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has been two hours longer than yours.  Waiting in airports and flying has worn me out, so I’m going to bed.  It's so good to be home with you."
    "Good night, Ela ," she said watching her daughter walk to her old room.
    "G’night, Mom," came Ela ’s voice so mumbled that all Con heard was the last word.
    " What’s in a name?" Con mused.  "Everything coming from the right lips," she answered herself, thinking she had the best name of all. Mom.

[email protected] —Outbox (to encryption)
    Message 1: To the following recipients: Ethos@uscybercom, Duenna@noaa, Reeve@nsa
    Activation Warning
    Time: 72 hours
    Place: United States
    Event:  An extreme winter storm
    The initial phase will be a multipronged cyber attack.  A weaponized virus currently in place, but inactive, will be enabled.  Communications and electrical grid control systems will begin to deteriorate.
    The power going off will be the universal call to action for physical attacks against any infrastructure with the intent of prolonging outages, denying relief efforts, and inciting riots.

Day 2
Tess - Langford Creek, Chesapeake Bay, MD
    S/V Robin barely swung on her slack anchor rode and made no movement other than an occasional, almost imperceptible, roll when a passing boater’s wake nudged the hull.  With only an intermittent, slight breeze this had been the hottest day of Tess’s life, and tomorrow was supposed to top today's record.
    Tess spent most of the sweltering afternoon in and out of the water on the shady side of the boat.  When not doing that she poured chilled water or juice down her throat, trying to stay hydrated.  Her appetite went to zilch for anything that wasn't cold and wet, which concerned her as the cruising lifestyle depended on having ample energy.
    Aware of the statistic that each year, on average, more Americans died from hyperthermia than from tornados, hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes combined concerned her; she knew the conditions she was experiencing were causing fatalities in the cities around her.  Staying hydrated was essential, especially with high humidity levels factoring into the heat index, and no air conditioning aboard.  She hoped that her fluid intake was enough to offset the copious amount of sweat her body was futilely producing and then dripping off, without evaporating and cooling her.
    Along with enduring the peak heat and humidity in the late afternoon, air quality had gotten so bad conditions aboard appeared unworldly for a time.  Robin floated in a one-dimensional world of gray.  Nothing but haze, no shape, nor variation of color, could be seen past the lifelines.  The sky and the surface of the river visually merged, taking on the same dismal hue of the polluted air.  Though she could hear the sounds of overhead jetliners and reverberating motorboats, her inability to see them through the surrounding grayness heightened the sense of isolation that came over her.  Keeping her morale up seemed harder by the hour.
    Reality has a way of cutting-in and interrupting the pleasure of lazy musings, bringing a chill along with the sudden awareness of danger, like a cliff-edge appearing out of the fog. Due to miscalculating her water consumption during the heat wave, replenishing Robin’s 72-gallon fresh-water tank hit the number-one spot on Tess's priority list after noticing how her usage had gone up sharply.  Only a couple of day's worth of drinking water remained aboard, and she needed one of those days to get to a source of potable water.
    Tess's idea of sailing to Chestertown the next morning was confirmed when she learned there was a reasonable chance of 8-10 knots of SE wind filling in midmorning. That amount of wind would be just enough for Robin, a light-air sailboat, to ghost along at a couple of knots.  Tess much preferred sailing rather than motoring anytime, but especially in hot weather; using the inboard diesel engine would add heat to the already stifling cabin temperatures.
    Before