pharma, biotech, and the life sciences. View 40 to 50 fresh job postings daily or search for employment opportunities including those in R&D, clinical research, QA/QC, biomanufacturing, and regulatory affairs. If you have any questions about your subscription, click hereto email us or call at (914) 740-2189. You may also be interested in subscribing to the GEN magazine, an indispensable resource for everyone involved in the business of translating discoveries at the bench into solutions that fight disease and improve health, agriculture, and the environment. Subscribe today to see why over 60,000 biotech professionals read GEN to keep current in the areas of genomics, proteomics, drug discovery, biomarker discovery, bioprocessing, molecular diagnostics, collaborations, biotech business trends, and more.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

While technically a spoiler for those who have not seen lase week’s episode of Game of Thrones, there was little doubt that Jon Snow would return in some form. While he has returned to life, so far all we have seen is his eyes open and beyond that he might not be entirely the same. Vulture looks at some of the possibilities, including that his wounds might never heal or that he might not have his memories. They also speculate that his death might have terminated his vow to to the Night’s Watch which “shall not end until my death.” If so, this would allow him to take other roles, such as leading the North and/or returning to aide the surviving Starks. Regardless of what happens to him, Kit Harrington is happy that he no longer has to lie to everyone. Orphan Black started out the season with a bit of a reboot and simplification of all the various conspiracies. The show is always at its best in dealing with the characters as opposed to overly complex conspiracies. While Tatiana Maslany is generally the show, supporting characters do have a lot to add, such as seeing Donny and Felix posing as a gay couple as part of the investigation of one of those conspiracies. It got even better when Donnie called Alison to help him provide a sperm specimen with phone sex in yet another classic scene in this series. Person of Interest returned for its final season on CBS. A sneak peak from Comic-Con is above. The AV Club spoke with executive produces Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman. Here is a portion: The A.V. Club:Since the beginning, this show that’s ostensibly been about artificial intelligence is really about human connection. What’s it like to thread that needle and how has it evolved over time? Jonathan Nolan: It’s a great question. And it’s a big challenge. I remember Greg and I talking from the beginning about the collision between the more esoteric ideas in the pilot and how we were going to draw emotions and humanism and a recurring interest from the audience out of all those ideas. There are a lot of ideas in the show, and it’s something I’m very proud of. It’s funny, it’s not a normal show for CBS, but people kind of found it, which is exciting. That link between the big ideas of the show and the characters—we’ve concentrated on it so hard from the beginning, because we wanted to explore all these crazy ideas about the surveillance state, big data, and AI—and the collision of all of that on a personal level. And from the beginning, I’ve felt like there was a great connection there between big data and the kind of “normal” violent crimes that you find in a major city like New York. I’m just kind of fascinated by the idea of the collision of all of those things. But the thing that people keep tuning in for is the characters. Week in, week out, you’re looking not for ideas, necessarily, although it’s great when your shows have ideas in them, but for the characters to become extended family. Especially in broadcast TV, that’s what happens on that level: When you’re on weekly, your characters come back and you connect with them every week. So, as you said, threading that needle becomes the challenge throughout all five seasons. AVC:One of the great things is how you were able to connect to The Machine, even on a very personal level. The Machine was gendered female, whereas Samaritan has stayed relatively genderless. Can you expand on that? JN: I think the gender question, you know, they’re obviously connected. If you want to understand the impact that any SI, or super intelligence, will have—and it’s pat, but it’s accurate—but it’s as if there were no gods and we made them, right? God has often been gendered in the West in a masculine light, which is absurd, but it evolved sort of organically, talking about The Machine as a person. Finch always referred to The Machine as “it” or a thing, but for Root there’s always been more of a personal connection there, a belief in The Machine as a being. So her personification of it—sadly, in the West, we have to gender things to personify them—it seemed most apt that she would think of it in those terms. There’s also something else we’re doing with that: If you’ve paid close attention to the show and where we’re going, there’s a little bit of foreshadowing there as well. AVC:It seems as though The Machine went through a rebellion phase when it really started to only speak through Root. Will this season be about The Machine becoming more mature in that sense and answering to everybody? JN: I’m picturing a hormonal artificial super intelligence. Greg, what are you thinking? Greg Plageman: I think the interesting relationship for me is Harold Finch and his creation. And there’s always been a troubling conundrum for Finch, building this thing that’s so powerful yet that could overtake us. He’s never been quite comfortable with the idea of an ASI—building something that’s more intelligent than us and us expecting that we could still actually control it. So he’s always had that dilemma that he’s been grappling with, and that caused him to put a limiter on The Machine. What Root has always implored Harold Finch to do is take the gloves off the thing because we’re losing—we’re losing to a much more diabolical creation. So I think the evolution of that relationship of Harold Finch and his machine this season, in terms of reconstituting it, and how it’s going to be different this time, it’s almost like, what’s the point? What’s the point, Harold, if you’re going to put a limiter on this thing all over again, as Root has always told him in terms of her wanting to let this thing go and to see what it can do. It becomes an exploration of Harold Finch’s character that I think the audience is going to find very fascinating. AVC:Do you think that if we had been watching the team behind Samaritan from the beginning, rather than the team behind The Machine, that we would be pro-Samaritan? JN: I think that’s one of the delicious things about what we’ve been doing with this storyline and where we’ve gone with it in this last season. I’m always most excited about and drawn to villains who have a point of view and have a plan. One of the most exciting things about The Joker in The Dark Knight is, he may be a villain in your eyes, but he’s the only person who hasn’t broken his own rules. Everyone else has, everyone else has corrupted themselves, but he’s in many ways one of the most ethical people in the film in terms of their own ideas. He had an idea, and it drives the story forward. We applied a similar approach here, but even more rationally. A lot of things that Samaritan espouses are believed by the people who work for Samaritan, the same way that I’m sure people who work for Facebook don’t believe that they’re working for the company that will destroy the world. But, you know, they are. And everyone gets through the day rationalizing their own existence. GP: It’s sort of fascinating right now what’s happening in Russia with Putin’s control of the media and the way the everyday Russian views the West now or the United States. It just depends on who’s telling the story. There was a moment where Root met Greer and he sort of said these things to her: “You and I are not all that unalike.” CBS has not decided yet about renewing Supergirl, with cost being an issue. Ideas being considered include moving the show to Vancouver and airing fewer episodes. It might also move to CW with the other Berlantiverse shows. (If necessary to make room for all the superhero shows, I’d suggest cancelling Legends of Tomorrow and airing Supergirl instead). At ABC, it has not been decided whether to return Agent Carter or go ahead with Marvel’s Most Wanted. If they don’t air the second, I wonder if they would write Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood back into Agents of SHIELD. With the way they were written out, it wouldn’t be hard for Coulson to decide he doesn’t care what the Russians think and bring them back–especially as they are operating secretly. We should have news on May 17 from ABC. Needless to say, there has been a lot out in the past week on the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the release of Captain America: Civil War. To avoid spoilers I will postpone discussing this until a later date. Here is one link of interest–the backstory from the comics of the history of fights between Captain American and Iron-Man. CBS All Access remains on track to begin the new Star Trek series in January, 2017. They will be releasing one episode per week. Hulu will be showing a ten-episode miniseries based upon Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale in 2017. It will star Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men) had will be written by Bruce Miller of The 100. Miller will c0-executive produce the series along with Daniel Wilson (who worked on the movie version of the book), Fran Sears (The Sophisticated Gents) and Warren Littlefield (Fargo). I suspect they will also be releasing an episode a week as they did with the adaptation of 11.22.63.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

Pile-CC

Background ========== Postural stability can be defined as the maintenance of an upright position in quiet standing or the recovery of balance, associated with voluntary movement \[[@B1]\]. In order to maintain postural stability the body's global centre-of-mass (COM) must remain inside the body's base of support; as defined by the outer borders of the feet. This requires active neural control, whereby the central nervous system maintains the COM position in space, resulting in tiny oscillatory movements referred to as postural sway \[[@B2]\]. Postural sway can be measured using portable plantar pressure systems, such as the TekScan MatScan®, which records sway parameters as centre of pressure (COP) excursions in an antero-posterior (AP) and medio-lateral (ML) direction. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by synovial inflammation and progressive articular destruction \[[@B3]\]. Foot deformity is common in RA, with 75% of patients reporting foot involvement within four years of diagnosis, increasing to 90% as the disease progresses \[[@B4]\]. An association between foot deformity and foot function in people with RA has been shown in previous studies \[[@B3],[@B5]-[@B9]\]. Functional changes, such as muscle weakness, painful joints, altered gait and decreased postural stability can impair balance and affect everyday activities requiring postural control \[[@B10]-[@B12]\]. A high incidence of falls in people with RA has been reported in the literature \[[@B13],[@B14]\]. In a study of 253 people with RA, Armstrong et al. \[[@B13]\] found that 33% reported falls in the previous year, with 52% of these falling more than once. Similarly, Fessel and Nevitt \[[@B14]\] reported that 31% of their sample of 570 RA participants fell once per year and 16% fell twice or more. Postural sway has been found to be increased in RA \[[@B15]\] and associated with falls in people with RA \[[@B16]\]. Rome et al. \[[@B15]\] conducted an exploratory study of 19 RA participants and age matched non-RA controls. AP and ML postural sway was measured for 30 seconds, with eyes open and closed, using a force plate. The results showed that RA participants displayed a significantly larger COP excursion in the AP direction during quiet standing, when compared to the non-RA group, suggesting that postural control mechanisms such as ankle strategies are impeded by the RA process. In a one year prospective study of 84 women with RA, Hayashibara et al. \[[@B16]\] reported that 50% of participants fell and increased postural sway was significantly associated with falls in the study group. The TekScan MatScan® is commonly used in research and clinical settings and has previously been shown to have moderate to good reliability for the measurement of plantar forces and pressures during barefoot walking in healthy children (ICCs 0.58 to 0.99) \[[@B17]\] and adults (ICCs 0.44 to 0.95) \[[@B18]\]. In both studies, interpretation of the ICCs was in accordance with Portney and Watkins \[[@B19]\] whereby values of \> 0.75 indicate good reliability, values ranging from 0.5 to 0.75 imply moderate reliability and values \< 0.5 suggest poor reliability. However the reliability of the TekScan MatScan® for assessing postural sway in double-limb quiet standing has not been evaluated. Previous studies have demonstrated postural stability changes in RA and an association between increased postural sway and falls in an RA population \[[@B15],[@B16]\]. Further investigation into the relationship between postural stability and falls in RA is warranted and there is a need to ensure the equipment used to measure postural sway variables is reliable in this population. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to determine the between-session reliability of COP based measures of postural control in RA participants using the TekScan MatScan® system. Methods ======= Participants ------------ Twenty three participants with RA, all meeting the American College of Rheumatology diagnostic criteria \[[@B20]\], were recruited from an outpatient clinic based at AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand. Participants were excluded from the study if they were younger than 18 years, were diagnosed with a neurological condition which could impair balance; such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and history of stroke; lower limb amputation and diabetes with previously diagnosed peripheral neuropathy. Clinical characteristics ------------------------ Clinical characteristics including age, ethnicity, gender, body mass index (BMI), disease duration, co-morbidities, revised Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ-II) \[[@B21]\] and pharmacological management, were recorded for each participant. Pharmaceuticals included non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), Methotrexate, other disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), prednisone and biologic therapies. Equipment --------- The TekScan MatScan® pressure mat model 3150 (TekScan Inc, South Boston, USA) was used to capture postural sway values over two sessions. The TekScan MatScan® is a low profile floor mat (5 mm thick) consisting of 2288 resistive sensors (1.4 sensors/cm^2^) with a sampling frequency of 40 Hz. The mat provides measures of AP and ML sway parameters described as; area and direction of sway, distance and direction travelled by the COP and variability of distance travelled by the COP \[[@B22]\]. In the current study, AP and ML sway were measured using the excursion (mm) of the COP in the AP and ML directions. The Sway Analysis Module (SAM™) software was used in conjunction with the TekScan MatScan® to analyze the sway data. One examiner (JM) assessed all the participants. Prior to the commencement of the study, the examiner underwent training in the use of the TekScan MatScan® and interpretation of data using the TekScan SAM™ software. Procedure --------- The AUT University Ethics Committee approved the study. Written informed consent was given by all participants prior to testing. Participants were tested in barefoot double-limb quiet standing on two separate occasions approximately one hour apart. A one hour interval was chosen for practical purposes to enable data collection to occur during the participant's scheduled podiatry appointment. The one hour interval also ensured that the clinical characteristics of the participants remained consistent. During the period between sessions, participants were provided with a podiatry assessment and treatment as required. To avoid fatigue, the podiatry appointment was conducted in an adjoining room. During testing each participant was directed to step onto the TekScan MatScan® pressure mat and stand in their natural angle and base of gait with their arms by their sides looking straight ahead. To enable the foot position to be replicated from trial to trial, a template was created for each individual according to their preferred barefoot quiet standing position \[[@B23]\]. In order to prevent vestibular disruption and head movement, head position was standardized by asking each participant to focus on the centre of a visual target. The visual target, a 2 cm diameter white spot, was positioned on a screen 2 m in front of the pressure mat at eye level \[[@B24]\]. Participants were asked to remain in this position for a period of 30 seconds while postural sway data was recorded. Participants were tested with eyes open (EO) then eyes closed (EC). Trials were repeated three times for each eye condition to obtain a mean value. Each participant was asked to step backwards off the pressure mat and sit for 30 seconds between repetitions to avoid fatigue. The testing protocol was in accordance with a previous study which used the TekScan MatScan® system to evaluate postural sway in healthy older adults \[[@B24]\]. Data analysis ------------- Data were analyzed using SPSS V18. Alpha was set at 0.05. All continuous data were screened for normality using the K-S (Kolmogorov-Smirnov) one-sample test. The mean (SD) was obtained for all continuous data. Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC, 2,1) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were applied to determine between-session reliability of mean sway measurements using a two way mixed effects model with consistency definition \[[@B25]\]. Reliability findings were interpreted by arbitrary benchmarks initially proposed by Fleiss \[[@B26]\]. The strength of the agreement was deemed poor if the correlation ranged from 0 to 0.40; fair to moderate if the correlation ranged from 0.40 to 0.75 and excellent if the correlation ranged from 0.75 to 1.00. Standard error of the measurement (SEM) and SEM% were calculated to assess the difference between the actual measured score and the estimated true scores \[[@B27]\]. The smallest real difference (SRD) was calculated from the SEM to indicate the degree of change that would exceed the expected trial to trial variability \[[@B28]\]. The SEM, SEM% and SRD were calculated as follows: SEM = SD√1-ICC, SEM% = (SEM/mean) x100, SRD = SEM × √2 × 1.717 (where 1.717 represents the *t* value of distribution for a 95% CI (*df* = 22). Bland-Altman plots were calculated to demonstrate graphical representation of key reliability findings. The Bland and Altman method calculates the range within which the difference between the two sessions will lie within a probability of 95% \[[@B29]\]. The use of ICC's and Bland-Altman plots provide complementary information, as shown by Rankin and Stokes \[[@B30]\]. Results ======= All participants completed the trials. No outliers were identified. Participant characteristics are presented in Table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"}. All participants were European and most were female. Descriptive statistics for postural sway values are presented in Table [2](#T2){ref-type="table"}. The data were normally distributed. ###### Demographic and clinical characteristics **Variable** **Value** ----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ Age, years, mean (SD), range 69.74 (10.14) 36 Female sex, n (%) 21 (91%) Ethnicity, n (%)     European 23 (100%) Disease duration, years, mean (SD), range 24.24 (12.6) 54 BMI, kg/m^2^, mean (SD), range 26.7 (5.7) 24.1 Revised Health Assessment Questionnaire, mean (SD), range 1.14 (0.56) 1.8 Co-morbidities     Diabetes, n(%) 3 (13%)   Hypertension 7 (30%)   Other cardiovascular disease, n(%) 4 (17%)   Osteoporosis, n(%) 2 (9%)   Anaemia, n(%) 2 (9%) Medications     Methotrexate, n(%) 15 (65%)   Other DMARD, n(%) 8 (35%)   NSAID, n(%) 12 (52%)   Biologics, n(%) 3 (13%)   Corticosteroids, n(%) 9 (39%) ###### Descriptive statistics for AP and ML sway (between sessions) **Sway direction** **Eye condition** **Session 1** **Session 1** **Session 2** **Session 2** -------------------- ------------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- AP EO 14.45 (5.44) 5.52-25.20 14.63 (6.10) 6.62-29.97   EC 18.24 (7.07) 6.81-33.51 18.72 (7.71) 6.73-39.97 ML EO 8.47 (2.82) 4.71-15.39 9.86 (4.27) 4.60-22.61   EC 10.62 (4.48) 4.08-24.35 10.29 (4.83) 5.18-22.91 *AP*: antero-posterior; *ML*: medio-lateral; *EO*: eyes open, *EC*: eyes closed. The relative reliability between sessions, when using the mean measurement for AP and ML sway with eyes open and closed, was good to excellent, as evidenced by ICCs ranging from 0.84 to 0.92 (Table [3](#T3){ref-type="table"}). The SEM, SEM% and SRD values consistently showed a moderate level of measurement error, SEM 1.27 to 2.35 mm, SEM% 12.13 to 14.51%, SRD 3.08 to 5.71 mm (Table [3](#T3){ref-type="table"}). ###### Between-session reliability **Sway** **ICC** **95% CI** **SEM (mm)** **SEM%** **SRD (mm)** ------------ --------- ------------ -------------- ---------- -------------- AP sway EO 0.89 0.75-0.96 1.79 12.30 4.35 AP sway EC 0.89 0.74-0.95 2.35 12.70 5.71 ML sway EO 0.84 0.63-0.93 1.33 14.51 3.23 ML sway EC 0.92 0.81-0.97 1.27 12.13 3.08 *AP*: antero-posterior; *ML*: medio-lateral; *EO*: eyes open, *EC*: eyes closed. Figure [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"} illustrates the Bland-Altman plot for AP EO measurement in session 1 and 2, with 95% limits of agreement, bias of -0.17 mm (lower limit -7.19 mm, upper limit 6.85 mm). Figure [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"} illustrates the Bland-Altman plot for AP EC measurement in session 1 and 2, with 95% limits of agreement, bias of -0.48 mm (lower limit -9.69 mm, upper limit 8.75 mm). Figure [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"} illustrates the Bland-Altman plot for ML EO measurement in session 1 and 2, with 95% limits of agreement, bias of -1.39 mm (lower limit -6.59 mm, upper limit 3.81 mm). Figure [4](#F4){ref-type="fig"} illustrates the Bland-Altman plot for ML EC measurement in session 1 and 2, with 95% limits of agreement, bias of 0.34 mm (lower limit -4.65 mm, upper limit 5.32 mm). {#F1} {#F2} {#F3} {#F4} Discussion ========== The reliability of a measurement system used clinically, or in research, must be established in order to be confident in achieving reproducible and meaningful results on different testing occasions. In the current study, the system showed good to excellent between-session reliability in assessing barefoot postural control in double-limb quiet standing, in a sample of older people with RA, as evidenced by ICCs ranging from 0.84 to 0.92. However, measurement error, as expressed by the SEM, SEM% and SRD was relatively high compared to mean values. The reproducibility of the measures may be attributed to the accuracy of the TekScan MatScan® system in capturing the variables of interest. Indeed the system was found to be highly accurate in an independent study which compared several commonly used plantar pressure measurement systems \[[@B31]\]. Further, due to postural sway values being captured by the measuring system and not the examiner, rater error and bias which may be present in non-computerized tools, such as the sway-meter \[[@B32]\], was minimized. Measurement error can be due to the precision of the instrument, systematic error introduced by the rater, or the variation in the population being measured \[[@B33]\]. In the current study, measurement error may have occurred as a result of the inherent variability of postural control parameters in the study sample. The wide range in recorded sway values, resulting in a large SD of the mean, supports this possibility. Variation in postural stability parameters within an RA population is to be expected and may be associated with the differing demographic and clinical characteristics of the sample. For example, in a study of 61 patients with RA, Ekdahl \[[@B11]\] found that age, sex and high C-reactive protein level were related to decreased postural control in quiet standing. Given the relatively broad inclusion criteria in the current study it would be expected that this population would display a broad range of demographic and clinical characteristics and therefore a potentially wide range of postural sway values. Therefore, in the current study, the relatively high SEM, SEM% and SRD values may be indicative of the variability of the population tested rather than the reliability of the equipment used to test the population. It can be further argued that SEM and SRD values are of more relevance in the analysis of within-subject variability. Indeed in a clinical setting measures of postural stability would be undertaken on individuals not populations and the ability to detect a real change in the variables measured over time is essential. As the study aim was to assess between-session reliability over 1 hour, within-subject variability was not analyzed however it is acknowledged that such analysis would be valuable in determining the potential measurement error of the system in a clinical setting. Postural stability is controlled by the central nervous system. Afferent input from the somatosensory, visual and vestibular systems combine with coordinated muscle activity to maintain balance in quiet standing. In healthy adults, postural control is maintained through flexible and smooth interaction between these systems in order to maintain a stable equilibrium \[[@B34]\]. This may not be the case in an RA population as the ability to maintain balance in quiet standing has been shown to be decreased compared to healthy controls \[[@B15]\]. Variability in postural control between participants was found in the current study as demonstrated by the relatively high degree of measurement error. For this reason, it was necessary to assess the reliability of the TekScan MatScan® system in measuring postural control in an RA group specifically, as this is a population of particular interest to the researchers. Postural control is a dynamic phenomenon that changes over time. As such, variability in COP values can be expected within individuals and should be accounted for through repetition of test measurements to obtain a mean value \[[@B35]\]. In the current study, the mean of three test measurements of 30 seconds was taken. This was in accordance with a previous study which found that three measurements were sufficient for obtaining a consistent average for dynamic plantar pressure measurements in patients with foot problems associated with chronic arthritis \[[@B36]\]. Due to the variability of COP variables, comparison of individual measurements, i.e. within-session reliability, was not undertaken in the current study. The role of vision in postural control is well documented and is of particular importance in older adults \[[@B34]\]. Previous studies have demonstrated that removing visual feedback increases postural sway compared to EO test conditions \[[@B32],[@B37]\]. Whilst the current study was interested in adults with RA aged 18 years and older, the cohort age range was 60 to 80 years and hence can be defined as older adult. Our results showed an increase in AP and ML postural sway with the eyes closed condition compared to eyes open condition, which is in agreement with previous studies \[[@B24],[@B32],[@B37],[@B38]\]. Further, when assessing AP and ML sway in an RA population compared with healthy controls, Rome et al. \[[@B15]\] found that, while both groups demonstrated greater sway in eye closed conditions compared to eyes open, the effect was more marked in the RA group. It is important therefore that postural stability in an RA population is assessed with eyes open and eyes closed and hence eyes open and eyes closed test conditions were used to assess the reliability of the equipment in the current study. The TekScan MatScan® is a portable pressure system commonly used in research and clinical settings to capture and reproduce plantar pressure measures of dynamic foot function. The reliability of the system to accurately and consistently capture dynamic measures has been previously shown \[[@B17],[@B18]\]. The results of the current study suggest that the TekScan MatScan® is reliable for assessing postural control in double-limb quiet standing in older adults with RA. Research implications include the ability to gain a better understanding of the changes in postural stability that occur with age \[[@B2]\] and diseases that affect the feet, such as diabetes and RA. Clinical implications include the ability to identify and manage, through podiatric intervention, patients who are at increased risk of falling. The system may also be useful in evaluating the efficacy of clinical interventions, such as pathological callus debridement, foot orthoses and therapeutic footwear, in reducing postural sway in RA patients. We acknowledge the limitations of this study. The study cohort was not representative of the general RA population, as all participants were over the age of 60 years. RA affects women three times more than men and peak age at onset is most commonly the fifth decade, although a shift towards older age at onset has been seen in recent studies \[[@B39]\]. A sampling frequency of 40 Hz is relatively low, compared to laboratory based force plate technology, however we believe it is acceptable for measuring the postural sway parameters of interest. Inflammatory disease activity was not assessed as part of the study protocol, and therefore it is not possible to assess the impact of disease activity on variability of the instrument. The study does not address the validity of the TekScan MatScan® in assessing postural control in quiet standing. The validity of a measurement tool can be described as its ability to measure what it is supposed to measure \[[@B40]\]. The validity of the TekScan MatScan® system has been reported by the manufacturer \[[@B18]\] however independent assessment comparing the TekScan MatScan® to force-platform technology would be valuable. The reliability of the TekScan MatScan® for assessing double-limb quiet standing in healthy adults would be useful. Future investigations should also explore the reliability of the system during more complex dynamic balance tests, in people with RA, as well as other populations of interest such as patients with diabetes or older adults with a history of falls. Testing of the reliability of postural control measures in participants' usual footwear will also be of interest. Conclusion ========== The portability and ease of use of the TekScan MatScan® makes it a useful tool for use in research and clinical practice. The results of the current study demonstrated good to excellent between-session reliability of postural control measures in older people with RA using the TekScan MatScan® pressure mat. Competing interests =================== ABR, JM, MC, ND, SB and KR have no competing interests to declare. HBM is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Foot and Ankle Research. It is journal policy that editors are removed from the peer review and editorial decision-making processes for papers they have authored or co-authored. Authors' contributions ====================== ABR and KR designed the study. JM collected and inputted the data. ABR and MC conducted the statistical analysis. ABR drafted the manuscript with assistance from KR, ND, MC, SB and HBM. All authors approved the final manuscript. Acknowledgements ================ JM was supported through a summer studentship research grant from Arthritis New Zealand.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

PubMed Central

Q: Print original input order of dictionary in python How do I print out my dictionary in the original order I had set up? If I have a dictionary like this: smallestCars = {'Civic96': 12.5, 'Camry98':13.2, 'Sentra98': 13.8} and I do this: for cars in smallestCars: print cars it outputs: Sentra98 Civic96 Camry98 but what I want is this: Civic96 Camry98 Sentra98 Is there a way to print the original dictionary in order without converting it to a list? A: A regular dictionary doesn't have order. You need to use the OrderedDict of the collections module, which can take a list of lists or a list of tuples, just like this: import collections key_value_pairs = [('Civic86', 12.5), ('Camry98', 13.2), ('Sentra98', 13.8)] smallestCars = collections.OrderedDict(key_value_pairs) for car in smallestCars: print(car) And the output is: Civic96 Camry98 Sentra98

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

StackExchange

Final Fantasy Versus XIII was the brainchild of Tetsuya Nomura and it remained in development hell for a long time, until the project switched hands from Nomura to Tabata. After such a long hiatus, the Kingdom Hearts series is back with the third entry releasing on January 29th, but there is an easter egg that has been found by those with early access to the game. SPOILER ALERT! Please stop reading the article if you don’t want to spoil this easter egg for yourself, but if you don’t care much about such spoilers, the easter egg is a reference to Final Fantasy Versus XIII and features a CG Trailer as well as concept artwork featuring the same Versus style. SPOILER ALERT! Here’s the trailer first: The trailer plays out during the Toy Story portion of the game and the video that is out on YouTube clearly shows a game called Verum Rex with clear references to the world of Versus XIII. The design of the main characters mirrors Ignis, Noctis, Stella, and Ardyn. Some of the camera angles also resemble the Versus trailer and the name itself is a big hint along with the poster that promotes it in the game as seen below. So after leaving Versus behind, seems like Nomura still remembers it and had created this promotional video for the fictional game Verum Rex, which admittedly is pretty cool in itself, to give a nod to his previous work. Final Fantasy Versus XIII was renamed to Final Fantasy XV and the game launched to critical and commercial success in November 2016. Kingdom Hearts 3 will be out on January 29th for the PS4 and Xbox One. Do you want Square Enix to make Verum Rex? Let us know in the comments below.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

OpenWebText2

Introduction {#Sec1} ============ The association between delayed gastric emptying and diabetes has been known for almost a century. Delayed gastric emptying was first noted in patients with diabetes and subsequently reported by Boas in 1925. In 1958, the term 'Gastroparesis diabeticorum' was coined by Kassender to describe asymptomatic gastric retention in diabetic patients \[[@CR1]\]. Much has been learned about the symptom complex since then, including the functional, contractile, electrical and sensory dysfunction of the stomach associated with diabetes. More recently, the term diabetic gastroparesis (DGp) has been used to describe a serious complication of diabetes resulting in delayed gastric emptying with associated upper gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in the absence of any mechanical obstruction \[[@CR2]\]. Symptoms commonly associated with gastroparesis include postprandial fullness, nausea, vomiting, anorexia and weight loss, with or without abdominal pain. Delayed gastric emptying may result in poor glycemic control, poor nutrition and dehydration, resulting in frequent hospitalizations and poor quality of life. The diagnosis and management of DGp can be challenging, as it commonly remains undetected prior to the development of complications, and it is often refractory to therapy. Novel approaches to diagnosis and therapy represent a growing area of interest in the management of DGp \[[@CR3]--[@CR5]\]. This article is based on previously conducted studies and is not a new study with human participants or animals. Overview of Diabetes and Its Complications {#Sec2} ------------------------------------------ The prevalence of diabetes has been increasing exponentially, both in developing and developed nations. In 2013, the prevalence of diabetes among adults (age 20--79 years) was 382 million worldwide \[[@CR6]\]. The most recent International Diabetes Federation (IDF) report estimates that 425 million adults worldwide (8.8% of the global population) have diabetes---a number that is projected to increase to 629 million by 2045 \[[@CR6]\]. Diabetes is the leading cause of cardiovascular and kidney disease, and the most common preventable cause of blindness worldwide among working age adults (20--65 years). About 12% of global health care expenditure (727 billion USD) is spent on diabetes. When expanded to the age group between 18 and 99 years, the cost would total to 850 billion USD. In conjunction with the rising prevalence, the cost is expected to rise to a staggering 958 billion USD by 2045 \[[@CR6]--[@CR9]\]. Diabetes is also the leading cause of non-traumatic amputations in the USA \[[@CR7]\]. It is imperative to be familiar with current standards for screening for diabetes-related complications. Landmark studies show that early tight glycemic control slows the progression and development of diabetic autonomic neuropathy (DAN) and microvascular complications (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}) \[[@CR10]--[@CR14]\].Fig. 1Relative risks for the development of diabetic complications at different mean levels of glycosylated hemoglobin (*HbA*~*1c*~).Reproduced with permission from Elsevier. Skyler JS (1996) Diabetic complications: the importance of glucose control. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am 25(2):243--254. <https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/endocrinology-and-metabolism-clinics-of-north-america> An intensive multifactorial cardiovascular risk intervention targeting glycemic, lipid and hypertension management, smoking and other lifestyle factors was shown to reduce the progression and development of cardiac autonomic neuropathy among patients with type 2 diabetes \[[@CR15]\]. Thus, early diagnosis of diabetes and early intervention to prevent or delay complications are standards of best practice, and also economic and ethical priorities for health care providers of all specialties, including primary care. The discussion of practice guidelines and standards of medical care for diabetes is beyond the scope of this module \[[@CR16], [@CR17]\]. Diabetic Autonomic Neuropathy {#Sec3} ----------------------------- Neuropathy is responsible for a substantial portion of the mortality and morbidity in diabetes and can be divided into many abnormalities, including peripheral neuropathy and autonomic neuropathy (DAN). As they are thinly or un-myelinated, autonomic nerves may be especially susceptible to vascular and metabolic insult. DAN affects several organs systems, including the cardiovascular, genito-urinary, neuroendocrine and gastrointestinal systems (Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}) \[[@CR18], [@CR19]\].Table 1Clinical manifestations of diabetic autonomic neuropathySystemClinical featuresCardiovascularSinus tachycardia\ Postural tachycardia\ Bradycardia, fixed heart rate (more advanced disease)\ Systolic and diastolic dysfunction\ Decreased exercise tolerance\ Orthostatic hypotension with supine (nocturnal) hypertension\ Cardiac denervation syndrome\ Intraoperative and perioperative cardiovascular instabilityGastrointestinalEsophageal dysmotility\ Gastroparesis\ Diarrhea\ Constipation\ Fecal incontinenceGenitourinaryErectile dysfunction\ Retrograde ejaculation\ Neurogenic bladder and cystopathy\ Female sexual dysfunction (e.g., loss of vaginal lubrication)Sudomotor and vasomotorAnhidrosis\ Hyperhidrosis\ Heat intolerance\ Gustatory sweating\ Dry skin\ Decreased thermoregulation\ Altered blood flow\ Impaired vasomotion\ EdemaPupillaryPupillomotor function impairment (e.g. decreased diameter of dark adapted pupil)\ Pseudo Argyll-Robertson pupilMetabolicHypoglycemia unawareness\ Hypoglycemia unresponsiveness (delayed epinephrine secretion, reduced glucagon secretion)OtherSleep apnea\ Anxiety/depressionReproduced with permission from Gibbons CH. Clinical features of diabetic autonomic neuropathy. In: Post TW (ed) Diabetic autonomic neuropathy. UpToDate© 2018. UpToDate, Inc., Waltham, MA. Accessed 16 Feb 2018. For more information visit [www.uptodate.com](http://www.uptodate.com) Diabetic Autonomic Neuropathy of the Gastrointestinal Tract (Gastrointestinal Neuropathies) {#Sec4} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Diabetic autonomic neuropathy, which can have many manifestations, can be divided into groups of conditions as follows:Esophageal dysmotilityGastroparesisDiabetic enteropathies including small bowel dysmotility syndromes, diabetic diarrhea and fecal incontinence \[[@CR20]\] Gut complications of diabetes, including diabetic diarrhea and incontinence, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and exocrine pancreatitis, have a major impact on health outcomes in individuals with long- standing poorly controlled diabetes. Introduction to Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec5} -------------------------------------- ### Definition {#Sec6} A clear consensus regarding the definition of DGp does not exist. In the past, the terms diabetic gastropathy and gastroparesis were used interchangeably. Diabetic gastropathy was described as a neuropathy occurring in the GI system of diabetic patients. Koch et al. used the term to describe a clinical condition presenting with upper GI tract symptoms suggestive of an upper motility disturbance in patients with diabetes whether or not delayed gastric emptying was present, as some patients with this syndrome may have rapid gastric emptying \[[@CR21]\]. A general consensus has now emerged that delayed gastric emptying occurs in the absence of mechanical obstruction in DGp \[[@CR5], [@CR22]\]. The American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) guidelines for the diagnosis and management of DGp state that a combination of appropriate symptoms and signs, along with delayed gastric emptying in the absence of gastric outlet obstruction or ulceration, is required to establish the diagnosis of DGp \[[@CR4]\]. ### Epidemiology and Natural History of Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec7} Gastroparesis is a relatively common complication of diabetes, but often goes unrecognized. About one-third of patients with gastroparesis have diabetes \[[@CR21]\]. In the USA, an estimated 5 million patients suffer from some form of gastroparesis \[[@CR23]\], and the female:male ratio is 4:1 \[[@CR24], [@CR25]\]. While gastroparesis has multiple etiologies, in a large single-center study of 146 gastroparesis patients, 29% were found to have diabetes, 13% developed symptoms after gastric surgery and 36% were idiopathic \[[@CR25]\]. Nevertheless, little is known about the epidemiology of DGp, in part because the weak association between symptoms and objective studies of gastric emptying confounds diagnosis. Diabetes affects gastric motor function more than small bowel transit, indicating an increased sensitivity of the stomach to diabetic injury. Approximately 75% of patients with diabetes have some form of GI symptoms \[[@CR26]\] and about 18% experience upper GI symptoms \[[@CR27]\]. In an Australian epidemiological study \[[@CR27]\], diabetes mellitus was associated with an increased prevalence of upper and lower GI symptoms, which were linked to poor glycemic control but not to duration of diabetes or type of treatment. DGp affects 20--50% of the diabetic population, especially those with type 1 diabetes mellitus or those with long-standing (≥ 10 years) type 2 diabetes mellitus. It is usually associated with retinopathy, neuropathy and nephropathy as well as poor early glycemic control, as noted in the DCCT-EDIC study \[[@CR28]\]. The mean age of onset is approximately 34 years, and prevalence increases with increasing age \[[@CR24]\]. Gastroparesis appears to be more common in patients with type 1 diabetes than in those with type 2 diabetes. Delayed gastric emptying is found in 27--65% of patients with type 1 diabetes and in up to 30% of patients with type 2 diabetes \[[@CR29]\]. Prevalence of DGp among patients in a type 1 diabetes case registry was 5% versus 40% in tertiary care centers \[[@CR30]\]. The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes has resulted in larger numbers of patients with DGp. In one case series of 146 patients with type 2 diabetes from India, the prevalence of delayed gastric emptying was 29%, and higher glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and body mass index were independent predictors of delayed gastric emptying \[[@CR31]\]. While DGp can present as a complication of autonomic neuropathy in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, some clinical differences do exit between these groups. In a 48-week observational study, glycemic control (HbA1c), delayed gastric emptying, hospitalization rates and stimulator placements were higher in patients with type 1 diabetes with DGp than in those with type 2 diabetics with DGp. It was also noted that patients with type 1 diabetes with DGp reported profound neuropathy, more anxiety and less reduction in symptom scores with intervention compared to those with type 2 diabetics with DGp \[[@CR32]\]. Interestingly autoantibody (GAD 65) prevalence in both type 1(40%) and type 2 (25%) diabetes did not predict the severity of gastroparesis \[[@CR33]\]. It is not clear whether there is an ethnic predisposition for diabetes-related gastro-enteropathies. A survey of Chinese diabetics found that 70.5% experienced GI symptoms compared to 30.8% of age- and sex-matched controls \[[@CR34]\]. To the contrary, when diabetics in Finland were surveyed there was no difference in prevalence of GI symptoms between diabetics and non-diabetics \[[@CR35]\]. ### Gender Differences in Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec8} Most studies have shown a higher prevalence of gastroparesis in women than in men \[[@CR27], [@CR34], [@CR36]\], but others have noted no gender differences \[[@CR31]\]. In a population based study from Olmstead county in Minnesota, the prevalence of gastroparesis was 24.2 per 100,000 persons for both genders, 9.6 per 100,000 for men and 37.8 per 100,000 for women \[[@CR30]\]. The reasons for the female preponderance remain unknown. Even in diabetics without clinical gastroparesis, gastric emptying is slower in women than in men \[[@CR25], [@CR37]\]. Differences in neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS**)** dimerization between females and males have been proposed as a reason for the female preponderance \[[@CR38], [@CR39]\]. Another factor may be a progesterone effect on gastric emptying, much like its effect on uterine contractility \[[@CR40]\]. In fact, women of reproductive age may experience worsening of their symptoms during the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle, possibly due to higher progesterone levels \[[@CR41]\]. On the other hand, in another study, gastric emptying was found to be slower in healthy women during the follicular phase, at which time hyperglycemia, plasma glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and insulin levels, hunger and energy intake are less \[[@CR42]\]. In addition, autoimmune disease, which is associated with gastroparesis, is more common in females \[[@CR43]\]. \[[@CR44]\]. ### Association of Diabetic Gastroparesis with Diabetic Complications {#Sec9} While some studies show a strong association among various attributes of DAN and DGp \[[@CR45]\], others do not \[[@CR46]\]. In the DCCT--EDIC follow-up study, delayed gastric emptying was associated with other complications of diabetes, particularly severe retinopathy, and to a lesser extent with cardiovascular vagal dysfunction and severe nephropathy \[[@CR28]\]. ### Children and Adolescents {#Sec10} Diabetic gastroparesis is less common in children given that a longer duration of diabetes and hyperglycemia and DAN predicts DGp. However, glycemic fluctuations that may occur in adolescents may be impacted by altered gastric emptying \[[@CR47]\]. ### Prognosis {#Sec11} Diabetic gastroparesis is associated with higher morbidity, including increased hospitalizations and emergency department and hospital visits. Hospitalizations attributed to gastroparesis rose by 138% from 1995 to 2004 \[[@CR48]\]. Patients with type 1 or 2 diabetes mellitus with classic symptoms of gastroparesis, such as early satiety, postprandial fullness, bloating, abdominal swelling, nausea, vomiting and retching and documented delay in gastric emptying, are more likely to have cardiovascular disease, hypertension and retinopathy. Therefore, gastroparesis may be a marker of increased morbidity \[[@CR49]\]. On the contrary, in a cohort of mostly type 1 diabetics followed in Australia over a period of  approximately 25 years, DGp was not associated with a poor prognosis or with increased mortality when corrected for autonomic neuropathy and HbA1c \[[@CR50]\]. Anatomy and Physiology of the Stomach in Health {#Sec12} =============================================== To understand the pathophysiology of DGp, it is important to review the anatomical structure, nerve and blood supply as well as physiology of the stomach. Anatomy of the Stomach {#Sec13} ---------------------- The stomach is a distensible, muscular, highly vascular bag-shaped organ located in the left upper abdominal quadrant. The anatomy of the stomach and the nerve supply to this organ are shown in Figs. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"} and [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}, respectively \[[@CR9]\].Fig. 2This figure was originally published in Shackelford's surgery of the alimentary tract, ed. 6, Philadelphia, Charles J. Yeo (2007) Fig. 3Parasympathetic nerve supply of the stomachReprinted with permission from Elsevier (copyright 2003). Mercer DW, Liu TH (2003) Open truncal vagatomy. Oper Tech Gen Surg 5(2):80--85 Physiology of Gastric Function {#Sec14} ------------------------------ The three main motile functions associated with digestion in which the stomach plays a central role include:Acts as a reservoir for ingested foodMixes food with gastric secretionsEmpties gastric contents into the duodenum These motile functions are accomplished by the coordinated movements of three layers of smooth muscle of the stomach---an outermost longitudinal layer, a middle circular layer and an innermost oblique layer. The longitudinal layer is present only in the distal two-thirds of the stomach, while the oblique layer is distinguishable only in the proximal half of the stomach. The circular layer is present throughout with maximum thickness in the antrum where the force of contraction is the greatest. Coordination of smooth muscle activity is dependent upon the enteric neural plexus, especially the myenteric plexus, and the intensity of contraction depends upon the sympathetic and parasympathetic efferent neural activity. The proximal stomach acts as a reservoir that accommodates to meal volume by modulating tonic contractile activity. The distal stomach generates phasic peristaltic waves of contraction for mixing, grinding and propelling contents. Neural and hormonal activity can alter the amplitude of slow waves, generation of spike potential and, therefore, the force of peristaltic contraction \[[@CR51], [@CR52]\]. Process of Gastric Emptying {#Sec15} --------------------------- Normal gastric emptying results from the integration of tonic contractions of the fundus, phasic contractions of the antrum and the inhibitory forces of pyloric and duodenal contractions, which requires complex interactions between smooth muscle, enteric and autonomic nerves, and specialized pacemaker cells known as the interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) (Fig. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}).Fig. 4Motor events in normal gastric emptyingReprinted with permission from M Schemann, "Gastrointestinal Motility" web tutorial. <http://humanbiology.wzw.tum.de/motvid01/tutorial.pdf>. Accessed 26 May 2014 The emptying of the reservoir is caused by two mechanisms: a tonic contraction of the fundus and peristaltic waves (phasic contractions) moving over the distal part of the gastric body and antrum. These two forces represent the pump of the gastric reservoir. Both the peristaltic waves and the tonic contractions of the reservoir are stimulated by cholinergic enteric neurons that are under modulatory vagal tone. In the region of the body of the stomach, peristaltic waves only produce a small circular constriction \[[@CR51]\]. The peristaltic wave originates at the proximal stomach and propagates to the pylorus. Peristaltic waves are based on electrical waves originating in the gastric wall. A network of interstitial cells---called the ICC---exists in the wall of both the stomach and small intestine. These cells produce electrical pacesetter potentials due to oscillations in their membrane potential. The pacesetter potential of the ICC drives electrical events in smooth muscle cells where they are reflected as slow waves. Both the pacesetter potentials and slow waves start in the proximal stomach and move along the syncytium of the smooth muscle cells. The pacesetter potentials are always present but do not cause contractions by themselves. Contractions only occur when excitatory neurotransmitters, such as acetylcholine (ACH), are released. The release of ACH, and thus the stimulation of gastric motility by cephalic and gastric reflexes, is elicited by mechanoreceptors of the mouth during the ingestion of food and by mechanoreceptors and/or chemoreceptors in the stomach. In the region of the body of the stomach, the peristaltic waves are shallow, but when the peristaltic wave reaches the antrum, the circular constriction becomes deeper \[[@CR51], [@CR52]\]. The emptying mechanism of the antral pump can be divided into three phases: (1) a phase of propulsion, (2) a phase of emptying and mixing and (3) a phase of retropulsion and grinding, as shown in Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}. Due to the rhythmic pacesetter potentials, there is cyclic, coordinated pattern to the phases. When the peristaltic wave moves over the proximal antrum, the previously contracting terminal antrum relaxes, thereby allowing chyme to be propelled into the terminal antrum (phase of propulsion) \[[@CR51], [@CR52]\].Fig. 5Function of antral pump in gastric emptyingReprinted with permission from M Schemann, "Gastrointestinal Motility" web tutorial. <http://humanbiology.wzw.tum.de/motvid01/tutorial.pdf>. Accessed 26 May 2014 Once the peristaltic wave reaches the middle of the antrum, the pylorus opens and duodenal contractions are inhibited, allowing small amounts of gastric chyme to be delivered across the pylorus into the duodenum. During this phase of emptying and mixing, the peristaltic waves are far away from the pylorus. Chyme is swept into the small intestine by the peristaltic wave \[[@CR51], [@CR52]\]. The antral pump acts like a sieve. As liquids flow more rapidly than viscous and solid materials, liquids with small suspended particles are swept across the pylorus into the duodenum, whereas the viscous and solid mass of the chyme is retained in the stomach. The lumen of the antrum is not occluded by the peristaltic wave, and some amount of chyme flows in a retrograde manner into the relaxing proximal antrum. The phase of emptying overlaps with mixing of the gastric chyme. Simultaneously, the subsequent peristaltic wave proceeds along the gastric body, propelling chyme into the proximal antrum. Chyme of the gastric body and chyme of the middle antrum accumulate in the relaxed proximal antrum. Contraction of the terminal antrum closes the pylorus, thus stopping the transpyloric flow. The chyme present in the terminal antrum is forced retrograde across the central opening of the peristaltic wave into the relaxing middle antrum. Forceful mixing of the chyme associated with the grinding of particles occurs as a result of this jet-like retropulsion. Thus, contraction of the terminal antrum denotes the phase of retropulsion and grinding. During the emptying phase of the stomach, the duodenal contractions are inhibited and the duodenal bulb relaxes. This is known as antroduodenal coordination \[[@CR51], [@CR52]\]. As a result of the different frequencies between the antral and duodenal contractions, the duodenum can contract three to four times during an antral wave (red lines in Fig. [6](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}). The contractions of the proximal duodenum cease during the phases of gastric emptying. The first duodenal contraction occurs during the gastric phase of retropulsion; the second contraction occurs during the phase of propulsion \[[@CR51], [@CR52]\].Fig. 6Antroduodenal coordination.*A*,*B*,*C* Phases of gastric emptying.*Duod.* Duodenum,*Pyl.* pylorusReprinted with permission from M Schemann, "Gastrointestinal Motility" web tutorial. <http://humanbiology.wzw.tum.de/motvid01/tutorial.pdf>. Accessed 26 May 2014 The complex muscular contractions of the stomach are under neuro-hormonal control, and damage to the enteric nerves, especially the ICC, can result in disruptions of the intricate mechanisms needed for normal gastric emptying to occur. Factors Affecting Gastric Emptying {#Sec16} ---------------------------------- Gastric emptying depends on several factors (Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}). The relaxation of the reservoir, the depth of the constriction of the antral waves, the degree of pyloric opening, the receptive relaxation of the duodenal bulb and the contractile pattern of the duodenum each play an important role. The motility of the stomach can also be affected by neurotransmitters, hormones or drugs (Table [4](#Tab4){ref-type="table"}) \[[@CR51], [@CR52]\].Table 2Physiologic factors affecting gastric emptyingFactors that increase gastric emptyingFactors that delay gastric emptyingStomach distensionDuodenal distensionLiquid contentChyme high in H^+^, fat or proteinSmaller particlesSecretin, cholecystokininParasympathetic stimulationPain, anxiety, stress\ Sympathetic stimulation For the stomach to empty, the pressure generated by the antral pump must exceed the resistance of the pyloric sphincter. In general, emptying occurs at an exponential rate proportional to the volume of the stomach---that is, the fuller the stomach, the more rapidly it empties. This is mediated by vagal excitatory reflexes provoked by gastric distension. Stimulation of the vagus nerve with ACH as neurotransmitter increases the force and frequency of gastric contraction, whereas stimulation of sympathetic nerves inhibits gastric motility through the release of norepinephrine. Gastrin is also released in response to antral distension, and both these stimuli produce an increase in antral pump activity. The speed of emptying for liquids, or contents consisting of smaller particles, is faster than for solids (Fig. [7](#Fig7){ref-type="fig"}) \[[@CR51], [@CR52]\].Fig. 7Velocities of emptying of solid and liquid chymeReprinted with permission from M Schemann, "Gastrointestinal Motility" web tutorial. <http://humanbiology.wzw.tum.de/motvid01/tutorial.pdf>. Accessed 26 May 2014 The emptying of liquids is exponential. In contrast, the emptying of large solid particles only begins after sufficient grinding, resulting in a lag phase followed by the emptying of the viscous chyme mainly in a linear fashion \[[@CR51], [@CR52]\]. The chemical composition of the chyme entering the duodenum also affects the rate of gastric emptying, and influences hormone secretion. If the chyme is too acidic, secretin is released, which slows gastric emptying, reduces the production of gastric acid and increases the secretion of alkaline pancreatic juice into the duodenum (Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}). If the fat content of the chyme is too high, cholecystokinin (CCK) is released, which stimulates contraction of the gall bladder so that bile salts (which emulsify the fats) are secreted into the duodenum, and also reduces gastric emptying. If the content of amino acids in the chyme is too high, gastrin is released, which increases contraction of the pyloric sphincter and gastric motility and overall delays gastric emptying. Hypertonic chyme is detected by duodenal osmoreceptors and gastric emptying is slowed \[[@CR51], [@CR52]\]. As the duodenum fills, stretch receptors are activated that inhibit the vagus nerve, which results in reduced gut tone and motility, temporarily reducing gastric emptying. As the duodenum empties, this inhibition diminishes, the tone and motility of the gut increases and gastric emptying is restored. The neural and hormonal mechanisms that originate from the duodenum and the feedback to slow gastric emptying together constitute the entero-gastric reflex. The activity of the pyloric sphincter is modulated by reflexes originating from the antrum and duodenum. A contraction of the middle antrum elicits a descending inhibitory reflex causing pyloric relaxation via the release of nitric oxide (NO) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) (Fig. [8](#Fig8){ref-type="fig"}). On the other hand, duodenal stimuli such as hydrochloric or oleic acid, induce an ascending excitatory reflex which causes frequent contractions of the pyloric sphincter associated with an increase in tone. By regulating the rate of delivery of chyme into the duodenum, the absorption of nutrients in the small intestine is maximized \[[@CR51], [@CR52]\].Fig. 8Feedback mechanism of gastric emptying. *CCK* Cholecystokinin, *ACH* acetylcholine, *VIP* vasoactive intestinal peptide, *NO* nitric oxideReprinted with permission from M Schemann, "Gastrointestinal Motility" web tutorial. <http://humanbiology.wzw.tum.de/motvid01/tutorial.pdf>. Accessed 26 May 2014 Given the complex, precise and coordinated steps involved in the physiology of gastric emptying, factors that may affect this sequential process can impact gastric motility in diabetics. The pathophysiology of gastroparesis is heterogeneous (Fig. [8](#Fig8){ref-type="fig"}). Impaired phasic antral contractions are traditionally believed to be responsible for delayed emptying of solids in DGp, but other factors are also said to contribute. Regional defects, such as blunted antral contractions, spastic pyloric and small intestinal motility, hypersensitivity to fundic distention and impaired gastric accommodation to meals are demonstrable in diabetic patients. Type 1 diabetic patients may have impairment of smooth muscle contractility. Acute hyperglycemia is known to delay gastric emptying, disrupt antro-pyloric motility and blunt the response to prokinetic medications. Autonomic neuropathies, including vagal and sympathetic neuropathies, are likely contributors to the pathogenesis of delayed emptying in patients with long-standing diabetes. The pathogenesis of gastroparesis as a disease involves neuronal changes resulting in an altered secretion of neuronal NO synthase (nNOS), VIP, substance P and expression of tyrosine hydroxylase. Abnormalities in the structure and function of the autonomic nervous system and smooth muscles play an active part in the pathogenesis. Abnormalities in small bowel motility might result in delayed gastric emptying of solids; gastric motor dysfunction might be associated with small bowel dysmotility caused by a common mechanism. The ICC generate an electrical signal, and gastric electric dysrhythmias or reduced power of the electrical signal in postprandial state are found in gastroparesis \[[@CR53]\]. We will discuss proposed mechanisms in the following section. Pathogenesis of Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec17} ====================================== There are multiple mechanisms linking diabetes to gastric motor dysfunction, such as autonomic neuropathy, enteric neuropathy involving excitatory and inhibitory nerves, abnormalities of ICC \[[@CR54]\] (Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"}), acute fluctuations in blood glucose, incretin-based medications used to normalize postprandial blood glucose (Table [5](#Tab5){ref-type="table"}) and perhaps psychosomatic factors via autonomic mechanisms.Table 3Pathophysiologic mechanisms of diabetic gastroparesisEtiologyMechanismExtrinsic denervation of stomachDelayed gastric emptyingLoss of nitric oxide synthase in enteric nervesImpaired inhibitory input\ (1) Decreased gastric accommodation, and possible accelerated gastric emptying of liquids\ (2) Uncoordinated antral contractility resulting in delay in gastric emptying of solids\ (3) Pylorospasm, which in the presence of antral hypomotility, may impair gastric emptyingAltered function of immune cells such as type 2 macrophagesLoss of cytoprotective factors resulting in damage to ICC (cajalopathy) and smooth muscleLoss of ICC (cajalopathy)Decreased smooth muscle contractility and arrhythmiasSmooth muscle atrophy↓ IGF-1 with resultant loss of ICC*ICC* Interstitial cells of Cajal,*IGF-1* insulin-like growth factor 1 Mechanisms of Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec18} ------------------------------------ ### Glucose-Gut--Incretins-Islet Cross-Talk {#Sec19} One of the more powerful factors affecting gastric emptying is glucose (from a meal and from the liver). Glucose can delay or accelerate gastric emptying and vice versa. Gut hormones and islet hormones also play an important role in maintaining gastric emptying by impacting the intragastric and intraduodenal glucose levels (Fig. [9](#Fig9){ref-type="fig"}) \[[@CR55]\].Fig. 9Glucose and gastric emptying: bidirectional relationship. The rate of gastric emptying is a critical determinant of postprandial glycemia. Glucose entry into the small intestine induces a feedback loop via CCK, peptide YY (*PYY*) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (*GLP-1*), which are secreted from the intestine in response to nutrient exposure. GLP-1 and gastric inhibitory polypeptide (*GIP*) induce the release of insulin, and GLP-1 inhibits glucagon secretion, which attenuates postprandial glycemic excursions. Amylin, which is co-secreted with insulin, also slows gastric emptying. At the same time, the blood glucose concentration modulates gastric emptying, such that acute elevations of blood glucose levels slow gastric emptying (effects are evident even within the physiological range) and emptying is accelerated during hypoglycemiaReprinted with permission from Springer Nature. Phillips LK, Deane AM, Jones KL, et al. (2015) Gastric emptying and glycaemia in health and diabetes mellitus. Nat Rev Endocrinol 11(2):112--28 A complex interplay of gut hormones called incretins (glucagon-like peptide 1 \[GLP-1\] and gastric inhibitory polypeptide \[GIP\]) secreted from K and L cells of the small intestine in response to gastric nutrients, hepatic glucose and insulin, and gastric intrinsic and extrinsic factors as described in following sections bring about the fascinating gluco-gastric equilibrium \[[@CR56], [@CR57]\]. The incretins lower glucose levels by stimulating insulin secretion. GLP1 has other actions, including the inhibition of glucagon secretion, appetite and gastric motility. ### Enteric Neuropathy {#Sec20} Patients with gastroparesis often show evidence of autonomic neuropathy. Studies suggest that both the sympathetic and parasympathetic components of the autonomic nervous system are affected in DGp since abnormalities have been described in the axons and dendrites within the prevertebral sympathetic ganglia. The pancreatic polypeptide response is blunted and gastric secretion is reduced in patients with DGp when vagus nerve function is stimulated by sham feeding. Hyperglycemia may cause vagus nerve dysfunction due to demyelination \[[@CR38]\]. After restoration of normal glycemic control and renal function with pancreas--kidney transplantation, diabetic autonomic and peripheral neuropathy can be partially reversible with improved gastric function \[[@CR38]\]. ### Intrinsic Mechanisms {#Sec21} An increased level of oxidative stress caused by low levels of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is associated with DGp in experimental models. Increasing the expression of HO-1 or improving the function of nitrergic mechanisms through experimental approaches protects against the development of gastroparesis or restores gastric emptying in diabetic mice and rats, respectively \[[@CR58]\]. Both animal and human studies suggest that the most common gastric cellular defects in gastroparesis are the loss of expression of nNOS and the loss of ICC \[[@CR4]\]. However, post-translational modification of nNOS may be more important than absolute nNOS levels \[[@CR53]\]. Electric pacemaker activity drives peristaltic and segmental contractions in the gastrointestinal tract, and the ICC are responsible for spontaneous pacemaker activity. Loss of ICC is the most common enteric abnormality in DGp and idiopathic gastroparesis. The stomach shows distinct regional variations in the distribution of subtypes of ICC from the cardia to pylorus, whereas the small intestine and colon both seem to retain nearly the same distribution pattern of subtypes of ICC throughout each organ. All subtypes of ICC share common ultrastructural features, such as the presence of numerous mitochondria, abundant intermediate filaments and the formation of gap junctions with the same type of cells and with smooth muscle cells. ICC are responsible for multiple functions in the GI tract. ICC generate slow waves that control smooth muscle contractility, are involved in aspects of neurotransmission, set the smooth muscle membrane potential gradient and are involved in mechanotransduction as shown in Fig. [10](#Fig10){ref-type="fig"} \[[@CR53]\].Fig. 10Functions of the ICC. Republished with permission of Annual Reviews, Inc.; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. Horowitz B, Ward SM, Sanders KM (1999) Cellular and molecular basis for electrical rhythmicity in gastrointestinal muscles. Annu Rev Physiol 61:19--43Revisions to figure republished with permission from The American Physiological Society. Sanders KM, Ordog, T, Koh SD, Ward SM (2000) A novel pacemaker mechanism drives gastrointestinal rhythmicity. New Physiol Sci 15(6):291--298 There is continuous remodeling of the ICC, and a balance is maintained between processes that injure and repair these cells. In DGp, pathways that damage ICC by various mechanisms, such as insulinopenia, IGF-1 deficiency \[[@CR59]\] and oxidative stress, dominate. Deficiency of ICC survival factors (insulin and IGF-1 promote the production of smooth muscle cell-produced stem cell factor, an important ICC survival factor) is detrimental to ICC \[[@CR60]\]. Moreover, in diabetes, mechanisms that normally counteract increased oxidative stress, such as upregulation of HO-1, are impaired, leading to loss of ICC and subsequent delay in gastric emptying. Upregulation of HO-1 by hemin increases ICC and nNOS and normalizes delayed gastric emptying. The protective effects of HO-1 are said to be mediated by one of its products---carbon monoxide (CO). Therefore, the insulin/IGF-1 and the HO-1/CO pathways provide opportunities to develop therapies that are pathogenesis based. As the gut contains ICC and enteric stem cells, targeting residual stem cells or transplantation of stem cells is a new area that needs further exploration \[[@CR53]\]. ### Gastric and Enteric Neuromuscular Pathology in Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec22} Histologic abnormalities are heterogeneous, and include absent or dysmorphic ICC, decreased nerve fibers, increased smooth muscle fibrosis, and abnormal macrophage-containing immune infiltrates \[[@CR61]\]. Abnormal gastric slow waves, severe symptoms of gastroparesis and less improvement with gastric electrical stimulation is seen in the absence of ICC. Electron microscopy studies reveal abnormal connective tissue stroma, thick basal lamina around ICC and myocytes, and large empty nerve endings suggest more profound conduction defects \[[@CR44], [@CR62]\] (Fig. [11](#Fig11){ref-type="fig"}).Fig. 11Altered interstitial ICC and smooth muscle in diabetic gastroparesis. **a** A presumed ICC with apoptotic features: clumps of compacted chromatin filling the entire nucleus, a cytoplasm containing swollen mitochondria and lysosomes. *SMC* smooth muscle cell.*Bar* 0.8 μm. **b** A smooth muscle cell with a large lipofuscin body (*Ly*) near the nucleus. Basal lamina is patchily thickened and the stroma rich in collagen fibrils.*Bar* 0.8 μmReprinted with permission from John Wiley and Sons. Faussone‐Pellegrini MS, Grover M, Pasricha PJ, et al. (2012) Ultrastructural differences between diabetic and idiopathic gastroparesis. J Cell Mol Med 16(7):1573--1581 ### Drug-Induced and Iatrogenic Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec23} Known causes of iatrogenic gastroparesis include vagal inhibition due to vagal injury after fundoplication for gastroesophageal reflux disease and prescription medications that affect gastric emptying (Table [4](#Tab4){ref-type="table"}). Treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP1-RA) for type 2 diabetes mellitus and the amylin analog (pramlinitide) have been shown to delay gastric emptying (Table [5](#Tab5){ref-type="table"}) \[[@CR57]\]. Gastroparesis may occur in patients with diabetics following kidney and other solid organ transplantation due to treatment with calcineurin inhibitors \[[@CR53]\].Table 4Drugs affecting gastric emptyingDrugs that delay gastric emptying^a^Drugs that accelerate gastric emptyingOpioid analgesicsMetoclopramideAnticholinergic agentsErythromycin/clarithromycinTricyclic antidepressantsCisaprideCalcium channel blockersDomperidoneProgesteroneTegaserodOctreotideβ-Adrenergic receptor antagonistsProton pump inhibitorsH2-Receptor antagonistsInterferon-alpha[l]{.smallcaps}-dopaFiberSucralfateAluminum hydroxide antacidsβ-Adrenergic receptor agonistsGlucagonCalcitoninDexfenfluramineDiphenhydramineAlcoholTobacco/nicotineAnti-muscarinics, e.g. atropine, glycopyrrolate^a^Drugs used for treatment of diabetes that may affect gastric emptying discussed in a different section Table 5Summary of incretin drugsIncretin drugsDose and frequency**GLP-1 receptor agonist (incretin mimetics)** ^a^Daily Exenatide5--10 μg SC BID within 60 min before meals and at least 6 h apart Liraglutide0.6 mg/day SC for 1 week and then increase to 1.2 mg/day, maximum 1.8 mg/day Lixisenatideup titration to 20 mcg SC/day Combination insulin analog basal/GLP1-RA Insulin glargine/lixisenatide15--60 units SC/day. Insulin degludec/liraglutide100/3.6:10--50 units daily.Once-Weekly Exenatide extended-release2 mg once-weekly Albiglutide30 to 50 mg SC/week in a single dose pen (discontinued in 2017) Dulaglutide0.75--1.5 mg once-weekly Semaglutide0.5--1 mg once-weekly**Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (incretin enhancers)** ^b^Sitagliptin50 mg, 100 mg/daySaxagliptin2.5 mg, 5 mg/dayLinagliptin5 mg/dayAlogliptin25 mg/dayVildagliptin50 mg, 100 mg/day (Europe and Asia)**Amylinomimetic** ^c^Pramlintide60--120 μg SC before every major meal*GLP-1* Glucagon-like peptide-1,*SC* subcutaneous,*BID* twice daily,^a^Injections, GLP receptor agonists and amylin delay gastric emptying (GE)^b^Oral agents; unclear effect on GE \[[@CR63], [@CR64]\]^c^ Amylin is a peptide hormone co-secreted with insulin from pancreatic β cells Miscellaneous Etiologies {#Sec24} ------------------------ Native autoimmunity in gastric parietal cells has been speculated to occur in patients with type 1 diabetics with DGp \[[@CR65]\]. Clock genes have been implicated in certain GI motility disorders, including gastroparesis, due to variations in circadian rhythm \[[@CR66]\]. Clinical Evaluation of Patient with Suspected Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec25} ==================================================================== Common Clinical Manifestations of Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec26} -------------------------------------------------------- Common signs and symptoms of DGp are listed in Table [6](#Tab6){ref-type="table"}, and some patients present with non-specific symptoms \[[@CR67]\]. Soykan et al. reported that among 146 patients with gastroparesis, nausea was present in 92%, vomiting in 84%, abdominal bloating in 75% and early satiety in 60% \[[@CR25]\]. While similar GI symptoms may occur with oral anti-diabetic agents, such as metformin and alpha glucosidase inhibitors (flatulence, diarrhea and pain), symptoms improve when the medication is discontinued \[[@CR68]\]. In one study, patients with type 1 diabetes presented with worse symptoms and were more frequently hospitalized with less resolution of symptoms than those with type 2 diabetics \[[@CR32]\]. Depending on their medical history, diabetic patients may also have other factors impacting their gastric emptying (Table [7](#Tab7){ref-type="table"}).Table 6Common symptoms of diabetic gastroparesisCommon symptoms of diabetic gastroparesisNauseaVomitingEarly satietyBloatingPostprandial fullnessAbdominal painWeight loss/weight gainConstipation and/or diarrheaWide glycemic fluctuations Table 7Causes of gastroparesisGeneral causes of gastroparesisEtiologySurgical causesVagotomy and gastric resection/drainage\ Fundoplication, oesophagectomy\ Gastric bypass surgery\ Whipple procedure\ Heart/lung transplantInfectionsViruses: Epstein--Barr virus, varicella, parvovirus-like\ Chagas disease\ *Clostridium botulinum*Central nervous system disordersCerebrovascular accidents/trauma\ Tumors\ Labyrinthine disorders\ SeizuresPeripheral nervous system disordersParkinson's disease\ Guillain--Barre\ Multiple sclerosis\ DysautonomiasNeuropsychiatric disordersAnorexia nervosa/bulimia\ Rumination syndromeRheumatologic diseaseScleroderma\ Systemic lupus erythematosus\ Polymyositis/dermatomyositisEndocrine and metabolism diseasesDiabetes\ Hypothyroidism\ Electrolyte disorders\ Renal failure\ Pregnancy\ Neoplastic(para)-breast, small cell lung, pancreasMiscellaneous neuromuscular diseasesAmyloidosis\ Chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction\ Myotonic dystrophy A careful medical history is essential. One must specifically include questions that explore the timing of symptoms with regard to meals, the typical symptom progression and the diet history. For example, early satiety or vomiting may suggest problems with gastric accommodation, while late satiation and/or vomiting may suggest abnormal gastric emptying. Also important are questions that explore diabetes control, symptoms that suggest hypothyroidism, history of previous surgery and medications (Tables [4](#Tab4){ref-type="table"}, [5](#Tab5){ref-type="table"}). Interestingly, in a retrospective study of 186 patients (56% type 1 diabetes mellitus) from the Netherlands, dyspeptic symptoms, with the exception of early satiety and abdominal pain, were unrelated to delayed gastric emptying \[[@CR69]\]. In a study of patients with dyspepsia by Talley et al. \[[@CR70]\], symptom prevalence and severity did not discriminate between those with delayed or normal gastric emptying. On physical examination, neuropathy, abdominal distention, succussion splash, foul breath and orthostatic and postprandial hypotension may be present, but these findings are nonspecific for gastroparesis \[[@CR71]\]. The evaluation of patients with gastroparesis is based on symptom severity. The two most commonly used scoring systems are the Gastroparesis Cardinal Symptom Index (GCSI) \[[@CR72]\], which is a widely used quantitative scoring system, and another multidisciplinary scoring system which is qualitative. Clinical Scoring Systems {#Sec27} ------------------------ The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released guidance on symptom scoring systems for gastroparesis \[[@CR73]\]. Although designed for pharmaceutical trials, it is useful for the documentation of symptoms and patient-reported outcomes in gastroparesis in general. There are a number of scoring systems that have and are being advocated. A popular scoring system, the GCSI, is described in detail in the following section. However, it was not derived from patient focus groups nor was it initially designed to quantify pain, which has limited its application in some settings. GCSI Scoring System for Patient-Reported Outcomes {#Sec28} ------------------------------------------------- The GCSI is a patient-based symptom instrument in which the score is a sum of three subscale scores (each ranging from 1 to 3) for the three main symptom complexes:Postprandial fullness/early satietyNausea/vomitingBloating Patients are asked to rank symptoms (nausea, retching, vomiting, stomach fullness, inability to finish a normal-sized meal, feeling excessively full after meals, loss of appetite, bloating and the abdomen appearing visibly larger) using a scale of 0--5, with 0 being none and 5 being very severe. One drawback to the GCSI is that is does not measure abdominal pain. Gastroparesis Severity Based on Severity of Illness {#Sec29} --------------------------------------------------- Another scoring system grades the severity of gastroparesis as follows \[[@CR74]\]:Grade 1 usually includes patients with mild intermittent symptoms that are controlled with diet modification and the avoidance of exacerbating agents.Grade 2 patients have moderately severe symptoms but no weight loss, and require prokinetic drugs plus antiemetic agents for control.Grade 3 patients are refractory to medication, unable to maintain oral nutrition and require frequent emergency room visits. These patients require intravenous fluids, medications, enteral or parenteral nutrition and endoscopic or surgical therapy. Complications of Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec30} --------------------------------------- Complications of diabetes gastroparesis include \[[@CR71]\]:EsophagitisMallory--Weiss tear from chronic nausea/vomitingMalnutritionVolume depletion with acute renal failureElectrolyte disturbancesBezoar formationHyperglycemia emergencies including diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperosmolar hyperglycemia syndrome In one study, patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus patients with DGp were hospitalized for diabetic ketoacidosis fourfold more often than their counterparts without DGp \[[@CR75], [@CR76]\]. Diagnosis of Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec31} =================================== Diabetic gastroparesis is diagnosed by the presence of upper GI symptoms suggestive of delayed gastric emptying in a diabetic patient, exclusion of mechanical obstruction that could cause upper GI symptoms and the demonstration of delayed gastric emptying. In addition to the medical history and physical examination, various diagnostic techniques can be used. Obstruction caused by an intra-abdominal mass may be excluded by diagnostic imaging. An upper endoscopy is necessary to exclude the presence of stricture, mass or ulcer. Tests that may be necessary to exclude infectious, metabolic and immunologic causes of upper GI symptoms include a complete blood count; comprehensive metabolic panel consisting of electrolytes and liver function test; urinalysis; erythrocyte sedimentation rate; and assays for thyroid-stimulating hormone, rheumatoid factor and antinuclear antibody (Table [8](#Tab8){ref-type="table"}) \[[@CR71]\].Table 8Summary of diagnostic tools for diabetic gastroparesisDiagnostic tools for DGpPresence of symptomsAbdominal imaging Abdominal bloating Plain radiograph Abdominal pain Computed tomography Anorexia Magnetic resonance imaging Early satietyEndoscopy Nausea Esophagoduodenostomy Postprandial fullnessGastric emptying studies Vomiting Scintigraphy Weight loss Breath testsLaboratory studies Ultrasound Antinuclear antibody Manometry Complete blood count Electrogastrography (EGG) Complete metabolic panel (including renal function and anion gap to rule out ketoacidosis) Erythrocyte sedimentation rate Rheumatoid factor Thyroid-stimulating hormone Urinalysis Radiographic Tests {#Sec32} ------------------ ### Gastric Scintigraphy {#Sec33} Gastric emptying scintigraphy of a radiolabeled solid meal is the gold standard for the diagnosis of gastroparesis because it quantifies the emptying of a physiologic caloric meal and as such can assess the motor function of the stomach. Therefore, it provides a physiological, non-invasive and quantitative measure of gastric emptying. The technique involves incorporating a radioisotope tracer into a standard meal and subsequently tracking its passage through the stomach using a gamma camera. Scintigraphy is more sensitive to the measurement of the emptying of solids due to the fact that liquid emptying may remain normal despite advanced disease, but liquids can be radiolabeled as well with an additional isotope. A variety of foods, including chicken, liver, eggs, egg whites, oatmeal or pancakes are commonly used as meals. The content of the meal is important as factors as solids versus liquids, indigestible residue, fat content, calories and volume of the test meal can all influence gastric emptying time. Dual-isotope labeling of solid and liquid phases may also be performed. Emptying of solids exhibits a lag phase followed by a prolonged linear emptying phase \[[@CR71]\]. A consensus statement from the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging and the American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society recommends the use of universally acceptable 99-m technetium sulfur-colloid-labeled low-fat, egg-white meal \[[@CR77]\]. #### Indications of Scintigraphy {#Sec100} Measurement of gastric emptying with scintigraphy may be indicated in diabetic patients with upper GI symptoms (other than isolated heartburn or dysphagia), patients with poor glycemic control and those being considered for, or treated with hypoglycemic medications that may slow gastric emptying, including alpha glucosidase inhibitors, amylin analogs and GLP1-RAs (Table [5](#Tab5){ref-type="table"}), and those with severe reflux symptoms unresponsive to standard therapy. [@CR78]\]. #### Procedure {#Sec101} Gastric emptying scintigraphy should be performed after the exclusion of mechanical or structural causes of abnormal gastric emptying. Patients should discontinue all motility-altering medications, including prokinetics, opiates and anticholinergics for at least 2--3 days before testing, and longer if possible. GLP-1 RAs also delay gastric emptying, and it is reasonable to consider alternative therapies that do not delay gastric emptying. Long-acting GLP1 agonists should be discontinued for at least 1 week before the procedure (listed in Table [5](#Tab5){ref-type="table"}). Patients should refrain from smoking and consuming alcohol on the test day, as both may slow gastric emptying. Significant hyperglycemia delays gastric emptying, and fasting blood glucose should be \< 275 mg/dL on the day of testing \[[@CR79]\]. After an overnight fast, the patient consumes a standardized test meal within 10 min. The most commonly used meal is a 255 kcal low-fat test meal consisting of egg beaters (120 g) labeled with 0.5 mCi technetium-99 m sulfur colloid radioisotope, two slices of bread, strawberry jam (30 g) and water (120 mL). Standard imaging of the gastric area with the patient standing is performed at baseline (after meal ingestion) and at 1, 2 and 4 h after meal ingestion. Although an alteration in body position may have marked effects on gastric emptying of radiolabeled liquids, they have only a minor effect on the intragastric meal distribution and lag-time or post-lag emptying rate for solid and liquid meals. Anterior and posterior images are obtained sequentially with a single-headed camera or a dual-headed camera tracking the passage of the meal through the stomach. Imaging should be completed over 4 h to produce a reliable estimate of half-life time. Shorter imaging protocols may complicate interpretation. The study meal should also be consumed within 10 min, and the time used for consumption should be noted as prolonged time for meal ingestion can effect the measurement of gastric emptying \[[@CR78]\]. #### Interpretation of scintigraphy {#Sec102} A region of interest is drawn around the stomach on both anterior and posterior images at each time point using computerized software. Geometric means of the anterior and posterior counts are calculated and corrected for tissue attenuation and isotope decay. The results are expressed as the percentage of radioactivity retained in the stomach at each time point, normalized to the baseline value. Gastruc emptyingis considered delayed if there is greater than 60% retention at 2 h or 10% retention at 4 h, as shown in Fig. [12](#Fig12){ref-type="fig"} \[[@CR78]\].Fig. 12Gastric emptying (*GE*) scintigraphy showing normal and delayed GE in a patient with type 1 diabetes. The percentage shown is the percentage emptied; the current standard is to list the percentage of radioactivity retention, which would be 100% minus the percentage emptied.Reprinted with permission of the American Diabetes Association, Inc. Copyright 2013 ### Radiopaque Markers {#Sec34} Indigestible markers, i.e. ten small pieces of nasogastric tubing, are ingested with a meal. None of the markers should remain in the stomach on an X-ray taken 6 h after their ingestion. This simple test correlates with clinical gastroparesis and is readily available and inexpensive. The drawbacks of the test include lack of standardization of the meal and size of markers and difficulty in determining if the markers are located in the stomach or in other regions that overlap with the stomach, such as the proximal small bowel and transverse colon \[[@CR78]\]. ### Ultrasonography {#Sec35} Transabdominal ultrasound has been used to measure emptying of a liquid meal by serially evaluating cross-sectional changes in the volume remaining in the gastric antrum over time. Emptying is considered to be complete when the antral area/volume returns to the fasting baseline. Three-dimensional ultrasound is a newly developed technique that has recently been reported to be useful in determining stomach function, and duplex sonography can quantify the transpyloric flow of liquid gastric contents. These techniques are preferred over scintigraphy in certain patients, such as pregnant women and children, to minimize radiation exposure. Drawbacks of the test include operator dependence, proven reliability only for measurement of liquid emptying rates and lower reliability in obese patients or in the presence of excessive gastric air. Moreover, liquid emptying is rarely impaired in patients with severe gastroparesis \[[@CR78]\]. ### Magnetic Resonance Imaging {#Sec36} Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using gadolinium can accurately measure semi-solid gastric emptying and accommodation using sequential transaxial abdominal scans. MRI provides excellent resolution with high sensitivity. It is also non-invasive and radiation free. Antral propagation waves can be observed and their velocity calculated. In gastroparesis, a significant reduction is seen in the velocity of these waves. MRI can also differentiate gastric meal volume and total gastric volume, thereby allowing gastric secretory rates to be calculated. New rapid techniques allow careful measurements of wall motion to be made in both the proximal and distal stomach during emptying, and solid markers now permit the measurement of solid meal emptying. The drawback of this test is its expense and lack of availability \[[@CR78]\]. ### Single-Photon Emission computed tomography {#Sec37} This technique uses intravenously administered 99-Tc pertechnetate that accumulates within the gastric wall rather than the lumen and provides a three-dimensional outline of the stomach. Measurement of regional gastric volumes in real time to assess fundic accommodation and intragastric distribution can be made. The drawback of this test is the need for large radiation doses and its wide unavailability \[[@CR78]\]. ### Stable-Isotope Gastric Emptying Breath Testing {#Sec38} The gastric emptying breath test (GEBT) using a stable isotope, i.e. ^13^C-labeled substrates, typically ^13^C-octanoic acid or ^13^C-*Spirulina platensis* (blue-green algae), is a promising alternative diagnostic modality to scintigraphy. It is a noninvasive, easy-to-perform method and does not involve radiation exposure. In the GEBT, the rate of gastric emptying of the ^13^C substrate incorporated in a solid meal is reflected by breath excretion of ^13^CO~2~ \[[@CR78]\]. #### Indications {#Sec104} The indications for the GEBT is similar to those for scintigraphy; however, the former may specifically be indicated in patients in whom scintigraphy is not feasible. GEBT has an advantage over scintigraphy in that it does not require radiation exposure and may be used in pregnant women, women who are breast-feeding and children. It is also less expensive and easier to perform than gastric emptying scintigraphy. Samples can be transferred to a central laboratory, so the test can be performed anywhere \[[@CR78]\]. ### Wireless Motility Capsule {#Sec39} The wireless motility capsule using the SmartPil has been approved by the U.S. FDA for the evaluation of gastric emptying, colonic transit time in patients with suspected slow transit constipation and for measurement of pH, temperature and pressure throughout the GI tract. It is a safe and practical alternative to scintigraphy. It consists of a 2-cm-long wireless transmitting capsule that has the ability to record and transmit data on pH, pressure and temperature to a portable receiver that may be worn around the patient's neck. Data can be acquired continuously for up to 5 days, and significant events (e.g. meal ingestion, sleep or GI symptoms) can be recorded with a button. Gastric emptying is reflected by an abrupt change in pH as the capsule moves from the acidic environment of the stomach to the alkaline environment of the duodenum. This transit typically occurs with return of the fasting state and phase III migrating motor complex (MMC) after the emptying of liquids and triturable solids \[[@CR78]\]. #### Indication {#Sec105} Wireless motility capsule testing is used in the evaluation of gastric emptying and whole-gut transit in patients with suspected gastroparesis. #### Procedure {#Sec106} The procedure should begin in the morning after an overnight fast. Before testing, medications that suppress gastric acid production should be stopped, such as proton-pump inhibitors for 1 week and histamine H2 receptor antagonists for 3 days, as they may interfere with the pH-dependent measurement of gastric emptying. Similarly, medications that may affect GI motility are stopped 2--3 days before the test. The patient consumes a standardized nutrient meal on the morning of the test, followed by ingestion of the WMC with 50 mL water. The patient fasts for the next 6 h \[[@CR78]\]. #### Interpretation {#Sec107} Sensed data are transmitted by the single-use capsule to the receiver worn by the patient, and pH values from 0.5 to 9.0 pH units, pressure activity and temperature are recorded. Gastric emptying time is defined as the time from capsule ingestion to a rise in pH from gastric baseline to 4.0 pH units, marking the passage of the capsule from the antrum to the duodenum. Normal emptying of the capsule should occur within 5 h of ingestion. If it does not occur within 6 h, a maximum gastric emptying time value of 6 h is assigned (Fig. [13](#Fig13){ref-type="fig"}).Fig. 13Normal gastrointestinal motility tracing using the wireless motility capsule (WMC). *GET* Gastric emptying time, *SBTT* small bowel transit time, *CTT* colon transit timeReprinted with permission from Elsevier (copyright). Rao SS, Kuo B, McCallum RW, et al. (2009) Investigation of colonic and whole-gut transit with wireless motility capsule and radiopaque markers in constipation. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 7(5):537--544 #### Limitations {#Sec108} Healthy subjects and patients with gastroparesis may not have a phase III MMC contraction within 6 h when the next meal is given, and capsule emptying may therefore be inhibited. Diabetic patients undergoing evaluation for gastroparesis receive a second meal at 6 h as part of the standard method and to avoid hypoglycemia in those receiving medium-duration insulin preparations. Other limitations are the possible difficulty with capsule ingestion and the potential for capsule retention or obstruction. Use of the capsule is contraindicated in children and in adult patients with a known history of esophageal stricture \[[@CR78]\]. ### Electrogastrography {#Sec40} Electrogastrography (EGG) can be a useful adjunctive diagnostic test. EGG measures gastric slow-wave myoelectrical activity typically via cutaneous electrodes positioned along the long axis of the stomach. A pre-prandial recording is captured for approximately 45--60 min, then the patient is given a meal, followed by a 45- to 60-min postprandial recording, although shorter recording periods can be used as well. Healthy controls produce EGG recordings that exhibit uniform waveforms of three cycles per minute, which increase in amplitude after ingestion of a meal, and both the frequency and amplitude of the EGG can be important measures, as well as the propagation between channels of EGG signal. Cutaneous electrogastrography can be amplified by the use of more direct measures, such as mucosal or serosal electrograms. Electrograms are not conducted routinely, but they may offer additional sensitivity and indications of disordered gastric function in a given patient \[[@CR80]\]. New work with high-resolution EGG systems offer the potential for more sensitive electrical measurements and possible wider utilization and acceptance. Differential diagnosis of Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec41} ================================================ The nonspecific nature of the clinical features of gastroparesis makes for a broad differential diagnosis, which includes endocrine and metabolic disorders, autoimmune and connective tissue diseases, central nervous system lesions and GI syndromes, as shown in Table [9](#Tab9){ref-type="table"}. Careful review of clinical presentation and diagnostics is warranted since other reversible causes of nausea and emesis, may masquerade as gastroparesis \[[@CR70], [@CR81]\].Table 9Differential diagnosis of gastroparesisDifferentialEvaluationRumination syndromeHistory of passive regurgitation of unpleasant tasting substances without preceding nauseaCyclical vomiting syndromeEpisodic bouts of emesis with intervening asymptomatic periodsPregnancyPregnancy testingCeliac diseaseSerology and endoscopyGastric outlet obstructionUpper endoscopy or barium seriesComplete bowel obstructionBowel films and other imagingPartial small-bowel obstruction\ Crohn's disease with small bowel strictureSmall bowel follow through or computed tomography enterography or enteroclysisHypothyroidismTHS testing to screen for hypothyroidismDiabetesHbA1C, or 2 h glucose tolerance testDiabetic ketosis/ketoacidosisAcute onset, laboratory tests, including anion gap and ketone derivatives are helpful\ Normoglycemia does not rule out diabetic ketoacidosisFunctional dyspepsiaMilder symptoms: may have mild delay in gastric emptyingCNS disordersExamination: cranial nerve palsies, cerebellar signs, CNS imagingAddison's (primary) or secondary adrenal insufficiencyNausea but seldom with emesis. Clinical signs buccal pigmentation, low cortisol with elevated ACTH levels (primary). May coexist with autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes mellitus, Hashimoto's thyroiditis or Graves' disease. Secondary (ACTH) deficiency is often from a pituitary tumor with headache and visual complaints, as well as hypogonadismMedication effectsRefer to list of medications that delay gastric emptyingCannabinoid hyperemesis syndromeHistory of marijuana use, relief of GI symptoms with hot showersPseudo bowel obstructionRadiograph suggestive of dilated loops with no obstruction: ANA, anti-Scl 70, fat biopsy, ANNA-1, CPK.(infiltrative diseases)Eating disorders: anorexia and bulimiaClinical presentation helpful. Re-alimentation and maintenance of body weight improves symptoms \[[@CR82], [@CR83]\]*DKA* Diabetic ketosis/ketoacidosis*CNS* central nervous system,*TSH* thyroid stimulating hormone,*ACTH* adrenocorticotropic hormone,*GI*gastrointestinal, ANA antinuclear antibodies,*CPK* creatine phosphokinase,*ANNA-1* type 1 antineuronal nuclear antibodies Gastroparesis-Like Syndrome {#Sec42} --------------------------- Patients with the symptoms of gastroparesis but with non-delayed solid emptying, have been described \[[@CR29]\]. It is unclear if this entity of gastroparesis-like syndrome is distinct from gastroparesis. Non-Delayed Gastric Emptying (Accelerated/Rapid Gastric Emptying) {#Sec43} ----------------------------------------------------------------- Rapid gastric emptying of solids and/or liquids with features of dumping syndrome and diarrhea is increasingly recognized in patients with diabetes mellitus. Other conditions with rapid gastric emptying include post fundoplication and other gastric surgeries for peptic ulcer or post bariatric surgery, functional diarrhea, functional dyspepsia and autonomic dysfunction. In contrast to delayed gastric emptying, which has been associated with long-standing complicated type 1 diabetes, rapid gastric emptying of liquids occurs with type 2 diabetes, often with early disease (Fig. [9](#Fig9){ref-type="fig"}). Impairment of nitrergic-mediated gastric accommodation due to vagal dysfunction in diabetes mellitus predisposes to higher gastric pressures and rapid gastric emptying of liquids. Patients with rapid gastric emptying may present with poor postprandial glycemic control and postprandial upper abdominal symptoms, such as abdominal discomfort and nausea with or without vomiting, which are often indistinguishable from those of delayed gastric emptying. However, weight loss is more common among patients with delayed gastric emptying \[[@CR49]\]. Diabetics with rapid or accelerated emptying may have similar symptoms as those with DGp. The former present with predominantly postprandial symptoms which are exacerbated by prokinetic agents. Avoiding liquids with meals and for 30 min post meals and the addition of dietary fiber (e.g. pectin, guar gum) can alleviate symptoms. GLP-1 analogs may help by slowing gastric emptying and postprandial hypoglycemia; however, randomized controlled studies are lacking in this area \[[@CR84]\]. Management of Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec44} ==================================== The development of gastroparesis is associated with poor glucose control \[[@CR31]\], and the goal of optimal glycemic control needs to be emphasized. The usual treatments for DGp include nutritional assessment and dietary modifications, glycemic control, prokinetic agents and antiemetic agents, as discussed in the following sections. Although the majority of patients have mild-to-moderate disease that can be managed effectively using these measures, a small percentage of patients have severe DGp that is characterized by inadequate oral intake, malnutrition, weight loss and frequent hospitalizations. Optimal management of these patients presents a difficult challenge for the clinician, although emerging treatment options, such as gastric neurostimulation, offer a glimmer of hope. Patients with DGp often present with gastric comorbidities, including gastroesophageal reflux disease, intestinal dysmotility and fungal and bacterial infections of the GI tract \[[@CR5]\], as well as with macro- and microvascular complications of diabetes. Therefore, effective management of patients with DGP often requires an interdisciplinary approach with the involvement of a team of specialists, including the primary care physician, gastroenterologist, endocrinologist, dietician, psychologist, interventional radiologist and surgeon. Non-glycemic endocrine issues related to DGp include mineral and vitamin deficiency, low bone mass, hypogonadism and amenorrhea related to undernourishment in severe gastroparesis. Vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies, such as vitamin D deficiency, may impact gastric emptying and, interestingly, some studies show a paradoxical worsening of gastric emptying with higher B12 levels. \[[@CR85]\]. Nutritional Management {#Sec45} ---------------------- Most patients with DGp have lower-than-recommended caloric intake and extensive macro- and micronutrient deficiencies \[[@CR86]\]. The caloric requirement can be calculated by multiplying 25 kcal by the current body weight in kilograms. The American Diabetes Association (ADA)-recommended standard low-carbohydrate and high-fiber dietary composition may not be appropriate for many of these patients. Dietary recommendations rely on measures that promote gastric emptying or, at least theoretically, do not retard gastric emptying. At the outset, the patient should be counseled by an experienced dietician who can assess nutritional status and explore the patient's tolerance of solids, semi-solids and liquids, as well as dietary balance, meal size and timing (Table [10](#Tab10){ref-type="table"}). Fats and fiber tend to retard emptying, thus their intake should be minimized \[[@CR87]\]. A step-wise approach starting with clear liquids with nutritional values, followed by soups and smoothies, and later the introduction of gastroparesis-friendly solids is another option \[[@CR67]\]. Multiple small low-fat meals four or five times each day should be recommended. Carbonated liquids should be avoided to limit gastric distention. Patients are instructed to take fluids throughout the course of the meal and to sit or walk for 1--2 h after meals. A small particle diet may also be beneficial for symptoms and tolerance compared to a conventional diabetic diet \[[@CR88]\]. If the above measures are ineffective, the patient may be advised to consume the bulk of their calories as liquids since liquid emptying is often preserved in patients with gastroparesis. Poor tolerance of a liquid diet is predictive of poor success with regular treatment. \[[@CR5]\].Table 10Summary of nutritional interventions for diabetic gastroparesisRepublished and modified with permission of Dove Medical Press \[[@CR89]\]. Permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.Hydration: if all else fails, go for liquidsOn days when symptoms are worse, try taking just liquids to maintain hydration and to rest the stomachMeal volume/portion size: multiply frequency and divide the portionsEat smaller, more frequent mealsMeal consistency: If you can not chew, blenderizeChew the food thoroughly and take 20--30 min to finish the meal\ Try solid meals in the morning, switch to semi-liquid and liquid meals over the course of the day\ Any food can be blended with water, vegetable juice or broth to make a puree\ When symptoms worse, prefer liquid vs solid mealsGlycemic control: match meals with medicinesModify meal timing, form of carbohydrate (simple, complex) according to the diabetes treatment regimen and vice versaFat: less is moreFat in liquid is well-tolerated; maintain an intake of 20--30% of calories from fatFiber: watch for fur ballsIdentify the high-fiber foods that worsen upper GI symptoms, and individualize the sources of fiber\ Delaying GI transit may modulate the biome and alleviate the symptoms\ If bezoar formation is a concern, avoid foods causing bezoar, such as fruits with peelings, berries, coconut, legumes and fiber supplements\ Treat bacterial overgrowth if suspected/symptomaticAddress micronutrient deficiency: bones and bloodEat nutritious foods first before filling up on "empty calories"\ Replace iron, B12, vitamin D and calcium deficiencyWeight/body mass index: keep movingCheck body weight twice a week, if the weight is decreasing, increase the amount of liquid supplements.\ Lose weight if you are overweight\ Physical activity may improve gastric emptying \[[@CR90]\] (Consult your medical team)Miscellaneous: do not miss the bottom lineAvoid foods that lower esophageal sphincter pressure: pepper-mint, chocolate, fat, and caffeine\ Avoid caffeine, alcohol, tobacco and stress\ Avoid chewing gum, which increases air swallowing\ High-fiber foods should be avoided as they may be more difficult on the stomach and may cause bezoar formation\ Chew well and eat slowly (30 min meals)\ Do not lie down immediately after eating.\ Consult dental/oral health team to improve oral hygiene The role of a nutritionist familiar with gastroparesis nutrition needs to be underscored since hydration and nutrition are important in preventing many complications of DGp and autonomic neuropathy including diabetic ketosis/ketoacidosis, delayed wound healing and diabetic cachexia. Lifestyle Intervention, Behavior Modification and Alternative Therapies {#Sec46} ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Patient and family education and improved awareness of the condition form an integral part of the treatment plan. The disabling chronic symptoms of gastroparesis have a profound impact on the patient's sense of well-being and personal and social life \[[@CR91]\]. Empathy to patient's needs, a humanistic approach from the clinical team, and behavioral psychology counseling will help the patient cope with the disability. Patients should be informed that a number of drugs might be tried in an attempt to discover the optimal therapeutic regimen and that the aim of treatment is to control rather than cure the disorder. Addressing physical conditioning, weight and nutrition-related issues is imperative to DGp treatment \[[@CR71]\]. Glycemic Management {#Sec47} ------------------- It is imperative to optimize glycemic control to minimize acute symptoms of DGp and improve gastric emptying to impact overall diabetes-related outcomes. Rapid gastric emptying may cause postural hypotension, thereby precipitating falls, especially in elderly patients with DAN \[[@CR92], [@CR93]\]. Hyperglycemia delays gastric emptying, even in the absence of neuropathy or myopathy, which is likely to be mediated by reduced phasic antral contractility and the induction of pyloric pressure waves \[[@CR94]\]. Hyperglycemia can inhibit the accelerating effects of prokinetic agents. Glucose levels should be maintained below 180 mg/dL to avoid inhibiting gastric myoelectric control and motility. Patient-centered interventional strategies to minimize postprandial hyperglycemia need to be devised \[[@CR95]\]. A multidisciplinary approach with a team consisting of a certified diabetes educator, registered dietician who is familiar with nutritional assessment of gastroparesis and a behavioral psychologist is integral to implementing a strategy of individualized patient care. Also, compassionate family members/care takers who understand the dynamics and complexity of blood glucose management in patients with gut autonomic dysfunction will be effective partners in the patient care team. Pharmacotherapy for Glucose Management in Patients with Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec48} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Over the last decade, the therapeutic armamentarium for diabetes has expanded at a remarkable pace to include drugs with novel pathways and also device technology \[[@CR63]\]. For those with type 2 diabetes, incretin mimetics and sodium glucose transporter inhibitors (SGLT-2i) have been game changers with major trials proving significant cardiovascular benefits \[[@CR96]\]. In patients with DGp, glycemic goals and choice of pharmacotherapy should be individualized along with nutrition and lifestyle modifications \[[@CR97]\]. ### Oral Agents {#Sec49} Oral agents are not recommended for patients with type 2 diabetics with clinically significant DGp. The pharmacodynamics/kinetics of oral agents are impacted by delayed gastric emptying and, therefore, these agents are not ideal for effective glycemic control. While biguanides (metformin) improve insulin resistance, GI intolerance often limits their use. Sulfonylureas must be used with caution given the risk of hypoglycemia. While data on the impact of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors on gastric emptying are inconsistent, absorption may be impaired depending on the rate of gastric emptying. Dehydration and euglycemic ketoacidosis are a potential risk, but the direct impact of SGLT-2i on DGp is not clear at this time \[[@CR98]\]. Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors may be beneficial for accelerated gastric emptying, but they may also cause diarrhea and abdominal distension. ### Incretins {#Sec50} Glucagon-like peptide-1 analogs and GLP1-RAs are well-established antidiabetic agents for patients with type 2 diabetes, with multimodal impact both on glycemic control and metabolic benefit \[[@CR99]\] (Table [5](#Tab5){ref-type="table"}). However, this group of agents may exacerbate symptoms in patients with delayed gastric emptying, \[[@CR67]\]. On the other hand, there may be a role for GLP-1 analogs in those diabetics with accelerated gastric emptying \[[@CR84]\]. ### Insulin Therapy {#Sec51} In patients with type 1 diabetes, the standard of care is insulin, either basal-bolus therapy (Table [11](#Tab11){ref-type="table"}) or continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII).Table 11Summary of available human and analog insulins and their pharmacokineticsType of insulin^a^Onset of actionPeakDuration of actionFrequency of dosingHuman insulin Regular0.5--1 h2--4 h6--8 hMeal time (preferred in DGp, poorly controlled diabetes mellitus, enteral nutrition) NPH (isophane)2--4 h4--8 h12--16 hBasal insulin, given twice a day U 500 regular (concentrated)2--4 h4--8 h12--16 hBasal/bolus 2--3 × day or  pumpAnalog insulin Prandial/meal time/rapid acting  Lispro5--15 min1 h2--4 hMeal time  Aspart5--15 min1--3 h3.5--5 h  Glulisine5--15 min1 h4--5 hMeal time(may be administered within 20 min after a meal)  Aspart (fast acting)\< 15 min1.5--2.22 h5--7 h Basal/long acting analog  Glargine (U100)3--4 hFlat/12 h10.8--24 hOnce or twice a day\ Duration dose dependent (generic available)  Detemir U1001--4 hFlat10--18 hTwice a day\ Duration dose dependent  Degludec (u-100)90 minFlat peak24--42 hOnce a day Concentrated insulins^b^  U-200 degludec90 minFlat24--42 hBasal  U-300 glargine6 hFlat24 h  U-500 regular\~ 15 min4--8 h≤ 21 hBasal/bolus\ Inject 30 min before meal  U-200 lispro\~ 15 min30--90 min4--5 hPrandial^a^Premix insulins and inhaled insulins are not discussed here since their role in patients with DGp is unclear^b^Concentrated insulins may be helpful in insulin-resistant patients with DGp (type 2 diabetes mellitus) Basal insulin is long- or intermediate-acting insulin administered subcutaneously once or twice a day. Ideal basal insulin has no peak effect and maintains euglycemia independent of the prandial state. The analog basal insulins (Table [11](#Tab11){ref-type="table"}) are closer to endogenous insulin secretion with a lack of peak effect and longer duration of action. Basal insulin is initiated at a dose of 0.2--0.3 units/kg/day for patients with type 2 diabetics and 0.15 units/kg/day for those with type 1 diabetics. Dose titration is based on glycemic response, keeping in mind that the post-absorptive state in DGp varies widely. Prandial insulin is generally used pre-meal to prevent postprandial glycemic excursions, but its use poses challenges given the wide postprandial glycemic variability with DGp. Prandial insulin may be administered after meals as a strategy to prevent postprandial hypoglycemia if the full meal is not consumed as planned, or there is intra-prandial emesis. Regular insulin causes less hypoglycemia post meal than does rapid-acting insulin analogs in select patients \[[@CR67]\]. With multiple small meals, aggressive glucose monitoring and frequent small doses of rapid-acting insulins may be needed to prevent postprandial hyperglycemia. Diabetes Technology {#Sec52} ------------------- In patients with DGp, the variable gastric emptying poses challenges for glycemic control. Prevention of wide glucose fluctuations may be more important than maintenance of a given steady-state blood glucose level. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) may be helpful with predictive low glucose alerts and to ascertain the effect of certain meals on glucose levels \[[@CR100]\] (Fig. [14](#Fig14){ref-type="fig"}). Optimal glucose control may improve antral contractility, correct gastric dysrhythmias and accelerate emptying. DGp may be an indication for insulin-pump therapy (CSII) in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus \[[@CR101]\]. A recent National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Gastroparesis Consortium (GpCRC)-funded open labeled pilot study of 42 diabetics with DGp (both types 1 and 2) showed improved glycemic control, less hypoglycemia and an improved DGP symptom score with the use of sensor-augmented pump or CSII and CGM) \[[@CR102]\].Fig. 14Continuous glucose monitoring system (Dexcom G4 CGM) downloaded from a patient with Type 1 diabetes with diabetic gastroparesis treated with a basal and bolus insulin regimen. The figure shows data for seven 24 hour periods (different color for each of the 7 days). Daily trends show wide glycemic fluctuations (interstitial glucose mg/dl on y-axis), mostly in postprandial state that vary from day to day. Also of note there are significant hypoglycemic events. Courtesy Dr. K. Komorovskiy With insulin pump therapy, the patient is able to use various delivery patterns of prandial insulin. Combination and extended boluses (square wave and dual wave patterns) may eliminate the postprandial hypoglycemia that may occur with instant boluses. Combo bolus or dual wave using 10--20% with the first wave and the remainder with the second wave over 5--6 h depending on meal may be helpful \[[@CR67]\]. A hybrid closed loop pump (CSII with CGM) which delivers interprandial insulin based on glucose trends (model 670G; Medtronic plc, Dublin, Ireland) was approved in 2016 by the FDA for those patients who need steady glycemic control \[[@CR103]\] (Fig. [15](#Fig15){ref-type="fig"}). Further clinical trials of patients with DGp will enhance use of available technology to improve glycemic -gastric outcomes.Fig. 15Data downloaded from a continuous glucose monitoring system with automated basal insulin delivery (Medtronic 670G hybrid closed loop) 4 weeks after the initiation of sensor augmented pump therapy in a patient with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes and diabetic autonomic neuropathy, including hypoglycemia unawareness, gastroparesis and status post (s/p) gastric stimulator. The report shows very few hypoglycemic events. Time in range (green) shows a significant stability in glycemic variability with the HbA1c level below 7% while on auto mode (latter controls interprandial insulin delivery based on a built-in algorithm).*BG* Blood glucose, SG sensor glucose In a study of hospitalized type 1 diabetics with DGp, CSII was superior to multiple insulin injections for glycemic control, hypoglycemia prevention and length of inpatient days \[[@CR104]\]. In the past 2 years, the U.S FDA has approved expanded indications for Dexcom G5^®^ Mobile CGM System and Libre flash glucose monitoring systems (Abbott Laboratories, Lake Bluff, IL) to replace finger stick glucose checking in diabetic patients \[[@CR105], [@CR106]\]. More recently an integrated CGM (iCGM) has been approved to use with other compatible medical device platforms and electronic interfaces, including automated insulin pumps \[[@CR107]\]. Given the available ground-breaking technology more studies are needed to evaluate the feasibility and safety of real-time glucose monitoring and predictive insulin infusion systems in patients with DGp. Pharmacologic Treatments for Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec53} --------------------------------------------------- The pharmacotherapy of gastroparesis involves a stepwise, incremental and long-term treatment approach. The most commonly used drug classes include prokinetics, antiemetics and (occasionally) analgesics \[[@CR108]\]. Several novel targeted therapies are also being studied \[[@CR109]\]. ### Prokinetics {#Sec54} Several prokinetic drugs have been used successfully to manage the symptoms of gastroparesis. These agents include metoclopramide, domperidone, erythromycin and cisapride. Newer prokinetic agents include tegaserod, sildenafil and novel experimental motilides (e.g., ABT-229 and GM-611 \[mitemcinal\], synthetic ghrelin, bethanechol, levosulpiride and clonidine) \[[@CR12]\]. #### Metoclopramide {#Sec55} Metoclopramide is one of the most commonly used agents in the management of DGP. It is both a central and a peripheral dopamine-2 (D2)-receptor antagonist with antiemetic and prokinetic actions that increases antral contractions and coordinates antral duodenal motility \[[@CR110]\]. Restricting the total daily metoclopramide dose to 40 mg/day and using the liquid formulation to improve its pharmacokinetics provide a balance between efficacy and side effects to the central nervous system. Female gender, younger age, presence of diabetes and use of high doses are risk factors for acute dystonia. Metoclopramide can be administered parenterally when symptoms are severe. The FDA issued a black box warning in 2009 cautioning about its use beyond 3 months \[[@CR111]\]. An intranasal spray was found to improve symptoms compared to placebo in female but not male diabetic patients \[[@CR112]\]. Metoclopramide increases serum prolactin levels. Gynecomastia and galactorrhea may occur in adults as well as adolescents and young children \[[@CR113]\], and adult women may develop oligomenorrhea \[[@CR114]\] Metoclopramide also stimulates aldosterone synthesis and may provoke uncontrolled hypertension in a subset of patients with primary hyper-aldosteronism \[[@CR115]\]. Metoclopramide can prolong the QTc in susceptible patients. In the USA, it is recommended that metoclopramide be reserved for the most severe cases that are unresponsive to other treatment modalities \[[@CR4]\]. A few years ago, the European Medicines Agency cautioned that the risks of extrapyramidal symptoms outweigh the benefits of metoclopramide. #### Domperidone {#Sec56} Domperidone is a type II dopamine antagonist similar to metoclopramide, and it is equally efficacious to the latter but with less side effects to the central nervous system as it does not cross the blood--brain barrier. Domperidone has been shown to reduce GI symptoms and hospitalizations from gastroparesis and to accelerate gastric emptying at doses between 10 mg and 30 mg taken orally 30 min before meals and at bedtime. Domperidone can cause gynecomastia in men and amenorrhea and galactorrhea in women. A baseline electrocardiogram is recommended to assess corrected QT intervals, and this should be repeated as indicated. The drug is often withheld from patients with a QTc of \> 470 ms in males and of  \> 450 ms in females, and a cardiology consultation may be indicated \[[@CR116], [@CR117]\]. Because of a reported association with serious cardiac arrhythmias, domperidone is restricted for use in some countries. Domperidone is available in the US through an FDA-sponsored Investigational New Drug program. #### Erythromycin {#Sec57} Erythromycin is a macrolide antibiotic with an agonist effect on motilin receptors in the GI tract that increases gastric emptying in a dose--response fashion, with 3 mg/kg of erythromycin administered intravenously seeming to be the most effective dose. Erythromycin has been shown to stimulate gastric emptying in diabetic, idiopathic and post-vagotomy gastroparesis. Oral erythromycin administered in the dose range of 50--100 mg taken 3 times daily in combination with a low-bulk diet was found to be effective in controlling symptoms of gastroparesis in 83% patients. QTc may be prolonged by this drug, and cardiac monitoring is recommended by electrocardiogram before and with therapy \[[@CR118]\]. In a recent interventional study using intravenous erythromycin followed by oral erythromycin in patients with type 1 diabetics with delayed gastric emptying, CGMS and \[[@CR13]\] the GEBT with ^13^C-*Spirulina platensis* showed improved gastric emptying with a high- (3 mg/kg) but not low-dose (2 mg/kg) infusion and no change with oral administration (250 mg three times a day) \[[@CR119]\]. #### Cisapride {#Sec58} Cisapride is a potent prokinetic drug that accelerates gastric emptying of solids and improves dyspeptic symptoms. It acts on the stomach via 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT4) receptors. This drug has been withdrawn from the market in many countries, including the USA, due to the risk for ventricular arrhythmias \[[@CR120]\]. #### Bethanecol {#Sec59} Bethanecol is a muscarinic receptor agonist, usually given at a dose of 25 mg four times a day. Its reported side effects include headache, tachycardia, flushing, hypotension and urinary urgency. #### Tegaserod {#Sec60} Tegaserod has been shown to increase gastric emptying; however, it too has been withdrawn from the market due to an association with bowel ischemia and for possible cardiovascular side effects. ### Antiemetics {#Sec61} Nausea and vomiting are the most disabling symptoms of gastroparesis, and antiemetic agents without stimulatory activity are often used alone or in combination with prokinetic drugs to treat gastroparesis. Antiemetic medications act on a broad range of distinct receptors subtypes in the peripheral and central nervous system. Like prokinetics, the choice of antiemetic is empirical \[[@CR71]\]. Some anti-emetics have the potential for KEG Q-Tc prolongation, as do some other drugs used for the treatment of gastroparetic symptoms. #### Phenothiazines {#Sec62} Phenothiazines are the most commonly prescribed traditional antiemetics and include prochlorperazine and tiethyperazine. These drugs are both dopamine and cholinergic receptor antagonists that act on the area postrema in the brainstem. Side effects include sedation and extra-pyramidal effects such as drowsiness, dry mouth, constipation, skin rashes and Parkinsonian-like tardive dyskinesia. #### Serotonin 5-HT3 Receptor Antagonists {#Sec63} These medications include ondansetron, granisetron and dolasetron, and they act on the chemoreceptor trigger zone as well as on peripheral afferent nerve fibers within the vagus nerve. They may be used in DGP when all other drugs have failed to provide symptom relief. #### Antihistamines {#Sec64} Antihistamines act on H1 receptors to produce central antiemetic effects. Commonly prescribed antiemetics include diphenhydramine, dimenhydrinate and meclizine. These agents are most often used to treat symptoms related to motion sickness. Side effects include drowsiness, dry mouth, blurred vision, difficulty urinating, constipation, palpitations, dizziness, insomnia and tremors. ### Low-Dose Tricyclic Antidepressants {#Sec65} Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) impair gastrointestinal motility through their anticholinergic activity but they have also been shown to relieve nausea, vomiting and pain in functional dyspepsia. In one study, 88% of diabetic patients with nausea and vomiting reported benefits with TCAs. Side effects associated with low-dose TCAs are uncommon, although excessive sedation and dry mouth occasionally limits use. However, a recent randomized controlled trial of nortriptyline found no benefit in idiopathic gastroparesis \[[@CR121]\]. ### Pharmacotherapy in Children with Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec66} Treatment approaches differ for children and adults. Metoclopramide, domperidone and erythromycin have all been used in children with DGp \[[@CR44]\]. However, few medications and interventions used to manage the symptoms of gastroparesis have been thoroughly studied in children. ### Drugs in Development {#Sec67} #### Future Prokinetics {#Sec68} *Motilin agonists*. Motilin agonists have been explored as a treatment for gastroparesis, but no current compounds are available for investigational use \[[@CR53]\].*Ghrelin agonists*. Ghrelin is a peptide produced predominantly by the enteroendocrine cells in the gastric mucosa. Its plasma concentration increases with fasting, and it is viewed as a 'hunger hormone' because it is an appetite-stimulating peptide. Ghrelin stimulates the secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone, growth hormone and prolactin and inhibits insulin secretion. In a cross-over study, the ghrelin analog TZP-101 (80, 160, 320, or 600 μg/kg), administered intravenously, was tested in seven type 1 and three type 2 diabetics with moderate to severe gastroparesis symptoms and \> 29% retention of a solid egg radiolabeled meal at 4 h after ingestion. TZP-101 reduced the half-time for gastric emptying of solids (i.e. mean acceleration of 20%) and shortened the lag time (mean reduction of 34%) relative to placebo. TZP-101 also reduced overall post-meal symptom intensity (24%) and postprandial fullness (37%) \[[@CR33]\]. However, because of limited efficacy this drug is no longer in clinical trials. \[[@CR122]\].*Relamorelin*. The novel pentapeptide-selective ghrelin agonist relamorelin (RM-131) has similar characteristics to native ghrelin, but with a 100-fold greater potency to reverse gastric ileus in animal models and a longer plasma half-life. RM-131 (100 μg/day, subcutaneous) accelerated gastric emptying in patients with type 1 or 2 diabetes who had upper gastrointestinal symptoms. In a phase 2, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 10 μg RM-131 involving 204 patients with diabetic gastroparesis (12% type 1 diabetes mellitus, 88% type 2 diabetes mellitus), with a 28-day treatment period after a 1-week, single-blinded, placebo run-in, RM-131 enhanced gastric emptying and reduced vomiting episodes and vomiting severity. In the 58.3% of patients with vomiting at baseline, all three endpoints also improved and, in addition, there was reduction in the composite score of nausea, abdominal pain, bloating and early satiety \[[@CR123]--[@CR126]\]. However, in a study of over 390 patients, 10% of whom had type 1 diabetes, although symptoms improved over a 12-week period, there was dose-dependent worsening of glycemic control in 14% of subjects \[[@CR127]\]. The drug is in phase 3 trials.*Newer 5-HT4 agonists*. New-generation 5-HT4 agonists have high selectivity for 5-HT4 receptors, with little affinity for other serotoninergic and other classes of receptors \[[@CR53]\]. ### Other Therapies {#Sec69} #### Intrapyloric Botulinum Injection {#Sec70} Pylorospasm is thought to contribute to the development of DGP. Botulinum toxin, a potent inhibitor of neuromuscular transmission, has been reported to improve emptying and symptoms for several months in DGp and idiopathic gastroparesis in several open label studies \[[@CR128]\]. However, several double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trials, while showing some improvement in gastric emptying demonstrated no alleviation or improvement of symptoms. Positive trials are needed before botulin toxin can be recommended for the management of pylorospasm in gastroparesis \[[@CR5], [@CR12]\], and the 2013 ACG recommendations on gastroparesis strongly advises against using botox for the treatment this condition \[[@CR4]\]. #### Pyloroplasty {#Sec71} Pyloroplasty can be done either surgically or endoscopically; the latter is known as G-POEM (gastric peroral endoscopic myotomy) \[[@CR129]\]. Renewed interest in the role of the pylorus in delayed gastric emptying has resulted in a number of ways to open the pyloric sphincter, including surgical and endoscopic approaches. While the analogy of the pyloric sphincter for the stomach to the lower esophageal sphincter for the esophagus is attractive, there have been very few controlled studies in this area, and there are currently no published guidelines for pyloric therapy \[[@CR130]--[@CR132]\]. Gastric Electrical Stimulation {#Sec72} ------------------------------ For a subset of patients with severe, refractory gastroparesis that is unresponsive to medical therapy, gastric electric stimulation (GES) may be an option. GES improves nausea, vomiting, quality of life and nutritional status in patients with refractory DGp \[[@CR133]--[@CR136]\]. Three principal methods of GES have been described: gastric electrical pacing, high-frequency GES and sequential neural electrical stimulation. Based on the number of stimulation electrodes, GES can be classified into single-channel GES and multichannel GES. Gastric pacing by high-energy, low-frequency GES (long pulses) attempts to restore the regular slow wave rhythm of 3 cycles/min of normal gastric myoelectric activity and has been found to improve symptoms and gastric emptying \[[@CR5]\]. Only high-frequency GES is approved by the U.S. FDA, and this therapy was recommended for certain drug-refractory patients, particularly those with DGp, in the 2013 ACG review \[[@CR3]\]. A randomized trial of temporary endoscopic GES has shown the effectiveness of this strategy; it may be useful as a screening method \[[@CR136]\]. Surgical Options in the Management of Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec73} ------------------------------------------------------------ A significant number of patients have gastroparesis that is refractory to medical management. Surgery is the last resort due to the risk for complications associated with these procedures. The main role of surgery is to palliate symptoms, decompressing the stomach, thereby providing access for enteral nutrition and enhancing gastric emptying. ### Venting Gastrostomy or Jejunostomy {#Sec74} In patients with significant upper GI motility disorders, surgically placed venting gastrostomy, with or without a venting enterostomy, has been found to reduce hospitalizations. Therefore, these procedures may be an option, but they need further evaluation \[[@CR53]\]. ### Gastrectomy {#Sec75} Completion or subtotal gastrectomy is performed most often for gastroparesis that followed gastric surgery for peptic ulcer disease. It has been suggested that major gastric surgery, such as Roux-en-Y reconstructions, could be helpful in palliating symptoms such as vomiting in patients with intractable gastroparesis and consequently improve the quality of life \[[@CR53]\]. However, no controlled trials of completion gastrectomy for gastroparesis have been performed and concerns about long-term nutritional effects of gastrectomy remain. Complimentary Alternative Therapy {#Sec76} --------------------------------- Acupuncture was shown to have some benefit in a small study of 35 patients with DGp \[[@CR137]\]. Ginger has been shown in some studies to improve symptoms in gastroparesis of varied etiology; \[[@CR138]\] however, larger well-designed studies are needed to explore the benefits of complimentary alternative therapies. Novel Therapeutics in Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec77} -------------------------------------------- An effective, safe prokinetic is the goal for patients with gastroparesis, and medications in development, including ghrelin agonists and new generation 5-HT4 agonists, hold promise. High-frequency GES currently used in patients with severe symptoms should be considered for wider usage. In addition, the optimal conditions for entraining the electrical pacesetters that control gastric motor function are still being developed, and it is possible that advances in electrical stimulation may ultimately achieve the clinical promise that has been a goal for at least three decades. Better methods to detect the underlying electrical signal, including mucosal electrograms, may clarify the role of the electrogastrogram as well as predict response to GES. It is also pragmatic to determine if the same treatment approach can be used in idiopathic and in diabetic gastroparesis, or whether these conditions need to be treated differently. Stem cell treatment of ICC and the use of interleukin-10 are still in preliminary phase studies \[[@CR57], [@CR139]\]. It is important to re-emphasize that the management of patients with diabetic gastroparesis requires multidisciplinary care and co-operation. Therefore, well-designed randomized controlled trials with multidisciplinary investigators are needed to determine the optimal management of this condition. Current Guidelines for Treatment of Diabetic Gastroparesis {#Sec78} ========================================================== Consensus guidelines for the clinical management of diabetic gastroparesis formulated by the ACG and consensus recommendations for gastric emptying scintigraphy of the American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society and the Society of Nuclear Medicine are summarized below \[[@CR4], [@CR77]\].Fig. 16Algorithm for management of diabetic gastroparesis.*GES* Gastric electric stimulation*Identify the Cause*. Patients with gastroparesis should be screened for the presence of diabetes mellitus, thyroid dysfunction, neurological disease, prior gastric or bariatric surgery and autoimmune disorders. Patients should undergo biochemical screening for diabetes and hypothyroidism; other tests are as indicated clinically. A prodrome suggesting a viral illness may lead to gastroparesis. Clinicians should enquire about the presence of a prior acute illness suggestive of a viral infection. Markedly uncontrolled (\> 200 mg/dL, 11.1 mmol/L) glucose levels may aggravate symptoms of gastroparesis and delay gastric emptying. Optimization of glycemic control should be a target for therapy; this may improve symptoms and the delayed gastric emptying.*Diagnosis*. A documented delay in gastric emptying is required for the diagnosis of gastroparesis. Scintigraphic gastric emptying of solids is the standard for the evaluation of gastric emptying and the diagnosis of gastroparesis. The most reliable method and parameter for the diagnosis of gastroparesis is gastric retention of solids at 4 h as measured by scintigraphy. Studies of shorter duration or based on a liquid challenge alone may result in decreased diagnostic sensitivity. Alternative approaches for the assessment of gastric emptying include wireless capsule motility testing and the GEBT with^13^C-labeled compounds such as octanoate or*Spirulina* incorporated into a solid meal; further validation is needed before these tests can be considered as alternates to scintigraphy for the diagnosis of gastroparesis. Medications that affect gastric emptying should be stopped at least 48 h before diagnostic testing. Patients with diabetes should have the blood glucose measured before starting the gastric emptying test; if hyperglycemia is detected, it should be treated and the test postponed until after the blood glucose is \< 275 mg/dL (15.2 mmol/L).*Exclusion criteria and differential diagnosis*. The presence of rumination syndrome and/or an eating disorders (including anorexia nervosa and bulimia) should be considered when evaluating a patient for gastroparesis. These disorders may be associated with delayed gastric emptying, and identification of these disorders may alter management. Cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS), defined as recurrent episodic episodes of nausea and vomiting, should also be considered during the patient history-taking. These patients may require alternative therapy. Chronic usage of cannabinoid agents may cause a syndrome similar to CVS (Table [9](#Tab9){ref-type="table"}).*Nutrition and enteral feeding*. The first line of management for gastroparesis patients should include restoration of fluids and electrolytes and nutritional support; in patients with diabetics with gastroparesis, optimization of glycemic control must also be achieved. Oral intake is preferable for nutrition and hydration. Patients should receive counseling from a dietician regarding the consumption of frequent small-volume nutrient meals that are low in fat and soluble fiber. A high-calorie liquid nutrient component may be helpful since emptying of liquids is spared; however, a poor tolerance of liquid nutrition predicts possible oral nutrition failure. If the patient is unable to tolerate solid food, homogenized or liquid nutrient meals are recommended. Optimal glycemic control should be the goal. Since acute hyperglycemia inhibits gastric emptying, it is assumed that improved glycemic control may improve gastric emptying and reduce symptoms. Pramlintide and GLP-1 analogs may delay gastric emptying in diabetics. Cessation of these treatments and the use of alternative approaches should be considered before any therapy for gastroparesis is initiated.*Pharmacologic management*. In addition to dietary therapy, prokinetic therapy should be considered to improve gastric emptying and gastroparesis symptoms, taking into account the benefits and risks of the chosen treatment. Metoclopramide has traditionally been a first-line prokinetic therapy, but this agent should be administered at the lowest effective dose and for limited periods of time due to the real risk of adverse effects. The risk of tardive dyskinesia from metoclopramide has been estimated to be \< 1%. Patients should be instructed to discontinue therapy if they develop side effects, including involuntary movements. For patients unable to use metoclopramide, domperidone can be prescribed; this drug has Investigational New Drug clearance from the U.S. FDA and has been shown to be as effective as metoclopramide in reducing symptoms without the latter's propensity for causing side effects to the central nervous system. Intravenous (IV) erythromycin should be considered when IV prokinetic therapy is needed in hospitalized patients. Oral treatment with erythromycin also improves gastric emptying. TCAs can be considered for refractory nausea and vomiting in gastroparesis but will not result in improved gastric emptying, and may potentially retard gastric emptying. Intrapyloric injection of botulinum toxin is not recommended for patients with gastroparesis based on randomized controlled trials. GES may be considered for compassionate treatment in patients with refractory symptoms, particularly nausea and vomiting. Symptom severity and gastric emptying have been shown to improve in patients with DGp, but not in patients with idiopathic gastroparesis or postsurgical gastroparesis. Abdominal pain in gastroparesis may respond less well to treatment \[[@CR49], [@CR71]\].*Surgical management*. Gastrostomy for venting and/or jejunostomy for feeding may be required for symptom relief. Completion gastrectomy could be considered in patients with postsurgical gastroparesis who remain markedly symptomatic and fail medical therapy. Surgical pyloroplasty or gastrojejunosotomy have been performed for refractory gastroparesis. However, further studies are needed before this treatment is advocated, and close nutritional monitoring is recommended before and after gastrectomy. Partial gastrectomy and pyloroplasty should be used rarely, only in carefully selected patients. Summary {#Sec79} ======= The prevalence of diabetes is increasing worldwide, with major economic and personal impact and increased morbidity and mortality. The majority of patients with diabetes develop GI symptoms during the course of their disease, and gastroparesis often goes undiagnosed. When evaluating a patient for DGp, it is important to tease out various upper, and lower GI symptoms with a detailed medical history and to exclude other common diseases with similar manifestations. A gastric emptying study should be performed after exclusion of mechanical or structural causes of abnormal gastric emptying. Effective DGp management requires consultants with expertise in the disorder. The standard of care involves a multidisciplinary team consisting of a diabetologist, a gastroenterologist with motility expertise, a certified diabetes educator, a registered dietician and a behavioral psychologist and/or a psychiatrist. The primary assessment includes risk stratification and intervention (Fig. [16](#Fig16){ref-type="fig"}). Careful nutritional assessment, hydration and electrolyte replenishment are a priority. Eliminating medications that exacerbate DGp, and life style changes, such as ceasing tobacco and alcohol use and encouraging exercise, are beneficial \[[@CR140]\]. When choosing pharmacotherapy, the benefits need to be cautiously weighed against the adverse effect profile and cost. For drug-refractory patients who are eligible for a device, a trial of GES may be considered. Open lines of communication are essential while setting goals and expectations regarding symptom management, medications and device outcomes. Finally, it is well known that diabetes (type 2) may be preventable \[[@CR141], [@CR142]\] and that its complications can be delayed or prevented by early screening and effective intervention \[[@CR18], [@CR143]\]. The seminal studies of glycemic control have shown that metabolic memory or legacy effect of early control can prevent or delay the development of diabetic autonomic neuropathy and other complications \[[@CR10], [@CR11], [@CR13], [@CR144]\]. Diabetic gastroparesis is a complex disease requiring a multifaceted approach, and we hope that our comprehensive review offers insight into the understanding and management of this challenging disorder. **Enhanced Digital Features** To view enhanced digital features for this article go to 10.6084/m9.figshare.6391592. The authors would like to thank the staff of their respective institutions. They would also like to thank Catherine McBride at the University of Louisville for help with manuscript preparation, Dr. Gregg Wendorf for assistance with illustrations, Dr. Michael Schemann for use of his figures, the reviewers and also Dr. Stephen J Winters for insightful comments. Funding {#FPar2} ======= This supplement has been sponsored by Hansa Medcell, India, who provided an unrestricted educational grant in support of the original project. Editorial Assistance {#FPar3} ==================== Administrative assistance and project guidance was provided by the University of Louisville Office of Continuing Medical Education and Professional Development and Dr. Daniel Cogan, Assistant Dean. Authorship {#FPar4} ========== All named authors meet the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship for this article, take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, and have given their approval for this version to be published. Disclosures {#FPar5} =========== Dr. Thomas Abell is a consultant to Theravance; an investigator for Vanda, Allergan and Theravance; a reviewer for Up To Date; an Editor of MedStudy, Neuromodulation, and Wikistim; and a founder of ADEPT-GI. Dr Sathya Krishnasamy is Investigator for Novo Nordisk, Kowa, Sanofi, Merck and Pfizer diabetes studies. Compliance with Ethics Guidelines {#FPar6} ================================= This article is based on previously conducted studies and is not a new study with human participants or animals. Open Access {#d29e3572} =========== This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/>), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

PubMed Central

Published: February 22, 2018 Introduction {#sec1} ============ Muscle regeneration in most species is mediated by satellite cells, anatomically defined based on their position between the skeletal muscle fiber plasma membrane and the basal lamina ([@bib22]). Satellite cells are a heterogeneous pool of muscle progenitors, a subset of which fulfill criteria of adult stem cells in that they engraft, proliferate, respond to injury by regenerating mature muscle, reoccupy the muscle satellite cell niche, and self-renew ([@bib9], [@bib19], [@bib25], [@bib28], [@bib29]). Endogenous characteristics of satellite cell populations, including activation state and stemness, are rapidly altered in culture ([@bib4], [@bib7], [@bib10], [@bib25]), limiting investigation of *in vivo* properties, natural heterogeneity, and regenerative capacity. For human satellite cells (HuSCs), experimental tractability is further complicated by source scarcity and less predictable yield that may in turn be related to variable source properties such as muscle type, age, and delay in preparation after tissue procurement. This limits preclinical investigation and slows clinical translation. Several standard and classical experimental paradigms used to study tissue stem cells, such as serial transplantation, have been unavailable for use in human muscle stem cell biology because of difficulty obtaining adequate tissue, limited ability to isolate pure populations of satellite cells, and challenges with xenotransplantation. Whereas the mouse has proved extremely valuable for understanding muscle satellite cell biology that is highly relevant to humans, there are limitations in terms of how closely human muscle biology will mimic that of laboratory rodents. Therefore it is imperative to study naturally occurring HuSCs in order to address clinical muscle disorders. Although endogenous human muscle progenitors and satellite cells have recently been characterized and transplanted ([@bib1], [@bib6], [@bib7], [@bib34], [@bib35]), the lack of readily available sources of preserved HuSCs has sequestered HuSC investigation from most muscle researchers. Overcoming current limitations in human muscle stem cell research will advance muscle regeneration research and should lead to more precise clarification of muscle stem cell targets relevant for durable and impactful therapeutic interventions. Here, we report and provide methods for high-grade purification of satellite cells from adult human skeletal muscle and methods for predictable isolation, yield, and storage, that together enable more sophisticated and better controlled experimentation than was previously feasible. Cryopreservation retains satellite cell properties and permits direct comparisons of same-source satellite cells after different treatments. Improved engraftment techniques and methods to separate HuSCs from mouse tissue have enabled serial transplantation of human satellite stem cells. The approaches developed in this study resolve technical hindrances impeding HuSC and human muscle stem cell investigation. Results {#sec2} ======= Efficient High-Yield Purification of Satellite Cells from Human Skeletal Muscles {#sec2.1} -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Building on our previously published strategy for isolation of HuSCs ([@bib15], [@bib35]) we developed an enhanced protocol that standardizes yield and greatly improves isolation efficiency (see [Experimental Procedures](#sec4){ref-type="sec"} and [Supplemental Experimental Procedures](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} for details of the protocol). In agreement with prior reports by others ([@bib2], [@bib6]) we found that CXCR4 marks HuSCs. Isolation strategies that solely use either CXCR4 or CD29/CD56-positive markers require more conservative gating of incompletely separated populations to avoid capturing potential non-satellite cells, therefore also potentially excluding satellite cells that are not well separated ([Figure S1](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). For example, the rightmost panels (top three rows) and second from right panels (bottom three rows) of [Figure S1](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}A show different experiments that have variable overlap of the populations. We also determined that satellite cells in adult human muscle are negative for CD34 surface expression ([Figure S2](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}), in contrast to mouse satellite cells ([@bib3], [@bib14], [@bib25], [@bib29]) and in agreement with prior reports identifying CD34-negative unipotent human myogenic cells ([@bib27]) and CD34-low or -negative fetal and adult HuSCs ([@bib6]). Negative selection with CD34 was therefore introduced into the purification strategy. To enhance separation, we developed a combinatorial strategy using negative and stepwise positive selection. We also investigated various tissue dissociation procedures and found that enzymatic sample digestion with the use of collagenase and trypsin was superior to pronase and collagenase that we had used previously. Optimized tissue dissociation preserved epitopes of the surface proteins assessed in this study, as demonstrated by similar fluorescence intensity with or without trypsin, and resulted in improved separation of satellite cells from non-satellite cells ([Figure S2](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Possibly, other satellite cell surface proteins that were not evaluated here could be affected by the enzymatic digestion protocol. Using these advances, an optimized isolation protocol was developed: Muscle digestion is followed with depletion of endothelial and hematopoietic cells using magnetic column separation with CD31 and CD45 metal beads. Remaining cells are then sorted via flow cytometry for viable singlets with the following markers: Sytox^−^/CD31^−^/CD34^−^/CD45^−^/CXCR4^+^/CD29^+^/CD56^+^ ([Figure 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}A). Primary gating with simultaneous negative depletion and positive selection with CXCR4 initially plots satellite cells as distinct from the majority of non-satellite cells, and subsequent gating on CD56/CD29 further distinguished highly separable and pure HuSCs. CXCR4 also separates the satellite cell population from small autofluorescent fiber fragments, significantly reducing the sorting abort rate. We have found that this strategy greatly improves efficiency during sorting. In particular, the satellite cell population can be rapidly identified during the initial part of the flow run, and the absolute time required to sort a given sample is reduced, partly because addition of trypsin reduces the difficult to digest muscle fiber pellet. Examples of various satellite cell isolations are shown in [Figure S1](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}, highlighting the above improvements, which together contribute to high and reproducible HuSC yields. Reliability of successful isolation is ensured by the use of the sequential positive selection, which enables separation of HuSCs in the occasional instance of technically substandard separation in one step, as shown in row 4 of [Figure S1](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. Isolated cells were confirmed to be highly purified by detectable PAX7 immunostaining in nearly all cells (95% ± 0.58%) ([Figures 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}B and 1C). Average satellite cell size, determined by Moxi Flow as per the manufacturer's instructions, was 8.2 μm in diameter with a range of 6--12.5 μm ([Figure 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}D). In ten different skeletal muscle types from adults \>18 years of age, including two cranial skeletal muscles (tongue and temporalis), we isolated roughly similar numbers of cells from each muscle on the day after biopsy. The most frequent samples yielded 10,000 or more HuSCs per gram of tissue ([Figure 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}E). Yield was slightly decreased in samples from elderly (\>81 years) individuals ([Figure 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}F). The yield of satellite cells isolated from tissues of females tended to increase when controlled for age and muscle type, but limited sample size likely precluded definitive determination of variations based on sex ([Figure 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}G). Satellite cell isolation was efficient over a wide range of starting tissue weights from less than 1 g to 6 g. There was increased variability of yield from larger tissue samples, likely related to technical aspects of upscaling the processing ([Figure 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}H). Together, these technical advances provide a refined protocol for reproducible, stringent, and efficient HuSC isolation.Figure 1Optimized Isolation of Human Satellite Cells from Postnatal Muscle Tissue(A) Representative flow-cytometry profiles of HuSCs gated for live singlets expressing the surface marker profile CD31^−^/CD34^−^/CD45^−^/CXCR4^+^/CD29^+^/CD56^+^. Cells gated are outlined in black within each plot. The percentage of events in each gating step is shown in each plot (n = 57).(B) HuSCs were collected stained for PAX7 expression (n = 3). Scale bar 100 μm.(C) Bar graph representation of PAX7 immunoreactivity in seeded HuSCs (n = 3).(D) Representative histogram of HuSC diameters after a satellite cell isolation from a single muscle sample (n = 3). Left peak consists of small debris.(E) Bar plot showing the average number of HuSCs isolated per gram, stratified by muscle type. There were no statistically significant differences (n = at least two samples per muscle type).(F) Bar plot depicting the average number of cells isolated per gram stratified by donor age. There were no statistical differences among any of the age groups when grouped by age (p = 0.610) or with linear regression analysis (p = 0.474).(G) Bar plot depicting the average number of cells isolated per gram separated by donor gender shows no statistically significant difference (p = 0.343).(H) Bar plot depicting the average number of cells isolated per gram arranged by tissue weight shows no statistically significant differences among any of the weight groups.Data presented as mean ± SEM. See [Table S1](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} for complete sample details and individual n values, which denote individual donors and experiments, and [Table S2](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} for all statistics and p values. See also [Figures S1](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} and [S2](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. Increased Engraftment of Xenotransplanted Human Satellite Cells by Broad Transplant Distribution {#sec2.2} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To evaluate whether the extent of HuSC engraftment into minimally damaged muscle could be enhanced, we transplanted 10-fold variable numbers of HuSCs. Nod SCID Gamma (NSG) mice underwent hindlimb irradiation (see [Experimental Procedures](#sec4){ref-type="sec"}) and were transplanted with either 1,000, 5,000, or 10,000 HuSCs using a single injection into the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle ([Figure 2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}A). Engraftment was evaluated using immunostaining for human DYSTROPHIN and PAX7 with human SPECTRIN/LAMIN A/C. While engraftment was efficient over the range of transplantation cell dose, the number of engrafted human fibers did not differ among mice transplanted with 1,000, 5,000, or 10,000 satellite cells ([Figure 2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}B). This finding suggested that locally transplanted cells may saturate receptive niches or that engraftment may be otherwise limited in the acute period of this model, and since neither murine satellite cells ([@bib28]), human myoblasts ([@bib32]), or HuSCs ([@bib35]) migrate significantly far from the immediate site of transplantation, we adopted a transplantation strategy utilizing multiple injection sites. We used nine injections of approximately 5.5 μL, each containing approximately 220 HuSCs suspended in 0.5% bupivacaine, totaling 50 μL per NSG TA. We found that when compared with mice transplanted with a single injection, the same dose of HuSC distributed in multiple injections resulted in increased engraftment area of human fibers ([Figure 2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}C). We observed that the proportion of engrafted PAX7-positive HuSCs increases as well when the multiple-injection protocol is utilized, as evidenced by staining for human-specific SPECTRIN combined with the costaining of PAX7 and LAMIN A/C ([Figures 2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}C and [S3](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). The average human fiber formation in mice transplanted with 2,000 HuSCs utilizing multiple injections was increased to an average of 155 fibers, over a 2.5-fold increase in comparison with mice transplanted with the same number of cells under the single injection protocol with an average of 40 fibers ([Figure 2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}D). The average number of human-derived PAX7 cells appeared to increase in multiple-injection recipient muscle, but limited sample size precluded definitive quantification ([Figure 2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}E). This level of engraftment corresponds to a conservatively estimated engraftment efficiency of 1 human-derived fiber per 20 HuSCs transplanted. The engraftment data reported here represent a conservative analysis, and it is possible that actual engraftment was higher if some human-derived fibers within the muscle did not reach the analyzed section. This is possible since injections were done throughout the recipient muscle. However, we have previously shown that individual human-derived fibers generally extend along most of the length of the recipient muscle ([@bib35]), mitigating this issue and supporting the analysis method used here. These findings indicate a high capacity for engraftment by individual HuSCs, and show that distribution over a wider area, possibly accessing a higher number of receptive niches in the acute setting, is more important than the absolute number of cells transplanted.Figure 2Enhanced Engraftment of HuSCs by Multiple-Site Injection(A) Representative images of a conventional transplant with a single injection with 10,000 cells per TA (n = 5, biological replicates). TA cross-sections were stained with human DYSTROPHIN (left) for human fibers or with human-specific SPECTRIN, LAMIN A/C, Laminin, and PAX7 for HuSCs (right). Satellite cells are marked with an arrow.(B) Bar graph representation of human fiber engraftment with varying dosage of transplanted cells. Isolated satellite cells were transplanted in a single injection of either 1,000 (n = 3), 5,000 (n = 9), or 10,000 (n = 5) cells. n Values denote biological replicates. Human DYSTROPHIN-positive fibers were counted in TA cross-sections, and the y axis value indicates the number of fibers within the cross-section containing the maximum number of human-derived fibers. The number of engrafted fibers was not significantly different among the three groups.(C) Satellite cells were transplanted in either a single injection (top panels) or with multiple injection sites (bottom panels) with a dose of 2,000 cells per TA. TA cross-sections were stained with human DYSTROPHIN (left) for human fibers or with human-specific SPECTRIN, LAMIN A/C, Laminin, and PAX7 for HuSCs (right) (n = 4 biological replicates). Satellite cells are marked with arrows. Scale bars, 100 μm (left panels; also applies to A) and 10 μm (right panels; also applies to A).(D) Bar graph showing the engraftment of human myofibers after transplantation as assessed by human DYSTROPHIN staining (n = 4 per group, individual mice).(E) Bar graph showing the average engraftment of PAX7-positive HuSCs per cross-section after transplantation (n = 4 per group, individual mice).Data presented as mean ± SEM. ^∗^p \< 0.05. All samples were processed the morning after tissue collection, within 12 hr after muscle biopsy. All mice were analyzed 5 weeks after transplantation. See also [Figure S3](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. Human Satellite Cell Viability and Engraftment Capacity Are Maintained in Stored Muscle before Processing {#sec2.3} --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The need to process muscle samples immediately after acquisition remains an open question, and the possibility of longer-term storage would facilitate experimentation and sharing of valuable samples among researchers. We therefore determined whether functioning HuSCs can be extracted from tissue several days after biopsy. Prior work indicated the capacity of skeletal muscle cells from human adult muscle to survive for several days post mortem ([@bib20]). To determine whether HuSCs can be isolated from stored muscle tissue, we isolated satellite cells from three different post-biopsy time points: immediately (day 0), 1 day post biopsy (day 1), and 4 days post biopsy (day 4). Three separate muscle samples from different donors were harvested and divided into 2-g pieces at the time of biopsy. All muscle samples were stored in 30% fetal bovine serum (FBS) at 4°C until use. Each 2-g sample was processed as described in [Figure 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}A at each post-biopsy time point. Flow-cytometry profiles were similar across the three time points and HuSCs were isolated from each time point in similar proportions ([Figure 3](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}A). Satellite cell yield tended to decrease from day 0 to day 4, but reproducible yield was maintained at 4 days ([Figure 3](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}B). To assess cell viability, we performed a test of cell-seeding aptitude. For each experimental time point, cells were sorted into Terasaki plate wells at a density of 25 cells per well ([Figure 3](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}C), with 20 total wells per replicate. The cells were cultured for 24 hr, at which time the wells were fixed and cell number was quantified. Seeding of cells isolated was greater than 70% in each time point and experimental replicate. There was no significant difference among seeded cells isolated on day 0, day 1, or day 4. To confirm satellite cell identity, we cultured sorted cells from each time point for 3 hr and stained them for PAX7 ([Figure S4](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). PAX7 expression was not significantly different in cells isolated from the experimental groups compared with what is typically seen, as in [Figure 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}C. Next, we tested satellite cell engraftment function by xenotransplantation as described above. We transplanted 2,000 HuSCs into irradiated TA muscles and analyzed mice 5 weeks post transplantation for the presence of human muscle fibers via human-specific DYSTROPHIN staining. The engraftment of human fibers was similar at the three experimental time points with an average of greater than 100 human fibers at each time point, demonstrating efficient engraftment of human fibers from cells isolated from muscle up to 4 days after removal from the body ([Figures 3](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}D and 3E). These findings establish the feasibility of sample sharing and more flexible experimental planning and design.Figure 3HuSC Isolation from Stored Muscle(A) HuSCs were isolated as previously described from resected adult muscle either immediately after resection or after a storage period of 1 or 4 days in 30% FBS at 4°C. Representative flow-cytometry profiles of HuSC isolation after each condition are shown (n = 3 biological replicates). Cells gated are outlined in black within each plot. The percentage of events in each gating step is shown in each plot.(B) Bar graph depicting the average number of HuSCs isolated per gram of muscle on each day processed. No statistically significant difference among the three groups (n = 3 biological replicates).(C) Bar graphs demonstrating the average percentage of HuSCs adhering onto Terasaki wells after isolation and seeding. There was no statistically significant difference among the three groups (n = 3 biological replicates).(D) Bar graph showing the number of human myofibers engrafted in each mouse TA after xenotransplantation with 2,000 HuSCs into NSG TA muscles with cells isolated on day 0 (n = 4), day 1 (n = 4), or day 4 (n = 3) after biopsy (n values denote individual mice). There was no significant difference in the average engraftment of each condition.(E) Representative images of human myofiber engraftment after xenotransplantation (n = 3 biological replicates). Scale bar, 100 μm.Data presented as mean ± SEM. See also [Figure S4](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. Human Satellite Cells Engraft and Produce Dystrophin in Immunodeficient MDX Mice {#sec2.4} -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To develop a model system for investigating HuSC transplantation into dystrophic muscle, we adapted HuSC xenotransplantation to dystrophin-deficient hosts. The MDX mouse is the most commonly used mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy ([@bib5], [@bib12], [@bib13], [@bib17], [@bib33]). Although derived human muscle cells and cultured muscle progenitors have been transplanted into different immunodeficient MDX mouse strains ([@bib8], [@bib11], [@bib16], [@bib23]), HuSCs have not. The lack of a standard benchmark of endogenous HuSCs limits interpretation and comparison of efficacy and stem cell properties of transplanted cells from various sources. To test the capacity of HuSCs to engraft human muscle in the MDX mouse, we crossed MDX and NSG mice to generate an NSG/MDX compound mutant line (see [Experimental Procedures](#sec4){ref-type="sec"}). We transplanted HuSCs into 8-week-old fifth-generation NSG/MDX mice, which were then euthanized at 13 weeks, at which time the TA muscles were processed and stained for analysis of human fiber engraftment. The engraftment of human muscle and expression of DYSTROPHIN was confirmed with human-specific DYSTROPHIN staining ([Figure 4](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}A). Costaining with human-specific DYSTROPHIN and pan-sensitive Dystrophin demonstrated several small foci of revertant mouse fibers expressing Dystrophin as expected ([@bib18]). The presence of sublaminar, PAX7-positive HuSCs was confirmed with SPECTRIN, PAX7, LAMIN A/C, and Laminin staining, indicating repopulation of HuSCs in the satellite cell niche ([Figure 4](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}B). To determine the average engraftment of NSG/MDX transplanted with HuSCs, we transplanted NSG/MDX TAs with 7,000 cells each ([Figure 4](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}C). Engraftment was similar to that observed in transplanted NSG mice and averaged 101 human fibers identified by human-specific DYSTROPHIN with a range of 50--148. This similarity did not merit formal direct comparison of engraftment into NSG versus NSG/MDX backgrounds. H&E evaluation of transplanted NSG/MDX TAs demonstrated typical hallmarks of muscle degeneration and regeneration ([@bib5]) including frequent centralized nuclei and a broad range of myofiber diameters ([Figure 4](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}D). Engraftment of HuSCs in NSG/MDX and in NSG muscle was similar in terms of efficiency of human-derived fiber formation.Figure 4Xenotransplantation of HuSCs into NSG/MDX Compound Mutant Mice(A) Representative images of engrafted human fibers in NSG/MDX TA muscle after transplantation with HuSCs (n = 4 biological replicates). Left: human-specific DYSTROPHIN. Right: costaining for human-specific DYSTROPHIN and pan-sensitive Dystrophin. Orange fibers represent costaining and green fibers represent revertant fibers. Scale bar, 100 μm.(B) Representative images of HuSC engraftment after transplantation into NSG/MDX TA (n = 4 biological replicates). HuSCs are denoted by sublaminar location and expression of human-specific LAMIN A/C and PAX7, marked by arrows. Scale bar, 10 μm.(C) Bar graph showing quantification of human fiber engraftment in the NSG/MDX TAs identified by human-specific DYSTROPHIN staining (n = 4 individual mice). Data presented as mean ± SEM.(D) Representative H&E of an NSG/MDX TA cross-section after transplantation with HuSCs (n = 4 biological replicates). Scale bar, 100 μm. Human Satellite Cells Retain Phenotype and Function after Cryopreservation {#sec2.5} -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The scarcity of muscle tissue from human donors dictates the availability and timing of experimentation with HuSCs and significantly hinders HuSC research. We evaluated whether HuSCs can be preserved with cryopreservation. HuSCs were isolated as described previously ([Figure 5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}A). Sorted cells were then directly frozen in DMEM/F12 with 20% FBS, 1× insulin-transferrin-selenium (ITS), 1× glutamine, 1× gentamicin, and 10% DMSO. After complete preservation in vapor-phase nitrogen the cells were thawed, stained, and reanalyzed with flow cytometry. After thawing, HuSCs retained reactivity to CXCR4, CD29, and CD56 antibodies ([Figure 5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}B) and \>75% of the cells were viable based on live dead flow-cytometry assay with Sytox staining ([Figure 5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}C). To test cryopreserved HuSC characteristics, we directly compared cell size and mitochondrial activity with that of cells from the same batch after culture for 48 hr (in DMEM/F12 with 20% FBS, 1× ITS, 1× glutamine, 1× gentamicin) and to freshly isolated HuSCs of the same muscle type in the same experiment. The average size of satellite cells from the freshly isolated, cryopreserved, or 48-hr culture groups were determined by forward scatter on flow cytometry ([Figures S5](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}A--S5C) and also by Moxi Flow, which showed average sizes of 8.21 ± 0.05 μm, 8.55 ± 0.04 μm, and 8.58 ± 0.05 μm, respectively ([Figure 5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}D). The maximum diameters of each were 14 μm, 16.5 μm, and 18 μm, respectively, with 1.35% of all cryopreserved cells and 4.19% of all 48-hr culture cells larger than 14 μm. To assess the relative mitochondrial activity of the cryopreserved satellite cells to freshly isolated cells, we performed a mitochondrial activity (MitoTracker) assay. Freshly isolated satellite cells, cryopreserved satellite cells, and 48-hr culture-activated satellite cells were stained with MitoTracker green and analyzed by flow cytometry as per the manufacturer's instructions. Average mitochondrial activity and relative cell size were increased in the relative order 48-hr culture \> cryopreserved \> freshly isolated cells ([Figure 5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}E). Next, we compared the level of transcript expression of the myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs) *MYF5*, *MYOD1*, and *MYOG*, as well as *PAX7* and the cell cycle gene *CDC45*, among freshly isolated, cryopreserved, and briefly cultured (48-hr) HuSCs ([Figure 5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}F). The expression of these genes was not different between the freshly isolated and cryopreserved groups. However, the expression of *PAX7*, *MYF5*, and *MYOG* was lower in the 48-hr culture cells compared with both the freshly isolated and cryopreserved cells. *MYOD1* expression was lower in 48-hr cells compared with cryopreserved cells. Although at 48 hr of culture HuSCs have not yet proliferated significantly, the expression of *CDC45* was higher in the 48-hr culture group compared with both the freshly isolated and cryopreserved groups. To assess retention of function, we next evaluated the ability of the cryopreserved satellite cells to engraft compared with freshly isolated cells from the same muscle tissue ([Figure 5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}G). Frozen satellite cells were thawed and resuspended in bupivacaine as with prior transplantations. The cells were then transplanted into NSG TAs at a dose of 2,000 cells per TA. Human fibers were identified by human DYSTROPHIN staining. Niche-associated, sublaminar, human, and PAX7 positive satellite cells were identified in each preparation using human-specific SPECTRIN, LAMIN A/C, PAX7, and Laminin staining ([Figures 5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}H and [S5](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}D). When compared with freshly isolated HuSCs, cryopreserved HuSCs engraft with the same efficiency (p = 0.361) ([Figure 5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}I). Collectively, these results show that cryopreservation of HuSCs results in some alteration of cell size and mitochondrial activity, but can be performed with retention of MRF expression levels and without loss of cell surface marker expression or diminishment of engraftment capacity.Figure 5HuSC Phenotype and Function after Cryopreservation(A) Flow-cytometry profile of an HuSC isolation from the rectus abdominis muscle of a 43-year-old male.(B) Isolated HuSCs (A) were cryopreserved and thawed, then restained and sorted. In (A and B), cells gated are outlined in black within each plot. The percentage of events in each gating step is shown in each plot.(C) Sytox blue flow-cytometry profile for sorted satellite cells in (B) demonstrating \>75% viability after cryopreservation.(D) Representative bar graph showing the average difference in satellite cell size among freshly isolated, cryopreserved, and 48-hr cultured cells (n = 490, 2,037, and 1,942 cells, respectively, from three biological replicates). ^∗∗∗^p \< 0.001.(E) Representative histograms of freshly isolated satellite cells (orange), cryopreserved cells (blue), and 48-hr cultured cells (red) assessed by MitoTracker flow-cytometry assay (n = 3 biological replicates). "Count" denotes number of cells. Complete profiles are shown in [Figure S5](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}.(F) Bar plots of qRT-PCR data comparing the expression of *PAX7*, *MYF5*, *MYOD1*, *MYOG* (n = 6), and *CDC45* in satellite cells from freshly isolated, cryopreserved, and 48-hr cultured cell groups (n = *3*). n Values denote technical replicates from two independent biological samples. Gene expression was normalized to the housekeeping gene *RPS13*.(G) Schematic depicting experimental approach to compare the engraftment of cryopreserved and fresh HuSCs from the same muscle tissue.(H) Representative images after transplantation with 2,000 cryopreserved HuSCs, of human fiber engraftment (left) and of repopulation the niche (right) with HuSCs (arrows) (n = 3 biological replicates). Scale bars, 10 μm.(I) Bar graph depicting the engraftment of human fibers after transplantation with freshly isolated versus cryopreserved HuSCs quantified by human-specific DYSTROPHIN staining. There was no significant difference in engraftment (n = 3 individual mice).Data presented as mean ± SEM. See also [Figure S5](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. Serial Isolation and Transplantation of Human Satellite Cells {#sec2.6} ------------------------------------------------------------- Serial transplantation is a quintessential experimental measure of stem cell function that has not yet been demonstrated for human muscle progenitors, leaving the existence of stem cell identities within the HuSC compartment unproven. The lack of this experimental technique also hinders direct comparison of regenerative potential among different HuSCs. The enhanced HuSC isolation and xenotransplantation methods developed in this research enabled us to test stem cell functions of transplanted HuSCs, utilizing serial isolation and transplantation ([Figure 6](#fig6){ref-type="fig"}A). Satellite cells isolated from adult human muscle were transplanted into NSG mice and human cells and muscle were allowed to engraft, return to quiescence, and mature for 10 weeks, as we have previously reported ([@bib35]). After 10 weeks, mice were euthanized and both transplanted TAs and contralateral control TAs were digested and dissociated into single-cell suspensions. Viable singlet cells were sorted by flow cytometry for CD31^−^/CD45^−^/Sca1^−^/CXCR4^+^/CD29^+^/CD56^+^ cells using human-specific antibodies to detect CD56 and CD29 ([Figure 6](#fig6){ref-type="fig"}B). CXCR4/CD29/CD56 cells were found and isolated from NSG muscle transplanted with donor cells but not in contralateral control muscle. We isolated 200--1,400 CXCR4/CD29/CD56 HuSCs from each group of four mice that were originally transplanted with 2,500--5,000 donor satellite cells, representing an average recovery rate of approximately 7% with a range of 1%--9%. After reisolation, the satellite cells were transplanted into secondary NSG mice and after 5 weeks the mice were euthanized to assess for engraftment. Human muscle engraftment was confirmed with human-specific DYSTROPHIN in both primary and secondary transplants, indicating preservation of stem cell function through two rounds of transplantation. Since repopulation of the niche and formation of human-derived fibers was observed after two consecutive rounds of isolation and transplantation, donor satellite cells retained stem cell functions and may have undergone self-renewal ([Figure 6](#fig6){ref-type="fig"}C). Alternatively, it is possible that a subset of transplanted HuSCs remained quiescent during the first engraftment and was responsible for secondary engraftment, without dividing. Definitive self-renewal assays during HuSC serial transplantation merit further investigation. Although fewer human fibers per section were detected in secondary recipients (83 ± 30 \[primary n = 5\] versus 9 ± 3 \[secondary n = 3\]), engraftment efficiency when corrected for the number of transplanted cells did not differ significantly between primary and secondary transplants (p = 0.984). This reflects the smaller number of cells transplanted into secondary recipients, limited by yield of recovery during reisolation. Moreover, we observed an average of 1 PAX7-positive HuSC in the satellite cell niche per 10 fibers per cross-section in both primary and in secondary recipients, confirming both return to quiescence and preservation of engraftment potency of HuSCs that undergo one round of serial transplantation ([Figure 6](#fig6){ref-type="fig"}D).Figure 6Serial Isolation and Transplantation of HuSCs(A) Schematic depicting the experimental design of serial isolation and transplantation of primary HuSCs. Syringe, cell suspension injection; skull and crossbones, bupivacaine; hazard symbol, radiation.(B) Representative flow-cytometry profiles of a primary reisolation. HuSCs are CXCR4/CD29/CD56-positive located within the outline in the right plot and were only seen in muscle originally transplanted with donor HuSCs (bottom) compared with no HuSCs seen in digests from contralateral control muscle (top) (n = 3). Cells gated are outlined in black within each plot. The percentage of events in each gating step is shown in each plot.(C) Representative image of human fiber formation in mice transplanted with primary reisolated HuSCs indicating engraftment (n = 3). Scale bar, 100 μm.(D) Images of HuSC repopulation of the satellite cell niche after secondary transplantation. Immunofluorescence staining for PAX7, SPECTRIN, LAMIN A/C, and Laminin demonstrates human PAX7-positive cells in the sublaminar satellite cell niche in mice transplanted with primary reisolated HuSCs (arrow) (n = 3). Scale bar, 10 μm.All n values denote biological replicates. Discussion {#sec3} ========== The methods developed in this study reproducibly provide robust yields of highly purified adult HuSCs from a wide spectrum of cranial and somitic skeletal muscles. The techniques resulted in first applications of classical experimental stem cell paradigms to this endogenous cell population. These advances, and the demonstrated feasibility of muscle sample and HuSC storage, will make HuSCs widely available to muscle stem cell researchers, enabling use of minimally altered HuSCs for basic and translational research. Compared with prior studies we have improved HuSC isolation to permit better separation of satellite cells, resulting in highly purified samples with little contamination of non-satellite cells. Although significant variability of yield persists, researchers can expect to obtain approximately 10,000 HuSCs from each gram of skeletal muscle processed from male or female individuals aged 41--60 years ([Table S1](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} and [Figure 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}F), regardless of muscle type. Such is the case for samples processed immediately or after storage for up to 4 days, findings in agreement with prior work demonstrating survival of muscle progenitors in postmortem skeletal muscle ([@bib20]), and show that although absolute HuSC yield may decrease compared with fresh tissue, robust yield is maintained and transplantability is preserved after storage. This will enable broader use and sharing of human muscle samples. Future work should further identify determinants of and minimize variability of yield. Our experiments with tissue storage did not result in detectable changes in HuSC function, suggesting that altered metabolic state associated with a period of cold storage does not diminish regenerative capacity. In contrast, culture for even short periods without passaging alters progenitor properties such that engraftment capacity per cell is greatly diminished. Whereas much work using human muscle progenitors uses cultured human muscle cells ([@bib4], [@bib10], [@bib30], [@bib32]) and CD133^+^ cells ([@bib23]), which despite being expanded are uniformly altered from their endogenous states, it is now feasible to perform experiments with bona fide endogenous cells that retain very high fidelity to satellite cells in their natural *in vivo* states. This can be accomplished with purified HuSCs as demonstrated in this study or with fiber-associated HuSC as previously shown by us and others ([@bib21], [@bib35]). Minimally altered HuSCs will be useful as a benchmark for other muscle progenitors in efforts to recapitulate natural functions using derived or expanded cells. This report demonstrates reproducibility of satellite cell preparation from 57 human skeletal muscle samples weighing 6 g and under. Scalability should be readily achievable with larger samples to achieve consistent yields by uniform digestion and downstream processing. For clinical application, the methods presented here can be adapted to meet clinical requirements with compatible reagents. Based on current understanding of limitations of prior clinical trials that used cultured muscle progenitors ([@bib24], [@bib26], [@bib31]), readily available unpassaged HuSC preparations should be expected to engraft, survive, and regenerate much more robustly. Furthermore, cryopreservation will greatly facilitate *ex vivo* manipulation such as genetic modification, as well as repeated administration from the same source. The previously established clinical availability of large expendable human muscles indicates that preparing adequate numbers of satellite cells for therapeutic transplantation into smaller individual human muscles (e.g., face, extraocular, upper extremity, sphincter, and larynx) is feasible without *ex vivo* expansion. Availability of highly purified HuSCs readily enables new experimental investigations. Cryopreservation permits direct comparisons of cells that undergo disparate manipulations without confounding factors of source variability such as muscle type, and donor variables such as age, gender, and other unknown factors that could differ among individuals. Using cryopreserved cells will also minimize unwanted experimental variables such as unmatched transplant recipients, reagent batches, and equipment variability that exist when experiments are performed at different times. For example, we could assess how culture affects HuSC mitochondrial activity by using cryopreserved cells from the same sample, treated for different lengths of time and then analyzed simultaneously. Serial transplantation will allow experimental investigation of how *in vivo* regenerative capacity is affected in aged versus young samples, after pharmacological manipulation and after genetic modification. It will also enable comparative studies of heterogeneous HuSCs separated by distinct surface markers. HuSC transplantation can be further used to study regenerative capacity *in vivo* using reinjury expansion or by stimulation of regeneration in the NSG/MDX model. Finally, it is feasible to explore the use of *in vivo* long-term incubation or expansion of HuSCs in non-human animal hosts, a process that could possibly preserve some natural characteristics and functions relative to *in vitro* systems involving cryopreservation or culture. The improvements over existing technology were developed by empiric digestion and sorting strategies aimed at achieving complete sample digestion and use of surface marker combinations that allowed more rapid sorting and better separation from contaminating cells. The addition of CXCR4 to the prior CD56/CD29 combination and the negative selection greatly enhanced the efficiency of flow cytometry and effectively removed non-satellite cells. This advance will improve studies that rely on highly pure satellite cell samples such as transcriptional analysis. We also demonstrate that it is not necessarily advantageous to use high numbers of satellite cells for transplantation. Indeed, we show similar levels of human-derived fiber formation after transplantation of hundreds of cells versus tens of thousands, implying that with relatively pure populations of satellite cells, engraftment is limited by niche receptiveness or access in addition to satellite cell survival or other factors affecting their ability to engraft, as suggested by prior reports of high engraftment efficiency from small numbers of HuSCs transplanted within their niches on fibers ([@bib21], [@bib35]). It remains to be determined whether engrafted myonuclear number can be further augmented by additional modifications or higher transplanted cell dosage, but the data presented in this study suggest that it may be possible to perform experiments or clinical applications using small amounts of starting human muscle tissue that can regenerate and expand *in vivo* with additional stimulation. Experimental Procedures {#sec4} ======================= Human Muscle Procurement {#sec4.1} ------------------------ This study was conducted under the approval of the Committee on Human Research at The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Biopsies were obtained from individuals undergoing surgery at UCSF. Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects. Animal Care and Transplantation Studies {#sec4.2} --------------------------------------- All mice were bred and housed in a pathogen-free facility at UCSF. All procedures were approved and performed in accordance with the UCSF Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. All experiments were unblinded and performed in 8- to 12-week-old NSG mice (The Jackson Laboratory) and NSG mice crossed with MDX mice (The Jackson Laboratory), creating NSG/MDX mice. Mice were randomized to all experimental groups by sex and littermates and were pretreated with 18 Gy on the day before transplantation. HuSCs were injected along with 50 μL of 0.5% bupivacaine directly into the TA muscle of one leg in a single injection or multiple injections as indicated. CXCR4^+^/CD29^+^/CD56^+^ Satellite Cell Sorting {#sec4.3} ----------------------------------------------- Freshly harvested human muscle was either immediately digested or stored in DMEM with 30% FBS at 4°C. Muscle was digested, erythrocytes lysed, and hematopoietic and endothelial cells depleted with magnetic column depletion. Viable cells were depleted for CD31-, CD34-, and CD45-expressing cells. Cells that remained after depletion were sorted for CXCR4^+^/CD29^+^/CD56^+^ and collected for further experimentation. PAX7 Immunostaining of Cells from Digested Muscle {#sec4.4} ------------------------------------------------- Sorted cells were collected in 20% FBS-DMEM with 10 mM ROCKi and plated directly into wells of BioCoated laminin-coated chamber slides (BD Biosciences). Slides were stained with monoclonal rabbit anti-PAX7 antibody (1:500, Abcam) (see [Figure S6](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} for antibody controls). Immunostaining antibodies are listed in [Table S4](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. Satellite Cell Cryopreservation {#sec4.5} ------------------------------- Satellite cells were suspended in DMEM/F12 with 20% FBS, 1× ITS, 1× glutamine, 1× gentamicin, and 10% DMSO, frozen at a cooling rate of −1°C/min overnight and then moved to storage in vapor-phase nitrogen. In this study, satellite cells were thawed and used in experiments after 5 months of cryostorage. qRT-PCR Analysis {#sec4.6} ---------------- Relative expression of individual genes compared with control groups was calculated by the ΔΔ-Ct (delta-delta cycle threshold) method with *GAPDH* or *RPS13* as the housekeeping gene. qRT-PCR primer sequences are available in [Table S5](#mmc1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. Statistical Analysis {#sec4.7} -------------------- Normality of the data was checked utilizing the Shapiro-Wilk normality test in GraphPad Prism. Means between or across groups were compared using two-tailed t tests for experiments involving two groups, or one-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey multiple comparisons when comparisons were made across three or more groups to determine significance (p \< 0.05) between test conditions and controls, and multiple groups. Multivariate regression was utilized as indicated for comparing satellite cell yield per gram controlling for age, gender, and muscle type. All human muscle samples collected over the past year and processed within 12 hr after biopsy were used for data analyses in [Figure 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}. At least three mice per group were used for all transplantation experiments. At least three biological replicates for each experiment were performed unless otherwise noted, with exact n values listed in each figure legend. All error bars are depicted as SEM. p values in figures are indicated by asterisks (^∗^p \< 0.05, ^∗∗^p \< 0.01, ^∗∗∗^p \< 0.001). Author Contributions {#sec5} ==================== S.M.G. designed and performed experiments, analyzed data, and wrote the manuscript. S.T. designed and performed experiments, analyzed data, and edited the manuscript. A.W. performed experiments and edited the manuscript. S.L. performed statistical analyses and the qPCR of [Figure 5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"} and edited the manuscript. A.J. designed and performed flow-cytometry experiments. J.D. and G.K. performed experiments optimizing satellite cell isolation. J.H.P., H.S., R.S., P.D.K., C.H., W.R., E.K., S.H., and W.Y.H. provided human muscle tissue and provided ongoing comments. J.H.P. designed and oversaw the research, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript. Supplemental Information {#app2} ======================== Document S1. Supplemental Experimental Procedures, Figures S1--S6, and Tables S1--S5Document S2. Article plus Supplemental Information This work was supported by the CIRM New Faculty Physician Scientist award RN3-06504 to J.H.P., the UCSF PROF-PATH program via NIH R25MD006832 to S.M.G., UCSF Research Allocation Program for trainees to S.L., and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research fellowship to A.W. Support from the UCSF Department of Surgery is also acknowledged. The authors would like to thank Pamela Derish for editorial comments and Lauren Byrnes for helpful discussions and would like to express their thanks for the cooperation of Donor Network West and all of the organ and tissue donors and their families for giving the gift of life and the gift of knowledge by their generous donation. Supplemental Information includes Supplemental Experimental Procedures, six figures, and five tables and can be found with this article online at [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2018.01.022](10.1016/j.stemcr.2018.01.022){#intref0010}.

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

PubMed Central

Many Edmontonians head out of town on long weekends but recent stops by Strathcona County enforcement officers suggest some are trying to leave the city much faster than others. Over the August long weekend, peace officers clocked drivers flying down the roads, reaching speeds of almost 200 km/h. We clocked speeds of 197 and 192 km/h in the County this morning. Have a safe long weekend <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/shpk?src=hash">#shpk</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Strathco?src=hash">#Strathco</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/YEG?src=hash">#YEG</a> —@Sh_Pk_Traffic "[On Sunday], we were out on patrol and came across a couple of what we like to term 'high-flyers,' " Chris Marynowich, a peace officer with Strathcona County, told CBC News Monday. Marynowich said his partner clocked a driver travelling 197 km/h westbound on Highway 16 at around 9:15 a.m. in foggy conditions. Not even five minutes later, he caught a driver doing 192 km/h northbound on Anthony Henday Drive. Both were issued court summons for their violations. Also on the weekend, Marynowich said peace officers issued fines to drivers of two sports cars racing down the Henday at 170 km/h. They also caught three other drivers who were weaving in and out of traffic at 150 km/h. Enforcement Services safety intercepted 2 vehicles at 170 and 3 at 150 km/h during traffic operations on Hwy 216 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/shpk?src=hash">#shpk</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Strathco?src=hash">#Strathco</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/yeg?src=hash">#yeg</a> —@Sh_Pk_Traffic Marynowich said these drivers present "a dangerous situation for families on the road that are trying to enjoy the long weekend." The penalties for speeding, he said, could be as much as a $2,300 fine and a six-month licence suspension. But he said that is generally up to a judge. Peace officers don't have the ability to immediately suspend licenses for excessive speeding. New Henday leg to blame? Marynowich said excessive speed isn't a new problem but thinks the newly constructed leg of Anthony Henday Drive has caused a bit of an uptick in "high-flyers." "It's a very well-built road and it's very wide open," he said. "We've found, in my opinion, that there's been an increase in these really high-end speeds." Even if there isn't much traffic, Marynowich said there is often wildlife in the area, and collisions with animals can be deadly for motorists. "You can't react fast enough, and at that speed it takes a long time to stop," he said. Marynowich wants everyone to know that he and his colleagues are working hard to reduce the number of speeders to make sure everyone gets to their destination safely. "Sherwood Park and Strathcona County are doing their best to promote traffic safety on the roads," he said. [We're] trying to keep people safe over the weekends."

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

OpenWebText2

Savage Island Savage Island by Eric Wolf Savage Island by Eric Wolf Published by Paw Print Studios © Copyright 2020, by Eric Wolf ISBN-13: 978-1534602397 ISBN-10: 1534602399 www.PawPrintStudios.biz Cover art by E. Coyote Elliott and Laura Cummings Part One Opening Day ### Chapter One The first combatant released onto Savage Island came out the center gate at a run just as the edge of the sun rose above the horizon and glared over the sea. Cameras whirred and turned to follow him as he cast around the wide sandy arena that bordered the Wall. All over the world viewers watched as he crossed what was already called the killing ground, and headed for the treeline a hundred yards away. The only weapons in view were the machete and long knife at his belt. He wore lightweight camouflage pants and shirt, and hiking boots. Green, black and gray blotches covered his face and arms in an artful lack of pattern. A camo cap covered his short curly black hair. In his backpack he carried a couple of camouflage nets, another long knife, a collapsible shovel, lengths of cord of various weights, and several more pounds of food beyond the required three-day rations. He also carried the obligatory first aid kit, two liters of water, and water purification tablets. In addition in his pack he carried, among other items essential to his strategy, two collapsible plastic 5-gallon jerrycans. His fighting name was Scorpion. He had the build of a football player, big, burly and hard-muscled. He was dark skinned, six foot three, and weighed just over two hundred pounds. His plan, obvious from his equipment, was long-term survival rather than immediate confrontation, so it was not surprising when he chose a path leading toward the interior of the Island. It was good to be on the move at last. He had broken a sweat already in the humid warmth of the early morning that promised a sweltering day. He tasted the salt in the air, and the heavy damp scent of the jungle. He could hear the surf roaring under the cliffs that bounded the arena on either side, and the ruckus of birds and the buzz of insects in the trees ahead, and that was good. They would be his natural alarm system when the other combatants began to arrive. He had drawn the first position, and that was an unlooked-for stroke of luck. For half an hour he would be the only predator out here. That gave him time to check out the island, and perhaps even establish a defensible position. Aware of his foes lined up only minutes behind him, he felt the upsurge of a familiar excitement. When he was a soldier he had hated with an angry loathing every minute of his time in country. But this was different. Here there weren't any mistakes to make. Everyone on this side of the Wall would be a volunteer, and everyone of them was fair game. Arthur Baines had made his plans. He would be careful; he would be elusive. He would kill only if he absolutely had to. All he had to do was stay alive for fifteen days. Then he would go home. Trish would skin him alive when he got there ― but it would be worth it to pay off their debts at last, and start clean. He'd been good at this in the war. Now he would be paid what he was worth. In the control room in the admin building a little red light appeared on the computer-generated map as soon as the Scorpion emerged from the Wall. A cheer broke out, and the director, Dr. Hari Mukhtar, led the technicians in a round of applause. Years of preparation led up to this day. Test after test had been conducted. It was one thing to do well in rehearsal, but now was the hour, and to see the red light blink on, and the long, medium and close shots of the Scorpion appear on the monitors lining the walls, was cause for as much relief as satisfaction. Everyone who could find an excuse crowded the control room where half a dozen techs manned their stations. In front of the huge map, Jules Van Allan, owner and dictator, visionary and creator of Savage Island, nodded to the director, and raised his glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice in salute to the first combatant. His employees, who had brought his vision into being, saw and approved his gesture, believing that he was toasting the Scorpion, who had come to this Island to chance his life, prove his courage, and earn his reward. But Van Allan raised his glass to a man far away, who had no idea what was about to come down on him. The technicians watched as the cameras in the tree line pick up close and long shots of the Scorpion as he left the killing ground and found a trail into the jungle. The trees and foliage had been artfully thinned over the last year, so that the jungle gave plenty of cover, but still provided good sight lines. The Scorpion showed up on dozens of screens as cameras tracked him near and far, but only one person in the world understood the sign he made with his hand as he entered the trees. Thousands of miles and many time zones away, Tricia Baines sat in front of the television, wringing the battered leather cushion clutched to her chest as she watched her husband on the big screen. "You stupid, stupid fool," she told him, as he headed into the jungle. Half a world away, the emergence of the Scorpion onto Savage Island was greeted by screaming cheers from the sold-out crowd who had paid to watch the first day's combat live as it unfolded on camera. The coliseum smelled of spilled beer, the crowd noise was incredible, and dozens of bets were called in as Scorpion loped up a path between the trees. "Go back! Fight!" a bellicose voice shouted over the noise. Other voices answered. In the dim lights eyes shone wide, faces flushed and not only with drinking. It was as though they themselves were there, as though they could smell the air of the island, taste the humidity, as though the next combatant, armed and ready to kill, was on their heels as well. "Kill him! Kill him now!" someone shouted, though it would be twenty-eight more minutes before there was someone there to kill. In the studio that adjoined the control room on Savage Island, on his first day in the job he'd been waiting for his whole life, James Grayson gazed into the camera, his blue eyes gleaming with excitement, and pitched his dark golden baritone just right. "This is the beginning of a new age of sport," he told his viewers, "the oldest sport, that pitches man against man in a battle to the death, for honor, for wealth, and for eternal fame among men. Not since the days of Imperial Rome have human beings seen such a contest as we are about to witness today. Is this a sign of the regression of human civilization? Or is it just the honest recognition of what we truly are? This remains to be seen as the excitement unfolds on Savage Island." He sat back, emanating sympathy and concern now, rather than excitement. "But these combatants are not the faceless slaves of those ancient and departed days. Each of these men has a story. Each of them has chosen, for reasons of his own, to place his life at risk in combat to the death ― on Savage Island. And now, the first of these stories is about to unfold." Grayson smiled in a way that he knew made people feel that secrets were about to be told, and looked away off-camera at his invisible reporter. "Lucy? What can you tell us of the man now known as 'Scorpion?' How does he come to be on Savage Island?" The light went off on the camera. James Grayson looked up at his monitor as the clip began to roll. It had been taped days ago, but Lucy Tran, tiny and exotic, in simple suggested-oriental clothing, answered on cue as though she stood by live to respond to his question. Lucy seemed to stand in front of a cityscape (thought in fact her picture had been dropped in by computer onto a stock shot of the city) as she told the viewers, "This is Oakland, California, in the United States of America, the home of our first contestant, who fights under the name of 'Scorpion.'" She smiled as though the name sent a tingle through her body. She was good, James thought. She was really good. James wasn't supposed to have another sportscaster working with him. The whole thing was supposed to be his show. Lucy was just an assistant producer when she arrived, but she had conceived the idea of the personal profiles of the combatants, and filmed half a dozen of them on her own time and shown them to the producer, and then to Jules Van Allan. By the time James Grayson reached the island, her new position had been a fait accompli. He knew better than to protest. Lucy Tran was beautiful and sexy, her engaging gamin grin and her obvious interest in each of the combatants made even a dead-beat felonious thug out for the thrill of the most forbidden sport tell his story in a way that made his life seem valuable. And that was good for the show. And what was good for the show, was good for James Grayson. Once enough combatants had been released so that they were all over the Island, and fights happened all the time, Grayson and his team would pull together all the fights of the previous twenty-four hours, and make a broadcast from them, which Grayson would report on. But for the first days of the opening week, Grayson would be broadcasting live, almost in real time. He felt a surge of elation. It was like being a sportscaster at the Olympics, where you are on all day everyday for three weeks. Only this was his show, and he was the only – well, almost the only – sportscaster involved. James took a sip of water as, on tape, Lucy interviewed Arthur Baines while he packed his equipment. "Aren't you scared?" she asked him. Arthur Baines responded with a half-smile at her seeming naiveté. "Of course I'm scared. That's part of it. I know all about that. But you know what really scares me?" He turned and looked at the camera. "Being broke in my old age. Me or my wife. That's what we're looking at now, and I will do anything ― " he shoved down on the contents of his backpack for emphasis ― "to keep that from happening." He looked down, adjusting the straps on his bag. "That's why I'm here." In the next shot, Lucy stood in front of the Wall that separated the administrative section of Savage Island from the designated battleground. Dressed now in a soft linen suit that emphasized her slender form, she looked like she was made to be an exotic inhabitant of a secret island in the middle of an uncharted ocean. Over her shoulder, through the open gate, the fighting ground and the trees beyond were visible. Lucy looked grave as she said, "When Arthur Baines goes through that gate he will become both the hunter and the hunted, predator and prey, until he chooses to leave Savage Island, or until that choice is made for him. Will he achieve his prize? Stay tuned, there's more to know ― on Savage Island." And she smiled. James Grayson almost smiled back at her. The real Lucy Tran was in the control room next door, standing beside Jules Van Allan, watching the monitors. In three weeks she had made profiles of almost all of the two dozen men who were scheduled for release today, and had started on the hundred and twenty others, already on the island, who would be released in the days to come. She was a great addition to the team, he knew. If only that didn't make her his rival. James Grayson's early career had been a meteoric rise from intern at a local news station in Southern California, to reporter at a major station, to sportscaster, all in just a few years. His passion for his subject, his boyish good looks, his charm on camera, made him a memorable addition to any news show. His career seemed set, his future fixed; he would become one of the legends of TV journalism. When he failed to get two expected promotions, he moved to a cable network dedicated to broadcasting sports highlights. The company's subsequent descent into bankruptcy had left him in limbo for a time. He got back into the majors by taking the job of co-anchor on a morning show, and in four years, though well-paid, he'd felt like he was fading into oblivion. The show had just missed being canceled the last two seasons. When Grayson heard about Savage Island, he caught fire. The audacity, the danger, the murderous evil of the very idea had riveted him. He'd seen at once that Savage Island must have a sportscaster, and that the sportscaster for this new ― this ancient, newly-revised sport ― would achieve a unique position, which could be his new chance at fame. He called on every contact he'd ever made in his effort to land the job. Oddly, the biggest problem he'd had wasn't beating out the competition; there hadn't been any competition. It had been in finding someone in the company to speak to, in order to offer his services. His agent had explained to him that, since the whole sport was of dubious legality, the number of cut-outs employed to hide who owned what, and who was running it, was just a precaution. But the fact that they hadn't put out a casting call, that they hadn't thought they'd need a sportscaster, was odd. At last his agent ran to earth the executive producer finalizing the deal for the cable channel that would broadcast events on Savage Island He scheduled an interview so that Grayson could make his case. Grayson was surprised to be sitting down to lunch at Dino's in Hollywood, with a 20-something entertainment lawyer, but that turned out to work in his favor. Sam Iveson had grown up watching Grayson as a sportscaster, and was immediately excited at the idea of Grayson sportscasting for Savage Island. He'd promised his support in sending the plan up the ladder, and he'd come through. An executive producer had contacted Grayson's agent, and he'd been able to write his own ticket from that point forward. As he sped across an unknown ocean in a huge, fast-flying helicopter, on the last leg of a long, long journey, he felt his fortunes rise as the Island grew at their approach. Staggering with jet-lag, weighted with inappropriate clothes, far, far away from Los Angeles or even New York, but still, here he was. In the right place, at the right time. He was certain of it. As they came in for landing, he leaned against the window, looking down on the lower peninsula of the island, bisected with roads, lined with warehouses, barracks, an administrative complex. He spotted the tall square building with the roof covered with aerials ― his studio would be there. There were little bungalows along the cliffs overlooking the harbor, and one red and golden villa like something right out of the Mediterranean ― that would be Jules Van Allan's house, he expected. And there was the Wall, very clearly demarking civilization from savagery, the rule of law from the law of the jungle. The phrases came easily to him as the helicopter set down. He knew they would. Savage Island was going to take off, he was sure of it, with every instinct he had ever had for this business, and he would be catapulted into the stardom he had always known was his due. Hands reached to help him step down, onto Savage Island, and into his destiny. And now, here he was, it was opening day, and in the minds of all the viewers he was going to be the face and voice of Savage Island for a long time to come. He leaned forward to the camera and as the light went on James said, "You are probably asking yourself, 'Is this real?' Or is this just some choreographed reality show broadcast from an undisclosed location? Well, I can tell you this. I was in flight for twenty-two hours to reach this place. We are on an island. There is no other land in sight. There are twenty-three more men preparing at this moment to walk out today through one of the three gates that lead onto the island, all of which, beyond the Wall, has been designated a free combat zone. Until an hour ago, these men did not know in what order they would cross through the gates. These men have seen one another in passing, they've met in the induction center, during orientation, in the canteen, or in the armory. But each man's plans, each man's equipment, and each man's fighting name, is a closely guarded secret. And let me tell you, out there, beyond the Wall, there are no rules, but one. To get the prize, you have to live. To claim it, your opponent has to be dead. And how that happens is completely up to you." Grayson took a pause, leaned back slightly, and turned on cue to face the second camera and continued, "There are twenty-three other men who will be released today, every half hour during daylight hours. The next one will pass through the gate beneath the wall in exactly ―" he looked at his watch, "nineteen minutes. And after that ― anything can happen. Stay tuned. You won't see anything like this anywhere else in the world." And he smiled. Out in the combat zone on Savage Island, Scorpion reached a fork in the trail, and unhesitatingly chose the one that led to higher ground. It was a good idea to learn the layout of the island while he could. The air was fresh, moist and warm. He felt good. Thank God he'd kept in shape all these years, at the Y, and teaching karate. His senses tingled in the knowledge that any minute now his first opponent would be released, and he would no longer have this island to himself. The adrenaline in his blood sent a well-remembered rush through his body. He controlled his excitement, focused his attention, and climbed swiftly up the slope ahead of him. James Grayson said to the camera, "The Scorpion, with ten minutes to go before his first opponent follows him onto the island, has turned inland, and up hill. What is he planning? Well, there's no way to know for certain, but here in our studio we have," the camera pulled back to show the man sitting to his right, "Colonel Robert Dawes, formerly of Army Special Forces, and one-time Professor of Tactics at West Point. Colonel? What do you make of the Scorpion's action?" Grayson had asked for an expert on tactics that he could throw all the questions to that he and his viewers wanted answered. The production team had come through spectacularly with Colonel Dawes. Grayson expected to know a whole lot more about fighting before Colonel Dawes departed. Dawes's contract ran for only three weeks, another reason why Grayson was pleased to have him around. He planned to use him to the utmost, and then make sure he went back home and stayed there. The Colonel sat ramrod straight in immaculate jungle camouflage fatigues. Rugged and slight, with spiky short gray hair, his piercing blue eyes gave him the air of a predatory bird poised to strike. When he spoke, his voice was even, his words measured, but the light in his eyes belied his calm. He said, "Well, James, we have to take into account the fact that these men, these first two dozen combatants, have no idea of the ground they're on. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they've never even seen a map of island, right?" "That's right, Colonel," Grayson had met the Colonel briefly the day before, and found the man irritated him. It was probably his air of infinite worldly superiority, Grayson thought. Well, in this studio, he was the one with experience and superiority. So the Colonel was just going to have to take his chances. "Now this man, Scorpion, he has one advantage," the Colonel continued. "He's had these thirty precious minutes to scout out the ground and find himself the best possible position, and he's made the most of it, so that's very good thinking on his part. You can see he's headed for the higher ground, and that may allow him a view of his opponents." "So he can see them, without their seeing him?" Grayson suggested. "That's right." "Is that what you'd do under the circumstances, sir?" Grayson asked. "Well, you know, I'd want to know the ground . . ." the Colonel began, and then stopped. Grayson slipped in, "But of course you wouldn't have seen the ground, like these men have not. What do you think you'd do in this man's position? What would you do if you were the Scorpion?" He asked several questions without giving the Colonel time to answer, and that would give the impression that the soldier didn't actually have all the answers ready at hand. It was really unfair, Grayson thought as he let the pause grow after his last question. There are all kinds of combat, he thought to himself. This is mine. "Well, of course each man has his own choice of weapons, and his tactics will depend on what he brings with him into combat." "That's right," Grayson interrupted him smoothly. "And what did the Scorpion bring with him. Lucy?" The light went off as the next tape began to roll. The Colonel turned to Grayson and James thought for a moment he was in for it. But the Colonel said, "God, what I'd give to be twenty years younger, and out of this uniform, with an opportunity like this. God, what I'd give!" And that was the trouble with his form of combat, Grayson thought, reaching for his water glass. Sometimes your opponent didn't even notice when he'd been slapped to the mat and stomped. Behind the left-hand gate in the Wall, Manny Aklan checked his weapons one more time. He wasn't nervous. He just liked the feel of the weapons in his hands. They'd given him anything he'd asked for when he got to Savage Island. He liked the food, good and plenty of it. He liked the girl who'd come to his room last night, to wish him well, she'd said. To bring him luck. He smiled, hardening a little as he remembered her. He liked this place a lot. He'd gone through their catalog when he arrived and picked out whatever looked good to him. Of course they'd had to come back to him a few times, because he hadn't paid attention how many points stuff cost in the catalog, but one of the guys from the armory had sat down with him, and they'd worked it all out. He drew the long sword, the kampilan, from its sharkskin sheath. The sheen of the metal, the smell of the oil, pleased him. He swung it in a fast figure eight so that the air whistled. He hooked the karambit, the cat's claw knife, out of his belt with his finger and did a few moves. He'd never used one of these in a fight, but it was so cool, and so beautiful, he wanted to try it. He'd picked a big boar spear because that would give him an edge. All his life, he'd been the big strong guy. In Queens, New York, he'd run with his brother Jaguars, and when someone needed smashing, he'd done it, because then they didn't come back for more. And that had led to trouble, so he'd been sent to his dad's family in the Philippines, where some of his cousins ran a martial arts studio. They taught him that being big and strong wasn't enough, he had to be fast, too. Then he'd gone into the army, where he was the one who carried the other guys, and everybody liked him for it. There were parts about that he didn't remember once they got to Iraq, but after that he was home again, in Queens, until his leg healed up. But then he found out he wasn't in the Army anymore. When he'd been shown the article in an airplane magazine, he'd thought it was a joke. "A Call for Brave Men Everywhere! Combatants wanted! Apply online!" But he'd gotten his little sister in to show him how to find the website, and they'd filled it out together. And now he was here. And in a few more he'd be out there, where a man could truly be a warrior. "The rules are simple," Dr. Hari Mukhtar, the control room director, explained to the camera. "If you kill an opponent, you receive one hundred thousand dollars." "One hundred thousand dollars ―" James Grayson echoed. ― "One hundred thousand American dollars for each kill, deposited in the bank of your choice," Dr. Mukhtar agreed, "and five thousand dollars every day you stay alive." "But if you die, you get nothing." "You get nothing," Dr. Mukhtar agreed. There were four minutes left before the next combatant crossed through the Wall. James Grayson let the conversation unfold, making sure each point was covered, so even distracted viewers would get all the information they needed to understand this game. "What if you just wound your opponent?" "You get nothing," Dr. Mukhtar said. "And if you wound him, and he dies later?" "Look," Dr. Mukhtar began to sound impatient at Grayson's intentional stupidity. "Every combatant has one of these." He held out something in his hand to the camera. They had rehearsed this, and Shang-zu, behind the second camera, was already focused on the little bead, about the size of a grain of rice, in the palm of the doctor's hand. "And what is that?" Grayson asked. "It is a chip, containing a homing beacon. It is what allows us to see that the Scorpion, right now, is climbing the ridge of Mount Hakluyt." James glanced over at the monitor where the small red dot moved slowly along the map. He didn't know the island well enough to identify where exactly the first combatant was now but it was somewhere to the left of the middle of it, northwest of the Wall. "It also monitors the body's heartbeat. It sends a signal to us, and tells us the combatant's location, and also the fact that he is still alive." "Right," Grayson agreed. "And each combatant also has one of these." The director held up an orange plastic ear tag. "These are ― attached ― to the combatant's right ear ― " By 'attached,' the director meant 'stapled,' just like cattle, but Grayson had decided they wouldn't use that word. Combatants were heroes; that's what this story was about. "And this is the prize," Grayson said to the camera, picking up the ear tag. "This is the hundred thousand dollar lottery ticket. And you can get just as many of these as you like, right? There's no limit?" "Yes, but your opponent must be dead first." "And you'll know that because ― ?" "See?" the director turned the ear tag to show Brian the opaque button, black against the orange of the tag. "This receives a signal from the heart-monitor. When the combatant is alive, his heart is beating, this will be green. When he is dead, the signal will cease, and this will turn black. Only then can you take this from him. If it's not black when you return it to the gate, then ― no money. No prize." "Your opponent must be dead before your prize can be won," Grayson said smoothly, and picked up the next part of the story, putting his hand to the small microphone in his ear. "I'm told the next combatant is preparing to cross through the gate onto the island." He watched as the monitor ran a replay of the long shot of the second combatant walking across the grass from the induction center to the inside gate in the wall. A big, heavy man carrying a long spear in one hand, hefting his backpack over his shoulder, his shaved head wrapped in a black bandana. A couple of the security men and one of the technicians accompanied him. Ahead, a technician keyed the code into the inner gate, which opened at his touch. The second combatant, with his weapons and equipment, stepped inside, and the gate closed behind him. The Wall, eight feet wide and twenty-five feet high, cut across the peninsula at the southwest end of Savage Island, dividing the administrative area from the designated combat zone. On either end of the wall were hundred-foot overhanging cliffs that extended along the edges of the killing field, until the Island began to widen where the jungle began. Three gates, actually tunnels through the Wall, gave access to the killing ground. Ten minutes before his scheduled release, the combatant entered the six-foot square concrete holding area between the two gates, alone. A steel-mesh gate reinforced with steel bars closed the area at either end. The gate behind him, back the admin building and the clinic, could be unlocked from the inside. A combatant could choose to turn back at anytime, without charge or penalty, and leave the Island. The air in the holding area was hot and stuffy, but Manny didn't notice. He tried to look out of the tiny holes in the steel mesh, and see if an opponent waited for him, but the mesh was too close together. Above the gate onto the killing field a large digital clock counted down the time in red numbers. Not the time on the island, because that didn't matter, but the number of minutes and seconds before the gate opened automatically, releasing him onto the Island. Manny sheathed the tiger claw and the sword. He put on his backpack. He picked up his long, heavy spear and hefted it. Then he drew the tiger claw knife again, just to be a surprise if his opponent got past his spear. Fifteen seconds. He positioned himself a few feet back from the gate. He was ready. Manny smiled. The digital clock reached zero, and the gate in front of him clicked open. In the studio, Grayson announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, here we have ― Jaguar Warrior." The Jaguar Warrior charged obliquely through the gate the moment it opened, and took a position near the wall, spear poised, cat's claw at the ready in his right hand, while he took in the whole of the barren sandy killing ground, and saw that it was empty. His red and gold body armor glinted in the sun. The short cape on his shoulders caught the breeze. A jaguar skin covered his helmet in the back; the front was a snarling jaguar mask. He looked like a warrior from a fantasy. "Wow – ow!" Grayson exclaimed. "That's – beautiful!" "Not very practical," the Colonel added dourly. But his eyes gleamed. Then the Jaguar Warrior hefted his spear in his hand, and trotted across the arena toward the jungle. "He's going after him!" Grayson shouted. "He's going after him!" One of Grayson's best assets was that he really cared about whatever sport he was watching. "The Jaguar Warrior is on the trail of the Scorpion! How soon are we going to see them fight? Let's look at the big map," he remembered to add, before Dawes could suggest it. "As you can see the Scorpion has taken the trail that will lead him up to the ridge, the highest point of the Island." The monitor gave them several long shots of the Scorpion loping along the path through the jungle. Prior to the opening of the contest, many trails had been laid through the foliage, and small clearings widened, to offer the greatest possible variety of settings for combatant's fights. Monitors showed him coming and going, close shots and long shots, and Dr. Mukhtar in the control room nodded in satisfaction. "The Scorpion is pretty far ahead," Grayson observed in the studio. "Almost two miles," Dawes agreed. "These two warriors aren't going to meet anytime soon." "But Jaguar Warrior is right on his trail! If Scorpion turns back ― " "Jaguar Warrior could find himself between on enemy in front, and another enemy coming along behind him," Dawes pointed out. "And that would be trouble." "Real trouble. But it may mean that we'll see a really great fight." "We're sure to see great fights today. I'm really looking forward to it. Let's find out more about the Jaguar Warrior's choices of weapons. We'll find out who he is, where he came from, and what brought him here, to Savage Island." Grayson stared at the camera with an intrigued smile until the light went out. In his ear mike, Richard Farley, his producer, told him, "We're giving you fifteen. First the retro on number two, and then we'll go into your interview with Mr. Van Allan. By then number three should be on, and something should be happening . . . " Grayson didn't wait for more. He peeled off his ear mike and headed for his dressing room. He conducted the interview less than twelve hours after reaching Savage Island. Jules Van Allan invited him to his office in the admin building, on the top floor overlooking the Wall. Unlike most of the architecture on the Island that was in various stages of completion, Van Allan's office was finished with antique paneling, dark wood bookshelves, and native works of art from Indonesia, the South Sea Islands, and various parts of Africa. Masks stared down at James from a high shelf near the ceiling. A pair of French doors led out onto a terrace with a view of the harbor as well as the Wall and the area beyond. Grayson had been given a précis on his employer prior to leaving Los Angeles. He read that Van Allan was a Dutch native of Indonesia, and a successful businessman there, like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather before him. The name Van Allan seemed familiar to him, and he called a former producer to find out if, perhaps, Grayson had ever had Van Allan as a guest on his show, but the answer was negative. Van Allan was very wealthy, with a fortune estimated in the billions of dollars. He had homes in Los Angeles, in Jakarta, in New York, in Hong Kong, and had been rumored to own a private island, which the world now knew to be true. It was thought to be located in the Asian Pacific, but Grayson was not yet sure of that. Van Allan had been married once, and had two children who were deceased. The producer told Grayson that in the aftermath of his children's loss, he'd been on just about every talk show in the country, but Grayson had never hosted him. Grayson did not want to greet Van Allan without knowing whether they'd ever met before. The man who came forward to shake his hand did seem familiar. Squarely built, with a wide face, high cheekbones and vivid blue eyes. Jules Van Allan was in his late fifties, with blond hair still showing among the gray. He was dressed casually in light-weight cotton slacks, a short-sleeved shirt, and hand-made Spanish sandals. The cut and quality of his clothing gave him an air of polished elegance, but it was his sense of suppressed energy that Grayson found intriguing, almost as though Van Allan himself were about to become one of the combatants on Savage Island. His greeting could not have been more welcoming, or better calculated to put Grayson at his ease. "Mr. James Grayson! How pleased I am that you are joining us. I must say I often watched your show when I was living in Los Angeles. And now you are here! I hope your journey was not too fatiguing? Welcome to my island!" "Thank you, sir," Grayson replied, returning the firm handshake. Still stuporous after his long flight, he turned on his charisma with a conscious effort, and summoned his reserves to project attention and interest. James was determined to do the kind of job on this interview he used to when he was young and hungry and on his way up. When James had admired his office, and commented on the view of the Wall, the two were arranged and lit sitting in comfortable chairs, with the bookshelves full of leather-bound volumes and exotic curios as the background. Richard Farley, the producer, oversaw every detail of lighting, light make-up and camera placement, but he made no attempt to influence how Grayson conducted the interview. But there was no need. Grayson intended that this interview would be a success. It was his job to allow Van Allan to present his case for creating Savage Island in the best possible light. And that was only fair, since Grayson was his employee. The TV company that was producing and distributing the Savage Island broadcasts was owned, though indirectly, by Mr. Van Allan. There was nothing on Savage Island, James had already begun to realize, that was not under Jules Van Allan's control. "Mr. Van Allan," he began, "You own this entire island?" "Yes," Van Allan spoke easily, ignoring the two cameras, the technicians, the sound men, the producer and his assistant, as though he were simply speaking intimately to a friend. James took note and mentally cut all the questions he'd planned to put Van Allan at his ease. His excitement rose over his exhaustion; this was going to go well. Van Allan told him, "It was my good fortune, many years ago, to indulge myself in this kind of dream. It is a common dream, is it not, for a man to have an island all his own?" "It sure is," Grayson agreed. "But you're not going to tell me where it is? I mean, I came all this way, but I have no idea where we are." "That's right," Van Allan agreed. "In the present circumstances, the location of what I am now calling Savage Island must remain completely secret." "But you bought it originally for your family?" "Yes. That's right. My wife, my wife at the time ― we're divorced now ― we built a house here as a means of getting away from the noise of civilization, and to have a completely secure retreat to enjoy with our children, and our friends. But that was many years ago." "Can you tell us, how you came to have the idea for Savage Island? How did it occur to you to use this place to reinvent the most savage sport in history? Men fighting men ― to the death?" That was Van Allan's cue, and he gave his answer into the camera with an assurance and conviction that James admired. "Throughout history, James, for thousands of years, young men of extraordinary courage and daring have had an outlet for the ― the aggression that enabled the human race to get as far as we have. Every country still has these young men in their populations. In the past, they would have been heroes, brave warriors, defenders of the land. They would have had the opportunity to win fame and fortune and advancement by their courage. But we live in a decadent age. Now these young men are hooligans, vandals, thugs, or at the worst ― insurgents, or terrorists. And also, the traditional forms of courage have been set aside." "You'd think, with all the wars going on these days, and the military always trying to recruit more soldiers, that there's lots of outlets for that kind of energy." Van Allan reared up in his seat, an angry glint in his eyes. "Pshaw!" He shook his head. "You can't think that these are real wars? Wars such as men fought in the past? Where armies marched towards their foes, carrying their bayonets fixed on their rifles? Or earlier, where men carried swords, or rode horses with lances straight at their foes? No." Grayson felt that clutch of excitement that always happened when someone he was interviewing said something he knew would drive the next round or two of the news cycle. He almost forgot to breathe. But Van Allan needed no encouragement or leading questions to continue. "Today's wars are the actions of all-powerful bullies, exerting their tyranny over hapless civilians. This is not war, this is slaughter and thievery. Today's military fights only when the odds are overwhelmingly in its favor. Even then, it does its fighting from a distance, killing from miles, even thousands of miles away. Is this the action of a man of courage? I think not." Grayson knew the case already, he had heard it when he'd sat down with the producer about this job. He realized now that Van Allan was no longer making a reasoned argument. Passion crept into his voice now, when he began to talk of courage. "It used to be that when a man fought another man to the death, he had to be close enough to look him in the eye. Certainly in any form of what was considered to be honorable combat, the duel, the tournament, even in war, you faced your opponent. You put yourself in danger to work your will upon your foe. But now, now, blowing up an unarmed foe from a distance, fighting men by pushing buttons . . . " Van Allan shook his head, let out his breath. "So, the men who fight here won't be fighting with guns?" "No." Van Allan stated. "There are no guns on Savage Island." "Bows and arrows? Crossbows? Slingshots?" Van Allan smiled, recognizing that Grayson was clowning in order to change his tone. "They will not be available from our catalog. If you feel you must fight a man, for it to be an act of courage, you must be in equal danger when you strike at him." "And may the best man win!" Grayson intoned. "And may the best man win," Van Allan agreed. "What I am doing here, James, is bringing back what was one of the noblest traditions of manhood. I am reintroducing the values of courage, of honorable combat, and I am making it worth the while of heroes from all over the world to come here and prove themselves. I am offering a prize for every kill, as you know, of one hundred thousand American dollars . That's a fortune in most countries." "That's a fortune in every country," Grayson said. "But I am also offering a prize for any man who has the courage to step out onto Savage Island, to risk combat, and survive ― without having to kill anyone ― and for this I will pay each man five thousand dollars a day." Van Allan looked directly into the camera. "I call upon the courageous men of the world. You men know who you are. You who should have been warriors and heroes in another age. Come to Savage Island, and show the world what you are. Chance everything upon your strength, your cunning and your courage. And live, wealthy and renowned, forever afterward." ### Chapter Two Far away across the seas the District Attorney for Los Angeles County left the courthouse to be intercepted on the steps by his former assistant, now the manager of his political campaign for governor of the state of California. "Dave!" he called genially. "What's up?" Dave came up close to him before he spoke, not wanting to raise his voice in a public place, especially not where everyone knew the D.A., and they might be overheard. "Hello, John. I just came to tell you. He's done it. It's started." The D.A.'s brows rose. He looked exactly like a man destined for high office. Tall and fit, with a square jaw and rugged good looks, he was smart and ambitious, and his wife was rich. He shot a look around him and then continued down the steps. "'Savage Island?' Live and in color?" "That's right." "And he's really going to let people kill each other?" John stopped at the corner and turned to face Dave Thornton, who had been his friend for many years. "I don't know," Dave admitted. "Nothing's happened yet, but it certainly looks as though that's what he means to do." His boss glanced casually up and down the street, and then asked in a low voice, "Anyone made the connection yet?" Dave shook his head. "Not to my knowledge. You don't think it's a coincidence, do you? Van Allan coming up with this just when you've announced for the governor's race?" "Not a chance. Look, you're monitoring the situation, right?" Dave smiled grimly. "Not me. My son. He bought tickets to the starting day four months ago. He's at the Coliseum now, with his whole squash club." "Well, call me if anything actually happens." "You mean if someone dies." "Right. That's the point at which I'll have to make a statement." The light changed and the two of them started across the street, Dave hurrying to keep up. "Can't we just ignore it?" Dave asked. "Let the whole thing go by? I mean, it's far away, it's not in your jurisdiction." "You think so?" John regarded him with that ironically raised brow that always made Thornton cringe. "Van Allan is still a resident of Los Angeles. I checked. He files his taxes from here. And considering his personal fortune, do you think for a minute that that's a coincidence?" Dave shook his head. "You're right." "I am right. Just you wait." John looked past him. "Whoops. Time to make my exit." He stepped to the curve just as his driver pulled his car up, and let himself into the back just as a reporter ran up. "Mr. Savage! Mr. Savage!" Dave stepped between the reporter and the car as it pulled away. The disappointed reporter turned to Thornton and asked, "Mr. Thornton, is there any truth to the rumor that Jules Van Allan named his island after the District Attorney?" Thornton looked straight at him and said, "I'm very sorry, I don't know what you're talking about." Out in the combat zone on Savage Island, Scorpion emerged from the jungle and climbed the trail to the top of the ridge. Up here a cool breeze brought brought a little relief from the heat. Certain that no one was close behind him, he paused to take his first view of the whole island. It was larger than he'd thought. He'd come about two and a half miles, and he was just about halfway to the northern end. He stood on the higher of the two ridges, this one above the tree line. The second one, separated by a deep canyon, ran parallel to his right, covered with trees right to the top. To his left, the western shore was pocked with cliffs, boulders, and rocks far out into the surf. He saw a couple of rocky outcrops that made additional little islets offshore. He looked back toward the Wall to trace the cliffs to the right where they broke into a jumble of huge rocks, and then leveled out to a white gleaming beach that continued until it went out of his sight behind the second ridge. Ahead, both ridges fell away in a series of stony meadows, copses of trees, and a long stony beach at the north end of the island. Back the way he came he traced the whole length of the Wall, with all three gates in view. He could see the L-shaped peninsula that lay behind the Wall. Some of the administration buildings were visible, the landing strip, the warehouses above the little harbor at the foot of the cliffs. He thought he recognized the building where he'd slept in a tiny, Spartan room for the past four nights, one of hundreds in the combatants' dormitory. By now, his first opponent was somewhere behind him. The third combatant would soon follow, and after him, the twenty-one others that would be released before nightfall to hunt one another. He felt a pleasant thrill at the thought. Whoever they were, some of them were going to learn that the Scorpion was not easy to find, and was even harder to kill. The Scorpion was elusive, he was wary. The Scorpion was hardly ever seen. Ahead of him the trail lay along the edge of the ridge, with no cover for about a quarter of a mile. Just because he couldn't see to the Wall from here didn't mean there wasn't a position where the ridge was visible. Scorpion turned back down the trail, heading into the trees. Grayson, back in the studio and on the air, listened to the voice in his ear and turned to the computerized map on the wall. "I am told ― yes, you can see it on your screens now ― Scorpion, our first combatant, has turned, he's turned back and is now going in the direction of Jaguar Warrior, our second combatant, and they could meet any minute . . . " He turned to the Colonel, beside him. "Colonel, why do you think the Scorpion turned back? Is he planning to fight? Wasn't he much safer keeping ahead of his opposition?" The Colonel, who had spent the past week walking every path on the island , was able to look wise and knowing. "I think if you take a look at that ridge trail ― if we could get a good shot of it ― " The producer obligingly gave them the shot he wanted, and it came up on the monitor. "You can see that when you get to the top of the ridge, the trail becomes steep and narrow, and there is no cover at all for over a hundred yards." Grayson replied, "But isn't that just the sort of defensive setup you want? Someplace where you're sure to see anyone coming up behind you?" "Yes, but you've got to be sure to get there first, remember. Scorpion doesn't know how far behind his next opponent might be. And the last thing he wants is to be caught in a place like that ridge trail, with no room to maneuver, and no place to go. I think it was a tactical decision on his part, and I think it was the right one, for the time being." "So he can meet Jaguar Warrior on better ground?" "That's right. I think you're going to find, Jim, that choosing your ground is half the battle out there." "All right," Grayson replied, reminding himself to tell the Colonel that he was never to be called 'Jim.' "And now we go to the Wall where the third combatant is about to enter through gate three." Death sauntered to the gate in the Wall, his eyes calm. He wore black body armor in the style of the late middle ages, and a Norse-style winged helmet with a grating over his face. He wore a long sword at his left side, and a short sword at his right, and in his hand he carried a short spear with a long steel point, a cutting edge, a cross-piece, and a butt spike. There were knives in each of the leather vambraces clasping his forearms, and smaller knives in each of his long black boots. According to his specifications, the spear, the hilts and sheaths of his weapons, were black. He wore a backpack – also black – with only the required supplies of food, water and first aid. Death traveled light, and that was part of his plan. It was also because almost all of his equipment points had been spent on his titanium body armor and helmet. His armor would give him the edge he needed to close with an opponent and kill him without getting hurt himself. His weapons skill, his years of training, and his experience, would do the rest. He was here to win, and win big. His opponents were here to meet – Death. The inner gate in the Wall opened. The technicians escorting him wished him well. He ignored them, already in a world of his own. He stepped inside the narrow room, the gate behind clanged shut, and he waited patiently for the seconds to tick down, before the gate to the outside opened. When the seconds reached zero, the gate opened with a click and swung wide of its own accord. He stayed where he was, listened a moment, felt the air, and then stepped through, sweeping the open area with a glance. After a moment, it closed behind him. Death walked along the Wall to his left, looking at the ground. In front of the center gate he found the footsteps of one of the men who had preceded him, and following them at one side, headed for the trees. "He's tracking him! He's tracking him!" Grayson told his viewers excitedly. "Did you see that? Brian, let's look at that again ―" Farley, obligingly re-ran the shot of Death glancing down at his predecessor's tracks before following them across the arena. Grayson turned to the Colonel. "Here is one combatant who is eager for blood. He's gone after the Scorpion. Colonel, how soon before some of these combatants meet? Let's look at the map." The map of the island appeared on the screen, with the new black light visible near the wall. "There's Scorpion and Lone Eagle on different paths in the jungle, but these paths cross several times. How far apart do you think they are?" This was information the technicians could bring up on their computers, but the Colonel offered his estimate nonetheless. "Probably three quarters of a mile. These trails do meet – "And how far behind them is . . . Death," Grayson asked, reveling in the new name, "stalking them?" The Colonel smiled. "About a mile. We still have a while before these guys meet." "But that could happen any time," Grayson said, speaking with excitement. The Colonel broke in. "There are twenty-one more combatants lined up to be released today. I don't think anyone needs to worry that there's not going to be plenty of action before too long. Mr. Van Allan is going to release as many fighters as this island can hold –" "Combatants," Grayson corrected quietly. "― and he's going to replace them when needed. It's just a matter of time." "You're right, Colonel." He turned to look at the map, where the black light had just crossed from the arena and into the trees. "It looks like Death is going after the Scorpion." "Yeah, but that guy's a ways ahead of him." "But he's turned back. He's heading this way." "For the time being. We'll have to see where he gets to." "I can't wait," Grayson confided. "Me, too," Dawes admitted with an unwilling grin. Grayson looked at the camera. "In just a few minutes, the fourth combatant will enter into the killing zone, but meanwhile, Lucy, what can you tell us of the man who calls himself 'Death?'" He sat back as Lucy appeared on the monitor, standing on the practice field on Savage Island. Behind her a tall, slender man dressed in black sweat pants and a soaked black tee shirt performed a slow sword exercise against the sunset on the western horizon. Grayson, who hadn't seen this clip before, had to give it up to Lucy for a beautiful shot. Jules Van Allan stood on the terrace outside his office and looked out over the Wall. He saw Death cross the sandy killing ground and enter the woods, an action mirrored on the large television screen inside his office. A bank of monitors on the same wall gave him rotating shots of all the combatants out on the island. Another monitor accessed shots from the cameras in the induction center. In addition, a computer on his desk allowed him to call up every camera on the Island. When Death disappeared into the trees, Van Allen went back into his office. He poured himself a drink of juice from pitcher. He stood looking at the framed pictures of his children on his desk. Frozen in moments of joy, of accomplishment, bright youth and happiness. He raised his glass to them and spoke their names. He had planned this day for a long time. Out there somewhere, across the ocean and far away, District Attorney John Savage would by now have heard of Savage Island. When he had heard, he would start to sweat. And he'd feel the heat more and more, as events on the Island unfolded. Grayson took the grand tour of the administrative complex the day he arrived on Savage Island. Jules Van Allan's special assistant, Ken Frize, conducted the tour, together with and his producer, Richard Farley, Shang-zu, the cameraman, who'd been with him on the helicopter that morning, came alone, carrying his hand-held and shooting as they went. They were shown the induction center, where combatants were implanted with a tiny tracking device and pulse monitor, and had their ear-tag affixed. Frize explained things to Grayson, who asked all the questions that viewers would want answered, while Shang-zu filmed. Frize showed Grayson, and the camera, the Savage Island catalog, which contained every weapon, offensive and defensive, every piece of equipment and clothing available to the combatants, and detailed the point system which rendered every combatant equal at the start. "You see," Ken Frize explained to Grayson and the viewers, "this is not just a contest of strength and courage and fighting skill. When each man chooses his equipment, his weapons, he is making tactical choices that will determine whether he lives or dies, whether he is in a position to win or if he will lose. Thus, a man who, out of his points, spends a hundred and seventy-five on a sleeping bag may be at a disadvantage to a man who spends hundreds of points on a pair of night-vision goggles." "What determines the number of points each item costs?" Grayson asked. He liked Ken Frize for his effectiveness. His slender, olive-skinned good looks, his expressive dark eyes, his British-accented English made him attractive on camera. He was articulate without being too wordy, and he responded to Grayson's interest and excitement. Grayson threw him questions at every opportunity, certain that they were shooting great material. Frize answered, "The point system is something that Mr. Van Allan worked on for a number of years, while Savage Island was in development. He has a team of computer programmers who, for months, worked on how many points each man should have, and what a point is worth, and what it should buy him. Do you know they ran computer sims of combat for almost a year, while this place was being built? Some of the programmers are here, in the control room ― I'll introduce you." "That would be great," Grayson said, thinking about putting together a documentary on "The Making of Savage Island." If this thing took off, and he was sure it would, they'd want one. But for now, "Tell us about the points," he guided Ken back to the question at hand. "Each man gets a thousand points to spend from the catalog. In addition, he's issued three days' rations, water, water purifying tablets, and a first aid kit. For additional items, the general rule is, the more high-tech the object, the most it will cost. Night vision goggles cost four hundred and fifty points. A sword costs about a hundred, depending on what kind it is, and what you want done to it. Everything you take through that gate, clothes, shoes, even your underwear, you have to buy with your points. And, any additional modifications you want to your weapons, armor or equipment will cost you points as well." "What if you want something that's not in the catalog?" "Ah. Then it goes to arbitration. If it is allowed, the point value is calculated in comparison to everything else, and it is added to the catalog. The catalog is on line, on our website," Ken pointed out. "Anyone can access it. Anyone can go through and assemble a kit, and think about what they would take out there. There's a little sim where you can try out the equipment you choose against randomly generated opponents." "And in this whole catalog," Grayson flipped the pages, "there's not a single gun." "No," Ken said, with that same certainty as Van Allan. "No guns on Savage Island. This is about standing up to your foe, and facing him when you kill him." "And will you be going out there?" Grayson asked, just to see what he'd say. Ken grinned. "Don't think I haven't asked myself that. I think every man must ask himself that, once he knows about Savage Island. We are all descended from the kind of men who fought like this, and not too long ago. It's in our blood." "But you won't be going out there?" Ken said, deadpan, "I'm going to try and contain myself." "Right." Grayson grinned back at him. "And will you be going out there?" Ken asked. Grayson felt a surge of excitement. Because you couldn't watch football without thinking about playing football, about thinking what it would feel like to throw the ball, to catch it, to try and stop that man, now, before he made the goal line. "I'm not a fighter," he heard himself say with regret. "Yes," Ken agreed. "There was a time when every man trained for this his whole life. I read history at Durham University," he explained. "I won't hold it against you," Grayson said. He showed him one of the weapons pages in the catalog. "A sword is a hundred points, but here, a machete is only twenty-five. Why so cheap?" Frize shrugged. "Mr. Van Allan wants contestants to choose a machete." He grinned suddenly, exposing very white teeth. "It's a jungle out there." He was obviously pleased to get to use this line. Later, when he and Farley were editing the segment, Grayson cut it. After all, he was the star, and the star always gets the good lines. Next they toured the equipment warehouse. Charles Gordon, the Master Armorer, met them at the door, with his assistant, Tom Biondi, beside him. Gordon showed them the rows of dozens of tables set up on the warehouse floor. On each table, the equipment for one combatant was in the process of being assembled from Biondi's master lists. Grayson was delighted. He had Shang-zu pan over one table bristling with medieval-style weapons, another dominated by a complete set of 16th century Japanese armor, one with piles of camping equipment, one with what looked like scuba gear. James narrated on the spot for the camera, "Each one of these tables represents a gamble by a combatant, that his choice of weapons and equipment will enable him to emerge victorious over his equally-prepared foes. How will this play out? Which strategy will prove the most effective? We'll soon know more, on the first day of combat . . . on Savage Island." "That's great," Farley told him. "I love how you always know just the right thing to say." Grayson smiled, pleased. He was on an unknown island, twenty-two hours' travel time from Los Angeles. It was already going really well. They met Lucy Tran when they went into the armory where the weapons were assembled, or created, or customized, under the direction of the Master Armorer. Shang-zu filmed Grayson watching a smith and his assistant make a specially-weighted sword blade, when Ken Frize came up to him and said, "And this is your associate, Lucy Tran." That was the moment Grayson learned that he was to have a co-host. He took one look at her, noted her exotic beauty, her youth ― she must be in her late twenties ― and decided on the spot she must be sleeping with someone. He'd never seen or heard of her. She was probably a complete novice. He despised her instantly, and felt his snap opinion was borne out when she hardly looked at him, said almost nothing to him, and excused herself almost immediately. Grayson decided she was a cold, ambitious, conniving, and probably a narcissistic bitch. Grayson had not seen Lucy Tran since that first meeting, but now, just a few minutes after Death had come out of his gate, and with three combatants nowhere near confronting one another in the next few minutes, he was grateful to hear Farley say in his ear, "Lucy's coming on. She's going to introduce this next clip." "Is she?" he replied non-committally. "We don't have much on this guy," Farley told him. "But Lucy did manage to talk to him." Half an hour was a long time, on screen. Until there were enough combatants on the Island so that conflict was almost always either happening or just about to happen, the long minutes before the next opponent was released were going to lag. Rather than trying to jazz up excitement with the Colonel, letting Lucy carry some of that time was a great idea. Especially if she was boring. That would show everyone their relative worth. "Great," he told Farley. "That's just what we need." They were broadcasting the clip he'd made with Ken Frize about the catalog when Lucy came in. He pretended not to notice as she greeted Colonel Dawes, then walked behind him and took a seat on his left. A technician adjusted the lights, the sound tech adjusted her microphone. Grayson looked over at her and greeted her abruptly, with a big smile, "Hi. How you doing? You ready to go?" just as Farley counted them down. When the camera light came on, Grayson turned to her. "Lucy," he asked, "what can you tell us about the combatant who calls himself 'Death?'" To his surprise, Lucy's face lost its closed expression. As she replied, Lucy screwed up her face in self-deprecation. Not a lot of time on camera, Grayson noticed automatically. "We don't know a lot about Death," Lucy told him. "I know from his application that he comes from Vancouver, in Canada, but that he's an American citizen, and that he flew here from San Francisco. You saw the clip of him practicing. He's been very focused since he got to Savage Island. Our Master Armorer, Charles Gorden, tells me he took each one of his weapons out into the field to practice with, separately, and then ordered a few slight adjustments. You know that weapons, though chosen from the catalog, are customized for each combatant, if that's the way they want to spend their points." Lucy's commentary was all over the map. Grayson brought her back into focus. "Did you get a chance to talk to 'Death?'" Again, Lucy's face screwed up. Grayson, considering the effect objectively, decided that she looked absolutely charming. "I asked him if he would do an interview with me," she told the camera, "just so the viewers can get to know him. He told me he can't afford to compromise his concentration by giving away pieces of himself. And I respect that, James, really. So I asked him if it was okay just to film his workouts. And this is what we got." The clip was already queued up; Grayson approved. It showed Death from various angles, with various weapons, working out on the practice field. They had shot in the morning, with the sun over the ocean backlighting him. In some shots he was simply a dark silhouette against the sky. He moved with beauty and precision, sometimes so slowly it looked like the clip had been filmed in slow motion, and sometimes so swiftly, his movements blurred. It was a three-minute clip underscored with trendy New Age music. James leaned closer while the tape ran, covering his microphone with his hand. "That's nice work," he told her. Her smile surprised him. Her expression changed to one of disarming sweetness. "Thanks!" she said. "That means a lot, coming from you." Grayson felt his resentment against her lessen. She really was very attractive, slender and lithe, her clothes chosen for just a hint of the exotic, to set off her enigmatic expression; her make-up a little over-emphatic, to highlight her Asian features. Today she wore a high-collared white linen shirt with small gold buttons down one side, and a tight black skirt and black low-heeled shoes. "Number four coming up," Farley said in his ear. "Two minutes." As the camera light came on Grayson told the viewers, "We've got Scorpion making his way inland, we've got Jaguar Warrior heading, it looks like, for the beach, and unbeknownst to the two of them, Death is at their heels." He dropped his voice a touch, and intensified his gaze. "Death -- is stalking them." The monitors showed shots of the combatant who called himself Death, moving quickly through the trees, his spear at the ready, pausing now and again to check the ground for tracks. Ahead of him, other cameras showed Jaguar Warrior moving slowly along the same trail, pausing to crouch and listen, then moving ahead again. Scorpion, far ahead of them both, had left the trail and was edging his way through the jungle, climbing around the bases of trees, pushing his way between the undergrowth, lost from sight to the cameras except by the slight movement of the foliage, and then in view again, crawling across a log over a gorge. "These three combatants are on a collision course with fate, with destiny, perhaps to victory and riches, or perhaps to defeat, and death," Grayson intoned. He was really enjoying himself. "And now, behind them, comes another challenger, another brave man willing to place his life on the line to prove his courage and win his reward." Because she was there, and because she had been gracious to him, he threw the lead to her. "Lucy, tell us about combatant number four." Lucy answered easily, without looking down at her notes on the table in front of her. "James, this is Lin Kim. He's from Daejeon, South Korea. He's twenty-five years old, just finishing a doctorate in philosophy at Chungnam University." The monitor showed a long shot of a figure in full kendo armor being escorted to the Wall by a group of technicians. The armor was blood red, and the face of his helmet was painted in black and gold with the aspect of a demon. He looked, from a distance, larger than life and very impressive. "That guy looks dangerous!" Grayson exclaimed. Lucy smiled, responding to his energy, "Lin has been studying martial arts all his life. He is a world champion in kendo, but he also holds a second-degree black belt in tae-kwon-do. He told me that he is descended from a long line of Korean warriors, and hopes to prove himself worthy of their name." "What's his fighting name?" Grayson asked. "He calls himself 'Ghost Soldier.'" "'Ghost Soldier.'" Grayson tried out the words. "Interesting name." Colonel Dawes interjected, "It may be that in Korean it has additional connotations." "It may be," Grayson agreed. "Lucy, tell me what he's carrying." Lucy replied again without glancing at her notes. Much as he was inclined to resent her, Grayson had to respect her professionalism. She said, "'Ghost Soldier' is armed with the Ssangdo, the twin swords that are a tradition of Korean sword fighting. In addition he carries the great moon blade, the danwoldo, and a small knife in his belt." "What's the danwoldo?" Dawes asked, surprised. Lucy's face crinkled again self-deprecatingly as she tried to explain. As she did, the monitor replayed Lin Tan's walk to the holding cell in the Wall from another angle, with a close shot of the pole weapon he carried on one shoulder. As the Ghost Soldier stepped into the tunnel under the wall and the gate closed behind him, the technicians escorting him applauded and shouted good wishes to him. Grayson wondered if he was getting this send-off because some of the technicians were Korean. He made a note to ask about the nationality of the various workers on the island when he got the chance. For one thing, it might give him a clue about where in the world he was. Lucy made shapes in the air with her hands, to explain the great moon blade. "It's a curved blade at the end of a six foot spear. It's a traditional infantry weapon in South Korea." "Interestingly," Dawes added, "the double sword is a traditional Korean cavalry weapon." Grayson felt pleased with the both of them. They were filling the minutes before Lin Tan would be released onto the Island with some interesting stuff. "That's the second guy who's taken out a spear as well as a sword," he remarked, throwing it back to them. "Well," Dawes fielded his comment, "If I were facing a guy with a sword, I'd sure want something long and sharp to keep him off me, if possible." "Will it work?" "We'll have to see." "Dueling spears," Lucy contemplated aloud. "That's going to be interesting." Both Grayson and Dawes looked at her. She hurried to explain. "You see, both of the spears, Death's spear, and Ghost Soldier's spear, are long and heavy. It's hot out there, and they are both wearing armor. In a fight with two heavy spears, strength and stamina are going to matter a lot." "What's going to matter the most is courage," Dawes put in. "Having the guts to face down a guy pointing a six-foot spear at you." "Or a great moon blade," Grayson agreed, and put in, at exactly the right moment, "and we are at five, four, three, two, one ―" On the screen, the center gate in the wall opened. For a long moment, nothing happened. No one emerged. Grayson, feeling the seconds pass was about to wonder aloud if the Korean had lost his nerve. But then there was an almighty scream, and Ghost Soldier charged onto the killing ground, sword in his left hand, and great moon-bladed spear in his right. He ran about thirty yards into the arena, and then spun around, checking every direction. "Ladies and gentleman," Grayson intoned, "The Ghost Soldier has entered Savage Island." "Wow!" said Lucy. "That was some yell!" The Colonel, mindful of his job to offer his insight and analysis of the combatants' tactics, said, "That is one time when the best defense is a good offense – when you're coming through that gate. Before you can see what's out there, it's good to just assume – it could be bad." The Ghost Soldier was still turning slowly, watching for any movement in the trees beyond the arena, listening for any sound of an approaching opponent. Grayson said, "If he wants a piece of the action, he's going to have to go and find it." As he spoke, the Ghost Soldier straightened up, and with a smooth and practiced motion, sheathed his sword. He walked to the northeastern edge of the arena, where the ground fell away into cliffs overlooking the sea, and headed toward the trees. He walked as though he were strolling through a garden, his movements full of grace and purpose. "He's heading into the trees," Colonel Dawes observed. "There's a path there that follows the coastline. If he continues that way he may meet Jaguar Warrior in just a few minutes." Farley's voice spoke in Grayson's earpiece. "Check out the map. Something's about to happen." Grayson turned at once and saw that the black light representing Death and the red light representing the Scorpion's position had converged. "Wait," he said excitedly. "What's happening up island? Death is about to meet the Scorpion. Let's have some shots of these guys." The producer split the screen with shots of Death and Scorpion. They were broadcasting live to cable channels, sports channels, and a pay-per-view website, but they'd given themselves a twenty-minute lag, so if their first choice of shot proved inadequate, they had time to substitute a better one. This ensured that the best possible coverage. It also gave Grayson and his associates a safety net, so that if anything they said turned out to be stupid, or wrong, it would be cut before it was broadcast. Colonel Dawes explained, "While we've been watching Ghost Soldier make his entrance, our friend Death has taken a fork in the trail. This has brought him within ― it looks like just fifty yards of the Scorpion." "He's seen him! He's seen him!" Grayson shouted, as though at a great play in a tense football game. "There! Look!" The producer played back the distant shot of the Scorpion, in his camouflage, turning suddenly and sinking out of sight into the underbrush. It was amazing, the way he faded right into the jungle. That such a big man could suddenly fit between two trunks, under a branch and down into ground cover, was remarkable. The camera stayed on him, but he was hard to follow, and when he at last lay still, you had to remember that that bump there was his shoulder, and that smudge of green, part of his head. Though the camera had him in a straight shot, he was almost completely out of sight. "Talk about going to ground," Dawes murmured in appreciation. "That was something." "Here comes Death," Grayson said. "Up the trail and into our friend Scorpion's sights. What will happen next? Are they going to do it? Will they really do it?" "That's what they're here for," Colonel Dawes opined grimly. Lucy sat frozen. She seemed to have forgotten where she was, Grayson thought, in the tension of the moment. On the monitor, Death crept down the trail, then paused to listen, to look, to read the ground for sign, then moved swiftly ahead again. On camera, it seemed as though the two of them were almost close enough to touch one another, though the map showed they were still yards apart. "Has he seen him?" Grayson found that he was speaking quietly, as though not to disturb the concentration of the two combatants, far away and out of hearing though they were. The Colonel also spoke quietly. "Not yet. Death still doesn't know that the Scorpion is just ahead. This would be a good moment ― while Death is completely unaware ― if he were to attack he would have a distinct advantage, a momentary edge over his opponent that could make all the difference." "Sneaking up on Death," Grayson said happily. "This is what it looks like." And then nobody spoke, as Death stepped a few paces past where the Scorpion crouched in hiding, and turned, so that his back was to his unseen enemy. All over the island, people standing in front of their monitors waited. Far away, in a stadium in Los Angeles, in a sport center in San Jose, and in New York's Covent Garden, where the smell of spilled beer was rank in the air, the crowd, for the first time that day, was almost hushed. Up in his office, Jules Van Allan and his assistant stood before the big screen monitor, and waited to see what might happen next. ### Chapter Three Out in the jungle, Scorpion and Death crouched and stood so quietly that around them the birds and insects buzzed and chattered unconcerned. Arthur Baines remembered his old lessons. He didn't look directly at the guy in black on the trail fifteen feet away. If you looked directly at them, they could feel your attention. That was what made the hair on the back of their necks stand up; that was what let them know they were being watched. This guy was being careful. He was patient, and he was sharp. Arthur widened his focus. He saw the sunlight reflected on the leaves. He saw all the different shades of green, dark almost to blue-green, light almost to yellow, with highlights of silver where the sun was able to penetrate the canopy above. He sensed the movement of the birds. He smelled leaf rot and ozone. He felt his breath moving slowly through his throat. He heard his heart pounding, felt the old pain in his knee sharpen and the ache in his back as he crouched, unmoving, one hand resting on the hilt of his machete. He felt the tension, the excitement, in the man not far away, who suddenly backed off twenty paces down the trail, and turned away. Arthur, together with several million other people, let out a long breath. On the couch, in their apartment in Oakland, Tricia Baines, wife of the Scorpion, let out a breath that was more like a sob, and clutched the leather pillow to her chest. "What was that?" Grayson asked. He felt outraged. He felt cheated. There should have been a fight! These two warriors had come from the corners of the earth to face each other in combat, and one of them had ducked out. He said as much, but Dawes overrode him. "He's taking a reasonable precaution, that's all," Colonel Dawes said. "You have to look at his position." "Come on," said Grayson, "Scorpion had the guy cold. Death wasn't even looking at him. He could have killed him before he even turned around." "I don't think so," Dawes argued. "He was easily fifteen feet away. And remember, Scorpion's got a machete, but Death has a spear. If Scorpion came out of that undergrowth, Death would have turned around, and could have killed him before Scorpion ever got near enough to take a swipe at him." "Yeah," said Grayson, "but it was Death that backed off, not Scorpion." Dawes nodded. "Death came out tracking whoever was ahead of him. But he knows that by now, there is someone behind him, someone who may be doing the same thing to him. If he really thought Scorpion was nearby, the last thing he wants to do is get in a position where there's somebody ahead of him, and somebody behind him. In that case, whoever he turns his back on is probably going to kill him." "I see," said Grayson. "So basically these guys are just being very, very careful." "With their lives on the line, can you blame them?" Dawes asked. "It's all or nothing out . At some point, somebody is going to make a big mistake, and he's going to pay the ultimate price for it. In this case, neither Death nor Scorpion made any mistake at all. Both of them are still alive." "To fight another day," Grayson finished for him. "To fight another day," Dawes agreed. "All right, let's find out more about our latest combatant, Ghost Soldier. Lucy? What can you tell us?" The light went out on the camera as Lucy's clip on Lin Kim came up on the monitor. It showed her dressed in light-weight slacks and a dark blue silk shirt, and long, silver earrings, talking with a slender young Asian man wearing traditional taekwondo uniform, a black jacket tied with frogs down the middle, white cuffs to the sleeves, and black cotton gi pants. Beside him on a table lay his blood red Japanese-style armor. His swords were next to it, in lacquer sheaths, resting on a wooden stand. He spoke to Lucy in Korean, and a voice-over translated for him. "I've always loved the martial arts. I got my black belt in taekwondo when I was thirteen. I picked up kendo when I was in high school. I was the national champion two years in a row. Last year I was the world champion as well." A quick shot of a kendo competition in a large venue; two unidentifiable men running at each other, screaming and slashing with their wooden swords. There was no way to tell whether that was in fact a shot of Lin in the national championships. Everyone who saw it would just assume that it was. James smiled and reached for his glass of water. He looked over at Lucy and winked, "Smart work." She dropped her eyes. "Thanks." Grayson found his resentment of her abating. She was doing a good job, and that would help to make him look good. And she wasn't pushing herself forward. She waited for him to throw her a line, and then carried it awhile. She gave it up and fed it back to him before he had been out of the conversation for more than a few seconds. Grayson was beginning to think she might be an asset to his show. He was also intrigued by the way she could be reserved one minute, and entrancingly enthusiastic the next, and the way her face crinkled up when she made that change. He expanded to include the Colonel in his praise. "Really," he said, "both of you. That was great patter, Colonel." The Colonel lifted a hand to him as he headed for the men's room. Grayson turned back to the monitor. In a close shot, a handsome young Korean with sad eyes spoke to the camera, while an emotionless male voice translated for him. "I trained in martial arts all my life. Everything else I did, you know, school, parties, work . . . " Lin shrugged a few seconds ahead of the translation, "seemed empty. But until I heard about Savage Island, I didn't know what it was for." Pause. A slight smile. Lin nodded and spoke, and the voice-over translate; "Now I know." Grayson smiled at Lucy, who broke into a grin in return. The monitor now showed the Ghost Soldier in his red armor, strolling along the edge of a cliff, his head turning constantly to watch for approaching foes. Right on cue, Grayson cut in, "Ghost Soldier has begun his adventure of a lifetime. Coming up, the fifth combatant to wager his life on Savage Island. But first, we have a demonstration set up for you of just what Scorpion and Death are up against, if and when they face each other ― in a fight to the death." The monitor showed the live shot of three martial artists out on the training field on Savage Island, one carrying a machete, the other a six-foot spear just like the one Death had. The Colonel, who had narrated this clip, explained the advantages and disadvantages of each weapon form, and what the best tactics would be with each one. James watched with interest until Lucy interrupted him. "Do you think they're really going to do it?" He turned to her, surprised. "Do what?" "You know," she shrugged. "Fight. Fight to the death." "Well," he said, not wanting to mock her, not now. "That's what it's all about, isn't it?" Her face had that remote look, as she had when he first met her, and disliked her on sight. He thought she had suddenly gone cold towards him, and felt his annoyance rising, when he'd gone out of his way to be nice to her. He was about to say something cutting, but then he gave her one of his best smiles, instead, hoping to coax the lovely animation back into her face. "That was a great clip you did. You've done some good work." To his delight, her face scrunched up again into an adorable grin. Her eyes filled with humor and happiness again. "Oh! Thank you. I really appreciate it – we worked so hard, David and me ― " "Here we go," he said, cutting her short. When the gate opened on the fifth combatant, what charged out onto the killing ground looked like a fireplug carrying wings. He went to ground about a hundred feet from the gate and then the man in heavy armor was hardly discernible under his two huge wrap-around shields. The mechanism causing the two shields to lock seemed to have stuck, and the combatant could be heard cursing as he kicked at one of the edges. But in a few moments the shields snapped together, and the combatant crouched there, protected on all sides. He rotated the whole construct as he took in the view from all sides. "This is combatant number five, calling himself," Grayson checked his sheet, "Draco!" Then he couldn't help laughing. "What has he got there? This is amazing!" "Oh, I know about this," Dawes leaned forward. "I met this guy last week and we got to talking. He designed those shields himself. He said the problem with facing edged weapons is the susceptibility of the human body, and he'd designed these interlocking shields to protect himself." "They look like umbrellas," Grayson observed. "But they function as shields. They've got battens of a lightweight metal alloy, to stop or turn a heavy blade. And the boss of each shield is an eighteen-inch spear point." "So, his plan is to cover himself and then attack." "He's got a lightweight spear, and a couple of short swords as well," Dawes said. "Whoops. He's dropped the spear." Draco had gotten up, unsnapped the two shields, and started for the tree line. It could be seen then that he held each one by a handle fixed in the boss, from which protruded a narrow, shining blade. Draco turned back then to pick up his spear, which had dropped to the ground when he was fighting with the shields. He put one of the shields down to pick it up, revealing his head-to-toe plate armor and the two short swords on his belt. As he picked up the spear, a gust of wind grabbed the shield and blew it a few feet away. Draco charged after it. "So, you don't just need to use traditional weapons," Grayson remarked. "You can design new ones?" "Interlocking shields aren't new," Dawes corrected him. "It's call turtling, and the Romans were known to do it." "Maybe he should be called Turtle?" Grayson suggested. "If he is successful," Lucy Tran put in. Grayson had almost forgotten she was there. He reminded himself to throw her some lines, so that the audience didn't forget she was there. Colonel Dawes explained, "Dr. Hicks ― I'm sorry, Draco ― has simply redesigned the turtling shield technique with modern materials and technology. It's not a bad idea. He's got a doctorate in engineering from MIT, but he teaches in Brazil." Grayson looked a question over at Lucy, who shook her head; this is not one of the combatants for whom she'd gotten a video profile. So Grayson added the summation, "And now he is here, to try his courage and his expertise on Savage Island!" Colonel Dawes, watching Draco's progress avidly, nodded in approval. Draco had reached the tree line. The narrow opening onto the trail that other combatants had taken was not wide enough for his shields. He walked westward along the trees until he found one of the roads used by the maintenance and tech crews to access the Island, and started down it. "What's his plan, do you think, Colonel?" "I think he means to find a defensive position where he can make the best use of his shields." "What would that be?" "Well, he doesn't want open ground, where he can be attacked from more than one direction." "Right. He's found himself a new road, one that others haven't taken." "They all meet up eventually," Dawes replied happily. "That's true." To fill the time, Grayson called up a map of the whole Island, showing the roads and paths from end to end, and identified where each of the other combatants were at present. He wondered what the plan was if these wandering guys never did accost each other, but then decided that wasn't his problem, and just did his best to make the present situation as exciting and interesting as he could. In Tennessee, in the guard's room at Biological Developments, a secure bio lab facility outside of Memphis, closed for the weekend, Ronnie Schofield yelled at the television, "That is lame! That is so lame! I could so take that guy apart!" He watched Draco wrestle apart his shields, pick up his spear and head off for the tree line. A hundred thousand dollars. A hundred thousand dollars if he killed that guy, right there. And he could so kill that guy. He'd heard about Savage Island, hadn't really believed what he'd heard, but the guy he'd relieved an hour ago had the TV tuned to the program, and Ronnie just hadn't been able to stop watching. He'd seen Death emerge, with his cool winged helmet and short spear. You'd want a long spear to fight a guy like that, and a short, heavy weapon, like an axe. Maybe an axe with a spike on the end. That would be cool. But this Draco guy, he could take him no problem. He couldn't remember being this excited since the time when he was sixteen and he and his cousin had picked up those three girls. His cousin Georgie came in behind him and stood looking over his shoulder for a moment. "What's that?" "Savage Island." "Oh yeah? It's real?" "Seems to be." Georgie sat down beside him, shoving his chair a little to one side. It was Ronnie's turn to go on rounds, but the two of them had figured out ages ago how to fake the card swipes at each of the checkpoints, so that was no problem. Usually it was more interesting to go walking around, trying doors, seeing if any of the staff had left anything lying around, rather than just sitting in the guard booth looking at monitors that never changed. But today, this was better. On the screen, Grayson was reviewing where each of the combatants was, on the island, showing shots of their progress. "Who's that?" Georgie exclaimed, when Jaguar Warrior's jaguar-headed helmet came into view. "That's awesome!" he went on, not waiting for Ronnie to tell him. "This rocks!" "Yeah," Ronnie agreed. "I'm going." "Me too," Georgie said. Ronnie knew he would. He turned the screen of the computer and showed his cousin where you could fill out an application form on line. Down at the Wall the sixth combatant approached gate number two, the right-hand one, for his entrance onto the Island. He was escorted by the gate techs, and half a dozen or so of the workers from the Island. They ranged themselves on either sides of the gate, so that the combatant walked between them. The monitor showed the people clapping as he stepped into the ante room. They closed around the inner gate as it shut behind him, clapping and calling out in several different languages. "Huh," the Colonel, who had rejoined them, grunted. "Quite a send off!" "Our next combatant," Grayson noted for the viewers, "has already started his fan base. What can you tell us about him, Lucy? Who was he before he arrived here ― at Savage Island?" A picture came up on the monitor, right on cue, Grayson thought admiringly. Richard Farley was really on the ball. It showed a handsome black man in army uniform, smiling slightly, but looking capable and self-assured. Lucy said, "This is Craig Wells, who, as you see, was formerly a sergeant in the United States Army. He's from Chicago, where he was an amateur heavyweight boxer and has worked for the city as a bus driver for six years.. He is divorced, and has two children. On the Island, he has chosen to be known as 'Shadow.'" Grayson nodded in approval. A good name. The seconds counted down. "Lucy, why are so many of these combatants from the United States?" One eye on the clock, he listened to her answer, filling time before the next peak moment approached. He heard Lucy explain what he already knew, that the initial advertising campaign publicizing Savage Island, and seeking applications for combatants, had gone out on web sites and print media initially in North America, so that region had a two- or three-week head start on the rest of the world in discovering Savage Island. Men had applied from all over the world, but applications from North America had been processed first. One eye on the clock, Grayson threw out another comment. "Maybe Mr. Van Allan thinks his message about manly courage needs to be heard there, in particular." Lucy looked demure. "Perhaps." Since she didn't look like she was going to say anything else, Grayson added, "We'll have to ask him," and with fifteen seconds to spare, segued into the countdown. The gate opened, and the Shadow strode out onto Savage Island. A big man, his size was enhanced by a molded black breastplate with pointed fans on his spaulders, and a chainmail skirt. He wore long black boots, and a closed black morion helmet. He carried a large rectangular black shield, like that of a Roman soldier. He wore a long sword in a scabbard on his left hip, and a knife sheathed at his right side. In his right hand he carried a spiked metal ball on the end of a chain and a leather-covered wooden grip. As he walked out onto the island, a green light appeared on the computerized map, to signal his position on the killing ground. The Shadow walked out a third of the way onto the killing ground and turned around slowly, looking for a possible foe. He saw no one. He then turned back to face the Wall. He unhitched a satchel from his right shoulder and dropped it on the ground behind him. Then he hitched his shield on his side, turned back toward the Wall, and simply stood. "What's he doing?" Grayson asked. Colonel Dawes leaned forward toward the monitor. His eyes were alight. "It looks like ― he's waiting." "Waiting? For the next combatant?" Grayson asked. "Yep," Dawes said happily. "Something like this was bound to happen, as soon as we got a contestant with enough nerve, enough courage, to just stand his ground in the one place he knows there are going to be more combatants ― in just half an hour." Dawes grinned at Grayson. "Contestant number seven is going to get a big surprise." Grayson picked up the reins of the narrative. "That does seem to be the Shadow's plan. What's that weapon he's carrying?" "The metal ball on a chain? That's a morningstar." "How does that work?" "You swing the ball like you would a flail, or whip." Dawes replied. "And you hope it doesn't swing around and hit you in the head." "That can happen?" "So I understand." "That is certainly a killing weapon," Grayson commented. "They all are," Dawes pointed out. "We've seen swords, knives, machetes, spears. Any one will do to kill a man. If you know what you're doing." "And there he waits," Grayson pointed out. "The Shadow waits for whoever will be the next combatant here on Savage Island. Let's take a look at where our other combatants are at this time, numbers one through five, currently out of harm's way." The monitor brought up various shots of each combatant as Grayson commented on their positions. Scorpion, only visible in long shots as he toiled through the undergrowth, was north of the central part of the island. The viewers could see that once he had topped one more height he would be overlooking the rocky promontory at the end of the island. "He can run, but he can't hide," Grayson quipped. "Number two, Jaguar Warrior, is – yes, he's climbing a tree. Look at him go!" Jaguar Warrior had leaned his spear against a bush, and climbed into the canopy of a tree on the side of a ridge. Some of the branches bent beneath his weight, but he shifted his weight from hand to foot to hand with practiced ease, climbing with surprising speed. "That's not a bad plan," the Colonel pointed out. "One disadvantage on this island is not being able to spot a possible enemy. Getting some height so you can see around is one way to minimize that difficulty." "Do we know, can he see anyone from there? Draco, still making his way up the main road. Ah, there's Death – Death is stalking the lower trails, it seems." The black-clad warrior was seen standing quite still, listening for any disturbance in the jungle which would indicate his prey was near. Along the eastern shore, Ghost Soldier walked along the beach making solitary footprints in the pristine sand. It was as though he were on a contemplative journey around the island. His swords and his great curve-bladed spear may as well have been ornamental, for all the use he had to put them too. "Sooner or later it's going to get crowded out there," Grayson promised. "It's going to get crowded in the arena in about fifteen minutes," Dawes suggested. The Shadow stood quite still, seemingly impervious to the sun beating down on his helmet. His shield was hitched against his side, the studded ball of the morning star rested at his feet, the stock of the weapon was ready in his hand. Grayson relayed Farley's message as he received it through his earphone. "And now, Charles Gordon, our armorer, is going to demonstrate how a man might to use a morningstar." Trish turned up the volume on the television as she went to answer the door. The announcer had just pointed out that Arthur could run, but not hide. She had an irrational belief that if she watched over him every moment, nothing bad would happen to him. She opened the door on the third ring, seeing the jungle behind her. "Trish!" Lily swept into the room with her new boyfriend, Chase. "It's my fault, isn't it? It's all my fault he's gone to that island – " Lily joined her in front of the set. Chase put a laptop down on the table and started looking for a plug to liberate. "I don't know what got into him," Tricia said. She liked Arthur's sister, but less so when she was on one of her wild emotional roller coasters, as she frequently was over her boyfriends, the escapades of her two children, or her unpayable debt to Arthur and Tricia. Lily had been diagnosed with cervical cancer five years previously. The insurance she had from her retail job had dropped her partway through her treatment, loss of her job had made additional benefits unattainable, and Arthur and Trish had paid for the surgery she'd needed from their savings. Lily was cancer-free and working again, but on her clerk salary, she was never going to be able to pay them back. Arthur and Trish made jokes about Lily someday marrying a rich guy, but Lily always seemed to date losers. Trish eyed Chase thoughtfully as he crawled along the wall, tracing the lamp cord to its socket to plug in his computer. Slender, well-groomed, and the owner of a laptop. Maybe this one would be a step up. Lily was capable of forgetting for months at a time the debt she owed them, but not when it allowed her to dramatize herself. "It's under the end table," Trish helped him out. Chase got up from plugging in his cord. "Thanks!" he said. "I couldn't believe it when Lily told me. Have you seen the Savage Island site? I'll bring it up." "What did he tell you?" Lily asked. "It's my fault, isn't it? If you hadn't paid for my surgery ― " "That was a long time ago," Tricia told her firmly. And anyway, she thought to herself, what choice did they have? Could they have lived with themselves if they hadn't done everything possible, when Lily's life was at stake? "There he is!" Lily cried, as Arthur's picture flashed on the screen. He stood on a cliff overlooking the ocean at the far end of the island. As they watched, he turned and spotted the camera, and waved, moving his fingers. Lily laughed. "I know that one." "You just hush," said Trish. She picked up the leather cushion from where it had fallen on the floor, and hugged it to her. "Look at that guy," said Chase, as the next shot came up. The Shadow stood, unmoving, thirty feet from the gate. "He looks amazing." In the studio Grayson looked doubtfully at the monitor that showed the Shadow waiting in the arena. "We have an unexpected development ― or it will be unexpected for the next combatant to step out onto Savage Island. Lucy? What do we know about combatant number seven?" "I hope," the Colonel said, "that he's prepared for what's waiting for him." "'Expect the unexpected,'" Grayson quipped. "That will have to be our motto on Savage Island. Let's see if our next combatant is prepared for the challenges that he soon will face. Lucy?" Kevin Hightower had a sit-down interview with Lucy Tran two days before his release as the sixth combatant onto Savage Island. He was twenty-six years old, from State College, Pennsylvania, a roofer who was captain of a local paintball team that had twice won an east coast league championship. Lucy had interspersed footage of paintballers sneaking through the woods, blasting each other dramatically with huge globs of colorful paint, crying out in competitive fury when they were "killed," and dying artfully for the camera. There had a still shot of Kevin with his five teammates, some still dripping with water-based gore, holding an impressively large trophy. Tall, slender, with white-blond hair and green eyes, Kevin typified a natural athlete and a dedicated sportsman. "I can handle myself," he said in response to Lucy's question about his preparedness for what he might face on Savage Island. "My Dad taught me to hunt, I've been out in the woods one way or another all my life." They were walking in the garden in the central square behind the Island admin buildings. Lucy led the way to a bench and sat down with him, just as though the steady-cam operator didn't have them in his sights, along with, now, a couple million people. "Have you ever had to defend yourself?" Lucy persisted, "Have you ever had to fight for your life?" Kevin smiled a little. "Things happen. There's things you do that you can't talk about afterwards. Let's just say, like I said, I can handle myself." Kevin had chosen half a dozen javelins, short throwing spears that he wore in a sheath at his back. He packed a pair of butterfly knives that were illegal in the United States. He wore a machete at his side, and was dressed in jungle camouflage, with a U.S. Army combat helmet on his head. He carried an army-issue backpack filled with an assortment of camping items, including a sleeping bag, matches, and extra rations. Obviously his plan included camping out in the jungle for a few days. Among his equipment he had a spool of fishing line, a waterproof tarp, and a knife usually used for flaying skins. His fighting name was Bandit One, a compliment to his paintball team back at home, who were known as the Bandits. Now on the monitor he walked to the gate between two lines of people who applauded as he passed and wished him well. He smiled and waved to them. When the gate opened he stepped inside A few minutes later the outer gate opened. The Shadow stood in front of the center gate, but he heard the first gate open and started over to the gate at his right hand, raising his morningstar as he moved. Kevin ― Bandit One ― hadn't been able to see Shadow from inside the west-side gate. He came out at a run, ready for anything, a javelin in one hand, a butterfly knife in the other. He took in the Shadow coming toward him, veered away, threw his javelin ― which struck Shadow's shield harmlessly ― held out his butterfly knife to ward off his opponent while trying to free the machete from his belt. Shadow struck from eight feet away, throwing a blow with the morningstar while keeping his shield between his body and Bandit One's blade. The head of the morningstar missed; the chain struck Bandit One on the helmet and jerked him sideways. Shadow stepped back and swung the morningstar again, this time against Bandit One's body, where the steel-studded head struck with a sickening thump, and Bandit One cried out and fell back, but Shadow followed him, choked up on the chain and struck once, twice, three times; Bandit One was still alive, with parts of him broken, bleeding, he was trying to crawl away but Shadow followed him. Shadow dropped the morningstar, tried to draw his sword, dropped his shield and then held his scabbard steady with his left hand, drew the sword, then followed Bandit One where he was still crawling away. Shadow turned him over with his foot, eliciting a cry and getting a smear of blood on his tall black boot. Shadow raised his sword, holding Bandit still with his foot. Grayson, Dawes and Lucy Tran, sitting stunned before the monitor like everyone else in the world watching, heard the Shadow's voice distantly but distinctly over the camera mics. "The victor of this contest, I send you to your Maker. Go with the winds!" And Shadow stabbed the point of his sword through Bandit One's body. Bandit convulsed with a cry. He grasped at the sword blade with his hands. Shadow, growing impatient, pulled the sword out and struck him again. "Go to your Maker! Go now, at my command! Go!" In the control room, the gold light that had glinted briefly on the map, near to the Wall, beeped, blinked, and went dark. "That's it," said Dr. Hari Mukhtar, the control room director. "That's our first dead combatant. The system is working perfectly." He nodded with satisfaction, because the eartags' response to a human death had not been something they could test adequately before combat began. Two of the technicians were grinning at one another. One of them just stared whitely at the monitor, which showed Brian Hightower, briefly Bandit One, lying splayed on the ground, soaked with his own gore. Shadow finished wiping his sword on Brian's pants and then bent over his head, checked the eartag to make sure the light on it had gone black as he had been instructed in orientation, and then sheathed his sword and drew his knife and cut the tag from Brian's ear. He strode across the arena to the center gate. On the Wall beside each of the gates was a large red button, an automatic door opener, because a combatant could come in from Savage Island at any time. In the guard's booth in the bio lab building, Georgie shook his cousin Ronnie's shoulder so hard his chair danced. "Awesome! That was so awesome!" Ronnie watched the replay of the morningstar striking Bandit One, first jerking back his head as the chain caught on his helmet, and then striking his body like a cannonball, his clothes crumpling, the blood welling out, the body folding up. Georgie shouted again at the replay of Shadow's sword piercing Bandit One's stomach. "Aww! That hurts!" Ronnie watched while Bandit One died. His eyes were shining. In the studio, James Grayson swallowed several times. He'd already planned what to say when he witnessed the first kill on Savage Island. It was there in his brain, but somehow his tongue couldn't reach it. He swallowed again. Like the rest of the world, he watched Shadow walk back to the gate. He found his voice, strained to excitement, but still sounding just like his own. "He's coming in? Look at that ― he's coming in!" He heard Farley in his ear, ordering Lucy down to the gate to talk to Shadow. He looked up again as the monitor showed the central gate opening. Shadow held up the eartag to the camera on the Wall. "That's one! For the Shadow!" He threw it inside the gate. Then he strode back out onto the arena. "How do you like that?" Grayson said. He still didn't have control of his voice. He hadn't expect ― he'd never thought ― he'd never seen anyone die before. He'd never seen anyone murdered. But he had to keep talking. It was his job. "He isn't finished yet." Finding his groove, he continued. "He has shown the world the warrior hero, and now the Shadow has gone back to the arena. This isn't over yet, my friends. We have yet to see what will happen next ― on Savage Island." The Shadow returned to the body of his slain foe. "What's he doing now?" Grayson asked. He longed to wipe the sweat that felt clammy on his forehead, even under the hot lights, but the camera was on him, and he let it alone. Dawes watched the monitor intently. "Did you notice Shadow took hardly any equipment with him onto the killing ground? I think this was his plan all along." "How is it ―" Grayson swallowed and tried again, to make his voice sound more normal. "How is it that Bandit One was carry throwing spears? I thought we didn't have projectile weapons in the catalog." "Well, see what they did for him," the Colonel commented. "I understand that Mr. Van Allan had to approve the javelins himself," Lucy put in. "Mr. Van Allan said that since any spear can be thrown, there's no point in trying to forbid people from doing that, since you do what you have to in a fight. He allowed the javelins because you are disarming yourself as you used them. Also, he made them very expensive." "That's right," Grayson spoke as he realized, "Bandit One wasn't carrying much else. I guess he thought the javelins would be enough." In the arena Shadow could be seen wrestling Brian's pack off of his body. He picked it up, retrieved his own satchel where he had let it fall, and walked all the way across the killing field to the edge of the trees. He dumped both packs there, opened Brian's, took out one of his water bottles, and drank most of it down. He then walked in a leisurely way back to the body. "Shouldn't he be more worried?" Grayson asked, "I mean, more careful? There are four other guys out there, ready to kill him on sight." "But look at his position," Dawes replied, "he's got fifty yards of ground between him and any opponent. His weapon and shield are only a few feet away. He's not as careless as he seems to be." "Just really cool," Grayson said. He was surprised to hear his voice sounded resentful, and wondered why. Wasn't this what it was all about? He cleared his throat. "Really cool," Grayson said again, with conviction. Shadow crouched by the corpse, drank some more water, and then did a surprising thing. He picked up a handful of dirt from the arena in his black-gloved hand, and sprinkled it over Brian's body. The microphones picked up Shadow's voice as he said, "You were a worthy foe. Rest in peace." Grayson looked at Dawes in surprise, and then turned to the camera and said, "Shadow has laid his opponent to rest in more ways than one." Shadow's respect for his dead foe did not prevent him from cleaning his knife on Bandit One's pant leg. Then he sheathed his knife, put on his shield, picked up his morningstar, and went to stand once again in the center of the arena, before the middle gate. "There he goes," Grayson said. "He's gone to wait again." "His tactic worked once," Dawes said, "and there's no reason not to use the same winning technique again." "That's right. He's done it. He has killed his foe in armed combat, and he has won the prize. One hundred thousand dollars. And now he's going to risk himself again." "He's certainly a brave man." Colonel Dawes added. "I wonder who's coming out next," Grayson said, and made himself not add, "Poor bastard." In his earphone, Farley said, "I'm running a piece on the application process. You're clear. Mr. Grayson, can you come to my office, please? Now?" Huh. Grayson unclipped his microphone and laid it on the table. He'd been taken aback by the killing. Had it showed? Had it showed too much? He nodded to Dawes, who seemed to be listening to instructions of his own, and went out into the hall. Farley stood there, talking to one of the Asian techs, but he waved Grayson down the hall and opened a door at the end of it. Grayson stepped in to a room glowing with monitors, and a couple of computers on the desk. Behind him, Farley switched on the lights, and closed the door. Grayson realized Farley was angry when the man walked behind his desk and sat down. Meeting Grayson's eyes he said, "Do not ever speculate on Mr. Van Allan's plans, thoughts or beliefs while on the air." "What?" Grayson felt like he'd just been punched. When had he ― "I'm sorry, what did I do?" Farley turned one of the monitors and tapped a key. Grayson saw himself ― he had a moment to register how well the lighting and make-up became him, and how good he looked ― as he said, "Maybe Mr. Van Allan thinks his message about manly courage needs to be heard there, in particular." Lucy looked down at her hands at replied, "Perhaps." "We'll have to ask him." Farley touched a key and stopped the clip there. "I'm sorry," Grayson said. "I don't understand. It's no secret that Mr. Van Allan is doing this for a reason, that his views on courage are the whole point of this whole set-up ―" Farley leaned forward. "Yes. But any points that are to be made about the purpose of Savage Island will be made by Mr. Van Allan. They will not be speculated upon, or discussed, or cheapened in any way by anyone else on the air for this show." "Yes," Grayson said. "I understand. It won't happen again." He added, because he was getting mad, "I didn't know. No one told me." Farley relaxed a bit, now that Grayson had in essence rolled over and showed his belly. "Yes, all right. I know, we didn't have much of an orientation for you, and a lot of our policy is kind of coming along as we go. That note came right from the top, just so you know," and he glanced up at the ceiling, meaning Mr. Van Allan's office on the floor above. "You can cut it, of course," Grayson said. "Yes, of course we're going to cut it. It's done already. Mr. Van Allan sees the live feed though, you know." "I see." "Mr. Van Allan," Farley continued, in a friendly-reminder kind of way, "sees anything he wants to see. Everywhere on the Island." "Okay. Thanks. I understand." "Now," Farley said, rising, "I want you to get on upstairs and get Mr. Van Allan's comments on his first kill on Savage Island." "Yes. Of course." The adrenalin from watching Shadow kill a man, and from Farley's unexpected reaming out, dissipated. He felt as numb as he had been when we first got off the plane. "Can you give me a few minutes? Five minutes? I gotta ―" "Yes, of course, but hurry. In ―" he checked the clock over his door "― seventeen more minutes we're going to have another fight." When Grayson entered the men's room, two men he hadn't met, both Asian, were talking over each other about the fight they had just seen. Grayson rinsed his hands, trying not to hear again how Kevin Hightower had died. They left, one of them calling, "Nice work, Mr. Grayson," as though James had himself caused the event to happen, not simply commented on it as they all watched. Kevin Hightower was dead. Most definitely dead. Grayson took a towel from the pile, dampened it, and carefully patted his face. Certain moments kept replaying themselves in Grayson's mind; the impact of the morningstar on Kevin's body, the welling blood, the sounds he'd made, the time it had taken for him to die. This was no television death, clean and simple with a single hole in the head, an artful draping of the corpse. This had been a slaughter. Quite simply, he had seen a brutal murder committed before his eyes. And moreover, he was part of an ongoing event that promised more such murders before very long. His rational mind began immediately to argue. He wetted the towel again and pressed it to his eyes. All of these men were volunteers. They knew what they were getting into. But had they? When Kevin Hightower came out of that gate, with his javelin and his butterfly knife, had he expected a man in armor, in a helmet, with a shield that covered most of his body? Kevin certainly had not been expecting the Shadow. But he could have! He should have! He had seen the catalog. Hadn't he considered what other men might choose? What he might find himself facing in the way of weaponry and armor? He should have been given more warning, Grayson thought lamely. The men who came after, the men who saw the show before they applied, before they volunteered, they would have a better idea of what they might be up against. He used the urinal, rinsed his hands again, dried them on a clean towel and dropped both in the bin. Perhaps, after today there would be no more volunteers. Or too few to sustain this crazy game. He'd lose his job. James Grayson looked at himself in the mirror. His fair hair was still golden. His face still held its youth. He made his eyes sympathetic, and then excited, and then winning. He still had it. He, too, could play this game. He was met at the door of the men's room by one of Farley's assistants who had come looking for him. Together they ran up the stairs. "Just a few questions, Mr. Van Allan, your reactions at this point in the broadcast, that sort of thing." Grayson seated himself in the chair across from Van Allan, checked his angle, checked that everyone was ready. He'd been wary when he came in. Farley's reaming out had been second hand. The orders ― the complaint ― had come from Van Allan. But the proprietor of Savage Island greeted him affably, and took the seat he was directed to. "Of course." "Level check, please," the sound man said in heavily accented English. "I'm so glad to be here," Grayson said obligingly, "I'm so glad to be here, I'm so glad to ―" "Thank you," the sound tech said. "Mr. Van Allan? Sir, if you could please say a few words." Van Allan spoke in a language that Grayson didn't know, and kept speaking until suddenly the sound man, the camera man, the lighting tech, and Mr. Farley's assistant all burst out laughing. Grayson smiled, hoping the joke was not on him, but none of them were looking at him. "Thank you, Mr. Van Allan," from the sound man. "Rolling," the cameraman said. Grayson look down for a moment, brought up his excitement level, raised his head, smiled, and began. "Mr. Van Allan, we have all just seen the first man to die ― to be killed ― on Savage Island. Can you tell us what you were thinking when it happened?" There was a pause while Van Allan collected his thoughts. "What I was thinking? I don't know that I was thinking anything. I was ― certainly, I was admiring their courage. We rarely see, in this day and age, the kind of courage exhibited by both of those men as they gambled with their lives for fame and fortune." "Is that what they were doing?" Grayson found himself asking. Van Allan looked at him hard. "Of course. That is what this place is designed for. It is an opportunity for those men of ardent and violent souls, the men who were the heroes of our kind throughout the ages, and who today have no outlet for their nature." "You don't consider what we saw to be a murder?" "No," Van Allan said shortly. "That Shadow murdered Kevin Hightower." "No. I do not." Van Allan's blue eyes hardened as he leaned back, clasping his hands easily. "Mr. Hightower came here of his own accord. . He chose his fate." "So here in Savage Island, any man can act out his murderous impulses, and risk death ― or find his death. Don't you think this is a waste?" "No, I don't. Kevin Hightower met his end as a man of courage. There are fewer gifts you can give to your fellow man more useful than to end your life as a good example." James Grayson didn't know what got into him when he heard himself say, "Maybe his family will have a different response." Van Allan answered smoothly, "I'm sure they might. But men like Kevin will always go their own way. That, too, is in their nature." "How many men do you think will die here, on Savage Island?" "I have no idea. Does it matter? You know as well as I do, that one resource this planet can provide plenty of, is brave and brutal young men." He turned to the cameraman, then and raised his hand. "And that is all for now, I believe." Grayson stood up. "Yes, of course. Thank you, sir. That's all we have time for anyway. The next combatant will be coming out shortly." "Mr. Grayson," Van Allan stopped him. "Are you disturbed?" Grayson stopped himself from blurting his first reply, thought for a moment, and said, "Yes. Yes, I am." He ran a hand through his hand. "I just saw a man killed, brutally killed. I don't think anyone can watch that without . . . " Van Allan nodded. "Good. They are real to you, these men. I hope it stays so for you." When Grayson had gone, Jules Van Allan sat down before the monitor that showed Kevin Hightower's body lying splayed on the ground, soaked in blood, sprinkled in dirt, his eyes open to the careless sky. A second monitor showed the Shadow standing before the central gate, waiting the few minutes more before his next opponent was delivered up to face him. Light flared behind him as the door to the terrace opened. In the next room, a breakfast had been laid out for a few friends Van Allan had invited out for this event. A lean form in a white shirt, Lars Vanderijn came over and leaned on the edge of the desk. He held a Bloody Mary, probably the only breakfast he would have. "What are you up to? Are you trying to kill every violent man in the world? You won't succeed." "Of course not," Jules told him. "We will never be at a loss for violent men." They watched the replay of Bandit One's death as it replayed on one of the monitors. "You won't bring them back, you know," Lars said quietly. "I know," Jules replied. "Then why ―" "And how are your daughters," Jules asked him. "Anna and Margaret? They are well? And your grandchildren? How many do you have now?" On the screen, Kevin Hightower died again. After a moment Lars laid a light hand on Jules's shoulder, and went back outside. Van Allan stayed where he was. He had no intention of trying to explain Far, far away there was a man who knew that an extremely bloody gage had just been thrown at his feet. Whether he responded, or ignored it, the effect would be the same. And he, Jules Van Allan, was looking forward to the coming battle. His battle, on his terms. Once more he watched the replay of the Shadow striking down Bandit One. Once more he saw the morningstar strike home. He saw the sword pierce the dying body, and the sand scattered over the fallen corpse. And Jules Van Allan saw that it was good, and he smiled. ### Chapter Four Phoenix lasted only twenty-seven seconds from the moment the gate opened before him, letting him out onto the island. He emerged with a whoop, brandishing twin machetes, protected by a chain mail coat that went to his knees and made a jingle-swish sound as he ran. He wore an opened-faced 16th century-style Japanese helmet, and carried a fairly large backpack, with supplies for a lengthy and comfortable stay on the island, including a waterproof sleeping bag. He ran out onto the arena out of the eastern gate, caught a movement to one side and swerved away as he saw Shadow bearing down on him, the morningstar already in motion, swinging in an accelerating figure eight. Phoenix charged in, trying to get in range of Shadow where he could strike him with his machetes before the deadly morningstar found its mark. But a shield can also be a weapon, and the eleven pound weight of Shadow's Roman-style shield struck him across the body as he closed. Phoenix staggered back and the chain of the morningstar caught him across the shoulder. Shadow pulled the chain tight and swung; the morningstar whipped round and caught Phoenix in the side of the head. He hung a moment in the air and then went down. Shadow dropped the morningstar and followed him, kicked him hard in the gut with a steel-toed boot, drew his dagger, dropped a knee onto Phoenix's body and knifed him in the side of the throat. Blood spewed. Phoenix died a few seconds later. Shadow stood back to avoid some of the blood, then bent forward to examine the eartag. When the telltale went black, Shadow used his knife to remove the tag, then wiped his knife fastidiously on the leg of Phoenix's trousers. Once again he strode over to the nearest gate, held up the eartag to the camera above it, and tossed it on the ground. He said, loud and clear, "That makes two ― two for the Shadow. Hey, that one was easy. What have you got for me now?" He grinned, his wide smile visible through the bars of his helmet, together with the sweat and streaks of Phoenix's blood. Or perhaps it was Bandit One's blood. He went back out to the arena, turned Phoenix over, stripped off his pack, took out one of his bottles of water, and drank half of it. He leaned over and poured the rest of it down the back of his neck. He raised the empty bottle in salute to the nearest camera. "Bring it on!" he shouted, his voice a deep bass. "I'm ready." He looked around. "Hey, where are the other guys, the first four guys? Are they still alive? Are they dead? Tell any one of them who's alive to get his butt down here because this is my day. This is my hour, I am the lord of all I survey, and anyone alive has to face me, and then he will be dead. You tell them that." He went back to Phoenix's body, looked around carefully, and knelt down beside him. He bent his head for a moment, then picked up a handful of sand, sprinkled it over the corpse. "You must have been in a hurry to die, you went so fast. Go to your Maker, and tell him that I, the Shadow, sent you. Go now." He brushed off his black-gloved hands, and then pulled off Phoenix's pack and glanced through it. He then carried it across the killing ground to the tree line and dumped it next to Bandit One's effects. Shadow went to pick up his shield and his morningstar, and then stood again in his place before the three gates, and waited. Grayson called the event by simply allowing his mouth to run on, and his voice to rise with excitement, while part of his mind stayed coldly remote, watching dispassionately as Phoenix was killed. It was less shocking than the first time to see the impact the morningstar had on Phoenix's body. It helped that he couldn't see Phoenix's face when he was killed. But it was even more appalling to see a second corpse lying on the dirt in the arena, shrouded in his own blood. Grayson just kept talking, and this time it didn't take long. It was perhaps easier this time because Grayson had not seen the clip on who Phoenix really was, or where he lived, or the life that had just been summarily ended. To Grayson, he was just Phoenix, a simulacrum, rather than a human being. When it was over, Farley said in his ear, "Keep talking, we've just got a very short clip on this next guy." Grayson said, "Get Dr. Mukhtar down here, and let him explain about waste control." "Waste control?" "The bodies. What do they do with the bodies? They don't just leave them out there, right?" "Right. Great idea! I'll send him down right away. Meanwhile – " But Grayson had already turned to Colonel Dawes, "Colonel, two men have now gone down before the superior weapon combination chosen by Shadow. What, in your opinion, is the right weapon with which to combat a morningstar?" Dawes leaned forward to make his point. He seemed as excited as if he had just won a fight to the death himself. "It's about whatever works, James. In part, it's choice of weapon, but largely its tactics. The morningstar is a distance weapon. The person using it has to stay at a certain distance away from his opponent, or he can't swing it so it will do any harm. To fight it, what you want to do, is get in real close." "But that's what Bandit One tried to do." "And that's where body armor and a solid shield back up the choice of a distance weapon like the morningstar," the Colonel said. "This is looking a lot like a game of rock, paper, scissors," Grayson opined. "You either want to be really close, or really far away. A guy with a long spear would do well." "He might. But then there's ways of getting past a long spear." Grayson was about to ask him about that, but Dr. Mukhtar arrived in the studio and took the chair vacated by Lucy. He explained that a maintenance crew, in orange jerseys to mark them as noncombatants, could be dropped by helicopter in any part of the island, and would bring the dead back in body bags. Those right outside the gate would be retrieved as soon as any combatants were far enough away that the retrieval of the bodies wouldn't interfere with their combat readiness. "Does that mean," Grayson quipped, "that the maintenance crew will be far enough away from any combatant to ensure that they are not attacked?" "Well, of course, that too is a concern," Dr. Mukhtar allowed. Grayson recapped the position of all the other combatants on the island, using the computer map, where the five lights glowed steadily – the newest one, glowing green, still right near the wall ― and various camera shots from different parts of the island. In the north, Scorpion was making his way uphill along a fast-running stream that fell from the highest peak of the island. The cameras had a long shot of him moving with assurance, stopping every few feet to look around him. Dawes pointed out that the sound of the water would veil the approach of an enemy, thus his frequent pauses were an indication of good training and readiness. Jaguar Warrior, on the lower slope of the first ridge, had climbed another tree. He'd left his pack at its foot as well as his spear this time. He seemed to be enjoying climbing as high as he could. Death had reached the eastern road, put in for vehicles crisscrossing the island to set up cameras and microphones to survey every vantage point. As Dawes pointed out, having walked that road earlier in the week himself, it was covered with the footprints of the technicians, his own among them, and Death may well be under the impression that quite a few opponents were ahead of him somewhere. Ghost Soldier had stopped to climb a rock overlooking the sea. He had taken off his helmet, and was eating breakfast while contemplating the view. "He's pretty cool about his situation," Grayson said. He found his voice to be unusually sharp, and made himself smile and relax, to help soften it. "But he's gotten himself into a very good position, see?" Dawes pointed out. "No one can approach him along the beach without being seen, and no one can climb down the cliff behind him without some special equipment, and he has plenty of time to spot them too. And on top of that rock, he's in a very defensible position." "Why doesn't he just stay there, then?" Grayson asked. He flattened his hands on the table in front of him, and added more quietly, "wouldn't that be a good plan?" "You haven't been outside yet this morning." "Right," said Grayson, remembering, and let himself chuckle. "Right," Dawes agreed. "It's already eighty-eight degrees out there. He's going to be awfully hot on that rock after awhile. And he's got a limited amount of water." On the western road, Draco had stopped to take off his shields, and then his pack, and then his helmet, to drink some water. A grizzle-haired man with a narrow, foxy face was revealed, his color a little too red for good health. "What happens if he gets heat-stroke?" Grayson asked. Dawes shrugged. "You're out there to take your chances." "Fair enough," Grayson said. Draco put the water bottle away in his pack and began putting on his equipment again. "All right," Grayson segued, "we've got a clip here on our next combatant, the next man to meet the Shadow in a contest whose outcome may well be life or death for one or the other." The clip ran. Grayson sat back and wiped his face. The make-up technician ran out, handed him a towel, and then repaired the damage to his face and hair. Grayson watched the monitor as it showed the rugged face of a friendly-looking ruffian. Mark Holmes was a cement contractor, a 38-year old divorced father of three from St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was a founding member of a Viking-history recreation group. On the island he would be known as Hrolf Bloodaxe. Lucy had caught him at the armorer, standing over the table that held his equipment, including a suit of scale armor, a pointed helmet with a nasal and decorative goggles, a large leather-bound shield with a running horse design and a center grip, and a large axe, from which he took his name. Mark Holmes was tall, heavily built, with long, bushy dirty-blond hair tied back in a ponytail, and a heavy beard and mustache. Lucy only got to ask him one question, which was why the clip was so short. Mark Holmes, soon to be Hrolf Bloodaxe before all the watching world, told her, "All my life I have wanted to go a-viking like my forefathers. This is the only chance I've ever had. If I live, I'll be rich and famous, and if I die, I'll do it in battle the way a man should, and I'll be carried to the halls of Wodin All-Father to dwell in feasting and fighting in the hall of the heroes, until Ragnarok." He grinned, showing a gap between his two front teeth. "That's probably not something that couldn't happen to me at home." Far away in Los Angeles, California, the District Attorney was in a lunch meeting when he felt his phone vibrate. He looked at the number, then excused himself from the table and stepped out back to the parking lot to take the call. "Dave? What's up." "It's happened." "Someone's been killed?" "Someone's been murdered," his campaign manager said. "Two people, in fact. And it looks like there's going to be another one real soon." John Fowler Savage swore under his breath. His face began to redden, as it generally did under the pressure of his suppressed rage. "Right," he said. "Have my staff meet me in my office in ― " he checked his watch, "an hour and a half. If I'm not there, have them get started. We've got to get a statement ready for tomorrow morning." Dave's voice asked cautiously, "You don't want to wait to be asked?" "No!" Savage declared, then turned away from a startled couple of customers exiting out the back, realizing he had used his courtroom voice. "No," he repeated more softly. "I should be seen to be awake and alert and aware on this as on every issue. Don't you think?" He didn't wait for a reply, but closed his phone and headed back inside, saying to himself, "Damn Van Allan. Damn him!" In his office on Savage Island, Jules Van Allan watched the gate open for the ninth combatant to enter his domain. He knew perfectly well that in Los Angeles, John Savage would be fuming over these events. He also knew that there was absolutely nothing the District Attorney could do to stop him. Every avenue of attack had been foreseen. John Savage didn't know this yet, but he would soon learn. The next combatant emerged, and Shadow strode toward him like inevitable death. Van Allan smiled. Hrolf Bloodaxe saw the gate open before him, and the friendly cheers and applause of the crowd that had escorted him to the gate and wished him well faded immediately from his consciousness. He saw movement to his left; he saw the armored figure start toward him, and his blood began to sing in his veins, and his heart rose with it. He started forward, gauging speed, gauging the morningstar that his opponent lifted now from the ground and began to swing. Bloodaxe took in the shape of his opponent's helmet, visible above his shield, and noted subconsciously that as he stepped forward on his right leg, his shield dropped about two inches, revealing his open-faced helm, and his eyes. Conrad lifted his axe from his shoulder and moved obliquely to his right, matching Shadow's speed, getting himself away from the Wall and into the open. He had time to see that no other enemy was in view. Part of him ― the part that was still Mark Holmes ―caught a scent that took his breath away, and he noticed the two still forms strewn on the ground. He gulped at the evidence that this was not a game, this was real, and anything, even the unthinkable, could happen now. He put the thought aside. Hrolf Bloodaxe, still safely out of range, moving to the right to ground that was clear of blood and bodies, was as thrilled as he had ever been in his life. Shadow called to him, but Bloodaxe did not listen. Shadow was talking about the victories he had won, and how he was planning to add one more corpse to the pile, one more tag to his trove. Bloodaxe noted that Shadow was only slightly taller than he, but that the morningstar would give him about three feet of extra range, which meant ― Grayson, in spite of himself, leaned toward the monitor, watching the two men circling. "What's Shadow saying?" he asked excitedly. The technicians were already adjusting the pickup on the microphones out in the killing ground, and soon they could hear the words, "Come and die, for I have brought you your death here in the morning. Come and be the third hero to lie in gore at my feet. I am the champion, I am the giver of death, and your life too will wink out under the crash of my weapons of destruction." Dawes commented over the sound, "That's a common technique in single combat, to try and get at your foe before you engage, to try and get him to see that he's going to die." "Does it work?" "Oh, yeah," Dawes said. "It sure can. All you've got to do it get the other guy thinking, and the fight's over ― " "What are they doing? "Circling for position. Since Shadow's got the reach on Bloodaxe – " "There he goes!" Grayson cried. Bloodaxe timed his attack for the instant that the morningstar whipped past him and started its backswing. He charged into Shadow's shield like a linebacker, trying to knock him down, trying to knock him over, trying to disrupt the momentum of the deadly spiked ball ― he crashed into Shadow's shield and felt Shadow turn and deflect him so he was unbalanced and falling onto his right foot, turning around Shadow's body as he swung his great axe and felt it hack into Shadow's shield. He turned as he felt Shadow's movement as Shadow pulled hard on the morningstar and whipped it around its circumference at three times its previous speed. Hrolf felt a surge of fear and ducked and felt the chain clunk against his helmet and then glance off as he struck again and again for Shadow's head. The axe crashed against the edge of Shadow's shield and the splinters flew. Shadow flung him off and stepped back and pulled once again on the morningstar, moving back and sideways to get Bloodaxe exactly into his optimal range. Bloodaxe raised his shield and struck at the morningstar as it swung towards him and heard his foeman's roar as the spiked metal ball struck the roundshield and stuck. Then it was yanked back and Bloodaxe followed up and charged again to strike Shadow's body and bore him back. But Shadow turned and as he came in, too fast to stop, Bloodaxe saw him bring down the haft of the morningstar and he struck Hrolf in the face, once, twice, three times, four, while Hrolf struck again and again with his axe and only at the last moment did the big black shield rise up and interpose itself blocking off his sight of the heavy dark helmet, and Bloodaxe stepped back, and Shadow stepped back also. They stood out of range, glaring at each other, gasping for breath. Hrolf stepped back a few more paces, to give himself room to quickly glance at the perimeter of the arena, to make sure they wouldn't be blindsided by any newly arriving opponent. Nothing moved except the leaves of the foliage, trembling in the wind off the sea. There was a growing aching soreness on his face, and a wetness; he shook his head to keep it from his eyes. He smelled fresh blood, and the tang of salt and sweat and the damp leather of his armor. He eyed his opponent, not yet ready to start again, but ready if Shadow moved to beat him back once more. "This is amazing," Grayson said, completely drawn in to the fight, his voice high with unassumed excitement. "This is...is just amazing." "They are a well-matched pair," Dawes intoned. "What are they going to do next ― what can they do?" "Neither of them has the option of turning his back and walking away at this point," Dawes said. "They're too close together." "Neither of them can probably run very fast with all that armor on," Grayson suggested. "Certainly not fast enough to outdistance the other." "How long are they going to stand there?" Grayson asked rhetorically. "What is Shadow doing?" Shadow wound the chain of his weapon around the stock and then made a loop through which he dropped the spiked morningstar, thus changing its range from eight or nine feet to three or four. He hefted his shield and started into Bloodaxe's range once again. Bloodaxe raised his axe and shield. Bloodaxe struck again for Shadow's head as Shadow closed, splintering his shield further, striking again and felt the axe connect not with the edge of the shield but with the helmet, and with a surge of excitement he raised his axe once more. Shadow's arm had swung forward, and Bloodaxe punched at it with his shield, stopping the blow, and the metal ball flailed wildly. It came again. Bloodaxe raised his shield, striking with his axe, but Shadow had moved, and there was no reassuring contact of the weapon against his shield but an instant of wild uncertainty of where that thing was ― and then he felt the blow on his back, only an impact, the pain began later, and the morningstar flew again, and desperately Bloodaxe lifted his shield, felt the strike, felt his shield yanked hard ― Bloodaxe's shield jerked once again and he realized that spikes of the morningstar had imbedded in the wood and were not coming loose this time and he leaped toward Shadow's body, swinging the axe. He struck the back of his foe's helmet, and Shadow was thrown forward, and Bloodaxe pushed him off, raising his axe to strike another blow and Shadow's shield struck him in the face and he stepped back and then felt his shield jerked down and he saw Shadow with a sword in his hand standing on the stock of the morningstar, stepping on the chain that pulled his shield down further, held him in place as Shadow's black-gloved hand came up and the point of the sword struck him just below his collar bone and he struggled to drop the shield, and the point of the sword struck his neck and as he felt it pierce his skin he struck out with all his might but already he was rising up and back with the pressure of the blow and his last vision was the bright blue sky, swept with wisps of cloud as the arrow of pain increased and enveloped him and with a strangled cry he entered the smothering blackness. Shadow struck him again after he fell, whether out of anger at the terrible fight, or just to make sure his opponent wouldn't rise again, or because he couldn't stop until he knew his opponent was dead, no one could tell, and Shadow least of all. Shadow staggered as he withdrew his sword. He was still breathing raggedly. His head ached. He forgot about that as he knelt to pull his opponent's helmet off, and check his ear tag. He dropped his splintered shield, fumbled with the helmet buckle. He had to wipe his eyes, and then he had to wipe down Bloodaxe's neck where the blood had gouted freely, and the smell of the blood seemed to choke him as he struggled with the buckle, and then tried to pull the helmet off and away, and then had to drop his sword and feel for the loose end of the strap with one hand, feel for the buckle with the other, and the blood smeared the fingers of both his gloves, but at last he pulled it free, pulled off the helmet, to reveal the bloodied face and open eyes of his third dead opponent. The telltale in the eartag was already black. He reached for his knife and cut it free. He held it up to the nearest camera. Then he sat back on his heels, still breathing hard. He scratched up the sand beside him and sprinkled some over the body. "My worthy foe. You are free now. I release you. Go in peace." He turned suddenly to look at the gates. He'd lost track of time. At any moment, the gate might open once more, another man would emerge, would come to challenge him. Shadow got to his feet. Something was pushing at his consciousness. He gave it his attention and the pain of his headache suddenly became enormous. He dropped his gloves, reached for the strap on his helmet, but before he could unbuckle it he leaned over, retching, and vomited. He got his helmet off, finally, wiped his mouth on his sleeve, and brought his sleeve away covered with blood. He explored his face with his hand and found the source of the wetness, a deep scratch welling with blood beside his brow. He looked up at the camera. "It's only fun until someone gets poked in the eye." He picked up his sword, slowly and heavily, wiped it on Bloodaxe's pant leg and sheathed it. He picked up the stock of his morningstar and tried to free it from Bloodaxe's shield. Then he picked up Bloodaxe's shield as well as his own, and his helmet by the strap. He looked around, still moving awkwardly, found his pack that he'd dropped to the ground when he emerged through the wall, picked it up, and headed off into the trees. "He's definitely injured," Dawes was saying. "Some kind of head injury, perhaps concussion – " "He's not coming in," Grayson exclaimed. "He's moving away from the arena – " "He's got a first aid kit among his gear, of course," Dawes went right on talking. "He's probably just going to ground, going to dress his wounds, drink some water, eat something. That man has done some awesome fighting today, just amazing, and he could use a rest." "Why doesn't he drop his new tag inside?" Grayson queried as Shadow left the arena and a new monitor picked him up among the trees. "He may be confused," Dawes said, "he may just have forgotten –" "Forgotten a hundred thousand dollars?" "― or he may have some other plan." As the Shadow disappeared into the trees, the middle gate in the wall opened and half a dozen men in bright orange vests, carrying the only guns allowed on the island, ran onto the killing ground. James glanced up and saw them. "The clean-up crew, having a clear field, have emerged into the arena. You see those guns their carrying?" he asked rhetorically. "They're tranquilizer guns. Mr. Van Allan is very much against having firearms on the Island. And since it is his island . . . " As he narrated, the orange-clad men, with large black stencils on the front and back of their orange vests reading "NON-COMBATANT CREW," formed a perimeter around the fallen men, and six stretcher bearers ran out and with the ease of practice, rolled the corpses onto the stretchers, heaved them up and doubled-timed back inside the Wall. The gunmen fell back after them, and followed them inside and the gate closed behind them. The entire exercise had taken less than two minutes. "What do they do with the remains?" Dawes asked helpfully. "We have a cemetery and a crematorium on the island," Grayson replied. "They'll be laid to rest here, unless they left special instructions about being returned to their families." "They've thought of everything," Dawes commented. "So far," Grayson agreed. Richard Farley, the producer, said in his ear just then, "James, great work, listen, we're going to run a couple of clips ― the one on the topology of the island, and one on the choice of weapons. Why don't you go downstairs and get a bite? Be back in ― twenty-five minutes. All right?" "No, I'm fine," Grayson answered. "Bring me up some black coffee and a sandwich here ― anything's fine, mustard, no mayo, all right? ― and I'll just keep going. We've got another combatant coming out in a couple of minutes, don't we?" Farley repeated, "But the field is clear. We'd like to give you a break when we can. Why don't you go on downstairs?" Beside him, Dawes, obedient to his own orders was heading out the door. Grayson, still psyched from the recent fight, and pleased that his reaction to the last fight had been more what he'd expected, excitement and exhilaration, instead of shock and repulsion at witnessing violence and death. He was over it now, he was ready to go on. "No, really," he said. "I'm fine. Just have them send up ―" "There's no one to bring you a sandwich, James," Farley sounded apologetic. "You'll have to go and get it yourself." Through the open door, as the Colonel stepped through it, James could see a couple of techs passing by. This was strange. Fifty people working here, and no one could bring the talent a sandwich? What was going on? "James?" Farley said. "Can you come to my office? I need to talk to you." James felt his stomach clench. What had he done now? "Sure," he said. "I'll be right in." He unclipped his mike and put it on the desk. As he got up, he saw on the monitor that the left-hand gate was opening. No crowd had accompanied this combatant to the gate. Lucy was back in the control room; there was no clip to announce who this was. Grayson wondered if he should stay a few minutes and give them something to go with. He put his mike back on and sat down. "Here is combatant number ten," Grayson said. "Who will he be? What kind of weapons and equipment will he be carrying? What is his strategy? What are his plans? And what will be his fate – here on Savage Island?" "James – " said Farley, in his ear. "What is this man's fighting name?" Grayson asked. No one answered him. Through the gate emerged a slender form clad in long blue cotton trousers, a button-down white shirt, a big wicker basket strapped to his back as a big backpack, two more bags slung over his shoulders, and in his arms, several large sacks. On his head he wore a wide straw hat. He had on sunglasses, and carried a machete at his belt. That was the only weapon he seemed to possess. "This is," Farley said in his ear, "uh..." Grayson watched the new combatant slog his way into the arena. The man looked around, which caused him to drop a couple of his sacks. He bent over to pick them up, causing an avalanche to fall out of his basket. He crouched down, slung off his two shoulder bags, slung off his basket, and piled stuff back into it. The last item, Grayson saw, was a propane camping stove. "This guy has come to stay!" he announced happily. An Asian man, not young; Grayson didn't venture to guess his age, as he could be anywhere in his late thirties to fifties. He was slight. Probably one of those mythic martial arts guys who'd been studying since early childhood and would disappear among the trees and not be seen for years. "He calls himself," Farley said in his ear, "Double Fortune Man." "All right," Grayson announced. "This is Double Fortune Man, which translates as, Super Lucky Guy." Super Lucky Guy packed all his stuff on again, and wandered off across the killing field. He caught sight of the equipment that Shadow had piled at one end of the arena and veered over to examine it. This brought him past the spot where Bloodaxe had recently lain. Grayson heard the exclamation as Lucky Guy noticed the spot. He looked around again, slowly. Then he went over, bent down and touched the blood that still stained the sand. Bending caused the stuff in his basket to overbalance once again, and he had to take off his bags, unsling his pack, pick up the stuff, and pack it once again. He stopped and smelled one of the bags that had landed on the stained ground. Lucky Guy looked around carefully, then quickly packed up and slung his stuff, and headed into the trees. Grayson, watching this charade, laughed as he narrated an amused commentary. But part of him was thinking very hard. When Super Lucky Guy had found a path into the jungle and headed down it, Grayson asked the room at large, "Mr. Farley, do you still need to talk to me?" After a pause, he heard Farley's voice in his ear. "Uh, no, thank you." Grayson stood up. "I think I'll go and have that sandwich, then." No one answered him. He went out. When the elevator doors opened, a couple of techies surged out, almost running in to him. They carried plates of sandwiches, fruit and cookies for the control room team. They greeted him with respect, which pleased him. When they invited him to join them for lunch in the control room, he turned them down. He took the elevator down to the ground floor alone, thinking hard. Farley had wanted him out of the room when Super Lucky Guy came out the gate. Who was Super Lucky Guy that he was treated differently, on Savage Island? Scorpion clambered along the side of a gully that held a fast-moving creek. He knew that by now there were other combatants on the island, and he felt more secure in an area where there didn't seem to be any trails. The water drowned out the sound of anyone approaching, but it would drown the noise of his movements as well. He was looking for a place to go to ground, a safe, defensible location where he could wait out the fifteen days that he planned to stay on the island. He would need a source of water. This creek was a good starting point to looking for a place to camp. The humidity was intense. His clothes were soaked. He felt a quiet exhilaration, something ancient that he hadn't felt before, about providing for his family with his hands and sweat, protecting their well-being with his strength, and if necessary, with his blood. Something in him sang with a fierce pride. This was what manhood meant. He had never known it before. He found what he was looking for two thirds of the way up the rocky hillside. An opening between two trees led to a small clearing that back against the sheer wall of the hillside. A rock overhang provided shelter, while above and to the sides the jungle was too thick to allow access. The small clear area was covered with rocks; the fall that had created the overhang had created this clearing as well. Scorpion took off his pack and removed a camouflage net. He scoped out the way he'd come in, looking back toward his clearing and then chose a place to hang the net that would shield him from anyone moving along the gorge. Then he got out the two empty collapsible five-gallon plastic containers, made his way back to the stream and filled them from a pool. When he returned, he set them under the overhang next to his pack. He spent some time picking up stones from the clearing and piling them by the overhang. Then he got out a bottle of water and some nuts and raisins, sat and leaned back against the wall. This would do. He was out of sight of everyone, here. Probably even the cameras. All he had to do now was stay put. After wandering down the west-side road for awhile, where it skirted the central ridges of the island, Draco turned eastward along a wide path. He reached the east-side road without meeting anyone and sat down there for a bit in a place where he could see down all three tracks, while he took off his helmet and drank off one of his water bottles. It was hot. It was quiet, except for the birds and some buzzing insects, and the sound of the surf in the distance. To the north, the east-side road led uphill, and the trees thinned out. To the right, the road was level and shady. It occurred to him that since he was only the fifth combatant released today, that rather than search this whole island, which was turning out to be rather bigger than he expected, he would be more likely to find someone to test his shields on back closer to the Wall. He'd already thought of a few modifications he should make. He worked them out as he started back down the eastern road, spear poised. The shields ought to nest together so he could carry them both in one hand. He hadn't considered that he'd be carrying all his gear mile after mile in the heat. If they snapped together and he had a strap to carry them over one shoulder, he'd still have time to pull them apart and deploy them whenever he saw someone. The small man came quietly down the trail, looking as unassuming as a gardener from his grandmother's neighborhood back home. He was loaded down with sacks and bags and carried a big open-topped pack on his back. He wore a floppy straw hat and dark glasses. Draco didn't even notice him for several moments after he came in sight walking along the trail toward him, he was so unprepossessing, He caught sight of Draco, stopped and spoke to him. Draco didn't understand him. The guy was polite, not threatening. He thought this guy must be one of the technicians from the island ― except he didn't wear the orange jacket with the stencil he had been shown in orientation. In fact, he could see plainly that this man was wearing an eartag, and the eartag meant he was a combatant. Draco's excitement surged. Small guy, carrying lots of junk, the only weapon he had seemed to be a machete hanging from his belt. Draco at once realized one disadvantage to his shields. They were defensive. Against an opponent with so little armor, and almost no weapons, probably his helmet and body armor were enough to protect him. And besides, he had a distance weapon. Draco dropped his shields and grasped his spear. Lucky Guy spoke to him again. It sounded like he was asking a question. But this was no time for questions, this was the time to fight and kill. Draco held the spear in both hands and charged at Super Lucky Guy. Super Lucky Guy saw the man in the helmet and metal armor coming at him at full tilt. He dropped his sacks and ran. In the studio, Grayson exclaimed out loud as Super Lucky Guy charged down the road, and then cut into a clearing and dodged around a bush with Draco after him. They ran around the bush twice, Draco shouting, Lucky Guy shouting too, but not in the same way, and then Draco, growing frustrated, paused and struck with his spear right through the bush. Lucky Guy felt his pack stick on something and shrugged his way out of it in mid run. He came around the bush and saw Draco ahead of him, probing the bush with his spear, trying to hit his prey again. This gave Lucky Guy a moment to draw his machete from his belt. Draco tried to pull free his spear and caught sight of Lucky bearing down on him, holding his machete. Draco twisted, trying to get behind his spear to ward off the machete and Super Lucky Guy struck at him in the one place he was not covered with armor; his butt. There was a moment of shock as Draco felt the impact,and then like a gathering wave the pain seized him. Draco screamed. "Oh my god, oh my god," Grayson exclaimed. "He's hit! Draco is hit!" He nodded as Dawes took his seat and continued, "We are about to see another hero born on Savage Island, as Super Lucky Guy ― Super Lucky Guy ― what is he doing?" Draco staggered back, dragging his spear with him. Then the pain in his buttocks took his legs out from under him and he fell. He had the presence of mind to hold on to his spear and keep it between him and the Asian guy shouting and slashing at him with the machete. Draco pulled himself along the ground on one hip, the one that didn't hurt as much, leaving a smear of blood on the dirt. Part of him thought about germs, while the rest of him wondered where the next blow would fall. He struck out at the Asian with his spear, but from the ground he didn't have much reach and the man avoided his attacks easily. He wasn't able to watch where he was going. When he banged into a rock on the ground he arched in pain and for a moment lost his grip on the spear. Super Lucky Guy reached out and plucked the drooping spear away from him. Draco made a grab for it, and then forgot completely about the pain as the Asian guy reversed the spear. Draco backed away as hard as he could into a little stand of trees and used them to leverage himself to his feet. He just about buckled as his weight came on to his legs. But he had remembered the short swords at his side. He drew one as the Asian guy approached him, brandishing the spear. He wrestled the second one out, nearly dropped it, bent unconsciously to grab it and lurched as the pain in his buttocks muscles overcame him. He fell against the trees and braced himself there, holding the swords out to keep off his attacker. He stared at the spear aimed at his belly. The Asian guy was several feet out of his reach. Unless he could hack the spear point out of the way before it struck him, he was going to be skewered. He braced himself to block the spear but the strike didn't come. "This is unexpected," said Grayson, "Is there anything in the rules about offering mercy?" "That may not be what he's doing," Dawes opined. "He might be offering a quick, clean death." "Or a truce?" Grayson suggested, as Lucky Guy continued to hold Death at spear-point and shout at him. A full shot of the pair showed Draco leaning all his weight on the group of slim trees. His hip was gory with blood from his wound. "How badly do you think he's hurt?" he asked Dawes. "It depends on how deep that cut is. If it's cut a bunch of muscles, he could be in real trouble." "He is in real trouble," Grayson stated the obvious. "The question is, can he get out of it? Can he survive? Why is Lucky Guy hesitating, do you think?" "Draco is well armored. Maybe he thinks if he doesn't get a killing blow, Draco's going to lunge at him with those short swords." "What would be a killing blow?" "The throat is the best choice, but it's a small target, and as you can see, Draco's helmet . . . whoops." "Yeah," Grayson agreed. "Whoops." On the monitor they could see Draco slump and begin to slide down the tree. He caught himself, but dropped one of his short swords in the process." "Is he fainting? Is it loss of blood?" Grayson asked. "That could be," Dawes agreed. "Draco . . . " Grayson quipped, "has fallen asleep on the job." "He should kill him now," Dawes said, as Draco fell to the ground and lay there, still. "He might already be dead. Wait. What's he doing now?" Lucky Guy, still holding the spear at the ready, backed away from Draco's still form and proceeded to gather his stuff and pack it in his basket. He wiped the machete on a handful of grass and stuck it in his belt, shouldered the basket, picked up his bags and sacks, and picked up the spear again. And then, without turning his back until he was out of sight of the man who had run at him and threatened him, he hurried off down the path, toward the center of the island. "What was that?" Grayson asked of anybody. "What the heck was that?" "It is possible," Dawes said, "that having entered mortal combat for the first time, Lucky Guy found he didn't have the nerve to make the kill." "But he had a spear! And Draco is probably unconscious! He might be dead already!" After all, Draco still hadn't moved since Lucky Guy left. "That's true. But sometimes, when you're in a firefight for the first time ― " "This was no firefight." " ― you can find yourself acting on instinct, forgetting orders, forgetting training, forgetting completely what you're really there to do. You can't judge a man when he's just been in that situation for the first time." "Sure you can!" Grayson shot back. "And remember, these guys go into a combat situation without any training besides what they might have picked up over the course of their lives. That's what makes this situation so volatile. Anything can happen." Grayson shook his head. He thought, but had the prudence not to say aloud, "It's as though someone didn't tell Lucky Guy the rules." Far away in Los Angeles, John Fowler Savage, District Attorney for Los Angeles, and Republican candidate for governor of California, walked into a meeting of his closest advisers. "Hey, folks. Dave. What have you got for me?" He pulled up a chair, exuding the warmth and energy that made him an excellent candidate in the election for governor next fall. Dave Thornton, his campaign manager, pushed over a legal pad. "Your statement." He put on his reading glasses and looked it over. "Sir ― " He looked up. Margaret Aguirre, his publicity director, gave him the long, measured stare that so intimidated her cohorts. Savage deflected it with his usual grace by smiling at her. "What do you think, Maggie?" She smiled quellingly at the nickname. "No statement. I don't think you should come out in front on this." "He's got to take a stand," Thornton argued. "He's got to go on the attack. He can't be seen as being victimized by this manipulative bastard ―" Maggie turned her gaze on Thornton. "Jules Van Allan is trying for a reaction. He has made the attack, he will expect us to come out swinging. You'll find he already has his next move in hand ― " "And what's that?" Savage asked quickly, before Thornton could respond. She shrugged. "Probably some kind of grandstanding in the press. A graveside visit, a documentary on the old case ― " Thornton put in, "All of which we can control if we get ahead of the curve now. If you make a statement ― " "And what should I say?" Savage asked him. "If I bring up the case, I'll look culpable. Maggie's right. It's better if we appear to have no idea of the connection." "Sir," Cory Applegard, Thornton's assistant suggested tentatively, "You're going to have to take some kind of stand on the killings ― " "How many?" John Savage looked at Thornton. "Three," Dave said. "And one assault. All this afternoon." He shoved over a paper summarizing action on the island so far that day. Savage glanced down the three brief paragraphs. "All three murders by one guy," he noted. "Shadow?" "A.k.a. Craig Wells, bus driver from Chicago," Thornton informed him. "Well," Savage said, "at least he's not from California." "Someone will be," Margaret murmured. "If not today, then soon." "There's a guy from Oakland on the Island right now," Thornton said, checking his paper. "The first one out." Savage pushed the paper away. "And this is all being broadcast? Live?" "We don't know if it's live," Cory replied. "There's no way of telling. But he's certainly broadcasting. He's got a twenty-four hour satellite feed going for the first couple days, though after that what he's syndicated is a three-hour show of highlights from the day's actions. But for the time being, it's going on twenty-four hours on that new cable sports channel." "He's rented out stadiums in New York, Dallas, and here in Los Angeles," Thornton told him. "They're watching a big-screen live feed of the first six hours. They're sold out; he practically gave the tickets away." "And it's on TV right now," Cory added. "And there's a website, with a live feed." "And people are watching?" Savage looked around. "Oh, yeah," Cory said. "Do you have any numbers on that?" "Not hard numbers . . . " "Estimates?" Savage insisted. Cory's eyes slid away. "Millions." "Tens of millions," Thornton corrected. Cory nodded. "Tens of . . . " Savage pushed away from the table and got up. "Right. And you think I shouldn't take any notice? And that won't make me look stupid?" "You could say," a slight cough came from down the table. Savage's secretary for the past ten years, Deanna McFarlen, looked up from the notes she was taking, "at this point, that you're looking in to what laws, if any, have been broken, and will promise the people of Los Angeles to bring any charges that are pertinent." Deanna shrugged apologetically, "That's what you'd do for any other crime. Right? Look into it, and come up with charges." "Thornton?" Savage asked. Thornton looked over at Margaret Aguirre and caught her nod. He glanced around the table and gathered everyone's agreement. "Let's do that," he agreed. "Right," said Savage, pushing the pad back to Thornton. "Thank you, Deanna." He got up from the table. "That's what we'll do. Cory, start looking in to possible charges. Thank you all. Dave?" They crossed the hall from the conference room and John Savage shut the door to his own office. "That won't stop him," Dave said. "Van Allan is out to get you, John." "I know," Savage said, walking over to his desk. "We've got to find a way to get to him, first." "Yes, but how? There he sits, out there in the middle of who-knows-where, on his own island ― " "Sovereignty," Savage said suddenly. "That's the place to start. Find out where this island is. Find out what country it belongs to ― and then we can find the right lever to pry him out of his hole." Thornton nodded. That was the thing about Savage. If you put a problem to him, once he had all the pieces in front of him, he could always see his way to the solution. That was why Thornton wanted to put John Fowler Savage in the governor's mansion. And that was just the beginning. Savage was the best candidate for office that Thornton had ever worked for. He wasn't going to see the campaign undercut now. "I'll get Cory and Deanna on it," he said. "If it exists ― outside of a TV sound stage ― we'll find it. And even if it doesn't. Don't worry. Jules Van Allan is going to find out he's perpetrated a multimillion dollar mistake." ### Chapter Five Behind gate number three, Brian Longworth lit a bundle of sage. He had drawn the war sign on his cheeks and forehead. He had tied up his hair as his great-uncle taught him. Now he knelt on the concrete floor, smelled the sage that reminded him of home, of good days and hard days, of dances, ceremonies and hunts, and readied himself for war. He thought of turning back, the way you watched a departing lover get on a plane that you weren't taking. In six minutes the gate would open. His pack lay before him. He was dressed. His weapons were ready. When the time came, he would go. Brian Longworth had been left in foster care in the town of Bishop when his mom and dad's relationship disintegrated. It was a couple of years before he'd been tracked down by his maternal grandmother from Tucson, who took him home and did her best to raise the silent, angry hell-raiser that her grandson had become. When he was fourteen, and picked up and jailed for joyriding for the second time, she didn't come for him. She sent her brother instead. Only then did Brian learn that he was one-eighth Apache Indian. His great uncle, Paul Singer, took him into the desert on a summer-long camping trip, and Brian entered into his heritage. He learned to hunt, trap and forage, he learned the ways of the desert, and to be one with the open spaces and the beauty of the land. At the end of the summer, Paul Singer prepared and sent him on a vision quest, from which he returned with his new name, his warrior name, Lone Eagle. He came back, tanned, fit, and far-sighted, to live again with his grandmother, who kept a tight rein on his behavior from then on by threatening to tell Paul anything that didn't please her. Brian lived for the weekends when Paul came to take him off and teach him something new. Skills that gave Brian a connection with the people who had come before him, who, partly by blood, but more by adoption, he thought of as his own. He was seven-eighths white, but in his heart he was entirely a Jicarilla Apache. Paul Singer died of heart failure the winter before Brian graduated from high school, and before he'd succeeded in enrolling Brian officially in the tribe. Brian went to Arizona State and studied Cultural Anthropology for two years, before dropping out to take a job driving a truck. His grandmother was proud of him. But it was Paul Singer's spirit to whom Brian reached out, when he lit his sage bundle and sought the power within him that connected him to his ancestors. He closed his eyes now and let the smell of the smoke focus his mind and heighten all his senses. He left Brian Longworth behind, and entered into his true self. He was Lone Eagle, and this was his time. It had begun to rain. The smell of the jungle changed, and its sounds were muted under the onslaught of the downpour, striking the leaves and the ground. Draco heard the sound as though from a distance. He felt the water drip on his face through the faceplate of his helmet. He was not dead. He was in pain. Astonishing how a cut to his rear could hurt so much. But the muscles in his butt connected to his legs and to his lower back. He wondered if he were crippled. He wondered if he was going to bleed out. Except he hadn't bled out yet, so perhaps he wasn't going to. In any case, if he wanted to live, there was only one thing to do. He looked around without moving. He listened. He could hear no one. The skinny Asian guy with the machete must have gone off. And taken his spear! He saw one of his short swords lying by his hand and reached for it. Using it as a crutch he levered himself to his knees. The other one had fallen too far away. He hauled himself up holding on to a couple of saplings. Oh, how he hurt! His whole right hip was burning, knotting into even more pain whenever he moved his right leg. But he couldn't stay here. No one was going to save him. He had to save himself. Just before the rain began, Jaguar Warrior reached the top of the ridge and looked back toward the Wall in time to see, far in the distance, like tiny dolls, a man in black armor strike down a guy in camo on the sandy field. He saw what looked like another body lying nearby. He could hear nothing up here but the sound of surf, the screech of birds and insects. Obviously he was missing the party. He hadn't seen anyone since he'd started out. He realized that if he wanted someone to fight, all he had to do was stay down near the Wall. He should have thought of that before. The black-armored guy was bending over the dead guy's head. Ear tag! He was going to cut off the guy's ear tag! Well, he was going to get himself some of that. The Jaguar Warrior hefted his spear and headed back down the ridge trail toward the killing field. Shadow came back into the killing field in the pouring rain and took up his stance once again before the center gate. He had rested in a clearing not far into the tree line. He'd taken off his helmet, cleaned and bandaged the cut over his eye. He'd drunk some water, eaten some food, sat against the trunk of a tree and closed his eyes. When he entered the arena he held his morning star in his hand, its chain full length once more, and carried Bloodaxe's round shield. His own had been discarded in the woods, the corner knocked off. "We have a proximity alert," Farley's voice said in Grayson's ear. Grayson glanced over at the big map of the island. They were seconds away from the release of the next combatant, Lucy had the infirmary doctor on camera for him to interview, and the Shadow had just taken up his position again in the killing field in front of the center gate. He spared a glance for the big map that showed all the combatants' positions. And it was true, two of the colored lights were converging on one of the interior paths. Jaguar Warrior's blue light showed he was on his way back from the ridge trail toward the Wall. And ― there it was. His path would come out just ahead of where Draco slowly lurched along the trail, leaning heavily on a stick he'd cut for himself. They just might come in sight of one another. "How badly hurt is Draco?" Grayson asked. Lucy picked up his question on her earphone and repeated it to Dr. Nagina Bannerjee in the infirmary. "Well, it very much depends," Dr. Bannerjee pushed her glasses up on her nose and leaned toward the camera. Someone off camera gave her a direction and she straightened up and backed off. "Oh. Sorry. Obviously the blade did not hit an artery or he would not still be walking." She put her hands on her own small rear. "The buttocks has three sets of muscles, as you know, and all of them are engaged when one is walking. It should not be life-threatening . . . except that it is difficult to walk with such a wound. And more difficult to run. And he is out there . . . " she shook her head. "Thank you, Dr. Bannerjee. I'm sure all the combatants are glad to know that there is a fully qualified wound surgeon on call twenty-four seven ― and there goes Lone Eagle!" Grayson segued quickly as the left-hand gate opened and Lone Eagle charged out onto the killing field. Shadow turned and started for the gate as it opened. Lone Eagle charged out, spear in one hand, small round shield in the other. He swerved away as he saw the large black-armored foeman bearing down on him, the morning star swinging over his head. "What was he thinking?" Grayson yelled. "No armor ― no clothes!" "What you're thinking," Colonel Dawes answered promptly, "is due to the fact that you've seen the other combatants come on to the island. And because you've seen what the Shadow can do. Lone Eagle chose his weapons and equipment without knowing what he would face. That's one thing about this combat set-up that's so interesting, tactically speaking. You don't know what you're going to face until it's in front of you, and you'd better have prepared for everything." "Oh my god ― " Grayson found himself actually getting upset, and swallowed his passion. "This isn't going to be a fight," he said levelly. "It's going to be a slaughter." "We'll have to see," Dawes agreed. The deerskin pants had cost so little in points Lone Eagle had leaped at the opportunity to get them. They were 'way too expensive back home. The leather moccasin boots were beautiful and custom-made. He had not, however, reckoned on the rain. The headband kept strands of hair from his eyes, so that was all right. His long spear looked like a lucky choice when he saw the black-armored guy coming at him, because it would help to keep him out of range of his swinging spiked ball of metal. He wasn't sure how he could get past the guy's big round shield, or his helmet and armor. His war axe might be heavy enough to impact a joint at least, or the neck, if he could get to it. He had a knife as well, but the guy would have to fall down for that to be of any use. The swinging ball looked like murder. He charged away from the armored man, and that was the other thing he had. He could run. Dismay changed to excitement. Never in his life had he felt so free. He loped along the edge of the cliff that bounded the killing field on the west, making for the trees. Shadow, unable to catch him, headed diagonally for the treeline, trying to cut him off and drive him back toward the wall. The rain pounded down harder. The trees ahead looked thick; Lone Eagle couldn't see a break in them that would let him through. He didn't want to get backed up against them. He changed direction and headed back toward the Wall, running for the other end of the field. At the Coliseum in San Jose, you couldn't hear yourself think for the shouting. Some men howled directions to Lone Eagle to help him find the path away from the killing field. Some shouted for him to stand and fight. Voices could be heard rooting for the Shadow to kill again, kill him now! After the first death, some people had left the Coliseum, while others had decided that it was all fake, it was cooked up, and proceeded to explain to anyone who would listen how you could tell that it wasn't real. But there was something about the thunk of the morningstar into Bandit One's body, how they'd seen it over and over from half a dozen angles in replay, how the blood had welled up, what it had done to his body the next three times it struck, and the whole messy killing that followed . . . there was no way to fake that. And anyway, there was no reason to fake that. But still, some men were emphatically certain it was fake. Perhaps because they needed to believe it to go on watching. Now the crowd roared for someone else's blood. Lone Eagle zagged again, counting on his speed to gain him some more distance from the armored guy. He thought he'd made it and had a clear shot for the woods, and the trail he could see opening up there when he heard the pounding behind him ― he had no idea a guy could run that fast wearing that much armor. He ducked instinctively and his heart clutched as he saw the metal ball pass by his head, close enough to see the spikes. Lone Eagle spun away, raising his spear, and that was all that saved him as the chain of the morningstar caught it and yanked it from his hand. The Shadow came to a halt to pick up the spear and disentangle it, and Lone Eagle charged for the trees ― and stopped. Another man in armor came towards him, short sword in one hand, staff in the other. Lone Eagle backed away. "That's Draco!" Grayson shouted. "Draco has made it back to the killing ground in time to stop Lone Eagle's escape!" The proximity alert had lit, but in the excitement of Lone Eagle running out and meeting Shadow, Grayson had forgotten about it, and Farley, watching from the director's booth, had let him. Farther up the trail, dimly through the pouring rain, Jaguar Warrior saw the shape far ahead of him, dressed in armor, limping away from him. Jaguar Warrior took a long moment to look around, to see if anyone else was nearby, but when he turned back, the figure had moved out of sight. Confident that he couldn't have gone far, Jaguar Warrior put his hand on the haft of one of his twin swords, hefted his boar spear, and jogged down the trail. Under the trees the rain was much less intense, except every now and then an avalanche building up in the leaves above would let fall. He didn't mind. The water wasn't cold. The rain obscured any tracks, however. He had to check every opening onto the trail to be sure that his prey had not headed off that way. But the guy had been moving pretty slowly. He was sure to catch him before long. Shadow saw Lone Eagle stop, saw the armored figure standing in the gap in the trees, and made a split-second decision. He moved to the right, came around, and charged at Lone Eagle, so that he had no choice except to stand and fight ― and he wasn't going to stand and fight, half-naked as he was ― or run for the far side of the arena. Lone Eagle, who'd lost track of where Shadow was in the moment he caught sight of Draco, stood hesitating, with some wild plan of knocking the guy over and getting out of here in his mind, when he felt and heard the movement on his right, and holy shit the big black-armored dude was bearing down on him from a different direction. He ran like hell for the west side of the killing ground. Shadow chased him for twenty yards or so, and then turned back. The armored figure had come forward only a few steps. He was still among the trees, which wasn't a good place to swing the morningstar. But he carried only a short sword and a staff. Shadow dropped the morningstar and drew his broadsword. He bore down on Draco, gaining speed as he went. All thought of pain was gone. Draco raised his staff like a shield, raised his short sword and braced himself on his good leg. Now, he realized, he had the perfect conditions to try out his interlocking shields. And where were they? He'd lost his chance with them when he'd wandered into the jungle. He was in deep shit. Unless he could knock the guy over. Unless he could get inside his guard somehow. His engineering mind took up the problem, but as the problem closed in on him, the back brain he inherited from all his ancestors, down to the little weasel that hid in holes when the dinosaurs thundered by, told his body what to do. He stepped into the trees, pushing his way in far enough that the guy couldn't swing the sword, and so he had something to help hold him up. His best shot would be to punch at the helmet with his staff, and when the shield went up, to drop down and try to strike upward, or at least cut the guy's legs. He might manage a couple of cuts and even the odds. Shadow was marking in his head how much time he had before the young man behind him came back at him with the spear to his back. This guy had to go down first, because chasing the other guy might take some time. He charged in, pushing back foliage with his shield, thrusting with his sword between the trees, but he missed, and the man was gone. He hopped back and saw the short sword come up at his thighs and stabbed downward, and struck something, and the guy screamed and scrambled back, still on the ground, and Shadow followed him into the trees. "He is so fast!" Grayson exclaimed, not for the first time. "How can he move that way, wearing all that armor ― oh, he's got him, oh ― " "He's cut Draco's arm," Dawes added, sounding at least in control of himself. But his eyes blazed, and his hands clenched unconsciously as Shadow struck again and again. "It's not like carrying a seventy-pound bag, you know. The armor is distributed over his body, and it's made to move with him, the articulated joints, the ― ah! Good one!" Draco had stopped scrambling back, twisted, and taken a flying stab at Shadow's foot with his short sword. It stuck in Shadow's boot. Shadow kicked him away and ran backward a few steps. Then, inexplicably, he turned and ran back to the killing ground ― just in time to come upon Lone Eagle, bending to pick up his morningstar. Since Shadow was already moving, Lone Eagle had to straighten before he could start to back away and run. Shadow ran right into him shield first and knocked him back and off his feet. Lone Eagle rolled away as the sword strike followed, turning as it missed his body, the sword whipping around so fast that on the camera it was a blur, and striking again for Lone Eagle's head. Lone Eagle got his little round shield up just in time, and caught the sword blow on the edge and stopped the blade. He didn't think, he yanked hard, pulling Shadow off balance, then let go the shield, got up and ran, heading for the far corner of the killing field. Shadow let him go. He put his foot on the round shield and pulled his sword free. He glanced at Lone Eagle, calculating how far away he was. He picked up Lone Eagle's spear, and recovered his morningstar, dumping both of them at the edge of the trees as he started again down the path where Draco had levered himself to his feet once again and stood beside a tree waiting for him. He came at Draco at a trot, his sword overhead, meaning to knock into him before he could make another strike with the short sword. He raised his shield and struck out, and once again Draco vanished beneath him. Draco screamed, convulsing. Shadow saw the spear lodged in Draco's back, and the camo-clad warrior wearing the jaguar-headed helmet standing over him. Jaguar Warrior dropped the huge long spear, and drew a pair of short swords. In the close space of the jungle trail he whirled them in his hands, making blurring figure-eights, and he stepped forward to take on the Shadow. "What a fight, oh my god what a fight," Grayson cried, as the Shadow backed away down the path from the whirling twin blades. "And we can't count Draco out yet ― " he added, as Jaguar Warrior stepped on the body and stumbled slightly, allowing Shadow to gain a little more ground. Shadow backed down the trail full-tilt, holding his shield high in front of him, and his sword up at his left side as an auxiliary shield against Jaguar Warrior's second spinning sword. "Draco is dead," Richard Farley said in Grayson's ear. Grayson ignored him. There was no reason to give that information yet, since it would lower the excitement level for this fight. Not that it wasn't already thrilling enough ― "This is certainly what I would have paid to see. Great warriors, fighting their best with their chosen weapon forms," Dawes mused, as Shadow burst back into the killing field, backward, and veered to one side. Shadow spared a glance to see where Lone Eagle had gotten himself ― nowhere in view, that he could see ― ah, there he was, moving along the far edge of the field, close by the Wall. He jinked to one side as he stepped over the discarded spear, sheathed his sword and bent to pick up his morningstar. He continued to back away from the opening in the path, and set the morningstar to whirling. Jaguar Warrior trotted out of the trees whipping his swords so fast they were a blur, caught sight of the Shadow's shield held up high against him and ran toward it. And then the shield dropped a little and from around it came a missile moving so fast he had a split second to try and duck or block it, and he did both, and the chain of the morningstar struck his arm as he raised it to block, and the heavy metal-studded head struck him in the side of the helmet. "Oh!" Grayson and Dawes cried out together. Jaguar Warrior turned, holding out his right-hand sword to hold off the Shadow, as he'd dropped the left one. But everyone who was watching could see he was seriously damaged. The left side of his helmet was caved in, and under it a mass of gore was visible. Grayson's brain tried to complete the shape he was seeing; a misshapen jaw, hanging skin, teeth angled the wrong way. The blood welled, streaking the jaguar skin with scarlet. The Shadow yanked back the morningstar and dropped it behind him. He drew his sword and stalked toward the Jaguar Warrior, who turned his right side toward him and whirled his sword. It didn't whirl properly. After a moment it dropped from Jaguar Warrior's hand. The massive blow to his head had begun signaling itself in a red roaring pain. Jaguar Warrior looked down for his sword lying in the sand. He saw the long sword enter his body. He felt it rasp against his bones. It held him up for a moment, and then in a scream of pain, his scream, his pain, it was withdrawn. Jaguar Warrior clutched at it, but his fingers missed it in passing as he fell to the ground. "Jaguar Warrior is down! What a fight! What a fight!" Grayson heard himself saying. The crushed face and mutilated jaw had affected him as no other violence that day had. "Standing up to Shadow, with one sword left ―" "He was probably dead on his feet already," Dawes put in, "but that was a hell of a fight." "He didn't know that Shadow had a morningstar," Grayson noted, his voice dropping as the bile rose in his throat. "You have to expect anything out there," Dawes said. "That's what makes a great warrior." "Expect the unexpected," Grayson quipped hollowly, "on Savage Island. And that leaves only Lone Eagle," he added, as Shadow looked around for his remaining foe. The camera picked up Lone Eagle as he walked toward a gate in the Wall. He seemed to be nursing his wrist. "Looks like he's going in," Dawes observed. "He must have gotten hurt. He sure found he'd bitten off more than he was equipped to defend himself with, with his spear and shield and tomahawk." He added, without thinking. "That's how the West was won." Listening with half an ear, trying not to vomit right there in the studio, Grayson thought they were certainly going to cut that comment out before they broadcast. "Oh, no," he said, looking up at the clock. "Lone Eagle is about to get a really bad surprise." Lone Eagle, cradling his left wrist, reached for the big red button that would open the western gate. He'd discarded his shield. His war axe still hung from his belt. But he was empty-handed when the gate opened in front of him, and the fighter who called himself Sol Invictus charged right at him. His golden muscle armor glinting, Sol Invictus charged out of the gate brandishing hoplite spear and Spartan shield, his short sword on a lanyard hanging from his wrist, and only at the last moment caught sight of the half-naked man who leaped back as it opened. Sol Invictus had already seen Shadow starting toward him, his morningstar in motion. But he had a moment or two, and the man in front of him had no weapon in its hands, but very obviously an orange eartag. Sol Invictus turned his spear on Lone Eagle. Lone Eagle backed away, too close to turn and run. He fumbled with one hand for the tomahawk at his side, dodged the first thrust and batted Sol's spear out of the way with his good hand. The spear thrust out again and Lone Eagle barked in pain as the point caught him in the chest. He twisted away as Sol Invictus struck again, and then ran back away from the gate, blood pouring from his wounds. Sol Invictus, about to follow up and make his first kill, saw Shadow almost upon him, and turned to meet him. "He's hit! Lone Eagle is hit!" Grayson's nausea had gone away in the excitement of the action, he was pleased to note. "What's he going to do?" Lone Eagle had not run for the gate, as Grayson expected. He had finally drawn his tomahawk and stood, clutching his bleeding chest with his left hand, holding the weapon in his right. "I thought it would have to get a lot more crowded before we got situations like this," Dawes exclaimed. "This is amazing." Grayson, watching a close shot of Lone Eagle on the monitor, said, "Look at that! He's thinking about attacking." "Well, he hasn't gotten a lick in yet," Dawes said. "But the problem is, if he takes out one of them, the other one will still be standing, and look at him ― he doesn't stand a chance against either one of them." Lone Eagle glanced down at his chest, and the blood welling over his hand. He swayed and started again for the nearest gate. He punched the large red button, the the outer gate swung open, and let him in. "The first man to go out onto Savage Island, and face his foes, and return alive," Grayson intoned. Then he segued over to the other fight in progress. "That long spear seems to be the right weapon to fight a morningstar." "It looks like Shadow has met his match," Dawes commented. "He's certainly slower than he was this morning." "Let's not forget that he's taken a hit or two himself." Grayson followed the moves and counter-moves, exclaiming as he reacted, until after just a few minutes Shadow had Sol Invictus on the ground, pinned him there with his foot, and swung the morningstar into his head. The scream of the man on the ground struck Grayson as though he'd been shocked awake from a nightmare. The man was dying, was being beaten to death before his eyes, and he was ― talking about it. He sat back, figuratively, watching himself. He picked up his glass, and noticed that his hand was steady as he raised it to his lips. Dawes remarked on the fact that Sol was still moving, and approved when Shadow drew his sword to finish him off. Sol, his head crushed, was still trying to move away when Shadow drove his sword through the man's throat. A small geyser of blood shot up the blade; there was a horrible choking, gurgling sound, and Sol Invictus shuddered and died. Grayson took another drink of water. What the fuck. What the fuck was this all about? Farley was talking in his ear about sending Lucy down to interview Lone Eagle, who was in the infirmary. "No," said Grayson, getting up, "I'll do it. I need a break." He wanted out of this room, he wanted away from the hot lights and the inexorable eye of the camera. He wanted to see the reality of what was going on here. He wanted to see if the wounds were real, or just some horrible figment of his and everybody's imagination. He wanted to know what the hell they were all doing here. He headed downstairs as though he were in a hurry. A cameraman, who introduced himself as Su Ling, met him on the ground floor. It was pouring outside, and a couple of techs were there with big red umbrellas for them. Grayson, mindful that if his suit got wet he'd have to change before he went on camera, held his carefully as they crossed the gravel path to the next building. "I've seen your show," Ling said over the sound of the rain, "In L.A. You're great, man. Glad to have you here." Grayson gave him his practiced, easy smile. "Thanks, man." Lucy met them inside the induction building, which also housed the infirmary. She introduced a small Asian woman who hooked up a cable from the boom mike she carried to Ling's camera, as Amy Phan. Amy nodded shyly at Grayson though she seemed well known to Ling. Grayson felt dismayed at the sight of Lucy, thinking for a moment that they would have to fight it out over who was going to do this interview, but she indicated the way as he approached, and followed after him saying, "I hope you don't mind . . . " "I'm doing the interview," he said. "Yes, of course," she said, from behind his shoulder. "I just tagged along with my friend Amy here. Would it be all right if I watched you do it?" Grayson wondered briefly if she was putting it on to flatter him, but after all, what did he care? She was gorgeous, in any case. It wasn't hard to have her around. "Not at all. Where is the infirmary?" "Thank you. It's through here." The induction building held a maze of offices, laboratories and examination rooms. The largest building on the island, it had been built with security in mind. Combatants were to have as little contact as possible with one another before they crossed through the Wall onto the killing ground. And combatants coming back through the wall, for medical treatment, additional supplies, or because they'd had enough, were segregated completely. To get to the emergency ward, they were buzzed through two heavy secure doors. As soon as they entered the infirmary, they could hear the noise of the wounded man being treated. "Ow – ow – ow – no! Shit! That hurts! Son of a bitch – goddamn it! OW!" Grayson came through the doorway, Lucy behind him, and saw Lone Eagle stretched out on a bed while a doctor cleaned his wounds. Two big male nurses held him down. Dr. Bannerjee, overseeing the procedure, saw them and came over. "How is he, doctor?" Grayson asked. "Oh, he'll be fine, barring infection. He has two puncture wounds from the spearhead in his chest that struck the bone. No organs damaged." "Aaaaggggh!" Lone Eagle screamed. "Disinfectant," Dr. Bannerjee murmured. "Hurts very much." "I see," Grayson said. "We gave him a local anesthetic, but it doesn't mask pain of that kind, I'm afraid." "Of course." "He has a bad sprain in his left wrist as well, but that's not dangerous. We'll wrap it when we've got him cleaned up and bandaged." Su Ling pressed past Grayson and started shooting. Lone Eagle looked over and saw the camera pointed at him. "No way, man – fuck that, turn it off – I mean it man, I'll kill you!" Grayson followed Ling over. He was pretty sure that Brian Longworth wasn't in any kind of shape to kill anyone just now. And besides, there were two burly men in white coats standing on either side of him that looked a lot more like "security" than "nurse." He went forward to the bed holding out a hand. He was going to clasp Longworth's right hand where it lay pinned to the bed, but he saw that there was blood on it, so he refrained. "Hi. James Grayson. I'm the sportscaster for Savage Island. That was some adventure you had out there. How does it feel to be the first man to step out onto Savage Island, and return alive?" Lone Eagle gasped as the doctor applied pressure to his wound. "Shit! How do you think I feel? Look at me, I got fucked out there ― Aggh agggh!" He broke off as the doctor poured disinfectant into the smaller of the two puncture wounds. Grayson looked. He'd followed enough stretchers into locker rooms to know what damaged bodies looked like. But this – this was a war wound, not a sports injury. The spear point had split open the skin of his chest down to his bone in two places, one of them just half an inch from the lower part of his throat. His chest was covered with blood, and blood soaked his leather trousers. "Wow," he said with complete sympathy, "that's got to hurt." "You got that right, man," Lone Eagle answered. "Now, Mr. Longworth, we must pack the wound in order to stop the bleeding. And then we will dress it, and you will be feeling much better." "All right, let go of me, then. I can – ah ah ah! Fuck! Fuck! Aah!" The two nurses had not let go, so he was not able to thrash around enough to stop the doctor from his work. The doctor made soothing noises, and kept on. When the difficult part was over, and one of the nurses sponged the blood from his body while the other bandaged his wounds, Grayson motioned Amy, with the boom mike, closer. "Is there anything you'd like to say," Grayson ask the bloody combatant, "to the men out there who are hoping for a chance to step out onto Savage Island? Or to the men who wouldn't, for a moment, dare to go, but wish that they did?" Lone Eagle, more relaxed now that the worst was over, considered this. His face was drawn in pain, the angles highlighted by the bright infirmary lights. His war paint smeared, his body still streaked with blood; Grayson thought he looked great. At last Brian looked straight at the camera and said, "It's brutal. And it's scary. And it's the first time in my life I've really felt alive. I guess my choice of weapons just weren't up to what, what those other guys brought. But I'm still glad I did it. I'm glad I went out there. I was true to my people. And I know myself better now." Grayson thought, God that couldn't be better if I'd cast the guy and scripted this. "Thanks! That was great. Any other messages for the folks back home?" Lone Eagle looked almost shy for a moment. "I've got a girl in Bisbee. Can I say hi?" "Sure!" Grayson encouraged him. "Hi, Sue. Did you see me out there? I love you. If I come back from this ― I swear, I'll marry you. That's a promise." The doctor gave Longworth another sedative and indicated that he would be moved now to a hospital room, washed and undressed. Grayson thanked Longworth warmly and then everyone else, and told Shang-zu that their producer would be waiting for the film in the editing room immediately. They split the umbrellas and Li and Amy Phan went off together, while he headed back to the studio, holding the umbrella so that it shielded both himself and Lucy beside him. "It's really coming down," he remarked. She didn't seem to hear, or perhaps she had missed his remark over the sound of the rain. "How did you do that?" she asked him. "Do what?" Walking slowly to stay in step with her, he was running the interview over in his mind, mentally editing the final tape himself, making sure that there was enough material to make a coherent narrative of twenty seconds or so. He couldn't help being aware of her so close to him. Lucy reached up as though it were the most natural thing in the world, and took his arm. "Get him from absolutely belligerent to eating out of your hand in five seconds? How did you?" He was intensely aware of her hand on his arm. He tried smiling his non-commital smile, prepared to use some line about "trade secrets," or "that would be telling." But the expression on her face was thoughtful. She, too, was running the interview through her mind to work out how the final cut might play. So he told her quite seriously, "Well, you know what position you want your subject to take, right? So you frame the question so he has to answer according to what you've laid down. What did I say to him? You've had a great adventure, and you're the first man to do it, how does it feel? What else can he say back to me ― except how he feels, and in the context of being so brave, and so great. And that's just what we needed from him, in his own words." She nodded. They'd reached the door to the admin building, and stopped under the overhang. He put the umbrella down and closed it. Her flattering smile was gone, and Grayson found he liked her contemplative expression even better. It was as though he was looking behind her mask, seeing the person she really was. He felt pleased he had been allowed to see something of her that was too personal for public use. "Of course," he added, genuinely trying to be helpful now, "it's important to make them feel that you look up to them. It's a lot easier to turn people to the way you want them to see things, if you put them on a pedestal first." He smiled back as Lucy's face broke into a gamine grin. A few tendrils of her hair had gotten damp and escaped across her face. He had to keep himself from touching them. No, in fact, he liked her smile best after all. The doorbell had been ringing all day. Arthur's half-sister Zunia arrived at lunch time, and then stayed on, calling in sick. Zunia despised Lily because of what she had done to Arthur and Trish (as Zunia put it), so Lily and Chase left soon after she arrived, but Zunia called her husband, Pete, and he came by soon after with his younger brother Loco-Jay, and Jay's girlfriend Tyanna, bringing groceries and beer. They all halted in front of the television, where Trish was still glued. "Where's he at now?" Pete asked, but the television was showing for the ninth time a commercial for a lawn mower that looked like a little tractor. Trish didn't bother to answer. Zunia, taking the food and beer from Pete, and leading Tyanna into the kitchen, informed them, "He's been out of sight for over an hour. The television man said, the way he was loaded, he's probably just gone there to lie low." "Aw, man," said Loco-Jay, "What's he want to do that for? He should kick some butt while he's there, show them how it's done." "He's being smart," Pete said. He sat down in the best chair. A big man, with large shoulders and a gut left over from being a linebacker in college, he was accustomed to weighing in on every subject with complete authority. "He's not there to get himself killed, I know that." At this, Trish stirred, and turned on him. "You knew about this?" Pete backed down at once. "That's not what I'm saying ―" "No, he didn't know about this," Zunia said, bringing in a big bowl of chips. "Nobody knew about this except Arthur himself. He's just saying ―" "I'm just saying that laying low is smart," Pete said. "It's what I'd do." Loco-Jay, perched on the arm of a chair, reached for the chips and dug in. "Not me," he told them. "I'd take a long spear and one of those maces, and I'd take out any guy I saw before he can get close to me, right near the gate, and be inside again in thirty-five minutes, no sweat." Zunia laughed pityingly. "Oh, yeah? We just saw what happened to three of those guys ― and the last one to come out with a spear is dead." "Oh, hush," said Trish. She looked up from the television as Tyanna came in from the kitchen, carrying two plates of chicken wings she had heated up. "What is this? You come over to watch TV like it's some game or something? Arthur ― Arthur is out there risking his life, and you want to eat chicken wings?" "Now you hush," said Zunia. "It's on. Look ― that's the map of the island. And that's Arthur, there," she pointed to the little red light that shone still and steady in the upper inland part of the island. "We saw him climbing, and we saw him crawling between some trees, and he's been right there ever since. He's just going to wait them out, Trish. That's all he's going to do." "That's stupid!" Ronnie said. "You don't get anything for just sitting there." "You get five thousand dollars a day," Zunia reminded him. "Five thousand a day," Ronnie, who had never made anywhere near that much in a year, sneered. "That's chicken shit, when every guy on the island is worth a hundred grand dead. He should just ―" "What did he take out with him?" Pete asked, cutting his brother off. Trish said, "He's got a machete. We saw that. He's got a backpack. He's in camouflage." "They said he took nets with him, and lots of extra food," Zunia added. "So you see, he's just going to sit there. Like camping out. In a couple of nights, he can just walk back in and he'll be fine." "No he won't," Trish said, in a dead cold voice. "When he gets home, I'm going to kill him." Chapter Six Grayson didn't go directly back to the studio. He'd like to have retreated to his dressing room or his trailer, but neither of these had yet been provided for him. This was one more indication that they hadn't planned to have a sportscaster for Savage Island. What did they think they were doing? They'd sold hours of broadcast time to a cable channel in the U.S., and various other stations internationally. Did they really think they could do without someone to call the event? His agent hadn't thought to ask for a trailer, because of course they'd assumed there would be a dressing room. Grayson's bungalow was just a few minutes walk away, but he didn't want to be that far from the studio just now, in case something happened. Grayson took the stairs down to the first floor, thinking to find the room where the coffee and snacks were kept. The coffee they'd serve that morning was some of the best he'd ever had. He passed the glass front door and noticed that the rain had stopped, at least for the time being. He slipped out and walked along the side of the building, toward the Wall. What the fuck was he doing here? This wasn't a sport. Was it? This was just a bunch of guys murdering one another. Visions of the morningstar smashing home on Bandit One's body, crushing Sol's helmet, the sword piercing Hrolf Bloodaxe's body, came unbidden to his mind. The damage it could do, the way those men died . . . Around the corner from the induction center he came to the grass corridor he'd seen several times that morning on the monitor; the walkway that led to each of the three gates. A handful of off-duty techs had gathered along the path that led to the center gate. Grayson realized that it must be about ten minutes before the next combatant came through. To his right, another group of people gathered at the eastern gate. He saw the men in orange vests that marked them as the waste detail. The first stretcher came through the gate, the bearers moving quickly and purposefully, followed by the second and third stretchers and the inner door of the gate clanged shut. One of the women began to wail. She trotted along beside the first stretcher, touching the gray body bag, and weeping as though she had lost a lover. A couple other women then hurried to the second and third stretchers. They didn't touch the bodies, but they each started up a wail of their own. A side door into the induction center clicked open as the stretcher bearers approached. The morgue must be that way, Grayson realized. They'd told him about the morgue and the crematorium, during his long and muzzy first day. The stretchers were taken inside, the women were left outside. The wailing ceased. They hugged one another, and then dispersed. Grayson got the feeling that they were enjoying their performance quite a lot. And it was all just a performance, wasn't it? And hadn't this sport always existed, for the excitement of the masses, and, as Van Allan willed, as an outlet for deadly and dangerous men? And he had a part in it, too. Which, grossness aside, violence aside, he was not ready to relinquish. He could think about it later. Right now, he'd better get his ass back up in his seat, before someone else grabbed it. He envisioned arriving back in the studio to find Lucy in his place, and the pleasure with which he would lift her bodily out of the chair and chuck her out of the room. But the fact was, she would probably be holding the chair for him, with that admiring look on her face . . . Grayson hurried back to the studio, to announce the advent of the next combatant. After killing his sixth combatant, Shadow removed the dead man's ear tag, and then his pack. After he'd drunk down one of Sol Invictus's water bottles, he straightened his dead foe's limbs. Then he took a handful of sand and sifted it over Sol's corpse. "Go, my brother. My worthy foe. Go in peace. They will sing songs of you in Valhalla. You are a warrior." Visibly tired, Shadow picked up his morningstar and the round shield, and Sol's spear as well, and headed for the treeline. He looked around carefully and stood listening for awhile, and then pulled apart Jaguar Warrior's bashed up gory helmet, and cut the tag from Jaguar Warrior's ear. He stopped and listened again before taking off Draco's helmet, and removing his ear tag as well. He put them with the other one inside his left-hand glove. The rain stopped, though every leaf and branch still dripped, and the ground was soaked. He hauled all the gear he had gathered to the clearing he had used for his siesta. He sat back against his tree as before, his sword at his side. He could see anyone coming for a ways, and they'd have to make noise in the trees to get to him. He put back his head. "Is he planning to stay all day?" Grayson asked. "Why didn't he bring these ear tags inside like he did the other ones?" "This man has fought half a dozen epic fights since he came out," Dawes chided him. "Fights like no man has fought for hundreds of years. It's probable that crossing the killing field again just looked like too long a walk. Not to mention what just happened to Lone Eagle." Grayson laughed, remembering. "I don't know which of them was more surprised." Dawes chuckled as well. "Expect the unexpected! On Savage Island!" Shadow lay so still Grayson said he thought he had gone to sleep. Dawes agreed. "Fighting is exhausting. You've no idea. And a fight like the last one? Doesn't surprise me at all." Thus it was that three more combatants emerged onto Savage Island and wandered into the jungle without meeting a soul. "It can't be Indonesia," David Thornton told Cory Applegard flatly. "The time difference isn't right. Indonesia is – what – fourteen hours ahead of Los Angeles?" Deanna, looking up from her computer, nodded. Thornton was conducting a meeting of John Savage's campaign team in the conference room of their campaign offices. He was annoyed that they were wasting time on this issue when they should be working on election strategy. He was annoyed at Cory Applegard, who was in his late twenties, but looked younger, looked, in fact, like an eager puppy who needed to be kicked over and over until he understood his place, which was well behind and below that of David Thornton. He insisted, "It's night here, it's morning there – " "Early afternoon," Applegard corrected. "It's not fourteen hours ahead," Thornton replied, with more heat than necessary. "It's not Indonesia." "But they can configure their broadcasts in anyway they please," Applegard insisted. "They don't have to do a live feed – " "It says they're doing a live feed," Thornton contradicted him. "Van Allan's business empire originated in Jakarta," Applegard slid a folder in front of Thornton. "His original contacts are there, and he is a close personal friend of the President's family. There are thousands of islands in Indonesia. Van Allan did buy one of them about ten years ago." "Yes," Deanna put in. "He built a house there. It was featured in the cover story that the Times did on him when he opened his new headquarters in Los Angeles." Thornton leafed through the folder. It was a comprehensive overview of Jules Van Allan, his background, his business, his holdings, his contacts. Applegard had put it together in just a few hours. He conceded reluctantly, "So, they could in fact be feeding the broadcast at any delay they choose." "That's right," said Applegard. "All right," Thornton said. "Find that island. See who we can talk to in Jakarta. Find out about the conditions of sale, and if he told anyone what he would be doing with it ― find out ― " He stopped as John Savage came into the room and handed Cory back the folder. "Get on it." "Right," said Applegard. Savage came over to them. "I just got off the phone with the attorney general. Six dead and one wounded. Is that right?" He looked at Deanna, who nodded. "That's right, sir." "He wants it stopped," Savage said. "He wants it stopped now. And so do I." Thornton drew John Savage away to a corner of the long table, out of hearing of the others. He did this largely to make the point that this was the senior partners' meeting, and he and John were in this, and the others were not. Keeping ambitious runts like Applegard in their place was something he liked to do thoroughly. He asked Savage, "Does he have any ideas?" "No, it was just his bluster, as usual. Now he can tell the governor he met with me, and we're exploring all possible options against Savage Island. What's new here?" "Jules Van Allan purchased an island from the government of Indonesia about fifteen years ago. He built a house there. We think we might be able to apply pressure through contacts in Jakarta." "Do we have any contacts in Jakarta?" "We're looking into that now." Thornton looked up at his friend. "You know why he's doing this?" John nodded. "There can only be one reason." "Yeah," Dave said. "That's what I thought." In the afternoon another combatant, calling himself Sting, also came up with the strategy of simply waiting on the killing ground for the next man to come out. He wore a Roman-style helmet and armor, and carried two swords; a long saber in his right hand, and a short, Roman-style sword in his left. Sting spent the half-hour of his wait prowling the edge of the woods, watching and listening to see if anyone else was out there. Grayson voiced everyone's anticipation that Sting was going to see into the trees and find Shadow sleeping out there, and kill him without a fight, and win for himself one heck of a jackpot, for Shadow still carried three eartags on his person. Far away across the world, in three giant sold-out stadiums full of men larded with liquor and greasy food, every step Sting made in Shadow's direction raised a moan that rose to a roar. But each time, Sting walked back toward the arena, unaware of the prize that lay so close. Sting's opponent emerged from the Wall after thirty minutes, armed with a two-handed sword, a short-axe and a mace resting in sheaths at his side. This combatant, from Nova Scotia, called himself Manslayer. The two proceeded to stand around out of range, posturing, calling insults, and feigning attacks that nonetheless did not bring them close enough to strike at one another. This went on for half an hour. Out in the stadiums, the shouts of the audience rose so high the guards began to shift on their feet in concern, finger their radios and think about backup. There'd been half a dozen fist fights in the corridors already, a guard who tried to interfere had been injured, and a couple of arrests had been made. Dawes, watching and commenting with Grayson said, "Well, this is a chicken-shit piece of action. What are these guys doing? They're just playing around, that's what. They should get in there and fight, or get the fuck off the island. That's what I say." "Strong words, Colonel Dawes," Grayson reminded him lightly. Dawes' glanced up at the camera, remembering where he was. "Oh. Right. Sorry." "We've got lag time before we go out live, Colonel," Grayson told him. "Don't worry about it. Look ― here we go." The gate opened, and the seventeenth combatant walked out of the east gate. He was dressed in a white shirt and beige pants, a big broad-brimmed straw hat, sandals and sunglasses. He carried a large duffel back slung over his shoulder, so heavy that it sagged at both ends. He had a machete sheathed at his side. He came out onto the ground and stopped when he saw the two men facing off. He stood there in surprise. Sting turned his head to look at him, and at that moment Manslayer charged him, and the two pivoted over and over, each trying to make the other stand and fight with his back to the other combatant. While they were thus engaged, the seventeenth combatant crept away along the wall, and then walked along the far edge of the cliffs toward the trees. "Who is this guy?" Dawes said, as the monitor showed a shot of the man with the duffel bag just as he reached the trees, "And what does he think he's playing at?" Grayson looked down at the card in front of him. "This is ― Mr. Happy," he said, deciding on the instant to read the name with a straight face. "And he does seem pretty happy to be out of that scrap ―" "Oh, look what's coming," said Dawes with relish. Through the trees and onto the killing ground came the Shadow. He came without stealth, still carrying Bloodaxe's battered shield. He began to swing the morningstar when he left the trees. The two fighters paused, not sure whether to face the third man or continue the fight they were in. Sting started to back away, and Manslayer at that moment turned and swung his greatsword, striking him hard on the helmet. Sting staggered under the blow. Manslayer backed away from Shadow and toward Sting to finish him off, but he had lost track of Shadow for one crucial moment, and Shadow closed the distance at a run. Just as Manslayer turned back to track Shadow, the morningstar flew past his head, wrapped around his neck, and Shadow sprang back and jerked him off his feet. Grayson and Dawes commented excitedly, sometimes talking over each other, as Shadow finished off first Manslayer, and then Sting. "There!" Dawes cried, "What was I telling you? That's how to do it. That's the way it's done. And Shadow ― " "Shadow now has seven kills to his name ― and eight eartags ―" "Eight hundred thousand dollars, not bad for a day's work," Dawes exulted. "What a warrior that guy is, what a man!" Grayson felt his gorge rise as he watched Shadow pull off Sting's helmet and cut off his eartag. He repressed it, telling himself he would get used to the bloodiness of this sport, the same way a butcher got used to his job. "And Mr. Happy," Grayson made himself say, "is a happy man today." Out on Savage Island, contestant number nine, whose moniker translated as Super Lucky Guy, had found a spring. It seeped from a high rock face and gathered in a rock pool that had been carved out over the centuries, and then trickled away across the glade and went to ground in a bog. Here he unloaded his basket and his two satchels, and the twenty pound sack of rice he had carried all that way over his shoulder. On the monitors he could be seen setting up a canvas awning over part of the little clearing beside the spring. He got out the little camp stove he carried, primed it with propane, and washed a pan of rice and set it to cook. He hung a rope hammock on a pair of stout trees, and stowed his goods neatly under the awning against the rock face. In the control room, one of the technicians watching the monitor commented that Lucky Guy looked for all the world like he was just out there camping. He'd even left his machete, which seemed to be his only weapon, leaning carelessly against the rock face. No too long after that, a proximity alert sounded, and several monitors in the room showed that the fourth combatant, Ghost Soldier, still wandering the island without having met anyone, was close enough to Lucky's camp that a confrontation seemed likely. Thus, most of the technicians were watching when Lucky Guy startled as Ghost Soldier came into sight, and grabbed his machete. Ghost Soldier stopped. He made no move to level his great moon spear, or draw either of his twin swords. Lucky Guy shook his machete and shouted at Ghost Soldier. Ghost Soldier just stood there. "Maybe he's some kind of martial arts superman," Noel Rawlins, the technician, commented to Anna Chan, the woman at the next terminal. "Which one?" she asked. "Right," Rawlins laughed. "What if they're both martial arts supermen?" Ghost Soldier, without saying a word, bowed to Lucky Guy. Lucky Guy stopped yelling. Ghost Soldier bowed again. Lucky Guy, after a moment, lowered his weapon and bowed slightly. Ghost Soldier continued along the path, walking within spear range of Lucky Guy, but without threatening him. He walked passed, turning his back on Lucky Guy, and continued down the trail "Huh!" said Rawlins. "What the hell was that?" Lucky Guy watched Ghost Soldier out of sight, and then sat down again by his stove. He put his machete down too, but within easy reach this time. "You have to understand," Dawes explained to Grayson, and the rest of the listening world, "that not everyone wants to fight. Even in an environment like the one created out there, where everyone is fair game, and everyone has come prepared to fight, you don't necessarily want to at any minute." Grayson—who had been wondering all day, as he watched the men go out, wander around, fight, and die, if he would be able to stand up for five seconds in a fight like one of those he had seen—could only listen and try to understand. "Ghost Soldier has a different kind of point to make, then," he said. "I can't say that he's actually making any point at all, except he met a foe, a guy not heavily armored, just sitting down to his lunch, and he decided not to engage him." "There's no doubt he would have won," Grayson added. "With that big spear? And all that armor? I don't know what damage Lucky Guy could have done with a machete before Ghost Soldier cut him down. If he ever reached him. That spear is a distance weapon." "Right. So Ghost Soldier didn't think he was up to his weight, so to speak." "Could be." "But all the eartags are worth the same." "Well," Dawes allowed, "if Ghost Soldier comes back in alive, I'd sure like to ask him what that was all about." Richard Farley called over and sent both James Grayson and Colonel Dawes out on their lunch break. Lucy met them in the hallway to escort them to the staff canteen. The Colonel went to join the armorer by prior appointment, and Lucy asked Grayson, a little breathlessly, if she could join him . Grayson, gratified, was pleased to agree. Thus it was that the tech crew on duty were the first to see the next encounter on Savage Island. And it was not what any of them expected. The combatant called Mr. Happy, as heavily laden as Lucky had been, tramped down the path to Lucky Guy's camp, limping slightly on stiff legs. Lucky, when he heard the approach of an intruder, picked up the machete and stood, b. this time he uttered no threats. When he saw Happy, he called out and waved his machete. "What is he doing?" Rawlins asked, and hit the button to alert the producer that a confrontation between two combatants was imminent. Richard Farley watched on one of his monitors as Super Lucky Guy and Mr. Happy met in Lucky's little clearing. Happy called out excitedly and dropped his duffel bag. The two met, and then they embraced, and then holding one another by the arms, stood talking a few moments. Then Lucky Guy gestured toward his encampment, and went with Happy to help carry his duffel bag under the awning. The two of them chattered away while they sorted equipment, and Lucky lifted the lid of his cooking pot and prodded the rice. Rawlins punched through to Richard Farley and said, "I guess these two won't be fighting." "I guess not," Farley answered shortly. "Why not?" Rawlins asked. "I mean, didn't they get told – don't they know – " He was interrupted by a voice behind him. The director, Dr. Hari Mukhtar, who monitored everything the technicians watched, was looking at his screen over his shoulder. "Every combatant on the island knows exactly what his purpose here is. Obviously, these two are in collusion of some kind." Rawlins ducked involuntarily. "Uh – is that supposed to happen?" "It is unfortunate," Mukhtar pronounced, "but not unforeseen. Ganging up like packs of dogs is not unusual when men are reduced to their most uncivilized state." Rawlins watched Lucky Guy scoop out rice into a bowl and hand it to Happy, who took it and fell to. Lucky took a spoon and ate from the rice pot. "Right," he said to Dr. Mukhtar. 'Uncivilized' was exactly what he would have called what he was seeing. After all, as he told Anna later, and made her laugh, neither of them had even a shred of a napkin. The staff canteen stood in the island's town center, across a well-kept garden on the far side of the admin center from the Wall. Grayson and Lucy's progress was interrupted several times by island staff stopping to congratulate Grayson, and sometimes Lucy as well, for their programming. Sometimes they had to recap their favorite fight. Shadow, James realized, had already become a legend. Grayson and Lucy were bumped to the front of the line to choose from sandwiches, hot dishes, soup and fruit salad, coffee, tea and cakes. Lucy filled her plate with more food than James thought he could eat in a day. He looked away so she wouldn't think he was watching her. When their island identity cards had been swiped by way of payment, Lucy led the way upstairs to a small dining room, and chose a table on a balcony looking out over one of the practice fields. James watched half a dozen men clad in the distinctive orange shirts that worn by the combatants on the island doing calisthenics, running the field, swinging a huge sword at a post, working slowly through a kota He found himself speculating on how they would present themselves on the other side of the Wall. He wondered how many of them would still be alive by this time next week. And he found himself enjoying the speculation. "So," Lucy said around a mouthful of crab salad, "what do you think so far?" Despite the amount of food on her plate, Lucy ate daintily, and as though they had all the time in the world. Grayson shook his head. "It's just mind-blowing! This whole set-up! The planning that's gone into it ―" "The money," Lucy added. "Of course." "What do you think," Lucy, concentrating on her plate, spoke quietly, "you know, of the philosophy?" "What philosophy?" Grayson countered, not wanting to be caught out. "Oh, that true courage is demonstrated by men fighting face to face. That guns are cowardly, and that this whole set-up is one big worldwide demonstration of this idea." She looked up at him, so as not to miss the smallest nuance of his reply. "I think it's a very interesting idea," Grayson said. He sensed her disappointment, so he added, "Of course, there's a lot more going on here than that." "Why do you say that?" He glanced behind him to see if anyone was in earshot, then replied quietly, "What do you think about Super Lucky Guy? And his pal, Mr. Happy?" It was her turn to study him. She said carefully, "They certainly seem like they're on a different kind of trip than everyone else." "Yeah," he said. "Or . . . " "Or," she reached for another possibility, "maybe there's a language problem?" He smiled. "Right. Maybe they don't actually know what they signed on for." "But they're all supposed to be volunteers," she said wonderingly. James smiled to himself at her tone of voice. That was a good trick, disguising a shrewd thought as an innocent question. He'd used it himself a thousand times. He was beginning to like Ms Tran. "Did you see the look on Lucky Guy's face when Lone Eagle charged him?" "He did seem surprised," Lucy agreed. "Do you know where these guys are from?" "I can find out," she said, and then she made a self-deprecatory face as Grayson looked at her inquiringly. "I've met a few people around here. I can ask them what language they're speaking." "Good," said Grayson. "I'd like to know." After a moment's silence, Lucy said, "I've never seen anyone killed before. That I know of," she amended. "I thought it would be just like the movies, but it's not. The sounds they make. Seeing the weapons work. I had to leave. I had to go put my head down." She hunched her shoulders. "Was that unprofessional?" "It's human," Grayson said. He was warming to her even more, since she'd opened herself to his criticism. Or it could be that's why she'd done it. "I was pretty shocked myself," he admitted. "But at the same time, I have to admit, it's the most exciting thing I've ever seen. And . . . I can't wait till the next fight." "It is exciting . . . " she said. Her face scrunched up again. He found it endearing. "I hate to admit I like ― the parts that I like." "What parts do you like?" The food was really good. Grayson finished his chicken-salad sandwich. Chalk up another point to Mr. Van Allan. "The glory," Lucy said unexpectedly. "The idea of going out to fight to the death. Putting your life on the line to prove your strength and courage. That gets me every time. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry for the men who are dead. I met them, and talked to them. But that makes it seem more important. That I knew them a little, before they died." "And it's not like they're doing anything that human beings haven't done for thousands of years." Grayson had been telling himself that all day. "Even dinosaurs were doing it," Lucy agreed, with a wan smile. "Still . . . " "It's hard when you haven't seen it before. They say on the battlefield it takes awhile to get hardened to, you know, the sight of men's insides coming out." Lucy was looking, unseeing, at her plate. "Is that something we should get hardened to?" "Don't we have to?" he said lightly. What he'd seen so far had been shocking, and he'd had some bad moments, but not enough to ask for his ticket home. Not on his first day! He changed the subject. "Here's something interesting. They weren't planning on having a sportscaster for Savage Island until I tracked down the stateside producer and pleaded my case." She looked at him, eyes wide. "How do you know?" "What do you mean, how do I know? That box we're shooting in wasn't originally designed to be a studio. And there are no dressing rooms!" "Oh," she said. "Of course." He hoped she'd tell him more about the pre-production period, which she'd been involved in for several months, but instead she asked him about his accommodation, which he hadn't seen much of, truth be told, other than two exhausted night's sleep. Lucy didn't have a bungalow, he learned. She slept in what was essentially a staff dormitory, where everyone was allotted single rooms, with the men in two buildings, and women in another. She had finished her crab salad, and now he watched as she wrapped up the two extra sandwiches, the plate of brownies, and a banana, in separate napkins, and stowed them in her bag. She blushed as she saw him watching her in surprise, but she didn't stop stashing the food. "I have food issues," she said, a little defensively. "I was born in a refugee camp. I like to be in control of my food supply. So I cache food whenever I can." "I'm sorry," James said, but that didn't sound right. "Sounds like a good plan," he added. Then he launched into an amusing anecdote about walking into the locker room after covering a women's soccer match, and finished his coffee. "We have a few minutes. Have you seen the garden yet?" she asked as they prepared to go. "Should I?" Grayson didn't give a damn about gardens, but he had figured out that he was having lunch with probably the most beautiful woman on the island. He didn't mind the idea of promenading around with her so everyone would know. So they walked the red gravel paths among the extravagant foliage, ruthlessly trimmed and shaped until it seemed almost tame. They stopped at the large tiered fountain, with the rampant elephants spraying water into various pools. A winding stream flowed along a rocky bed to the ornamental pond. A stone warrior god stood stern-faced on a plinth overlooking the water where carp rose among the flowering water plants. "What's that?" James asked. "I think it's a statue of Alexander the Great," Lucy said. "No," said James, who hadn't recognized the image, "that." What looked like a pile of trash turned out to be a miscellany of offerings set at Alexander's feet. Flowers, small stones and coins predominated, but Grayson also saw a pen, a couple of photographs held down by rocks, a gold ring, a pack of cigarettes. "They've been coming here and making offerings," Lucy told him. "Who? The combatants?" "Not all of them. A few." "More than a few," James stood over the plinth and noticed a knife, and a couple of sodden envelopes among the offerings. "Other people have been making offerings, to bring luck to their favorites." "People have favorites? Already?" "Oh, yes."She ducked under a branch weighed down with flowers. "The technicians, the staff, they know these men may die. Some of them died today. So they've been picking, you know, their favorites. They do this to bring good luck to the ones they choose." Her eyes slid up to his. "I did a segment on it." "Good for you," he told her. "For the next few days, until we get enough guys out there so that there's a proximity alert and maybe a fight every ten minutes, we're going to need filler. And that's a good one." As they turned the corner to reach the studio door he lowered his voice and said to her, "Will you do me a favor?" "Of course, Mr. Grayson!" she even blushed a little. "James," he smiled at her. "Please." "Thank you, James. What can I do for you?" "Just . . . anything that seems a little odd to you, about this place, I'd like to know. Okay?" He flashed her his charming smile. "And I'll buy you lunch." This was a joke, when meals were a part of their salaries. "Lunch?" she asked. Well, thought James, why not go for it? "Or dinner? At my place?" She smiled. Honestly, he was starting to get addicted to it. "I'd love to see your place!" she said. Grayson felt his imagination stir at the possibilities that opened up. "Great!" James held open the door to the studio for her, pleased with himself. From a possible adversary, he had turned her in to a possible ally, and his own set of eyes and ears on the island. And she seemed to know a whole lot about this place already. At the doors to the elevator they were met by one of the techs who told Grayson that Farley wanted him in the studio right away. A proximity alert was in progress. He felt excitement at the prospect of another fight, and was relieved. It was going to be all right. He was going to be good at this after all. He smiled down at Lucy. His delight rose when she grinned up at him in response. "The game's afoot!" he quoted. "Shall we go and call it?" "Let's!" James ushered her into the elevator. Out on the Island, Death finally met his man. He had prowled the interior jungle paths for what seemed like hours, and finally emerged onto the rocky beach on the Island's west coast. He'd been walking since early morning, sweating like a pig all that time. He'd already gone through his water and he was beginning to think this whole exercise was one big joke on him. The joy of hunting other men had worn off as his heat exhaustion increased. When at last he saw a combatant ― a real combatant, dressed as fancifully and armed as dangerously as himself ― he was no longer in the mood to go out and kill the guy out of hand. Ghost Soldier had taken a leisurely stroll up the shore to where the tip of the island disintegrated into a series of wave-swept atolls that were islands themselves at high tide. Here he chose a large rock, laid his weapons down around him, took off his helmet, and knelt looking out to sea while he ate another snack. After he drank and washed his hands, he knelt there awhile, certain that his senses would warn him of an approaching foe from any direction. He enjoyed imagining such a foe trying to sneak up on him, and being amazed to find him completely aware of his approach, and ready to take him on. He liked Zato Ichi movies. But no one came. He listened to the waves, to the call of the birds and insects, and to the wind that stirred the leaves behind him on the island. A few times he thought he could hear in the noise of the waves the sound of steel impacting on metal or wood. Once he thought heard a man's shout from far away. Or perhaps it was just the voices of the water speaking to him. In other places on the island, desperate battles were being fought, lives were ending or being changed forever. Here, the sea continued in its inexorable task of grinding this island into sand. And all was peace. After some time, he packed his water and food, donned his helmet and weapons, and took the path along the western shore to see if anything was happening down that way. And there, at last, in late afternoon, he found himself facing a black-armored warrior with a winged helmet, a short spear, and a sword. "What are they doing?" Grayson asked, sliding into his seat in the studio. "They're facing off," Dawes said, glancing sideways over at him. Grayson looked at the camera and smiled. They were rolling. He fixed his mike to his shirt collar. "How long do you think that will last?" "Well, Death here has a short spear and a sword. Ghost Soldier has a great moon spear and two swords ― " "The great moon spear, that's the curved-sword-on-a-stick?" Grayson asked. "That's right." "Great moon spear against short spear, who wins?" "I don't know," Colonel Dawes said. "I can't wait to find out. And see, Ghost Soldier has his back to the sea, so that he can't really be approached by anyone else, should Death close in on him. But Death has that path to the interior at his back. He knows there may be up to two dozen guys out there. If he closes on Ghost Soldier, someone could come in behind him." "And he'd be toast," Grayson heard himself say. "Could be. Unless he's awfully good ―" "Or lucky." "Right," Dawes agreed. "So he's looking at Ghost Soldier, and he's wondering if he can take him fast. But that great spear probably means he can't." "And Ghost Soldier?" "He's probably thinking he's in a really good position, and he doesn't want to close on Death, because then he'd be giving that position up." "And so there they stand," Grayson concluded, "facing off. Where's their courage now, Colonel?" Dawes bristled. "Their courage, James, is evident, in that they're out there at all. They dare to stand face to face and if necessary fight to the death against their foe." "But they're not fighting," Grayson pointed out. "Just because they're brave doesn't mean they have to be stupid," Dawes said cuttingly. "I see what you mean," Grayson admitted gravely. "What's Death doing now?" The sun was setting into the sea. Ghost Soldier stood in the gathering twilight. But Death, on slightly higher ground, backlit against the horizon, was moving. "It looks like he's changing ground." "He's retreating," Grayson said, on a laugh. "He's definitely falling back ― " "He's making a strategic ―" "Yes, he doesn't like the look of the Ghost Soldier, so Death is definitely taking a holiday tonight ―" "It doesn't mean he's afraid! There are a lot of long days ahead of these guys, a lot of chances ―" "And when they don't like the odds, they can just fade back into the jungle, as we see Death is doing right now." As the sun reached the horizon and the shadows grew dark amid the trees, as the sky flamed over Savage Island, a lonely lopsided long triangle of land in a remote corner of the sea, the last combatant of the day emerged onto the killing ground. He wore a suit of leather armor, a Roman-style helmet, and carried a trident in his right hand, and a net in his left. At his belt he wore a short wide-bladed sword. James Grayson, grateful for the research that lay ready under his hand, spoke up, "And here, the last combatant of the day, number twenty-four, we have one of the weapons forms of the original Roman gladiators. A net and trident man. What were they called?" The Colonel answered easily, "A retiarius. This is a style of professional gladiator from Ancient Rome ―" "They weren't usually dressed in armor like that, were they?" "No, the armor is later, it's a suit of leather plates hardened with wax. It makes surprisingly strong armor, but it's still light and even somewhat flexible." "He's got a sword at his side as well." "And it is a Roman sword, the short wide-bladed gladius that is both for cutting and stabbing." James glanced down at his paper again. "And this combatant has taken the fighting name of Spartacus, after the Roman gladiator who led a slave rebellion against Rome. The most famous gladiator in history, wouldn't you say, Colonel?" "Now what they used to do," the Colonel continued, "is pit these trident and net men against gladiators using sword and shield. And usually it was the trident man who won. So Spartacus may find himself with a big advantage here." The proximity alert sounded. Grayson and Dawes exchanged a glance of excitement as they saw what was about to happen. The day couldn't have ended any better if it had been scripted, Grayson thought. Out of the trees, as the sun touched the ocean, came the day's undefeated champion, Shadow, holder of eight eartags, the first man to get a kill on Savage Island, who had gone on to win seven other fights to the death. Shadow emerged steadfastly from the trees. He carried the battered round shield that he had taken from a dead foe, and his morningstar hung from his right hand. As he stepped onto the killing ground, he began to swing it in figure eights, the heavy weighted morningstar at the end of the chain flashing red and orange in the last of the day's light. Spartacus moved further out onto the bare ground, and half a dozen cameras turned as he went, offering a terrific choice of shots. He was tall and lanky, with long legs, and the wiry build of a long-distance runner. He moved with swiftness and grace, angling toward his opponent, trailing the net behind him, the lead weights at the edges digging tiny trenches in the sand as he moved. He held the trident just past its fulcrum, its three lethal prongs pointed toward Shadow. "This is, in actuality, Mike Hartman, a graduate student in history from Great Britain," James said, as the two men moved together across the wide stretch of ground. "Studying for his doctorate in Late Roman warfare at Lancaster University, he's had extensive experience with historic recreation groups, and as you can see, he really knows how to use these weapons." Grayson had no doubt in his mind that Shadow would kill Mike Hartman. He was pleased to realize that he felt only anticipation at what was about to happen, and a little regret for the graduate student as, thirty feet from his opponent, Shadow broke into a run. After a hard fight, Shadow brought his sword down hard on Spartacus's shoulder at the base of his neck. Spartacus fell to his knees, blood streaming. Shadow stepped back. As the sun slipped into the sea, Spartacus looked up at the last glimmer of light, wavering, and as it slipped away, he fell face forward onto the sand. Shadow, leaning on his sword, looking around for any movement on the perimeter in the gathering twilight. Then he dropped down on his knees next to Spartacus' body. And then, as he had before, earlier in the day, after other such victories, he sprinkled a handful of sand over Spartacus' still-warm body, thanked his spirit aloud for a worthy fight, and bade it go its way toward the sunset. He knelt there, head bent for a few minutes. The last light faded. The hammering ache in his head that had receded during the fight was back again. He looked around his perimeter once more, but still nothing moved. He then drew off Spartacus' helmet, checked the telltale, and then sliced the eartag off with the edge of his sword. He got up heavily, looked around once more, and then dropped his helmet on the sand by his weapons. With the last eartag in his hand, he walked toward the nearest gate in the Wall. "He's coming in!" Grayson shouted. "The Shadow is coming in!" "Don't be too sure of that," Dawes said. "This man is a warrior. Who is to say when he has had enough? Remember, he opened the gate earlier just to chuck his eartags in." "He has left his weapons behind, he has done his day's work ―" Grayson continued, ignoring Dawes. "Let's just wait and see ―" On the monitor they could see Shadow reach the eastern gate. He held up the eartag he had just taken to the camera over the gate. Grayson saw that it still bore blood and bits of flesh from Spartacus's corpse. For a moment the bile in his throat broke through his exultation, but then he heard the Shadow speak. "That's it," the man said hoarsely. He pulled off one glove and then the other, and shook out the eartags he had stashed there. "That makes nine for the Shadow. And I'm done. I want to come in. All right?" Then he pressed the large red button that opened the gate, and holding his trophies he passed inside, and the gate closed behind him. In the studio, James commented, "This is a far cry from the flowery utterances we heard from Shadow this morning, praising his foemen as worthy adversaries, and sending their spirits on." "That's war," Dawes told him, with a glaring eye that said more than his words of the difference between a man who had seen combat, and one who only talked about it. "You go out to war full of passion and idealism, singing songs and waving the flag. You come back tired, bloody, wounded, and that's when you know, whatever the reason, whatever the politics ― " he spat the word "― what you've been doing is killing men. Just like yourself. And you're just goddam lucky and goddam glad that you're one of the ones who made it home." Grayson opened his mouth, but for once, he had nothing to add. On the monitor, the inner gate opened. A crowd of people who had gathered there pressed forward, and as the Shadow emerged, they cheered and clapped and waved their hands. Shadow, without his helmet, revealed himself as a tall, heavy-set black man in his late thirties. He looked around slowly, weighted with exhaustion, streaked with blood, fresh blood from his recent kill over dried dark stains from earlier in the day. He held up his hands, and the clapping and cheering grew louder. Shadow's face cracked into a tired smile. "And if you're lucky," Dawes continued quietly, "that's the welcome you get, when you come home. And that almost ― not completely, but almost ― makes all your pain and sacrifice, what you did, what you saw done, and what was done to you, worthwhile." By the Wall a bank of lights snapped on. Grayson saw that Lucy, sharply lit, was down there, with a camera and microphone. Good for her, he thought wryly. She really had the uncanny knack of a great journalist to be at just the right place at just the right time. "Mr. Wells," Lucy said, "Welcome back. How does it feel to be the first hero to emerge alive from Savage Island?" "Am I the first?" he asked. The cut on his head seeped blood. He wiped a hand across it, winced, and looked down at it. "Yes, sir," Lucy said, "you are. Not the first to come back," she amended with her gamin grin, "but the first to come back a hero. A hero eight times over." Shadow shook his head. "Killing people, that's not heroic. I went out there, like it says, because there's only one way to prove to people that a man is brave. Brave is chancing your arm against whatever comes at you. Brave is taking on whatever they got, and giving back your best. And I did that." "Yes, you did," Lucy agreed with fervor. "You certainly did." Grayson, watching, reminded himself to compliment her on that bit. That was good work. "And what do you plan to do," Lucy continued, "with the nine hundred thousand dollars that you have earned today?" And then Mr. Wells's smile was huge. "I have some plans," he said. "But I don't want to talk about that until I really do have the money. Who's to say there isn't some fine print somewhere, right?" James looked over at Richard Farley, who had just stepped into the room. That was a line that was going to be expurgated before the broadcast went out. Of that he was sure. A surge of movement on the monitor and a flare of arc lights heralded the arrival of Jules Van Allan himself to greet the Shadow. And James found that detail very interesting indeed, that Jules Van Allan would want his picture associated with the first killer to emerge victorious from his crazy island's killing ground. Van Allan shook Craig Wells's hand. Cameras flashed. He'd brought his own photographers. "Mr. Wells, I am Jules Van Allan. I personally assure you that even at this moment, nine hundred thousand dollars has been transferred to the bank account that was set up for you when you arrived on this island. You'll remember signing the paperwork?" Shadow nodded. "In addition, an additional five thousand dollars is in your account, in acknowledgment that you spent a day on Savage Island, for a total of nine hundred and five thousand dollars. Shadow said, "It's true, then? I really have the money?" "You really have the money. And let me congratulate you sir," Van Allan said, shaking his hand again and turning toward the cameras, "It is an honor to shake the hand of one who has proved himself so overwhelmingly to be one of the world's most courageous men." "If I really have the money ―" Mr. Wells began. "No doubt of that, sir!" Van Allan proclaimed. Craig Wells turned his face toward the lights. "I fought some worthy men today. I know the Island doesn't give you anything if you fail, if you fall. But I would like to give ten thousand dollars to the heirs of each of my fallen foes. They were brave too, and they deserve it. And since I'm the man that sent their spirits to the next world, which I hope is a good world, then I'm the one that should make sure they get buried right, and that their next of kin gets something for their trouble." The audience cheered, Craig Wells, no longer the Shadow, raised his arms in the air, and the cheers and clapping increased. A couple of white-gowned medics arrived then and ushered Mr. Wells to the medical lab so that he could be checked out, and his wounds cared for. Jules Van Allan waved at the crowd and the cameras, and followed the man off screen. In the Oakland apartment of Arthur Baines and his wife, Trish returned from the bathroom where she had retreated when the killing began again, to find her in-laws starting another round of beers, and Tyanna opening a new bag of chips. "Nine hundred and five thousand dollars," Pete said, obviously for the fourth or fifth time. "Trish," he said, when he saw her, "what could you do with nine hundred and five thousand dollars?" "He won, then." Ronnie got up and acted out the fight between Shadow and Spartacus, with commentary and groans and mimed blood spurts thrown in, while Pete annotated the fights with any details he missed. Zunia sat down next to Trish and took her hand. "Arthur still hasn't moved. Look – there he is now." Trish glanced over at the television, where Zunia was pointing to Arthur's red light glowing steadily from the same position. "See?" Zunia said, "He's not moving. He's going to be fine!" She said this, Trish thought, for the fortieth time. "That fool!" Ronnie announced, brandishing a spoon for a sword and a plate for a shield, "if I was there I'd ―" "You'd go down in seconds, like that guy with the two swords!" "You'd probably have your helmet over your eyes, like that time –" "Shut up!" Ronnie cried. "You'd probably lose your way trying to get out of the gate," Tyanna said. Ronnie gave her a look. "Damn," said Pete. "If I had nine hundred thousand dollars ―" Trish stood up. With a frozen smile she thanked them all for coming over, and said she was fine now and appreciated their support. When she had spoken six or seven more lies they finally got the message, gathered up their things and filed out of her apartment. "Call me," Zunia said, "if anything happens. If you hear anything." Trish nodded. "And if they want to talk about him," Pete put in, "you know, for the television, you have my number." Trish nodded again, and closed the door. Nine hundred ― and five ― thousand dollars was a whole hell of a lot of money, she thought, her back against the door. She walked to the set, where a commercial was playing, and turned it off. A moment later, she turned it back on. What was Arthur thinking? In his little clearing deep in the heart of Savage Island, Arthur had settled down to an MRE just as night fell. He had set up alarms all around his encampment; tripwires and noise makers, to give him the seconds he would need to keep from being taken by surprise if anyone should find his hideout. He didn't think anyone would. He'd gone back over his trail, made sure his tracks passed on down the trail and didn't lead the way in. The foliage all around him was mostly too thick to pass through. He'd drawn rocks and brush and bushes over the only way in through the trees. The cliffs above him were sheer, and he was under the overhang out of sight. If anyone came that way, he would hear him before he was seen himself. But he didn't think anyone would. He had filled the pair of 5 gallon collapsible water jugs he'd brought in his pack, and purified the water in them for drinking. He'd set up his bedroll in the darkest corner under the overhang, where he could see the whole clearing at a glance, but he would be difficult to find in the shadows. He breathed in the fresh air, slowly and deeply. The jungle wasn't quiet, of course. The breeze moved an infinite number of leaves that made their own quiet sounds. Most of the birds were still, but the night shift for the frogs and insects was on the job, and the bats were out in force; you could occasionally see their darting movements overhead. Scorpion smeared himself again with scentless bug repellant, and lay against the cliff, blinking calmly into the darkness, a little lonely, and a little pleased with himself. It was like death itself, being out here, away from loved ones, friends, one's real life. It was like walking toward death with a hand out, not unafraid, but not avoiding it either, the great mystery, the step to where anything might happen. When he'd done this before, he'd been young, and every hour had been stolen from his real life. The hard-won skills were now a gift to him, a second chance at a new life. He thought of Trish. If he got back alive, she was going to kill him. He smiled. If he got back alive, he should be able to buy her appeasement. All he had to do was stay put, stay quiet, stay down, and wait. With a little luck, no one would even know he was there. And after all these difficult years, he must have a little luck coming. As darkness fell, the remaining combatants on Savage Island prepared to face the night. Mansoor Firouz, in his Persian armor an conical helmet, had set up an ambush at the turn of the main road and guarded it with his madoo and spear. Ghost Soldier could be seen on camera sitting on a rock facing the sea, well-guarded by distance from any night-time attacker, his sword ready to hand. An hour after dark, there was movement. Stalker, a white South African, the twenty-second combatant released onto the island, rose from his hiding place in the trees, and started quietly down one of the paths to the interior. He had seen and smelled the blood on the sand when he came through the gate. It was real, then. He was ready. He had always been a night hunter, but this, this was the best game of all. He walked slowly, quietly, listening for the sound that was not part of the jungle, breakage in the foliage, disturbed creatures, breathing, the scent of fear, the feeling of eyes watching . . . alive as he never was at home, all his senses straining into the darkness, Carl Luden, the Stalker, went hunting for men. In their little camping place, Lucky and Happy sat late over their fire, as though they were the only men on the island, talking and drinking tea, and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes that Lucky had brought the fixings for. When it was late, Lucky got in his hammock, and Happy lay down on his blankets, and soon they were snoring as though nothing could happen to them. Stalker came along the path and smelled the smoke of their smoldering fire. Like a shadow he drifted through the trees, coming closer. The cameras followed his movements, and the technicians on duty followed him too. He paused at the sound of snoring, then crept forward again, a little faster. His prey was not only sleeping, but advertising his whereabouts. Amateurs, Stalker thought with contempt. They deserved what they got. He had spotted the sleeper when he heard the second snore. He backed up so quickly he tripped over a root and fell, catching himself. The snores stopped. He heard one man call out to another. He saw one shape in a white shirt move in the darkness, holding a machete. The two voices continued to chatter to one another. Stalker got slowly and quietly to his feet, and slipped back among the underbrush away from the little camp. Two men camping together – perhaps they were technicians? In any case, a group of men together was not the prey he sought. He was a different kind of hunter. He backtracked along the path and chose another. He would seek another victim for his skill. In the control room the technicians hooted as Stalker headed up a trail toward the uninhabited northeastern part of the island. One, with a sound of disgust, handed over to the other a chit for a six-pack of beer. James worked late into the night at the studio, doing commentary on combatants that had been the second, third and later choices of the producer when taping the "live" commentary. All this would be reedited into a single broadcast. It was going to seem, James thought, as though he was keeping up with everything that happened on the island, every daylight hour, even when they happened simultaneously. He knocked off at last and headed for home. He'd missed the dinner service, not wanting to stop work, but had been promised that someone would be sent to his bungalow. He headed down the stairs, thinking over the night's work. It had been a long time since he had worked this hard. It felt good. At the bottom of the stairs, Lucy sat waiting for him, holding a larger paper bag. She smiled and shifted from one foot to the other. "You said you would show me your bungalow." She held up the bag. "I've got your dinner." Three rows of bungalows stood on the cliffs over the sea on the eastern edge of the peninsula. James had one of the ones in a cul de sac that backed up the cliff and looked out over the sea. Lucy was profuse with her praise of what she described as one of the best houses. She was delighted with the little rooms, shielded from the neighbors by tall, thick stands of bamboo and a profusely flowering hedge, the windows designed to catch the breeze in the evening, with the louvered shutters that kept out the sun during the day. She admired the cozy living room, ready-furnished with rattan chairs, and the stone tiled kitchen and the dining area that looked out over the sea behind the house. She brought plates from the kitchen and set dinner for them both on the patio under the arbor, where they could hear the pounding of the surf on the cliffs below. He went to shower while she warmed their plates. As the soothing water poured over his back and shoulders, shocking, repulsive images from the day dissipated, and Lucy, her scent, her fascinating smile, her intensity, the grace of her movements, the shape of her cheek, her breasts, began to possess his mind. He soon found he was not as tired as he thought. He put on his robe and went, hopeful and expectant, out to the patio. Dinner was ready, plates covered against insects, but she wasn't there. What an idiot, he thought. This beautiful – gorgeous – woman in your house and you let her get away. He called her name, but there was no answer. He walked through the living room, the kitchen. He turned in to his bedroom and stopped. She lay in the middle of his bed, propped on his pillows, looking up at him. She wore her unreadable expression, Lucy at her most enigmatic. She still wore her clothes, but she had taken off her shoes. He sat down on the bed and laid a hand on her small, warm foot. When she didn't move, he let his fingers run gently up her leg. She grinned her gamine smile and reached for him. They commenced a shared exploration of inlets, bays, gentle hills, a warm peninsula, and deeper, secret places, where they met with gasping and with joy, until both were smeared with sweat, exhausted, and spent. And after there were only gentle dreams. Part Two Van Allan's Revenge ### Chapter Seven Dave Thornton sat on the hard wooden chair outside the office of the governor of California's chief of staff, ostentatiously balancing his laptop on his knees, and typing away with deep concentration. He was the picture of a man who did not have time to waste hanging around outside someone's office. He had been prompt for his appointment over half an hour ago. He stared down at his screen, wondering how much longer he was going to be kept waiting. A stir outside in the corridor caught his attention as Wendell J. Donovon, the governor's chief of staff, clattered into the room trailing half a dozen minions, petitioners and hangers on,-and talking a mile a minute. Thornton finished what he was working on, not hurrying, and shut the lid of his computer while Donovon spoke to each of his followers, and his secretary, and then sent them on their way. "Dave! Sorry to keep you waiting. You know how it is." Thornton noticed that Donovon's smile was too wide, and did not reach his eyes. The message was, "I'm too busy to be bothered by the likes of you." Since Wendell Donovon occupied the office that was probably going to be his next year, Thornton thought this arrogance was misplaced. After all, election season had begun, and the governor was a lame duck. But he got up and cordially held out his hand. "How are you doing, Wendell? Good to see you." "Uh, Phyllis, hold my calls, will you? This way, Dave." Thornton secured his laptop in its slot in his briefcase, and followed him in. Wendell didn't go to his desk, but offered him a seat in the corner by the window, in one of the big leather chairs. He opened a glass door in his bookshelf and brought out a bottle of Scotch and a couple of glasses. "Drink?" "Thanks." Wendell always had good Scotch. Thornton waited until they had both taken respectful sips before he asked him. "What did you want to see me about?" The governor's office had called him that morning and told him Wendell Donovon wanted to see him. Dave had caught the first plane he could get and headed up to Sacramento. The governor had agreed to endorse John Savage at a speech he was giving at the Winegrower's Association tonight. The campaign had carefully timed this endorsement for the best affect. It was important that nothing went wrong. Donovan leaned forward. "The governor wants to know what the heck is going on? Did you know about this Savage Island thing?" "We saw the advertising, of course. Like everyone else, we thought it was some kind of publicity stunt at first, for a reality show or something." "And it's not." "No. It seems real enough." "Yes. I didn't see it, but it's my business to know what's going on. Especially if it's something that might embarrass the governor!" "I don't see how," Thornton said. "Savage Island! John Savage for governor! This is Jules Van Allan's little show, am I right?" "So it seems." "And how long have you known that?" Donovan's voice rose. "Not long," Thornton said. "And it's not going to matter. Jules Van Allan has an axe to grind with John Savage. We knew that going in." "Jules Van Allan has a whole shit load of money," Donovan reminded him. "And what he's doing with it is a long way from here." "Tell me," Donovan said, "that if the governor endorses your man, it's not going to turn around and bite him in the ass!" Thornton put down his drink, hardly touched. "Of course not. How could it? Jules Van Allan is engaged in an escapade in a foreign jurisdiction. If he breaks the laws of this state, or the County of Los Angeles, John Savage will take action." "This is about that case, isn't it?" Thornton nodded. "We think so." "What is Van Allan up to?" "Whatever it is, Wendell, we're not going to let it get any traction. Mr. Savage has already got calls in to all the attorneys general of the United States, to set up a concerted effort to prevent any homicidal lawbreakers from profiting from their crimes." "Is that so?" "Yes, it is. We're working up a protocol that will at least take the reward out of the system for any Americans involved. Starting with freezing any winnings in their bank accounts." "I see. You've talked to Scott about this?" Scott Durndell, the Attorney General for California, was already a team player for Savage. He knew what the future would bring. "He's already on board." Donovan nodded. Thornton continued, "We won't announce until we have everyone acting in concert, but John Savage is going to come out ahead on this, and he's going to look good." Donovan considered this for a minute. Thornton waited. Let Donovan have his moment of power playing. In less than a year he'd be out of a job. "All right," Donovan conceded. "I'll go along with that. I'll let the governor know." He rose. Thornton got up as well. "And the governor will endorse Mr. Savage on schedule?" "That's what I'm going to recommend. You get your announcement out soon, all right? It will make it look like the governor has backed a leader for California." "Not just for California," Thornton said, as he opened the door. He glanced back in time to see the arrested look on Donovan's face. "Thank you for your time, Wendell. We look forward to the governor's speech." Score another one for Team Savage, he thought, as he smiled briefly at Donovan's secretary. Turning damage control into a big step forward in the game. He'd have to ride herd on the staff to get those calls out to the attorneys general offices, and get them on board. He'd finish up the concerted steps they should all take together on the flight back. He could make this work. It's what he did. The cameras that Van Allen had caused to be set all over the Island could operate in very low light. The plan was that whatever combat happened at night would be edited together in an "update" segment at the beginning of the regular broadcast. But on this first night of Savage Island, monitors continued to broadcast all night long. At Van Allan's villa overlooking the southwest cliffs of Savage Island, Jules and his guests enjoyed their after-dinner drinks. A bank of monitors had been installed on one wall, and a few of his guests were entertaining themselves calling up one view after another, keeping track of the combatants still on the Island. Van Allan sat on the far side of the room, noting with interest who still anticipated the next confrontation, and who sat with their backs to the monitors, unwilling to follow the action any further. Van Allan believed that as with war, repugnance would wear away, and once people became accustomed to the level of violence, objections would become marginalized. After all, throughout history this was a traditional sport. And people had not really changed. He smiled to himself and sipped a glass of wine, listening to the talk around him like the noise of the sea. The first move was in place. The first move would serve as cover for the second, while also accomplishing another goal. Like the deer hunted in the wood, by now John Savage's head had come up. He would think he knew from which direction the danger lay. And that was what made Van Allan's position so perfect. "I beg pardon?" He smiled at Sissy, his business manager's wife, who had addressed a remark to him. His own thoughts were so much more entertaining. But he exerted himself to give her his attention, and play the good host. Though his smile was not really for her. He swirled his drink in his glass. He lifted it toward the monitors and toasted the dark figures out there on the Island, hunting one another, or being hunted. It was well begun. Late in the night, when even the insects were still, one dark shadow met another on a path on the island, and there were shouts, and cries, and steel met steel, and arms clashed. The technicians watching in the darkness saw one figure leave the other, clutching his side, running from the fray, breaking from the trail into the jungle and then falling into the brush to hide. Hellbringer had met Ace Man. Ace Man had fled. He did not stay to see Hellbringer keel over, gasping, and lie dying. Ace Man simply lay as quietly as possible, and bled rather a lot, and wondered why his pursuer did not come after him. Hours later, when the first vestiges of dawn lightened the eastern horizon, the man calling himself Tiger made his move. Covered with insect bites, freezing all night, dehydrated and hungry – he had dropped his pack down a gorge early in the day – Tiger crept back toward the Wall, hoping to get back before sunrise without meeting another combatant. He spied the body lying across the trail and froze, and stood there many long minutes, while the dawn light increased, until he was certain that the guy wasn't moving, that it wasn't some kind of elaborate trap. Up in the control room, the technicians on duty watched as this comedy played out, egging him on, and calling him names for his carefulness. When Tiger at last ran forward and stuck a knife in the man, just to be sure of him, the derision of the technicians brought three or four more people into the room, and thus there were half a dozen witnesses to the second man to claim a kill on Savage Island. Tiger stabbed Hellbringer's body numerous times before he finally turned him over. It was then he found the gaping wound in the stomach from which Hellbringer had bled out over an hour ago. He also found a couple of rats and a swarm of insects enjoying a fresh meal while it was still warm, and Tiger's shriek, and his backwards fall, his flailing arms, his dropped weapons, his copious vomiting, featured as the funniest moment on Savage Island for days to come. But Tiger recovered himself, and if the cut he made to remove Hellbringer's eartag took with it more flesh than necessary, and if he had to vomit again when he did it, that didn't make it any less valuable. If he had been paying more attention, he might have found the broken track that Ace Man made when he left the path, and found one more victim for his knife. Ace Man was lying unconscious in the brush. But Tiger did not notice, and continued on his way to the nearest gate, where he pressed the button, and managed to enter before the first combatant of the second day was released onto the killing ground. Ace Man, who roused himself shortly after, and also made his way back to the Wall, was not so fortunate. Thus it was that Armadillo, the first combatant of the second day, came out the gate heavily armored, bristling with a handful of spears, and faced Ace Man, whose knives were ineffective against Armadillo's heavy plate armor, and who couldn't get close enough, past his spears, to find a joint to stab. Ace Man was staggering with pain and dizzy with blood loss by the time he reached the Wall, but Armadillo was clumsy, it took him a number of tries to kill Ace Man. Ace Man didn't want to play anymore. He asked Armadillo for a truce, for a pass to the Wall, but Armadillo was raring to go, and was not about to let his first prize go by out of some kind of misguided sense of mercy. After all, this was the game he had signed up to play, a place where kill or be killed was the law of the land, and his first prey was at the end of his spear. Later, the technicians muted down Ace Man's cries and pleading, and Armadillo's screams for him to shut up, just shut the fuck up, when they edited the fight for the feed. It just went on too long. In the end, Armadillo cut off Ace Man's eartag, and left him in the sand in front of the gate that had been just out of his reach. It was a great start to the second day on Savage Island. Grayson found the second day easier. He came in early and narrated for the feed the fight between Ace Man and Hellbringer. He commented ironically on Tiger's performance over Hellbringer's corpse, and empathized with the frustration of both combatants in Ace Man's fight to the death with Armadillo. His empathy with Ace Man, his sympathetic remarks, made the pointless death of the wounded man more palatable, somehow, to viewers. Farley, listening, made a note to point out to Van Allan the value of having someone like James Grayson covering Savage Island. There were four more savage fights that morning, as the island filled up with combatants, and it became more difficult for them to avoid one another. James felt different about it now. He had a new detachment from the violence, and he was secretly hiding a new excitement as well. He felt aroused. The violence, the sudden spates of ferocity, kept him at a simmer. But the real source was the part of his mind that was still breathing in the scents of the night before. Any spare moments were spent thinking hoping planning dreaming about tonight, and whether Lucy would come home with him again. Lucy made coffee when he woke up. She kissed him sweetly, wetly, tenderly, then left his house before dawn, to go home and change before starting work. He'd seen her three times that day. The first two times she ignored him as though he didn't exist. He'd begun to school himself to dismiss their night as one of those brief adventures, not mattering after all. But the third time, as he passed her in the hall on the way back to the studio, her hand drifted between them and brushed his thigh. Desire raged up in him again. His ensuing discussion with Colonel Dawes over how large a population of combatants the Island could hold was confrontational, and he had to walk himself back to his usual optimistic curiosity in order to do his job. Lucy joined him again for the lunch break, though today he had no time for a sit-down lunch. With nearly twice as many combatants, mostly on the south end of the Island, proximity alerts were nearly continuous. He went outside meaning to grab a drink and a bite and a quick walk around for a bit of exercise, when Lucy fell into step with him, carrying a basket. She took him to a bench in the garden across the pond from the statue of Alexander. The pile at the warrior god's feet had grown, James noted, as Lucy laid out choices of sandwiches, fruit salad, edamame, chips and brownies between them. "Wow," he said. "Thanks!" "I've been looking forward to it," she said, once again disguised behind her stone face. He reached out and tucked her hair behind one ear and she glanced up, grinning like a kid, all the joy of the previous night between them again. He took her hand. He had the urge to kiss it. "It was fun," she said. "Last night. Thank you." Then he did kiss it. "Thank you," he said. He loved it when she blushed. She glanced around, took her hand back and used it to choose a sandwich. "There's a rumor going around that you might want to know about," she said. Grayson's attention sharpened. "Oh? What's that?" "Well, it's not going to be a rumor much longer. The phones have been ringing off the hook." She grinned around a huge bite of ham and cheese. "That's a joke, because a lot of it's e-mail and faxes, and the phones don't ring up there. They chime." "Got it. What's going on?" "The New York offices have been overwhelmed with calls for more coverage and more live feed from all over the world." "That's not surprising," Grayson said, starting in on his share of the chips. "But that wasn't the plan," Lucy said. "These first three days they planned to do all-day broadcasts during daylight hours, but after that ― " "Edited three-hour broadcasts per day, I know. And I'm doing the commentating in the studio. So?" "New York wants to change it to all-day broadcasts all the time. Did I mention phones ringing off the hook? Because in New York, that's what's happening." Grayson's brows rose. He certainly wasn't contracted for that. And that meant . . . "Do you think they're going to want to do that?" "Well," her face scrunched up adorably again. "There's a whole lot of money involved." "I'll bet." Going from three hours a day of programming to sell, to twelve hours of programming to sell was a huge increase in revenue. "But I'm the exclusive sportscaster. It's in my contract." "That's right. If Mr. Van Allan agrees to this, they're going to be talking to you about renegotiating your contract." "To get more hours out of me? Fat chance." "They know that. They're talking about bringing in two more teams. And they think," she glanced up at him, "they're proposing to ride this wave by broadcasting 24/7. Once there's a big enough population of combatants on the Island, there will be fights all day and all night." Grayson shook his head. "They'll have to broadcast most of it without a sportscaster. I've got an exclusive." Lucy smiled. "Yeah? How much money were you thinking of turning down? They're being offered several fortunes. This thing is huge. The outside world is going crazy over it." He knew it. He'd known it from the moment he first heard of it. "I'll just bet," he said. On the way back to the studio, Grayson gave himself up to pleasing thoughts. A new contract, some additional terms, more money ― much more money ― it was all turning out just as he'd suspected, and even faster than he'd ever hoped. Which brought him to a halt on the pathway. Lucy almost bumped into him. He apologized absently and started walking again more slowly. Why hadn't Van Allan and his team expected this? Whoever heard of a business plan where the start-up team didn't project the best-case scenario? Weren't they planning for success? And this best-case scenario was not a huge leap. Since Grayson had seen it himself from the start, why hadn't they? If they weren't thinking about this, if this was not the plan, then what were they thinking about? Something more was going on her that just Van Allan making a big, expensive case for his ideology about manhood and courage. Grayson's antenna for a good news story was up. Long ago, he had started out as a reporter, and a reporter had an intuition for this kind of thing. When he got back to the studio one of Jules Van Allan's assistants met him in the lobby and told him that Van Allan wanted to see him. "I'd be happy to," he said, "but I'm needed back in the studio. Right now." Just then the elevator opened and Farley stepped out. "James! There you are." "I'm just on my way up," Grayson held the elevator door for Lucy to precede him. "Never mind that," Farley said. "Mr. Van Allan needs to talk to you." He waved away James's look of enquiry. "We'll add the commentary for any fights you miss later tonight." "All right," Grayson acceded. Lucy got out on the second floor and headed for the editing room without a backward glance. He realized he'd forgotten to thank her for bringing lunch. He smiled to himself, thinking how he'd make it up to her, later. Farley got out on the third floor, and gave him a look pregnant with excitement, and a thumbs up. "Good luck," he said. James, who wasn't supposed to know what might be going on, raised his brows in an unspoken question, and turned that look on the assistant as the elevator door closed and continued up to the top floor. The assistant said nothing until they reached the next floor. "Right this way, Mr. Grayson." In his office, Van Allan's director, his accountants, one of his assistants, and two of his friends who were also some of his legal advisers, were holding an intense confab in a corner of the room, their voices low, while Van Allan and his chief assistant, Ken Frize, took a conference call with several of his directors and business partners in the United States. Ken Frize frantically scribbled notes and made calculations in the margins, while Van Allan sat back in his chair, looked out over his island, and listened in mild amusement. When the conference came to a close and Frize cut the connection, he looked up at Van Allan and said, "You never expected this place to pay for itself." Van Allan shook his head. "That's not what it's for." "Yes, sir. But it seems – " "It looks like it could be the best investment I ever made. My God." He stood up and walked out onto the terrace. Beyond the Wall he could see the most recent combatant, heavily laden, awkwardly balanced, strangely garbed, seeming to waddle toward the path on the west side of the island that led to the beach. "Who's that?" Van Allan asked, and turned to the monitor to find out. Elena Carmine, his other assistant, had left the corner meeting to join them when Van Allan rose. She looked down at her notes. "That is combatant number 2-15. He calls himself the Shark." Van Allan's face cleared. "The one who wanted scuba gear?" "Yes, sir. He's carrying a fishing spear. You had to pass that one personally, sir, since it wasn't in the catalog." "I remember. From Belize, isn't he?" "That's right, sir." "So the question is," Van Allan mused, "whether he will make it past Ghost Soldier, and reach the sea." He turned to look at the monitor that in his office always carried the map of the island, with the tell-tale markers of where all the combatants were located. Shark's cerulean blue marker could be seen heading for the trail that led to the western coast. Ghost Soldier's white marker was seen moving along the shore. At that moment it began to turn away, toward the interior of the island. "It looks like he might just make it," Van Allan said. "I have a couple of our guys from New York standing by. They've requested a conference call with you." Van Allan raised his brows. "Something you can't handle?" "They really want to talk to you, sir." Van Allan nodded. "Schedule them in an hour or so." "Yes, sir." Van Allan joined the group in the corner that opened to include him. "Well? More new ideas?" Since the first kill by Shadow, the calls and e-mails had come, routed through his offices in New York and Los Angeles. The demand for more feed, the worldwide excitement, and the rising outrage, was fueling a need for more product that Van Allan's team had not expected. They found themselves in the pleasant position of overseeing a runaway success, and had spent the last few hours brainstorming ways of making more of it. "'All Savage Island, All the Time,'" Sandy Bruitt, one of his legal advisers, began. "The twenty-four hour cable network," his wife, Suneet, clarified. "Twenty-four hour live feed." "And we can continue to sell the three-hour daily broadcast to other channels," Frize, at Van Allan's shoulder, put in. "'Best of' downloads," Sandy said, pointing at the next item on the pad in front of him. "'The Best Fights of Savage Island,'" Van Allan repeated. "I like it," he looked at Frize and nodded. Frize made a note. "'Heroes of Savage Island,'" Suneet amended. "Including those personal profiles, and following their deeds on the Island." Van Allan nodded. "We'll have to see if any heroes arise. But it's worth considering, yes." Suneet suggested, "What about Shadow?" "The first hero of Savage Island. Good idea. Ask him if he'll cooperate, and offer him a bonus." He looked over at his friend Lars Vanderijn, who had been invited to sit in on the meeting. "What do you think, Lars?" Van Allan asked. Vanderijn stood up, not quite steadily. He had a half-empty glass in his hand. "I think it's repugnant. I think you've descended into barbarism, and you're taking the whole world with you. I think you should pull the plug." He held his ground under Van Allan's shrewd gray gaze. "But since I'm obviously in the minority here . . . " he started to go, "I'll catch the next helicopter out, if it's all the same to you. I've seen enough." Vanderijn headed for the door. Van Allan said, "Lars . . . " Vanderijn paused, but didn't turn back. "Thank you for coming," Van Allan said. "Elena will make your arrangements, at your convenience." Lars Vanderijn's fingers lifted as he walked out of the office, and that was all the farewell that Van Allan got. Ken Frize answered the inter-office phone and said to Van Allan, "Grayson is here to see you." John Savage stood watching the video Dave Thornton had brought to his office. Jules Van Allan shaking hands with the bus driver, Craig Wells, congratulating him on his courage, and promising that the nine hundred and five thousand dollars he'd earned was already in his account. Practically everyone in the world had seen this broadcast. Practically everyone in the world had a strong opinion about Savage Island. The front page of every newspaper and the top of every blog had pictures of Shadow sprinkling dirt over one of his victims, or holding up a bloody eartag, or framed shots of the dead bodies lying in their gore on the sand. There'd been half a dozen assaults attributed to men fired up watching the broadcasts. Sports bars were experiencing record crowds with several feeds from Savage Island running at once. On talk shows, news shows, radio shows, pundits, celebrities and politicians inveighed against it, while others, intrigued, praised Van Allan's vision. "Have you been in touch with Roger Farshaw?" John Savage asked his aide. Farshaw was the state attorney general for Illinois. If Craig Wells, a resident of Chicago, could be determined to have committed murder, it was Farshaw who must bring the charges. "I have a call in to him," Dave replied. "He hasn't gotten back to me." John Savage nodded. Dave was prescient. He always seemed to know what John would want to do, sometimes before John knew himself. "Ask him if he's going to charge Wells with eight counts of murder. And you might suggest to him that freezing his fat new bank account might not be amiss." Dave nodded. "Under what pretext?" "Criminal enterprise? Hell, is it too soon to get him for not paying taxes? Why not. Let's fuck up this little game every way we can. Any word yet from Jakarta?" Thornton shook his head, then turned away to take a call on his cell. Savage watched highlights of the second day's combat on Savage Island, noting that he himself, though sickened, was also excited. He saw the guy in black and green stalking a half-naked half-armored guy with two swords, bring him down with a bolo, and stab him through the neck. Savage took a deep breath to calm his heart rate, while still trying to listen in on Thornton's conversation. Thornton muted the television as he turned back to Savage. "That was Richard Callahan, Farshaw's assistant. They thought of the bank account freeze, pending charges for murder, but wherever this account is, it's not the one Craig Wells has always used." Savage nodded. A new account, probably offshore. It's what he would have done. Thornton added, "And the Wells family has left Chicago. Wife, two kids, and her mother who lives with them." Savage stared at him. "They've gone? Where?" "There's no record of them leaving on any flight, and they haven't gone over the border to Canada. Neighbors haven't a clue, and distant family members aren't talking." Savage nodded. "Van Allen lifted them out of there.." "That's what Farshaw thinks." "Well, what's our move, then, Dave? What is our next move?" Dave Thornton said patiently, "What we agreed, John. We're coordinating with the attorneys general of the fifty states and the commonwealths." "And how's that going?" "Well enough. We tell them we're making a list of people who don't want to cooperate, and that's lighting a fire under them." "Good." We've talked to the governor, we're looking into the charges. We think it's uncivilized, but the crime is not being committed here . . . " "Right." John Savage bit back. "We're still just sitting ducks." When the monitors turned to the island overview, in preparation for the release of one of the last combatants of the second day, Dawes turned to Grayson and said quietly, "I thought you were upstairs." "I was," Grayson replied. Dawes was fishing for information, Grayson realized. That meant that he had heard the rumors, but he had not yet been brought inside. Grayson felt a brief glow at the confirmation of their relative places on the pecking order. "How did it go?" Dawes asked finally. "It's all good," Grayson smiled at the camera as the red light winked on again. Grayson had waited briefly outside Jules Van Allan's office. He saw one older man in an expensive lightweight suit walk out past him carrying a drink, pretending not to see him, and then after a few moments others filed out as well, their exhilaration obvious. Several of them greeted him warmly, and then Ken Frize, Van Allan's chief assistant, motioned for him to come in. The de facto sovereign of Savage Island was alone, standing at the window that looked out over the Wall. The sun was sloping toward the sea, tinting the scattered clouds with reflected orange and yellow light. "It's been quite a day," Grayson remarked, joining Van Allan at the window. "Yes, indeed," Van Allan agreed. "Would you like a drink?" Van Allan tipped the gin and tonic in his hand, indicating the drinks cupboard across the room. "You can find anything you like over there." "No, thank you, sir," Grayson demurred. "I'm still working, you know." "Ah, yes, of course." There was a pause as Van Allan looked out over the killing ground where four more men today had died. Farther out on the Island, one man had died on the beach, two in the jungle, and one up on the highest ridge after a spectacular fight backlit by sun and sea, and a god's-eye view of the Island. A fight that could not have been more cinematic if it had been deliberately staged. Grayson, conscious of the passing time, and of how much work he'd have to make up tonight, taping commentary for any events he missed, prompted him. "Things are going to your satisfaction, sir?" Van Allan nodded. "Yes, very much so. And for you?" James hesitated. He still wasn't sure what he should school himself to feel as he watched men fight and inflict terrible wounds, and sometimes die. By their own choice, of course. That was the saving grace. But did they all really have this choice? Grayson thought of today's noon-time release of a slight old man in what looked like black pajamas and sandals, loaded down with tools, camping equipment, and bags of rice. Farley had told him his fighting name was Mr. Free Spirit, but he was another combatant that Lucy hadn't been able to get any background on. James said, "It has certainly been another amazing and fascinating day." "Yes," Van Allan turned back to him. "You have probably heard that our offices in Los Angeles and New York have been inundated with calls. Never has there been so exciting a sport broadcast for television. Everyone wants it, absolutely everyone." "I see," said Grayson. "We have sold out live broadcasts on both coasts, in stadiums, a very popular idea. A huge amount of press is being generated, too. Book contracts ― a publishing company has offered a million dollar book contract to the first man to return from Savage Island alive." "Lone Eagle?" he said. "He was the first man back alive. They're going to give him a million-dollar book deal?" Van Allan frowned. "Is he out for good?" "Looks like. They sedated him. Those spear punctures to the chest seem pretty painful." "Yes. Of course. Well, we'll see." Van Allan motioned to the leather chairs across the room, and waited until Grayson had taken one before sitting down across from him. He nursed the glass in his hand, smiling. "You have a contract to be our chief anchor for two years, and now ― it seems we are going to have to expand our broadcasts. As you know, we only planned to do this all-day hour-by-hour programming for the first three days. After that, you get your break, and we go to daily three-hour segments, with your commentary. But now we've had numerous offers for continuous coverage, from stations all over the world. We are having to rethink our plans." He put his glass down. "So you, Mr. Grayson, have us over a barrel." He opened his hand, inviting Grayson's response. James leaned back comfortably in his chair. Shadow, he realized, was not the only man who was going to make a fortune today. "What do you want from me, Mr. Van Allan?" "We will need to renegotiate your contract, to take into account our expansion. If you are willing to do this,you may reserve the right to do edited commentary over any events you please . . . " In order to expand, they were going to need to pay him off. Grayson smiled pleasantly. He was going to leave this island, when he chose to go, a very wealthy man. " . . . and of course," Van Allan was saying, "we will make it worth your while. Very much," he emphasized, "worth your while." "Sounds good to me," Grayson acceded, rising. "Why don't you talk it over with my agent, and we'll put together a revised contract?" Van Allan rose as well. "Very good. Thank you for being so reasonable." He offered his hand. "You are doing an excellent job." Grayson shook Van Allan's hand, surprised once again at its softness, at its lack of pressure. "Can I ask just one thing?" "Of course." "Two combatants who came out yesterday – number nine, I think it was, "Double Fortune Man," we're calling him "Super Lucky Guy." "Yes," Van Allan said drily. "I heard." "And the other was up in the high teens, maybe seventeen, eighteen, Mr. Happy. And another one today. Number thirteen." "I don't recall that one," Van Allan said. "The first two seem to know each other. They don't act like the other guys. Lucky Guy seemed awfully surprised yesterday when Draco attacked him." "Perhaps he is not used to being attacked," Van Allan suggested. "Perhaps in his own country his reputation is so great that he never is attacked anymore." "But if he knew what he was getting into here, he should have known that anyone he met was dangerous to him." "Some people," Van Allan said as he walked Grayson to the door, "never expect that anything bad will happen to them. No matter what the odds, they are always surprised when fortune goes against them." "Where are they from?" Grayson asked him. "Do you know?" "Haven't a clue," Van Allan said. "Ah, Ken, call Mr. Grayson's agent, will you. He has agreed to renegotiate his contract. And Ken," Van Allan looked directly at Grayson as he said this, "make sure that Mr. Grayson is happy with the new terms. Very happy. We want him with us all the way." Grayson was thoughtful on the way back to the studio. Van Allan wasn't a stupid man. Did he think that James was stupid? Possibly. James had always known that his good looks were a great disguise for his intelligence. No one expected someone who looked like him to have read a book. At least not a serious one. His degree in journalism from Syracuse, graduating cum laude, might have been a fluke, after all. If you didn't know Syracuse. But did Van Allan really expect him to buy the story that the rice-toting guys were just like the others? Or maybe he thought that since Grayson stood to make a fortune on Savage Island, he wouldn't look to closely at the details. But details interested James. It was one of the things that made him good at his job. ### Chapter Eight The two rice men, as the control room techs had taken to calling them, hung out in their camp all day. They built a lean-to over their supplies, and a fire pit. They kept their water bottles topped up from the spring. They dug a latrine. They cooked rice every couple of hours and ate it with enjoyment. And they talked on and on, like old friends. "Maybe they're on the lam," Peter Austin, the control room tech on duty that afternoon guessed. "And they heard about Savage Island and decided to use it to lie low together." "No," Wei Ling, his shift partner said, "they're from the same dojo. You wait. They practice empty-hand. No weapons." "Care to lay something on that?" Peters asked, his southern American drawl coming to the fore. "A drink?" "A drink? That's all?" "No more of that," Dr. Mukhtar said. "Save that for when you are off-duty. I'm not seeing 2-6. Is he dead? Or have we lost his signal?" In the afternoon, the rice men, growing bored, grabbed Mr. Lucky's now-empty basket , picked up their machetes and went for a walk. They found the path that led to the ridge trail and climbed it together. When they reached the top of the ridge where the whole Island was laid out at their feet, they stood silent and watched while Iskandar, just emerged from the gate in a red-crested helmet, oblong shield, spear and short sword, met Donalbane, armed with a long sword in one hand and a spear in the other, his body protected by chainmail, and his head covered with a simple barred helmet. Iskandar picked up a great sword recently wielded by one of his fallen foes, and with it began raining blows on Donalbane's head and shoulders, which Donalbane punched away with the edge of his shield, while trying to close so he could use his axe. Both men had forgotten Mansoor Farouq, whom Donalbane had chased from the beach toward the Wall, until Mansoor's spear ran through the fleshy part of Donalbane's arm, and into Iskandar's shoulder, pinning the two combatants together. In shock and pain, Donalbane dropped his axe. Mansoor shoved both of them off-balance with his spear, and then picked up the axe and cracked the head of first Iskandar, and then Donalbane, killing them both. He then proceeded to be heartily sick inside his helmet. This did not prevent him, eventually, and with a number of idiosyncratic groans, that echoed all over the world in the days that followed, from harvesting the eartags of the two men he had killed, and even, eventually, finding the ones Iskandar had on him. Mansoor let himself into the gate in the Wall, possessed of five eartags. An Eastern Orthodox Christian from Turkey, studying business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mr. Bunyamin Yalmin chose to be returned to Turkey, where he was not charged with murder, but was hailed as a local hero. Super Lucky Guy and Mr. Happy watched the events on the killing ground from their vantage on the ridge. When Mansoor had gone, leaving the blood-soaked ground and the four stained bodies behind him in the sand, the two small men were seen hurrying back down the trail toward their camp, machetes at the ready. They took the wrong trail and ended up crossing the island and heading toward the Wall, which is how they happened to find Mr. Free as he tried to avoid death at the points of the two slender sharp swords of Andrus. Andrus's long prematurely-gray hair had come loose under his light helmet. His colorfully embroidered red silk shirt and black trousers made him stand out against the jungle, and he screamed again and again as he stabbed into the foliage where Mr. Free pressed himself deeper and deeper into the trees. Super Lucky Guy yelled and charged, waving his machete, and to his credit, Mr. Happy was not far behind. Andrus looked up at the sound and backed up so fast down the trail that he was gone before either of the rice men reached him. It took them some minutes to talk Mr. Free out of his defensive position, but eventually the three of them t gathered up Mr. Free equipment and hauled it back to their camp. They cooked rice, set up another hammock, tended their new comrade's wounds, and talked long into the night. In the morning, they built a brush wall to encircle their camping place. Andrus headed down one of the two island roads, where he met and ambushed Stone, coming along a side trail. Andrus went to ground, drank and ate, and headed back to the Wall after dark. On his way he was ambushed in his turn by Stalker, becoming the third of the man-hunter's bag. And the sun set on another epic day on Savage Island. Jules Van Allan considered the faces of the half-dozen people in different boxes on his monitor. Ken Frize had set up this conference call in his residence after dinner. He'd taken reports from several of his offices, but these people had called again and again, asking to speak with him personally. He touched a button, bringing the face of Mike Kerr to the fore. The young man's face was raddled, though he had taken some pains to neaten his hair and clothes. But still it was clear the man hadn't slept in quite awhile. Still, his eyes gleamed with excitement, and he had to make an effort to keep his passion out of his voice and talk with the measured reserve of a business man. "The servers crashed over and over yesterday, as soon as we went live. We mirrored the site half a dozen times, but we want to expand to a whole new level, because there's so much we can do ―" "We should have a subscriber-only section," the woman, Catherine Chelsea, put in, unable to hold back anymore. "A section where subscribers can access any of the cameras on Savage Island. It needn't be expensive, but the volume ―" "I have the figures for you in the second attachment I sent ―" Mike continued. "Subscribers should receive 'Best Fights of the Day' e-mail," Catherine added. "But we need a huge upgrade in our server capacity to follow up on this." Van Allan glanced over at Ken Frize, following the conversation on his own computer across the desk. Frize nodded and gave him a thumbs up, meaning he'd read the proposal and approved. Deanna, next to Ken, caught Van Allan's eye and nodded as well. "Very well," Van Allan said. "You have my authorization. Go ahead and expand." Mike Kerr, in the middle of adding another point to his argument, stopped, his mouth gaping. Catherine put in, "Thank you, sir. We have a one, two, and three-tiered expansion proposal ―" "The third being the greatest?" Van Allan asked. Ken and Deanna nodded at him even as Catherine agreed. "Then the three-tiered proposal is approved. Next?" "Online betting," Catherine Chelsea said. "Mr. Van Allan, a great deal of betting is already taking place. Side bets occurred at all three of the stadium venues during the opening hours. Bookies are reporting people offering bets and holding bets on each of the combatants; how long they will last, who will win, that kind of thing." She leaned forward. "There's no reason why we can't be the ones holding book on this. We can set up an off-shore website for every possible wager on outcomes on Savage Island." Mike Kerr cut in, "If you would like to look at the third and fourth attachment I sent you ―" Ken and Deanna nodded and Van Allan raised his hand. "Approved. Get that in hand as soon as you can." Catherine Chelsea flushed with satisfaction. "Thank you, Mr. Van Allan. And thank you for agreeing to talk to us." "Very good. I appreciate your bringing your ideas to my attention. You can be certain that when these expansions are launched, you will be rewarded in keeping with your contributions. Is that all? Good. Thank you all." He cut the connection and sat back. Ken and Deanna finished their end of the call, and sat regarding him. "Well, well, well," Van Allan said. "We do seem to have a hit on our hands. How gratifying." "Yes, sir," Ken Frize flipped a page in his notebook. "Brent Wasserman in Los Angeles wants to talk to you about seeding some of the talk shows with your point of view." "Is he running into problems? We already arranged that." "Ah, we've run into a much larger demand than we expected." "More phones ringing off the hook?" Van Allan smiled. "Yes, sir." "Tell him I expect him to handle it." "Yes, sir." "Tell Peregrine, when he puts those suggestions from the New Yorkers into effect, not to stint on their new contracts." "Yes, sir," Deanna made the note, smiling. "We don't want them taking good ideas to anyone else," Van Allan reminded them. "And now I think I had better join my guests for dinner, or they will think I have deserted them. Deanna, good night. Thank you for all your hard work." "My pleasure," she said warmly. "Good night, sir." "Ken, will you join us?" "Thank you, sir. I'd be honored." As they passed along the short hallway to the noise of his guests enjoying their dinner in the dining room, Van Allan said, "Any word? Any reaction?" Ken Frize didn't ask who he was talking about. "Savage has held two unscheduled staff meetings. It looks like Thornton has jetted off to the governor's office. Probably to ensure the endorsement. They're trying to get all the U.S. attorneys general on board with a single plan to stop bank accounts and make charges." "Any charges yet?" "Not yet." Van Allan stopped outside the door of the dining room. "Not even Craig Wells?" "Not yet. And we were able to lift the family out without a glitch." "No more than I expected. Thank you, Ken." He laid a hand briefly on his assistant's shoulder, and then adjusting his expression, he opened the door on the merriment within. By the time James finished catching up on narrations for fights that occurred while he was otherwise engaged, it was late, and Lucy had long-since left the station. He could feel his exhaustion; he really needed a good night's sleep. He turned down a ride home in one of the little electric carts. Instead, he walked along the road to his bungalow stepping from one pool of light from the solar lambs to another. The walk would allow him to climb down from his post-performance high. The thrill of the day's events still buzzed in him. He had resigned himself to the letdown of quiet and solitude while he found a bite of supper, had a drink, and got ready for bed, when he looked up to see all the lights on in his house. He had not left the lights on. While he stood there deciding whether or not to call security, his front door opened and Lucy stepped out, dressed in a midnight blue satin robe with a silver dragon twined across it. Her hair was loose around her shoulders. Her face wore its remote goddess look. And then she smiled. "I sent your housekeeper away. Ming, she's a friend of mine. I've got a supper laid out. Do you want to take a bath first?" They had supper first after all, and then they took a bath together. And he did sleep well, very well, eventually. In the pre-dawn light of the third morning on Savage Island, Arthur Baines, the Scorpion, decided he should know his immediate environs a little better. He had seen no one since he'd been stalked by the wing-hat dude in black. A few times he'd wondered if he was alone on the Island. One of the students in his karate class had told him about Savage Island. Fresh from his successful first degree black belt test, excited to apply his skills, little Terrell Oliver brought his laptop to show his martial arts teacher the catalog for Savage Island. He wanted Arthur Baines' advice on how he should spend his points. Arthur couldn't believe it. "Is this some kind of game?' "No, man, I looked into it. People are going to fight, and you get a hundred grand for making just one kill." Arthur, looking over his shoulder at the screen, put his hand on Terrell's arm. "It says you have to be eighteen." "No, look – it says you have to be eighteen if you're from America. My Mom's Dominican, and if you're Dominican you can be sixteen. The age depends on when you become a man in your country. I'm a man in my Mom's country; I'll tell them I'm from there." Arthur peered at the screen, reading about the island, about courage, about fighting to the death for money. He reached over and hit the power button until the screen went black. "You are not going to this place. You are absolutely not going." "But – a hundred thousand dollars – I can take these guys, Sensei, you know how many tournaments I've won –" "Yeah. And you're not going. If I hear you even try, I'll break you in half myself. You hear me?" Terrell took himself off, still protesting. But something that he had read, as he glanced at the web page, stuck with Arthur. Five thousand dollars a day for staying alive. Five thousand a day . . . fifteen days . . . he could be free and clear. And unlike Terrell, he knew what he was getting in to. He knew how it felt to be eye to eye with men who intended to kill you, he knew how to kill when he had to, and he knew it was better, far better, not to be there. But he had these skills still. And fifteen days would see him clear. He took a walk that evening after dinner, telling Trish he was going to pick something up at the corner store. He went to the library instead, and logged on to one of their computers ― he wasn't going to try and do this with Trish looking over his shoulder at home. He'd filled out his application and sent it, but was never more surprised when he got an e-mail a week later, telling him his application had been accepted, and where to go for his medical exam, which he passed. He applied for leave from work, and one morning, no one else the wiser, he caught BART to the airport, on the first leg of his trip to Savage Island. Two days. Ten thousand dollars in the bank. Even if he died, Trish would have some money to help out their situation – but he was not going to die. The Scorpion emerged on the side of the hill. He crouched in the brush and enjoyed the view out over the northwest side of the island. In the east the sun was just touching the rim of the world. Birds called. The frogs and insects clicked, chirped and buzzed. Behind him the stream gurgled. From here he almost thought he could hear the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks off the beach. He saw a figure on one of the beaches, far below him, at least a mile away. Dressed in black, striding slowly northwards . . . Scorpion lay watching quietly, unseen. He started when a second man erupted from the rocks, ran toward the the first with what looked like a long sword upraised. The two men circled, their tension evident. The attacker's longer sword held not enough advantage over a man with two swords, even though one was quite short. Samurai swords, Arthur guessed, against a great sword. It was real then. It was true. Men were here to fight to the death. After a long stand-off, the greatswordsman began to drive his opponent toward the sea, until he was first knee-deep, then thigh-deep in the water. But still he couldn't get close enough to kill the man. Suddenly the greatswordsman fell, knocked over by a wave, or a riptide. At once the two-swordsman was on him. Strangely sickened, Arthur watched while the samurai swung his sword, and murder was done. Then he almost laughed to see the two-sword man charging through the surf after his victim's head. He waded heavily onto the beach, then with his shorter sword cut off his opponent's eartag, and stored it in his sleeve. Then, taking the head by the hair, he threw it far into the sea, and washed his hands in the waves. The Scorpion slunk back into the jungle. It was true, then. It was all true. A smile broke out on Arthur's face as he headed back to his camp, still using the utmost care not to disturb the undergrowth, or leave any trace of his passing. Thirteen more days. It was really going to happen. "Dave! How nice to see you." Marianne Savage leaned a little as she held the heavily carved front door open for him, Thornton noticed. "To what do we owe this...?" She stopped herself, shaking a finger at him. "No-oh. Secrets. Mustn't tell." She straightened and with an assumed dignity led the way past the steps to the sunken, high-ceilinged living room with the huge windows overlooking the lights of Los Angeles. Beyond, the French doors had been opened onto the terrace. Marianne's close friend Julie Fronzutto was out at the patio table, gazing at the million dollar view. Glasses and bottles crowding the table showed Dave at a glance that the ladies had been partying for several hours. "John's in the study, go on through." Marianne waved him toward the back of the house, then stepped unsteadily down into the living room, grabbing another bottle from the bar. "Have you seen this?" Savage was sitting at his desk with his computer on in front of him. Across the room on the flat screen TV, muted, a news channel played. Thornton could see that both screens were running updates from Savage Island. "Fourteen deaths so far. Fourteen!" "They aren't our responsibility, John," Thornton reminded him. "They aren't from Los Angeles. They're not even from California." "You think they won't be? Fourteen people! This is barbaric. We have to do something!" Savage's voice rose, the way it always did when he was angry. He hated feeling helpless. He hated being Van Allan's dupe. And he hated that there was nothing he could do about it. "We have a statement ready," Thornton said, his voice soothing. "We'll release it tomorrow. We oppose what Savage Island stands for. We are communicating with other district attorneys about our responsibilities. And if anyone in our jurisdiction breaks the laws of the county of Los Angeles, or the State of California, we will prosecute them to the full extent of the law." "Yeah," Savage said, "Yeah, right. Of course." He collected himself. "So. Did you talk to him? What did he say?" "I spoke to Wendell Donovan. And I am going to fuck him over for going back on his word like he did!" Thornton allowed himself to show his anger. Earlier that evening the governor had made a speech at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. The carefully crafted endorsement of John Savage for governor had been left out. Wendell J. Donovan had promised them the governor's endorsement, and he had failed to deliver. Donovan would learn before very long that Thornton ― and John Savage ― were not to be fucked with. Thornton would see to it. Personally. "The governor isn't going to endorse you at this time." "Screw that!" Savage exploded. He pushed his chair from his desk and got up. "That bastard owes me ― he owes me!" "Calm down," Thornton said. "He said ― not at this time." Savage walked over and deliberately turned off the television. "All right. When?" Thornton sat down on the couch. He waited until Savage was sitting across from him in the heavy dark leather chair. "The governor is aware that this Savage Island event is aimed at you. He says when you make it go away, he will endorse you. He doesn't want his name in the conversation about Savage Island. And I don't blame him." John Savage smiled. "I understand the sentiment. All right. What do we do?" "We beat this thing," Thornton told him. "We have to." "All right. I wait until one of the men from Los Angeles is killed, or kills or wounds someone, and we follow the plan – I put out a warrant for his arrest. I keep tabs on his family, I track their communications, and wherever the guy lands, I have him arrested. That will put us in front of their message." Thornton was shaking his head. "John, we've been over this before. It's not enough. To get on top of this, you've got to put a stop to it. Take control of it and stop it." "Yes, all right." Savage put his head back against the couch and closed his eyes. Thornton felt a stab of concern at how tired John seemed. But then his eyes opened again, and Dave saw the strength of will shining there, as strong as ever, and he felt that familiar glow. He was backing a winner. "All right," Savage said again. "Listen, how soon before Van Allan breaks the story that ties Savage Island to me directly?" "We think he'll do it just before the primary. That's when it would have the most effect. But he may have another surprise in store, before them." It's how Thornton would have done it, if he were on the other side. Savage nodded. "So . . . we've got about forty days to get ahead of him. All right. I'll get it done." Thornton took a breath of cool air as he made his way to his car. The governor had been a lot more conciliatory than he had let on to John Savage. Wendell had offered him the governor's apologies, and a suggestion that they all sit down together and work things out. The governor did owe Savage, meant to endorse him, and wanted to reach an agreement about how to deal with this Savage Island thing that was dominating the news cycle and making them all look bad. Thornton knew that Savage would find a way to deal with it, if someone lit a fire under him, made him understand it had to be done. He walked away from the house knowing the fire had exploded into life behind him. Van Allan touched the monitor and froze the broadcast of the popular talk show, "What Are They Saying?" as the perky model-cum hostess signed off. The entire show had been given over to a debate about the legality, and the morality, of Savage Island, between the Bishop of Minneapolis, a human rights activist, a professor of ethics, and a decorate paraplegic Marine. "Very good," Van Allan said. "Convey my thanks to Wasserman. This is exactly what I had in mind." Ken scribbled a note to himself and asked, "How many of the guests were ours?" "You mean, in my pay? Why, all of them, of course. If you want to steer a conversation, you don't leave anything to chance." "But ― they're against us! All except the Marine." "And in all the many points of view, what do you remember best?" "The Marine," Ken replied, without hesitating. "And what did he say?" "That one thing we have enough and to spare of is young men who want to prove themselves for fame and fortune, same as it ever was." "And that is the point we want the audience left with." Ken thought a moment. "So, that suggestion that they should land troops and overthrow the administration of Savage Island, what that a plant too?" Van Allan smiled. "Wouldn't it be fun if they tried?" "Here on Broken Sword Beach, Crusher continues his stand-off with Mars," James Grayson, in the studio with cameras rolling, recapped the most interesting combatant positions. "What neither of them knows is that Trueheart is here, right here, hidden in these rocks, ready to take on the winner. If either of them has a moment of inattention, Trueheart will add another tag to his pile. How many has he got now?" "Three?" Colonel Dawes suggested. "Trueheart is going to be so upset when he finds out that when he took that one eartag, that guy, Rozco, had another one in his pocket, which ended up going out with waste management. Such a shame!" "I wonder if there should be a rule change," Lucy suggested, "so that combatants get credit for eartags if they rightfully deserve them." "No, no," James said, and Colonel Dawes echoed him, but Grayson made the argument first. "Choosing to take time to search your foe for any possible eartags, that's tactics. While you're doing that, as we've seen, you're vulnerable to attack, so it goes down to courage. Those who are courageous enough ―" "― and watchful enough," Dawes put in. "Yes, they deserve all the eartags they can lay their hands on. But if they're not willing to risk it, they should just have them given to them." Lucy nodded. "Yes, I see your point. Still," her face scrunched up in a grin. "It does seem like such a waste. These men's lives are worth a hundred thousand dollars on Savage Island, and to have that just thrown away somehow doesn't seem right." James nodded. He knew better now than to bring Van Allan into the conversation, but he made a note to himself to ask him about it when he got the chance. He went back to his recap. "Okay, stand-off on Broken Sword Beach, with Trueheart stalking them. But what all three of them don't know is that Wolf Spider has set up a trap on this trail right here," he turned and put his finger on the map on the monitor, and hoped the camera team would follow him. But they could get the shot tonight, if they had to. "So if the winner heads down the Wolf Spider trail, he's going to find himself the loser after all." James had been enjoying himself giving names to the various locations, trails and landmarks on Savage Island, and places where important or exciting events happened. Thus, the clearing just outside the killing ground where Shadow had taken his rest, was now known as the Shadow Lair. The wide road up the eastern interior of the island was called Blood Road; the ridge was Lookout Point; the beach at the northeastern tip of the island, where the sand of the eastern shore met the black rocks of the western coast was called the End of the World. Other people were picking up Grayson's designations, and James saw the names going down in history along with his own. Fame was upon him, and fortune was promised. The beautiful woman at his side had once again slipped into his bed the previous night where they had made merry hell for long enjoyable hours. Sleep? Who needed sleep? He was on the cusp of a changing world. "Meanwhile, the Stalker has made camp on Wrecker Beach, he's dug in under this rock, just out of where the camera can catch him. And here in Scorpion Gorge the Scorpion still sleeps, but woe to anyone who gets down in there, the man's been busy, he's been setting some traps of his own." They'd finally gotten cameras down into Scorpion's lair, and found a cushy set up, with his equipment stashed under the overhang, all the trails blocked off, and camouflage nets guarding access from above. It looked like Scorpion had dug in for the duration. "The Shark is still in position of Table Rock, here in the west. Since he moved from the Shark's Teeth, he's in a much better position. If anyone comes down onto this little stretch of Black Beach, they'll be in reach, and the Shark might just get his kill." Dom Aguirre was been a sprinter in school. Long and lithe and fast, he had set records for California for his varsity team, and placed third in the nationals. He was on the championship track team at Cal State Long Beach, and set a California record for the 100 meters. He was one fast guy. Dom went with a couple of buddies to the Coliseum to see the opening day of Savage Island. His friends got very drunk and were hugely excited by the blood-lust, by the actual killing, by Shadow's amazing fights. Dom did not say much. He went straight to his computer and sat up all night, downloading fights, poring over the catalog, and capturing pictures of the killing ground. He slept a few hours on Sunday, but in his dreams he was on Savage Island, and when he woke he staggered straight back to his computer, capturing more frames, and building, piece by piece, a plan, for success on Savage Island. That night, he filled out and sent off his Savage Island application. Wednesday, he heard back from Savage Island, Inc. He was asked for his passport number, and was sent for a medical examination. The next day he got confirmation of his acceptance, and was told an e-ticket would be awaiting him at Los Angeles airport, at the United Airlines desk, and that he should pack a week's worth of clothes and necessities. The first leg of his journey was to Tokyo, where he was met and conducted to a comfortable waiting room along with a dozen or so other men. Here, they were asked to give up their phones, and any other devices they used to access the web. These were separately bagged and labeled. They would get them back when they returned. After some hours, they were walked out onto the tarmac to a private jet, where other men were already aboard. Dom checked them out. His one worry was that someone else would have also thought of his plan. Most of the men were big, heavy-set, the kind you'd find excelling in boxing rings and martial arts dojos. None of them looked like a runner. After an excellent dinner, all of the men fell asleep. When they awoke, the plane was on the ground, it was light outside, and the doors were open. They disembarked onto a long runway cut through the trees. He saw rising hilltops to one side. It was hot and sticky. Here they were divided into small groups and ushered on to waiting helicopters. Dom didn't mind the long trip. Sleeping or waking, he acted out his plan. He came out onto Savage Island, and he won. "Mr. Grayson!" "Sir." James stumbled a little as he got up from the table to meet Jules Van Allan, an empty glass in his hand Van Allan's assistant had laid out copies of the new contract on the table in Van Allan's office. There was champagne cooling on a side table. The signing was a formality; Grayson and his agent had already negotiated every point to their complete and even overwhelming satisfaction. "If there is anything I can do for you, James, anything at all . . . " his agent had choked into the phone. "Name it!" His agent had used his fifteen percent of Grayson's advance to pay off a hefty mortgage in Malibu. Grayson was euphoric. The fortune that had been transferred into his bank account, which represented his advance on his next year's earnings, was more than he had made in any three years of his life before, even in his best days. He was to be the head anchor, he retained casting approval over any sub-hosts, and could even fire them if he liked. He had acquired all kinds of leverage by graciously agreeing to renegotiate his contract. He had acquired – and this still left him breathless – profit sharing. "And that other thing – " his agent reminded him. "What other thing?" Grayson asked. "That question you asked, about Mr. Van Allan. You wanted to know why he was on all those talk shows." "I wanted to know why his name sounded familiar, right." "It was after his kids were killed." "They were killed? How?' "I can fax you the article – " "No, no, don't do that." Grayson didn't want to receive any information about Van Allan here on the Island that Van Allan's people would pick up and deliver to him. "Just give me the gist." "All right . . . let's see . . . his kids were both killed in a drive-by shooting at a club. Seven people died. Don't you remember? The Crimson Club shooting. It was real big in the news, what, fourteen, fifteen years ago?" Fifteen years ago Grayson had been working his way through Syracuse University. He did not bother to tell this to his agent. "No, I missed it. What else?" "The subject of all his appearances was the tragedy of good kids being killed by bad ones. Does that ring a bell?" "No, but it sure explains a lot. Thanks." "I'll send you the articles with your next mail packet. Is there anything else I can do for you? Honestly, James. Anything." Grayson finished the call, smiling. Arkman had stood by him a lot of years when his career was tepid. Now he was going to reap the rewards of his faith. Grayson, from far across the sea, wished him well. Part of him shrewdly noted that not only had success caught Van Allan by surprise, he was not capitalizing on it. The profits Savage Island was generating did not seem to be the point. Then what was the point? "Is everything to your satisfaction?" Van Allan asked now, shaking his hand. "More than satisfactory. You've been very generous." He sat back down a little hard, and reached for his glass, only to find it empty. "Started celebrating," he admitted to Van Allan, "a little early." "Well, good," said his patron, his slight Dutch accent just perceptible, "we want you to be happy. You are doing a great job." "Thank you, sir." Grayson initialed the places that Van Allan's assistant pointed out, and signed the last pages of all three copies. Van Allan signed his copies as well, the champagne was opened, and Grayson, explaining that his dinner hour was before him, accepted a glass. He went to stand with Van Allan by the window that overlooked the killing ground on the danger side of the Wall. There were two figures on the sand in a stand-off, mirrored close-up in the monitor on the wall. They had been there for the last hour. Conrad Boldheart, all six foot three and 250 pounds of him, wearing a medieval-style close helmet and carrying a huge white shield with a golden cross and anchor painted on it, had come out and taken up a position outside the gates just as Shadow had on the first day. Soon after, he was almost surprised by Constantine, in head-to-foot armor and a bastard sword, emerging from the jungle behind him. Constantine had been the first out the gate that morning. After a short walk through the jungle that had taken a long time, he had returned to the Wall. The two of them had been standing off, neither willing to commit himself to an attack, for almost an hour. "The two turtles," Grayson had called them on the air, before he left the studio and headed up stairs to his meeting with Van Allan. "Very amusing," Van Allan said now, looking out at the two men slowly circling one another. "The two turtles.' You have a knack, Mr. Grayson, you really do." "I call it like I see it," Grayson took another swig of the champagne and then emptied it surreptitiously into the flower planter beside the window. He went and picked up the champagne bottle, filling his glass partway as he brought it back to the window. He let Van Allan see him take another deep drink. "The more I see of it, the more I'm just amazed at this set up," Grayson told Van Allan. "It's so well thought out, everything, from the points system to the waste disposal, and the cameras everywhere. How long have you been planning this?" Van Allan sipped his champagne, observing Grayson thoughtfully. "Many years, I assure you." "And you must have known you were creating the sporting event of the century. Nothing like it since ancient Rome! What a selling point! And people don't actually have to be here to watch – that's brilliant. I have to admit, the first fights, they kind of got to me. I've never seen a real person killed before." Grayson grabbed the champagne and refilled his partly empty glass. Waving a drink, and a slightly sloppy manner, could make insightful questions seem careless. "It can be disturbing," Van Allan agreed. "You seem to have become accustomed, however," he added. Grayson shook his head a little longer than necessary. "Not exactly. I mean, you can't really get accustomed. I had no idea people bled so much." "But you're carrying on nonetheless." "That's right." "It's a very professional attitude, Mr. Grayson, and one reason why you are so important to our team. This is your dinner hour, is it not? I'm sure you'll want to get something to eat before you're due back at the studio." "Yes, sir." Grayson started for the door and then turned back. "Everybody works under the same rules out there, right? I mean, you wouldn't shit me about that." "What do you mean?" Van Allan sipped his drink. Grayson waved his arm just a little excessively. "It's those rice guys. Did you see? Another one came out this morning, number four, five, out the gate, something like that. Skinny, Asian, no armor, no weapon except a machete, and a huge bag of rice over his shoulder." Grayson bent over, miming the posture of the fourth unlikely Asian guy who had walked out the gate that morning. He'd taken the western path into the interior, missing the way to the other three rice guys who now lived in a fortified encampment which they only left together, machetes at the ready. The new guy's fighting name translated as Good Journey, but his journey had not been good. He'd gone a hundred yards down the eastern main road when he met Questor, with his naginata to the fore, and his two cutlasses in his belt, on his way back from his victory against Sky Killer. Questor cut down Good Journey without hesitation, and walked into the gate in the Wall with two eartags instead of just the one he'd really earned. Grayson, privately, had named the Blood Road for Good Journey. Like the other three rice men, there was no information about where he had come from, what his real name was, or why he had chosen to come to Savage Island. "These guys," Grayson continued, "it's like they're playing from a different rule book. They look like they've come here to camp out permanently." "And they have built a camp, and are staying in or near it," Van Allan finished for him. "Yes. Our first combatant, what's his name – " "Scorpion," Grayson said. "Yes. He seems to have the same strategy. I suppose some men find the challenge of simply staying alive during the hunt to be sufficient. It's still a reflection of their courage." "Did they know each other before they got here?" Grayson asked. "Now how should I know that?" Van Allan queried mildly. "Is there anything in the rules," Grayson swayed a little, as though he were unsteady on his feet, "about guys teaming up together. Do you think that's honorable?" Van Allan's brows shot up. "Honorable? Now there's an idea. Truly, I hadn't thought about it." Van Allan opened the door for Grayson, but James wasn't satisfied. "But they've been fully briefed, right? They know what they're up against?" "I assure you," Van Allan smiled thinly. "All combatants go through the same orientation. All of them know what they're doing." "At least, they think they do." "That's right. Thank you, Mr. Grayson." "And they're volunteers, right?" Grayson turned as he went out the door, so he could look Van Allan in the face as he answered. "They've chosen to be here?" Van Allan assured him solemnly, holding his gaze, "All combatants are volunteers. What can you be thinking, Mr. Grayson?" Grayson laughed, swung his arm out to shake Van Allan's hand. "I can't wait to see those guys fight. They must be something else." When Van Allan closed the door behind him, Grayson dropped his tipsy act and took the elevator down to the ground floor, frowning. Good Journey's death had shaken him. It had reminded him that this wasn't really a sport. And he'd needed that reminder, now that everything he had ever wanted had been given to him. If Van Allan knew nothing about the rice guys, why wasn't he just as curious about them as Grayson was? He knew something, Grayson decided. And before too long, James was going to know what that was. ### Chapter Nine Stalker stole quietly through the night. He took his time, he went slowly, and he left no trace of his passage. His senses were tuned to the sounds of the jungle, the gentle cacophony of the insects, the movement of little animals in the underbrush. He had hunted like this all his life, but always with a high-powered rifle in his hands, and a back-up heavy-caliber handgun at his side. This, now, was the ultimate hunt, with the ultimate prey. Stalker's plan was simple. To come upon his prey in the night, alone, while he slept, and kill him without a sound. He had underestimated the Island's size, and overestimated the number of combatants still on the Island after dark. On his first night, after hours of wandering about, Stalker had realized his miscalculation. He found himself some cover, ate and drank, and settled in to wait until dawn. The second day he had explored the Island, traversing the Blood Road from one end to the other, climbing the ridge trail to Lookout Point, and walking along the eastern beach. At one point he'd heard a clattering armored fighter tromping down the trail he was on, but this fighter was wary, constantly looking in all directions, and Stalker had determined that if he left his hiding place and took a grab for the guy, he'd be seen and skewered by the guy's sword before he got close enough to kill him. Stalker had learned the patience a hunter requires. He'd learned to put himself into position, and to let dangerous game go by until he was ready. By the third day, the Island was becoming more peopled, and it was hard to go for an hour without the sign of another combatant. He admired the warriors who walked openly, weapons at the ready, looking for fights. The problem was, if he was seen by one of these, he was a dead man unless he could outrun the guy and lose him. And he'd seen a few times that guys in armor could run pretty fast. So he went to ground again during the day and waited for his time, the night. But the night was empty of combatants. They'd holed as well, or the ones who were abroad walked as softly as he. The next day he tried a new plan, to establish a good position on a trail until a combatant came by, and then kill him before he knew Stalker was there. And this worked perfectly. He heard the swish of chainmail and the heavy tread a long ways away, and pressed into the underbrush behind a sheltering tree. When Troy passed him, Stalker had a moment to assess his backplate, his spear and sword, and his heavy crested helmet, before leaping forward to pull him back by the forehead. He had a moment's consternation when he discovered that Troy's throat was encircled by a metal-studded leather gorget under his helmet, but it took only a split second to aim his point higher. He cut Troy's throat with his bowie knife before Troy was fully aware someone was behind him, and Troy was dead without ever seeing his foe. The cameras were positioned in such a way that the shot of that fight showed Troy tramping down the trail, an arm snaking out, and Troy's head yanked backwards. A longer shot from a different camera showed Troy on the ground and Stalker bending over him, checking his eartag before cutting it off. "Sudden Death" was the most popular download from the new "Best Kills of Savage Island" website for over a week. But Troy had not died without striking a blow. He'd struck out with his sword before he died, and nicked Stalker in the back of the thigh. Stalker left the body lying on the trail and found himself a hideout in the brush where he cut open his trousers to get at the seeping puncture wound, and then bandaged his leg. It hurt much more than he ever imagined it would. But he stopped the bleeding, and he had, in his breast pocket, an orange tag purported to be worth a hundred grand. More than he'd ever been worth in his life. And now Stalker made his second mistake. He had forgotten that what makes you a successful hunter is making it home with your bag. He debated making for the Wall and going inside with his prize, but the kill had been so easy. Why should he not collect one or two more tags before he called it quits? He went a little further up the trail and found another hiding place. He reasoned that the body of his foe would cause a momentary distraction. Anyone coming up the trail would pause to make sure that the man was dead and his eartag was missing. Stalker stuck Troy's helmet back on so the missing tag would not be immediately obvious. He forgot that, while it was true that most of the men on the trail would be coming from the direction of the Wall, there were already combatants on the Island that might be coming back that way. In the control room the technicians watched Stalker slip back among the brush, as three proximity alerts sounded. Later, when Grayson added his commentary to this tape, he called to Stalker, again and again, to watch out up the path, but Stalker faced the other way. Lion, fresh out from the gate, came daintily along the path. He carried a round shield decorated with a leopard skin, and two short spears in his other hand. He also carried a sword at his side, and a machete over his shoulder. He stepped carefully, listening as he went. Stalker blended into the shadows, blended into the trees, made himself one with the foliage, softened his vision so that the dark armored man in the hideously carved black mask and the lion headdress would not feel his eyes. And almost jumped a foot as a scream came from the other direction, and Iron Hand hurtled passed him and attacked Lion before Stalker had a chance to move. He was so startled he gave himself away. Lion saw Stalker in the bushes as he met Iron Man's attack, and driving him back, shoved him in Stalker's direction. Stalker took his chance, grabbing Iron Hand as he had Troy to cut his throat. As he did so, Lion thrust his spear not at Iron Hand, but at Stalker. Lion's spear struck him in the side, just under his short rib. Iron Hand twisted in his grasp even as Stalker cut at his throat, and lunged low and long for Lion, bringing his sword point up under his shield, and stabbing him in the groin. Lion screamed and fell to the ground, writhing. Iron Hand turned on Stalker, raising his two-handed sword to strike, but Stalker dropped to his knees and gutted him. Lion continued to scream. Stalker found himself lying on the path in a welter of blood. It took him a moment to realize where he was, and that the sound of moaning he could hear was real, and that it wasn't him. When he pushed himself up, he found that Iron Hand had gone back up the road, leaving a trail of blood to mark his veering passage, and Lion was a little ways away, writhing and bleeding. When this part of the fight was edited together for the Savage Island website's "Greatest Fights," the editor prudently lowered the volume. Stalker rooted out his first aid kit, and put a bandage on the wound on his side. He then got up and, from tree to tree, made his way to where Lion had fallen still. Stalker paused to check, as he had all his life checked wounded prey, but he was dead. Then Stalker woozily remembered his purpose here, dropped to his knees and clumsily removed Lion's eartag. After a long moment of dizziness, Stalker got up and handed himself down the trail. It was not quite dark when Stalker met Death on the Blood Road. Death had hiked up one side of the island and down the other, hardly slept for four nights, had finished his water and run through his food. He was tired, dehydrated, bug-bitten and thoroughly fed up. He'd gotten turned around trying to make his way back to the Wall. He had blisters on both feet, and his armor had gone from chafing his armpits and hips, to oozing sores. He was sure that he was finally on the right path, but now he was being followed. He could hear the sounds behind him, stopping when he stopped. He tried to make a plan, but he kept walking while he did so. He was concentrating so hard on what was behind him, that he didn't see Iron Hand in front of him until he almost tripped over him. He stopped for a long moment, eying Iron Hand's sprawled form, looking for a trick, for a trap, for an ambush. The man was dead, without a doubt. He saw with shock that Iron Hand's eartag was still on him. Death knelt down, dropped his spear, pulled out one of his knives and sawed it off. So it wasn't the gutted man, the smell of blood, the wounds beginning to attract iridescent insects that set off Death's gag reflex. It was the little blood-clotted flap of skin on the eartag. Death dropped it and began to retch. He vomited several times before he could get his winged helmet off, which the technicians in the control room were the first of a whole lot of people to find so funny that they nearly fell out of their chairs laughing. Death finally got his helmet off, revealing a round-faced man in his late twenties with short brown hair, dirt-smudged and with indentations on his face from his helmet. He stowed the eartag in his backpack, then scrubbed out his helmet with leaves and dirt. He tried to put his helmet back on, but the smell started him gagging again. He carried it by the chinstrap, picked up his spear, and continued down the trail. Death was triumphant. He had at least one trophy to show for his adventure. Stalker was sitting with his back to the trees, only one turning in the road from the killing ground. The Wall was in sight through the foliage. The wound in his leg had begun to bleed again, and there was a long splash of blood down his side from the wound under his ribs. But he was alive. Stalker planned to rest a few more minutes, and then get up and make one more move for the Wall. He just needed a little more time to get over the light-headedness that was making him so tired. Death came to a halt when he saw Stalker sitting beside the trail. He put up his shield and spear. If he passed, Stalker might cut at his legs with that big knife, and he didn't have a lot of armor on his legs. He gathered himself, and feinted at Stalker, staying out of his range. Stalker just sat there. Death froze as Stalker's hand came up, fumbling at his shirt. A throwing knife? But no. Stalker pulled out two eartags from his pocket, and tried to toss them at Death. But his hand didn't have the strength and the eartags dribbled out of his fingers between his legs. Stalker's head fell to the side and he sat there staring at the ground. Death waited, breathing heavily, eying the two additional eartags lying on the ground, and was just deciding to go and get them when he felt the cold steel of a blade against his neck. Death choked on a gasping breath, felt panic loosen his bowels as darkness welled up and seized him and he fell to the ground. He had fainted. Ghost Soldier walked up to Stalker and picked up the two eartags. He checked Stalker's tell tale and found it just beginning to grow dark. He paused long enough to say a prayer while it went black before using the small knife in his belt to cut it off. Then, leaving Death in a heap behind him, Ghost Soldier crossed the killing ground. As he neared the right-hand gate, the middle gate opened and a new combatant dashed out onto the sand. Ghost Soldier eased into his stance, his great moon blade ready. The new combatant was a big man carrying a great sword and a large kite-shaped shield with a white crusader's cross painted on it. He found himself facing the slim young man in red armor, his spear pointed at the Crusader's throat. He stood there, unsure what to do. After a moment, Ghost Soldier continued on his way to the Wall, pressed the red button, and walked in through the gate. The Crusader gazed around the arena and then headed toward the woods in a different direction. At about this time Death recovered from his faint. He checked himself all over, certain he'd been hurt or killed. He stared wildly around, looking for his unseen foe, but there was no one there except Stalker, lying on his side in his own blood. He fancied briefly that he had been killed, that he was now a dead man, but his bug bites were bothering him, and his armor sores hurt, and his helmet still stank. Stalker's eartags were gone. Death hefted his helmet, shield and spear, and headed for the Wall. He almost dropped his equipment in the arena on his way to the gate, but didn't bother. Later, when he found that the eartag he had taken off of Troy was still in his pack, he was greatly relieved. He would be even more relieved in the weeks that followed. At home it seemed everyone had seen him throw up in his helmet. But the hundred and twenty grand in his bank account was a great solace, together with the fame of being one of the first few to survive and return from Savage Island. As he told them all, buying another round of drinks at his local pub in Vancouver, "Hey, I went there. I walked the sands. Where have you been lately?" And the beer tasted awfully good, after that. James Grayson sat outside his cottage on the shaded veranda that looked out over the sea. He had a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice in his hand, and light jazz played on the speakers of his state-of-the-art sound system. He had finished a recording session that morning, and felt good about how it had gone. He'd been driven back to his cottage for a long lunch, and was due back for another taping session that evening. His housekeeper was setting the table for two. Lucy was coming. The sea glittered under the noonday sun. Life was extra fantastic. A courier had brought his mail to him, just arrived off the helicopter. Bills from his condo in L.A. were being paid automatically. He put the hard copies aside to be tossed. His bank statement from last month was completely out of date, he tore that up and tossed it. His agent's hard copies of his contract had come. He opened the packet to read Arkman's note and found it clipped to a thick stack of xeroxed cuttings. Only then did he remember that he'd asked Arkman to send him the information about the subject of Van Allan's talk show appearances. Van Allan's son and daughter had gone with a group of friends to the opening of a new club in Los Angeles, The Crimson Club, fifteen years ago. The son, Franz, would be Grayson's age today. The daughter, Sonia, was two years younger. The line to enter the club had snaked around the block that warm autumn evening, a huge crowd of laughing, flirting young people, out for an evening of dancing and drinking in the presence of this year's celebrities, living the good life of their best years. Two cars had passed, gunning, supposedly for the club owner's two sons, due to some bad blood between gang members. But the killers had been indiscriminate; they'd sprayed the crowd out of passenger side windows, killed five people outright, and wounded twenty more. Franz Van Allan was shot in the neck and died where he stood. Sonia was shot in the back. She was taken to the hospital, where she lingered for ten days. The following year, Van Allan's wife divorced him. Grayson sat staring at the news clipping. He felt like a fool. In his frantic quest to land this job he'd done just the barest search on Van Allan's background. Van Allan must have been devastated by the loss of his children. Grayson felt for the guy. His whole life had been torn apart by this tragic crime. And fifteen years later, Van Allan had opened Savage Island. No wonder he had spent money like water to get this place off the ground. He had no family to leave it to. And this explained Van Allan's point about men pretending to courage while using guns. He had lost both his children to one such iniquitous action. This explained everything. He heard his front door open, and Lucy exchange a few words with his housekeeper. He put the papers back in the manilla envelope to finish later. Lucy came out to the patio and kissed him, leaning over the back of his chair. She chatted as Ming set out the food on the table, and then sent her on her way. "Here," she said to James. "I thought you might like to see this." She opened her laptop and set it on the table. When the screen came up she hit "play." "Hey! It's Lone Eagle!" The white Indian was being interviewed back in the States. Lucy was watching over his shoulder. "He went home a couple of days ago, and I hear he was swamped with interview requests." "Did he get the million-dollar book deal?" James asked, his voice edged. She laughed. 'No, he did not. They're holding out for the Shadow." "I should think so. Anyone know where he is?" "Not yet." "Someone must know," James looked at her speculatively. Lucy was amazing at coming up with information that no one else could get. She shook her head. "No one's talking. Here, listen to this." She turned up the volume. "Charges against Brian Longworth, aka Lone Eagle, have been dropped by the Conchise County District Attorney on a challenge that the assault was perpetrated out of his jurisdiction. Brian Longworth is just back from Savage Island, the first combatant to return openly after walking on to the killing ground. Brian had this to say about his adventure." "I didn't do anything wrong!" Lone Eagle was sitting on a studio set, his arm still in a sling. He was dressed in a suit and looked very different from the Lone Eagle Grayson remembered on the Island. "You don't think attacking people is wrong?" The interviewer was a petite young woman with pixie hair. She'd been trained to smile for so long it was almost impossible for her to sound serious. "Of course it's wrong!" Lone Eagle replied. "It's wrong here, in the United States, but on Savage Island, it's how you stay alive." Another camera angle showed Lone Eagle's face close up, and James realized the interview had been cut. Lone Eagle said, "I learned more out there on the killing ground, about myself, about what's important, than I'd learned my whole life up to that point." "Were you afraid?" "Of course I was afraid! I still can't believe it. I saw him coming at me, right out of the gate, and I thought I was a dead man." "You were pretty quick to get away from him." "I did run away," Lone Eagle met the eyes of his interviewer. "I ran just as fast as I could. I was facing a man armed from top to toe, and I had come out in the traditional war garb of my grandfather's people, the Jicarilla Apache. Moccasins, deerskin pants, and war paint." He grinned. "I guess I was a bit outclassed." "Tell me what you were thinking when you went to pick up the morningstar." "Well, obviously that it was a great weapon. We all know how effective it was out there now. I got to see the tapes of everything that went on that day." "And then Shadow came after you again." "He hit my shield so hard I thought he'd broken my wrist." "It's not broken though." "No, just badly sprained. But without the use of the shield, at least, I was toast. That's why I headed back in." "You'd only been out a few minutes." "I was out there for thirty-three minutes. The most exciting thirty-three minutes of my life. I was underarmed, which was my fault. But I faced four killers of men, and I came back alive." "And what were you thinking when the gate opened and Sol came right at you with his spear." "'Holy sh – '" The bleep just obliterated the expletive. "That's all I can say. He hit me twice, made a hole right into the bone. But they say the breastbone's the second strongest one we're got. Like our own personal armor. So it hurt a lot, and I bled a lot, but I'm okay." "You must feel very lucky." "I am so lucky. I am the only man on Savage Island to face Shadow and live." "Do you think it's changed you?" "I know it has. I offered my life on the killing ground to prove I am a man." Brian shrugged. "I guess I don't have to prove anything anymore. Not even to myself." "And what are your plans now?" Brian Longworth smiled. "I'm getting married." "Well, congratulations, Brian, and the best of luck to you... " Lucy sat across from James, while he did the honors. He served her blackened mahi-mahi, garlic mashed potatoes and French string beans in a light vinegar dressing, with a side salad and sourdough rolls. They drank a white wine that Van Allan had sent over the previous day. Lucy started eating as soon as there was food on her plate. "Lone Eagle is being treated like a celebrity. He's got bookings from coast to coast. He may have missed out on making any money here, but he's cashing in big-time back home." James snorted. "There are a lot better examples of grace under attack ―" "Not back yet." Lucy finished scarfing down her fish. James watched as her hand crept along the table, fingers reaching for the bread basket. "In a week or two, survivors of Savage Island will saturate the airwaves, and then they'll be more choosy." "Ah, just a moment," James said, as Lucy looked up and her face flamed. "Permit me." He slid a covered basket onto the table and pushed it across to her. When she hesitated, still embarrassed, he pulled back the napkin revealing half a dozen fresh pasties. "Meat pies. They hold together, and they'll keep indefinitely." She looked up at him. "I did research," he told her blandly. "They may drop some crumbs in your handbag, so may I suggest you take the napkin as well?" He turned away to serve himself seconds, and started up the conversation again before he looked back. The napkin, and three of the meat pies were gone, and Lucy was eating her mashed potatoes as though nothing had happened. "Have any other contestants been charged?" he asked. "Not that we've heard. Van Allan is offering to land departing combatants anywhere in the world that they choose." "So Shadow's probably in some country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S." Lucy agreed. "Probably somewhere where over eight hundred thousand dollars will keep him and his family in luxury forever." "Good," James finished his fish. It was delicious. "You're starting to buy it," she told him. "What's that?" "That courage means looking your enemy in the eye and trying to kill him." "No, not that," he said. "There are many kinds of courage. But yes, that would be one of them." "And coming out onto Savage Island?" He nodded. "That would be one of them, too." She smiled. "Are you going to do it?" It was his turn to flush. His voice dropped to an unprofessional mumble. "I've thought of it." "Are you?" "No. Of course not. I'm not a warrior. The only fighting I've ever done is locker room shoving matches and a year of karate in college. It fit in my schedule. But you can't watch this show without thinking about it. Can you?" She shrugged, and reached for the last green bean. Lucy, it seemed, was immune. When they'd finished the dishes of crème brulee that was their desert, James asked Lucy how soon she had to be back at work. "I've got some tapes to edit this afternoon. But not yet." "You need to be anywhere?" She shook her head. "Come over here." She came and sat on his lap, and he ran his hands lightly down her sides. She smiled at him and snuggled closer, and bent to kiss his ear. "That was nice of you. About the meat pies." "Um," he said, and kissed her neck. She moved her hips and paused on his intake of breath, and then moved again, smiling. "Shouldn't we . . . digest?" "I always do that best lying down." Dom Aguirre stood over the table where his equipment lay, together with the black backpack he'd decided on to carry it. He was ahead on points, and that pleased him. The strategy he had chosen had not been discovered, or by now it would be more expensive. He picked up the running shoes, light and flexible, smelling sweet and new, and set them aside. He would be wearing those. He packed the water bottles in the outside pockets, and the two-liter containers in the bottom of the pack. If he lived through stage one of his plan, there would be time to worry about reserves of water. He packed two coils of heavy rope into the backpack, and two coils of lighter rope attached to grappling hooks. He quickly assembled the four lengths of aluminum pipe into a spear. He'd asked for the longest-possible spear, of the lightest possible materials, that he could carry in sections in his backpack and assemble when he needed it. This one was just over twelve feet long, and didn't sag in the middle. The four-inch spear tip was slender, sharp and impressive. This was going to work. He packed some jerky in an outer pocket, and put the rest of his food bag into the depths of his pack. The Master Armorer and one of his assistants approached Dom's table. "I'm sorry, Mr. Aguirre, but the darts have been ruled out." Dom protested, "But the documentation – they were used in battle by the Irish long before there were guns." Charles Gordon , a thickset bearded man with heavy arms and dark, intelligent eyes, nodded. "Yes, I checked your research and you are correct. But those things are heavy – you can throw them over fifty yards – " His assistant, a young man, also bearded, with long reddish brown hair, nodded as well. "We actually made a couple and tried them out. They are deadly," he added with approval. "Well I can't throw them that far," Dom said. Gordon eyed him thoughtfully. "Maybe not. Nonetheless, they've been ruled out, as being distance weapons. However, you can have the climbing spurs. Tom's made you up a set to try out." You could request items that were not in the catalog, according to the rules, though it could cost a lot of points, depending on what you asked for. The climbing spurs were actually much more important to him than the darts, but it had been worth a try. He slipped on the leather chaps and laced them tight. The rode comfortably on his shins, above his ankles. The only question was, would they interfere with his running? Before he could take off to try them out, one of the technicians came to his table with a clipboard. "Mr. Aguirre," she asked, "We don't yet have your fighting name. We can't put you in the draw until we have that." For the first time, Dom spoke aloud his fighting name, and as he said it, he understood. He felt that in some deep part of himself, he had always been a warrior, a predator, a hunter of men. His life growing up in Los Angeles, a third-generation Angelino, the first in his family to go to college, office manager for a medical billing company, with a new car, saving for a down payment on a condo, just over his old girlfriend, playing the field in a leisurely way for a new one – all that was nothing, it was , , , civilized. But he was not civilized. He was a wild man, a hunter, a murderer. And soon, soon, he would have his taste of blood. "I am the Cougar," he told them. The technician wrote the name down on her form, and the two armorers nodded understanding, and respect. Savage Island dominated the news all over the world from the hour of the first reported kill. Almost at once a number of people asserted that Savage Island was a staged event, that the killings were fake. They posted clips of the Shadow's kills next to clips from violent movies of men killing one another and argued that the movie versions actually looked more realistic, and that Savage Island should do a better job. Then, Lone Eagle returned from Savage Island and was booked on one talk show after another, testifying to the reality of Savage Island, and opened his shirt to display the swollen puckered scabs on his chest. The commentators postulated that make-up was very good these days. Then, the families of three of Shadow's kills, Bandit One, Hrolf Bloodaxe and Phoenix, filed suit against Savage Island, Jules Van Allan, and Craig Wells, aka Shadow. (Manslayer's brother, on the other hand, cashed the ten thousand dollar check he was sent, commenting that the money almost covered the amount his brother owed him, and he was surprised he'd ever managed to amount to so much.) The remains of Kevin Hightower, killed under the name of Bandit One, had been returned to his family for burial, and his corpse was autopsied and the report entered into evidence. That, to some degree, put an end to the theory that Savage Island was staged. There were some holdouts who assumed that someone of Mr. Van Allan's resources could manage to provide a corpse or two for verisimilitude. Then Ghost Soldier returned from Savage Island, having killed no one, but richer by three hundred and twenty thousand dollars. He created a new wave of interest as he appeared on talk shows, first in Korea, then in Europe, and then in the United States, and explained over and over again why he had not killed Death, or attacked the Crusader, the last combatant he had faced before reentering the gate. Why, after all that effort to get there, knowing that he was so well-qualified to defend himself, had he not killed anyone at all? Lin Kim, when posed this question, would lean his head back a little, looking up at the light grid with his eyes half closed. He seemed to be contemplating distant places, probably an island jungle, where predators walked by day and night, carrying weapons and hunting men. He had done his undergraduate degree at the University of Washington in Seattle; his English was excellent, and his soft-spoken voice was engaging. " I've studied martial arts all my life, but you never know what you're practicing for until you have occasion to use it. I thought I could use Savage Island as the ultimate test. I'd learn whether my training really worked, and whether I could kill a man if I had to." Kim cocked his head at the interviewer and added, "What I learned was, while I could kill my opponents, having proved that I could, I didn't have to. There was no need for us to fight after all." Invariably his interviewer would ask, "What about the money? You came back with three eartags, you could have had four or five." Kim would smile. "But it never was about the money. I was lucky to have picked up three eartags without having to kill for them. And that's enough ― that's plenty. I'm ready to move on." As an advertisement for Savage Island, it couldn't have been any better, from Jules Van Allan's point of view. Then, as Shadow never turned up, Kim was offered the million-dollar book deal,band the question of whether he'd made enough money from Savage Island was put to rest. The issue that Van Allan had raised, that engaging an enemy from a safe distance was cowardly, and that guns, and by extension, bombs, were cowardly, did not receive much debate. In the United States, where the gun culture also took it upon itself to define manhood, it was a difficult point to concede that it didn't take much courage to press a trigger from across the street or a block away. By extension, the military, whose missions seemed to be designed primarily to keep the men out of harm's way, by bombing or shooting or destroying their targets from a considerable distance, could not even address the question of courage in that context. A handful of gadflies on the blogs kept the question alive. If these people also received donations from one of Van Allan's companies, that was, in any case, beside the point. On the whole, Van Allan was pleased. To fuel the fire, after the twentieth death on the island he taped another interview. Grayson was invited into Van Allan's office to supervise the set up, and when they were rolling asked Van Allan how he thought his experiment was progressing, and whether there had been any surprises. "I am surprised at how many heroes have revealed themselves since we began," Van Allan confided to fifty million viewers. "One is always tempted to believe that one lives in a degenerate age. The world seems full of cowards and reprobates. To see the combatants here rise to the challenge that Savage Island offers them has been an inspiration to me. I hope it has been to others. I look at men such as Wenceslaus today, Karl the Bad, and of course the Shadow, I see terrible fights undertaken, and I honor the dead as much as the victors, for their courage." Grayson heard the key words "hero," "challenge," and "inspiration." He couldn't help admire how Van Allan was dictating the mythology of Savage Island. He glanced at his notes and asked the next question, one that Farley had put on his list. Funny he hadn't thought to ask it himself. It seemed obvious now. "What about the women, Mr. Van Allan? I've been told that applications of candidates to fight on Savage Island are arriving at the rate of thousands a day, from all over the world. When will the first women combatants come onto the Island?" "Never," Van Allan said shortly. "There will be no women combatants on Savage Island." Grayson was taken aback for a moment, so he kidded. "What, no equal-opportunity fighting? Don't women also have a right to show their courage?" "They can have all the rights they like," Van Allan said evenly, "but not on my island." He opened his hands, explaining. "The purpose of this island is for men to show what they are made of. Women have no such requirement. 'She who faces death by torture for each life beneath her breast,' as Kipling put it, has no need to be judged for her courage or prowess at arms. And what purpose is such prowess for men but to win respect from one another, and the favor of a woman? It is how we seed strength and courage into the next generation." He shook his head. "To die here at the hands of a woman, men might say is unworthy of their effort. And to kill a woman, for gain, is unworthy of their honor. No. There will be no women combatants on Savage Island." Grayson knew it had been a set-up. Van Allan had wanted to make this argument publicly. James tried to think of something to say. To argue for women be able to go out there and fight or die put him at a disadvantage; he was pretty sure he wouldn't want to see that. And in addition, he'd be arguing against the policy of the Island, the policy of his boss. So he said, "Thank you, that's pretty comprehensive," and added, "Would you like to add a comment about the pointless violence on the streets in world cities? About gangs and such? Since women and children are so often the victims, directly and indirectly. Also, the tragic loss of your children in the Crimson Club drive-by shooting, your remarks on the subject will carry a lot of weight." Van Allan's reaction was not what Grayson expected. He assumed Van Allan would fold that event into the current story, and make use of it. Instead, Van Allan's face darkened. He turned to the cameraman. "Stop recording." As Van Allan turned his cold glare on James, Grayson realized the difference between interviewing a subject, with his own crew and equipment backing him, and interviewing the guy who owned the equipment, and paid the crew. And himself as well. "I'm sorry, Mr. Van Allan. I thought you'd like the opportunity to make that point." Van Allan glared coldly a moment longer, and then turned away. "I have no statement to make regarding my children. Please do not bring up that subject again. We're finished here. Take your equipment and go." He got up from the chair and moved to the window. The crew looked at James, which he thought was good of them, and then began quietly ― and slowly ― to break down the equipment. Grayson got up his nerve and followed Van Allan over to the window. "Sir, I'm sorry. If there's more you want to get done today with this interview, please don't let my mistake get in the way." When Van Allan turned back to him, Grayson felt relief. The angry coldness was gone from his boss's face and voice, though his eyes were still hard. "No. Thank you. We're finished here. Don't let me detain you further, I know you have a great deal of work to do." There was nothing to do but to get out of there. He left the crew packing up and headed back to the studio. He continued to puzzle over Van Allan's reaction through another long day of broadcasting. There were more men on the island than ever, and that day another nine men were killed. Though no other warrior as spectacular as Shadow had arisen, today a short black man from Kenya by way of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, where he taught African history and Swahili, proved, under the name of Long Arm Warrior, that a man who knew how to use a spear could keep more heavily armed fighters at bay, and find a way past their armor, weapons and shields, to their vulnerable throats and arm pits. Long Arm Warrior killed the first three men he came upon. He was wounded in the third fight by Cold Heart, who gashed his arm before he died. It was soon evident that a one-armed spearman was at a huge disadvantage against more heavily armed fighters. On his way back to the Wall, Long Arm Warrior was killed by Silver Shield, who knocked his spear out of his hand and struck him down with his sword. Silver Shield took Long Arm Warrior's eartag, but left his body lying on the beach without searching him. While Silver Shield seemed to be heading back to the Wall, Grayson and Lucy argued over whether he should be told when he came in that he had left three eartags out there, so he could choose to go out there again and get them. This question became moot when Baraka, a huge Pole wielding two huge swords, struck down Silver Shield and killed him as he emerged from the tree line. When night fell, Long Arm Warrior lay there still, and a new policy came down from the head office (Grayson assumed Van Allan, the final arbiter, had been consulted), that bodies that still had their eartags, or that had other eartags on them, would be allowed to lie in situ for 24 hours. After that, waste management would pick them up, and the eartags would be rendered valueless. Altogether, it was another very interesting day on the Island. Grayson had drinks with Lucy after dinner, and then stayed on, drinking with one of the armorers and some of the technicians. One of them drove him to his bungalow in his electric cart, so he didn't have to stagger home. His bungalow was spotless. He found himself prowling the place, not willing yet to go to sleep. He thought he was missing Lucy, and he was, but what he mostly did was rewrite his interview with Van Allan, to avoid that moment of fury, and wondering again why Van Allan had reacted that way. It was obvious that this event was the origin of the idea for Savage Island. It seemed out of character for Van Allan not to use it to promote his ideology. The death of his children created a rationale for all the savagery that Van Allan had set in motion So why wasn't it part of the narrative? Why was it off limits? It didn't make sense. This was the kernel of unease that kept him from his rest. He searched around until he found the manila envelope with his contract, which also held the clippings that his agent had sent him, on the tragedy of Van Allan's life. And it wasn't long before he found the clue. The shooters had driven by the Crimson Club in two cars. These were found abandoned a few miles away. It had not taken long to trace back the cars' provenance and find they had been stolen. With a death count of seven, four more badly wounded, and the city in an uproar, the nine shooters were soon found and taken into custody. With the exception of one, they were all under eighteen. The one adult had been the driver of the first car, and was a known long-time gang member. The other eight were kids, the youngest thirteen. The police had been under enormous pressure to make the case. Thus, the suspects were not interrogated as minors, but as adults. Confessions were coerced, rights were trampled. Two years after the murders, the case was thrown out, and every one of the suspects were released without charges. The assistant district attorney who had taken over the case from the police on the very night of the crime had been publicly exonerated of any wrong-doing. The police had been left to take the blame. Grayson read between the lines and realized a whole lot of arm-bending must have been at work to save that guy's career. He put down the papers, imagining what that must have felt like to Van Allan. His children were dead, and those responsible had been allowed to go free on a technicality. And one man was to blame. He wondered if the guy still had a job. ### Chapter Ten The limousine with the tinted windows drew up to the gates of the house in Pasadena, set back from the modest, tree-lined street by what had once been a carriageway, and was now a driveway a tenth of a mile long. The security guard at the gate spoke to the driver and punched a button to let the car through. John Savage sat looking out the window at the well-kept garden. Thornton, beside him, knew John was angry, but he said nothing. This meeting was a natural result of unforeseen events. He, unlike Savage, was taking it in stride, just another hurdle on the way to their goals. He supposed John's passion over the matter was one of the reasons that John was chosen candidate for Governor of California, and he was expected to help him get there. For the other reason, of course, one had only to look at the two of them side by side. Thornton, average height, narrow face, receding hairline. John Savage, tall, handsome and fair-haired, with blue eyes that seemed to see right through anything they looked at. If you looked at John Savage, you assumed he was contemplating deep thoughts on a higher plane than anyone else, Thornton reflected, even if some people knew that he was just thinking about taking a crap. Thornton again looked over the sheaf of papers he had thought to bring. He would get John Savage to where he was heading. And then, he would see . . . The limousine pulled up to the door of the house, and Savage didn't wait for the chauffeur but got out of the car as soon as it came to a stop. He had offered to drive himself, but was told a car would be sent for him. He had suggested he could meet Kalfrey at the airport himself, but was told Martin Kalfrey had other meetings before he would see him – the candidate, the prospective governor – and the car would come for him sometime in the afternoon. So Savage was expected to spend the whole afternoon waiting around for Kalfrey to be ready to see him. Savage, against the advice of Thornton and the rest of his staff, had taken off with Cory Applegard to play a quick game of tennis at his club, and hadn't come back until dinner time. The car had come shortly after his arrival home. Savage assumed he had gotten the best of the men who wanted to make their point by making him wait. Thornton assumed someone had been keeping an eye on Savage's movements. John Savage ran up the stairs to the house with the air of a man who had no time to waste. Thornton shut the briefcase carefully, and walked up in his wake. There were half a dozen men in the room, but only one of them mattered. Martin Kalfrey, former President of the Republican National Committee, to whom most of the Republican Senators and the current President owed their careers, liked everyone to know where he stood, when he was in a room. He stood on the top rung of any ladder that mattered, and if he didn't, he made a new ladder. He was sitting in the best chair, of course, holding forth with a snifter of the best brandy, after a dinner that had been served early for his convenience. He looked up when John Savage strode into the room, but he didn't interrupt himself. "— I said, if you want to see another dime for your reelection, you'll put that girl on a plane to Aruba, and never see her again." He sipped the brandy, glancing to make sure everyone was still paying attention to him, then added the punch line. "I have a very nice house in Aruba. She likes the beach." He broke in to the obedient laughter, feigning surprise at John Savage's entrance. "John! Good to see you. Sorry you missed dinner. Alpenheim served duck, it was just wonderful. But I hear you had an important game of tennis." John Savage came forward, and took a seat on the leather couch closest to Kalfrey. Frederick Hallerdam, who had occupied the seat, simply moved when Savage approached him, and then wondered, from his new place by the window, how that had happened. "I didn't receive an invitation to dinner," Savage said. "I'm sure it was excellent." He nodded at Alpenheim, who sat hunched in his chair, so wizened by age that his feet, in his Armani socks, hardly touched the floor, but basking in his proximity to the powers of the land. "Anytime," Joe Alpenheim told him hopefully. "I've a great new chef. . ." A black-clad Filipino servant brought Savage a drink. It was a martini, just as he liked it. "Hello, Layden. Michael, sorry about your back. Feeling better? Fred, how's Claire? Bob, good to see you. It's been awhile since we played tennis. Give me a call sometime." Savage acknowledged the other men in the room, taking control of the meeting away from Kalfrey. Kalfrey took it back. "John, if you want our support for the governorship, you need to stop mouthing off out of line." Savage met his eyes with deceptive mildness. "Oh? When was that?" Kalfrey nodded over at Fred Hallerdam, who replied, "We're talking about the statement you made about Savage Island." Savage raised his brows. "I said, upon inquiry from a reporter for the Times, that my staff is looking in to whether anyone from my jurisdiction has broken the law. And we will prosecute any malefactor to the full extent of the law, according to my mandate from the people of Los Angeles." "Cut the crap," Kalfrey told him. "I don't need to hear the campaign speech. Though I'm sure it's very good." He nodded over at Thornton. "You and I know that Van Allan is after your balls with this Savage Island stunt, so what we want to know is, what are you doing to make sure this doesn't blow up in your face and leave us without the California governorship?" Savage waved Thornton over to sit down next to him and open his briefcase. "This is not going to blow up in our faces, gentlemen. Van Allan is spending a fortune to make, what is going to seem to most voters, a very obscure point." "You bolluxed that case. Your department made a complete hash of it. Properly handled, it could be just one of those things ― " "The police ruined the case before it ever came to my office." "Yes, of course, that's the story." Kalfrey sipped his drink. "But we both know the police took the blame when an obscure assistant D.A. waltzed into the station that night and took over the interrogations." "They had already ― " "Yes, of course, plenty of blame to go around. But your boss made sure that you came out of it with your career still intact. Even though you are the one who let those little thugs go." "I didn't let them go. I have stayed on those punks ever since ― " Kalfray asked, "And didn't one of them put an old lady in the hospital a few years later?' He looked up at Hallerdam, who nodded. "He knocked her down, pleaded to second degree assault and battery and served two years." "Mrs. Hansa recovered," Savage added. "But she would never have been knocked down in the first place if ― what's his ― " "Emilio Sanchez," Thornton supplied. " ― whatever his name was hadn't been out on the streets. He belonged in prison." "The case is fourteen years old," Savage replied. "No prosecutor can win them all. The police conducted the investigation in such a way that my office was unable to prosecute them as they richly deserved. My presence at the station that night did not manage to correct the mistakes the police made, due to their over-eagerness to get a conviction. The fact that every one of the boys claimed a false identity when caught, all added to the situation that none of the confessions could be used at trial. The guns were compromised by the extra gun that was found in one of the cars, that later turned out to have come from a police evidence locker . . . " "We know all this," Kalfrey said peevishly. "What we want to know, is how you are going to handle it. Which means," he leaned forward in his chair, "how are you going to make it go away. Poof!" he made a flicking gesture with his fingers. "Never heard of again." Thornton replied, in an attempt to drag the conversation back to the present, "Out first step is to investigate Savage Island for whatever crimes are being committed. The second is to charge anyone from this jurisdiction, including Van Allan, and seek extradition." "Ha," Kalfrey snorted. "Do you even know where he is?" John Savage met his gaze coldly. "We have a good idea." "We are looking in to whether we can shut down broadcasts from the Island, under the same laws that govern snuff films." Michael Stearns, the nephew of Senator Stearns, shook his head. "You'll never get that through. The show is expanding astronomically across cable channels. I've watched it myself ― Shadow, killing eight guys in a row ― incredible!" Thornton said, "The point is not necessarily to shoot the broadcasts down. The point is to be seen doing everything possible. If we concede an action because it would violate First Amendment rights, well, that just makes John Savage look like a better candidate." "A high-level prosecution of anyone from California who killed someone over on Savage Island would do the same," Alpenheim put in, proving that he was still following the conversation. "Yes," said Kalfrey. "That would be good." "If Van Allan moves to bring the old issue of his case to the press ― " Thornton began. "You know he is! What else would be the point to all this?" Kalfrey responded. "Then we're ready for him," Savage continued. "We regret what happened, bad things happen all the time, but to respond with wholesale murder will bring forth the full response of the law. And if that doesn't work, our next step is to freeze his assets and put liens on his property, under the criminal franchise acts." Kalfrey smiled for the first time. "Good! That's good." "And we'll take any subsequent steps necessary to shut him down," Thornton added. "Very good. I'm glad to hear it. We'll see you in the governor's office yet, John. And after that, well, we've needed a candidate like you for the Oval Office for a long time." John smiled at him. Even Kalfrey felt the warmth of that smile. Savage had been practicing it for years. "We'll get there," Savage said with conviction. "That is the plan." Lucy drove the electric cart at top speed down the path past the warehouses. James held on surreptitiously. He found it amazing that she knew every road on the Island already, and seemed to know half the people, too, as they slowed once again to call greetings to some men loading freight onto a trailer. A couple walked over to the cart and Lucy stopped and chatted with them. The men smiled at James, nodding to his wave, and then Lucy accelerated again on a laugh. "They said you look just as good off the camera as on," she told him. "Who are those guys?" "Just some of the workers." "And who's this girl you want me to see?" Lucy turned a corner and decelerated. They drove along a pathway that ran along the Wall, a long ways from the gates, behind the warehouses on the other side of the practice fields. Grass and flowers had been planted here. The flowers were huge and gaudy, flourishing in the sun, the heat, and excess watering. Lucy pulled up at a series of markers, decorated with flowers and ribbons and deflating balloons. James read the name on the nearest marker. "Hrolf Bloodaxe, killed in honorable combat." The one next to it read, "Sting, brave fighter, died with courage." James looked up at Lucy in surprise. "But these are ― " "They're the dead combatants," she nodded. "Right." "They're not buried here?" "No, most of them are sent back to their families. I think some of them have been cremated, and their ashes scattered on the Island." "Then what is this?" "Some of the staff asked permission to put up memorials to the fallen. Mr. Van Allan liked the idea. I'm going to do a story on it, when there are enough of them to make a good pan." She demonstrated the shot, making a square of her fore fingers and thumbs. "Some of the women working here have really gotten in to the idea of these men as heroes. And heroes deserve this kind of remembrance." James walked along the little garden of cenotaphs, noting the loving decorations of flowers, pictures, and little notes fixed in place with small stones. "Wow," he said, looking at a printed screenshot of Swordsinger, as he stepped out the gate, to die soon after on Day Three of Savage Island. "This will be a great story." He looked over at Lucy. "How did you find out about this?" He knew she'd been spending as many hours in the studio as he did. She grinned his favorite, gamin grin. "I have friends. Here she comes." A tiny Asian woman, dressed in a neat blue maid's service uniform, approached them on the path. She greeted Lucy and kissed her in the French manner, standing on tiptoe to reach Lucy's cheek. Then she looked up and smiled at James with that look of awed recognition that he always enjoyed. He smiled warmly back at her. "Hi," she said. "Hi!" he replied brightly. "Mr. Grayson," Lucy said formally, "may I present Mrs. Maria Chong, she's a great fan of yours." Mrs. Maria Chong nodded vigorously. She had gray in her hair, James noticed, raising her approximate age by about twenty years, to her forties, or maybe even her fifties. She was stout, energetic, and James could no more have placed her country than he could have identified which state in the U.S. someone came from that he met on a street in L.A. Lucy and Maria started gabbing away. James stood there smiling at them both, wondering how many languages Lucy actually spoke; he thought this was the fourth he had heard ― not counting English. Lucy broke away and turned back to him. "Maria cleans up in the barracks, where the men stay before they go out through the Wall." Maria, who could evidently understand some English, nodded as she followed along with what Lucy was saying. "She says that the men now called Lucky Man, and Happy, and Free Spirit, and the one who went out the other day called Good Journey, were not given rooms in the barracks like the other combatants. She doesn't know where they stay before they go out the Wall." Maria talked some more, pointing shyly at a cenotaph near James's feet. It was inscribed to Son of Odin. James remembered the Son, a Hungarian from Budapest, who had held the arena for nearly two hours, holding three combatants at bay with his two swords, before being killed by Aleut, a huge American from Florida carrying a long metal pole with a club at the end. The Son of Odin had been killed with a blow that had stunned him right through his helmet. Maria bent down, patting the dirt into better order around the stone. "I sleep with him," she said, smiling. James learned that some of the women had decided that the heroes going off onto the Island to fight and die, needed a send-off worthy of their courage. They'd begun drawing lots to see who would sleep with which of the combatants, but the system soon failed as the younger, prettier girls propositioned the best-looking men. James nodded, unsurprised. Same as it ever was. However, none of the men were being left out, as there were enough women on the Island who considered it their duty to wish them luck before they departed was more than enough to cover all the combatants. Especially as some of the women were taking more than one turn. Maria waxed a little bitter over a couple of girls who seemed to have a bet on to sleep with all the combatants, before Lucy brought her back to the subject she had asked her to talk about. The rice people? They spoke Manchu, and were probably from the south of China. Maria, from Singapore, told Lucy the rice people weren't like the other combatants. No one ever saw them in the armory, where each combatant's equipment was assembled, reviewed, and modified. Most combatants visited their table in the armory again and again, having their weapons and equipment adjusted, negotiating for alterations and paying for them out of their points. None of the rice people were seen there. "I heard they came on a boat, and they stayed on a boat until it was time for them to get their ear tag," Maria clutched her ear, illustrating Lucy's translation. Were there more? Yes, the boat was still there, probably there were more, but she didn't know for sure. James told Lucy to ask Maria if she could get aboard that boat, and maybe ask the crew some questions, or try to find out about any other rice people there. As Lucy spoke, Maria's face took on a guarded expression. She glanced at James, looked away and shook her head. Lucy translated, "There are places that people are not allowed to go. The docks are one, because people aren't supposed to come on the island, or leave it, without Mr. Van Allan's permission." Maria nodded vigorously as Lucy spoke, "No permission," she agreed. Lucy listened to her briefly, and spoke to James again. "Maria says this is the best job she's ever had, and she doesn't want to lose it." James gave Maria his patented television smile, and watched her melt. He still had it. "No problem," he said. "I don't want her to lose her job either, or do anything she shouldn't do. But I would like to know more about the rice people. If she should happen to hear anything, or find anyone who knows anything . . . " Maria nodded agreement, when Lucy translated. In payment, James gave Maria a bottle of Scotch that was part of his personal supply. She kissed him, too, which allowed him to understand why the Son of Odin had been lucky to receive such a send-off. When Maria had gone, James and Lucy walked along the Wall, reading the cenotaphs. Lucy outlined her plan for her story, and James, aware of a twinge of jealousy, agreed that her ideas sounded just great. When the walkway was deserted, James said, "What do you think this is all about?" "The rice people?" Lucy screwed up her face like a little kid pretending to think really hard, except James didn't think she was aware she was doing it. He thought about kissing her. "Well, they could be really dangerous combatants, murderers or something. . . " "Or it could be political," James finished for her. "Why don't you ask Mr. Van Allan?" Lucy asked him. "I did," said James. "I asked him about Mr. Happy and Mr. Lucky, and he said they're combatants like all the others." They walked back to the cart and got on. Lucy backed up and turned around, and they took off back the way they had came. James grabbed hold of the frame as they accelerated. She grinned at him. She stopped in front of his bungalow. "What are you going to do now?" "Now?" he asked. "Now, I'm going to try and get a few hours sleep before I go back to the studio and comment on who's been killing who while we've been out there investigating. Later . . . maybe I'll talk to Van Allan's secretary. He might be able to explain things that Van Allan won't." He leaned over and kissed her, gently, lingeringly, and got out of the cart. "Want to join me?" She screwed up her face again, and then relented. "Sure." He took her hand as they walked into the cottage. "Mrs. Baines? We're ready for you now." Tricia Baines left the green room and followed the production assistant through the hallway, walking carefully on her new shoes. She was wearing more make-up than she ever had in her life, and her new dress was too tight. She'd heard that television put ten pounds on you, and she didn't want to figure as a laughing stock at the family get-togethers for the next ten years. She wouldn't be here at all, except the network had offered her five thousand dollars for the interview. Arthur would have told her to grab it. After all, he was taking a terrible chance. She could certainly do her mite at home. The production assistant showed her where to sit, and her host, Sally Ann MacGuire, of the Good Morning MacGuire Show, Live and In Person, came on to sit in the chair opposite her. She was fussing with her jacket, and speaking sharply to the two women who followed her out, one with a hairbrush, one with a clipboard. That stopped abruptly with the announcement, "In five, Ms. MacGuire!" and suddenly, her hostess turned her thousand-watt smile on Tricia Baines, and Tricia just melted into her chair. It was true about these people. They really were different. "Tricia Baines? Hi, I'm Sally MacGuire," the TV star reached out and shook Tricia's hand. "Hello, yes," Tricia said. "How are you? So glad to meet you. I'll just be asking you a few questions, no need to worry about anything." Sally leaned towards her and beamed, patting her hand. "There won't be any questions you don't know the answer to, you know." She leaned back. "So glad to have you here," but she was already looking away, speaking sharply to one of the technicians about one of the lights. They did a mike test, and showed Tricia which camera to look at. Then someone did a count down, and Sally MacGuire again turned on her smile. A red light came on on the camera, like the bead on a gun. "Good morning! And we're here today with Tricia Baines, who is the wife of the first, and the longest-lived combatant who is out there right now on Savage Island. Tricia, did Arthur – or should I say, Scorpion – did he tell you where he was going?." "No," said Tricia. There was a beat while Sally waited, smiling, for her to add to that, and then Sally continued. "When did you find out where he had gone? He just turned up missing one day, right?" "He left me a message. I was at work. He told me he had to go out of town for a few days, take care of some business. I thought it was that brother of his again . . . " Tricia trailed off, not wanting to tell everyone in the world about Arthur's brother Tyler, and why Arthur might have to go out of town suddenly to deal with him. "And when did you find out where he was?" "I saw him on the TV. There he was, coming out of that gate, and he's not wearing any of the armor, of even a helmet, and when I get him home I am so going to give him what for for scaring me like this, but right now I just wish, I just wish everyday, I talk to him, on the TV, you know, and I say, Arthur, you just stay put. You keep out of everyone's way. You're almost there, honey, you're almost there." Tricia found she was crying, the tears simply leaking down her face as she spoke. "I'm sorry," she choked. "This is Tricia Baines, the wife of the first combatant to step out onto Savage Island. A man who has already proved his courage, every day now for seven days. And we'll be right back." When the red light on the camera went out, someone came to Tricia's side and carefully wiped her face for her, and handed her a fistful of tissues. Sally leaned toward her and said, "That was wonderful, Tricia, couldn't be better. Now, I'm just going to ask you a few more questions . . . " What Sally asked her, a few minutes later, was, "People are curious, Tricia. Why hasn't Arthur ― the Scorpion ― killed anyone? He's certainly been close enough to other combatants a number of times, he has all that rope, he has his knives, his machete. Of all of the men still on Savage Island, why is he the only one not hunting other men? Doesn't he want the money?" Tricia remembered to look at her camera, and not at Sally MacGuire as she answered her question. It felt awkward. "My husband did two tours in Vietnam. The first one when he was only seventeen years old. He knows what it is to kill people. He doesn't talk about that much. I know that the killing he did haunts him to this day. He says war is a terrible thing, a terrible thing, to make young men try and kill one another, because old men are too stupid or too proud to talk over their differences. Or too greedy," she added, thinking of the most recent wars. "But one thing Arthur said he learned how to do was stay out of sight and stay out of trouble. I think he's trying to cash in on that skill right now." "What do you say to those people who call your husband a coward because all this time he has been skulking in the bushes in the middle of the Island, and hasn't tried to fight anyone?" Tricia's eyes flashed and her posture straightened. "Why aren't they out there, then, that's what I say," she said hotly. "Why don't they get their own butts out there, and hunt up my Arthur. But they better watch out, cause what they're going to meet is not plain old Arthur Baines, but the Scorpion, and he has a deadly sting." Sally MacGuire was smiling at her again. She asked one more question. "If Arthur Baines ― if the Scorpion ― happens to be listening right now, what would you say to him?" Tricia took a deep breath. "I'd say, honey, we've got enough money. Now you sneak back out of there nice and quiet, and don't get into anymore trouble than you're going to be when I get you home." And then she burst out, "Keep safe. I love you." And the tears began to fall again. When Tricia got home from the airport, after flying back from Los Angeles (first class, and on the network's dime, no less), she found four more invitations for interviews on her phone machine. Her sister-in-law, Lorinda, who met her at her apartment door with celebratory cheesecake, exclaimed at every one. "Did I do good?" Trish asked her, smiling. "Honey," Lorinda replied, "you did so good! You looked great! I love your new dress. Come on, come in and see, leave those for now. I brought the tape." For three days after his excursion out of the gorge to see what was happening on the Island, Arthur Baines, the Scorpion, kept to his hideout. He whiled away some of the time building a pool in the stream so he could bathe and wash his clothes. He did some more work hiding his camp, and he explored up and down the stream. He noted with interest on the fourth day that the Savage Island technicians had managed to get a helicam down to his position. He heard it batting around the canopy, coming lower and lower, until it locked on to the trunk of a tree opposite his overhang. He was aware of the eye of the camera all day as he did this or that around the camp. He found himself performing, making up chores that made him look like a first-class survivalist. After dinner, he found himself waving to it, making hand-signs that only Trish would understand. "Don't be mad at me." "I love you." "Meet you in the car." Trish's sister had lived with them for six weeks after her surgery. Since they'd given her the the one bedroom, the hand-signs were the only privacy they'd managed during that time, except when they left the apartment. When he lay down to sleep, he lifted his hand to make one more sign, since the camera could see him there where he lay. The camera could see him. Scorpion sat up. It had been seven days since he emerged onto the Island. What had they said in orientation? The first group of combatants would go in blind. They'd never have seen the Island before. They wouldn't know the lay of the land, or what they were getting in to. The second wave of combatants would come because they'd seen Savage Island, and wanted to be part of it. On Savage Island, his position would be tracked on a computerized map. Anyone watching the show would know where he was, would know where he'd been camping for the last seven days. If any of the first week's combatants had scratched, some of the new ones might be substituted in on the seventh day. Or even the sixth day. People who knew where he was and what he was carrying might already be on the Island. They might be hunting him now. He tried to listen for any sounds that did not belong in the jungle at night, but his heart was beating so hard he couldn't hear anything. He found himself scrambling around, gathering his stuff, punching it down into his backpack . . . and stopped. And calmed himself. And listened again. Nothing could reach him here without his knowing. He'd blocked the paths. He'd netted the overhang. He knew the sounds ― which had changed now as the nearby insects and frogs panicked to hear him thrashing around. No one was here now. But they might come, very soon. He needed to change his lair, and he would need to do so again at least every three days. So, he would change his lair three more times, and then he would walk out and go home, mission accomplished. But right now, before morning came, he needed to move. "Is there any other thing I should ask you?" Lucy said to Dom Aguirre, as she wrapped up her interview. "Anything that you'd like to say?" Dom shook his head. "I know I'm supposed to say that I'm looking forward to proving my courage, or something like that. But that's not really it." Across the practice field, several other future combatants were working out. One was lunging over and over, stabbing the point of a slender sword into a man-shaped target. Across the field, a huge man jerked free weights into the air. Beyond him, a big, lanky guy swung a morningstar over and over, around and around, making the chain whistle in the air. Dom shrugged. "I got an idea. I gotta try it. If it works, then it's possible I'll win big. If it doesn't . . . " he shrugged again. Lucy, framing the picture in her mind as she concentrated on his face, listening hard to draw from him his every word, knew she had a good interview right at that moment. And then Dom capped it. "I'll never have a chance like this again. Win or die, fortune or destruction. Isn't that what life is all about?" And he gave the sweetest smile. Lucy closed her eyes, briefly. Shang-zu, on camera, kept rolling. "Thank you." "Sure," Dom smiled and shrugged again. Dom's equipment was packed, he had finished orientation, he had signed all the necessary papers. He was awaiting the notification that he was twenty-four hours from release onto Savage Island, at which time he would be summoned to draw a number He felt great. He wore the black shorts and orange tee-shirt that combatants were required to wear on the Island. This was his fourth day here, and he felt as though he'd never lived anywhere else, never been anywhere else, except waiting his time, waiting his turn. He did laps around the practice field, occasionally doing wind sprints. He'd seen no one else practicing running. He had that wonderful feeling of holding a hand of cards that could almost not be beaten. He had to be a little lucky out the Gate, that was all. Life was good, and he tried to express that in his interview. The camera was still rolling. Lucy was still looking at him, expectantly. He shrugged. He was trying to think of something else to tell her ― some message that he hadn't already sent home, when the beeper at his waist went off. And Lucy, who had been waiting for this, caught the moment when he started, looked down, checked the message, and raised his head, like a kid called to the stage to give a speech, or sent in in the last minutes to save the game: wonder and hope and fear, and the overwhelming sense that this was his moment, this was what his life was for. "I'm up," Dom said excitedly. "I'll be going out tomorrow. I've got to go and draw my number." "How do you feel?" Lucy asked him. "Are you scared?" "Terrified!" he said. He gave her a wave and loped across the field toward the barracks. Shang-zu kept rolling, following Dom all the way across the field. Other men were heading there as well; the weight lifter left his weights on the field, the swordsman whipped his sword all the way to the barracks. The morningstar wielder was trying to stop the thing without damaging himself. Shang-zu turned off the camera and smiled at Lucy. "Great!" "Yeah," Lucy agreed. Van Allan's instructions to her were to make these men look as heroic as possible. This interview, which she had timed perfectly to catch the moment when he was called up, was going to be one of her best. Shang-zu said, "He's a cute one. Maybe I'll put in for the draw tonight." "You're kidding!" Lucy turned to her. "Yeah, I'm kidding," Shang-zu said. "Have you ever done it?" Lucy asked. Shang-zu shook her head. "You're blushing! Go on, you want to," Lucy kidded her. Shang-zu shrugged. "Maybe, if you got to choose. But you know how they're doing it. You sign up, and if your name gets drawn, you pick a room number out of a box. Some of those guys," she grimaced. "Too big!" "You don't like them big?" Lucy asked. Shang-zu, small and slender, shook her head. "Too big for me," she said. "Besides," she said, as she finished stowing the camera in its box and wrestled it gently into the back, "I got a boyfriend." "No! Who?" Lucy turned the key. "Come on, I'll buy you lunch, and you can tell me everything!" Sixteen. He had drawn sixteen. That put him out the Gate at about two in the afternoon. Unless he turned back. Unless he chose not to go. Dom grinned to himself, staring up at the pale light on the ceiling reflected from the lights that lined the courtyard below. Of course he would go. Why else was he here? He lay on the narrow bed in his room in the combatant's barracks. In this same building, scattered across the half-dozen floors, were twenty-three other combatants who would be released onto Savage Island beginning the following dawn. His worthy foes. And no matter what they were expecting tomorrow, they would not be expecting him. He ran through his plan again. He ran through what would happen if he stayed so keyed up all night that he didn't get any sleep, until he stood before the Gate and fell asleep just before he was released . . . he laughed at himself, turned over in bed, prepared to slow his thoughts, find sleep somehow... He heard the door click open. He waited, eyes wide. He heard soft footsteps. He turned and saw her in the soft gray light reflected from outside. The woman was small, her dark hair loose, her eyes wide. As he watched, she walked slowly towards him, and let her robe slip, slowly, down her naked, golden skin, her eyes never leaving his face. When it dropped to the floor, he could see that she was trembling just a little. He didn't move. She came forward a step. In a soft voice, heavily accented, she said, "Do you want me, Hero?" His pulse was pounding. He sat there frozen, and then got it together and lifted the covers, welcoming her in to his bed. She kissed him, everywhere. She stroked him, she let his hands move where he liked, first gently, wonderingly, and then strongly, firmly. She rose up onto him, smiling down on him, a figure from his dreams, his hands on her small breasts. She began to move, exquisitely, and his pent-up excitement drove him to explode inside her. But she didn't stop, simply smiled, shifted, lay down by his side and began stroking him again, kissing him, licking him, mouthing him everywhere. He lay her on her back and entered her gently, gave her the long, smooth ride he knew how, felt her kick and buck beneath him, stilled her cries with his lips, and then pounded his way to his own climax, as she wound her legs around his hips and urged him on, gasping . He fell onto his side, breathing as hard as in any race, and slick with sweat. He felt her shift and leave the bed quietly, but she was back again in a moment, with a cool damp cloth. He drifted off to sleep under her ministrations, heard her whisper, "Be brave, Hero. Fight well. Come back safe," before she slipped away, leaving him in darkness. And then he slept, as he hadn't in a long time. James Grayson sat in the big chair by the fake fire. Lucy's good-bye kiss was still sweet on his lips, and the scent of her body lingered. He'd poured himself a glass of Scotch, and sat tasting it, idly paging through the sheaf of documents his agent had sent him. Something had struck him, earlier. Something he wanted to look at again. Yes. There it was. The name of the prosecutor who had handled the case against the Crimson Club killers who had murdered the Van Allan children was called John Savage. A coincidence? That fifteen years later Van Allan would have expended so much of his time and his fortune building an island by that name? That was the coincidence that stuck in his mind. He spread out the newspaper clippings and began to read. An hour later, he finished his Scotch, staring in to the fake fire. John Savage, in his first year as assistant district attorney for Los Angeles County, had grabbed the biggest case of the decade, and inserted himself into the badly botched investigation within hours of the drive-by shooting at the Crimson Club. The two cars used in the drive-by shooting were found a couple miles from the club. Seven suspects were arrested the same night, and by the next morning, the three shooters had confessed. In subsequent days, the fact that all but one of the shooters were underage and unaccompanied while questioned and coerced into confessing immediately led to the confessions being thrown out. The evidence from the cars was thrown out after it was learned that the police broke into the empty cars and searched them before warrants arrived, on the spurious report that they thought there might be other victims inside. In the end, not one of the seven killers went to trial. The only eighteen year-old member of the group pleaded guilty to grand theft auto, and saw three years in prison before he was paroled. One of the articles profiled all nine of the gangsters involved, their mug shots lined up in color across the page. The two shooters, seventeen-year-old Emilio Sanchez and Jesus Aparicio dominated the page with the largest pictures. Mario Aparicio had been the adult driver of the first car. There were outraged statements from the families of those who had been killed there were threats against John Savage, who admitted that mistakes had been made, and promised a thorough review of procedures for police. Several of the large, public funerals ended with marches on City Hall and speeches on the steps about the rule of law, and justice. After that, the Crimson Club shootings disappeared from the news. James put the sheaf of papers down, took a sip of Scotch, stared into the fake fire. Years had passed, and no one remembered, and John Savage was running for Governor of California. It seemed that Jules Van Allan had found a very public, and a very expensive way, to remind the state of California, and the world, of John Savage's very public failings. ### Chapter Eleven The seventh day on Savage Island was Grayson's first official day off. He went into the studio anyway, to look over the the most recent fights and pick the ones he would call the next day. Then he went for a walk. He turned down the offer of a cart. People noticed the carts, and who was in them. He just wanted to wander around, seemingly aimlessly, so that no one noticed particularly when he showed up at the harbor. He wanted to get a look at the ship where the Chinese prisoners were supposedly held. The harbor stood at the south-eastern tip of the island, in the area called the warehouse district. Next to the collection of two-story metal buildings that reminded James of sound stages on a Hollywood studio lot, the helipad stood, with its small tower and wind sock. James crossed the grass at the extreme end of the exercise field, watching as one of the helicopters landed. A dozen men off-loaded, jumping down unsteadily, gazing around curiously. James knew he'd see these men again in about four days, in the glory of their new identifies, ready to fight for their lives. Staff members with clipboard hurried up, checked them off from a list, and herded them to the administration building where they'd begin the process of becoming combatants. James skirted the far side of the helipad, keeping his distance. He smiled to himself. He was doing an undercover investigation. Except he had no cover but the fact that he was on his day off, and he was out for a walk. Grayson walked along the path at the edge of the cliff, looking down at the harbor below. A small cargo ship stood at the dock at the foot of the cliffs, a group of Asian workers off-loading her. Grayson was interested to note that the ship flew the flag of Indonesia. One of the clippings his agent sent him had a puff-piece on Jules Van Allan, who'd moved with his family from Jakarta due to some political upheaval, and reestablished his extensive business interests in Los Angeles. When the troubles died down, Van Allan had recommenced his businesses in Indonesia, but chose to remain in Los Angeles. One item of interest was that about this time Van Allan had purchased one of the thousands of Indonesian islands, after brokering a loan for the government. Grayson thought it was a good bet that Savage Island was located in Indonesia. Van Allan's yacht was moored in the harbor, a shining white two-story arrow, with the lines of a space ship, and a lounging deck in the bow. The only crewman he could see aboard was wiping down the rails in a desultory way. As he watched, an old wooden fishing boat came into harbor under power. It caught a mooring near three or four other vessels, whose sailors called out to the new arrivals. Grayson thought of some more questions to put to Lucy. How did new staff arrive? Not the staff hired from the United States, but the cleaners, cooks, gardeners and other help, Asian and Filipino, and possibly – he must ask her this as well – Indonesian. Did they live close enough to go home to their families now and then? Maybe they were ferried on these boats. He cast his eyes further out to the most distant of the wooden boats, moored at the edge of the harbor. Half a dozen men sat around on the deck. One stood at the rail smoking. Grayson wondered if he would see him again soon, exiting a gate onto the Island, loaded down with camping equipment and as much rice as he could carry. "Yes, Mark" Jules Van Allan adjusted the tilt of his computer, so that he could better make out the picture from his New York office. "Sir, I'm sorry to bother you again, but I've had a very interesting offer." Van Allan smiled, sitting back in his chair. Really, this project kept raining down benefits as though it were some judgment of heaven. "Oh? What is it?" "I've been approached by a very reputable company, very high-end, with the offer to license a video game of Savage Island." "A video game?" "Yes, sir. Broadly speaking, they would license the idea, and the use of some Island video for their artwork, and they would adapt the catalog as a way for players to build their characters, and then fight them on, essentially, a virtual Savage Island. They've offered us a two million dollar licensing fee for the use of our assets, they to take all risks, and all production costs." "I see," Jules stared out the window, ruminating. "We don't get a percentage?" "Ah, no sir, they didn't offer that. The way I see it, sir, since we aren't planning a video game, or anything like it, they're just giving us free money to use our name on a concept that is really pretty much out there. There are all kinds of fighting games, after all." Jules ran down the thought he had been trying to grasp and leaned forward. "Thank you, Mark, I'll think about it and call you back." "Yes, sir. Thank you sir." Van Allan looked across at his assistant. "Ken? Remind me of the name of the man who showed us the simulation of how the fighting was going to go ― about six months ago ― that he worked up on the computer?" "Richard Simmons, sir. He headed the team we contracted to run the probabilities for the point system, combat frequency, and Island population." He smiled. "I got to play it a few times." "Yes, that's what I recall. That the team played it as a video game." "That's right, sir. That's how they got the random factors into it. Very enthusiastic bunch, they used to work on it all night sometimes." "By work on it, you mean they played this game?" "That's right." "Call Simmons up here, will you?" Richard Simmons, an assistant to Dr. Mukhtar, was on his day off, but he came willingly when he was summoned. Since Mr. Van Allan wanted him now he didn't go back to his apartment and change, but appeared in shorts and a tee-shirt. Richard had built a computer simulation in order to do a test run of how Savage Island would work. The original plan to release combatants at five minute intervals had been nixed after running a simulation, as it resulted in a bloody melee right outside the gate that simply left a pile of bodies with no way to remove them. The sense of personal combat, of bravery and honor, was lost, as every combatant simply struck at whoever was in reach, especially those busy with other combatants. After numerous trials, the half-hour interval had resulted in the most number of personal battles, while ensuring there were sufficient combatants on the Island for fights to arise at regular intervals. "The computer simulation? Sure, we still have it. We're working on the new draft of the catalog based what we've learned from the combatants trying out the point system under field conditions. We're still figuring out how much to charge for a morningstar, for one thing, and if breastplates should be more expensive. The fact is . . . " He glanced over at Ken. "Oh, yes?" Van Allan, sensing some activity he wasn't supposed to know about, waited for his men to give it up. "In the last month before Savage Island went live, we put the sim up on the Island server. Anyone can access it. They design their own characters, choose weapons and stuff. People play pretty regularly. About a hundred of us." "Can you show me here?" Van Allan drew back from his desk, giving Simmons access to his computer. "Sure!" From Van Allan's shoulder he gave a tour of the game site. "You see, here you build your characters ― these are mine, that's Hulk Man ― he's got fourteen kills ― and that's Bear, he's super strong. I just started running him this week. Here's the Island . . . you can see, down here, who's on the Island, but we don't show it on the map, that's a cheat. You have to go and find them. And then, you can type in your challenge line, and you fight . . . " "Everyone fights each other?" "Well, we sort of have bets. You pay for your points in Island dollars which you buy on your credit card, and you cash out whenever you make a kill." "So, you're making money from this game?" Richard looked over at Ken again. "Well, I could. I mean, I've taken money in. But it's still there. Ken said ― Ken said I could use it to pay for server time, and maintenance, and stuff. I haven't . . . " "How much have you made?" Van Allan asked mildly. "About thirty-five hundred dollars. You buy a thousand points for a hundred dollars, and you cash out at five thousand a kill . . . " "Not a hundred thousand?" Van Allan asked mildly. "No, sir, because, kills are easy; we'd go broke." "We?" Richard looked over at Ken again. "I'm in it at twenty percent," Ken admitted. "It still serves as a simulation, but there are . . . administrative costs . . . and ― a whole lot of people really like it." Van Allan turned on him with a hard blue stare. Ken flushed. "It's still a useful simulation. The adjustment of points for spears came from the game-play that we've done, and that's a help." "Yes," Van Allan said. But that was not all he meant. Simmons broke in, making his case with enthusiasm. "I told Ken, if you were to run this as a massive online multi-player came, you could make a fortune. Look. We haven't been able to fit everyone who wants to play on the first Island," Richard reached over, clicked on a button, and brought up a new menu, "so we had to design an archipelago. As you make kills, you move up. But you have to buy in again, to upgrade equipment . . . We did this all on our own time, really, sir." Van Allan read the titles off the various islands in the archipelago. "Ruined Monastery. Hidden Cavern. Island of Cannibals. Pirate Bay. Jungle Canopy." "There are giant birds in the canopy. And worms with lots of arms in the cavern. We fight monsters as well as other combatants. It makes it more surprising. And, it's like a sand trap, because you don't getting anything for beating a monster. Except, you get to live." "I see," Van Allan said on a laugh. He clicked through a tree-canopy maze, where a number of virtual combatants were fighting. Then he segued over to a fantasy island with an ancient ruined city. "Very imaginative." His two employees looked profoundly relieved. He told Simmons, "We've been offered two million dollars to license Savage Island as a video game. Could we sell this game ourselves?" Richard glanced at Ken, and back again. "We've been talking about that. It's already up and running. We could just open it up to other players. We'd need a whole lot of server capacity, of course. But if we ran parallel worlds, we could take on an unlimited number of combatants." "You've been thinking about this?" "I've been telling Ken, right along," Richard said. "It's a fantastic game. And Savage Island is the best possible publicity for it." Van Allan didn't follow up with his next question, but a sharp glance over at Ken told him that Ken knew very well what it was. Instead he asked Richard, "Can you draw up a proposal for me?" "Yes, sir!" Richard said. "Very good. You designed this ― and tested it," he added, "on my time, and on my equipment, but I will reward your ingenuity. If the game sells, you will prosper." "Thank you, sir," said Richard. When he was gone, Van Allan turned to Ken. "When were you going to tell me about this?" "We're still testing it," Ken said, flustered. "Frankly, in the last month I haven't paid much attention. I've been too busy. And when I mentioned the simulation, you didn't seem very interested." Van Allen held his gaze for another moment. "I see." After consideration he asked, "Is there anything else you haven't had a chance to tell me?" Ken shifted in his seat, and swallowed once. "There's been gambling. On the game. A lot of people ― on the Island ― log into the game to lay bets on fighters that are playing." "And there's been some additional revenue there?" Ken shook his head. "We put it into the jackpots won by the online players. And the gambling has fallen off considerably, since Savage Island opened for real. You already know about the gambling on the Island." "Yes." Van Allen nodded thoughtfully. "Anything else?" Ken took a moment to think before he said, "No, sir." Van Allan held his gaze coldly for another moment. Then he said, "All right. Call back Peregrine and tell him to decline the license; Savage Island will be producing our own game. Thank him for bringing the idea to my attention, and tell him we'll cut him a bonus when we incorporate. Call Wasserman's office and tell him to incorporate a game company. Find a producer who can get the game out at soon as possible. Put Richard in charge, and cut him in for a share, and everyone who helped him develop the game." "Yes, sir," Ken kept his head down, scribbling notes. Van Allan waited until Ken had finished thinking of more things to scribble and looked up at him again. "You may cut yourself in for an appropriate number of shares," he said. He leaned back. You will then donate a portion of those shares to some useful cause. Perhaps the health care benefit fund for those wounded who survive Savage Island." Ken nodded. "I think that's a very good idea, sir." "Good," Van Allan said. "I look forward to seeing how much you think you need to share. Ken flushed again. "Yes, sir." He then added, "Thank you, sir." "That's all," Van Allan said. Ken got up, remembering to unhook his phone before he dragged his laptop off the desk, and headed for his office next door to start making calls. "And Ken," he turned back once again to meet those hard cold eyes, "I will have no more surprises." "No, sir," said Ken Frize, and left the office, trying not to hurry out of sight of that ice blue stare. "Today we begin a new chapter in the saga of Savage Island," James Grayson said to the camera the next morning. He'd elected to tape this show in real time, granting him all the spontaneity of surprise as he commented on events as they unfolded. "Today, the first combatants who have seen Savage Island will step onto the killing ground. These men know already what the ground looks like, they know where the trails lead. They know what can happen when their gate opens." Dawes barked a laugh, "And they know what can happen if they try to get back through a gate at the wrong moment." "That's right," James chuckled too, remembering. "Now, none of the men have seen a monitor since they arrived here four days ago. So they don't have that advantage. But they have seen what strategies have been successful in the past." Colonel Dawes nodded. "This is going to be a very interesting day." "And what do you expect to see, Colonel?" James asked. "James, I'm not going theorize ahead of my facts, I'm just going to wait and see what happens." James smiled to himself. Had the Colonel committed himself, James would have amused himself all day making him look wrong, and foolish. But after a week, Dawes had come to realize that he was on another kind of battlefield in the studio, and had picked up some techniques. Honestly, Dawes was turning out to be more fun every day. In his renegotiation, James had approved the extension of Dawes's contract as well. He knew what was good for the show. In the minutes before the first combatant emerged, James reviewed the combatants currently on the Island. Then the countdown ran out, the center gate opened, and the first combatant of the eighth day strode onto the killing ground. "And this," James announced, "is Griffin."He carried a long, rectangular shield painted red with a golden griffin, claws out, wings unfurled. He wore a steel breastplate, chainmail skirt, long red leather boots that matched his red leather gauntlets. A light-weight red and gold surcote covered his armor, and the dagged mantling on his helmet made him look like a knight out of a book on medieval chivalry. He wore a sword on his left hip, a long knife on belt, and carried a morningstar. "Wow," Grayson said, and he came out of the gate and into the glory of the rising sun. "He's beautiful." "He's sure something," Colonel Dawes allowed. "I bet we're going to see a lot of morningstars today." In fact, over half of the combatants that day came out of the gate carrying morningstars. It was no coincidence that this day produced more "Funniest Fights of Savage Island" than any other. Like the Shadow before him, Griffon strode out onto the killing field, checked his perimeter, and then turned and stood there, waiting for the next combatant to come out of the gate. "Well, we know he saw the Shadow. ," Grayson said. "Yeah, that's his game plan." With almost thirty minutes to fill before the next combatant came out of the gate, Grayson showed footage of the current Island champion, Storm Bringer, with three eartags in the pocket of his backpack. Storm Bringer, formerly Dean Abernathy, hailed from southern Georgia, and had brought all the craft of a long line of hunters to his plans. He had killed Ripper Don on his first day, and gotten two eartags from him. He then threw Sword King off a cliff and spent the rest of the day and half the night climbing down the to reach the body where it was jammed in some rocks to recover the eartag, only to sprain his ankle in a bad fall trying to get back up. . James realized that his voice had taken on an ironic tone as he egged on Storm Bringer, leaning heavily on his spear as he limped slowly back to the wall. So when the next combatant, Kingslayer, stepped out of the gate, dressed almost identically to Shadow, in black armor, a winged helmet like Death's, but with rather bigger wings, and wielding, as Colonel Dawes predicted, a morningstar, Grayson's tone was suitably awestruck. Kingslayer stepped into the arena, and Griffin moved to intercept him. Both of them wound up their morning stars, and both men approached their opponent with their shields raised to cover their heads for the block. Thus, they couldn't see their opponent. And thus, both morningstars missed the other and swung back around toward the throwers. Kingslayer's clocked him in his own backplate. Griffin's caught the corner of his own shield and fell to the ground. Both men backed away and tried frantically to get their weapons into motion again. Then they advanced once more, raising their shields as they came into range. "They're not ― they can't ― " Dawes expostulated. "How do you see around your shield when it's that big?" Grayson asked. "How do you – whoa!" he yelled involuntarily as the two men's chains met in the air and wrapped around one another. Kingslayer yanked hard to pull them apart, and his morningstar came back to him and crashed into his helmet. Griffin dropped his morningstar, hopped back and grabbed at the sword at his waist. Kingslayer meanwhile came charging in, swinging his morningstar. Griffon trotted backward to stay out of range, and finally drew his sword. As the morningstar swung passed, Griffon changed direction and charged Kingslayer, reaching up with his shield as he came into range to block the chain of Kingslayer's morningstar coming around again, thus causing what would have been a clean miss to smack him in the back of his head. Griffin staggered, recovered himself, and charged Kingslayer again, and simply knocked him over. Grayson glanced up at the proximity alert. His voice rose with excitement as Storm Bringer skirted the tree line, limping slowly, trying not to catch the fighters' eyes. "What a move!" shouted Dawes. Grayson made admiring noises while he felt himself bracing for what would come next. Killing could be hard, and slow, and brutal, he'd learned. When the men were tired, and it took a long time, it could look a lot like bad butchery. Griffin lumbered in on Kingslayer, who rolled, came up with a roar, charged into him, got around him, and wound the chain of the morningstar around Griffin's head. Kingslayer lifted Griffin off his feet again and again At last, Griffin fell. and Kingslayer fell with him. Then he got on both knees on Griffin's back, took another turn around his neck with the chain of the morningstar, and hauled back as hard as he could. And hauled again. Griffin's light had already gone out on the board, but Griffin's eartag was under his helmet, and Kingslayer did not stop to check it, but hauled away, making sure that Griffin would not rise again. And that was when Storm Bringer's carefully placed spear point stabbed Kingslayer in the neck. There was a generous spray of blood. That was something that James had not yet gotten used to. The huge amount of blood a man could spray when opened by a weapon. Kingslayer fell slowly, the retching gasping sounds of his expiration failing as he failed, bleeding his life out into the sands. Storm Bringer put his spear through Griffin's neck as well, to spare himself any nasty surprises, but there was no spraying of blood this time, only a sluggish river like a scarlet ribbon slipping from beneath his helmet. Storm Bringer soon dropped two eartags down the back of his glove. He then checked his perimeter ― the lesson the Island soon taught you, Dawes commented, or else you ended up dead, like Kingslayer ― and then limped his way toward the nearest Gate. Storm Bringer had one chance in three of choosing the gate that did not hold, behind it, the next combatant, but now his luck failed. Just as he approached the left-hand gate, it opened, releasing Starhands into the arena, and into the eyes of the world. Starhands was dressed all in white, from his soft leather boots to his white surcote (with a gold star on the chest), to his conical helmet with the little cape around it (to keep the sun off the metal, and it had a gold star on it as well, of course). Starhands carried a morningstar in his right hand, and a long sword in his left. He was a Swede, a younger son of an aristocratic family (that had also made a shipping fortune early in the 20th century), and one-time member of the Swedish Olympic fencing team. He strode out of the gate and found Storm Bringer standing before him, leaning on his spear, sprayed in blood, and behind him in the sand, two bodies united in death and gore. And near them, on the sand, a sword and two morningstars. Starhands, fresh and revved up and ready to fight and kill, hesitated. Storm Bringer raised his blood-encrusted spear. Starhands backed slowly away, walked carefully around him, skirted the arena, and headed into the trees and to glory elsewhere. Later, when he returned from Savage Island, he told the world that he assumed that Storm Bringer was defending his two prizes, and had not yet harvested the eartags. Since he wasn't there for the money (Starhands said), he thought it wrong to interrupt Storm Bringer, or take him from his prize. He said he assumed there would be other prizes, more worthy of his mettle. But that didn't stop the world from labeling him, in his conspicuous white togs, the Silver Chicken. And despite his two prancing victories later in the day, and his triumphant return to Sweden (where they made nothing of his escapade, and he was allowed to live in peace with his small fortune after taxes, despite the constant reminder of his adventures, in the missing two fingers of his right hand), the world continued divided over whether his glory would have been the greater had he struck down Storm Bringer right out the gate. Because the world had seen him charge out the gate, and hesitate at the sight of the killer before him. Storm Bringer sensibly forbore to move until Starhands was well on his way, so the fact that he couldn't walk without the aid of his spear was revealed too late. Storm Bringer came back through the gate with five eartags, to the cheers of the waiting crowd of technicians and hangers on, and a slender young Asian woman who slipped out of the crowd and kissed him in front of everyone, and called him, "My Hero!" and gave him no end of explaining to do to his wife when he got home. The whole world learned that day that morningstar on morningstar could be an extremely humorous weapons form. The best fight of the day was between two combatants who both managed to strike themselves so hard with their own morningstars, before they'd even engaged, that they knocked themselves down. "Funniest Fight Ever!" on Savage Island. Upstairs in his office Van Allan followed the events of the day. He'd seen most of his guests off the island onto helicopters that morning, in the first leg of the long journey back to their homes. He smiled at once of the morningstar fights, the one where the guy called Nova chased his opponent, Red Fox, into the trees, swung his morningstar there, and got it completely tangled in the foliage. His real mistake, however, was in not letting go, backing off, and drawing his secondary weapon when Red Fox came back after him. The morningstar was considerably tangled, and Red Fox had a short spear. At the knock on his office door Jules Van Allan called, "Come!" Elena Carmine entered, ushering one of the staff into his office. Elena Carmine was in charge of the staff on the island, and oversaw hiring and the logistics of their travel, food and housing. "Mr. Van Allan," she said, "this is Maria Chong, whom I told you about." Van Allan looked up from his screen as the woman came to stand in front of his desk. "Yes?" he said. Carmine reminded him, "Mrs. Chong said James Grayson and Lucy Tran were asking her some questions. About the Chinese combatants." "Ah," Van Allan said, leaning back in his chair. "And what did you tell them, Mrs. Chong?" His deceptively mild manner, and the steely expression in his eyes, had their desired effect. Mrs. Chong wilted. She spoke quickly, gesturing with her hands. "She told them the Chinese combatants don't sleep in the barracks. They asked her if she could go on the ship where they sleep and ask questions, and she told them it was forbidden," Carmine translated. Mrs. Chong watched him anxiously, and then started talking again. "She says they asked her to tell them if she hears anything else, but she says she hasn't heard anything, and she won't say anything." "I see," Van Allan said thoughtfully. After a pause, while Mrs. Chong seemed to shrink into the carpet, Carmine added, "Do you want me to fire her, sir?" "Oh, no," Van Allan replied. "No. She won't tell them anything more, will she?" Carmine spoke quickly to Mrs. Chong, who shook her head vigorously. "Good," Van Allan smiled thinly. "She'll be a dead end for them on the one hand, and on the other, she can tell us of any other questions Grayson and Tran come up with. All right? Fine her a day's wages for her indiscretion, and tell her to go back to work." When Mrs. Chong had been ushered out of the office, still promising, thanking and explaining, Carmine came back to stand by Van Allan's desk. "Anything else, sir?" Van Allan sat frowning. "Yes," he said, after a few moments. "Mr. Grayson and Ms. Tran . . . I think we should break those two up, don't you?" Dom came charging out the left-hand gate at one-thirty in the afternoon. He'd been moved up, when number seven refused. Number Seven ― Invincible ― had seen through the gate what was left of Tank after his long fight with Orc Lord. Cougar, came out of the gate like a runner off the blocks. All he had to do was outrun anybody who was out there, and make it to his destination ― the tree he had studied, mapped and planned for, on which his whole strategy was based. Everyone on Savage Island was there to fight each other to the death. Well, there were other ways to beat people than fighting. He would show them all. Cougar still at a run, took a sweeping look around and spied Conquistador, just returning to the arena from a walk up the trail into the hinterlands. Conquistador wore a helmet modeled on a 16th century Spanish tourney helm, and he carried a small shield on his left arm, and a two-handed sword, which he had ascertained in several trials with some friends of his (who were not with him now), that a long sword could defeat a morningstar. A long sword could also defeat a shorter sword, and any other shorter-hafted weapons. He was pretty sure, in fact, that he could take anything that came out of the Gates. When Cougar emerged, wearing a light pack and carrying nothing, he was sure he had an easy win. But he couldn't catch him. Cougar found Conquistador standing between himself and his tree, so he executed Plan B. He ran toward the eastern edge of the arena, drawing Conquistador away from the left-hand side. Conquistador, thinking him easy prey, loped toward him. Dom sped up, running toward the beach path. Conquistador put on some speed to catch him before he left the arena. Then Cougar veered away along the tree line toward the left-hand trail. Conquistador turned to follow him, but by then it was too late. Cougar had plenty of time to shin up the tree. He had his climbers attached to leather leggings and vambraces. But he had underestimated the effect of the adrenalin rush you experienced when a giant guy in a steel suit was chasing you with a long sword, because he was up the tree without seeming to need them. Cougar climbed up to the branches thirty feet off the ground, and got himself situated, which was when Conquistador arrived at the foot of his tree. Conquistador couldn't climb the tree – not in that armor, and not without any branches closer than twenty feet off the ground. Conquistador didn't want to leave Cougar at his back when he returned to fight in the arena. He had to assume the guy in the tree had some weapon. He decided to move further inland, and wait for a more suitable opponent. Hopefully one with a morningstar, which he knew he could beat. Conquistador headed back along the treeline. Cougar threw a grappling hook ― and missed. In the first official collection of "Funniest Moments on Savage Island," Dom Aguirre ― the Cougar ― was the star. Clips of his fights had the most downloads, and the most bootlegs, of any in the first months of combat on Savage Island. First, the Cougar secured a life line to his safety harness. Then he climbed farther up in the tree and attached block and tackle to each of two stout limbs, one over the edge of the arena, and one over the trail that led under the tree. In the control room, the techs were so interested in the Cougar's preparations that they adjusted a couple of cameras to keep him in view, so there were a whole lot of cutaways available to add when the day's broadcast was edited. Cougar sat quietly and allowed Hunter of Men to walk by beneath him. Hunter was dressed in camouflage, and carried a long spear with a crosshatch at the end, and several long knives. An hour later, Sun Hero, dressed in golden armor and carrying a Roman-style shield and a long sword strode off beneath his tree, but too far out for Cougar to reach him with his hook. Not long after, Black Knight, armored exactly like the Shadow and carrying a morningstar, came down the path toward the Gate. Black Knight had been on the Island since mid-morning, and was the victor in two fights. He'd laid up not far from the arena since his last fight this morning when he had wrenched his shoulder badly. Since it hadn't gotten any better, he was heading for the gate, and a hot shower, and medical care, and two hundred thousand dollars in prize money. One of the amusing parts of the clip was that he stopped under the Cougar's tree, and stood there scanning the arena, making sure that it was safe. Cougar dropped his three-pronged grappling hook, and pulled up, trying to catch the edge of his helmet, but he missed. James's commentary was hilarious. Cougar dropped the hook again, and it swung toward the Black Knight and touched him on the shoulder. He spun, swinging his morning star, while the Cougar pulled the hook up out of sight. The morning star smacked hard into the tree. And stuck. The Black Knight, gathering the chain in his hand, walked over and tried to pull it out. The Cougar dropped the hook again. The Black Knight moved at the last minute, and the hook caught him under the shoulder, hooking his underarm, instead of at the back of the helmet, and the Cougar hauled away as hard as he could. The Black Knight, kicking and screaming, was pulled into the air ― and then stopped, because he was holding the morningstar, which was still stuck in the tree. The Cougar hauled away, the Black Knight held on for his life. The Cougar tied off the rope on a cleat he'd installed, and slipped down the tree to finish off his prey. He'd screwed together the sections of his spear, and, holding onto the tree, tried to spear the Black Knight in the throat. Instead he poked him in the shoulder and caused him to swing back and forth on the end of the rope, four feet off the ground. The Cougar leaned out, trying to get his spear point into the Black Knight's throat, and then he fell out of the tree. James cracked up when he saw it, and they left his laughter in when they sent out the final feed. The Cougar jerked up short at the end of his lifeline. The Cougar, swimming in the air up above, trying to get back onto a tree branch, and the Black Knight swinging below him, trying to unhook his arm, was the cause of much mirth across the globe in the days that followed. The Cougar dropped his spear. He swung himself and grabbed the trunk of the tree and shimmied up. He climbed up to the block and tackle that held the Black Knight and hauled away on the rope. And that was when the block, improperly secured, fell out of the tree and conked the Black Knight on the head as he dropped to the ground. The Cougar fell out of the tree again and jerked up hard at the end of his lifeline, cursing and swinging for the tree trunk. The Black Knight lay groaning on the ground, his shield arm, with the hook in it, beneath him. He tried to get to his feet. Before the Black Knight could recover, the Cougar regained the tree, fed the rope through his other block and tackle, and hauled the Black Knight up into the tree and tied him off twenty feet from the ground. The Cougar no longer had his long spear. He took a length of slender rope, waited his moment as the Black Knight spun slowly, and looped it around the Black Knight's head, dropping it down to his neck and snugging it up, until he got under the edge of the helmet and around his throat. It took the Cougar twenty minutes to finish off the Black Knight. That part wasn't so funny. They cut out some of that in the final edit, the long minutes where the Black Knight, gasping, grabbing at the rope, spun and kicked and choked to death. But everyone agreed that the Cougar had earned his kill. The Black Knight hung in the tree like a macabre decoration while the Cougar cut off his armor piece by piece, searching everything his victim had and then dropping it to the ground. He found the Black Knight's two additional eartags tucked under his breastplate. Cougar unhooked his prey and let him drop. He sat watchful for awhile, and then climbed down, unhooked the Black Knight, and recovered his spear. Cougar sat tight in his tree while the next combatant to be released stood his ground in the arena, and then challenged the next two combatants who came out the gates. He beat both of them, made a salute, straightened his foes' bodies, and then went inside again, unscathed. A proximity alert was already sounding in the studio. A few moments later, Hagen came down the trail toward the arena. He'd been released in the early morning, crossed the empty killing ground, and made his way up the trail to a defensible place where two trails intersected, and took a stand. There he had a successful day, exchanging blows with one opponent until he backed down and went away, and killing the second, recovering one additional eartag. Now he was hot and tired. Having had one good fight, he was calling it a day. Hagen wore a hauberk of scale, which he'd thought would be lighter in the heat than traditional chainmail. Now, he thought nothing would be lighter in this heat. He noticed a piece of the Black Knight's armor before he stumbled on it, and then saw the corpse on the ground. He bent to check for the Black Knight's eartag. And this time, the Cougar's strategy worked just as he had fantasized. He dropped the hook and caught the edge of Hagen's helmet and hauled away until he was twenty feet in the air. Hagen's chin strap was tightly cinched, as he hadn't wanted his helmet to come off in combat. Of course, he had not imagined these circumstances. The Cougar aimed carefully with his twelve-foot spear, and spitted him in the side of the neck, where the helmet rode up on the hook. There was a generous spray of blood. It made a hissing and splattering sound that would invade Dom's dreams for the rest of his life. Hagen bled out quickly, and hung limp on the Cougar's hook. This second attack by the Cougar was titled, "How It's Done," as compared to his first attack, which was labeled, "Don't Do It Like This," on the "Best Fights of Savage Island Special Collection" DVD when it was released in time for Christmas. The Cougar once again cut each piece of equipment off of Hagen, leaving only his helmet, searched his clothes, and found Hagen's extra eartags. Dom spared himself a joke at his expense by remembering, after he dropped his dead victim, to go down and harvest Hagen's eartag. At dusk, Conquistador came back down the trail. He couldn't see very well through the slots in his helmet, and it was getting dark, so he had decided to come in and perhaps go out again another day. He tripped over Hagen's leg, causing the Cougar to miss his first attempt to hook him. But the second worked perfectly. Hours later,, when the moon was high, and the arena had been deserted for a long time, the Cougar slipped down from his tree, and then ran like hell for the Wall. Seven eartags in one day was enough of an adventure. And after all, he'd proved his idea would work. Lucy met him as he came in the gate, among a cheering crowd of the self-appointed Hero Groupies. Shang-zu's camera was rolling. "How do you feel?" Lucy called. She noticed with satisfaction that Dom was still smeared with blood from his butcheries. This was going to go over really well. Dom was in an altered state, a combination of adrenalin rush, excitement, joy and victory. He clutched his seven gory eartags in his hands, afraid that they would disappear. "I'm fine!" he called to her. "I'm great!" He broke off as a woman hurled herself at him, grabbing him, holding him, and kissing him hard. He hadn't seen her in the light, but he thought he recognized her scent from the night before. He smiled at her. "How did you ever think of those ropes, and the grappling hook, and everything?" Lucy asked, not having to feign how impressed she was. Dom grinned. The woman still clung to him, and he draped an arm over her shoulder. "I've done a lot of sailing. First thing I thought of, when I saw all those big guys with their armor and weapons, how a guy like me could stand a chance, up against guys like that." "Are you going back out there?" Lucy asked. In reply, he held up his eartags. "That's enough, don't you think?" His smiled widened. "That's going to buy my boat, and all the time I need to enjoy it" ### Chapter Twelve Jules Van Allan watched the interview live on his monitor. Applications to Savage Island were sorted by computer to ensure a variety of nationalities and weapons strategies. The rubric also kicked any applicants from the greater Los Angeles area to the top for early review. Thus, there had been statistically more combatants on the Island from Los Angeles than from any other city. But Dom Aguirre was the first to get himself a kill. Jules Van Allan smiled. A Los Angeles resident had killed three people in public. And now, John Savage was going to have to take action. Jules Van Allan sent for James Grayson the next day, to tape an interview that he planned to broadcast as widely as possible. He wanted to give John Savage no room to ignore Dom Aguirre's actions. Grayson had changed. He was not as obsequious as he had been when he arrived. He was not afraid to ask hard questions. Van Allan appreciated this, as an edgy interview would attract more viewers. Besides: he had final say on the edit. Nothing was broadcast from Savage Island without Van Allan's approval. In Los Angeles, John Savage had already scheduled a press conference. As part of his carefully-orchestrated campaign, investigation and prosecution of Narwhal Chemical Company for environmental abuses had resulted in a huge settlement for Los Angeles County. With lights blaring, in his best suit, with his staff behind him like a legal posse, he made the announcement. He was allowed to gloat over his coup for two questions before the third reporter hijacked his press conference. "Yes, Roger?" "Mr. Savage, you have said in the past, that you didn't care about Savage Island ― " "― Excuse me, Roger, but this is not about Savage Island." "Then it's true that you don't care about Savage Island, because it's a long way from here?" "Roger, that is not what I said," John Savage broke in forcefully. You couldn't let that kind of language loose into the media cycle; it would drive the news for days. "What I said was, until the laws of California are broken, this island, and whatever is done there, is not in my jurisdiction. And until that happens ― " "And if that happens, what are you prepared to do?" "Can we get back on topic? Come to me tomorrow and we'll talk about it. Meanwhile, the City of Compton and Los Angeles County has garnered through this settlement a windfall that will serve―" "Excuse me, Mr. Savage -- " "Nancy, if I can just finish ―" "A Los Angeles resident has just won seven hundred thousand dollars on Savage Island." Savage stopped. After a short pause he said, "That news has not yet been brought to my attention." He put his hands up as more questions were shouted at him. "Thank you, gentlemen and ladies. Councilor Cray is distributing my complete statement ― " He called his secretary on his way to his car. "Deana? I thought I told you to notify me when someone from Los Angeles... Oh. Just today? He killed three people? Find out everything you can about them. He's coming back to Los Angeles? Is that right? When is he due to land? You bet we're going after him! We're going to fry the bastard!" Dom announced publicly, in his departing interview with Lucy Tran, that he would return to Los Angeles to talk to his girlfriend about leaving her job and going with him on a world cruise. When his flight landed at the Los Angeles airport, by way of Sydney, John Savage was there, with the press, and a SWAT team, to make the arrest. Once he heard that Mr. Aguirre had been escorted from the plane in chains, John Savage made a triumphant speech about not tolerating criminal behavior in Los Angeles County residents, just as he would not tolerate criminal behavior in California once he had been elected governor. He promised the charges would be conspiracy to commit murder, capital murder, with an enhancement of torture, and that Dominic Aguirre would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The news cycle that followed, while it included his tough statement, also showed the portly, elderly Donald Aguirre, removed from the plane in chains, while his wife and daughter followed weeping after. It concluded with the fact that the suspect had been released in a case of mistaken identity. Cougar of Savage Island was not heard from again. John Savage's announcement of the settlement with Narwhal was lost in the ensuing media storm about the false charges, and the ordeal of Mr. Aguirre, just back from his granddaughter's wedding, during his seventeen hours in custody. Savage not only lost the momentum for his campaign that he'd planned on from the settlement announcement, but ended up looking weak and ineffective since Dom Aguirre, to the enthusiastic delight of the world-wide Savage Island fans and followers, got clean away. Jules Van Allan was pleased. He'd offered Dom a brand new Ericson 36, if Dom agreed to take delivery of it in Argentina. Dom was happy in return to change his name and disappear. When the frenzy surrounding John Savage's misstep had just begun to die down, Van Allan made a call to a contact in Los Angeles, a contact that had been standing by for several weeks. "It's time," was all Van Allan said to him. "You may begin." James Grayson's obligation by contract was to do three hours' worth of commentary per day on Savage Island. Other commentators had been hired to make up the additional hours that had been sold, but they worked in a studio in Los Angeles. Living on the mile-square administrative end of Savage Island, Grayson found that aside from work, there was not a lot to do. You could go and have a drink at the Last Resort. You could take walks, or a cart ride. If you were part of the management staff, you could swim in Van Allan's pool. Swimming in the ocean was not advised due to the prevalence of sharks. This caused Grayson to lose interest in doing a bit of ocean sailing or kayaking, since a mistake wouldn't just land you in the drink, but also invite teeth marks. The phone system, as well as access to the internet, was subject to censorship by the island administration. This was to ensure that no one inadvertently or by design gave away anything that could allow outsiders to locate the island. James discovered that other methods of disguising their location were also in place, when he was given a copy of the first "Best Fights of Savage Island" DVD. His picture was on the cover, and he looked good. A shot of Shadow, in the moment before he slammed his morningstar into one of his foes, took up most of the frame. On the back was a shot of Savage Island with two prominent geological features in view; a pair of black stone pillars emerging from the surf in a surge of spray off the west coast, and a massive transmission tower just behind the Wall, with a bristling array of antennae. Grayson was amused. He asked to see some of the final broadcasts in the control room and discovered that these signature landmarks had been dropped into shots of the Island right from the start. In addition, a half-sunken wreck from World War Two could be seen (in the broadcasts) at the north end of the Island. Farley told him that they had half a dozen protocols in place for disguising the island from casual surveillance, whether satellite or overflight. With little else to do, Grayson often gravitated to the studio. He liked to keep up with activity on the Island. He enjoyed narrating the adventures of the various fighters, and he got bonuses for doing more work than he was scheduled for. So he happened to be in the studio when they released the fifth rice man. The first combatant wasn't scheduled for release for nearly an hour, to coincide with the sunrise. Grayson had wandered into the control room to swipe a cup of coffee and a sweet roll, before going to his new dressing room for make-up. The walls of monitors rotated through every shot on the island in ten second intervals. If you knew how to orient yourself, you could stand in the middle and turn, and see every combatant on the Island from one end to the other. Most of them were dug in at this hour. It was nap time on Savage Island, before the new day of combat begun. So, seeing the third gate open onto the empty killing ground in the predawn light caught Grayson's attention. He recognized the profile of the emerging combatant at once. Straw hat, light cotton clothes, heavy pack, extra bag of rice over his shoulder. This one also carried a walking stick. Not a weapon, just a stick, which he leaned on to walk as he started out the gate. A technician followed the new rice man out, and that was unheard of. Grayson, riveted to the screen, saw the Asian tech, who wasn't even wearing the orange vest that would keep him safe from combatants, run out onto the sand after the new rice man and catch him up. The tech spoke to the rice man, gesticulated, and then pointed him to the path that meandered along the stream, and would eventually bring him to the rice men's encampment. The Asian tech put his hands together and bowed to the rice man. Grayson stepped forward, wondering if he'd seen that clearly. The monitor went black. He looked around to see Farley at the controls, shutting down all the monitors that gave coverage to the killing ground. Grayson hesitated for just a moment, but when Farley caught his eye, James yawned, sipped his coffee, and with elaborate lack of haste turned and headed for the door. He was on to something. He was right about the rice men. They weren't like the other combatants. And Farley had been an idiot to draw attention to the fact. Because Grayson had access to every frame of film shot on the Island during his dubbing sessions. He didn't need Farley to let him look at the killing ground shots. He could bring them up for himself later on. But he had proof now. The rice men weren't ordinary Savage Island combatants. Now he had to find out just who exactly they were. Shadow continued to leave his mark on Savage Island. About a third of the combatants who stepped onto the Island in the days that followed carried morningstars, with varied success. A proximity alert between two combatants who both carried morningstars became a signal for the off-duty techs to gather in the control room to watch. Grayson noticed two other legacies of Shadow, when a couple of the second-wave combatants, on returning victorious through the gates, offered a tenth of their winnings to their fallen foes. Also, several times in the ensuing days, victorious combatants occasionally picked up a pinch of sand to sprinkle on their dead foe, and spoke a few words to speed him with honor to the next world. Another new custom that came about from this time was for combatants to salute one another before they began to fight. Grayson and Dawes praised these gestures fulsomely. Jules Van Allan was known to be pleased. The fans and followers loved it. And the fighting and killing continued, with a patina of honorable gestures to cover the slaughter. Grayson noticed some time later that the rice men's encampment had grown to seven men. They'd built two circles of brush around their camp. They hung around it most of the day, but were also seen fishing in the tide pools on the western shore. Lately they'd begun gathering the jetsam of the fallen. Abandoned packs yielded water bottles, rations, first aid kits and various other equipment. Dropped weapons and shields, lost bits of armor, were brought back and piled in a section of their compound. One night Grayson saw a rice man alone, relieving himself by the edge of the beach trail, just fifty yards from the encampment. Red Kelly, the Irish swordsman, came up the beach, already possessed of the eartags of Argonaut and Vigdor. But when he saw the rice man called Happy, he stopped. He did not charge. Happy, spying him, no longer had to pee and got himself out of there in no time. But the fact was, Red Kelly could have killed him, had him dead to rights, and had refrained. Grayson saw this clip during an editing session and let it go by without comment. Later, he saw a combatant with a broken sword trading rations for a new weapon. He didn't enter the encampment, but put his offering on a big flat rock in the stream, and backed away until it was taken, and replaced by the spear he had chosen. Combatants began to bring a few points' worth of cigarettes in their packs, to use as trade goods, as cigarettes soon fetched a high price from the rice men. Savage Island no longer tried to explain who or what the rice men were. Grayson never saw the fan sights where speculation went on. He was interested in the fact that combatants ― at least some combatants ― had accepted that the rice men were off limits. The Scorpion sheltered in a hollow he'd dug next to the stream with just room for himself and his most important equipment. He'd built up a cover of dirt and brush and check it out from every direction before he crawled into it. It looked like it had once been a snag in the stream when the water was high. He'd closed off the game trails that led down this way. He'd blocked the gaps in the trees. Anyone wandering through the gorge would be inclined to go around his pseudo-natural impediments. The cameras had found his previous hideout, so it had been time to move again. He'd lost track of the days. He was pretty sure it was over ten at this point, and he was more than half-way to his goal. He had a high temperature, which accounted for his losing track of things. He was not unhappy. His food supplies were low, but that didn't matter because he wasn't hungry. He had plenty of water, since he had filled up and purified his collapsible five-gallon jerrycans the night before he had woken up sweating and dizzy. His position was good. If anyone came at him, he would hear them for a long time before they reached him. Some days ago he'd heard shouting and grunts, and then the sound of a heavy object crashing through the brush, and guessed that someone had fallen into the gorge. That was the night he'd come down sick, so he didn't have to wrestle with the choice as to whether he should try and harvest an eartag from the combatant who might still be alive. He couldn't stand, so he certainly couldn't walk. He decided not to try, because he was pretty sure if he did that Trish would kill him. Part of him knew where he was, knew what he was doing, knew, even, that he had several more days to stick out before he came home. The other part of him was back in the mind of Corporal Art "Capper" Baines, who'd been out with his unit, but had gotten separated and missed the pick-up. He was fooling himself about getting separated; they were dead, of course. He'd seen them. And part of him still cringed from the sounds of the fire-fight in which he had been unaccountably spared. He knew that soon, tonight, or maybe tomorrow, he would get up from his hide-out, and the gooks would have gone, and he'd make his way back towards the rendezvous point, and he'd be picked up by a chopper doing some kind of recon. And he'd get back, and there'd be a letter from his wife ― that would be Celia, his first wife ― that she had found someone else. But that was okay because Trish wasn't going to leave him. He knew that. Besides. He was sending her his pay. "Al!" "John, a pleasure!" Savage rose and shook his old friend's hand, smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. Al Fontaine's straight posture, his spare fine physique, even the way he held his head, gave away his military background, but today he wore a casual civilian suit and carried a briefcase. He seated himself at John Savage's table in the bar of Fontaine's club. "They take care of you all right?" Fontaine asked. "Sorry I'm late," "Not at all," Savage kept the jocularity in his voice. He had been waiting almost an hour. "It's good of you to see me at such short notice. How's Bette? And the kids?" They got through the social pleasantries, and John dodged the questions about his own wife's health, which were thinly disguised inquiries into whether she was keeping her addictions in check. Savage and Fontaine had gone to the same prep school. Fontaine had gone on to West Point, while Savage attended the University of California in Los Angeles as an undergraduate, and then law school. But the ties that bound them at school remained strong. In developing his long-term goals for public office, John Savage had always counted Colonel Al Fontaine as one of his assets. Now he had flown to Washington, D.C., at short notice, to try and get the help that he needed badly. "So it's true," Fontaine said, when they took their drinks upstairs to a little-used meeting room for better privacy. "Savage Island is Jules Van Allan's way of making you squirm. After all these years. Who would have thought?" "He is a devious man," Savage allowed. "A dangerous enemy, I would have said. Isn't he a billionaire?" "At least." "And he seems to have spent it all on getting at you." "So what do you know about this place he calls Savage Island?" John Savage asked. "Not a damn thing," Fontaine said. Their drinks arrived, bringing an annoying halt to the conversation until the pretty server smiled and went away. Both men sipped their drinks until she was out of earshot. "That's frankly unbelievable," Savage continued. "That the U.S. government doesn't know a thing about something like this." "It's not our country," Fontaine stated. "It doesn't concern us." "Well that's a load of shit." Fontaine smiled thinly. "Very true." He took another quick swallow from his drink. "I hear the State Department's official line is that it's sovereign territory. The President has mentioned it two or three times. He's making endless hay about civil rights violations, but that's his usual line." "Is he prepared to do anything?" Savage asked hopefully. "It's more useful for him to have something to point at and carry on about. It fills up a lot of sound bites that might otherwise be questions about the economy and the wars." "I hear you." "But that doesn't mean he doesn't have to be fully briefed." Fontaine put the briefcase on the table between them. "This is what we've got so far." He opened the case and extracted a couple of files. "You haven't seen these, and you certainly haven't seen them from me." The reconnaissance pictures showed Savage Island from several angles. The recognizable features, the Wall, the transmission tower, and the curious rock formation off the west coast, were obvious. "So you've located it?" "Of course," Fontaine said. "We're also on the verge of infiltrating it. We've sent a couple of men in as combatants. They'll take location and communications equipment, just to double-check." "Combatants? Not staff? Or helicopter pilots?" "We're not certain," Fontaine admitted, "just where he's drawing his staff from. We've put out a lot of feelers, so we'll know soon. But we'll have a man or two on the island as a combatant in a couple of days." "And how is that supposed to stop this thing?" "We're not sure we need it stopped." He interrupted Savage's reaction by adding, "Yet. We're keeping our options open. But we think it's important to have a man in place, in case we need to take action." "Being out on the killing ground might not be as useful, in that case, as being back inside the Wall." "That's where you're wrong, John. It's a built-in weakness to this so-called sovereign nation. On the far side of the Wall, anything can happen. It'll be completely up to him." He grinned. "The big discussion was, does he get to keep the money he wins or not?" "He's planning to go out and kill someone?" Savage couldn't hide his distaste. Fontaine shrugged. "He'll have to blend in with the other combatants. Besides. He's a former Special Ops soldier. This is a great opportunity for him to hone his skills." "And you're certain he will win?" "Unlike these martial-arts wanna-bes," Fontaine pointed out, "our man will have had training in delivering sudden death up close and personal." "I see." "We'll know more about this outfit, how it's set up, who's behind it, what the goals are, once we've got a man on the ground there." "Well, good luck to him, then." "You want to see this, Mr. Grayson!" the editing room tech told him excitedly as he came into the room. The second, older guy brought up a set of clips. It was late in the evening. James had come in because he didn't have anything else to do. For the past couple of days Lucy had been too busy to see him. "What is it?" Grayson asked them. "This guy. He was number eleven today. Here he is." The older technician, Nick Chou, found the place on the first clip where number eleven came out of the gate at an unhurried stroll. Black-haired, in his mid-forties, wearing a hakama like those Japanese martial artists who threw each other around. He wore two swords in his belt, a long one and a short one, and he carried a naginata, a spear with a sword on it. Grayson watched as the combatant looked around, and then stuck his spear in the ground. He drew out his sheathed sword, faced the east, and held it up with both hands and bowed. Then he put it back in his belt, pick up his spear, and headed across the killing ground with the spear on his shoulder. "Cool, huh?" the younger guy asked. His name was Peters, Grayson remembered. "Huh," Grayson said. "Interesting. What's his fighting name?" "That's Pilgrim of Courage," Peters said. "Watch this," Nick Chou told him. "I've got his whole day here." One of the control room techs had written a program that would allow the techs to follow a single combatant all day long on the Island, from camera to camera, everywhere he went. Chou and Han had compiled a day's worth of the travels of the Pilgrim of Courage. About a third of the way across the killing ground, the Pilgrim paused. He checked his perimeter again, stuck his spear in the ground, and brought his hands together in prayer for a moment. Then he bent, picked up a handful of sand, and cast it about him. Then he bowed his head in the prayer posture again. "That's – that's where Shadow killed most of his guys," Grayson realized. "Yeah," Han said. "Wait, there's more." Chou fast-forwarded the Pilgrim's journey to a place a little along the beach trail where Shadow's victims Jaguar Warrior and Draco had died. He bowed and prayed there as well, and cast some dirt on the ground. "Huh," Grayson said. The Pilgrim paused a few more places along the trail, and then turned west along an intersecting trail that took him to the stream trail, and eventually to the encampment of the rice men. "This is interesting," Chou said. "Watch this." He touched a button and the film slowed to normal speed. The Pilgrim of Courage stopped across the stream from the rice men's encampment. Three of the rice men sat around their fire, talking and tending a pot full of shellfish they'd gathered that morning. They jumped to their feet when they saw the combatant, which roused the other two. All of them grabbed weapons. Not just machetes anymore, Grayson noticed. They'd picked up an extensive armory of discarded weapons from around the Island. Swords and spears bristled in the direction of the Pilgrim. He bowed to them. From inside his jacket he drew out a pack of cigarettes, and what looked like a bag of nuts. He placed them on the rock where trading with the rice men usually took place. He bowed to them again. At this, the rice men lowered their weapons. They came closer, and did some bows of their own. The Pilgrim backed away from them, and then went on his way. "I'll be damned," Grayson breathed. "He does this all the way around the Island," Chou said. He sped up the playback so that the Pilgrim of Courage whizzed around the Island. "That reminds me of that guy on the first day, the South Korean," Grayson said. "Ghost Soldier," Peters provided. "That's right, Ghost Soldier." "That's what we think," Peters said. "He goes around the whole Island." "Did he meet anybody?" "Sure," Chou said. "Right – here." On the northeast shore of the Island, where the white beaches of the eastern shore met the menacing rocks of the west coast, the Pilgrim of Courage came around a point of land to find two dead bodies in the sand, and Weng Su Khan, wearing his great round helm with the specially-designed steel grill on the front, harvesting the second eartag. Pilgrim stopped. It was a few moments before Weng Su Khan noticed him. Then he leaped up suddenly, grabbed up his two-handed great sword and came on guard. The Pilgrim only stood there, not moving his spear. Then, he bowed slightly. "Are they talking to each other?" Grayson asked. "Don't seem to be," Chou said. He brought up the audio from one after the other of the three cameras framing the two men, but all they could hear was the sound of the surf, and the cry of a few birds. "What's with the big helm guy?" "Weng Su Khan," Peters said. "He had a big fight with Red Hawk here, who had just killed Sword of Doom when he came up. Red Hawk took a cut to the forehead, I think he couldn't see for most of the fight." Grayson nodded. "Patch it over to me," he said. That would be interesting to narrate. It was amazing how one little thing could mess up your whole game out there. "So do these guys fight? Big helm guy, and the Pilgrim?" "Nope," Peters said. "Check it out." He fast-forwarded the clip again. The two men stood there, facing off, and even in fast-motion they still stood there quite a while. Then the Pilgrim of Courage bowed again, and motioned to the beach beyond Weng Su Khan. After a moment, Weng Su Khan pointed toward the northeast end of the Island. The Pilgrim bowed again. Weng Su Khan made a gesture and backed away from his two kills., The Pilgrim passed him some distance out of the range of both of their weapons. When he'd gone by, the Pilgrim turned and bowed again. When he was out of sight, Weng Su Khan resumed harvesting the eartags from his prizes, though he turned a little so he could see if the Pilgrim happened to come back his way. At the northeast point of the Island, the Pilgrim stuck his spear in the sand and stepped out onto the furthest rock that wasn't covered by surf. He took out his sheathed sword again, and bowed once more. He prayed a moment, and then put his sword away, picked up his spear, and resumed his walk. His next stop was the place along the beach where Pell-Mell and Shiloh had fought it out, in one of the longest battles on the Island. True Heart meanwhile had waited up along the beach until Shiloh had fallen. Then True Heart had killed the exhausted Pell-Mell and made it back with both ear tags. Pilgrim of Courage stopped between the tall, leaning rocks where Pell-Mell and Shiloh had died, scattered some sand, and held the prayer position for a moment again. "Does he make it back?" Grayson wondered. "He does," Chou said, and clicked on another clip of the Pilgrim of Courage coming in through the gate to cheers and applause of a big crowd waiting to welcome him. The handsome, calm face, the bright serene eyes made the man, whose real name was Peter Westerholme, quite charismatic. "I've walked the sands," he said. "You don't need to fight to prove you have courage. You just need to be willing to, if it comes to that." He smiled, pleased with himself. "Wow," Grayson said. "A new star is born." Later, back at his bungalow, he sat up late on the patio behind his house. His new housekeeper had laid out a hot supper for him as soon as he arrived, and drawn his bath. Now, clean, cool and relaxed, in his silk robe, he watched the moon rise, a pale waning crescent, over the sea.. It was late. He needed to go to bed. He knew, though, that he wouldn't be able to sleep yet. He did not allow himself to think about how much he missed Lucy, how much he wanted her. He'd had a bit too much already, but he poured himself another Scotch, and listened to the sounds of the night. Half asleep in his room an hour later he felt his bed shift under a gentle weight. He made a sound of satisfaction and welcome and turned to her. He felt her warmth as she came near. Muzzily he noticed that her scent was different, her legs longer. Her hair was short and curly, not the long black cascade he loved to wind in his hands. But her mouth was warm and generous, her hands sweet and then urgent, expectant, exacting, and he couldn't stop, didn't want to stop, and he rolled her beneath him cupped one generous breast in his hand and pumped into her, peremptory in his turn. He saw the smug satisfaction on her face as he subsided to the twisted sheets. He didn't think it was his performance that had so pleased her. He fired his new housekeeper in the morning. She'd had no business getting into bed with him. He was annoyed with himself that he hadn't thrown her out last night, but the part of his mind that weighed causes, events, and consequences, had been simply overwhelmed by the scent of sex and excitement, and the really marvelous things that girl had done. He asked a tech from the control room to bring him a sandwich, instead of going to the staff dining room where he might ― where he usually ― met Lucy. He went home at a different hour that night, found his housekeeper there making dinner, and fired her again. She still looked a little smug. He ate dinner at home and went back to the studio and worked late. He felt uncomfortable. Part of it was simply that he wanted to talk over with Lucy the journey made by the Pilgrim of Courage. He wanted to hear whether other people thought what the Pilgrim had done was admirable, or just insane. She really was his eyes and ears on this island. And the truth of the matter was simply that he missed her. That night when he went to bed he locked his door. Emilio Sanchez got a text message from his new girlfriend after dinner. He told his wife he was going out. His mother-in-law stared at him balefully as he walked through the kitchen where the women and his daughters were cleaning up. He smiled back. Who cared what she thought? She couldn't prove anything. And his wife, Maricela, believed what he told her. In the driveway, one of his sons was sitting on the hood of his car, smoking, watching the other two play basketball. Emilio pushed the boy off the car and smacked the cigarette out of his mouth. The kid was getting more annoying every day. Emilio drove off with a roar, leaving the ties of his family behind him. He liked this part, where he headed off alone, toward the small, tidy apartment where his girlfriend lived. She was so hot. She loved him so much. They'd met in a bar, and she'd followed him into the parking lot, practically begging for him. She'd made him park his car before they even got to her house, and dragged him into the back seat. My God, how that woman wanted him! Deep down inside, Emilio had always thought of himself as a stud. The kind of man who had a certain magnetism that women were drawn to. It hadn't worked out that way in life; Maricela married him when she got knocked up, and convinced her mother ― and his ― that the kid was his. But Belinda looked at him the way he thought of himself, like he was a man that women fought to have. She was always waiting for him in the bedroom when he came to see her. The apartment would be dark. The light from the bedroom would be low. Sometimes she waited, naked, stretched out on the bed, pretending to sleep. Once she was dressed in layers of clothing that he had to work his way through while she fondled, kissed and bit him, urging him on, until he was almost bursting with his need for her. Last time she managed to tie herself to the bed, and he had walked in to find her like that, naked, helpless, begging for him. Emilio unconsciously put his foot down and roared down the street. When he opened the door to the ground-floor apartment with his key, it was dark, as always. The bedroom door was slightly ajar, and there was a low light beyond it, like a flickering candle. He caught the scent of incense and massage oil. He felt the excitement surge inside him. He walked quietly to the bedroom, hard as stone, his heart beating quickly, smiling in anticipation of what he would find. He pushed open the door. He never knew what hit him. When Grayson emerged from the studio after his second long session of the day, Lucy was waiting for him outside the door. He hesitated, and then realized that was the wrong reaction. She looked tired, he thought. She also looked sad. She stepped forward and raised a finger to him. "No excuses. I happen to know this is your break. Come and talk to me. Somewhere private." "I have to ― " "You have to eat and drink before you go back in. I've got food for us both. Come on." She took him across to the staff dining room and then upstairs to one of the little meeting rooms. The door she opened had "reserved" and "private" in the card slots on the door. Grayson didn't know how you went about reserving one of those rooms, but it was no surprise to him that Lucy did. The small table had been pushed over by the window, and two place settings had been laid. The buffet against the wall had half a dozen covered dishes, and James was not surprised again to discover they were all favorites of his. She poured and fixed his coffee, which is what he preferred at this time a day, filled her own plate and sat down opposite him. "Long time no see," she commented, and started eating. Grayson just sat looking at her. "Dig in," she told him. "You know it's good." "Lucy ― " She held up a hand. "You're going to tell me why you've been avoiding me, but I already know. My friend Ming told me she got taken off the roster to look after your house. She's doing Dr. Mukhtar house now." "I didn't have anything to do with that." "I know that too. And I know you slept with Jo, because she told me." "Jo?" Grayson tried to place the name. "Joanne Barangan. Your new housekeeper." "She didn't mention her name." "Look," Lucy said. "You don't have to feel bad about it. You don't owe me anything. We had a lot of fun, and that's great, but we never said we were in any kind of exclusive relationship." Grayson felt himself burning. "No?" Lucy shrugged. "I don't own you. I never thought I did. So if you want to sleep with someone else, that's your business. But . . . " her face scrunched up in that self-deprecating gamine look that Grayson found adorable. "I enjoyed being friends," she said with dignity. "I enjoyed working with you. I'd like to keep doing that." "I'd like that too," he said. "Okay." She grinned at him suddenly, and he couldn't help smiling in return. "Okay, great! I've got a lot to tell you!" "One more thing." Grayson lifted a hand. "I want to tell you this. She slipped into my bed when I was already half asleep. We had sex. But I'd been half-hoping you would come. And by the time I woke up and realized. Well . . ." Lucy, looking down at her plate, forked herself a bite of pasta salad. "It doesn't matter." "Yes, it does. Because I want to be exclusive. I want to be in a relationship with you." He smiled. "I want you to own that part of me. At least . . . " "While we're on Savage Island?" "While we're on Savage Island." He got back a little late from lunch, and his make-up and hair needed re-touching, but he didn't feel tired anymore. Emilio Sanchez woke to the sound of waves lapping around him. That didn't make sense. He tried to think back to a night of drinking, a walk on the beach, but nothing came to him. He opened his eyes. Where the fuck was he? Groggy from the drugs in his system, he fought his way up from murky dreams. The world smelled wrong. There was salt and ozone in the air, and something else, but not a hint of smog or diesel fumes. His head felt heavy. Weighted. He was . . . wet. He jerked awake as a wave washed over him, and panicked when he almost couldn't lift his head. He pushed himself up and saw . . . a stony, moonlit beach. Trees. The traffic roar in the distance wasn't cars at all. It was wind. Wind blowing in the trees. Where the hell was he? He tried to pull himself up and found out why his head was so heavy. He was wearing some kind of thick metal can. Sand and water had scooped into it through the off-center face plate and dripped down his neck. He reached up and tried to grab it but his hands were heavy, they were caught, they snagged on something. In a moment of panic Emilio pulled up his hands. His right arm caught in the sand, but his left one brought up a huge double-headed axe and just about dropped it on his own body. He shoved it away and it fell, twisting his wrist sharply. In the dim moonlight he stared down at his left hand. It was encased in a big metal fingerless glove, which was tied to his leather sleeve. The axe was duct-taped to the glove. He looked over through the cock-eyed grating of his helmet at his other hand, and found it taped to the haft of a long spear. It couldn't be. This was insane. Emilio thought this must be a bad dream. He'd heard of Savage Island, of course. He'd even watched for a few hours one night at a friend's house. Now he dragged himself to his feet, taking in the sand, the jungle, the smell of the night, the canopy of stars such as he had never seen before, and the weapons immobilizing his hands. A big axe. A twelve-foot spear. Heavy, clumsy armor. This was, had he known it, the most ineffective combination of arms and armor that Colonel Dawes could come up with, when asked. Emilio shrugged, trying to straighten out his helmet. It was strapped on really tight. He turned around slowly. Night. The beach. A wild beach. No cars. No way. No fuckin way. Emilio tried to dislodge the spear and the axe, but they were firmly attached. He backed away from the shore toward the trees, in a street-wise move to get himself into cover. He ought to have water, food, a backpack with a first aid kit, a machete -- he'd watched enough of Savage Island to know that there were certain rules, certain supplies that no combatant was supposed to be without. He looked around and saw that he did have a backpack. It was on his back, cinched up tight. And getting it off, without the use of his hands, past his taped-on axe and spear, was just not going to happen. On the beach, the surf had long ago erased the marks of the boat landing, and the two men who dragged his unconscious body onto the sand. This was truly a nightmare. He tried to adjust his helmet again, and felt the edge of it press against his eartag. Fuckin hell. God fuckin hell. This couldn't be happening. Later in the day, one of the techies monitoring the Island noticed a fight between Man of Might and a combatant he didn't recognize, in heavy armor, a big helm, and an axe in one hand and a spear in the other. What a useless weapons combination, he thought to himself, as he watched Man of Might deal with the unnamed combatant in short order. The techie ran a diagnostic to try and identify the combatant whose implant was failing to send a signal. Man of Might had more trouble getting the guy's helmet off to at his eartag, than he had killing the guy in the first place. The techie ran through the combatants on the Island at that time, but couldn't find a name on the list that didn't have a location at that moment on the Island. Everyone seemed to be accounted for. He started to write up a report on the problem, but then he was distracted by a camera glitch, and made a note to go back to it later. "Mr. Grayson, how good of you to come." Van Allan let his genial gaze fall from James's face to Lucy Tran, standing by his side. His gaze hardened, but his voice did not change. "And Ms. Tran, thank you for coming." "You said I could bring a guest," James reminded him, shaking his hand. "Of course! Of course, Ms. Tran is most welcome." Lucy grinned her most disarming smile and shook Van Allan's hand in turn as though she and James hadn't spent hours over the last days discussing whether Van Allan had orchestrated James's housekeeper ending up in his bed. If Van Allan was dismayed to see them together, he certainly didn't show it. He waved them toward the garden patio and said, "May I make you known to my guests?" The patio had been strung with colored lanterns. The half-dozen fountains were spangled with changing colored lights. Servants in white jackets slipped among the guests, offering drinks and hors d'oeuvres. Most of the guests were upper management and top staff from the Island, but Grayson was aware that a helicopter load of visitors had arrived earlier that afternoon. He knew because Lucy heard just about everything that happened on the Island. She hadn't known who all had arrived. "Mr. Grayson, may I make you known to my sister? Margot Verhoeven." Van Allan took the hand of a stately woman almost as tall as he was, dressed in deceptively simple expensive clothes and a light scattering of jewels. Grayson thought the work done on her face probably outclassed even the jewels and offered an admiring hand. "Ms. Verhoeven." "Margot, may I present James Grayson." "So pleased to meet you, Mr. Grayson." She took both his hands in hers. "I've seen your show. You're doing wonderful work, just wonderful." Plastered, he thought to himself, smelling the alcohol on her breath. He gave her his platinum smile, noticing that even when she smiled in return, it did not relieve the bleakness of her expression. "My pleasure. This is Lucy Tran, my associate." Lucy bobbed her head and shook Margot Verhoeven's hand. She had decided to be disarming, James realized. He had bet on the aloof goddess aspect, to go with the amazing tight-fitting night-blue dress. But Lucy had a knack for playing people just right. They continued their circuit of the garden to meet the rest of Van Allan's guests. Grayson had the self-control to show no surprise when Van Allan introduced his ex-wife, Heleen, but when he was presented to Katrina Somers, it was all he could do to pretend he'd never heard the name before. She'd been prominent in the photos from the funerals of Van Allan's children. She was Sofia Van Allan's best friend, and engaged to the son, Franz. Grayson smiled, made small talk, and played his part as the gracious celebrity entertaining his boss's guests, while trying to figure out if it meant anything that these three women were on the island at this time. "What brings you to Savage Island, Ms. Somers?" he tried, as they selected appetizers from a tray. He saw her eyes go a little blank as she answered off-handedly, "Oh, Jules invited me ages ago, and I thought I'd come and see what it was like." Lying, Grayson concluded to himself. He glanced over at Lucy, whose engaging smile was frozen on her lips as she shot him a sharp look in return. "Lying!" "I hope you enjoy your stay," Grayson said smoothly. Grayson took the seat of honor at Heleen Van Allan's right hand at dinner, and did his best to entertain her. She knew all the right people. She lived in Los Angeles in the spring and fall, wintered at Klosters or Aspen for the skiing, and summered wherever people were going that year. Money, Grayson thought. Lots of money. If he worked at it, he could have a lifestyle like that of Heleen Van Allan. She wasn't giving him all her attention, he noticed, keeping up his end of the conversation by asking her flattering questions. She was tense, distracted, and she drank steadily throughout the meal. Where, Grayson wondered, was that hint of desperation coming from? He glanced down the table at Katrina Somers, the former fiancee of Jules Van Allan's dead son, and saw the same distracted look in her eyes. Margot Verhoeven left the table after the first course, and wafted past him on her way back, smelling of cigarette smoke. If you bottled the tension those women carried, Grayson thought, you could light the whole island. He spent a little while framing his question, before he said to Heleen, "Can I just say how nice it is to see two people who've been through a divorce able to still socialize?" She focused on him, and waved a hand. "Oh, it wasn't that kind of divorce. After the children . . . " she blinked hard for a moment and took another drink. "We found we had such different interests. It's better this way. But I still like him," she smiled down the table at her ex-husband. "In his own way, he still is a hell of a man." "How did you meet?" She shook her head. "Back in the depths of time. When the world was young. And everything was going to be one big long party." "I am so sorry," he said quietly, "for your tragedy." "Yes, well," she said. "So am I." She took another long drink, and then turned away from him to Dr. Mukhtar, on her other side. "And how," Jules Van Allan spoke from down the table, "do you think my little project is being received?" he asked the newcomers. The silence following this query was a little long, until his sister Margot replied. "I think people are fascinated. And revolted. People are talking about it everywhere. The numbers on the downloads speak for themselves." "And the online subscriptions," Ken Frize put in. His smile was like a cat who'd learned to use the can opener. "It's a smash, Jules, truly." "They love to talk about it," Katrina Somers said. "Whether they argue that it's totally evil, or just that it's really exciting, everyone is talking about it. Talk shows go on about it every day. I've seen Lone Eagle on talk shows half a dozen times." "Death does so focus the mind," Heleen murmured. Van Allan smiled and silently lifted his glass to her. She lifted hers in return and they both drank. "The ratings are just tremendous," Ken Frize told the table. "The new subscriber system is up and running, and the servers were just about flattened by everyone trying to get on. We've had to expand server capacity about four times." "People like stories about heroes," Lucy Tran put in. "We always have." "Yes," Van Allan said, nodding to her. "Your contributions in that regard have been very valuable." "Is it all that you hoped for?" Margot asked. "Not yet," Van Allan said. He signaled for the next course, and the conversation became general again. When the last of the after-dinner liqueurs had been served, and the Belgian chocolates denuded, Van Allan escorted his employee guests to the front door and let them go. On the patio, the colored lights were being extinguished one by one. Grayson took Lucy's arm and they set out for his bungalow, to spend the rest of the night together. "That went all right," Lucy said. She was still ebullient from Van Allan's acknowledgment of the profiles she'd added to the show. "Yes," Grayson agreed, "but I'd love to be a fly on the wall and hear what Van Allan is talking to those ladies about now." ### Chapter Thirteen Van Allan led the way to his den, where the large-screen monitor stood loaded and ready. The women trailed into the room holding their drinks, and perched on the furniture. The air of expectation that they'd worn all evening had hardened. They looked at Van Allan And he raised his glass to them. "To my three Furies. Tonight you will finally see blood." "You did it," Heleen said. "You got them." "I got the first one. I got Emilio Sanchez." He touched the screen, and they saw a long shot of an armed figure lying in the surf. He wore an over-sized helmet, and held a large axe in one hand, and a large spear in the other. "That's him?" "I promise you." He fast-forwarded the clip, showing Emilio waking up, trying to get up, casting around, shouting at any camera that he could see. "Can't he talk?" Margot asked. "Yes, but he's wearing a chinstrap that cinches inside his mouth, so he is very difficult to understand." The women followed Emilio's progress as he blundered into the trees, chose one trail and then another, tried to scrape off his helmet, his right gauntlet, his left. The ferocious attention of the three women was palpable. Van Allan poured another round of drinks. The sun rose on Emilio's last day. "How long is this going to take?" Katrina asked. "Not long now," Van Allan said. No one spoke while Emilio turned suddenly to find the Man of Might watching him. Man of Might saluted him with his sword, and paced forward. Emilio shouted at him, waved at him, and then turned and ran. Man of Might followed him as he blundered into the trees. When Emilio turned to face his opponent, Man of Might brushed aside his weapons and pinned his right shoulder to the tree with his Roman-style shield. Emilio banged at him with his weapons, but his axe arm was pinned and his spear was too long, so Man of Might had all the time in the world to drop his spear and grab the short sword on its lanyard, lever it beneath the edge of Emilio's helmet, and insert it into his throat. Emilio screamed and screamed. Van Allan, who had seen it several times already, watched the three women watch Emilio die. Horrified, intent, fascinated, each woman held her glass as though to protect themselves from the reality of Emilio's death. And yet none of them looked away. Emilio collapsed against the tree, blood spurting from beneath his helmet, his scream becoming a gurgle. Then Man of Might let him go, and he fell. When the Man of Might had finally cut the strap of his helmet and gotten it off, all three women leaned forward for a look at his face. And then all three leaned back again in satisfaction. "He's the shooter," Katrina stated. They all knew. "He was the shooter," Van Allan agreed. "Good." Katrina said. "Play it again." They watched it again, and this time Katrina wept while Emilio died. They watched it four times, and then Margot got up to go to bed. She held her brother hard, and took her glass with her to her bedroom. Katrina trailed after her and shut the door, leaving Jules and his former wife together in the den. Heleen held out her glass, and he refilled it. "How are you?" he asked her. "Much better," she said. "Much, much better." They watched it through again. He noticed she was smiling. "Did you choose the man who would kill him?" she asked. "No, no," Van Allan said. "Any one of them will do. That doesn't matter." "No. It doesn't matter. And the others? You'll get the others?" "Every one," he said. "I promise you." "Yes," she said. "You did." He took her hand and kissed it. "Jules," she said. "Thank you." Two days later, Robert Macias disappeared from the community center where he had been playing pool with three other men. He went off to the bathroom, and never came back. There were no signs of violence. His car was still in the parking lot. The three men he'd been playing with left soon after. None of them were identified. Robert lived half a mile away with his girlfriend and their two kids. She never saw him again. "Mr. Van Allan?" Elena Carmine stood in the doorway to Van Allan's office. "Will Zalsman is here to see you." "Is he? Send him in." Van Allan got up to greet Zalsman, dismissing Elena and closing the door behind him. Will Zalsman accepted a glass of orange juice, by which Van Allan understood he was flying out again soon. Zalsman was in charge of his helicopter fleet, which also put him in charge of bringing combatants, guests, and staff to and from the island. Handsome, muscular, with a trim mustache and a light, cynical smile, he had an air of being not quite part of any company he kept. Van Allan had found him both dependable and innovative; the best kind of employee. "What can I do for you, Will?" he asked. "Thought you should know," Zalsman told him. "one of the latest applicants we picked up in Tokyo had a miniature transceiver on him." "Mm," Van Allan said. "Not unexpected." In working out how Savage Island might be defeated, Van Allan and his team had realized that planting someone with a GPS locator was an obvious ploy to look out for. Thus, once combatants reached Tokyo, before they made their next leg of the journey, they were drugged and landed on an island at an abandoned military base that Van Allan leased, where they underwent a medical examine and a strip search, while unconscious. This also ascertained that only men would arrive on the island to become combatants, though thus far no biological females had tried. "I dropped him on that rock we agreed on, forty miles from anywhere, with a crate of MREs. As long as there isn't a storm that floods the spring and wrecks it, he should be all right for a month or two." "Good," Van Allan said. "Thank you. He won't be the last." "I know. We're keeping an eye peeled." "It is much appreciated." They went out to the balcony and watched Red Baron in his stand off against Cuachicqueh. Red Baron carried a morning star and shield. Cuachicqueh carried a spear and shield. They'd been facing off for over ten minutes without exchanging a blow. Van Allan and Zalsman leaned on the rail and watched. "Someone else could come along any minute now," Zalsman remarked. "Someone usually does." "I might be like to go out there myself," Zalsman suggested with a laugh. As he watched the two combatants, his eyes were calculating. "I wouldn't blame you," Van Allan said. "Any man of courage must be tempted to try his mettle. But casualties are running at nearly forty percent these days." "Yeah," Zalsman grinned, "and you already pay me a fortune." "You'll have a bonus for catching the spy," Van Allan said. "Thanks." "Not at all. Thank you." Georgie Bederman burst into the security office at Biological Developments, regardless of the fact that he was not on duty that day and had no excuse for being in the building. Ronnie Schofield, his cousin, was on the phone, but that didn't stop Georgie from delivering his news. "I got the call! I am there! I am so there!" Ronnie kept on talking in a measured tone, while his cousin did a war dance around the tiny box of a room, posturing and gloating, but his eyes blazed. He put down the phone at last. "What the fuck are you doing? That was Ederson!" "Fuck Ederson!" Georgie replied, "And fuck you too! I got the call! I'm going to Savage Island?" "When?" Ronnie asked him. Georgie looked for the naked jealousy on his face, but didn't see it. "Saturday. I'm to be at the Minneapolis airport on Saturday morning at eleven a.m." "Then we can share a ride," Ronnie said. "They called me yesterday." "Fuck you!" "Yeah," Ronnie grinned at him. "We are so there." "We are going to make a killing!" Georgie exulted. "And we're never coming back here no more." Ronnie and Georgie had filled out their applications from two different states, using the addresses of their respective fathers. Their strategy for Savage Island was to bring one extra weapon that would give them an advantage over everyone else ― each other. Their applications had been bumped to the top of the pool by the computer rubric, because both of them admitted to having committed felonies in their youth. Why that was a special qualification to prove themselves the bravest men on earth, only Jules Van Allan knew. "What about Win?" Georgie asked, referring to another cousin of theirs, who had been contacted and asked to join in. It was always a good idea to have a back-up plan. "I don't know," Ronnie said. "I haven't heard." "Well, call him, douche-bag!" Ronnie turned on his cell phone, since calls from the building were monitored. "Hey, Win left a message." He put it on speaker, so they could both hear their cousin exulting that he would be on Savage Island in a few more days. They were all three due to fly out on Saturday. "Hot damn!" "We are going to rule Savage Island!" The Scorpion lay buried under a foot of dirt and detritus between two trees, partly curled around one of the trunks. Rays of light penetrated the pile of leaves that hid his head. It must be day. Mid-day. He'd stopped shaking. Several nights he'd lain wracked by shivering so violent his muscles had ached. He'd been cold. So cold. He'd gone looking for his tent, his sleeping bag, the quilts his grandmother had given them when he and Trish got married, anything to keep him warm, which he'd left in other camps, on other beds, in times gone by. Crawling along the side of the gorge, knowing he was on Savage Island, and what he was looking for wasn't here. He'd slipped and fallen into the stream. That was it. And then he'd buried himself in the ground to try and get warm. One of his hands was swollen and sore, he wasn't sure why. His face was swollen with insect bites. One of his eyes was partly closed. He'd lost his insect goop a long time ago. He was beginning to think that coming here was not such a good idea after all. His fever must be down. He wasn't sweating, and he didn't feel hot. He couldn't stay here. He needed to find his last camp. He needed to make sure that all the signs of his presence were hidden. And he needed to locate his water bottles. He wasn't going to be able to stick it out unless he had a supply of water to hand. He'd spent so many precious points on those jerrycans. He couldn't remember now just where he'd left them. He lay listening to the jungle. The clicks, hums, buzzes and whines of the daytime chorus were continuous, unbroken. The raucous cries of the birds in the trees, and the little gang of monkeys who chattered and screamed at each other as they played, was undisturbed. He smiled to himself. His alarm system reported all clear. Then he thought that there could be a guy sitting out there, waiting for him to break cover, who'd been there so long everything around had gotten used to him again. If he moved, he would be seen. He lay still and thought about that. When he woke again the light had faded. The sound of water trickling over the stones nearby had entered his dreams. He'd been so thirsty, he'd lain in the water and drunk himself full, and still he was thirsty. He was going to have to chance it. He was going to have to move. He would fill his water bottles, find another position and go to ground again where he could reach water without moving. He'd rest, eat a little, get some strength back. He didn't know anymore how long he'd been out here. It must have been long enough to clear some of their debts. They'd be better off. But only if he made it back. The light faded. The daytime chorus was augmented by the song of the night-time frogs and insects. If there was another guy out there, he was probably being eaten by insects, or maybe snakes, and would be too distracted to go after Scorpion. He inched his hand to his belt. That was his knife hilt sticking into his side. If there was someone waiting for him to emerge, he didn't have to be easy to kill. He rose from his nest as quietly as he could. His head was spinning. He pressed himself against a tree while the dizziness passed, and the insects resumed their noise. Nothing else moved. That way, up the slope, upstream, he'd find his last encampment. His feet were strangely clumsy. Fleeting bits of color in the corners of his eyes distracted him. But that was just the relict of the fever, bringing his dreams into his mind as though they were real. Trish sat on the brown couch, clutching the leather pillow her dad had brought her back from Morocco that time. She was staring ahead so fiercely. But that wasn't real either. The stream came up to meet him. The crash as he hit the ground silenced every living thing for fifty yards. But he didn't notice. When he opened the floor to questions from the audience at his campaign stop in Fresno, California, he got the question once again. "Mr. Savage, is it true that Jules Van Allan named Savage Island after you, because you let the gangsters who killed his kids walk?" It was the fifth time in as many stops. Thornton and Applegard had tried vetting the people who came to his speeches, had tried controlling who could get to a microphone to ask him questions afterward, but still he got the same question again and again. Some were plants, of course. But some, it seemed, now echoed the question because they wanted to know. Savage Island was in the news every day. Polls sprang up on the best fight, the greatest hero. Blogs overlapped on questions of violence, glory, heroism, and applications of martial arts. The insatiable news cycle reported the day's deaths, tut-tutting about the despicable values that Savage Island represented, but feeding off the info with the indifference of a carnivore for the life of the animal it devoured. The fights were incredibly popular. Millions downloaded them, and tens of millions downloaded the best ones, the funniest ones, the most brutal, the most audacious. Victorious combatants had fans who wore t-shirts with their image. Combatants who had returned went on lecture tours, for God's sake. Craig Wells, speaking from an undisclosed location, had earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees since his victories as the Shadow. Lin Tan, the first to walk the Island and return without a fight, had been hailed as a new hero of peace and non-violence, and compared to Gandhi. It was absolutely ridiculous. Even the families of combatants were enjoying their fifteen minutes of fame. The wife of the longest-lasting combatant on the Island, Scorpion, had done half a dozen television shows, and interviews, racking up thousands in fees. Scorpion had dozens of fan sites, rooting for him to stay hidden, and to come home soon. Scorpion represented the longest-running book on Savage Island, and pools on how much longer he would last, and whether or not he would return, now held millions. John Savage relaxed against the surge of anger that flared up in him when the question was asked once again. They'd rehearsed this. He needed to look unconcerned. He needed to look in charge. He needed, always, to look presidential. He gave a slight smile, but he kept his voice serious. You couldn't condescend to these people, no matter what kind of stupid, ignorant dupes they were. The pretense that they were members of the important voting public had to be kept up. He said, "I don't know why Jules Van Allan has set up this barbaric gladiatorial game for his own amusement. I know that the shock and despair of losing someone important to you in a senseless act of violence can cause a man to do strange things." He shook his head, seeming to focus inward. "I once knew a man who wrote to his daughter every week, and published his letters on her blog, for three years after she had been killed by her boyfriend." He looked up, his eyes hardening. "We got that one. He's in prison as we speak, and I was able to personally hand back to her father the jewelry the perpetrator had taken from her as a trophy." He bowed his head. "It is a certainty that no matter how hard we try, we will not get them all. But I promise you," his head came up, his voice rose, and if there'd been a soundtrack, the drums and trumpets would have started in at this point. Later, when they put this speech up on the web, he made sure they did. "I promise you, that when I am governor of California, no stone will be left unturned to bring any lawbreaker, great or petty, high or low, to face the justice that he or she deserves. Thank you, my friends. Thank you, and God bless the beautiful city of Fresno." Lucy ran the pan across the harbor one more time. She and Shang-zu had been filming the arrival of a new batch of combatants for a segment that would follow one combatant from his arrival on Savage Island until the end of his adventure. She'd gotten Shang-zu to shoot the harbor while they were there. "That's it," James said, and Lucy stopped the clip. "It's too small," he concluded. "I can't make out anyone on board. "I couldn't ask her to zoom in." "I know." "Everything gets back to Mr. Van Allan." She keyed on the clip for it to continue. "What's that?" James pointed to a crowd of people off-loading from the elevator up from the dock. "Oh. New staff." "New staff? More staff? What kind of staff?" "The Filipinos who do the cleaning, cooking, and maintenance had a six-month contract, and a lot of them are going home." "They don't like it?" She shook her head. "They made a lot of money. They can't spend it here." It was late at night, and they were sitting together at one station in the far corner of the editing studio, pooling information in private. James often stayed late, poring over the day's footage, choosing the best fights and the best moments to comment on in his next recording session. Lucy, who had been promoted to producer, worked all hours these days as well, coordinating and editing the profiles that now came to her from all over the world, in addition to the interviews she did on the island. James pulled up a file, found the clip he wanted, and opened it. "There," he said, pointing. "A new rice man." Grayson had grown up on stories of heroes partnering with beautiful women and having adventures. Here he was living a fantasy where the most beautiful, exotic women he'd ever known was also his partner in an investigation into their boss, whom James liked to think of as their billionaire criminal mastermind opponent. At least, that was how he phrased it as he worked in his head on the outline to the book he was going to write one day about his adventures on Savage Island. He leaned a little closer, too, and caught her scent. "You're sure?" Lucy glanced over and caught him looking at her. She grinned, and for a moment allowed her bedroom look to come into her eyes. Grayson smiled back. "Of course I'm sure." He pointed at the screen. "Check this out." He brushed her wrist with his fingers. A promise for later. "There he is. See?" James rolled the clip. They watched the latest arrival at the rice men's camp drop his burdens and hurry over the stream to greet the others, who ran to meet him, shook hands, touched themselves on the chest over their heart, shook hands again, and then picked up his burdens and ushered him to the fireside, talking the whole time. "Yeah," Lucy conceded. "New rice man." "And here's another thing. That one, whose signal lists him as Mr. New Beginnings, didn't come onto the Island through any of the gates. If you plug him into the search program, he first shows up over on Flag Beach." She screwed up her face in puzzlement. "Could be a computer glitch?" "Could be. But this guy, Mr. Hope, didn't come through a gate either. So, a computer glitch that only applies to rice men?" She deadpanned, "But that would be a conspiracy theory." "Yeah," he said, grinning. "Right. So that's seven now. And we don't know where they're from yet?" "Not yet," she said. "Still working on it. But if you ask about them directly, everybody clams up." "People have been told not to talk about them? Doesn't that prove there's something they don't want us to know?" "Yeah, but it still doesn't prove there's necessarily anything wrong." "It stinks, it's obvious that it stinks." "Well, I can smell it, but we haven't proved anything yet. Here." Have you seen this?" Lucy inserting another card into the computer. She opened a file and chose a clip. Jules Van Allan sat in James Grayson's studio, answering questions relayed from an American talk show. "Huh!" Grayson said. "When did he do this?" "Must have been a couple of nights ago." Lucy ran the cursor forward and then brought up the volume a bit. "Here's the important part." " . . . Van Allan, is it true that you built Savage Island as a response to the tragic death of your son and daughter in a drive-by shooting at the Crimson Club fifteen years ago?" "I asked him that question in an interview a couple of weeks ago," James said. "He terminated the interview and told me never to bring up his kids again." "So I heard. He did this two nights ago. My friend Amy Phan ran sound." Van Allan answered the question. "The loss of my children to gun violence did change my life. My first response was to throw myself into my work, day and night, and never think at all. It was too painful. This resulted in the loss of my marriage as well. And then I stopped one day and thought, what is all this for?" He shrugged and looked away from the camera. "I am very sorry for your loss," the female interviewer said quietly. Van Allan smiled a little. "I have, necessarily, done a great deal of thinking about how it came to pass that these young men sprayed a crowd of club-goers with their bullets. One of them, a child of fifteen, said that they had to do it to be men, to show their worth. That haunted me. "Have these young men no better models for what they should be than bullies with guns? The old values of courage and honor have been degraded. I began the idea of Savage Island as a way of bringing back what that meant in times of old." "So you are anti-gun?" "No, no, that's too simple. Guns are an important tool in their place. But let us not conclude that the gun endows the possessor with either courage or honor. And in fact, to truly show courage, you can't be the man with the only weapon. You can't be the man with the biggest weapon, so that you are not, yourself, in any danger." "So to prove yourself a man, you must be a warrior? A killer?" "There are infinite ways to prove your courage as a man. The man who tirelessly and selflessly supports his family, and is caretaker and comforter, teacher and guide, he is a hero to me. But there will always be men who wish to prove their worth through violence. On Savage Island they may do so, in public, without endangering innocent by-standers, and people who do not wish to fight." "But isn't the name of your island, Savage Island, a dig at Los Angeles Attorney General John Fowler Savage, whom many hold responsible for losing the case against the shooters in the Crimson Club killings?" Van Allan's expression was bland. "I think 'Savage Island' is a natural name for an island where men will fight to the death." "And it had nothing to do with John Savage?" "I can't say I hesitated when I was reminded of the name of the attorney general. Why should it matter?" "You know he is running for governor of California?" "Is he?" Van Allan's face showed just enough surprise to make a thinking person conclude that he was not surprised at all. Grayson, a good actor himself, thought he'd hit it just right. "Well then," Van Allan opened his hands, "I wish him the very best of luck in the race. May the best man win." And that, thought Grayson, was about as loaded as it could get. "John Savage is running for governor?" he said to Lucy. "I guess. Do you think it's a coincidence?" "The Island starting up just when Savage gets into the governor's race? Not for a second." Lucy said, "Neither do I." The second time Doug Planchette was found in an area a combatant was not allowed to go, he was told that if he trespassed again, he'd be sent off the island. He apologized profusely, tried to sound confused, and stupid, and anything but what he was: An operative on a mission to discover as much as he could about the lay-out and operations of Savage Island, and live to bring the information back. Planchette was the second man sent on this mission. He was aware that the man who preceded him had disappeared. It was assumed he'd been identified because of the GPS locator he carried, so Planchette had gone in naked. Just like the olden days, when spies went forward of the lines to scout out the enemy, and the only means of reporting was to make it back themselves. Planchette had been on Savage Island for three days now. He'd undergone orientation, he'd been offered the catalog to make up his choice of weapons and equipment. He'd feigned indecision, changed his mind a couple of times, asked for special equipment, sent it back. If he waited any longer, they'd know he was stalling. In orientation they'd told him you could back out anytime. He could just ask to leave tomorrow. He didn't have to pick a number, join the line-up, get tagged like a steer, and go out onto the Island and take his chances. But if anyone he knew ever found out that he'd come here, and then backed out, well. He'd never hear the end of it. He could tell people his mission didn't require it, but he could hear the raucous, disbelieving laughter already. Since Savage Island went on line, half the conversations in his mess were about what weapons you should take out with you, and what were the best tactics both for survival, and to maximize kills. And it was assumed, if you were a professional soldier, in the greatest military force in the history of the world, then whoever you met out on Savage Island, you'd be more than a match for them. He'd believed that, until his first night, when he'd gone for a drink at the Last Resort. Some of men, yeah, they were martial-arts wannabes. Tough guys who thought they were something because of the lineage of their dojo and the adulation of their students. But he'd seen the other kind, too. He'd seen a couple of men whose glances made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. All you could hope for when you faced one of them was that they'd make a mistake. Never fight until you're certain of the outcome. That was the rule. Overwhelming force, shock and awe, and the best equipment money could buy. Out there, he wouldn't be able to call in an air strike. Still: he'd had the best training in the world. That would be enough. Of course it would. He had learned one important bit of information, which he needed to report. The transmission tower that stood on the west side of the island, just behind the Wall, on all the maps he'd seen before his arrival: it wasn't there. There was an aerial on the administration building that housed the studio, and that was all. He needed to report that. So, logically, he should get sick or something, or just opt out and go home. He just didn't think he could face himself in all the years to come if he did. Besides, there must be something more to be learned, once you got out on the other side of the Wall. Maybe the whole thing was fake after all. "That's the man." Charles Gordon, the Savage Island armorer said, pointing at the screen. Beside him his assistant, Tom Biondi, nodded agreement. Ken Frize fiddled with the controls to close in on the figure crossing the grass toward the combatant dormitory. Beyond the Wall, just about every meter of ground was covered by cameras. It was not unexpected that cameras would be monitoring activity on the administrative side of the Wall as well. Ken closed in on Doug Planchette, his tall, heavy-set, well-muscled form, his easy grace that marked an athlete. "Why do you think he's a plant?" Tom and Gordon looked at each other. "He doesn't act right," Gordon offered. "We've seen hundreds of guys go through," Tom said. "They're excited, and they're tense, and they're fixated on their equipment. Every tiny detail. Everything has to be right. But not this guy." "He picked plate armor, chainmail skirt, Roman-style shield, morningstar and sword. Sound familiar?" Ken looked up at them in query. "Shadow wannabe," Tom informed him. "For a couple of days after the second wave got here, every third guy wanted a morningstar. And a couple of them wanted exactly what Shadow was wearing. But that's passed now. Since the three days of morningstar-on-morningstar fights, nobody does that anymore. And everyone knows now that you can beat a morningstar with a spear and shield." "Maybe this guy just missed the lesson. Maybe he still is a Shadow wannabe." "Yeah, but then he changed his mind. Asked for camos, a reinforced military helmet. Piano wire. A quarterstaff and some short blades. But when he got the message that his new equipment was on his table, he didn't even show up until the next day." "Also," Gordon put in, "he's been caught twice in unauthorized areas. And last night he was snooping around out of uniform. Tried to get in to the admin building." Frize looked up sharply. "Where did he go?" "Guard turned him back. He pretended to be drunk. But he wasn't so drunk he hadn't changed out of his orange shirt." "I see," Frize said. "Just thought you should know," Gordon said. "Thank you," Ken told him. "What's his name?" Frize made a note of it. "Thank you both. We'll deal with it." "You going to send him home?" "Is he going out onto the Island?" Frize asked. "He's supposed to draw a number tomorrow, and go out the next day." "Let's see what happens," Frize said. "There's no way he can get unauthorized equipment out there with him." "No way," Gordon said. "So, the time to figure out what to do with him, is if he comes back alive." "What's the status on Operation Periscope?" Colonel Fontaine looked up, since that was his cue. Through the window blinds, it was a perfect day in Washington, D.C. Out on the mall, the cherry blossoms were at their height. Here, in the air conditioned conference room, it was a day exactly like any other. Seven men and one woman around the table took part in the briefing, which Fontaine thought was probably the most inefficient way of getting information up the chain of command that you could create, if you ordered a study to design it. But he was here to obey orders, and so he did. "Sir, we sent out two operatives, neither of whom have yet reported back." "How late are they at this point, Colonel?" Colin Underwood, the Assistant Deputy Security Adviser to the President, and the chair of the meeting, tapped on the screen of his hand-held computer, ready to make a note. "They're not late yet, sir," Fontaine clarified. "They're just not back." "Have they been seen, out on the Island?" Charlson, the quiet-voiced NSA liaison asked. "No, sir, not yet." "Are we expecting them," Lieutenant Commander Catherine Dabney, the female Naval attache asked, "to go out on that Island and kill people?" "They're undercover, ma'am," Fontaine said patiently. "They'll do whatever they need to do to blend in and get the job done." "Tell me," she said drily, "that half of you haven't been fantasizing about how to get out there yourselves." She smiled at the general laugh that followed, and nodded as if she'd just won a bet with herself. "So, we'll be expecting two American agents to be out on the Island killing for their nation's good any day now. I'll be sure and keep my eyes peeled." Underwood, who didn't have a sense of humor, asked, "How will you know which ones they are, Lieutenant Commander?" "I expect because they'll be better than anyone else out there, sir." Underwood didn't care for the laugh that followed and silenced it with a cold look around the table. "How many deaths have there been on Savage Island so far?" Fontaine answered, "Our last count was two hundred thirty-eight. Bearing in mind that we only know what they allow to be broadcast. It could be many more." "Or the whole thing could be fake." Underwood frowned. "I thought we'd investigated that. Talked to family members? Autopsy reports of the bodies that came back?" Charlson opened his hands. "Van Allan's got a lot of money. He's had time to set something up that's this elaborate and make it look real." "One thing our operatives will accomplish," Fontaine said, "is to determine exactly what is going on out there." "Four hundred deaths, the majority of them Americans," Underwood said. "This is unacceptable." "Yes, sir," said Fontaine. "Your operatives are not going to be able to stop this thing by themselves." "No, sir. That is not their mission. We expect them to observe, and bring back any information they can gather." "You're monitoring them?" "We sent one of them out with a GPS transceiver, but we're not getting his signal. But even without GPS they can bring us a latitude of the island, which will help us pinpoint the location." "I thought we had the location?" the Marine Colonel down the table put in. "We have what we think is the location," Fontaine said. "But on-the-ground observation will help us be certain." "Without any equipment?" Undersecretary Underwood said. "He's going to bring us the latitude?" "For hundreds of years, navigators calculated the latitude with what amounts to a pair of sticks," Lieutenant Commander Dabney reminded him. "If he's still got his watch," Fontaine added, "he can bring us both the latitude and the longitude." Assistant Undersecretary Underwood stared at him. He did not ask how their operative would do that. Everyone else at the table did know, and they knew that he did not know, and they left it at that. He said, "Well, give me an update when your men report in." "Yes, sir," said Fontaine. He did not smirk at the man. But he enjoy the laugh he got that night, recounting the moment at a dinner dominated by military personnel. After nearly six weeks of broadcasting, the popularity of Savage Island continued to grow. More viewers found their way to the online sites. Downloads increased, and DVD sales expanded. Sports bars devoted to Savage Island broadcasts opened in cities all over the world. The massive multiplayer online game had nearly a million pre-sales, and wasn't due for release for another month. Dojos teaching Savage Island-style combat, offering testing of various weapons forms, and help with applications, opened in a number of locations. After weeks of dozens of combatants heading out onto the Island, James Grayson was having trouble distinguishing them. And yet that was his job. It was in part his enthusiastic commentary that made Savage Island such an enormous success. It wasn't enough to feel that something was great. To be told that it was great, especially by someone who had become an icon, made it believable. The days were long gone when he resented Lucy or Colonel Dawes's presence on what he'd thought of as his set. He relied on Lucy's personal profiles to make each combatant seem unique. He'd learned to be grateful, also, to Colonel Dawes' ability to talk knowledgeably and with genuine interest about any weapons form, even when it spectacularly did not work. So often one of them had stepped in when he lost his train of thought, or carried him when he was so exhausted he could hardly string together a comprehensive sentence. He thought of them as his team now, and depended on them. He was supposed to have three days of leave every month, but he hadn't taken it. He wanted to go to Bangkok, or Hong Kong, with Lucy, and their schedules had not been compatible. He thought that he ought to go. He needed a break. He had a tremor in his hand. Not often, just now and then, his right hand would twitch for a few minutes. Or an hour or so. He wondered if it had to do with the fact that he was drinking more. He'd gotten into the habit of taking a drink before he went to bed. Sometimes two. Sometimes he couldn't remember how many he'd had, before he got to sleep. He had the excuse that he was working harder than he'd ever worked in his life, and he needed a drink to unwind. But he was also having bad dreams. He was grateful that he didn't remember much about them when he woke. He became conscious of the effect his work was having on him the day North Star stepped on to the killing ground. A tall, rangy guy with long arms and legs, he wore a broadsword at his side and carried a six foot spear with a crosspiece, and a black pennon with a white star on it. He wore a black tabard with dagged sleeves and the same compass star over his armor. The killing field was empty when he came out the gate. He didn't stay, but headed across to the west side, to take the path along the cliff toward Shark Tooth Beach. He moved quickly, as though he was one of the guys who simply planned to make a circuit of the Island, walking the sands, they called it, and then come back in, their courage proved without offending anyone. But North Star, in fact, was hunting. He was the fourth candidate released on the fortieth day of Savage Island, the rising sun still glaring on the water in the east, the day's heat only just beginning to make itself felt. North Star spotted Invincible Sword adjusting his armor after taking a leak down on the beach. He loped forward and found the path that led down to the sand. Like most combatants these days, he'd made himself familiar with the Island before he arrived. Down on the beach, North Star shouted a challenge, garbled by the roar of the surf on the rocks, holding his spear at salute until Invincible Sword noticed him, did a visible double take, and reached for his greatsword and targe. North Star waited until Invincible Sword cinched up his helmet, adjusted his gauntlets, and saluted him in return. Then he stuck his spear in the sand, pennon waving in the breeze, and drew his sword. And then the two of them charged each other. Invincible Sword had felled two men the day before. He'd lost the third one, Perseus, who, cut about and losing strength, had waded into the sea to evade death by his hand. Invincible Sword had spent the night on the beach, assuming that by morning the tide would have washed his opponent's body back to him. But that had not yet happened. North Star crashed right in to Invincible Sword, pinning his hands and his greatsword to his body, and struck him blow upon blow to the back of the head, until the man fell. Colonel Dawes opined that Invincible Sword was probably dead before he hit the ground. One of the sword blows had opened up the back of his neck under his helmet. When Invincible Sword fell, North Star paused to salute him with his sword. He then checked his perimeter carefully, before he cut off his helmet and took his eartag. He then searched every inch of his gear and his pack, and found the two eartags Invincible Sword had stuck down his boot. He drank off half a liter of Invincible Sword's water, and took his rations. He looked around carefully again, and then took the time to straighten Invincible Sword's body, and lay him out with his hands folded over his greatsword on his chest. He then picked up a handful of sand and sprinkled it on his body. He spoke over him, but again his words couldn't be heard over the roar of the surf. Grayson thought that was just as well. The gesture was so perfect, words would have diminished it. North Star put the three eartags in his pack, picked up his spear and loped back up the western ridge trail and continued on his way. Halfway along the Island he chose the difficult steep path that was a short cut to the top of the Ridge. There, with the whole Island laid out for him, North Star took off his helmet, revealing a young man with unruly brown curly hair, a crooked nose, and an excited gleam in his eye. He drank half a bottle of water and ate part of a rat bar. Before he'd finished he spotted another combatant coming along the ridge trail, put his helmet back on, chose his ground and stood waiting. The fight between North Star and Ice Giant was forever after one of the iconic fights of Savage Island. And one reason was that it was the first fight worthy of the name that took place with the whole Island as the backdrop. Another reason was the gallantry with which it was fought. Both men saluted each other before the fight began. When Ice Giant stumbled on the rocks and slipped to his knees, North Star did not press in and finish him, but backed up and allowed him to get to his feet again. When North Star backed off to adjust his helmet that had turned slightly in the fight, Ice Giant waited, and they both took a rest before they saluted and started in again. North Star killed Ice Giant with a feint that began as a shift onto the right leg, a drop of his shoulder signaling a leg blow. When Ice Giant reacted by dropping his shield, North Star's sword changed direction. Ice Giant, having lost sight of where his opponent's sword was headed, backed away at this point, but North Star followed, arcing the sword over his own head, and when Ice Giant shifted his shield slightly for a look, North Star's sword struck the right side of his helmet, stunning him. Ice Giant's shield dropped, and North Star stabbed him through the eye slot. He backed away as Ice Giant fell, and held a salute as his opponent died, not forgetting to check his perimeter for anyone who might come upon him from behind. North Star's salute as Ice Giant fell, the scarlet blood in contrast to the blue, gold and green of the Island, became the image of the Savage Island webpage, and the opening page of the Savage Island massive multiplayer online game that opened a few weeks later. Ice Giant had an eartag in his pack. North Star drank his water, laid him out with his shield covering his body and his sword at his breast under his hand, and sprinkled dirt over him before going on his way. North Star killed Dogcatcher on the North Beach. Dogcatcher called himself Ulysses, but his chief strategy was to catch his opponents in a coil of wire at the end of a twelve-foot pole, swing them around until they fell, then stand on the pole, holding their heads to the ground, and stab them while they lay prone. He'd killed three other men when he ran out of the trees at North Star. He had the loop around North Star's neck from the back, but North Star didn't turn and fight. He ran down the beach. He ran down the beach so hard and so fast that Dogcatcher couldn't keep up, and let go of his end of the pole. Whereupon North Star unhooked the loop, caught up the pole, and came back after him. He hooked the loop around the Dogcatcher and then dropped the pole, ran in and cut him down with a single blow of his sword. The next combatant he met wore a hakama and carried a great moon spear, and a sword and short sword tucked in his belt. North Star met him on the beach and saluted him. Spirit of Water bowed, but did not come forward. North Star waited, and then saluted him again. Spirit of Water bowed. He stood in a defensive posture, but he did not move forward. After another minute, North Star saluted him again, and walked down to the surf, made a big half-circle around Spirit of Water and continued on his way. Spirit of Water, out on the Island walking the sands, bowed to North Star's back and continued his pilgrimage of courage. North Star put down his spear and fought a close-in fight among the palm trees above Flag Beach against the swiftly-darting double long knives of Shannon the Bold. It was so quick some people thought it was filmed in fast motion, and Savage Island fans called it the Dance in the Woods. He fought the heavily armored Teufelberg on the path along the stream. This was a long fight, and he took a couple of heavy strikes to his shoulder. He was armored there, but it could be seen that the armor had been damaged, and blood was seeping through the gaps. Nonetheless, he dragged the heavy pack of Teufelberg down the path to the camp of the rice men. They got up in a body when he came in sight, shouting threats, spears and machetes bristling. He saluted them, tossed the pack onto the Trading Stone in the stream, and then sat down nearby and proceeded to try and staunch the blood of his wound. After some minutes a couple of the men crossed the stream, and two of them stood over him with weapons, while the third gently and deftly clean his wound, packed it with bandages, and mended the armor as best he could. He thanked them, and remained seated until they were back inside their compound, taking Teufelberg's pack with them. Then North Star got up, held himself still a moment, fighting dizziness, and headed down the path toward the killing ground, the Wall, and safety. North Star was struck down as he crossed the killing ground, by Makuuchi, who struck him down from behind with a war hammer and then butchered him with an axe. Makuuchi had waited a good hour in ambush. He picked over North Star, harvested his ear tag and the eleven others he carried, and sauntered back through the gate only breaking a sweat because the day was so hot. He was unmoved by the lack of enthusiasm of his reception. He had brought in more eartags than anyone in the history of Savage Island. He planned to live out his days as a wealthy man, and so he did. In the studio, Grayson found himself unable to comment on North Star's death. Colonel Dawes stepped in and made noises about the strength of Makuuchi, the timing and skill of the throw, and the tradition of sumo wrestling from which his name seemed to have been derived. He managed to make Grayson's sudden silence not appear like a judgment on the fight. Grayson thanked him, took a break and went to the bathroom, washed his face and tried to get the picture out of his mind, of North Star jerking forward under the log strike, and the big man running him down and spilling his blood into the sand. His hand was trembling. He held it hard with his other hand, willing it to stop. He pressed it to his face, feeling the tremor against his cheek. His cheek was damp. He washed his face again. He made a minute adjustment to his hair. He tried on his professional smile. And with his right hand in his pants pocket, he went back to work. He went to the Last Resort after his final session that night, and had a few more drinks than usual. He accepted a ride home from a groundsman in a cart, and stumbled into his bungalow. He took a shower, pleased that the tremor in his hand had stopped, and wondered if the alcohol had done it. Then, instead of going to bed he took a bottle of Scotch out onto the patio and sat there in his robe, listening to the surf, the chorus of frogs, and staring up at the stars. He stopped counting his drinks, sipping straight from the bottle. He thought he fell asleep. His face was wet. He wiped it hard on his sleeve and went to bed. This time, with his pillow to stifle the sound, he didn't stop himself when he began to sob. He'd liked North Star. He'd admired his style. He'd looked forward to talking to him when he got back; an interview would be a good excuse for a drink and a chat. And to see him butchered like that, with all his prowess and gallantry rendered to so much meat, from the back, in ambush, hurt. All the deaths he'd seen and tried to forget came back to him, and he cried as he had not since his first girlfriend left him, a long, long time ago. He came awake in Lucy's arms. He knew it was her by her scent. And besides, he'd left the light on for her. He stared up into her eyes. "Don't leave me," he said thickly. "I don't know if I can do this without you." She smiled down at him. Her eyes were luminous. "I liked him," he said after awhile. "I liked North Star." "I know. I liked him too." "Why did he have to die?" Grayson heard himself say. And that was stupid. Everybody died. And North Star had gone out there, onto Savage Island. "He was so careful. I didn't want him to die. He was one of the good ones." She said, "There are all kinds of men on Savage Island, as everywhere else. And all of them will die. What matters only is what they do while they live, for better or worse. Savage Island simply concentrates this process into a very short time. And they come here by choice for that very reason. You saw his courage and his gallantry on display for all the world. Is there a better way to have lived and died? And you can make certain that his short life achieves eternal fame. It is the choice of Achilles and Alexander. And who is to say that it is a wrong one?" He didn't hear all of her words. The sound of her voice comforted him. In her arms, in that moment, drunk as he was, uncertain and unhappy as he was, he was safe, he was at peace. He was home. Part Three Blowback ### Chapter Fourteen Doug Planchette chose the fighting name Hiawatha after the code name of an infiltration operation he'd taken part in several years ago. Even with a helmet on, with that name, his handlers would have no trouble spotting him. You could plan to stand and fight on Savage Island, and that meant armor and heavy weapons; a sword, a shield, a spear, a helmet. But if you were in good enough shape, you could go light. There was plenty of room out there on the Island to run from your opponents if you had to. And if you knew what you were doing, you didn't need a weapon to deal sudden death. Doug Planchette was pretty sure he could take any one of those prancing dojo warriors out there. Men who had never been in battle, men who had never been on a hopeless mission before, and survived through their own strength and cunning, were not going to be able to stand up to him. And he would prove that, before he went home. He carried a quarterstaff, to keep the long-range weapons guys off him. But a quarterstaff could knock down a swordsman if you knew what you were doing, and beat to a pulp anyone who wasn't armored. Because he couldn't resist it, he also wore a Patton saber, a sword designed by a great soldier, for the modern age. He wore a dagger in his belt, and he'd hung a machete on his pack, just because it was so cheap in points. He would go out, do a bit of a circuit, check a few things out, kill anyone who got in his way, and then come in. And if he happened to come in with a couple of eartags, well, he'd earned them over and over again in the past. This time he'd actually get paid what they were worth. He'd drawn number fourteen, which let him sleep late, eat a good breakfast, and limber up before it was time to go to the med center, where all his gear waited in a cubicle for his final check. Here a med tech came and administered a local anesthetic, before stapling on his eartag. Doug dressed and packed, and when the time came made the walk across the grass to the left-hand gate. He felt himself getting exciting as the digital clock over the gate counted down. Thousands of men had dreamed of an adventure like this. Half the guys he talked to had plans for what they would do if they managed to reach Savage Island. And here he was. The girl who had brought his Scotch the previous night. That was a nice touch. She hadn't been very exotic, after all. She'd spoken English with a distinct Brooklyn accept. But she'd been fun in bed. She was out there seeing him off with tears in her eyes. The gate opened. He waited. Combatants were not allowed to kill anyone inside the gate, but there was nothing in the rules that said one couldn't be waiting in ambush right outside. He drew his knife and slipped along the left side of the wall. He looked out. No one there. Right. He dashed out onto the sand, imagining the voice of Mister Savage Island himself announcing the arrival of Hiawatha, and the discussion that would follow with that old kook, Colonel Dawes, about what his strategy was, based on what they could see he was carrying. Then he stopped thinking as he saw the three men across the sand on the killing ground. One was on the ground, obviously wounded, crawling away from the other two who were locked in combat, having grasped each others' swords, trying to get control of the blade, and meanwhile each was pounding the other with his shield. Hiawatha thought about going over there and taking out both of them, and then the wounded guy afterward, but then another guy came out of the trees swinging a morning star. Hiawatha thought he'd go and make the tour of the Island that he planned, and then come back and see which one of them was left. He crossed the killing ground to the trail along the western shore, keeping well clear of the four combatants. "This guy," the control room tech said to Ken Frize. "Check this out." Ken had been called down from his office by Dr. Mukhtar to look at a problem they'd found in the control room. The monitor was following a man in a lightweight leather boxing helmet, dressed in comfortable camos, carrying a quarterstaff and a number of blades on his belt. "What am I looking at?" "Show him what you showed me," Dr. Mukhtar, looking over Manny Kwang's shoulder, told him. "I got that right here," Kwang said, opening another window on the computer. Ken Frize saw a combatant approach a camera on the west side of the Island, and make signals to it, and then repeat them. "Okay, that's not right." "That's what I thought," Kwang said. "He taps his wrist, there, as though referring to a watch," Dr. Mukhtar pointed out. "He may well be signaling his location." "How can he be sure this footage will be broadcast?" Ken asked. "Are they planning to hack us?" "No," Dr. Mukhtar said. "As I told Mr. Van Allan, that's not possible. These computers are not connected to an outside server. They're self-contained. When we broadcast, we take the finished material to an external computer and upload it from there." "So how does he think this will be seen?" "He created a proximity alert," Kwang said. "See? That's Nimbus over there. Hiawatha's been stalking him. He came over to this camera after he got close. Here, he goes after him again. And on to the next camera, and again." "It's the kind of behavior Mr. Grayson may well choose to comment upon," Dr. Mukhtar said. "And then it would be broadcast." "Huh," said Frize. "So, what are you thinking?" "He's a spy," Kwang said. "It is possible," Dr. Mukhtar agreed. "What's his real name?" Ken Frize asked, getting out his electronic notepad. "Doug Planchette," Manny Kwang told him. "Ah!" Ken looked at the notes he'd taken at his meeting with Charles Gordon and his assistant. "You're right. He is a spy." He sat watching Hiawatha for a few minutes, as he continued to stalk Nimbus. Then he said, "Dr. Mukhtar, it's time to try out one of your toys." "Are you certain?" Dr. Mukhtar asked, surprised. "This is what it's for," Ken said. "To maintain the security of Savage Island. You've got one armed and ready, right?" "Of course," Dr. Mukhtar replied. "Always. But we should clear this with Mr. Van Allan first." "Mr. Van Allan is not to be disturbed just now. I have his authority. And this can't wait." Dr. Mukhtar held his gaze, trying to decide just how much trouble this might cause. But Frize did not back down. "Very well." "All right," Frize grinned. "Let's do this thing!" Frize sat himself at the computer station that controlled the drone. "Mr. Frize," Dr. Mukhtar protested again, "you are not trained on this equipment. You are not a designated operator." "I've done the sims," Ken said. "Come on, let's get this done before he does anymore harm." Doug Planchette followed Nimbus along the beach. He still hadn't been spotted. Honestly, a professional in a land of amateurs really had to be careful not to shine too much. Nimbus wore a big round helmet and body armor. He had a spear with a pennon on it, a shield shaped like a kite, and a sword at his side. He didn't look very dangerous. No one was around. This was going to be his kill. He'd try not to make it look too easy. He needed to get this done and get back. He had information that his superiors needed to have. Several of the major landmarks that they'd identified on satellite photos of Savage Island didn't exist. The pair of towering rocks that should have stood out to sea just beyond the Wall off the western shore of the Island weren't there. And neither was the half-sunken old Liberty ship that should be visible from the beach on the north shore. He'd tried signaling that something was wrong with the photos, but the fact was, they didn't have a code for that, so he'd had to improvise. The best way to ensure that this information made it back was to take it himself. A sound behind him caught his attention. It took a moment for him to look up and see the drone coming. One of those camera drones, he thought, getting a good shot of the upcoming fight. He took the opportunity once more to signal to his handlers the things they needed to know, in case, for some reason, he didn't make it. Then he turned his attention back to Nimbus. He was surprised to see the sand kick up ahead of him. He turned and looked behind him but saw no one. Something flew passed his hand, almost nicking him, and he wondered with sudden anger if someone had gotten around the rule about no projectile weapons. And if they had he really was going to kill someone. He dove for the rocks in the same instant, and his second thought, that the drone wasn't a camera drone at all, that it was shooting at him, had just occurred to him when the dart struck him in the back. "Got him!" shouted Ken. "You wasted three darts. You are not cleared for this equipment," Dr. Mukhtar seethed. "It's all right," Ken Frize said. "I got him. Check it out." He got up from the computer and went over to a monitor, in his excitement forgetting that someone had to fly the drone back to its base. Fortunately, Kwang had put an urgent call out, and one of the drone techs had finally arrived. Mickey Van slipped into the seat that Ken had abandoned, and after some cursing under his breath, got the drone heading back where it belonged. Hiawatha got the dart out his back by scraping it against a rock, but it sure did hurt. This probably meant he'd been made, which meant he needed to get the hell out of here and off the island as quickly as he could. It's not that anyone could prove anything. If they'd seen his signaling, he had a perfect cover for that; he and his brother had made up some kind of code. Something like that. He'd tell them he had a semaphore exam when he got back to basic training for the railroad company. Or his brother would be smacking him with his baboon hands by the time he tied up the barbecue apron. The rock he was clinging to exploded into colors that ran like the lava it had once been. His hands sank into it. He pulled himself up. Drugged. He'd been drugged. He had to stay awake. He had to stay conscious, or else that bat-headed hulking monster trailing feathers of surf from the sea was going to chew him up and eat him alive. Nimbus came up to Hiawatha, who came on guard, holding the quarterstaff in the approved position. Nimbus speared him through the gut. When Hiawatha was dead, he cut off his eartag. "Got you, you fucker," Ken Frize said to the monitor as Hiawatha died. "Got you." Jules Van Allan closed the door of the sitting room in his villa. The large-screen monitor stood ready. He set his glass of wine on the table before him. Then he went to his desk and took out the pictures of his children and lined them up on the table in front of him. He picked up the remote, and started the clip. Robert Macias had been dropped at the north end of the Island. Like Emilio Sanchez, he had on a big, heavy helmet. Like Emilio, too, his weapons were attached to his hands, and wouldn't come off without outside help. But no one who looked at Macias would associate him with Sanchez. He wore samurai armor, and his helmet was painted with a big grinning demon face. His gauntlets were glued to a twelve-foot spear. His belt bristled with samurai swords, a long and short sword on his left, and another short sword on his right. Whoever looked at him would wonder what the hell this guy had been thinking, but in fact he couldn't draw any of his swords, since he couldn't get his hands out of his gauntlets, or his gauntlets off his spear. Jules Van Allan watched Robert Macias wake up from the sand. He'd looked forward to this part, where Robert became conscious, and thought he had gone nuts, or was in some nightmare. He'd felt that way, in the days after the police came and told him his children had been shot. He raised a glass to his son, Franz. Straight-A student at USC, studying business with a minor in music. Franz had wanted to play the piano like his mother. He'd kept at it all the years he was growing up. They'd found bits of music in his dorm room. He'd begun composing. Now his music would never be heard. Macias stumbled to his feet. He staggered one way and then another way. He tried to shout, to scream, but he could only moan inside his helmet, since the chinstrap had been specially designed to cinch very tightly across his mouth. Macias waded out into the sea, looking for a boat, calling for help. After he fell down a couple of times, he went back to the beach. There were days when most of the combatants stayed on or near the killing ground, and the majority of the fighting happened there. Those tended to be the days with the most kills. There'd been one day when sixteen men had died in a single day on the Island. Seventeen, if you counted the guy who'd made it back through the Wall and later died of his wounds. But the previous day had been one when just about every combatant headed out into the hinterland. They wandered trails and hunted one another, or missed on another, or lay in ambush, or stalked the roads and ridges. Several dozen men had slept out the previous night. Van Allan wondered which one would stumble upon Robert Macias. Macias walked along the beach. Maybe he thought if he just kept walking he see ahead of him the pier at Santa Monica, and the nightmare would be over. He made it over half a mile before he came upon Saif al Din, bearing two swords and dressed in flowing desert robes. Macias, trudging along the beach with his head down, didn't notice Saif al Din until he was only twenty yards away. Saif al Din drew both swords and flourished them in a salute. Macias stood and stared at him. Saif started forward. Macias gave a yell, raised his spear and started backward, speeding up as Saif began to run. When Saif came upon him, Macias managed to get his spear between himself and Saif, so it did actually look like a fight for a few moments. Macias stabbed awkwardly with his spear, Saif blocked and pushed the spear aside, holding the spear off with one sword while raising the second to strike. Macias scrambled back, making desperate noises as death came toward him. Saif's scimitar was designed for cutting from horseback, and the Japanese armor didn't offer him much of a target, but he lined up the point and tried to wedge his sword under Macias's chin. Macias jinked and dodged, and finally broke free and ran. Saif al Din ran him down, cutting at his lower legs until the edge of his sword bit through the straps of his armor, and Macias gave a choked scream and stumbled to the sand. Saif al Din stepped on his back, holding him in place while he worked the tip of his sword through the armor until it bit into his back. One of the lessons that Savage Island had taught was that death dealt by edged weapons is painful, and it is often not quick. The body struggles hard to live, and finding a vital organ or spilling sufficient blood to make all the intricate network that keeps a body alive can be a drawn-out process. Saif al Din finally knelt on the struggling, bucking Macias and cut off the back straps of his armor, and then stabbed him in the back half a dozen times. Even so, it was a number of minutes before Macias lay still. When Saif cut off his helmet, the eartag still wasn't black, and Saif drew his knife at that point, lifted Macias's head and cut his throat from behind. Van Allan sipped his wine and watched it all. His daughter Sofia, that bright and curious soul, a second-year astronomy major at UC Berkeley, home for spring break that ill-fated night, had lived for two weeks in a coma after being shot in the stomach and spine, and going into shock. He and Heleen had spent days and nights at her bedside, trying to hold the life in her body with their presence, their words, their love. But she had gone. It had been an abomination that those smirking boys had walked out of the courtroom, free. Well, now he had sent this one after her, dog that he was. Victor Bustemante was now en route to Savage Island and would arrive in a couple of days. He had been kidnapped from the parking lot of the restaurant where he worked, after doing the late-night closing. His car was found downtown across the street from a strip joint. Jose Ayala had been picked up last night on his way to his car after seeing a movie. He would arrive a few days later. He would have them all, eventually. He needn't hurry. It had taken this many years to get two of them. He could take whatever time he needed in getting the rest. He'd worried at first if he could keep the island going long enough to complete its purpose. But now, that didn't look like it was going to be a problem. James had not yet reached the dining room when he saw Lucy hurrying to meet him. He went to meet her and hold the door for her, but she took his arm and guided him away. They had been planning to have lunch together. He looked at her questioningly. "Come with me," she said. "We need to talk." She strolled with him through the garden where a number of people took their lunch or their snack this time of day, and headed for one of the maintenance roads that led to the less populated part of the island. "Where are we going?" he asked in a low voice, when there was no one to overhear them. "It doesn't matter," she said. One of the maintenance workers passed them in an electric cart and she clutched James's arm and smiled up at him as though she couldn't bear to let him go. But this was not her real smile. He knew her that well by now. He gave her back an electric smile of his own. She led him off the main road and along a cliff path on the eastern shore of the island. They had to duck through tangles of foliage, as this part of the island wasn't kept manicured by the small army of gardeners. When they emerged onto a headland overlooking the harbor in the distance, Lucy stopped and let him go. "What's this about?" "I found out who the rice men are." He felt a surge of excitement as he had when he was a young reporter, and a story had broken open at last. He'd forgotten, after all his years of being a sportscaster, that he'd started out as a journalist, and he'd chosen journalism because he loved it. "Tell me!" he said. "Tell me everything." "Do you remember last week when one of them got sick?" He didn't, but he should have. "Yes," he said. "Did you notice the morning that he was suddenly much better?" "Actually, no." She gave him a look, and he smiled apologetically. She said, "Someone went out to the camp and brought them drugs for fever. Someone from this side of the Wall." "They sent out a maintenance team? Non-combatants?" "No. One of the staff took it upon himself to go out there. He went to the infirmary and drew the drugs, and he went out the gate at about two in the morning, after the moon rose. Some of the tech staff watched over the location monitor, and guided him there and back by radio." "And he made it?" "He had to identify himself to the guys at the rice camp. And he stayed with them for an hour or so drinking tea, until he was sure Mr. Free was responding to the drug. And then he headed back." "So who are they?" he prompted. She stared out to sea. He followed her gaze. One of the fishing boats cleared the point of the harbor and raised rail. "You know we've had a lot of new workers lately, and that almost all of them are Chinese Indonesians." "Sure." "There was a movement, an independence movement, led by a group of the Chinese on Bali. They started agitating for autonomy and self-rule. The government didn't like it. About seven years ago all the leaders were arrested. Since then, no one knew where they were." She looked up at him. "They say that the guy called Mr. Free is their leader." "They're terrorists?" She made a face. "The government used to call them Marxist Communist revolutionaries, but now all opposition groups are called terrorists." "You think maybe they were offered a choice between this and whatever prison they were held in?" "It's possible. They're together. They're on their own." "But this means they aren't really combatants. It means that, unlike the others, they can't leave. "So Van Allan is doing Indonesia's dirty work for them. Maybe it was the condition under which they let him have the island." "I thought he already owned an island." "Easier to hide if it's not the same island." Grayson put the pieces together. "So Indonesia wants them kept prisoner, but not killed. And Van Allan is making sure they get to the rice men camp, where they've got a chance at survival." "But Van Allan didn't send the medicine," Lucy pointed out. "It was people on staff who organized that. So maybe Indonesia doesn't care if these men are killed, they just don't want to be responsible. But there are others who do care." "So how do we prove it?" She shrugged. "Why does that matter when we can't tell anyone?" James thought about it. "Not yet," he agreed. "But one day. And for that day, we should gather all the proof we will need." She nodded, staring out over the harbor at the fishing boat still moored inside the sea wall. "I wonder how many more of them there are." "So, is that the only reason you brought me out to the trackless wastes?" She smiled. "Maybe I thought if I did, you'd give me some good memories to take back with me." He cupped the back of her head with his hand, gently, and waited until she looked up at him. He thought about saying it, telling her he loved her. And then he wondered if it would sound to her like he was paying her back for information. So he kissed her instead, taking his time. It was another way of telling her, after all. Later, they walked back to the studio holding hands. Beautiful, sexy, smart, exciting, Grayson thought. What had he done to be so lucky? John Savage looked up at the row of senators seated in front of him. His hair was a little askew under the lights, which he was aware would make him look, on camera, like he was working hard. He altered the timbre of his voice, to sound with passion and conviction. When he'd been proposed as a candidate for governor of California, the Republican National Committee had set up this senate hearing, and invited him to come and testify. Two months into his campaign, the plan was for this appearance to carry his presence onto the national stage. It would show voters in California that he was a leader not only of the state, but for the nation. It would set his national career into motion in a way that was both series and important. "In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to state that this legislation for gun control, while attractive, would cost us much more than we can afford. Our Second Amendment rights cannot, nor should not be abridged. And while evil men will take advantage of the right to bear arms, it is for law enforcement to control that, not the government to prevent it. Thank you very much." The Republican leadership planned to seize the issue of law and order, just as they'd seized defense and fiscal responsibility. Once all important issues were Republican issues, it hardly mattered what the Democrats did. They'd be playing catch-up and me-too on everything that mattered. It would make them look like the weaklings that they were. The liberal senator from Colorado, Arthur Mudbanks, gave Savage the set-up he'd been waiting for. "Mr. Savage, no one values our Bill of Rights as much as I do." (Hah, thought Savage, wondering how long it had been since he'd read it). "But our Founders lived in a different world, where a rifle was a farm tool for home defense and hunting. In more than two hundred years, times have changed. Weapons have changed. And our Constitution needs to change. Because one more school shooting, one more crazy man in a crowd, is one more innocent victim too many. Don't you think?" The senator remembered to put a question after the sound-byte from his re-election campaign, and sat back with a nod. John Savage leaned forward into his microphone. This was the money shot. He wondered briefly what Thornton had done to get Mudbanks to set him up like this. He pitched his voice just right. "Senator," he said, "if you had the people behind you, instead of this half-assed measure, you could write a bill to repeal the Second Amendment. But the people are not behind you. The people know, just as you know, and I know, that the purpose of the Second Amendment is not about home defense, or hunting. It is in the Bill of Rights now, as it was the day it was passed, to insure that if another revolution ever becomes necessary, the people have the means to carry it out." The flashes light up the room like fireworks, and for a moment, the noise of the applause in the room was too loud for anyone to talk over. John Savage sat back, remembering to look grimly determined, and not smile. He nodded at a few soft congratulations, and took a drink of water. He'd nailed it. This reply would rule the political airwaves for the next three days. Or it would have, except that the following morning a fight from Savage Island was posted, where two heavily armored combatants with rapiers had been reduced to pounding each other with rocks for nearly an hour, before one of them had fallen insensible. The rock-smashing section led the news and talk shows for three days, with comments rising to a hysterical note, about man's inhumanity to man, and what could be done about it. John Savage's masterful statement of his position on gun control was lost in the noise. Savage, and his whole team, was furious. Ronnie sat on the tiny puddle-jumper clutching the carry-on bag that held bags of jerky that he'd bought in the airport in Sydney. Ronnie knew where Georgie was sitting, three rows ahead and across the aisle, but they'd both agreed that they'd pretend not to know each other until they got to the island and through the gates. Both of them were pretty sure they could hold their own for awhile once they got out there. One thing was for sure, neither of them was going to try and take on some armored dude with big hairy weapons by themselves. Ronnie's secret weapon, his back-up plan, had always been his cousin George, and George's had always been him. Together, they were going to take that whole island for everything that it was worth. The rest of these guys would just be so much meat. He sat hugging his carry-on bag. This was going to be great. A pretty Asian stewardess handed out bottles of beer, soda, juice or water. Everybody had some. And soon, all the passengers fell asleep. James Grayson liked the Wolf Spider. He'd livened up a long string of sword, spear and shield men, about half of whom chose to stay and hang around the killing ground and engage whoever showed up. When Wolf Spider came on to the killing ground at the end of Grayson's morning session with Dawes and Lucy in the studio, James was planning to take a break. But then the gate opened for Wolf Spider, and no one came out. "Where is he?" Dawes asked. "Did he forget to come out?" "He's being careful," Grayson suggested. "Maybe he got lost," Dawes said. "Or he could have turned back." Grayson took the moment to remind everyone. "You're allowed to turn back at any time. No one is forced to go out onto Savage Island." He stopped there, because he was pretty sure now that that might not be true, at least in the case of the rice men. "Well, it looks like Wolf Spider changed his mind and isn't going to ― " "There he is!" Grayson exclaimed. A head could be seen emerging from the gate. Grayson thought the combatant must be lying flat on the ground for his head to be so low. "What is he doing?" "Taking a look from a vantage point that isn't at eye-level can give you just that one more moment to see without being seen," Colonel Dawes opined. "Unless there's a guy with a long spear, waiting right outside the gate." That had happened once. "Whoops, he's ― there he goes!" Grayson called, as Wolf Spider's head disappeared, followed by a short, lean form charging out the gate, running to the left, keeping close to the Wall. "He's running for the cliffs. What's he got in his hands?" "Looks like ― a grappling hook!" Colonel Dawes said, his excitement bubbling through. Wolf Spider dashed to the edge of the Wall that was built out over the cliffs. Then he turned and jogged more slowly along the edge of the cliff. He wore jungle camo a vest with lots of pockets, and straps around his body. He had a tight-fitting helmet on his head that Grayson realized he'd seen mountain climbers wear. His bulging pack was hung about on the outside with ropes, hooks, claws and hammers. Two long knives hung in sheathes from his belt. Wolf Spider stopped all at once and dropped to the ground. In a fluid motion he swung himself over the edge of the cliff and was gone. "What the ― ?" "Well that's a new and unique strategy," Dawes exulted. "He's got ropes, knives, grappling hooks and he's wearing a rappelling harness." "Have we got a shot of the cliff edge?" Grayson asked, with the feeling growing that this combatant had eluded not only any possible opponent, but the production team as well. Farley spoke in his ear. "We're on it. Give it a sec ― there you go." One of the helicams over the island zoomed along the cliff edge on the western shore of the island, and soon a long shot showed Wolf Spider climbing slowly down the face of the cliff. "Wow, what a guy!" Grayson said. "I wonder what he's going to do when he runs out of cliff?" Dawes wondered. "Find a cave?" Grayson suggested. "Isn't that what wolf spiders do? Let's see where everyone else is, and who might be the first combatant to spot the Wolf Spider." "Dave, thank you for coming up." Dave Thornton shook the outstretched hand, and endured the obligatory clap on the shoulder from Hamilton Graves that went with it. John Savage had once told him that the more a man touched you during a hand-shake, the more you should look out for your wallet, and guard your throat. He looked around the room. Three other members of the Republican leadership had gathered up here while the official meet-and-greet drinks party to honor John Savage went on down stairs, with Hamilton Graves's beautiful young wife Tracy Orr-Graves, as the gracious hostess. "I'm not sure why you wanted to see me," Thornton said diffidently. "John's the man you want to talk to. Let me just get him for you . . ." Graves's arm came around his shoulder again, leading him away from the door. A fake fire burned in the grate. Comfortable ― expensive ― red leather chairs defined conversation groups in front of floor to ceiling bookshelves that contained more art objects than books. The heavy red velvet curtains blocked out the view of the river outside. "No," Graves said, guiding him to where the other three people stood nursing drinks by the fireplace. "We need to talk to you." "Senator Stearns," Dave stepped forward to offer his hand. "Good to see you again. Your nephew Michael has been doing great work for us, in California." "Glad to hear it," the tall, aging senator replied, though his tone was distant. Not a good sign. "Ms. Munroe," Thornton nodded to the late governor of Tennessee's wife, who was running for the office now herself. "Mr. Thornton, good to see you." Big smile. Hearty handshake. But her eyes remained cold. Thornton nodded to Max Wisenberg, more and more certain he wasn't going to enjoy this meeting. "Sit, sit!" Graves urged them. "Dave, you don't have a drink. Can I get you something?" "I'm fine, thank you." Dave sat warily, feeling more and more like a vegetarian at a hunting convention. "New polls are out," Senator Stearns said without preamble. "Savage is down four points." Thornton nodded. "Yes, I saw. We expected that. His opponent, Dickerson, just announced; he had a big spread in the Times and the Chronicle, and he went on the Colbert show and didn't make a complete fool of himself. This is Dickerson's opening charge. You always get a bump right out the gate. But notice, we're still ahead." He smiled, and invited a new topic. "John did well before the Senate, didn't he?" "Yes, he did," Claudia Munroe's eyes warmed for the first time. "Great speech. Great statement." Graves raised his voice. "Yes. Good to have an articulate voice like that on our side of the issue!" Senator Stearns nodded fondly. "I remember when I used to go hunting with my father ―" "He lost the news cycle," Wisenberg broke in. "Savage Island rock fights. That's what they're talking about. He might as well have said shit." Thornton's smile hardened. "We'll pick up the statement in our next round of ads. It won't get buried." "You're being buried," Wisenberg said. "You pissed off Jules Van Allan. I don't know how that got past us, but Van Allan has a lot of resources, and he obviously doesn't intend John Savage to win." He leaned forward, glaring at Thornton. "So he's not going to win!" "The Savage Island problem is being taken care of," Thornton said, with as much quiet assurance as he could project, while thinking furiously about how he could get Savage to bring more pressure to bear on Colonel Fontaine. He smiled. "It's in hand, at a level I'm not at liberty to discuss." "I haven't been briefed," the senator said, in an offended tone. Munroe's eyes gleamed. Thornton could just about see her running through the rolodex of her mind, for people who could give her the skinny on measures being taken to shut down Savage Island. And that, too, would bring more pressure to bear. He got up, still smiling. "Don't give up on us yet," he said. "California is ready for John Savage." He paused at the door. "You don't want to be behind that curve." His smile faded as he shut the door behind him. He'd have a word with Savage, and then get somewhere private and call Colonel Fontaine. Javier Moreno met the three guys in the park during an extended family picnic. They were at the next table over, having trouble with their barbecue. Javier responded to their good-natured jibes, and accepted their really good beer while he showed them how to get their fire going. They had a bunch of tuna steaks in a cooler, and if they didn't understand fire, one of them sure could cook. Javier Moreno had been a sixteen-year old in the back seat of the second car when the two passenger-side windows opened to spray bullets into a crowd of rich kids in line for some high-end club. He'd turned in his seat and watched the bodies jerk and fall, the turmoil of the mob, the charging and retreating chaos they'd left in their wake. He'd been on fire. He wished he'd had a gun. It had been so cool! To be the secret hit man, to scrape your fingers across an anthill and watch them die. If he'd had a gun, he'd have leaned out the back window and gone on shooting until they were out of sight. He still thought about it sometimes. And they'd gotten away with it. That was the kicker. He'd been in prison twice in the fifteen years since. Once, for robbing the convenience store, when he'd popped that guy in the butt. The guy'd run, and never even told the cops, cause he knew Javier from the neighborhood. He knew what would happen. He'd done three years the second time, when he and his cousin held up a gas station. And they'd gotten shit for it too. Guy didn't have any money at all. The barbecue guys told him about deep sea fishing, how they left at dawn out of San Pedro and went out to the deeps and fought the big fish, and brought back a freezer full. They were supposed to go out again, but their fourth guy had bailed, his grandmother in Mexico had died. His slot was all paid for, but no one they knew had the time. They talked about fishing trips, the fun they'd had, and the fish they'd caught. Javier drank more beer. In the end, they offered him the fourth slot, because they thought he was such a great guy. And he thought it sounded like fun, so he said he'd come. They met him at the gas station on the corner about half a mile from his house, just like they said. He brought a coat, because it might be cold, and a hat, and sunscreen, like they said. He got in their car, and no one ever saw him again. Ronnie winked at his cousin during orientation. They were here! They really were here! And none of these guys looked like much. Georgie glared at him, and then looked away like he hadn't seen him. Right. They didn't know each other. Not till they got out there. He'd picked out a leather coat of steel rings from the catalog on the Savage Island website, because it looked bitchin. He liked the articulated metal leg armor with the wings at the knees that buckled in the back, because he'd seen enough guys on the Savage Island broadcast bleed out from a leg wound to know that it could save your life. But now that he was here, and it was so hot, he was thinking he might not need that much armor. And anyway, if he took less armor, he could have a really tall spear, and a long sword, and a short sword, and a long knife, and a knife in his boot, and an extra short sword down his back and he could reach back with one hand and pull it and throw it and it would stick in the guy's neck and he'd die before he even got close. Ronnie really loved Savage Island. And the food in the dining hall was great. It took John Savage two days to get through to Colonel Fontaine, and when he did, the news was not good. "I cannot meet with you at this time," Fontaine said over the cell phone. "When?" Savage said. He pressed the phone to his ear in the pause that followed. "Not for awhile. This is not a good time." "Al, it's important." "Yes," Fontaine replied. "Which is why you need to keep your distance." He added, "Understand?" Savage thought about that. If Fontaine had something going, it was possible that any connection to his campaign would represent a political blunder. As long as Fontaine was on it, he could trust the outcome. "I understand." "Good," Fontaine said. Then his voice rose sharply and he added. "Next time use a land line!" and he disconnected. Savage grimaced. He should have known. Talking to the Colonel about important matters on a cell phone, in Washington, D.C., was something only an idiot would do. He ran through the conversation again, but couldn't remember saying anything that might pose a problem. He took heart, because if any connection with Fontaine at this point was that toxic, then something consequential must be in the works. Grayson's tremor was back. He had as much right as anyone to use the medical facilities on the island, but he didn't want it known that he was experiencing this weakness. He'd taken to keeping his hand in his pocket. He'd decided, too, that a little bit of alcohol, if it couldn't make it go away, would at least make it less noticeable. If only to him. He was pretty well in charity with Dawes these days. Two nights ago, Dawes had joined him at his table at the Last Resort, when he sat nursing a bottle of excellent single malt. He'd offered Dawes a glass in silence and sat cupping his right hand in his left, so the tremor didn't show. "Hard day," Dawes said. Grayson nodded. You wanted the good guys to win. When an enthusiastic kid with a fascination for armor and tales of quests and daring-do left his college where he was majoring in history and minoring in game design, and took his scale armor, his broadsword, his round shield, and probably a spell of misdirection out onto the killing ground, and met a retired mercenary soldier who'd been killing people as far back as Kosovo, and took the kid out with one blow, that was hard. The sounds of the kid gurgling his life away while his feet churned in the sand, still ran through his mind. The killer walked back in with three ear tags, and asked to be dropped in South Africa. Later on, one of the sand walkers had been ambushed on the western shore by a guy who'd sat for two days on top of one of the big rocks, and then dropped a lasso on him. He'd stuck him with a spear while he was trussed, and then dragged the body to the sea so it wouldn't give his position away. "It's always like this," Dawes told him. "At the start of the war, you're excited. You're going to right wrongs and teach the bad guy a lesson. Might seems like the best way to show your worth, and there's send-offs with speeches, and marching on to the transport with men you've trained with for years. And tons of new equipment, the best. And everyone is charged up. Going off to war. Nothing like it in the world." Dawes took a slow drink and nodded appreciatively. "Good stuff," he said. "The best," Grayson agreed. "Then," Dawes continued, "you get there. And it's hurry up and wait, over and over again. But finally you're out there, in harm's way with your weapon in your hand, scared enough to shit yourself, and any second you could get your head blown off. And you're still charged up, because this is what it's all about, all that training. All that history. War. The thrill of it. Kill or be killed." He took another drink, staring off into a place Grayson had never been. "The first time you see someone you know splattered into shreds. The first time you hear the screaming. The first time you get blood all over you. And that's when you know." He met Grayson's eyes with a hard smile. "War is fucked. It's stupid. Us here, with artillery, with bombs dropping from the sky, those guys there, and we cap em. We take them out. Sometimes from miles away. Rags. Tangled bundles of rags lying in the street." His glass came up again, and he drained it with a jerk. "What a fucked up way to solve problems." His smile became a sneer and his head went back. "Who are we kidding. We're not solving problems. We're killing people and taking their shit. Killing people. Taking their shit. That's war. He pushed his glass over, and Grayson filled it for him, right to the top. "Thanks." Dawes took a sip. "At least here, there is some honor in it. And the gain goes to the soldier, not to the business interests pressuring for more and more war." "I'm not used to killing," Grayson ventured. "It's not easy to see so many men die." "Good," said Dawes. "You get used to it, you stop feeling it, and you're really fucked up." He drained his drink and rose, laying his hand on Grayson's shoulder, but not to steady himself. "You're a good man, James. It's a pleasure to work with you." He patted his shoulder, gave him a nod, and left. Grayson watched him go, not seeing a trace of the drinks he'd had. ### Chapter Fifteen "Ken," Van Allan called through the door. "Come in here a moment." "Yes sir?" Van Allan nodded behind him. "Close the door." "Sir." Van Allan took a seat behind his desk, leaned back and steepled his fingers. Ken Frize felt a frisson of fear as he met Van Allan's cold blue eyes. Van Allan regarded him steadily for a moment until Frize dropped his eyes. He said, "Did I ever tell you about the time my son took my car?" "No, sir." "I was away on a business trip. He borrowed my Jaguar XJ, and took a friend for a drive on Highway One, up the coast of California. Do you know what I did to him?" Ken shook head. He knew what this was about now. "Sir, I can explain ―" Van Allan lifted one hand. "No need, I assure you. I got my son a job in an auto body shop, painting cars. He supported himself, and paid me the remainder of his wages until he'd paid his debt." "Did he wreck the car?" "No, no. Brought it back without a scratch on it. No, I simply charged him rent for it. And a Jaguar XJ is an expensive rental. Especially when you add in the insurance. It took him four months. He had to be tutored all summer so he didn't have to repeat his junior year." "You took him out of college?" "I took him out of high school. He learned a great deal in that factory. And the next time he wanted to drive my car, he asked me." "You were unavailable," Frize stated. "You said you didn't want to be disturbed. The man was signaling. You can see it on the tapes." Van Allan sat forward, holding Frize's gaze until he stopped talking. "You are perfectly aware that nothing is broadcast from here that we don't permit." "I couldn't be certain . . . " "But that was not for you to decide. You wanted to take my drone for a spin. And you got a man killed." Ken's temper fired up. "But he was out there already. He has just about a fifty-fifty chance of getting killed anyway." "And you made certain he did." "He had to be stopped," Frize said doggedly. "Very well. If you were so certain, why didn't you bring it to me afterward? Why wait and let me find out when I reviewed the week's reports?" Ken was silent. Van Allan nodded. "You acted disgracefully, and you know it. You wanted to try out the drone, and leaped at the first excuse." "I only acted to protect Savage Island, and all it stands for." Van Allan lost his temper. His voice grew distant, measured and cold. "By shooting a man with a drugged dart from a drone? Yes, that is exactly what we stand for here." "I thought it had to be done. And if so, better by me than someone who isn't as committed . . . " "You bitched it. You missed him." "I did not!" "The darts you buried in the sand had to be recovered. The cost of that recovery will be deducted from your pay." Van Allan dropped his hands. His eyes blazed. "Don't ever touch my toys again." Ken felt the look right to his gut. He swallowed hard. "Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir. It won't happen again." "Go." Ken walked to the door. It seemed like a long way. As he closed it, he ventured again, "I did it to protect the Island." But Van Allan said nothing, and Frize closed the door quietly behind him. It was hard not to look over at Georgie. All his cool stuff was laid out on the table, and he wanted to see if Georgie had seen that cool butterfly knife. Georgie was across the room, talking to an armorer. He'd always wanted to try out a butterfly knife. He'd gotten a morningstar, not one of the lame ones with the big long chain, but one just a foot long, that the armorer called a flail. The spikes on the steel ball were two inches long, and it packed a hell of a wallop! He'd knocked apart a dummy on the practice field in nothing flat. He couldn't wait to try it out there. He couldn't wait to show it to Georgie. He looked over there, but Georgie was walking away. Still pretending they didn't know each other. They had to do that, for one more day. He was still wearing his leg armor, it was so cool the way the plates bent at the knee and over his boots. Wearing the whole rig today had been awesome. He'd gotten a long sword with a single edge and a blood groove; that was cool! And he got a couple of gauntlets with metal plates over the fingers that looked awesome. It had cost a lot of points, but that wasn't going to matter. Not once they were out on the Island, and could take whatever they wanted. He'd picked a big old helmet with horns coming out of it, and a chain mail mantle in the back with pointed ends. He'd changed his mind about the big leather coat with the rings when he'd seen the lighter one with the silvery plates. It looked so good. He had a shield, which Georgie said he'd need, at least at first. He thought they were stupid, until he found out you could customize them. He'd gotten them to paint an eagle on his, with wings outstretched, coming right at you when you looked at it. It was so bitchin cool! He picked up the helmet again and put it on. He wondered if Georgie was going to recognize him with it on. Huh. They hadn't thought about that. He'd have to remember and signal. Except, he didn't know what Georgie's helmet looked like. He looked around. They didn't like it if you went to one of the other tables and looked at the stuff. They'd come and tell you to get lost. In a nice way, but still. And he didn't know exactly which table Georgie's stuff was on. Huh. The helmet fit real good. He thought about putting the armored leather coat on again. But it was almost dinner time. Georgie'd know what to do about recognizing each other. He'd have thought of it already and worked it out. He was keyed up about tomorrow. He was keyed up about tonight, too. One of the kitchen workers had told him, that the women on the island took turns to sleep with the warriors the night before they went out. That would be so awesome! He hoped his was an Asian chick. He'd never done an Asian chick. And they were so hot. He put his helmet back on the table and stroked the cool metal. He touched the stock of his flail and imagined whacking someone with it real hard. "Ker-flang!" he said softly. He looked around. None of the other combatants were around. Just some of the guys who worked with the armorer. He was going to have fun tonight, and even more fun tomorrow. "Ker-flang!" Mario Aparichio was slotted into an early release program from prison by the combined efforts of an expensive attorney, and an interested prison director whose wife had a gambling problem. Mario found himself unexpectedly processed for release without even the opportunity of calling home and telling anyone he was on his way. When he got outside the gate, he realized he'd have to go back in and call someone for a ride. But then a cab pulled up, and the driver leaned out and called his name. It seemed his obliging new attorney had even provided a lift back home. Mario had an enjoyable trip, thinking about how surprised his wife would be to see him when he walked in the door, and wondering if he'd catch her in bed with her old boyfriend. His kids would be so happy to see him. The little one was probably walking by now. And his mom would come by with those enchiladas that he'd missed so much. It got a little warm in the car, so he adjusted the two vents below the driver's partition in front of him so they were fully open, and pointed at him. After awhile, he fell pleasantly asleep. If he had woken some hours later, he would have found himself in the company of an old friend. Angel Sifuentes's all-expense paid trip to Hawaii had been short-lived after he was escorted to the first class lounge and offered food and drink. Later he was loaded on to a private plane from a wheelchair, and began what would be his last journey. "Hold on, sir," Colonel Fontaine said into his phone. "I'll get you an update on that." He hit the button and called out to his aide. "Trev? Have Planchette and Meridor checked in yet? How late are they now?" Captain Trevor appeared in the doorway. "Sir, Doug Planchette is dead." "What's that?" Trevor came forward and sifted through the pile in his inbox. "Here it is." Fontaine picked up the phone again. "Sir? I'll get back to you with that information shortly. Yes, sir." He hung up the phone and took the papers from Trevor's hand. Captain Trevor, who knew Colonel Fontaine's preferences, told him, "His sister, or rather, the woman listed on his application to Savage Island as his sister, and his next of kin, was notified of his death this morning. They've asked her what she wants done with the remains." Fontaine's jaw worked. "Did they tell her how it happened?" "No, sir. Only that he died in combat some days ago." "All right. There's your window. Download all the footage you can and see if you can find out what happened to him." "Yes, sir." With half a dozen people looking, it only took a few hours for someone to find the footage of Hiawatha's fight against Nimbus, where Hiawatha was struck down and killed. "Something's not right about that," Fontaine said, watching it for the second time. "That's what I thought,, sir," Captain Trevor said. "Look; it's like he's frozen in place. When Nimbus comes into his range, he doesn't react, he just stands there." "Let's run it back. Get me all the vid of Hiawatha from the time he came through the gate onto the Island." "Yes, sir." As it happened, there was no such footage. People who trolled the Island website, and followed the combatants from day to day, told the Major that, not often, but every now and then there was such a glitch, and a combatant couldn't be tracked back to the gate where he had originated. Captain Trevor brought the news to Colonel Fontaine. "Coincidence? My ass," Fontaine said, with the healthy disrespect of a person who had been manufacturing coincidences his entire professional career. "They made him, and then they killed him. When the remains arrive, we'll have a full autopsy. Then we'll know more." Unfortunately, the people in charge on Savage Island made a terrible mistake, and what they shipped back to Doug Planchette's next-of-kin was a very handsome urn containing, supposedly, his ashes. When contacted, they were most apologetic, and offered several thousands of dollars in compensation. On hearing of this second coincidence, Fontaine said, "Right. Now we know. So," he added, "what are we going to do about it?" Ronnie sprinted out the left-hand gate as soon as it opened. He and Georgie had talked about this over and over. The biggest problem, Georgie said, would be if someone was waiting right outside the gate. That sometimes happened, they'd seen. There was this one guy who'd cold cocked another guy right when he was running out. That's why Ronnie had a shield held up in front of him as he ran out the gate. A bigger problem would have been if someone else already had their idea, but once he got out onto the killing ground, he saw it was empty, so probably they were fine. He'd drawn lucky number seven. Georgie had been at last night's drawing, so he knew he'd be coming out today too, but he didn't know what number he had. The next important thing was to stay out of trouble until they hooked up. That is, unless you met someone really wimpy. If he saw one of those, he'd take him, and be one up on Georgie before they even hooked up. Unless Georgie was out here already. He could have come out earlier. He could already have been in a fight. Or he could be waiting. Ronnie scanned the tree line. That's where they'd agreed to wait. He didn't see anyone, so he trotted across the killing field and took one of the narrow trails into the woods. A little ways down the trail he stepped into the trees and made his way through the dense woods until he found a spot where he could see past the trunks onto the killing ground, and watch the three gates. Then he put down his stuff, got out his water bottle, and knelt down to wait. That girl last night, she'd been great. Fun and funny, and willing to go again and again. She'd laughed with him, and petted him, looked into his eyes and kissed him deeply, and then wished him well today. He got hard again thinking about her. She'd been really nice. She'd been outside the gate just now, to give him one more kiss and a wave, with tears in her eyes. He'd thought about telling her he was going to be fine, once he hooked up with Georgie, but he remembered they weren't telling anyone their plan. Not till people saw it for themselves. Still, he'd look her up again when he got back. She'd been really great. Once of the guys had said he was going to ask for two girls, on his last night. Ronnie'd been too shy to do that. But maybe when he got back, and had all those eartags, and all that money in the bank, maybe then he do that. Because nobody could disrespect him then. They'd be rich, him and Georgie, and after that they could do whatever they wanted for the rest of their lives. Three hours later, James Grayson noted that Unstoppable Force was about to step on to the killing ground. He made a joke about the name to Dawes, and looked back at his notes and saw that, yes, earlier that day, the seventh combatant onto the Island that morning called himself Immovable Thing. He looked at the map that monitored all the combatant's locations, and saw that Immovable Thing was still hanging out just inside the tree line. Unstoppable Force charged out of the center gate onto the killing ground with his shield held high. He looked around, and then trotted off toward the treeline. James Grayson made another joke about the unstoppable force making a beeline for the immovable thing, and then Immovable Thing appeared out of the trees. But then the two fighters met, and they didn't fight. Instead, they just stood there by the trees, talking to each other. After awhile, the two came out of the shade and took up positions in the middle of the killing ground, facing the gates, though every now and then one of them would turn and scan the treeline and the openings of the pathways behind them. "Is this allowed? That two fighters team up?" "There aren't any rules out there," Grayson said. "Who's up next?" Dawes asked. They were both hoping that whoever came out next was not a sand walker, or a rice man. Grayson saw it in Dawes's glance. "Our next combatant," Grayson tried to sound chipper, "hails from Ohio, in the United States. He is a retired Marine, and teaches P.E. at the Barton School for Boys." "A prep school?" "Ah, no, looks like it's a correctional facility. Must be a tough guy." "Well," Dawes reminded him, "he is a Marine." "Right." Helldog charged out of the right-hand gate. He carried a six-foot spear with a leaf-shaped spear head with a cross-bar, and a hooked butt-spike at the other end. He wore heavy metal gauntlets, and a shield on his arm. A long sword hung at his left side, and a short sword from his right, and crossed bandoleers in which were stuck several knives. Helldog caught sight of the two combatants who already held the killing ground, and immediately shifted to the right, circling around Immovable Thing to put him between himself and Unstoppable Force. Dawes pointed out with enthusiasm, "That's the way to do it if you're in the position of fighting two opponents at once ― you move so that the two of them are stacked, one behind the other, and that way you're only facing one at a time." The wide shot on the monitor showed Helldog closing on Immovable Thing, and continuing to shift to the right, to keep Unstoppable Force from working his way out from behind his partner. Immovable Thing struck out at Helldog with his flail, punching away blows of his spear with his shield. "He'll have to finish him quick," Dawes said. "This is a dangerous situation where a moment of inattention, or if he loses sight of just where Unstoppable Force is, could get him blindsided in a hurry. There! That's ― " he started to say, as Helldog struck out at Immovable Thing, pushing him back, but then the Immovable Thing lowered his head and charged, just like a linebacker, tackling Helldog and bearing him down to the ground. Helldog's spear was pinned under Immovable Thing's body. Helldog wormed one of his hands free and groped for a knife, but by then, Unstoppable Force had come up, angled his sword under the edge of Helldog's helmet, and stabbed down. Ronnie jumped up off the still-thrashing Helldog with a curse. "Ah, fucker!" He tried to wipe off some of the blood that had spurted into his face. "What'd you do that for?" "Whaddaya mean?" Georgie chortled. "I got him!" "Fucker!" Ronnie said. He clawed at the buckle on his helmet, but his gauntlets got in his way. He dropped his shield and flail, dragged off his gloves and pulled off his helmet. He didn't want Georgie to know, but the smell of the blood, and getting it on his face, made him want to puke. "Cut that out!" Georgie yelled at him. "What are you doing? Anybody could come! Put that shit back on, you idiot! You have to stand guard while I finish this." "In a sec!" Ronnie yelled back at him. "Fuckwad." There was nothing to wipe his face with. And then he'd had enough and turned away and vomited until he was dry, while Georgie laughed at him. "Come on!" Georgie said, "Get it together. We've only just started." "Shut the fuck up!" Ronnie said. "I got fucking blood in my mouth. Asshole." Georgie laughed again, but at least he did something about it. He pulled off Helldog's helmet, then proceeded to strip off his armor. He cut and tore the guy's shirt off, and handed it to Ronnie to wipe his face, with a bottle of Helldog's water. "Thanks." Ronnie scrubbed off the blood, sluiced his face and scrubbed it again, until he couldn't smell it on him anymore. He could still taste it, and the feeling that some of it was in his throat still made him want to upchuck. "You did good," Georgie said. "And it worked! The plan worked!" "Yeah," said Ronnie. He blew his nose on the shirt. "We got him! Look at this!" Georgie sliced Helldog's eartag off and held it up. "That's a hundred thousand, right there. Half for you, and half for me." "Yeah!" said Ronnie. Fifty grand was more than he made in a year. "Here." Georgie got Helldog's other bottle of water and helped Ronnie wash out the inside of his helmet. "Come on, you gotta get this back on. We're going to have another fighter out here any minute." Grayson and Dawes looked at each other. "Well, that's a new one," Grayson said. "They're obviously in collusion." Colonel Dawes watched Immovable Thing get back into his helmet. "Yeah, but you know, a lot can happen out there. If one of them makes a mistake, another combatant could take them both. They can't be experienced at fighting like this, hand-to-hand, to the death. Nobody is. One of them might get wounded." "Let's see who we have coming out next," Grayson said, checking his notes. "General," Colonel Fontaine said, "Thank you for seeing us," as he and the NSA liaison, and the Marine Colonel filed in to General Fleishchmann's office at the Pentagon. "What's this about, gentlemen?" Fontaine saw that his report was sitting open in front of the general on his desk, but he went ahead and told the general about the two operatives they had sent in to Savage Island, Then he put the computer on the General's desk, and started the clip where Nimbus, in his big round helmet and body armor, paced up to Hiawatha. Hiawatha stood on guard, holding his quarterstaff a little off-center, at the ready. Nimbus made a feint with his spear, and when Hiawatha still didn't react, he followed through and speared him in the gut. Hiawatha crumpled forward and fell to the ground. The General Fleischmann said unhappily, "Are you sure that's our man?" "It's Doug Planchette," Colonel Fontaine stated. "We have a positive ID." "What do we think happened?" the General asked.. "He may have killed five or six of the other fighters," the Marine Colonel suggested, "with such efficiency that he gave away just who and what he was." "It looks like he was drugged," Charlson, the NSA liaison opined. "That's all speculation,," Colonel Fontaine said. "The fact is, one of our own has been killed in plain sight, on the Island he was sent to reconnoiter. The question is, what do we do about it?" The men looked at General Fleischmann. The General said, "It's obvious. We can't let this continue. Savage Island must be shut down." "Thank you, sir." Fontaine smiled to himself. John Savage was so going to owe him for this. By the time their fourth opponent came out of the gate, Unstoppable Force and Immovable Thing had developed a system that worked. One of them stood in front of the right-hand gate, and one of them stood in front of the left. Whoever's gate opened, that guy backed off and stayed out of range until the other could come up, and then the two of them would attack him together until he died. The second guy, Sinbad, had charged out the gate and attacked Ronnie, who'd swatted aside his long spear, backing away across the sand, and was just about to pound him with his flail, when George came up from behind and stabbed him in the back. Sinbad probably hadn't even noticed George. Ronnie felt a surge of anger that he hadn't gotten to try his new weapon yet, but that evaporated because George was so happy about the way their plan worked. He let Ronnie hold on to the second eartag, because they were splitting them, just like he said. They took the time to strip the guy, pile up his pack and his weapons and armor, and drag the body over to where the first guy lay. Georgie said when they had some time they'd throw the bodies over the cliff. The third guy, Wind Over Water, was fast. He came out of the center gate, saw both of them waiting for him, and high-tailed it for the trees. Georgie and Ronnie pounded after him, and this time Ronnie did get to use his flail, because he threw it at the guy just before he reached the path. It hit the guy in the back of the head and he stumbled, and Georgie was on him before he could recover. The fourth guy came right out the gate in front of Ronnie. A short, heavy guy with two big swords and a shield on his back, in plate armor down to his steel-toed boots, he charged at Ronnie like a little tank, caught sight of Georgie heading his way, and swerved away toward the cliffs. Ronnie ran after him, and this time he got to pound away with the flail, blocking the guy's attempts to strike him down by punching them away with his shield. Before Georgie could catch up, Ronnie figured out that he was not going to be able to put a dent in that helmet, so he nailed the guy in the arm and then pounded down on his shoulder. He picked up a foot and shoved him and the guy went over. Sure, Georgie distracted the guy, and blocked his sword right before Ronnie creamed him, but this one was his. He cut the helmet off himself, and was about to cut the eartag off, when Georgie yelled at him and he remembered, you had to wait until it turned black. So, he waited, but it didn't happen, so he took the guy's own sword and stepped back out of the way and chopped him in the throat. Then he laughed and laughed. Georgie had just leaned in to see if the eartag had changed color yet, and didn't get what Ronnie was about to do. The spurt of blood caught Georgie right in the chin, and Georgie stamped around and cursed, and accused Ronnie of doing it on purpose, but he hadn't. He cut the eartag off, and he kept that one too. "They're obviously in collusion," Ken Frize said, looking over Jules Van Allan's shoulder to watch his monitor. Unstoppable Force and Immovable Thing had stacked the fourth body neatly by the eastern cliffs, and taken up their stands again in front of the first and third gates. "Yes," Van Allan said. "How long do you want to let this go on?" Van Allan smiled. "Why does it matter?" "Well, they're ― this isn't what Savage Island is about. It's about personal courage, and facing your opponent man to man." "Is it?" Van Allan leaned back. "I think we can let nature take its course. There are a lot of dangerous men still to come today." "But if we let them do it, doesn't that mean any teams of guys can come out and, and, take over the Island?" Van Allan turned his chair to look at him. "Do you think that likely? Obviously we cannot extend out background checks to the point where we know if any of our applicants have ever met one another before. That's pointless." "Then you're going to just let them keep on?" "Why not? What do you think we should do?" Ken Frize hesitated. But damn it, what did they have the thing for, if not for situations like this? "I think we should take them out. Both of them." Van Allan huffed a laugh. "As you did oh so prematurely to our signaler." "Isn't that why you got the drones? For problems like this?" Van Allan looked back at the monitor. The Unstoppable Force and the Immovable Thing still stood their vigil. "This is not that kind of problem. Not yet." "But they're cheating!" "Yes," Van Allan says. "Except that there's nothing in the rules that says two men cannot team up. We'll leave it for the time being." He got up. "Let's get some lunch. By the time we get back, they may both be dead." Ken took another glance at the monitor, hoping something had changed to back up his point, but the two combatants still stood waiting. Van Allan would see. He was right about this. He followed his boss out of the office. John Savage finished his tour of the Bay Area community college, sticking his head into classrooms in session, inspecting the state-of-the-art computer lab, hearing a short performance at the music department, and then sitting down for lunch with the president, the vice presidents ― there seemed to be six of them ― the deans and some of the faculty and staff. Afterward he gave a short speech, sympathizing with the continued cuts the community colleges had taken, praised them as the backbone of the higher education system, and promised that when he was governor, they would see glory days like never before. He could make this speech in his sleep by now. He opened the floor to questions certain he had made his point, and convinced anyone that could be convinced that he would be the Education Governor. The questions that followed were about the specifics of his plan, and his funding. He brought the event to a close with a big round of applause, and shook everyone's hand he could reach before David Thornton ushered him back out to his car. "That went well," Thornton said. "Yes," Savage replied, checking the messages on his phone. "Not one mention of Savage Island the whole time." He held up his hand to David, who was about to speak, and listened to one of the messages. Then he closed the phone with a snap. He was smiling. "Good news?" "The best. Savage Island. It's taken care of." "Oh, man, did you see the look on his face?" Ronnie asked for the fourth time. He laughed again, thinking about it. The guy had been dressed in a big golden helmet with a Mohawk of bright red hair sticking up on top. It looked cool! He'd stepped out of the gate, seen Georgie and Ronnie waiting for him, and the pile of bodies on the killing field, and the stack of stuff they'd got, and he'd gone right back in the gate. Ronnie laughed again. "That sure was funny!" "It'd be funnier if we'd gotten to kill him first," Georgie said. They'd killed all but one. One had managed to outrun the two of them, and had sprinted down the center road through the trees. They'd decided not to go after him. For now. "Yeah. And anyway, there's only one way back to the gates, and that's through us," Georgie said. "We can get them all." "Yeah." Ronnie took his eartags out of his pants pocket and counted them again. "Eight hundred thousand! We got eight hundred thousand!" "Well we're staying here until we get a million," Georgie said. "A million each." "Yeah," said Ronnie. "A million." He got up, looking over to the west where the sun was just starting to set. "Isn't there one more guy coming out?" "I think it's over for the day," Georgie replied. He'd dug some rations out of his pack and was chewing on an energy bar. "I think there's one more," Ronnie insisted. He picked up his helmet and put it back on, pulled on his gloves and grabbed his shield and his flail. "Sit down," Georgie said. "That was the last one." Ronnie didn't answer. He went to stand across from the center gate, the way Shadow had, and waited. Sure enough, a few minutes later the gate to his right opened, and a short stout figure trotted on to the sand. He wore a sleek metal helmet with a single slit for his eyes, painted dark green. A green surcote covered the chainmail skirt that fell below his knees. He carried a sword and a curved rectangular shield, holding the edge up close to his eyes. He saw Ronnie, raised his sword in salute, and headed for him. "Come on, Georgie!" Ronnie yelled. The short guy, Cane Toad, swung a blow at Ronnie's leg. Ronnie jerked down his shield to block it and saw the sword change direction straight for his head. He managed to duck, but the sword glanced off his helmet hard enough to jerk his head sideways, and it hurt! "Georgie!" Ronnie yelled, backing away as quickly as he could, while Cane Toad tried to get close enough to strike at him again. Ronnie barely managed to block another sword blow with the stock of his flail, which was almost pulled out of his hand. That's when Georgie finally came charging up and knocked the little green guy down. "Bout time!" Ronnie shouted. "Shit! That hurt! What were you doing, man?" Georgie was trying to kill the little green guy, who scrabbled backward on the sand, backing away as quickly as Georgie advanced, and blocking any of his sword blows that came in range. Ronnie followed after them, still shaking his head to clear it. He was mad. "Come on!" Ronnie called. "Get this over with!" He swung his flail around over his head, and then had to duck as he almost conked himself with it. "Truce!" the little guy yelled. "Truce!" He'd reached the western edge of the killing ground, and stood with his back to the cliffs. "Or I'll jump!" "Go ahead," Georgie invited him. "Either way you end up dead." "Hey, no!" Ronnie yelled. "If he jumps, we won't get his eartag!" They could hear the surf pounding at the foot of the cliffs. "That's right," Cane Toad said. "If I jump, I'm a dead loss to you." When he saw Ronnie wasn't about to come any closer, he moved his sword hand to the side of his helmet, and flipped up his visor, revealing bright hazel eyes, a grizzled beard, and a round face flushed with the heat and excitement. He grinned at them. "Cool!" said Ronnie. He moved forward to look more closely at the helmet, but the sword came up again, holding him away. "Whaddaya want?" Georgie asked. "To join you." "We don't need you." "Don't you? I nearly got away from you. If there were three of you, instead of only two, we could easily cut anyone off before they left the killing ground. And," he added, "you could cut people off from getting back through the gates, like the guy who went out before me. Big red Roman-crested helmet? Golden breastplate?" He saw the cousins glance at each other. "If there were three men, you could afford to stand beside the gates instead of in front of them, until you saw which was about to open, and cut off anyone who comes out before they can change their mind." "He's right," Ronnie said. "We coulda had that last guy." "We've got this one, already," Georgie pointed out. "There are a lot more where I came from. And three on one is a certainty." The cousins looked at each other again. Then Georgie said, "How do we know we can trust you?" "We've never had a surrender before," Dawes noted, watching the monitor. "Is that what this is?" Grayson asked. Both of them had stayed long past their shift, fascinated by this new turn that Savage Island had taken. They'd had food brought in, rather than going off to the dining room, and taken turns eating rather than take a chance at missing a moment of the drama as it unfolded that afternoon. "That's what it looks like." Cane Toad knelt down at the cliff edge and laid his sword and shield on the sand. He popped off his helmet and handed it to Immovable Thing, who put down his flail and his shield to play with the visor, opening and closing it. There were microphone pick-ups all over the Island, together with the cameras, but they'd learned that combatants had to be close to the pick-up for anything they said to be heard clearly. They couldn't hear whatever the three men were talking about now. "Looting the body before he's dead?" Cane Toad slipped off his pack, unbelted his surcote and took it off. Then he got up, bent over, and pulled his chainmail hauberk off. He handed it to Unstoppable Force, who shook off his shield and put down his sword to hold it up against himself. Then he tossed it to the ground. Ronnie grabbed the pack, opened it and dumped it out. He took one of Cane Toad's water bottles and helped himself, tossing the other one to George. "Look," Cane Toad told the brothers, standing before them wearing his pants and boots. "I'll fight like this. Then, if you see me do something you don't like, you can pop me easy." "Whaddya say?" Georgie asked his cousin. Ronnie shrugged. "I dunno. Hey, can I have your helmet?" He dropped his flail and his shield and shook off his gloves so he could unbuckle his helmet. "Hey!" Georgie yelled. "Look out!" Across the killing ground, a lone combatant had emerged from one of the jungle paths and was heading for the Wall. Georgie smacked his cousin's arm. "Come on, Ronnie! Get it together!" Cane Toad picked up his sword and shield. "I'll hold him up for you." He charged across the sand. Golden Paladin's s glorious first day, when he had met and bested two successive combatants had been followed by a miserable night, when he'd lain down on a nest of some kind of insect and been bitten all over. He'd then spent a miserable day walking in circles, and now, within sight of the Wall, here came a half-naked bearded guy with a big shield and a flashing sword. Golden Paladin grasped his nine-foot spear and braced himself. Then he saw another man charging toward him, and another after that. He ran for the nearest gate, but the naked man cut him off, and then the other two caught up with him. "No, me!" the second big guy yelled, and stepped in with his flail, snapping a smashing blow at his head. The naked swordsman dropped to his knees, and cut for the Golden Paladin's hamstring When the third guy came around to his back, he was already falling. Georgie hacked at him where he fell, but it was clear he wasn't getting up again. "Okay, then, all right," Ronnie said, as George took off the guy's helmet and checked the eartag. It was already black. "We wouldn't have got this guy if it wasn't for you." Cane Toad knelt in the sand, grinning. His cut to the back of the knee had dropped the guy like a puppet whose string was cut. Georgie said, "So, what kind of split do you want on the eartags?: Cane Toad shook his head. "When you have enough, you can give me what you don't want." "Hey, get this!" Ronnie had pulled off the dead guy's pack and found two more eartags in the zip pocket. "Now we've got eleven! One million one hundred thousand! We've got more than a million dollars! Hey!" He broke off his gloat as Georgie tossed one of the eartags to the short guy. "Thanks," the guy said, and pocketed it. "He earned it," Georgie said to Ronnie. "And there's going to be lots more." Dawes left for dinner after they watched the three partners haul the stuff they'd stripped from the bodies of their victims off the killing ground to a small clearing in the trees. Twenty yards off the path, the men would be invisible to passersby in the darkness. It was clear they meant to camp there for the night. Grayson, pent up with the gruesome excitements of the day, and not looking forward to an evening alone at his bungalow, wandered into the control room to look over any fights he might have missed from elsewhere on the Island. Lucy had left that morning on one of her trips. He had nothing else to do. "Hot stuff, huh?" one of the technicians grinned, as Grayson watched a rerun over his shoulder of Unstoppable Force and Immovable Thing taking out one of their opponents. Grayson brought the tech's name to mind. Wei Ling, he thought it was. "Did you ever think this would happen?" Grayson slipped into his celebrity persona and flashed a smiled. "Out there, anything can happen," he quipped, and the tech laughed appreciatively. Grayson sat down at an empty work station and set it to a combatant who'd been out now for two days. He felt profoundly fatigued, and as though he could not bear to see one more death. He was about to go home when the other technician, Sam Tran, sat back in his chair. "Huh! Another glitch." "What's that?" Wei Ling asked, without looking away from his screen. "Got another ghost," he said. "What's a ghost?" Grayson asked. Wei Ling waved a hand. "Oh, every now and then one of the locators stops working. We see a guy on the Island and we can't track him back to the gate. We write it up, file a report, and one of the day guys looks into it." "Oh, yeah?" Grayson went over to Sam Tran's console and looked over his shoulder. "That's Tiger Bright," he said, recognizing the metal claw extenders on the hands of the combatant in the painted orange and black helmet. "Yeah," Sam said. "But who's this?" Sam re-ran the clip he'd been watching. Grayson recognized the place where one of the two streams on the Island emerged from the jungle and made its way to the sea. A long shot showed a guy kneeling by the stream, clawing at his helmet, and the dipping his head right into the water as though he were trying to drink through the grating. He couldn't get his helmet off, Grayson saw, because he hadn't put down his weapons. He carried two very long swords, which seemed dumb. Grayson wondered why he didn't just shake off the gauntlets he wore so he could unbuckle the chinstrap on his helmet. "Do you know who that guy is?" Sam asked him. "No," Grayson said. "I think I'd remember those two swords." "Well, here are all the guys who came out the gates today," Sam pulled up a collage of still shots in order of all that day's combatants. "And here's yesterday, and the day before." Two more collages came up on his screen. He touched a button and brought the three up together. "See that big round blue helmet anywhere? I don't." "Huh," Grayson exclaimed, and leaned closer. "You're right." If double-big sword guy had lasted longer than a day or two, he would certainly have noticed. "And here comes Tiger Bright," Sam brought up the guy kneeling by the water again, and Grayson saw Tiger Bright approaching along the beach. The two-sword guy saw him and staggered to his feet. He didn't act like someone ready for a fight. He yelled at Tiger Bright, raised his hands up with the two swords in front of them, letting them flop over in his efforts to communicate something. Grayson couldn't tell what. And Tiger Bright came on. Finally the two-sword guy put up his swords like he meant to defend himself, and that lasted only seconds as Tiger Bright came into range and cut down hard onto his left shoulder. The double-big sword guy cried out and twisted away; Tiger Bright struck again. Grayson saw the familiar welling of an incredible amount of blood, and knew that the two-sword guy was probably already dead when he fell, and Tiger Bright stabbed him in the back with the point of his naginata. Tiger Bright looked around, then dropped down next to the body, put down his weapon and pulled off one of the metal-clawed gloves. When Tiger Bright pulled off the helmet, Grayson could see that the guy had dark hair, that he looked Hispanic, or Italian, and that he was probably in his early thirties. Sam Tran clicked around, found the camera with the best shot and zoomed in as much as he could. "I have seen that guy before," Grayson said. "You have? Well, that's a first. I've had half a dozen of these ghosts go by, and nobody's been able to identify them." "That many?" "The Mystery of Savage Island," Wei Ling put in without looking around. "Well this one looks familiar," Grayson said, as Tiger Bright cut off double-big sword guy's eartag. "I just don't remember his name." He straightened. "Listen, give me what you've got on the ghosts, and Lucy and I will track them down." "That would be great," Tran said. "I could get this off my list." Grayson hung around another ten minutes while Sam Tran burned the files onto a card, and then pocketed it and took it home. At home, James played through the files Sam had given him while he ate. Each one showed a combatant who had made poor weapons choices. None of these clips had been forwarded to him before for commentary, he was sure, though several of the faces, when revealed, did look familiar. He froze the clearest close-up of one of the combatants and sat looking at it. He had seen it before. But not exactly this face. He'd been in a suit, with his hair slicked down. And he'd been younger. Much younger. James went to the desk and pawed through the stack of manila envelopes he'd received from his agent since he'd arrived on the island. At last he found the right one. He laid out the clippings that showed the nine suspects in the Crimson Club shooting. He put his finger on Mario Aparichio, the driver of the first car. He was pretty sure that he'd just seen the man die. ### Chapter Sixteen Scorpion's eyes opened on the darkness. For a few moments, he didn't know where he was. He hadn't forgotten that he was on Savage Island, that he was ill, that he was in hiding. He heard water trickling nearby. He couldn't remember where, exactly, he'd gone to ground this time. Then he realized what had woken him. The nearby insects had gone silent. A crack in the underbrush told him why. And then he heard the footsteps. He listened to the steps coming closer. And then he realized, with rising horror and a spasm of adrenalin, that he wasn't in hiding at all. He wasn't in a hole or covered with brush. He was right there in the open, with his head practically in the stream. He hadn't been spotted yet. If he had been, someone would have stuck him with a sword or spear by now. But if they came closer, it wasn't going to be possible for them to miss him. He slithered one hand to his belt and drew his knife, and held it by his side. He hadn't planned to kill anybody. His job was to stay alive, last out his time and get home. The steps came closer, downstream and across the way, they paused. Scorpion felt as though some guy's eyes were boring into his head. He braced himself for the rush, and the attack, trying to decide whether he should jump up now and charge the guy, or wait, or run. If he had to, he would do it. Slice skin, cut ligaments, open arteries and free the crimson spray. He would do it, to get himself home. His hand gripped the hilt of his knife, his other hand pressed the ground, ready to push off, as the footsteps paused, scrabbled in the brush, splashed in the stream, came closer. More than one. There was more than one body down there. Two men? Working together? Three? That was harder. That might not even be possible. He must move so that the first one was between himself and the others and take him fast, very fast. Then he must rotate the second to put him in the way of the third at the same time that he took him out; if the third was the last he could throw the second body in his way, and come over it at the same time, and take him out after that moment's distraction. Yes. It could work that way. The shuffling was nearer now. He'd need to know when to strike. He lifted his head, risked one swift look ― and felt the breath leave his body in relief. Pigs. A family of pigs, making their way along just on the other side of the stream. Big male, two females, and four little piglets. Scorpion lay quietly and watched the family root and drink, scuffle and play. He thought about traps and boar spears, nets and snares, ideas forming in his mind and then shredding like cobwebs in his exhausted brain. He might be able to kill and butcher a pig without anyone catching him. But the smell of cooking pork would be like setting off red and green flares. Eventually the sounds ceased and Scorpion opened his eyes to see the last of the little family trot off along the gorge. He took a rat bar from his pocket and chewed it only because in principle it was food. Close to dawn he roused himself. Moving slowly, he retrieved his two jerrycans, filled them, dug himself a new hideout, and hunkered down inside to sleep. He needed to regain his strength before he made his break to head back to the wall. He needed to rest up, eat up, and get well. It wouldn't be long now. As he lay there, half stupefied with exhaustion and fever, he thought about pork. Roast pork. Pork chops. Pulled pork. Pork fried rice. Pork ribs. And that pork stew that Trish made, with the carrots and onions, where the meat fell apart on your fork. He promised himself, when he got home, there was going to be a big pork dinner in his future. John Savage felt a stab of resentment as he sifted through the reports on his desk. Campaigning was a full-time job. He'd been attending fundraisers, making speeches, chairing meetings, touring job sites, and flying from one end of California to the other, going up the coast and down the Great Central Valley, up into the mountains and out to the desert for the past three months. And yet he could not take a break or let up from his day job. Next January, he still hoped, despite the setbacks, he would have a new job. But still, the present one had to be done. He'd shifted almost all of his cases to his deputies. But he had to stay on top, oversee the caseload of his department, make sure things got done. For fifteen years, he'd loved this job, and he'd been great at it, the best. Now, he was ready to move on. In a stack of reports from one of his assistants a name caught his eye. Benjamin Saldana's girlfriend had filed a missing person report when he'd failed to return from work. It took Savage a moment to remember why that name sounded familiar. He picked up the phone and ascertained that yes, the case was still open; Saldana had still not be heard from now after a week, and yes, this was the same Saldana who'd been the youngest gangster in the Crimson Club drive-by shooting fifteen years ago. Savage was about to throw the report back, when he saw another missing person report. Angel Sifuentes. With the drive-by case back in his mind, he didn't have to wonder why that name sounded familiar. He could still remember the smirks on the kids' faces, when they realized that they were going to get away with what they had done. Javier Moreno had been reported missing by his father. They'd gone to a movie together. Javier had met some friends and told his dad he'd be home later. He hadn't been seen since. Savage picked up the phone again, still leafing through the file. After the Crimson Club case had closed, and the gangsters had all walked, Savage had put a check on all nine of them, so that anytime they came to the notice of the police, his office was notified. Usually, that file contained at most a note or two. A couple of times one of them had been picked up for burglary, or assault, or a domestic dispute. One of them was in prison. But now, the file held half a dozen missing person reports. He paused when he came to the one about Mario Aparichio. Mario was serving three years for armed robbery. How could he be missing? One more phone call gave him the news that Aparichio had somehow managed to qualify for early release, and had disappeared between the prison and his home. It was possible that he'd just done a bunk, or not wanted to go home to his family. That wasn't so unusual. Except for the other five missing person reports. That, and the early release which should not have happened, made it clear that something was going on. He called his secretary and had her look up the other three gangsters. She called Jesus Aparichio's parole officer. Jesus had been the shooter in the passenger seat of the first car, driven by his cousin Mario. Jesus's parole officer told her that Jesus had gone on a fishing trip and was due back in a few days. Savage pawed through the folder and found the missing person report on Javier Moreno, who had disappeared after telling his family he'd been invited to go on a deep sea fishing trip. What the fuck was going on? What possible coincidence could cause all of these men, seven of the nine men who'd been involved on that terrible night, to all disappear within the last month? Maybe aliens were cleaning up Los Angeles's dirt for her. Savage cracked a smile, which froze on his face, as realization hit him. This was Van Allan's doing. It had to be. Who the hell else, after all these years, even cared? Of those who might care, who else had the kind of resources that could make something like this happen? It was Jules Van Allan. He knew it in his bones. So where had all these guys gone? He sat back in his chair, staring down at the file. Because the answer had been in headlines all over the world for the last three months. And now he knew what Savage Island was really all about. James went up to speak to Van Allan the next morning. He'd come in early to the studio and was already made up and dressed. He found Elena, one of the assistants, coming out of Van Allan's office. "He in there?" James asked. "He's not in today, Mr. Grayson," she told him. "He's at his villa, and he's not to be disturbed." "For how long?" "I haven't been told, I'm sorry." "All right. Leave him a message that I want to speak to him, all right? It's urgent." "I'll do that, Mr. Grayson." James went down to the control room and found Dawes there already, leaning over the shoulder of the tech on duty. "What's the news?" "They're still in the clearing where they spent the night," Dawes told him. "Look at this." It was still dark outside, and the figures were not easy to distinguish. Two lay side-by-side, and one sat up against a tree. Dawes pointed to that one. "See? They don't trust him." "How do you know?" Manny, the tech said, "They've tied him to the tree." "He's in the way of anyone who stumbles on them," Dawes added. "A human alarm system." When Immovable Thing woke up that morning, he found Cane Toad sitting with his back against the tree where they'd tied him the night before. He was no longer half naked; he'd put his green surcote back on and secured it around his waist with a belt. He had a couple of water bottles beside him, and was chowing down on a rat bar. The straps they'd tied him up with the previous night lay neatly by his feet. He lifted a bottle to Immovable Thing in salute. "Hey." Immovable Thing sat up and poked his cousin. "George! George, get up!" "I'd like to point out," Cane Toad said to the cousins, between gulps of water and his ration bar, "that even though I was able to untie myself, I did not raise a hand to either of you, according to my word." Unstoppable Force gazed at him blearily. "So?" "So? I'm just pointing out that you can trust me." "Right." "And I'd like to point out that the sun is going to rise soon, and someone else is going to come out of one of those gates." "Hey, yeah!" Immovable Thing got to his knees and groped around for his helmet. "Time for some more fun!" Pavel Corriodor charged out the left-hand gate as the sun crested the horizon, shield high, axe poised, and saw a big guy coming toward him, raising a short version of a morning star. Pavel, whose fighting name was Poltava, grinned to himself and raised his spear. Everyone knew how to beat a morningstar with a spear these days. The big guy seemed to understand that Poltava had his number, because he started to back away. Poltava started after him, but then something hit him hard in the back and knocked him forward. As he hit the ground he heard shouts, and something landed on his back. His head jerked as his helmet was pulled off, something bit sharply into his neck and he screamed, dropping his spear and clawing with his hand, his other arm trapped under his body, holding his shield. Then he was struck in the back of the neck once more, and entered into darkness. "Ha!" Ronnie exulted, as he pulled off Poltava's pack. "That was easy!" "Yeah," Georgie said. "Good work." He nodded at Cane Toad, who stood on guard while they stripped Poltava's body. Ronnie turned the pack upside down and emptied it, to avoid handling the blood-soaked top of it. "Check it out! Jerky!" He cracked open one of the bags and stuck a piece into his mouth through the grill of his helmet. Georgie took a couple of pieces and handed the bag to Cane Toad, who popped his visor with a grin, and grabbed one. "Thanks!" "Save the rest," Georgie said. "We've got a lot of work to do before lunch." Cane Toad dragged Poltava's body to the stained sand where they'd piled the kills of the previous day, and they went to take up their positions again. They'd decided the night before that fewer people would duck out on them if they only saw one opponent when they came out the gate. So, one of them would stand on the killing ground, while the other two stood against the Wall between the two gates. Whichever gate opened, the one on the killing ground would draw the guy out, and the other two would come up and attack him from behind. And it had worked like a charm. "We are going to own Savage Island!" Georgie said, as he went to take his turn on the killing ground. "Yeah," said Ronnie happily, still chewing. And he was going to be a millionaire before they were through. Two hours later, when the trio on the killing ground had killed four more guys who'd come out the gates, and one who'd come back onto the killing field from the jungle, Grayson walked into the control room. He found Dr. Mukhtar looking up at the monitor, watching the gang of three loot the body of their latest kill. "How long are you going to let this go on?" Grayson asked. "I beg your pardon?" Grayson gestured to the monitor. Immovable Thing and Cane Toad were dragging the body that had been Cloud Warrior to the stack of dead by the cliff. It looked like something out of a horror movie. "You have to stop this," Grayson said. "Every man who comes out the gate today is going to be killed by these guys." "That's very possible." "Very possible? That's what's going to happen." Grayson heard his voice rising. He took a minute to breath. "I think you should shut down any more releases today." "But Mr. Grayson," Hari Mukhtar said, "we can't do that. That is not how we do things here." "That is not how we do things here!" Grayson pointed at one of the monitors, replaying the last kill, where Cane Toad had backed away, drawing Cloud Warrior away from the gate, and Immovable and Unstoppable had come up and struck him down from behind. "We do not weigh the odds," Dr. Mukhtar told. "We do not judge. We allow them to go out there and do their endeavor. What they meet there is their fate. Whether they live or die is immaterial. They have shown their courage as men." Grayson looked over at the monitor that showed the next combatant heading for the gate. His well-wishers seemed subdued. James wondered if they had been watching the monitors, and knew what his fate would be. "He's going to be killed," he said. "Yes, probably." The shots of the killing ground showed the three fighters taking up their positions again, this time with the Unstoppable Force taking the center position, and Cane Toad and Immovable Thing standing against the wall on either side of the center gate. "It's murder," Grayson said. "I have no authority to stop this," Dr Mukhtar said. "Only Mr. Van Allan can do that." DefCon Five stepped out of the gate and saw Unstoppable Force waiting for him. He walked a few paces onto the killing ground and stopped, dropping his shield and raising up his big heavy single-edged sword. "Georgie?" he called. "Is that you? It's me, Win!" He started to lift off his helmet to show his face, and that was when Cane Toad came up from behind struck him in the head with his sword. "No, wait!" Ronnie shouted, and plowed into Cane Toad, knocking him down. "Ow, ow, ow!" DefCon Five shouted. "You fucker!" Georgie trotted up and stuck his foot on Cane Toad, keeping him from getting up. Ronnie dragged himself off the smaller guy and helped DefCon Five to his feet. "You okay? Man, you made it! Are you bleeding?" "Ow!" DefCon Five pulled off his helmet and felt the back of his head. "Wow. That really hurt." "I'm sorry," Cane Toad said from the sane. "I didn't know you were. . ." "This is our cousin, Win," Georgie explained, and then he let Cane Toad up. He told Win, "This guy joined us last night. And that," he pointed to the stack of bodies, "is what we got so far today." "Wow," Win said. "Awesome. That's just amazing." Lieutenant Philip Hartley slid into the empty seat next to Lieutenant Kenneth Orlando and his JayGee Lieutenant Terrell Jefferson. "Do you know what this is all about?" Orlando asked him. Hartley swigged his execrable coffee and shrugged. "Sending us back to the sandbox, probably." "I'm betting Africa," Jefferson, sitting tall and ramrod straight, his white naval uniform immaculate against his dark skin, put in. "Time to kick some Mali butt before the al-Qaeda there joins up with al-Qaeda in Libya and Syria and turns them evil." Hartley eyed Jefferson narrowly. This was the reason Jefferson was the oldest JayGee in the SEALs. No one could figure out what he meant when he talked like that. Jefferson met his eyes with a bland look as though daring him to agree or disagree. "I can deal with Mali butt-kicking," Hartley said, and finished his coffee in a gulp. He just hoped it wasn't going to be another pol's toy-soldier fantasy that would turn into an extra special fuck-up and get a bunch of good guys hurt. He'd seen too many of them. He sucked the dregs from his cup. "Well, something is definitely up," Orlando observed, as Captain Lewis Wilkes, commander of the submarine Eureka, slipped in. He took the nearest chair and nodded all around. Slight, unassuming, easy to get along with, Hartley had shipped with Lewis several times over the years. "Attention on deck!" The men shot to their feet as the base admiral, Henry Devrett, came in, followed by SEAL Commander Perry Wyatt, and the admiral's assistant, Lieutenant Ramirez. "As you were," the Admiral dropped into the chair at the head of the table, with Wyatt at his right hand, while Ramirez passed out manila envelopes. He smiled down the table. "Gentlemen, I think you're going to like this one." "Yes, sir!" Hartley agreed, and opened the envelope. He'd barely separated out the orders when Jefferson, who was some kind of speed reader, got to the important part. "Well I'll be damned!" Captain Wilkes chuckled and Commander Wyatt grinned at him. Hartley finally found it. "We're going to take Savage Island?" "And shut the whole thing down, that's right," the Admiral replied. "The mission commander is flying in tonight, so let's get a plan ironed out so that we have some chance of calling these shots and making them come out right. Turn to page three, please, gentlemen." Well, thought Hartley, who, along with everyone else on the base, had spent more than a few dozen hours watching downloads from the Savage Island channel, at least these guys won't be shooting at us. Grayson walked in to the fourth-floor office without knocking. Ken Frize sat in front of his laptop of the table against the wall. Elena Carmine, who had been looking over his shoulder turned as Grayson entered. "Where is he?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Grayson," Elena began with a smile. "He's unavailable, Mr. Grayson," Ken interrupted, without looking up from the monitor. "What does that mean? Has he left the island? Then get him on the phone." Elena and Frize exchanged a glance. "I have a message in to Mr. Van Allan that you want to speak to him. I haven't heard back from him yet." "Do you know what's going on out there?" Grayson gestured toward the Wall, the top of which was visible through the French doors leading out onto the terrace. Frize steepled his fingers in an unconscious imitation of his boss. "Of course we are monitoring the situation." Grayson stepped forward, and had the pleasure of seeing Frize wince back. "Get him. Now." Elena stepped forward again. "Mr. Grayson, we've done all we can." "Fine," Grayson said. "I'll go find him myself." He took the stairs, too impatient to wait for the elevator. He ducked in to the editing room and found Shang-zu there dropping off some film. "Su, grab a camera. I need you." He was gratified to see Su Ling open her box, grab a handful of cards, and load her camera on her way to the door. "Give me the mike," Grayson added, and the cameraman unscrewed it from the front of the camera. "Where are we going?" "Down to the gate." Su Ling looked at him sideways. "Stuff going on down there?" "It's always good," Grayson told him, pelting down the stairs, "to have as much coverage as possible. You never know what you're going to need." "Yeah," Su grinned, keeping up with him. "That's what Lucy always says." "When is she due back?" James asked. "I'm not sure. It was supposed to be today, but she got delayed." "I wish she were here now," Grayson said, partly to himself. "Have you seen what's going on out there?" He held open the front door and followed Shang-zu outside. "Yeah," Su said. "Bad business." "So let's see what we can do about it." They rounded the corner of the admin building, and found an unusually subdued crowd of off-duty staffers gathered as the next combatant emerged and headed for the gate. Grayson quickened his pace. The combatant wore dark jungle camos and an army helmet. He carried a heavy backpack, a short spear in one hand and a machete in the other, which he waved as he crossed to the gate. He didn't even have any armor on. He was going to be slaughtered out there. Grayson moved to head him off. Behind him, Su Ling shouldered the camera and hurried after him. "Hi, there!" Grayson stepped into the combatant's path, and saw the guy's face light up. "James Grayson!" The combatant's face lit in recognition. "What an honor, sir." He was about Grayson's height, with broad shoulders and a runner's lanky body. He tucked his machete under his arm and held out his hand. "Curt Kellerman, from Texas by way of Hong Kong. I didn't know you were coming to see me off. Isn't this awesome? I'm so excited to be here! Do you want to know about my plan? I have a plan." He smiled, looking from Grayson to Shang-zu holding the camera. "Sure," Grayson said, and stepped closer, putting himself in the way of the camera. The mike was not plugged in. "Don't go out there," he told Kellerman. "It's bad out there right now. Walk away. Come back when they've fixed the problem." Kellerman's face fell. "I'm going to be Nightwalker," he protested. "That's all right," Grayson told him. "You can be Nightwalker another day. Don't go out there today. Really." Kellerman looked over at Shang-zu again. Shang-zu had lowered the camera, not even pretending to shoot. "What is going on?" Kellerman asked. "I'm not allowed to tell you," Grayson said, thinking through the sheaf of conditional non-disclosures he'd signed. "But I am allowed to say, due to technical difficulties, this is a good time for you to step back, and go out another day." Nightwalker's jaw was working. "I'm all keyed up for this," he said uncertainly. He looked around again. The crowd watched him, not giving him any clues, but not egging him on to the gate either. "I'm not afraid to die." He looked at the camera again. He knew that was a great sound-byte, and that Shang-zu should be filming this. "Another day," Grayson smiled, knowing that he was starting to sound desperate himself. "It'll be better. I promise." A young Asian woman in a maid's uniform slipped out of the crowd, and took Kellerman's hand, looking up at him. Kellerman blushed. "Off day," she said, with a heavy accent. "Me off day. You come." She leaned in to him. "We go have fun." Kellerman looked around the crowd, but no one seemed anxious for him to continue to the gate. "All right," Kellerman said, and the girl on his arm squeezed in close, smiling up at him. "All right." He smiled back. "I'll take today off. I'll get back on the roster later." At that a cheer went up, as though some kind of victory had been won right here. Kellerman turned back to the admin building to get his eartag removed and turn in his weapons, but he didn't let go of the girl. "All right," Grayson said to Shang-zu. "Let's see if we can find the next one." He and Shang-zu followed Kellerman into the building. Van Allan lay back on the couch holding his ex-wife in his arms in a position they had perfected over twenty-five years of living together. They had found it again naturally through the long hours of watching videos together. "Tell me about this one," Heleen said.." "This is Angel Sifuentes. You remember, he sat in the back seat on the right side of the second car. He brought the gun, and loaded it, and gave it to Jesus Aparichio." "The shooter in the second car." "Yes." "And how old was he?" "He was seventeen. He gave the gun to Jesus because if he did the shooting, he was afraid he would be tried as an adult." She turned her head, trying to see his face. "And how do you know that?" He looked down at her with that bland look she knew so well. It meant, "Oh, come, my dear. Think a little longer and you'll figure that out." And then there'd be a pause, and then he'd say . . . "I think you know." She gave his arm a little push, which in their vocabulary meant, "Stop stalling and tell me." "I purchased copies of his attorney's files." "You didn't!" That bland look again. "Of course I did. It wasn't difficult. Secretaries are so underpaid." She gave him a shove again, but she was smiling. Not because he had subverted the law, but because it was just like him to be so smug. "Shall we?" He reached out the remote. She lay back against him. "Yes. Please." The camera picked up an armored figure lying half in the surf. "Is he going to drown?" Heleen asked. "Oh, no. We don't let them drown." Angel Sifuentes was seen to twitch. With great effort he picked up his head. He wore a great helm, with a tiny slot for his eyes. This helmet, designed as an accurate recreation of an eleventh century iron great helm, weighed fourteen pounds. His visibility had not been helped much by the ten pound chain mail coif that had been put on his head under the helmet, back to front. In addition, Sifuentes had been dressed in a full suit of plate armor, including iron shoes. It was with great difficulty that Sifuentes staggered to his feet. Articulated iron gauntlets had been buckled tightly to the vambraces he wore on his arms. For his weapons, Sifuentes had been given two morningstars, one in each hand, each with an eight-foot chain. The stocks of the weapons were screwed into the gauntlets. Sifuentes could not remove them. Van Allan saw the tears seep from Heleen's eyes down her cheek. She brushed them away with her finger and pressed the corner of her eye. "Hand me my drink," she said. Van Allan kissed her hand and gave her the glass of white wine. He remembered how, after the news had been brought of their children's death, Heleen had not cried. How, in the morgue, holding his hand tightly, it had been she who stared down hard-eyed at the shattered remains of their son. And it was she who sat by their daughter in the ICU ward, day and night, seeming neither to sleep nor eat, while the life ebbed from their daughter's body. On the screen, Angel Sifuentes managed to get to his feet, pawing uselessly at his helmet. Then he stumbled over the pointed-up toes of his iron shoes and headed down the beach, dragging the morningstars with him. Soon he would meet Callista, armed with a kite-shield on his arm, a short mace in his left hand, and a six-foot spear. Callista would chase Sifuentes down, trip him up, and stand on his arm while he speared him in the neck. "I keep remembering Franz," Heleen said softly. Another tear tracked down her cheek. This time she ignored it. Van Allan kissed her hair. "I know." She smiled. "Do you remember what he said the night they lost the big game, I don't remember what game . . . " "State championship," he supplied. "Pony league. He was sixteen." "I picked him up from the party afterward. He said, 'I'm not disappointed. It doesn't matter that we lost. I got to play in the state championships.' And he said, 'Don't tell Dad.'" "He thought I wanted him to be ambitious. I only wanted him to excel." "I just keep remembering things that he said. It seems important. That someone remember, the shards of his life. The fact that he lived." "I remember him too." "I know. We are his memorial." "And Sofia's too." "Yes. And Sofia's too." "Is that what you learned from your therapist?" "No," she smiled. "My guru." "Your guru?" "Yes. I have a guru. A very expensive guru." "How is a guru worth having, if he is not expensive?" "She." "Or she," he agreed. On the screen, Sifuentes backed away from Callista into the trees. It wouldn't be long now. "It is easier to bear, knowing they have finally had justice." "I know," he said. On the monitor, Sifuentes cried out as he fell. "This part's hard," she said. "Yes. Do you want me to turn it off now?" "No." They watched in silence until Sifuentes stopped screaming and struggling, and lay still. Van Allan stopped the clip. "Thank you," she said after a moment. "What do you want to do now?" "Don't you need to be somewhere?" "No," he said. "I've told them I'm not to be disturbed. What shall we do now?" "I want to watch them again." "Very well." "All of them." "All right." He pointed the remote, brought up the menu, and chose a file. "Jules . . . " "Mm?" "Thank you." "Mr. Grayson, you are going to have to leave." Dr. Hari Mukhtar, the program director, bore down upon him, with two members of the security team in his wake. Grayson was standing in the prep room where Gregor Martel had just had his ear numbed prior to having his eartag stapled on. Martel, under the name of Iron Hammer, was scheduled to go out the gate in another hour. Grayson had found Terrence Crow arming up in the ready room, and explained in cryptic terms what was going on outside the gates. He tried to be expressive where he could not be exact. He wasn't sure if he had convinced the guy not to go out today or not. Gregor Martel, who didn't seem to speak English, was an even harder sell. "These men will be your escort out of the building," Mukhtar said, and nodded at his security detail. Near the front door they were met by Ken Frize. "What's going on? What are you doing?" "What you should be doing," Grayson told him. "Putting a stop to this. Where is Van Allan? Have you told him what's going on?" "I left him a message," Frize held up a hand as though to ward off Grayson's anger. "I'll leave him another one if you want, but for now, I'd appreciate it if you accept these men's escort back to your bungalow." Grayson hesitated, wondering if there was any way around this. Frize motioned to the security teams and Grayson backed up as if in surrender. "Okay, okay," he said, using his professional smile. "I guess I was out of line." He winked at one of the guards, who seemed taken aback. You can wait there until we hear from Mr. Van Allan." "Sure," he said. "No problem. I think I have a day off coming, anyway, or three." He winked again, and allowed them to lead him away. People came to stand in the doorways to watch him go past. He greeted them, smiling and nodding, and all the time his eyes swept here and there, looking for someone who could help. He stopped. "Just as sec," he said to his escorts. "I want to ask Mrs. Chong over there when Lucy is due back." He sidestepped one of the security team and stepped through a doorway, took two quick steps to Mrs. Chong's side.. He lowered his voice. "Where's Lucy? Is she back yet?" She glanced over at the security escort on their way over. "No. Tomorrow." "You know what's happening out there?" he asked. When she didn't respond his hand tightened on her arm. "Look at the monitors. Tell people. Get the word out. Get the women to tell the guys not to go out today. Can you do that?" He glanced over his shoulder as the security team member reached him and added loudly, " . . . tell her I said to bring the Pinot Grigio, and I'll provide the smoked duck, okay?" He shook her arm gently and added meaningfully, "Okay?" She nodded up at him. "Okay. Yes. I understand." She glanced over at the security detail. "I'll tell her as soon as I see her." "Thank you," he said, releasing her. "You're a pal. All right guys, lead on." An electric car met them outside, and he swung into the front seat. One of the guards took the wheel, and another one sat in back. Ken Frize swung on behind, and Grayson had to give up the idea of convincing the guards to help him out. Ronnie, Georgie and Win were so busy going through the loot they'd taken, and fucking around, posturing for the cameras, gloating over the bodies, they didn't notice when the half hour came, and no one came out through the gate. It was Cane Toad, who stood guard while the others messed around, who pointed out that it had been at least an hour, and no new combatant had emerged. "Fucking coward," Georgie said. "We'll get the next one." They found a flask of Scotch in one of the looted backpacks, took a bunch of the rations and went to sit under the trees, leaving Cane Toad to watch the gates. When Iron Hammer came through the center gate, he saw the partly-armored Cane Toad waiting for him in the middle of the killing ground. Iron Hammer wore a sleekly angled tourney helmet, designed to deflect blows to the head. He carried an oblong shield with an embossed center grip and his short purple and gold cape flared out behind him in the breeze. He lifted his weapon to Cane Toad and started toward him. He didn't see the three men lounging in the shade, didn't notice when they got up and put on their helmets and took up arms. Cane Toad shouted at him, faked an attack and then backed away. When Iron Hammer saw the big man loom into his peripheral vision, his first thought was that Cane Toad was about to get struck down from behind. Then Cane Toad backed away past the guy and stopped, and another guy appeared on his other side. Iron Hammer moved back and to the side, avoiding letting three men in range at the same time. He never knew the fourth man was there until the heavy blow fell upon his shoulder. The pain of it paralyzed him. He could not raise his arm. And in that moment all four of the men fell upon him. After the guards brought him to his bungalow, James took the time to change his clothes and wipe off his make-up. Ken Frize had said he'd get in touch with Van Allan and get back to him. When James turned on his own monitor, he saw another victim slaughtered on the killing field. He went out the front door to walk to Van Allan's villa. The guards' electric cart was still parked outside his house. One of the guards stepped out, fingering his walkie-talkie and the hilt of what Grayson thought was probably a taser. The other guard appeared behind him on the walkway to his patio. "Hey, guys," Grayson said. "I'm going to head over to Van Allan's. Want to give me a lift?" They turned him back. He tried making another round of calls, but kept getting peoples' voice mail. It occurred to him that Van Allan's control of communications on the island was complete. It was possible he wouldn't be allowed to get through to anyone that way. He tried going out the back door, and found the second guard sitting on his patio. He smiled, raised a hand, went back inside. They couldn't keep him here indefinitely. He thought he'd wait until they got good and bored, and try climbing out his bedroom window. He could climb over the wall and make his way along the top of the cliff. He wondered how Lucy would handle this situation. She knew just about everyone on the Island. She probably knew all those guards out there by name, and could have gotten them to look the other way. Well, at least he'd alerted Mrs. Chong. Back when he was a reporter, long, long ago, his rule had been, when in doubt, document. He sat down at the table to make a list of everything he could do to put a stop to what was going on out there. He wrote his housekeeper's name on the list of people who might help him. It was possible she knew other housekeepers on the island, including Van Allan's. The problem was, he couldn't communicate with her very well. He heard a noise at his front door. He wrote the name of the techs he worked with the best, expecting to hear a knock on his door. He turned and listened for a moment. He thought he heard a slight sound. If Lucy was back ― but no, she would have called out. He got up and went to investigate. His door stood open. The guards were still out there. He turned suddenly as he heard a sound behind him. Ken Frize stood there holding a take-out food box, looking like a kid who'd been caught in the pantry. "Hey," Grayson said. "What's up? Did you talk to Van Allan?" He saw Ken's eyes dart sideways, the way people's did who were not actors, and couldn't hide when they were lying. "Hi!" Ken said brightly, and held out the box. "I brought some supplies. Didn't know how you were fixed for food." "You didn't have to do that," Grayson said. When Grayson made no move to take it, Frize put the box down on the hall table. "I was coming over anyway to tell you, I left several messages for Mr. Van Allan, and I expect to hear back anytime. We couldn't let you interfere," Frize said earnestly, "but I do understand your concerns. I'm concerned myself." Frize edged toward the door. "We all are. But anyway, I'll leave you to it. Get it while it's hot," he added inanely, and backed out the door and turned down the path. Grayson watched him climb in another of the electric carts and accelerate away. Grayson wondered what had made Frize so edgy. He closed the door and stood looking around the entry way and across the living room, wondering where Frize had come from. He hadn't been in sight when Grayson came to the front door. Where had he been? Grayson headed for his study. There on his desk lay the manila envelope from his agent, with all the articles and pictures of the escaped gangsters. Next to them was a pile of still shots he'd captured and printed of the combatants the techs called "ghosts." He had matched several of these ghosts to the mug shots. Had Ken see it? One of the articles had fallen to the floor. It was one he'd left in the envelope. "He knows," Grayson concluded. "And now he will know that I know that he knows." And he would tell Van Allan. He tried to call Van Allan again, but couldn't get through. He made a call to the switchboard and sent for his housekeeper. He left a message for Sam Tran, and Richard Farley, his producer. He even left a message for Colonel Dawes. Then he sat down with his list to wait an hour or so, before he made another attempt to get to Van Allan's villa. John Savage leaned out of his office and snapped at his secretary, "Get Jules Van Allan on the phone!" Deanna looked nonplussed, but he had never yet known her to fail to carry out a direction. When she finished dialing and spoke into the phone, he went and stood by her desk. "Well?" he said. "His Los Angeles offices say he's out of the country. I'll call his New York office now." "You tell them that John Savage wants to talk to him. Tell them that he will want to talk to me, and that if I don't hear from Mr. Van Allan within the hour I will carry out a warrant to freeze all his United States assets." Deanna nodded. She didn't ask if he could do that. She would have known if he'd filed paperwork to do such a thing, since she did his typing. She would pretend to herself that he'd done it somehow, and that it was absolutely true. And she'd use his anger to get past people who might get in her way. John Savage went back to his office. Deanna was a treasure. Smasher walked from the administrative building to the gate. The crowd that had come to see him off made way for him, but without the boisterous cheers and good wishes that he'd expected. He'd watched the show for days before he applied to be a combatant. He'd subscribed to the website where he pored over fights, and mapped the efficacy of different weapons and armor combinations, the success rate of various tactics, the best choices for certain body types. He'd joined a dojo that opened in Frankfurt, close to his home in Germany, to train people in Savage Island fighting techniques. There he studied and fought, and when he was ready, filled out an online application. By then he knew what to expect once he arrived. He'd seen the interviews with guys who'd gone there and survived. And he continued to watch the show, and buy the "Best Of" DVDs as they came out. He knew that according to custom, a crowd of people should be cheering and waving and calling out their good wishes. He wondered if they were treating him differently because he was from Germany, and he felt a throb of anger. He would show them. When he returned, a hero, they would give him the welcome he deserved. A young woman pushed her way through the crowd to reach him. It took him a moment to recognize her. Her long black hair was confined now in a tight bun behind her head, and she wore canvas coveralls that hid her curves. And she wasn't smiling. But she wrapped her arms around him, gripping the ridges of his armor, and pulled down his head to kiss him. Now this was more like it! He relaxed and clasped her gently with the arm that carried his spear. He kissed her, but she did not let him go. She started babbling at him, quickly and earnestly, trying to raise herself up to speak in his ear. Her English was difficult to understand, and his was unpracticed since he had left the army, but she seemed to be telling him not to go out there. He straightened. What did she think he was, some kind of coward? He saw the tears in her eyes, and forgave her as he stepped out of her grip. Three more women came up, surrounded him. One of them spoke better English. She called him Hero, so that was all right. Not today, she said. Don't go today. Something bad out there. Go tomorrow. And Michiyu, that was her name, looked up at him her wide cheeks flushed as he'd seen them last night, her eyes full of sorrow and hope. He nodded to them, thanked them for the warning, pushed them aside and headed for the gate. He wasn't afraid of what was out there. He'd studied the moves of the famous Shadow, and heroes who had come after. He was going to join their ranks today. But they did save his life, after all. Because he'd been warned, he did not charge out onto the killing ground, spear at the ready, shield high, as the men in his dojo had determined was the best tactic. When the gate opened, he held back and took his time to scan as much of the killing ground as he could see, moving from one side to the other, keeping back from the gate itself where he'd be a fair target. He saw nothing, at first. The empty sand, the trees in the distance. He heard the sound of the surf beating against the cliffs on either side. Then he saw one end of the stack of bodies. He moved a few steps out the gate and saw the grinning man waiting, and then two more coming toward him, working together, stained with blood. His mind froze for a moment. It wasn't supposed to be like that. But then he reacted, leaping back through the gate, hitting the red button on the inside which closed the gate onto the Island, and opened the one he'd entered by. And when it opened, she didn't wait for him to emerge, but ran to him, threw her arms around him, and the other women followed, surrounding him, grasping him, calling and crying. And that was pretty good. "Ah, shit!" Georgie shouted as the gate slammed shut. He struck Ronnie in the helmet with the butt of his sword. "You let him see you!" "I did not!" "First guy out here in hours, and you let him get away." "C'mon, George. There'll be another." "How do you know?" Cane Toad stepped back gently. At some point, he was pretty sure, this alliance was going to break up, and it was going to be bloody. When that happened, he planned to be out of range. He was the first one to see the movement at the tree line. Hamilcar, dragging one leg and leaning on his spear came through the gap that led to the Blood Road and started across the killing ground to the far western gate. The bloody band fell silent and all turned to watch him. Hamilcar noticed them and stopped. For a moment, none of them moved, and Hamilcar made the decision to keep coming, and try and make it to the gate. Perhaps he thought that some kind of truce was in play, and no one would bother him. Then Win trotted off across the sand heading for the opposite corner. Ronnie started to go, but George grabbed his arm. "No, wait. Wait until Win gets where he can cut him off." But Hamilcar had made the same calculation. He turned and hurried back the way he had come, using the spear as a support to his bad leg. "After him!" George yelled. "Let's go!" They caught up with Win by the time they reached the Blood Road. Hamilcar by then was out of sight among the turns of the road ahead. George held out his arms. "Listen!" They stopped. Ahead they could head the irregular pounding of feet that meant their prey still ran ahead of them. "Right," George said. "Let's get him." He held up his arms, sword high in one hand, shield in the other. "Unstoppable!" Ronnie raised his flail in the air. "Immovable!" "DefCon Five" shouted Win. "Rrahh!" yelled Cane Toad. "Let's get him!" "Yaaaaggghhh!" They didn't hurry. All the men were hunters. They knew this was not a sprint. They set out at a jog-trot, two abreast, and kept an eye out for paths leading off the road. After awhile they noticed the spots of blood. Their prey was already wounded. They laughed and put on speed. They came around a bend in the path and Win and Georgie in front skidded to a halt. Cane Toad flattened himself against the trees to avoid running in to Georgie. Ronnie bumped passed them and then stopped. "Is that him?" he asked. Sprawled half on the road and partly in the trees, a corpse lay mired in blood and strewn pieces of armor and equipment. "Nah," Win went forward. He'd noticed the flies by now, the ants and the iridescent beetles that had come to feed on the dead meat. "This guy's been dead awhile." He turned the dead man's head with his foot, exposing the man's lopped ear, where the eartag had once been attached. "This guy's no use." "I'll bet our runner has this guy's eartag," Cane Toad suggested. "Hey, two for one!" "Let's get him!" They started off again. Lieutenant Hartley spread out the satellite map on the mess table while his platoon leaders gathered around. They'd been ordered to prepare to ship out and their duffles were packed and they were ready to board as soon as word came. "Our objective, gentlemen." Hartley touched the iconic twin pillars of rock off the west coast of the island. "Anybody recognize it?" "Is that Savage Island?" Lieutenant Junior Grade Arn Tredwen, his Assistant Officer in Charge bent his long frame over and examined the north end, touching the notation of the shipwreck where the Liberty ship still sat on the reef. "I've seen this before." Chief Petty Officer Gorski, squarely built with a shock of fair hair, and a sense of contained excitement, pointed out, "That's the beach where that guy with the two swords killed the guy with the spear and shield." "Hotspur against Argonaut," Leading Petty Officer Inoyen supplied. "I saw that! They fought almost half an hour." "Four eartags," Gorski said, giving the number that Hotspur had come back with. "Four hundred and fifteen thousand dollars." "What could you do with that kind of money?" Tredwen smiled over at him. "All right," Hartley brought them back to order. "Guess you've all seen the show." They nodded. "Good. It'll give you some familiarity with the landscape, because this," he tapped the map, "is our target. We are going to take Savage Island." They leaned closer, looking at the map with the eyes of the trained tacticians that they were. Hartley felt pleased. It was great to work with people who really knew their stuff. "We'll drop three squads at o-two hundred, one to secure the helipad and the access to the harbor," he put his finger on the position. "One to secure the administrative building, that's been identified as this building here. And the third to secure this building, where the owner of the island, Jules Van Allan, lives. We'll land here," he touched a place on one of the gentle beaches of the northeast coast. "Not the harbor?" "Our recon says there are usually ships in the harbor, and they'll have watches on deck, and various defenses. Once we get past the Wall, defenses will be minimal according to our information. From this beach to the Wall, well, you know what you'll be up against." "Will we be bringing swords?" Inoyen dead-panned. "We do not expect to engage any of the combatants. Your squads will be armed, and the civilian combatants are not our target. Our mission is to seize and hold our objectives until our backup comes in by helicopter. Understood?" "Yes, sir!" "All right. Since we don't know what defenses they have built into gates of the Wall itself, we will be going over it. Once you've landed, you'll proceed to the Wall together. Tredwen, you'll go first, and head for the helipad. Gorski, your group will go over next, and take the admin building." He produced a more detailed map of the building, put together from various shots taken from the Savage Island broadcasts, and satellite surveillance. "Main doors here, rear door here, and one to the side. When you've secured it, take a team inside and seize the control room." "Yes, sir," Gorski blue eyes blazed with excitement as he studied the target. "Inoyen, once those teams have gone, our team will put the three gates out of operation, and then proceed inland to Van Allan's villa." "Yes, sir!" "Very good. Brief your teams, and stand by." In the late afternoon, Grayson changed to dark pants and a long-sleeved dark green shirt. He hadn't heard back from any of the messages he'd left and had stopped expecting that he would. He'd walked out to his guards and asked them to call Van Allan, and they'd gotten Frize. Frize had repeated the order that he was to stay at the bungalow. Grayson's chance came when another electric cart arrived with a change of the guards. When the guard on the patio walked down to meet the others, he slipped out the back door and moved out of sight around the back of the house. He climbed the low wall that separated his patio garden from the steep hill overlooking the sea, and traversed the slope in the direction of Van Allan's villa. He might have made it if the slope hadn't fallen away at one point to a sheer drop down to a narrow rocky beach below. The climb down looked doubtful. He climbed up instead and found himself in a cul de sac of smaller bungalows belonging to staff members two streets along from his own. If he got over to the next road, he could go around behind the three warehouses that lined the cliff, and from there it was only a short way, through landscaped grounds, to Van Allan's villa. An electric cart caught up with him at the top of the cul de sac. A heavy-set guy in shades was driving. Ken Frize leaned out the front passenger seat. "James! There you are. We've been looking for you." Frize got out of the cart to give him the passenger seat. Ken got in the driver's side and the big guy stepped up on the back-facing seats behind. "Mr. Van Allan is ready to see you." Grayson hesitated. There was no discussion about how he happened to be away from his house arrest. Maybe Van Allan had found out about that, and Ken Frize was trying to pretend it hadn't happened. He climbed in, and Frize, with a glance back, started up the cart. "You gave him my message, then?" "Oh, of course." "What's been happening out there?" James nodded toward the Wall. Ken Frize was oddly tense. Grayson hoped it meant he was in a lot of trouble. Frize turned off the main road that led to Van Allan's house. He glanced behind him again as they came alongside the warehouses. 'Where are we going?" Grayson asked. "To see Mr. Van Allan," Frize said. "He's waiting for you. He wants to talk to you. When Frize drove the cart around to the back of the warehouses, as though, like Grayson, he was planning not to be seen, James decided it was time to jump. He shifted to his right just as a heavy arm came around his shoulder and held him still while a needle bit into his neck. He flinched and turned, but the arm held him firmly as he slid into darkness. ### Chapter Seventeen Cane Toad was the first to notice that their limping prey was not ahead of them anymore. He said nothing, because it was part of his plan not to draw attention to himself. He wanted to just blend in until it was safe for him to get out through one of the gates. So when he saw the blood trace on the side of a narrow path leading off the Blood Road, he just trotted on past. Three of the men were finding jogging in armor an unpleasant experience. The humidity, the heat, the fact that they'd each only worn the armor for a day, meant that they all found places where the armor chafed, or pinched, or hooked around. Cane Toad, wearing only his pants and his tabard with a belt around it, didn't have the armor problems. He'd been given his helmet back since neither Georgie nor Ronnie could fit their heads into it, and he trotted along with the visor open, carrying his sword and shield. Ronnie, with his breastplate, and steel leg armor that kept pinching his groin, had it the worst. Finally, he called a halt to take the leg armor off. "I don't need it," he told the others. "You guys'll keep any hits off of me." While Ronnie unbuckled his armor, Win scouted up the trail, and noticed the lack of blood spots. "Hey, I think we lost him." He headed back without consulting anyone, so they were strung out down the Blood Road when Win called back to them that he had found the trail again. "Wait for me!" Ronnie yelled, and charged past Georgie. Georgie shoved him back with a laugh, "No ya don't!" Cane Toad slowed a little, wondering if this was his chance. But when they reached the tiny opening onto the jungle trail, Georgie was waiting for him. "After you," he said. "Thanks!" Cane Toad replied, and dropped his visor. He trotted on with Ronnie in front of him, Georgie behind, and Win some yards ahead. "Do ya see him?" Ronnie called out. "He came this way," Win called back. "He's got to be ― YAAGH!" The shriek startled them all, bringing them to a sudden halt. Win was just ahead, out of sight around a bend in the trail, making gurgling, gasping noises. Georgie was the first to recover, pushing past Cane Toad. "Come on, you fuckers!" Win hung kicking and twisting four feet off the ground, clawing at the wire around his neck but unable to get at it because his left arm was buckled into his shield and his right-hand gauntlet was too thick to get under the edge of his helmet. "Grab him!" Georgie screamed, and ran to his cousin and wrapped his arms around his legs and lifted him. "Ronnie, get that thing off him!" "How?" Ronnie asked. "You've got a sword, you've got a knife, just do it!" Georgie yelled. Cane Toad came forward, trying to make out where the wire came from. The foliage was thick, and it was difficult to tell which branch led to what trunk. It had to be a big one, to hold DefCon Five's weight. He stared up into the canopy, and spotted the man. "Hey," he said, but none of his partners heard him. "Here, Ronnie, you hold him," Georgie said. An awkward attempt to change places resulted in Georgie dropping Win before Ronnie had him, making Win scream and struggle, kick Ronnie in the chest and finally scramble up on his shoulders, balancing on one knee and one foot, gripping tiny branches to keep from falling off, and gasping for breath. "Hold on!" Georgie called. "We'll get you out of there." "Hey, guys," Cane Toad said, keeping the man high in the canopy in sight. "Help me," Win choked, clutching at another branch as one broke in his hand. "Keep still, we'll figure this out," Georgie said with more desperation than certainty. "Ronnie, give me your morningstar, I think I can reach the wire." "It's a flail," Ronnie said, trying to shake his weapon's lanyard off of his gauntlet. Georgie came over and peeled it off him and was about to turn when Cane Toad knocked into him. "Watch out!" Cane Toad yelled. "What the fuck!" shouted Georgie. "Noose!" Cane Toad shoved him again. "Look out!" That's when Georgie saw it, the silvery wire snaking from above, twisting to catch him by the neck as it had caught Win. "What the fuck?" He looked up and up, and saw, high up in the branches, the man fishing for him with the wire. "You fucker!" Georgie screamed. "I am so gonna kill you!" The staff of Savage Island gravitated to the monitors all that day, observing events. Some counted the eartags the band of killers were collecting. Others kept count of the dead in other ways. Up in the control room, one of the techs was making book on the outcome of today's events: how many would be killed, whether the killers would turn on one another, how many men already on the Island would make it back alive. Two of the control room technicians reported themselves sick and went home. The broadcast had not gone out yet. Over the months of broadcasting the lag time had been extended until now two days of broadcasts were kept in the can, ready for distribution. Everyone knew that until Van Allan had been consulted, the footage from the killing ground today would not be released. Richard Farley took the day off, simply telling the editors to pull together all the fights as usual, and he would go over them with the sportscasters when they came in. Peter Austin noticed that Jun Wono, the new guy, had simply left, gone off on a break, and never come back. He saw the four killers disappear down a trail where there was not much coverage. Wolfspider was there; he'd been hanging out there for over a week, and had made four kills that Austin knew of, and missed twice. On the Island map he could see all five combatants gathered together so closely that their tell-tales overlapped. He knew from the previous times that Wolfspider had caught a victim that he wouldn't be able to get a camera in there. But they would come out eventually, or some of those lights would blink out. Win thought the wire was cutting his neck in half. He thought he was going to die. He could barely talk, barely breathe, and that fucker in the trees kept yanking on the wire.. He shouted at his cousins, but nothing they tried worked, and twice he fell off Ronnie's shoulders and thought his head would come off. finally the short guy got on top of George and tried to unhitch the wire from around Win's neck. Another silver twisting loop came twisting down from above and caught Cane Toad by the wrist and nearly yanked him off of George. Cane Toad scrambled to his feet on George's shoulders, leaned out, grabbed a tree branch and jumped down, hauling hard. To the sound of snapping branches, Wolfspider crashed down from his lair in the trees. He fell off the trail into the crowded tree trunks. Cane Toad pulled the wire off his wrist, and then climbed up on Ronnie's shoulders again to free Win. Then it took all four of them to extract the Wolfspider from the jungle. He had cuts on his face and arms, and he couldn't stand straight when they got him out of there. Win put the wire around his neck and Ronnie wrapped the other end around the stock of his flail, and in the gathering darkness they headed out of the jungle. They stopped in a nearby clearing where they found a pile of four backpacks. They pawed through them and loaded one with water bottles, rations and other supplies they found, and forced their prisoner to carry it as they then they made their way along the trail. Some time later Peter Austin looked up to see the whole group on the move, heading east toward the beach. He brought up the cameras in the vicinity and saw Unstoppable Force dragging the Wolfspider along the trail by a wire looped around his neck, while the other three crowded after, smacking him with the flat of a sword or the haft of a weapon when he faltered. They dragged him out of the woods and onto the beach as the sun set, and there they tied his hands behind his back, stood him against a rock and secured him there. They pulled off their helmets and unbuckled some of their armor. Pairs of them at a time went down to the surf and washed off. DefCon Five sat nursing a wound on his neck while the others dumped out a backpack they'd brought, and shared around some bottles of water and ration bars. Then DefCon Five went over to their prisoner and proceeded to kick the shit out of him. Austin found this hard to watch. Wolfspider tried to ride the blows, but soon he was too hurt or too damaged to do anything but try and keep his feet. None of the others tried to stop him. When the light had faded, Austin switched the cameras over to night vision. In the eerie greenish light he saw DefCon Five cutting the Wolfspider's clothes off of him. And then he raped him against the rock. "Mr. John Savage?" "Who's this?" Savage barked into his cell phone. He'd just come upstairs to go to bed. He wasn't expecting any calls. The cultured voice, slightly accented, replied, "It is you who demanded to speak with me, Mr. Savage. This is Jules Van Allan. I understand you have something to say to me? Savage was trained to think on his feet, but now he was off-balance. He barked, "How did you get this number?" The voice laughed softly. "Mr. Savage, you must know by now that I have extensive resources. Tell me, what is it you wished to talk to me about?" Savage tried to remember the points he'd worked out during his car trip that morning. Deanna had come up with a dead end. Van Allan's Los Angeles offices said he couldn't be reached, and his New York offices said they didn't have his number. They were lying, of course. Still, Deanna had not been able to get through. Or so it had seemed. Now, Van Allan was on his private cell, so word must have reached him. "I know what you're up to," Savage blurted. "Do you?" Van Allan sounded amused. "So do I." "Yes, I do, and I will have you, I swear, if it's the last thing I do." "My dear Mr. Savage, get a hold of yourself." Savage found himself almost sputtering into the phone. "You are a murderer! A kidnapper and a murderer, and I will have you extradited, you will be arrested, and charged, and I will see you executed." After a brief pause the voice answered him, no longer amused but angry. "I think not. First, you do not know where to find me. Second, you have no evidence to prove any of those charges. Third, you will soon no longer be in a position to prosecute anyone. That is a promise I made myself a long time ago. It will not be the last thing I do, but it is imminent, Mr. Savage. I called only to tell you this. When it happens," he added softly, "think of me." "Now wait just a goddamned minute ―!" Savage yelled, but the line was dead. "Fucker!" Savage said aloud. "You goddamned motherfucking bastard!" Linda, his wife, drifted into the doorway from her room across the hall, her robe partly open. "John? What in hell is wrong with you?" He opened his mouth to yell back at her, and then shut it. Getting into it with Linda wasn't going to help. Pissing Linda off, when he needed her cooperation on the campaign trail, was not a good idea, as he'd learned time and again. "I'm sorry," he said, smiling. "Did I wake you? I got a call from a, well . . . Some bad news. It doesn't matter now." She drifted past him and went into the bathroom. When the door closed he punched the numbers into the phone. "What?" the voice was muzzy with sleep. "Al!" Savage said, "Sorry to wake you." He kicked himself, mentally, adding up what time it was out in Washington, D.C. Almost three in the morning. "What do you want, John?" "Ah, I need to know," John moved to the far side of the room, cupping the phone so that Linda couldn't hear him, if she was listening. She probably wasn't; she didn't care; but just in case. "About what you said the other day . . . is it going to happen?" "What?" Fontaine asked, and then answered himself, "Yes. Absolutely. You can count on it." "You're certain." "Saturday at o-two hundred, they'll be landing. Probably be all over by five. Watch the news." "And that's certain." "I said it, didn't I?" Fontaine was waking up. The sleep was out of his voice. "What the hell time is it? Oh, shit." "I'm sorry, Al. I just ― something came up. But everything's all right now." "All right. Just ― keep that under your hat." "I will," Savage assured him. "And Al, thank you. I can't tell you how much." "Good night." Fontaine cut the connection. Savage held the phone in his hand for a moment. He pictured Van Allan frog-marched onto a helicopter, imprisoned in the brig, and flown ignominiously back to California. Van Allan could think what he liked, for the time being. But by Sunday, John Savage would have him in his hands. He pictured Van Allan in an orange jumpsuit, in a jail cell. He'd have to be on hand to see the guy locked up. He'd have to make that happen. It would be too good to miss. "Got you," he said softly. "You fucking bastard." He got up to put the phone away and saw Linda standing by the bed. Her robe had fallen open. In the softened light from his bedside lamp, she didn't look too bad. He took her in his arms and kissed her, slipping his hand beneath her robe to cup her breast gently, the way she liked. She made a little sound in her throat and leaned in to him. He kissed her and slipped the robe from her shoulder. Her fingers slid behind his head, her neck arched back. He swung her onto the bed and undid his shirt buttons with one hand as he knelt over her, and pressed her legs apart with his knee. She sighed as he spread open her robe and gazed down at her while he finished with his shirt. Her hands came up and unbuckled his belt, and then unzipped his fly. He shucked off his clothes and came back to her. He would have Jules Van Allan. Like this, and like this. He would do the motherfucker. And like this, he would do him again. Linda gasped, clutched at him and cried out. John Savage did not stop. He drove into her relentlessly until his body shook and he emptied himself. James Grayson became aware of a distant irritating noise. And what was also irritating was whatever was hitting him over and over again. The whack, whack against his body, and the noise, and the crick in his neck, and the way his hands felt numb . . . his mind became alert suddenly with the realization that he was in the bottom of a boat, and the boat was pounding across the surf, and that he couldn't move. He couldn't move, and his neck was in a strange position, and even though his mind was panicking, his body was completely relaxed. He couldn't tell if his eyes were open or closed. He wondered if they were going to dump him at sea. He tried to speak, but he couldn't. He tried to move, but he couldn't get the message to his body. He wondered if he were paralyzed. The engine noise changed. The boat slowed, and the pounding of the surf against the hull lessened. Again he tried to speak. He didn't want to drown. He heard the sand against the hull as the boat came to shore. Strong hands grasped his shoulders and hauled him up, banging him against the thwart, and then again against the gunwale as they pulled him out of the boat. He was grateful to feel the sand under his feet as they dragged him up the beach. He was less grateful when they dropped him. He heard their footsteps recede. He heard the sound of the engine as the boat roared away. Part of him knew exactly what they had done. They had dropped him on Savage Island. But the drug in his system was still so strong that he could do nothing about it. If any combatant came upon him, he would be killed before they knew who he was, and that he was not another combatant. And he could not move, or fight, or even try to explain. He lay listening with all his might. He heard the surf slushing up on to the beach and receded again. He heard the surf pounding louder, farther away. And even over the sound of the water he could heard the scritch and click and buzz of the jungle insects in the treeline not far away. He found he could move his hand. He dragged it toward him. It felt numb and heavy. When he could move one of his legs he spent some time twisting himself so he could roll over onto his back. And there was revealed through a slot in front of his face the magnificent brightness of the dome of stars. He was wearing a helmet. He could feel the strap biting his chin, and one strand of it tight between his lips. He had something in his mouth, filling it up. They'd gagged him, and fastened the chinstrap to keep it in place. He wasn't going to be able to talk to anyone, or show his face, until he could get the helmet off. He dragged up a hand and held it up to his eye slot. It was encased in a metal glove, and to it was duct taped the three-foot haft of a war hammer. No wonder it felt heavy. And the glove was too tight, so his hand was going numb; they'd cut off his circulation. He held up the other hand. It too had a glove and held a mace. He had enough experience by now to know that just about anyone on the Island could take him. Two short weapons couldn't beat anyone with a spear, or anyone with a weapon and shield. He might be able to hold his own against a guy with a single sword. He smiled to himself at his thoughts. He wasn't going to be able to hold his own against anybody, because he'd never held a sword in his life, let alone a mace or a war hammer. What he had to do ― was hide. Hide until he could get this stuff off of him. Hide until he could get himself back to the right side of the Wall. And then he was going to have himself a talk with Mr. Jules Van Allan. By early afternoon the dining room had become the scene of an unofficial work stoppage. Groundsmen, dockworkers, warehouse stock-men, and cleaning staff, most of them recent arrivals to the island, staked out some tables and sat smoking and talking and ordering coffee, tea, fried rice and arak. A couple of their supervisors, finding them late or missing from their jobs, came into the dining room to get them to come back to work. But the language barrier was suddenly unbreachable. No one at the tables they had dragged together seemed to understand. The low-voiced discussions grew in intensity. More staffers joined them. Some came in from observing the monitors, and then went out again. When the team of murderers left the killing ground and headed into the Island hinterland, the pitch of the discussion rose. Many got up and started outside. Others spoke more calmly. A few slipped away. A little while later a few more slipped away in the same direction. Another group left soon after. When their supervisors returned with translators and ultimatums, the tables were empty. Grayson made his way as quietly as he could along the tree line, until he found the rough bark of a palm tree and proceeded to rub off the duct tape wrapped around his weapons hands. What he hadn't known, when reporting about the Island, was the adrenalin rush that just being alone on this side of the Wall brought you. He pictured DawnKiller, or Bloody Valley, or Lion, behind every rock and tree, watching him, ready to attack. His ears strained with the effort of listening for footfalls, certain that the sound of the surf covered approaching steps from every direction. How many layers of tape had they felt it necessary to wrap his weapon to his hand? He froze, certain he had heard a branch snap. A surge of adrenalin made him certain he had heard something else, sensed something ― and then he realized the sound of the insects had shut off. And he held himself as still as any beetle under a leaf, waiting for the danger to pass. There. Walking along the tree line. A silhouette with a long pole over his shoulder. Tall and lean, topped by a helmet with two long feathers bouncing along behind him. Bloodhawk! Grayson remembered the guy's profile, remembered how fast he was with that little short sword and shield, and how he'd kept Dark axe at bay with that spear for almost half an hour, driving him back and back, punching the spear into him again and again. Bloodhawk had three eartags that Grayson knew of; he might have more by now. If he continued on his path, he was going to walk right in to Grayson. Run? Or try and make his way between the trunks of the trees without being heard? He'd seen one combatant hunt another through the trees with a spear. Success depended on how thick the jungle was, whether the trees helped to guard you, or trapped you so you were stuck like a fish in a net. Bloodhawk halted. He lowered his spear and turned slowly around. Grayson felt his heart hammering all the way to his teeth. Bloodhawk backed into the trees and stood still. Down the shore, reflected in starlight, another combatant strode. Grayson recognized him as well, Sword Song. He was the sand walker who had lapped the Island once already the previous day, and started along the beach once again. This was probably his third lap. Bloodhawk didn't move. Sword Song came on. Grayson hated to see sand walkers killed, because their courage was of a different kind, a worthier kind, he believed. They did no harm unless they were forced to defend themselves. They proved their courage by daring to be here at all. Sword Song was the second combatant to walk the sands of the Island more than once, and if this was his third lap, he was going to set a new record. If he lived. Down along the shore, Sword Song paused and stood looking out to sea. Grayson felt a cramp beginning in his leg. Bloodhawk was closer to him. Bloodhawk could kill him in a moment and then go and take on Sword Song. He clutched the trunk of the tree and tried to hold himself still. Sword Song turned away from the ocean and walked up the beach. Halfway to the tree line, he stopped and bowed. Bloodhawk didn't move for a moment, as though disconcerted that he'd been seen. Then he bowed in return. Sword Song bowed again, and turned once more toward the surf to continue his walk. But Grayson had seen this before, this same circumstance. He'd seen Bloodhawk salute a sand walker, let him pass, and then charge him while his back was turned and strike him down. It had been his first kill. He was going to do it again, he knew it. Sword Song walked toward the surf. Bloodhawk raised his spear. Grayson stood up and yelled. He'd forgotten that he couldn't make much of a sound. Bloodhawk heard him and turned. Sword Song continued walking. Bloodhawk hesitated an instant and then came at Grayson at a run, and now he had only a second to choose, the beach or the trees. Bloodhawk's long rangy build and light armor decided him. Grayson dove into the trees. The trees were close together, and branches looped down like a web to impede him as he pressed his way forward. An itch at his back made him drop suddenly to the ground. Bloodhaw's spear struck just above him. Grayson crawled away among the trunks, his weapons catching with his every move, desperation lending him agility. The spear struck again, smacking against his helmet, banging it against a tree and then skittering off. Grayson turned, holding up his useless weapons to see the shadow that was Bloodhawk looming over him, his spear raised to strike. The spear came down. Grayson struck at it and knocked it aside. Bloodhawk yanked it back and thrust again. Grayson struck at it once more with his mace, but this time the head of his weapon got caught up in a branch and he was only able partially to deflect it. He jinked back as it came at him and felt the point pierce his side. With the pain came terror. He yelled out, dragged himself back some more as the spear came at him again. He pushed it away, and in a blinding inspiration struck out at Bloodhawk's leg. His war hammer struck Bloodhawk on the knee. Bloodhawk cursed and jumped back. The spear came at him again. Grayson tried to back himself further away, but there was no further room between the trees to get out of the way. He was stuck, he was trapped, he could hardly see anymore because it was dark among the trees but he held up his weapons to try and deflect the spear, and strike back once again. Bloodhawk, poised to strike, made a choked sound. He arched back, and then toppled forward, caught by the branches above Grayson, and then fell in a heap. Sword Song stood over him, holding his sword two handed, backlit by starlight, his form perfect as he finished his strike and paused, waiting to see if he needed to strike again. Grayson sat perfectly still, gasping for breath, waiting to see if the next strike was for him. But Sword Song did not move. After a moment, Grayson slowly lifted his weapons in a gesture of surrender. Sword Song nodded, stepped back, drew out a cloth and wiped his sword, and then sheathed it at his side. Grayson bowed as best he could. Sword Song stepped back again and bowed, and went on his way. The delinquent staff members met again, arriving from different directions, at one of the warehouses near the harbor. They stood under the soft overhead light by one of the entrances, talking and smoking while their numbers grew. At last a group of men arrived who produced a set of keys and opened a side door to the warehouse. Looking over their shoulders, the whole group of them filed inside. Arthur Baines, who had once called himself the Scorpion, wrapped a rope around his pants and tied it with shaking hands. He'd lost so much weight that they kept slipping, and he needed to be sure he had no distractions and no impediments tonight. He felt dizzy and weak, but his head was clear, and he had no trace of fever. He was out of food, and he was pretty sure that another bout of fever was on its way. If he was going to try and make it home, it had to be now, tonight. He wasn't sure he could keep himself alive after another sickness like the last one. Falling in the stream was all that had kept his temperature down the last time. He smiled to himself. He sure couldn't trust himself to be that lucky again. He'd tried to walk out before. Unless he had only imagined it. The first time he'd been too weak to walk more than a few steps before he had to give up. The second time he'd gotten farther, and had stopped to rest in the trees before taking to the trail. He'd woken up hours later in broad daylight, with the sound of steel ringing not far away. He'd slowly, slowly slipped back down the side of the gorge and gone to ground again. He could walk a little now. He was stronger. And if he was ever going to get out of here, this was the time. He hoped he remembered the way. He carried his knife, a water bottle, the first aid kid, and a few bits of rope. Slowly, he started up the slope. Now or never, do or die. He wasn't going to die. He couldn't. He had to get home. In his dreams he saw her, dressed and painted, talking under glaring lights. Or lying open-eyed in strange beds. He heard her voice in his fever, the same words over and over. "Damn you, Arthur Baines, don't you go and die on me. Come home, Arthur! Come home!" Well he would go now, and do his best, and if he was lucky, he would make it. He turned in the direction he was sure would take him eventually to the Wall, and started on his way. Grayson crouched in the trees so long the insects began to chirp and buzz and click again. He was not dead. He had not been killed. And Bloodhawk lay dead at his feet. That moment of crowning relief etched itself on his mind: The noise of the frogs and the insects, the crashing of the surf, the scent of the jungle and the ocean, his wide-dilated eyes, the iron tang of fresh blood, and Sword Song's retreating footsteps, soon lost in the soundscape. The pain in his side blossomed into his awareness. He'd been speared. It bloody hurt! He wondered how badly he was bleeding. He had to get his hands free before he could do something about bandaging it. He groped across the dead man's body and found belt where Bloodhawk carried a shortsword and a knife. He used both his hands to draw the knife from its sheath. With patience and care he managed to wedge it between his knees. Then he sawed away at the duct tape that held his gauntleted hands closed around the nearly-useless weapons. When he had cut one free, he was able to cut and rip the tape off the other. He unbuckled the gauntlets and shook out and massaged his hands in relief. Then he reached under his helmet to unbuckle the chinstrap. In the end he had to cut the strap, and when he pulled off the helmet he learned that they had riveted the buckle shut. He discovered then that the thing rubbing against his ear was not the buckle: he had been given an eartag. He felt both terror and exhilaration. Secretly, he had wondered from the start what it felt like. He had wondered whether he could measure up. With a whole lot of luck he'd come out ahead so far. When he could touch the wound in his side he found that it was not deep, but it was still bleeding. Once he knew it was only a scrape, it didn't hurt so much. He knew, though, that even a small wound could be debilitating. He needed to find Bloodhawk's pack. That would give him both disinfectant and bandaging, and solve his next most pressing need: water. He found the pack and opened it awkwardly. He pulled out a bottle of water. It was half full. Grayson had never been more grateful in his life. He drank most of it, then found the first aid kit and gratefully dug out some real bandages. He levered himself off the ground and took Bloodhawk's weapons. He tried on Bloodhawk's helmet, but it was too small. He would have to wear the one he'd been given, or wear none. He had time, he thought, to make his way back to the Wall while it was still dark. He was going to find Van Allan, and Ken Frize, and have a little talk. He started off down the beach. Then he remembered Bloodhawk's eartags. ### Chapter Eighteen Wolfspider died at last. Win cut off the naked man's eartag and pocketed it, and no one said a word. They moved off down the beach away from the broken corpse by unspoken agreement, and sat down in the sand. They passed around a water bottle, and the jerky and trail mix they'd looted from one of their victim's packs. Win put some antiseptic on the cut on his neck, and complained about how much it hurt. After a while, Ronnie asked, "So, what do we do now?" Georgie said, "Remember that time, there was that guy sleeping out, and he was snoring? And the guy just stuck him where he lay?" They all laughed. That had been funny. It had made one of the "Funniest Fights on Savage Island" DVDs, even though there hadn't actually been a fight, to speak of, so everyone had seen it. They all fell silent then and listened, in case there was someone snoring nearby. It wasn't likely. Wolfspider had made a lot of noise before he died. Georgie had taken a turn at him, and then Ronnie said he wanted to. When he couldn't get it up, he'd pounded the guy crooked. Cane Toad pretended he couldn't get it up either, so Win had him again before he finished him off. George broke the silence. "Let's go find everyone on this Island and take them out. Then we'll walk back in and cash out, and we'll all be millionaires." Ronnie and Georgie thought that was a fine idea. Cane Toad wasn't certain that what they'd been doing hadn't been bending the rules, enough that they wouldn't be allowed to just cash out and go home, or cash out and disappear somewhere. He could plead duress. That's how he planned it. But he'd have to make certain he wasn't too helpful, in the slaughter they planned. But he got up when they did, and started along the beach. In the villa on the cliff that overlooked the sea, Jules Van Allan had brought out the whiskey. He was a patron of a few Spey-side breweries, and brought to his former wife a glass of single malt. Heleen rarely drank anything other than wine. But this was one of those occasions. The screen was blank now. They had watched the nine men who had destroyed their children's lives, and then their own, go to their miserable, painful, ignominious deaths again and again. No revenge could have been more thorough, nor more exacting. They sat on the couch now and sipped the pungent liquid. "It's not enough, is it," Van Allan concluded at last. "I thought if I accomplished this, if I brought you, so to speak, the heads of their killers and laid them at your feet, I would have gone some way to healing what those creatures did to us. But it's not so, is it." Heleen gently swirled her drink. "It doesn't change what happened. But it does make it easier to know that their lives are not just continuing as though they had done nothing, as though what they did was perfectly acceptable." She looked over at him. "Thank you. Thank you for justice, at last." He sipped the Scotch. "It isn't justice," he said. "It's only retribution." "Well," she said. "Thank you for that." When the small Asian man slipped in to the room, Jules Van Allan thought nothing of it. He didn't recognize the man, but then he didn't know most of the staff on the island. "Yes?" he said. "I left word that we were not to be disturbed." In fact he could be disturbed now. He'd finished what he had to do. A second and third man came into the room, and two women after them. And then a few more, and then Van Allan saw that they carried machetes, axes, shovels, swords, and long knives. He hadn't noticed at first because they did not carry them in a threatening manner. Still, at the sight of the weapons, Van Allan stood up. His mind went to his own bodyguards, who kept a discreet profile on the island, and in fact did not carry guns here. Why should they? he had thought. Well, now he knew. More men and women crowded in, moving along the walls until they circled the whole room, cutting Van Allan and Heleen off from the other door and the two shuttered windows. "Heleen," Van Allan said, low and hard, "come over here." She started at the tone of his voice and looked up. At the sight of the people, she blanched, but she slid smoothly along the couch until she sat next to where he stood. There must have been thirty people in the room by the time the ingress halted. The door was left open, and it seemed to Van Allan that more of the people crowded outside. He thought he saw a groundsman that he recognized, and he addressed him. "What is the meaning of this?" He kept his voice mild, unthreatening. After all, he was not armed. The groundsman smiled apologetically and shook his head. He held a mace in his hand, but he did not raise it. The people looked at one another. A few low-voiced comments were spoken, and then one of them moved around the couch so he could face Van Allan and Heleen. He bowed, touching his heart with the hand that did not hold the battle-axe. "Mr. Van Allan, please excuse this intrusion. We have a very great problem, and we need your assistance." Lieutenant Hartley spread out the blueprint of the island villa in a cramped corner of the mess. Leading Petty Officer Inoyen anchored it for him. His platoon had boarded the submarine Manatee earlier that day and were now moving at full speed toward their target in the Celebus Sea. Each member of his five-man squad studied a picture of Jules Van Allan, and then slipped it into an inside zippered waterproof pocket. "After we decommission the gates we will proceed to the southwest corner of the island, about three quarters of a mile along the cliffs, where we will secure this building. Our chief target is Jules Van Allan. In addition, we will detain all personnel. We will seize all papers, computers, hard-drives, flash-drives, discs, video and film stock." "We got a warrant for this?" Conners, the cut-up asked. The others chuckled. Hartley allowed it. Occasional jokes were good for morale. And these guys were the best. "We will be dropped a mile and a half out at zero hundred hours. We will beach here," he pulled the map of the island on top of the blueprint and pointed to the landing site, "and make our way to the Wall together with Squads One and Two." "What if one of the combatants tries to stop us?" Irving asked. Hartley waited. There was always something more. "If we accidentally kill him, do we get to keep the eartag?" Grayson heard the sound of voices and laughter up ahead along the beach. He thought first it must be some of the waste management crew come out to pick up the day's bodies. Combatants on Savage Island didn't hang out in groups, and they didn't talk and laugh together. He quickened his steps, hoping he might recognize one of the guys, but he didn't leave the shelter of the trees, where he was hidden by shadows. When he heard the scream he knew it wasn't waste management. It was only then that he remembered what had been happening on the Island that morning; the gang who had teamed up together and killed almost everybody they came upon. They'd built a fire on the beach. By its dancing light he could see some of them moving around. Two of them were fighting. He crept up closer, moving slowly so as not to draw the eye, keeping to the shadows along the tree line up a long slope from the men on the beach. One man lay on his back beside the fire, naked, his hands and feet tied. Two naked men circled one another, their wrists tied together by a short cord, armed with knives in their other hands. Another man sat on a stack of backpacks, a bottle in one hand, a sword in the other, egging them on. A big man holding a stick stood by the fighters, smacking one or the other, egging them one. He said, "This is so great! I always wanted to try this!" Another of the big guys walked over to the bound man and flipped him over, dropped to his knees and straddled him. Grayson heard the man's scream as the big guy raped him. Grayson backed away even more slowly than he'd crept up. He'd passed a break in the tree line that might be one of the paths leading to the interior. He'd been wary of heading inland a closed space gave him so few options in the dark. Besides; Wolf Spider was up one of these paths, and he didn't know which. Now, a path seemed a lot safer than what was happening on the beach and he retraced his way to look for the opening. "Hey! There's another one!" Grayson froze at the shout behind him. Could there be anyone else on this beach besides him? Yet how could they see him, when they were by the fire, and he was in the shadows of the trees? He turned his head to see three of the men pick up their arms and head up the beach toward him. He ran. He kept to the tree line since his only hope of losing these guys was to get off the beach and in among the trees. He tried to remember how far back he'd seen that opening. He hoped it wasn't just a cul de sac. He couldn't hear the men behind him over the sound of the surf, but he didn't dare turn to see how far behind they were. There was the opening – he passed it and had to swing back – and then he saw the men, they had gained on him, running flat out toward him. One carried a naked sword, another a spear and shield, and the other held a flail by its stock and chain. He caught only that glimpse and then ducked into the opening and ran for his life. It was a trail. He blessed the crews that had cut this one, and made it high and wide enough for him to run without hindrance. It was possible his hunters would miss the opening, or that they'd decide they didn't want to chase him this far. And if he did hear them behind him, Grayson remembered that one man could hold his own on a narrow trail, since he'd only have to defend against one man at a time. He'd learned one or two things since coming to Savage Island. He wished he'd learned more about how to use the weapons he carried. He ran with his shield in front of him, and his spear point aimed behind him, so that if a guy did run him down in the dark, Grayson would feel him on the spear and have a chance to turn and defend himself before he was struck down. The thought of those three guys running him down in the dark made him arch his back unconsciously, and run faster. The trail turned and he saw an opening up ahead. A wider trail running along a stream joined up with his, and the trees thinned around him, letting in moon and starlight. All at once, Grayson knew exactly where he was. A hundred yards up this trail would be a flat rock in the stream, and beyond that, the camp of the rice men. Grayson stopped and turned, ready to defend the path however inadequately against the men behind him. The consequences of leading the monsters who chased him to the rice men seemed an act so wrong that he could not do it. But the night was silent. No pounding footsteps, no calling voices, no hunters running down their prey. He was alone. He listened. Nothing. If those men were bent on killing every living combatant, then sooner or later they would remember the rice men, the soft targets who represented nearly a million dollars in unclaimed eartags. If the monsters discovered them, they would be destroyed. Grayson waited, his breath gasping, determined to hold the path. Still no one came. The path was wider here. They would be able to flank him. He thought that the best thing to do would be to go to the rice men's camp and rouse them so they could defend themselves. They could all defend each other. John Savage strode out onto the stage they'd built for this event in the warehouse at the aeronautics business in Chula Vista, made a joke about the introduction he'd just listened to, told an anecdote about working in a place a lot like this one the summer before he went to college, and then launched into his current stump speech, which in this location was shaped around his plan for a foreign worker's program for California. This was an excellent middle-ground issue, because conservatives when they heard this speech understood that he was trying to keep illegal immigrants out, while liberals heard that he was creative a safe and legal way for them to come in. The illegal alien work force was a decades-long subsidy to the California agriculture industry, in the form of below-minimum wage workers and unregulated working conditions. The unlooked-for result had been a price that the rest of California had to pay, in the fifteen million illegal aliens whose schooling and medical expenses were shouldered by the taxpayer. Savage believed that a foreign worker program, like those that served many other countries, could provide the farmers with the workers they needed, without the burden that illegal immigrants brought to the social infrastructure of the state. The speech went well. He felt the audience's enthusiasm. They laughed at the right moments, they applauded, and they listened. This was the wave of attention and energy that was going to propel him to the governorship of the state for four years, and then to the presidency. He finished with a stirring promise of a better future, and they believed him. They rose to their feet and clapped and cheered. He smiled, his eyes looking at the camera angles, hoping the evening news was getting good bytes of this. He offered to take some questions, something he hadn't done for awhile. Van Allan's campaign to destroy him had ensured that every crowd and every press pool had a plant somewhere to bring up the topic of Savage Island and the Crimson Club drive-by shooting case wherever he went. But he wasn't worried about that today. In fact, he was counting on it. The line behind the microphone was still lengthening when it came. The young woman in glasses bent close to the microphone and told him that the death count on Savage Island was over three hundred, and didn't he think that this had to be stopped? "I do," Savage said. "It is a blot on our civilization that this should have gone on for so long. We should have outgrown murdering one another to prove something in the last century, and I will not stand by while it continues. I have explored every means of putting a stop to it, and I can tell you that very soon, it's going to end. Keep your eye on the news. That's all I can say." He flashed a smile at them, lifted his hand to the howl of questions that followed, and walked off the stage. He'd left just the impression that he wanted. When it happened, he'd get the credit. He'd used his powers to put something into motion, and as a result, Savage Island was going to be shut down. It left him looking capable and presidential. And that was perfect. Grayson found the camp of the rice men sooner than he hoped, and the problem of alerting them didn't arise, because he woke them all up when he fell into the stream. In the dark, he missed the path, tripped over a root and went plunging down the bank he hadn't known was there, and landed head first in the water. He fell on top of his shield, trapping himself. It took him a few moments to shift onto his side so his could use the shield as a lever to sit himself up. When he looked up, half a dozen men stood on the other side of the stream. All of them held weapons. "Hey," he croaked, and stopped to cough. "Sorry . . . listen, does anyone here speak English?" It occurred to him that this was the only group of men on Savage Island who would not recognize him. All other combatants, by the time their application had been accepted, had spent hours watching the broadcasts, and knew his face and voice as well as they knew any landmark on the Island. But these men might never have seen the show at all. None of them responded to his questions. They probably didn't speak English, either. He got up and climbed up the bank, staying on the far side of the stream. He'd dropped the spear when he fell. He took the sword out of his belt and laid it on the ground. He pointed behind him. "Bad men. Many bad men. They're coming. You have to go. Take weapons, go!" His pantomime skills did not seem to be adequate to explain his message. None of the men moved. "Agh!" he said. "Damn it!" And he tried again, with bigger gestures. Another man joined the group from the back of the camp. He alone had not picked up a sword or spear. He watched Grayson's attempt at communication for a few moments and then made a comment to the others. They laughed. Grayson straightened. The new man said, "Mr. Grayson, what is it you are trying to tell us?" It could not have been a more perfect night for storming the beach of a mysterious island. The sky was a spangled bowl of stars, and the black waters shown with reflected moonlight. The oars dipped quietly, the three rafts moving almost abreast. Of course, since they were men in boats, they were racing. But that was all right; Hartley's raft was slightly ahead. With night vision scopes they scanned the beach for any movement or signs of life. Nothing. They got the jammers working, in case there were cameras pointed their way. Then they ran the rafts onto the beach and took a defensive position. They scanned the beach again and listened. Inoyen quietly reported their position to the mission commander on the ship. Then Hartley lifted a hand, and the three squads moved out in silence, heading for the Wall. Grayson sat with his back to the stone abutment, on the far side of the fire. He'd drunk a bottle and a half of water, and he gratefully ate a second bowl of rice using his fingers, as spare spoons or chopsticks were in short supply. But he kept his eyes on the trail on the far side of the stream, straining for any sight or sound of movement out there, while he tried to convince the rice men that they needed to move to safety. "You say," Mr. Hope, whose real name was Leong Gesang, argued in his soft voice, "that there are bad men on this Island. But we know that already. We learned that when Chou Yen was killed." He spoke to the other men sitting around the fire and there were nods in response and low-voiced comments. "These are not the same bad men," Grayson explained around a mouthful of rice. "Sorry. All the combatants up to this time have been working solo. These guys have ganged up. This morning they killed eight people, one after another, right out of the gate. I just saw them over that way on the beach. There are more of them now. Anyone who's been watching the show knows exactly where to find you, and I can guarantee those guys have been watching the show." "Yes," Leong said drily. "The show." He spoke again to the other men around the fire. It was difficult to distinguish the men in the firelight, but Grayson thought he recognized Super Lucky Guy, the first rice man to come onto the Island, Harmony, who was the latest one, and Mr. Free, whom he'd marked since Lucy pointed him out as an important political figure in Indonesia. He did not look very prepossessing, but when he spoke, the other men paid attention, and his words seemed to end whatever discussion they were having. A lean man in a ragged shirt, probably in his sixties, he sat on his heels by the fire with his fingers wrapped around a cup of tea, which the man beside him kept filled. All of the men had weapons beside them, and one sat on a rock beyond the fire, looking out into the night, on guard, though still in earshot of the conversation. The men showed no haste, and no concern for their safety. Grayson tried again. "Mr. Leong, "the Island was originally designed for fighting men to demonstrate their courage to the world, and for Mr. Van Allan, the owner and executive producer, to make his point about truly brave men not using guns when they fight." He waited while Leong translated this to the rest. When he had, a number of the voices rose in outcry. Leong listened, and then translated the questions to Grayson. "How is it courageous for one man to strike down another?" Grayson was taken aback. Then he realized that this was just the non-sportsman asking the sportsman why it mattered so much that the ball be moved from here to there and end up in the right container. This was not something you could discuss, if you didn't understand it, and it certainly wasn't an argument he was going to win. "It doesn't," he agreed. "But Mr. Van Allan is a wealthy man, and this is his playground. Nonetheless, what he has been doing has suddenly gotten out of hand. You were safe enough yesterday, when only one man at a time would try and attack you. But now, many men could come, and they are all fighters, and you guys are not, and they want to kill you." He waited impatiently for the translation and the discussion that followed. Then Mr. Free spoke some more, and Leong translated. "How is it different for us to fight and die here, than to run, and in running be hunted down and die in that manner? If you run from the hunter, it only encourages him." "Yes," Grayson replied. "Let's not run away. Let's run to the Wall and get the hell out of here." Leong said, "Then we will simply be killed in the open." "No, we'll go through the gates, we'll get through the Wall and off the Island." It was then Grayson realized that these men did not know that they were allowed to go back through the gates. Perhaps they had not been told, or perhaps they had been told they could not, but he was damn well going to find out what would happen if they tried, and especially, if they tried when they were with him. He got up. "Come on. Let's go back to the Wall, while those monsters are messing around on the beach. Let's go through the gate and have a real nice dinner and sleep in a real bed after a real bath. Come on! Bring your weapons, and let's get the hell out of here." He picked up his own shield and spear, and put the sword back into his belt. "Come on!" he said. "Let's go home. Let's not stay here and die." The men kept talking, but the pitch of the discussion rose. And then Mr. Free stood up. And then the others stood up as well. Leong said to Grayson, "We will try it. If we can leave this place, then by all means, let us do so." John Savage got the call while he was in his car on the way back from the airport. It was Colonel Fontaine, so he took it. "Al!" Fontaine's voice was livid. "Tell me I didn't just hear was I heard! Tell me you didn't say that!" "What are you talking about?" "Did you just announce to the world at large that the United States is landing on Savage Island?" "I just thought ―" "You fucking asshole! You jack-faced dirtwad! You sheepfucking cockswilling giant-assed idiot!" "Now listen to me ―" "No, you listen. If I had known that you were so stupid as to go public with a classified op while it's in progress, I'd have stopped taking your calls back in college. How could you be so godalmighty fucking stupid?" "What I was thinking ―" "I don't care what you were thinking!" "Al, shut the fuck up and listen to me! The purpose of this exercise is to seize control of the discussion on Savage Island. The best way to do that is to make the event look like something other than just a coincidence, a happenstance." "John, I'm going to make this simple, because I can see that you are not going to understand me unless I do. You never, never close the back door on an operation. You never give it away when it's in progress, and you never, ever tell the press. That's strike three, John. And I am not going to forget that I went out on a limb for you, and you completely fucked me over!" "When Savage Island is shut down ―" "You'd better hope and pray it works out exactly as it's supposed to, John, or you are going to be fucked up right along with me, and that's a promise." The line went dead. David Thornton looked over at him. The light flashed on and off his face as they passed under the streetlights. "Anything wrong?" He must have heard Al screaming at him, Savage thought as he pocketed the phone. But it would be all right. Once Savage Island was shut down, everything would be fine. "No. Just Al letting off some steam." "Sure?" "Yeah. It's fine." The three teams paused at the edge of the killing ground, scanning in every direction with their nightvision goggles, looking for any sign of life, or for cameras. They saw nothing. Inoyen broke the silence. This was against orders, but it just needed to be said. "This isn't right," he told them. "I don't see any cameras." Hartley, who had been about to shut the guy up, paused and looked. "Huh." "They're on poles, with microphones," one of the men said. Several of them had been avid followers of the Savage Island broadcasts. "And wasn't the killing ground a lot bigger?" Inoyen asked. "Maybe it just looks smaller from the ground," Hartley said. "Come on. Let's go." They started off across the killing ground, making for the Wall that reared up opposite. While the rice men gathered their belongings amid unending discussions, Grayson traded out Nighthawk's long spear for a shorter one that was easier to carry. From the rice men's collection of arms and armor, Grayson found an open-faced help that mostly fit him, which also allowed him to see. He took a new sword, mostly because the new one had a sheath. Some of the rice men, those who had arrived on the Island by some other means than entering through the gates, had never been near the Wall. The men had other names for all the landmarks that Grayson was familiar with, but eventually they agreed that they would head down the trail that led to the Blood Road, which they knew as the Wide Path, and make their way to the killing ground that way. Mr. Happy, whose actual name was Wangsa, had a flashlight. He went first, leading Mr. Free, and the others followed after, a straggle of men carrying baskets on their backs with the belongings they didn't want to leave behind. It was not the exodus that Grayson had planned. It was slow, and the guys would keep on talking. Now and again they all stopped and gathered around while one of them made an important point. When Grayson asked Leong what they were talking about, he only shook his head, as if to say it wasn't important enough to take the time to translate. During these all too frequent halts, Grayson put himself on guard, shield raised, staring behind them into the dark. He went to the front once to hurry them along, but had to go back when he found that half of them had stopped in the rear to talk. They had their own pace, and he could not change it. He brought up the rear because he was pretty sure not one of them would keep a watch like he would. He'd seen the monsters. He knew what they would do. A shadow moving among the shadows on the trail behind was all the warning he got, and then the monsters were running toward them, three abreast, spear carriers to the fore, shouting to the others, shouting for blood, and Grayson yelled, "Here they come!" and he yelled, "Run!" and he put up his shield and brought up his spear to hold them while the others saved themselves. He'd played football in high school, and for a couple of years in college, slipping down the line-up until he admitted to himself that he was never going to be a top ballplayer. But deep in his cognizance he remembered how it felt when half a dozen linebackers were running at you, and you were about to get steamrolled. It was because he'd had the experience of seeking for an opening, in the face of imminent destruction, that he was able to stand his ground now. He held the spear pointed at the throat of the huge form running straight for him, and then when they were a few steps away he shifted, ducked, and thrust with all his might at the man to the left, whose helm rode high on his head. He felt the spear connect under the man's chin where it sank in deep, almost without resistance. Something struck at Grayson and he raised the shield instinctively, but only caught part of it and the blow hammered down on his head. Flecks of light spangled his vision and his head ached, but the second part of his plan was already underway as he threw himself into the path of other two men coming up. Something crashed onto his shoulder, his spear was yanked out of his hand, but he reached out and grabbed the nearest monster's head and twisted, and held on until they both fell to the ground. The herd stumbled past him. The man beside him struggled up, struck at James with his shield, and got to his feet. He got up, groping for his sword, yelling after them, "No!" and "Run! For God's sake run!" Sword bare, he stumbled after them to see if he could stop anything that was going to happen from happening. The darkened tunnel was like a path through a nightmare. He heard shouts up ahead, and then screams. He emerged from the Blood Road onto the killing ground into a dance of search lights and the roar of helicopter blades. He saw the monsters backing up, crowding together, pinned under the lights. The monsters fell one by one, shot out of the sky by darts that stuck them like porcupine quills.. He saw them stagger, tearing at the darts, grabbing at their helmets, convulsing on the ground. Beyond them the rice men had broken into a trot heading for the gates, the gates that were open to receive them. Grayson wiped the sweat and blood from his eyes and tried to understand what he was seeing. Through the gates came crowds of men, and women too, brandishing machetes, swords, rakes, spears, and axes. They poured onto the killing ground and charged down upon the rice men, waving their weapons in the air. The rice men halted briefly, and then surged ahead, their weapons and belongings falling from their hands. And the crowd enveloped them, their weapons falling also as encircled them, embraced them and cheered them with as much crying and laughing as greetings. They milled around, the whole crowd trying to touch and hold and embrace each one of them, and the rice men reached for each of the crowd in their turn. And then the whole group turned and headed for the gates, bearing the rice men away, enveloped in the crowd. Grayson stood swaying in the shadows of the trees. The monsters kicked the sand before him, choked on their screams and lay still. With some cold part of him, still thinking like a reporter, he understood that the darts weren't loaded with knock-out drugs, but some kind of poison. One had managed to pull his helmet off. He lay, limbs rigid, eyes staring, bloody foam dripping from his lips, not far from Grayson's feet. The searchlights danced away across the sands. Grayson pulled off his helmet and stepped from the shadows. The gates seemed to be a long ways away. He wondered if he was going to fall himself before he made it to the Wall. The roaring in his head became a wind that made him stagger. He looked up and a helicopter lowered down before him. And in his dream, because it must be a dream by now, Lucy stood in the doorway of the helicopter, waving and calling his name. He dropped the sword because he didn't need it anymore. He staggered across the sand. Lucy jumped from the helicopter and reached him in time to catch him in her arms as he fell. They'd brought all the right equipment for climbing a twenty-foot wall. It looked pretty impressive from across the sands, but when they reached it, there's no way it was twenty feet high. There was no need to scale it because Gorski kicked in the side of it. It was made of press board. "This can't be right," Gorski said again. They split up then, for their different assignments. Hartley checked the gates but there was no way to disable them as the plan called for. They were just gaps in the wall. The villa was there all right. Lights and sound indicated that a number of people inhabited it. Hartley deployed his men and on the count they attacked. They arrested a dozen partially clothed seriously drunk young people having one hell of a party, and three fully dressed adults who seemed to be servants, all of them loudly outraged in a language he didn't understand. Inoyen had to disable a strapping guy who was obviously a soldier who tried to kill him when he entered the main room. But that was all. They all had phones, which they all proceeded to use until Inoyen had his men confiscate them. But no one bore any resemblance to Van Allan. When Gorski reported that the admin building was also a plywood construct, and completely uninhabited, and Tredwen reported the utter lack of anything resembling either the helipad or the harbor, and the tower they'd thought was the antenna array was also a fake, Hartley broke radio silence to report back to the ship. "Sir? Lieutenant Hartley here. I'm sorry sir, but I think we've landed on the wrong island." Grayson woke on his back in a dim room where the louvered blinds shielded what looked like very bright sunlight. His head hurt. When his eyes adjusted to the light he saw a shape sitting in a wicker chair opposite him, reading a book. He moved his head to try and see better, and his movement roused the figure, who looked up. It was Jules Van Allan, a book on his knee, and a glass of juice on the table beside him. "You are awake," Van Allan observed. "I must be," Grayson responded. "Good," Van Allan said. He reached over and touched a button by Grayson's bed. "What's wrong with me?" Grayson asked. "You have concussion," Van Allan told him. "You were cracked on the head with a glancing blow of some deadly instrument.." "A glancing blow?" Grayson reached up and gently touched the place on his head that hurt so much. "Yes, or we would not be having this conversation. You also have a spear wound along your side; sixteen stitches. Two cracked ribs, and other bruises and abrasions, but the concussion is the reason you are here, and not in your own home." Grayson managed to understand that the pounding in his head was not going to kill him. He was not dying, so what had happened to him must have been real. "Lucy? She's here?" "She has gone to her own bed. She sat over you until she fell asleep. I sent her away a few hours ago." "So she was here. I really saw her." "Yes. She came back yesterday evening." Van Allan shifted in his chair. "I have to apologize for my assistant's attempts to get you killed, by dropping you on Savage Island." Grayson turned his head so he could meet Van Allan's eyes. "That wasn't you?" "No," Van Allan said. "That wasn't me. I was engaged in concerns of my own at the time. I told them I wasn't to be disturbed." He grimaced in apology. "They obeyed me too well, I'm afraid." "Ken Frize saw the folder . . . I figured it out, about Macias and the Aparichio cousins, and all the others." "Yes, so he said." "He thought I'd turn you in, I guess." "It was stupid of him not to consult with me before taking action. He thought he was protecting me, but in fact, putting you at risk acted in just the opposite manner. Still, he was my subordinate, and I do apologize." "You taught him to do that. To pick up people you want to have disappear, and drop them on the Island. And you're saying he wasn't carrying out your wishes?" Van Allan shook his head. "Not in this case. I have no need of such measures. May I remind you that if you annoyed me, I could simply fire you." Grayson sat himself up on his elbow. He felt the pain in his ribs and side, and his head pounded harder, but he was tired of staring up at Van Allan. "And did you? Fire me?" "No. Of course not." Van Allan raised his glass again. "I fired Ken Frize. I put him on a plane back to New York." Grayson shifted his pillow up a bit and lay back. His head didn't hurt quite so much in that position. He wondered if this were the right time or place to pursue the point. But then, he might not get the chance again. He said, "You killed those guys." Van Allan did not pretend he didn't know which guys Grayson meant. He didn't deny what he had done. "In a sense. I put them in a situation that would get them killed, yes. But in point of fact, I extradited them, found them guilty, and passed sentence on them. This is a sovereign island, and I am, in fact, the sovereign. You could publish what I have done, but that won't add anymore to my troubles. In fact, some people might envy me." He turns his glass in his hand, smiling. "Who knows? If ever this island needs a new industry, perhaps I'll advertise the service. There are certainly enough rogues unhung to provide a market." "It was a cover," Grayson persisted, because he wanted Van Allan to admit he was right. "This whole set-up is a cover for you to kill those guys." "Only in part," Van Allan said. "I did want to make a demonstration of what I believe is true courage. I must say, that once you found yourself on the Island, you demonstrated exactly the qualities this Island should exemplify." He lifted his glass to Grayson. "I salute you." "Go fuck yourself," Grayson said. "I almost got killed out there." "Yes. And I must thank you too for trying to put a stop to the slaughter, when that group of men colluded together to kill each man who came out onto the Island." "No one would do anything. They all said they had to wait for you." "Yes, well," Van Allan took a long drink. "I have put safeguards in place to be certain that doesn't happen again." "You're going on with it?" "Of course." "Is there someone else you want to kill?" Van Allan smiled. Grayson found that disconcerting. "Not at this time," he said. "I am content." He reached into his pocket and laid an eartag on the table where Grayson could see it. He was grateful that it had been cleaned of any residual human detritus. "This is yours, I believe," Van Allan said. "Mine?" Grayson reached up and touched his ear. He could feel the holes, but the tag had been removed. And not cut off, either, he was glad to discover. "You took it off a dead man. Bloodhawk, I think his name was. It's yours." Grayson started to shake his head, and then stopped. "No. It's not. It belongs to Sword Song. Did he make it back?" "I'm not sure," Van Allan said. "I can check for you." "Give it to him," Grayson said. "Or his heirs, whoever they are. He'd have taken it himself, except I was there." "I will do so." Van Allan picked it up again and pocketed it. "And what about you, Mr. Grayson? What will you do?" "I believe I'm due for some leave," Grayson said. "Yes, I'm sure you are." "I'm going to take it with Lucy. After that, we'll have to see." "Will you be coming back?" "No," Grayson said. "I don't think so." He closed his eyes. An idea rose in him, whose beginnings had formed when he and Lucy worked together to investigate the mysteries of Savage Island. He had once been a journalist, a real on, not one he played on television. He'd loved the work, the finding out, and telling the story of what he had learned. He would go now, and do that again. And that would be good. "I didn't think so," Van Allan agreed. He rose. "I will refrain from exercising any penalty clauses, when you break your contract," he said. "That will be my thanks to you. And I will refrain from hindering any residual earnings owed to you, now or in the future. I thank you for your service. You will find a helicopter waiting, whenever you are ready to go." "Wait," Grayson said, getting up on one elbow. Van Allan paused. "What about the rice men?" "Who?" "The Indonesian political prisoners who had a camp on the Island," he said, meeting Van Allan's eyes. Let him try to deny it. "Leong, and Handoko; Mr. Free, Mr. Happy, those guys." He lay back again. His head was pounding hard. "Ah. The Indo-Chinese communists. We have come to an agreement. They will be removed to another location, where they will serve out their sentences, but without anyone to interfere with them. A number of my former staff members have elected to join them." He sounded annoyed by this. "In prison?" Grayson asked. "On another island." "How did you arrange that?" "Mr. Grayson," Van Allan said smoothly, "if you care to research, you will find that I own a lot of islands. I simply chose another one for them." Grayson closed his eyes. "That's all right, then." "I should think so. And now, I think you have a visitor. Yes, my dear. He is awake." "James!" Lucy said. He opened his eyes, and she was there. ### Chapter Nineteen The Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State hooked her soft yellow hair behind her ear. She had an irritating tone in her voice. "And can you explain, Major Fontaine, how it happened that a SEAL team at your instigation attacked an island that was leased to the Royal Family of Holland, and captured and detained two cousins of the Queen of Holland, their staff, their bodyguards, and their guests?" Al Fontaine stood at some form of attention before the desk in the tiny office. He would explain, and then they would bury the whole event. And then they would bury his career as well. But if it was the last thing he did, he swore, he would make sure that John Savage suffered the same fate. John Savage stepped out of the elevator on the private floor of the Intercontinental Hotel. Fred Hallerdam directed him through the suite to the balcony overlooking the Los Angeles city scape, where Martin Kalfrey, in shirtsleeves, sat with his feet up, a Scotch in his hand, and his phone against his ear. He lifted a hand to Savage and pointed to the cushioned chair opposite his own. Savage did not sit down. He went to the rail of the balcony and gazed out at the view. Behind him, Kalfrey finished a phone conversation with a few brief responses, signed off and shut his phone. "John, good to see you." Savage turned. Martin Kalfrey, Republican kingmaker, did not get up, and he did not offer his hand. "Your check bounced," Savage said. "Yes," Kalfrey agreed. "We have withdrawn our support for your candidacy. You'll find that most of your contributors will dry up in the next couple of days." Savage stood still a moment, controlling the incandescent rage that filled him. "Why?" he asked. Kalfrey swirled the Scotch in his glass. The ice cubes made a pleasant tinkling sound. "That was quite a gaffe you made," he sipped his drink. "When you announced the imminent invasion of Savage Island on national television. And then it didn't happen." Savage swallowed his reply as Hallerdam brought him a drink. A martini, just the way he liked it. When Hallerdam had taken himself off, he said, almost reasonably, "You don't throw me overboard because of a gaffe. These things happen, during the course of a campaign. You find another event, or you create one, to throw some redder, bloodier meat to the press, and it passes over." "No," Kalfrey said, "this isn't going to blow over. And we're dumping you, all right." Savage took a breath to get a hold of himself. "I can deliver California in four years." "We're going with Gail Pilnok. She's running for governor in Virginia." "Pilnok?" Savage laughed. "She can't even read a balance sheet!" "Or Vince, in New Mexico. You didn't think for a second you were the only hook on our string, did you?" "But a Republican governor in California . . ." "Not going to happen, John. It's over." Savage put his glass down on the balcony rail. It could blow off, and land in the street eight floors below. He didn't care. "I have other resources," he said, trying to make himself believe it. "Bullshit," Kalfrey said. "We're a tight bunch, those of us to who have the money, and the clout, to lift you to the top ranks of the political elite. We all know each other. I know exactly what your resources are ― probably better than you do. You aren't going to be governor of California. And you won't get another chance." The wind, the sound of traffic far away, the tiny orange bushes that lined the balcony, entered John Savage's senses as though he were at some heightened moment, as at the point of death. The vista from the hills to his left, to the ocean on his right, and the sun, red-tinged now, sinking into the late afternoon haze over the sea, encapsulated the moment, distilled it. He couldn't believe it. This couldn't happen. And yet, at the same time, it felt inevitable. He thought for a wild moment of flinging his leg over the balcony and throwing himself down. But then he would lose, and that would be that. He thought of throwing Kalfrey over; just as final, but more satisfying. Kalfrey was watching him. "You never met the Van Allan boy, did you?" Kalfrey remarked. "Of course not," he answered his own question. "Fritz worked for me, the summer before he died. Heleen, his mother, said he'd shown an interest in politics, and she suggested he come and see me. Nice boy," he observed. "Smart. A good kid." "You don't – you know the Van Allans?" Savage couldn't believe it. His people checked this kind of thing. Always. "I didn't. My wife went to school with Heleen Van Allan. They used to room together, and now and then they still get together. I liked Fritz. I liked him a lot." "You – " "They asked me, the Van Allans, if I'd help him checkmate you, if you tried for a political career. So I took you up when you decided to run," Kalfrey cupped his hand as though he held a bug. Then he turned it over and slapped it down on the table. "Fred will see you out. Good-bye, John." Hallerdam came out and collected his glass from the edge of the balcony, and showed him to the door. The private elevator reflected his image back to him in four directions, to infinity. John Savage had never felt so small. Arthur Baines moved so slowly and so quietly that only the nearest frogs and insects were disturbed to silence, and sensing no danger, soon began their songs again. In the hour before dawn he reached the edge of the trees along the killing ground, sank down to the earth and lay there staring. Bodies. Piles of corpses in the rictus of death. Everywhere. His body shook. He waited, holding himself. After a few moments his head cleared, and the memories that had risen up like a flock of ill-omened birds drifted away, and he was able to make sense of what he saw. Half a dozen or more men lay dead, sprawled here and there between himself and the Wall. What had happened? Had they killed one another? Were they really dead? Some of them still wore helmets. The man nearest him, his helmet had come off, and Arthur could see that the man still wore an eartag. It was black. He'd promised himself he would do no killing. He didn't need any more ghosts in the corners of his eyes. But if that was an eartag, and the man was already dead, well, that was a completely different matter. And of course he would check the other men as well, that was just good sense. And he should check their pockets too, just in case. Arthur Baines, only for a short time longer called the Scorpion, stepped onto the killing ground, and picked up his jackpot of twenty-two eartags on his way to the gate, through the Wall, and home. The End

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

BookCorpus2

COURT OF APPEALS SECOND DISTRICT OF TEXAS FORT WORTH NO. 02-10-00118-CR BEN DANIEL WILLIAMS APPELLANT V. THE STATE OF TEXAS STATE ---------- FROM THE 432ND DISTRICT COURT OF TARRANT COUNTY ---------- MEMORANDUM OPINION1 ---------- Appellant Ben Daniel Williams appeals his convictions for two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child. In four points, he argues that the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction for one of his aggravated sexual assault counts, that his convictions violate the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy, and that the trial court erred by 1 See Tex. R. App. P. 47.4. admitting testimony from an outcry witness and allowing evidence regarding his prior felony conviction during the guilt phase of the trial. We affirm. Background Facts2 B.B. (hereinafter Brandy) lived with her mother, Donna Martin, in Arlington.3 Martin met appellant over the phone while she was working. Appellant, who was a truck driver, eventually moved with Martin and Brandy into a two-bedroom apartment. Martin was frequently away from home at times that only Brandy and appellant were there. According to Brandy‘s testimony at trial, when she was eleven years old, during the summer between her fifth and sixth grade school years, appellant ―started paying more attention‖ to her. He bought her several things, including a cell phone. One day, when Brandy and appellant were on a couch, appellant put his hand under Brandy‘s shirt and rubbed her breasts.4 On another occasion, while appellant and Brandy were watching television, he untied her shorts, lifted her legs, and put his mouth on her vagina for five to seven minutes. A couple of days after that, appellant took off Brandy‘s clothes and his pants, and he put his mouth on her breasts and his penis in her vagina. Appellant eventually 2 The facts in this section are based upon the evidence presented by the State‘s witnesses. We will summarize appellant‘s testimony below. 3 To protect B.B.‘s identity, we will use an alias. 4 Before trial, Brandy said that appellant inappropriately touched her the first time while she was in her room. She said that appellant bumped her bed to wake her up, got on top of her, and fondled and kissed her breasts. 2 ejaculated. Brandy bled from her vagina. Appellant had sexual intercourse with Brandy on ten or eleven other occasions. Appellant and Martin eventually broke up, and Brandy moved in with Mozelle Moore, her great aunt. Brandy was ―very angry inside‖ when she moved in with Moore. Months later, after Moore had asked Brandy several times whether appellant had inappropriately touched her, Brandy told Moore, who did not like appellant,5 about some of what had happened, and Moore called the police. Brandy talked with the police, gave an interview to Teressa Norris, a Child Protective Services (CPS) investigator, and went to a medical center, where she learned that she ―had a lot of broken tissue.‖ During the CPS interview, Brandy told Norris that appellant started abusing her by, four or five times, squeezing her breasts with his hands under her clothes and putting her breasts in his mouth. Brandy stated to Norris that appellant then ―went to licking her vagina and putting his private inside her vagina‖ about nine times. Norris called appellant on the telephone, and he denied ever living with Brandy and Martin. Arlington Police Department Detective Garth Savage investigated the case against appellant and presented it to a district attorney. A grand jury indicted appellant with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, which is a first- 5 Moore said that when Brandy was living with appellant, ―something wasn‘t setting right . . . with the whole situation.‖ 3 degree felony, and one count of indecency with a child, which, as alleged in the indictment, is a second-degree felony.6 Appellant pled not guilty to all charges. Shellie Tidwell, who managed the apartment that Brandy, Martin, and appellant had stayed in, confirmed at trial that appellant had lived there, and appellant also conceded that fact at trial. Tidwell said that Brandy helped file papers and answer phones in the apartment complex‘s office about three days per week. According to Tidwell, Brandy ―wasn‘t the same‖ when Brandy was around appellant; her ―head hung low the whole time.‖ After the parties rested and presented closing arguments, the jury found appellant guilty of each charge. The jury then heard evidence concerning appellant‘s punishment and assessed ten years‘ confinement for the first aggravated sexual assault conviction, twenty-five years for the second conviction, and five years for the indecency with a child conviction. The trial court sentenced appellant accordingly. He brought this appeal. Evidentiary Sufficiency In his first point, appellant argues that the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction for the first count of aggravated sexual assault. Count one of appellant‘s indictment alleged that appellant intentionally or knowingly caused Brandy‘s sexual organ to contact his sexual organ. 6 See Tex. Penal Code Ann. §§ 21.11(a)(1), (d), 22.021(a)(1)(B), (2)(B), (e) (Vernon Supp. 2010). 4  In our due-process review of the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, we view all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution to determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S. Ct. 2781, 2789 (1979); Clayton v. State, 235 S.W.3d 772, 778 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007). This standard gives full play to the responsibility of the trier of fact to resolve conflicts in the testimony, to weigh the evidence, and to draw reasonable inferences from basic facts to ultimate facts. Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S. Ct. at 2789; Clayton, 235 S.W.3d at 778. To obtain appellant‘s conviction for aggravated sexual assault as alleged in count one of his indictment, the State was required to prove that he intentionally or knowingly caused Brandy‘s sexual organ to contact his sexual organ. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.021(a)(1)(B)(iii);7 Johnson v. State, 882 S.W.2d 39, 42 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1994, pet. ref‘d). Appellant concedes that Brandy testified that appellant penetrated ―her sexual organ with his penis,‖ but he contends that the State did not ―provide any testimony alleging [he] caused [Brandy‘s] sexual organ to contact his sexual organ.‖ The record, however, provides plentiful evidence that appellant caused his sexual organ to contact Brandy‘s sexual organ on multiple occasions. In addition 7 Appellant does not dispute that Brandy was younger than fourteen years old at the time of the sexual assault. See id. § 22.021(a)(2)(B). 5 to the facts described above, Donna Wright, a pediatric nurse practitioner, testified that Brandy told her that appellant‘s ―private went in [her] private.‖ Brandy then clarified to Wright that Brandy meant that appellant‘s penis went inside her vagina. Upon examining Brandy, Wright found that Brandy had a healed tear of her hymen that was caused by traumatic penetration. The record contains some evidence that could have weakened Brandy‘s testimony. Brandy was uncertain about which year appellant moved in with her and Martin and about which year appellant assaulted her. She stated, ―[I]t‘s been so long, I don‘t remember all the dates.‖ Brandy told Wright before trial that appellant had last assaulted her in May 2008, while Brandy testified at trial that the abuse stopped in August 2007. Appellant denied ever sexually touching Brandy, who he described as ―smart‖ and ―bright.‖ He said that he did not spend much time with Brandy but that he was generally responsible for disciplining her. Appellant denied that he told Norris that he had not lived with Brandy and Martin. He said that he was shocked to hear that charges had been filed against him for sexually assaulting Brandy. He believed that Brandy and Norris lied to the jury. He also denied that Brandy acted differently around Tidwell when he was present, as Tidwell had said. However, the trier of fact is the sole judge of the weight and credibility of the evidence. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 38.04 (Vernon 1979); Brown v. State, 270 S.W.3d 564, 568 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008), cert. denied, 129 S. Ct. 6 2075 (2009). Thus, when performing an evidentiary sufficiency review, we may not re-evaluate the weight and credibility of the evidence and substitute our judgment for that of the factfinder. Williams v. State, 235 S.W.3d 742, 750 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007). Instead, we Adetermine whether the necessary inferences are reasonable based upon the combined and cumulative force of all the evidence when viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict.@ Hooper v. State, 214 S.W.3d 9, 16–17 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007). We must presume that the factfinder resolved any conflicting inferences in favor of the prosecution and defer to that resolution. Jackson, 443 U.S. at 326, 99 S. Ct. at 2793; Clayton, 235 S.W.3d at 778. Brandy testified to each element of count one, and her testimony alone constitutes sufficient evidence to support appellant‘s conviction. See, e.g., Halbrook v. State, 322 S.W.3d 716, 720 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2010, no pet.); Johnston v. State, 230 S.W.3d 450, 455 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2007, no pet.). Furthermore, the jury‘s guilty verdict implies that despite the fact that there were some inconsistencies between Brandy‘s testimony and statements she made before trial about the details of appellant‘s crimes, the jury believed her testimony. See Lugo v. State, 299 S.W.3d 445, 453 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2009, pet. ref‘d) (holding that a jury was free to believe a witness‘s trial testimony over her prior statement made to the police); Hernandez v. State, 903 S.W.2d 109, 113 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 1995, pet. ref‘d) (―The jury, being the judges of 7 the facts and the credibility of the witnesses, could choose to believe or not believe the witnesses or any portion of their testimony.‖). For all of these reasons, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, we hold that the evidence is sufficient to sustain appellant‘s conviction for aggravated sexual assault under count one of his indictment. See Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S. Ct. at 2789; Clayton, 235 S.W.3d at 778. We overrule his first point. Double Jeopardy In appellant‘s second point, he contends that his conviction in count one of the indictment, which concerns his sexual organ‘s contact with Brandy‘s sexual organ, violates the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy because he was also convicted of count two, which regards his sexual organ‘s penetration of her sexual organ. The indictment alleged that both of these counts occurred on or about August 31, 2007. The jury charge stated that the State was ―not required to prove the exact date alleged in the indictment‖ but could show that the offenses were committed before the expiration of the statute of limitations and prior to the presentment of the indictment. The Double Jeopardy Clause of the United States Constitution provides that no person shall be subjected to twice having life or limb in jeopardy for the same offense. U.S. Const. amend. V.8 Generally, this clause protects against 8 Appellant also cites the Texas constitution‘s double jeopardy provision. See Tex. Const. art. I, § 14. Appellant does not argue that we should analyze his 8 (1) a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal, (2) a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction, and (3) multiple punishments for the same offense. Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 165, 97 S. Ct. 2221, 2225 (1977); Ex parte Cavazos, 203 S.W.3d 333, 336 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006). Appellant bases his multiple punishment double jeopardy argument on an assumption that counts one and two of his indictment relate to the same sexual event. He cites Patterson v. State for the proposition that a conviction for aggravated sexual assault bars a conviction for conduct that is demonstrably part of that same offense. 152 S.W.3d 88, 92 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004) (explaining that ―penile contact with mouth, genitals, or anus in the course of penile penetration will be subsumed‖); see Gonzalez Soto v. State, 267 S.W.3d 327, 343 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi 2008, no pet.). But the State‘s evidence established that appellant penetrated Brandy‘s sexual organ on multiple occasions. In a similar case in which a defendant was indicted for aggravated sexual assault and indecency with a child, we explained, Generally, to preserve a double jeopardy claim, a defendant must object at or before the time the charge is submitted to the jury. An appellant is excused from the preservation requirement, however, when (1) the undisputed facts show the double jeopardy violation is clearly apparent on the face of the record and (2) enforcement of usual rules of procedural default serves no legitimate state interests. state double jeopardy claim by using different standards than those that apply to his federal claim. 9  The record reflects that Cabral was indicted for two separate offenses both alleged to have occurred ―on or about‖ June 1, 2000. The record further reflects that the complainant testified regarding two separate and distinct incidents of abuse . . . . It is well settled that the ―on or about‖ language of an indictment allows the State to prove a date other than the one alleged in the indictment as long as the date is prior to the presentation of the indictment and not so remote that prosecution is barred by the statute of limitations. Here, the complainant‘s testimony described acts supporting each charge occurring prior to the presentation of the indictment and within the applicable statute of limitations period. Thus, we find no double jeopardy violation apparent on the face of the record. Cabral has therefore failed to meet the first prong of the exception to the preservation requirement . . . . Accordingly, we hold that Cabral failed to preserve his double jeopardy claim for our review. Cabral v. State, 170 S.W.3d 761, 764–65 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2005, pet. ref‘d) (mem. op.) (emphasis added) (citations and footnotes omitted). Appellant did not object to the jury charge or otherwise raise a complaint about double jeopardy in the trial court. Thus, as in Cabral, we hold that Brandy‘s testimony of multiple sexual incidents that independently support each count of appellant‘s indictment precludes appellant‘s double jeopardy claim because a double jeopardy violation is not clearly apparent from the face of the record. See id.; see also Langs v. State, 183 S.W.3d 680, 687 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006) (―The fact that the jury‘s verdict could have relied on a theory that would violate the Double Jeopardy Clause . . . is not sufficient to show a constitutional violation ‗clearly apparent on the face of the record.‘‖); Vernon v. State, 841 S.W.2d 407, 410 (Tex. Crim. App. 1992) (―[T]hose who commit multiple discrete assaults against the same victim, are liable for separate prosecution and 10 punishment for every instance of such criminal misconduct.‖); Gonzalez Soto, 267 S.W.3d at 343 n.70 (citing cases in which courts held that there was no double jeopardy violation when a defendant was convicted of multiple offenses but the evidence showed as many sexual incidents); Martinez v. State, 212 S.W.3d 411, 422 (Tex. App.—Austin 2006, pet. ref‘d) (―Martinez has not demonstrated that his conviction of indecency with a child by contact was based on the same conduct underlying his conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child. Therefore, he has failed to show a double jeopardy violation.‖) (citation omitted). We overrule appellant‘s second point. Admission of Evidence In his third point, appellant argues that the trial court erred by allowing Moore to testify as an outcry witness. Before the trial began, the State provided appellant with notice of its intent to use Brandy‘s outcry statement to Moore. When Moore testified, she said that while she and Brandy were sitting in a living room watching television, Brandy cried while stating that appellant had inappropriately touched her. Appellant did not object to Moore‘s testimony in that regard. On appeal, appellant contends that Moore‘s testimony was improperly admitted without a ―reliability hearing‖ outside the presence of the jury. Appellant cites article 38.072 of the code of criminal procedure. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 38.072 (Vernon Supp. 2010). Article 38.072 provides that in some 11 circumstances, an out-of-court statement that is made by a sexual assault victim who is under fourteen years old and that describes the alleged offense is not inadmissible based on the hearsay rule if, among other conditions, the ―trial court finds, in a hearing conducted outside the presence of the jury, that the statement is reliable based on the time, content, and circumstances of the statement.‖ Id. art. 38.072, §§ 1(1), 2(a)(1), (b)(2). We agree with the State, however, that appellant forfeited this complaint. To preserve a complaint for our review, a party must have presented to the trial court a timely request, objection, or motion that states the specific grounds for the desired ruling if they are not apparent from the context of the request, objection, or motion. Tex. R. App. P. 33.1(a)(1); Layton v. State, 280 S.W.3d 235, 238–39 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009). Further, the trial court must have ruled on the request, objection, or motion, either expressly or implicitly, or the complaining party must have objected to the trial court‘s refusal to rule. Tex. R. App. P. 33.1(a)(2); Mendez v. State, 138 S.W.3d 334, 341 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004). A reviewing court should not address the merits of an issue that has not been preserved for appeal. Ford v. State, 305 S.W.3d 530, 532 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009). Various Texas courts, including our own, have held that a complaint regarding the lack of a reliability hearing under article 38.072 is forfeited if it is not raised at trial and if there is no objection to the outcry testimony. See Laredo v. State, 194 S.W.3d 637, 640–41 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2006, pet. 12 ref‘d); Cates v. State, 72 S.W.3d 681, 698 (Tex. App.—Tyler 2001, no pet.); State v. Kaiser, 822 S.W.2d 697, 702 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 1991, pet. ref‘d). Accordingly, we hold that appellant forfeited his article 38.072 complaint by not raising the issue or objecting to Moore‘s testimony. See Tex. R. App. P. 33.1(a). We overrule his third point. In appellant‘s fourth point, he contends that the trial court erred by allowing testimony regarding his 1987 felony conviction for car theft. During appellant‘s testimony, his counsel asked him whether he had been previously convicted of car theft, and appellant admitted that he had.9 When the State asked him about the theft, appellant admitted that he had been sentenced to four years‘ confinement for committing it. Appellant did not object to the State‘s questions about the theft. On appeal, appellant argues that his conviction was too remote to be admitted. He relies on rule of evidence 609(b), which states, Evidence of a conviction . . . is not admissible if a period of more than ten years has elapsed since the date of the conviction or of the release of the witness from the confinement imposed for that conviction, whichever is the later date, unless the court determines, in the interests of justice, that the probative value of the conviction supported by specific facts and circumstances substantially outweighs its prejudicial effect. Tex. R. Evid. 609(b). However, like appellant‘s article 38.072 complaint, his rule 609(b) point required an objection at trial to be preserved for our review. 9 Appellant concedes in his brief that his counsel ―elicited testimony‖ about the car theft. 13 See Tex. R. App. P. 33.1(a); Layton, 280 S.W.3d at 238–39; Heidelberg v. State, 112 S.W.3d 658, 664 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2003), aff'd, 144 S.W.3d 535 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004); see also Mendez, 138 S.W.3d at 342 (―Except for complaints involving systemic (or absolute) requirements, or rights that are waivable only . . . , all other complaints, whether constitutional, statutory, or otherwise, are forfeited by failure to comply with Rule 33.1(a).‖) (emphasis added). Because appellant elicited evidence about his theft conviction and did not object when the State asked him about the conviction, we hold that he forfeited his ability to complain about the evidence on appeal. We overrule his fourth point. Conclusion Having overruled all of appellant‘s points, we affirm the trial court‘s judgments. TERRIE LIVINGSTON CHIEF JUSTICE PANEL: LIVINGSTON, C.J.; GARDNER and WALKER, JJ. DO NOT PUBLISH Tex. R. App. P. 47.2(b) DELIVERED: April 28, 2011 14 

tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small

FreeLaw