Eros Flaw straightened leaning back in his chair and breaking the faint contact with Eve. "Damn!" Eve thought. The contact broken she could read his emotions clearly, but not his thoughts, only shreds of them. Eve looked at the man. The clammy, pale skin of his face was now the color of a cod belly, but his eyes flashed a livid anger barely held in check. Silence. Everybody was expecting some reaction from Eve, but Eve disappointed them all not saying anything, not betraying the slightest reaction. Then, in front of the obvious expectation of her audience, she shrugged. "Surprised? meeting you father in law, by chance." 3TC gloated hoping to tease her. "The word 'by chance' seems the understatement of the century." Eve smiled, "since you deceived my mother, killed my crew, and kidnapped me only to organize this meeting. Why, Mr. Flaw, a letter of invitation was enough, or it wasn't?" Her words hung in the air. "Eve!" Sishia exclaimed, "your manners!" "I am a soldier's wife, mom." Eve retorted. "Mr. Flaw, why didn't you invite Jay and me, instead of using this elaborate, gory scheme? I'm curious." Eros Flaw just stared at Eve for a moment with those shark like eyes of his then said in Gray language: "Your Highness, your revelation was premature. We agreed it would be me to choose the time and manner of it." "Nonsense," G-15, the Gray Lord said. "Her Highness Lady G-8 has every right to do as she wishes, since you are here under our protection. I also believe that all these compliments are unnecessary, the gammer is no longer useful, so we can study her to see if there are sequences of her DNA or internal organs that can explain telepathy as a recessive trait. As for Sea, knowing that his wife is here, he will show up for sure." "He has a fleet strong enough to defeat the Rogues." Flaw remarked. "He won't dare to attack us. No one has dared it for millennia." Lady G-8 stated matter-of-factly. "An attack could also damage the psychic woman." G-15 added. "True, but the guy can be ruthless." Flaw replied. "However in the first experiments the telepathist should be complaisant." "She doesn't trust us, it's evident. Therefore we decide to proceed, willy-nilly, with the experiments without delay." "Feel free to use the gammer, but give me some more time with the girl. If we create emotional imbalances, it will be easier to break her mental defenses." "Agreed." G-8 said. The conversation between the Grays and Flaw had cut off the other guests. None of them spoke Gray. Eve decided to revive the conversation to understand what they said, although she felt like gossiping with goldfish in a fishbowl. "Is Jay your son? He doesn't look at all like you." "He's the spitting image of his poor mother." Flaw murmured as bent by a deep pain. "And the result of many plastic surgeons." 3TC chuckled before Flaw looked daggers at him. "Unfortunately I wasn't very lucky with my children." Flaw murmured. "In my long life I have seen many of them die. That's why I asked the Grays for help, to have a healthy child. Jay is the result of many attempts, the one in which I placed my hopes. Of my other children ... now only Desmond is here. You're going to meet him and understand why Jay is so important." "Jay has never spoken about a brother!" Sishia exclaimed. "Well, he never talked about his family, for that matter." "We talked about it," Eve lied. "You never told me." Sishia cried. "Secrets d'alcove!" Lou Cyfer whispered full of innuendo. "You lie to protect him, Eve," Flaw shook his head, "Jay never spoke about us because of what he did. What he carries in his heart is a heavy burden. He was so young, only twelve years old, when we discovered he was unstable. I wish I could help him, but he ran away." Suddenly the door opened. The air was shaken by beating wings. "Ah, Desmond, come in. I'd like to introduce you to someone." Flaw said.