<div class="floatleft"><div align="center">(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/cdc1/04s7432n614occi4g.jpg)<br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">Chloe Dawson<br/>  ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾  </span></span></div></div><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>… we settle into a frenetic pattern … I travel with Huguette and Menon who have a very constructive and adversarial relationship … what comes out is better than any of us could do alone …<br/><br/>… Kimmie takes over management of the home front … constructing a nursery … with space for two … if plans work as they seem they will, they’ll be about 6 months apart … Isis grows … my bump shows … and in the lab Kimmie’s womb and vagina grow on their teflon mandrel … her blood and tissue are regularly examined in greater and greater detail to maximize the match … and the lab is ready to begin the fertilization of my ovum with Kimmie’s sperm …<br/><br/>… I’m contacted by someone with contacts in the clinic who presents credentials that raise my eyebrow … Huguette and Menon puzzle over them too … while we had assume they had existed in earlier times, none of us were aware they endure into these times … a welcome contact with as yet an unstated purpose for the contact … so one morning I go alone except for my every present and unobtrusive guards to a rendezvous at the restaurant at the Nobis Hotel … the maître d’ excorts me to a table where a gentleman of indeterminate age and dressed in a crisp business suit is reading the London Times … he puts it down as I am seated … I order a decaf coffee …<br/><br/>… we exchange credentials … some I have never spoken before … he states that his association is aware of The Shadow and of attempts on my life and … demonstrates detailed awareness of what transpired in Salem … and a deep respect for the one who met us in the Languedoc … refers to that one as ‘The One in Grey’ … provides me an thick envelope of what he asserts are things I may not yet know … promises a steady stream of more and we arrange for how that may be delivered to me …<br/><br/>… and then he asserts that his association is spiritually allied with the sisterhood in this struggle … and cedes leadership to us … he then recites a prophecy of one who will lead us … smile and touch my obvious bump … he does well to not inquire further … presents me with another envelope … ‘we usually give Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh’ … his face is open …<br/><br/>… I venture what we talked about before I came here … and reach gently toward his mind … the edge I meet is surprisingly untrained … no pressure, an invitation … and his eyes widen … ‘you have done it!’ … the thought is not as clear as with a sister … yet precisionist grade …</em></span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: times new roman;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">  “Our gift to you is instructors. With this and other like it, we will defeat The Shadow. The only other way and life on the planet will have to start from the beginnings.”</span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>… he mentally nods … ‘we deduced as much but did not envision the alternative you offer’ … ‘we will join when you request and work to integrate into your forces’ … ‘we suggest we test how best to use our combined forces since as we both know our strengths and weakness are both different and need to be constructed to compliment’ … ‘in the meantime, we will learn this talent you offer and we will stand guard where we may’ …</em></span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">  “The Sisterhood thanks you and welcomes your brotherhood, Elder. Please convey our deepest regards.”</span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>… with a few further pleasantries, I depart … back home, Menon and Huguette pore over the papers he presented … an offer of additional protection for our aircraft and cars is eagerly accepted … over dinner that evening with some from our security also at table  …</em></span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">  “Dear Sisters, the brotherhood is joining us.”</span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>… gasps around the table … history of oppressive paternalism lurk in Insight … we share the new information on who this is and whence they came … the quickers among us are soon beaming with approval … when Menon voices her approval, the remaining doubters allow the new reality … with Hindsight, I show what we have been able to deduce and what history needs to change to account for their existence … remind my sisters of the 9 Unknown and also of the Seven League Boots … we revise our own history too … and through this together The Shadow’s origins become clearer to us … our historians are scrambling and that is welcome … change can be a good thing …<br/><br/>… that night I rest next to Kimmie before leaving for a session with Huguette …</em></span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">  “Next week is your implant surgery, right? And they’ll wait to ensure the tissue takes before they fertilize the ovum to implant. Maybe you’ll be pregnant in a bit over a month! Wow!”</span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>… Isis beams a bit brighter at the news …</em></span></span><br/>