Chapter 3

MONDAY 9:30 A. M. CST Office of Henry Donaldson, Chicago City Hall

As Alice settled in for another day in the Zoo, as she'd come to think of her station, her mind turned once again to the person that had become the bulwark of her life, 'Thank God for Rick's love and support. I just don't know if I could handle this load without them.'

A slightly mischievous thought then streaked through her head and she sent, 'Thank you, Love, ' while she reached out with her Mage sense and planted a butterfly wing kiss on the cheek of the love of her life.

The return flow on their private channel included, 'Even if I don't have a clue what that was for, I'll still only give you three or four hours to quit, ' followed by 'Hey Beautiful, want to do lunch at Lake's Edge? That way we can really take our time and I do so want to take my time with this.'

All this was sent along with some returned gentle touches down her spine that were triggering reactions inducing anything but efficient work flow. 'Oh God Dear, please give me a break here. I'll never get anything done this morning if you keep that up, ' Alice sent while squirming in her chair.

The delicious touches running down her spine then eased up as she heard her love's voice bloom in her head once again, 'Have I told you how much I love you today?'

'Why no, I don't believe you have, ' she sent with a teasing undertone.

Alice then felt a soft pinch on the end of her nose, while a gentle kiss brushed across her lips and Rick's voice came back with, 'Well consider yourself told gorgeous, because I do. See you at lunch kiddo.'

With that warm lucky girl feeling radiating from the core of her being, Alice reached for the top item in her IN box, while she started involuntarily humming the first stanza of "Hi-ho, Hi-ho, It's Off To Work We Go".

MONDAY 9:45 A. M. CST News Stand, Chicago, IL

As Mike had just finished straitening up the "You Too Can Look Like An Olympian" body building magazine section, Ella's voice radiated into his mind with, Hey Boss, got a second?'

'Sure, Super Sleuth, what's up?'

'Grrr, you joker, ' came back down the line followed by, 'Um, I don't know if this is important or not, but the MITO is blasting out a continuous signal like a launch vehicle in full throated roar.'

'MITO?'

'Oh, come on Pops. Didn't you get enough coffee this morning? MITO... "Mage-In-The-Oven", you know? Poor kid doesn't have a name yet and that's as good a tag as any.'

'Ah, the light breaks through. MITO, that's a good one kid. So, what's up with the screamer?' Mike returned.

'Well, like I said, I don't know if this means anything but the signal she's beaming out now started out as a secondary line underneath the signal she beamed to the last Dragon hatch. Now, it's the primary one and the volume is off-the-scale. Add that factoid in with the massive clutch the Dwarves just found and I think our MITO is calling for a hatch. Here's the kicker though, the signal is screaming "HURRY". So that raises the question; Hurry for what? See what I mean, Boss?'