Edwards frowned, eye-to-eye with his blonde opponent. She was more than attractive. She was exciting, and he wanted her. "Why don't you put your money where your mouth is?"
The blonde smiled thinly. "Name the time and place."
Edwards thought a moment, then said, "Next Saturday, here, eight o'clock. If you win, I'll buy you dinner."

The blonde laughed. "If you win, I'll buy us both room service. That's how sure I am you'll lose."
Edwards couldn't keep the smile off his face now. A win-win situation, if he'd ever heard one. "Deal. What are your names?"
The brunette replied, "I'm Annette, and this is my sister Elise," she said, motioning with her right hand in her sister's direction, revealing a gold ring with a stone that looked like the eye of a bird or a cat. Weird. Whatever.

Elise, Edwards repeated to himself as he nodded to each of them. "Well, I'm Blai -"
"We don't care who you are," Elise interrupted. "Just be here next Saturday."
"I wouldn't miss it for anything," Edwards said. "It should be a close game."
Elise laughed mockingly. "Close? I'm going to kill you."

Elise walked softly up the flight of stairs to her seat in the balcony of the abandoned estate's indoor tennis court. She had been seen, of course. Seventy-five percent of their brains were given over to vision, giving them the ability to see the date on a penny from the length of a football field. Nothing moving could be hidden from their eyes.

Today was Thursday. The week had gone by quickly. The forecast called for the rain to end by evening, which worked.

Annette was down below, doing her magic. Suddenly Elise found herself fighting back tears. No warning. These thoughts and feelings rarely announced themselves. Jules. How was it possible that her precious brother was dead? How was it possible that she would no longer hear his voice or see the smile form on his face when he saw her?