Igor was feeling loved, and smothered, as he stood there hugged by his wife and daughters, who showed such boundless faith in him, he prayed he would not let them down. A planning session ensued, with Marta grabbing her laptop and starting a spread-sheet, Igor was not really conversant with all this technology, but he soon saw how when she changed one entry, the whole thing recalculated itself, oh for bright kids.

While she played with the numbers he'd given her, he made a discrete phone call, giving the go ahead for a little night shift job he had spoken about with a few of the most stalwart and reliable guys on his team at work, checking of course they had the correct address.

He turned to find Anna had followed him and her broad grin meant she must have heard the mischief of phase one, before the evening was out his devious daughters had added to the plot, and thought of a few new avenues to secure 'their house' for the lowest price.

Despite a late night the girls were up early, and soon both were busy on their respective school-work laptops, checking things out using the web as Marta started a database to supplement her existing spreadsheet. A hectic productive day just like many other days for the two sisters, except Marta had a slight change of routine that morning, she checked the dates twice, then went to confirm it with her mum, then she popped the blister pack part way along the row selecting today's little pill, washing it down with a glass of water.

Well, she didn't feel any different, she had listened to all the doctor said, and read all the paperwork and another small booklet provided, therefore knowing she was not protected for at the least one full cycle, not that it was important, because she wasn't ready.

The only two people who knew were her mum and Anna, and Marta felt it should stay that way, something even more personal and secret than even having her period.

As much as Marta was progressing with her knowledge of computers, she still found cause to call Karl twice, and managed to stay on topic for part of the time. It was unfortunate that Karl had night school two evenings a week, and Marta had after school activities twice a week meaning she got home a bit later, leaving Tuesdays and Fridays as the only days they both had free time during the week. They sometimes got to study together on a Tuesday, but she hoped they would get to date again on Friday or over the weekend.

After lunch the family went down the road to the park, Igor wanting to see how well his sons coped cycling over the slightly rougher turf of the large open space, proudly watching his four children riding together on their brightly coloured bikes. While taking in the idyllic scene of happy children at play Ella mentioned she had been over to the catering company during the week, as they were going to provide her with some additional cookware.

She had bumped into George who had been running the team at their event, and he told Ella how they now always distributed the leftovers at whichever park or hangout was nearest to the job. He was amused that his boss thought the company was being more efficient, as he was spending less, because now they filled fewer commercial waste bins.

Arm in arm smiling, Igor was thinking this was what family life should be like, he saw all the kids near the far edge of the park come to a stop, it was Anna answering her phone, next they were all heading back at full pelt. Magda and her husband Yuri had invited the family over for a barbecue, failing to get an answer on their home number, they had called Anna's mobile. Borrowing Anna's phone Ella called back and was told come as you are, and not to bother bringing anything.

If they hadn't become such good friends Ella would have worried, but still turning up empty handed was unthinkable, having her mind on baking this week, the kids had eaten many of the results but had missed the rich fruit cake she had placed at the back of the cupboard, they also had a bottle of wine they could take. This was the first social event they had been invited to in,.... No, Ella couldn't recall.

While the children were putting away their bikes Ella pulled Igor off to their room, saying she needed a quiet word, then informed him that Magda's daughter Eve was also a model at the studio, but that their collective daughters thought each mum was unaware of the others connection with the studio, thinking the only link was via meeting their sons who, like their daughters shared common schools. Igor was amused that the women enjoyed this intrigue, but made no comment.

It was not much more than a hundred metres walk to the pleasant house only a little smaller than their own, and soon after the introductions the party distilled into four groups. Igor and Yuri by the flaming embers burning meat, the ladies fussing in the kitchen, noisy boys running around the lawn, and giggling girls whispering behind cupped hands at the table. Beer in hand as Yuri passed on the mysteries of outdoor cooking, something Igor had never tried, he revised his earlier opinion, this was how to spend a family weekend.

During their chat Yuri said how he was the manager of large painting and decorators wholesalers, to which Igor replied mentioning the name of the company he had just joined, of course Yuri asked how he found the job. "Ivan introduced me, ....."

The two stood there looking sheepish, "Ella said we have something in common" , he said glancing towards the table, "the girls apparently think their mums only know each other due to the boys sharing a school, and our wives for their own reasons want to keep it that way".

"So do both your girls.......", "Well no, not exactly, Anna our younger daughter went for an audition back in May, anyway it's a long story but now Marta is involved as well, but not as a model."

"I know this one don't tell me, the genius older sister of one of the models at the studio who has been shaking things up", "Ah, the grapevine has been busy".

"Did it weird you out when you first saw those albums?"

"I was knocked sideways at first, I came so close to decking Ivan you wouldn't believe it".

The men shared their feelings together as they hadn't been able to with anyone else, and a bond grew that evening, both sensing they had in effect found a brother, a kindred spirit joined in a fellowship of understanding, as only fathers can who are looking out for their daughters.

That evening under cover of darkness phase one began, for when on the Saturday he had sat down with his wife and daughters to unveil the idea of investing their current savings, he had been given wholehearted support and encouragement, he felt humbled by the unwavering faith they expressed in him, and so the game was on.

Having cleared a gap in his rounds on Monday, he again visited the property agent, this time making a similar enquiry as he had at the others he had been to, the person he spoke to presented a number of options, which he looked at then rejected, until the house he had seen was shown. Igor feigned a mild interest, then asked how long it had been on the market, knowing he could easily be found out in a lie, the agent admitted the house had been empty, and on the market for the past seven months.

Further probing revealed that the owner was unprepared to fund the legal expenses to have the land divided in order to sell the house and bungalow separately, and up till now nobody had wanted to buy the pair, also people in this sector of the market wanted to move straight in. Igor made like he was thinking about it for a while, then he asked what else was available, but of course all the other listings were of no interest.

At the prospect of seeing that his best potential client for weeks was ready to leave, the man suggested that it could at least be worth visiting the house to get a better idea about it's merits. Igor made a show of checking his watch then asking how long it would take to get there, and on the assurance it was only a fifteen minute drive Igor agreed.

Finding the keys he would need, they stepped outside, Igor insisted they take his vehicle, and he would drop the man back afterwards, mainly because his scheming daughters with their interest in drama and stage sets had arranged a scene on his front passenger seat, Igor told the man to move that stuff to the back seats to make space.

That 'stuff' was a box of folders, tagged with the names of major cities at home and abroad, also titles that suggested lots of property dealings, to make out that their dad was an important player who he would want to deal with. Igor asked for directions, and soon he was able to view for himself how badly the house had faired over the course of a single night, the three labourers he had picked had done very well.

Igor surveyed the new additions, staining around the downpipes, gave the impression of damage and leaks, a few windows he had noted were cracked and in need of replacement were now smashed, there was graffiti on the walls, but Igor knew it was water colours, and there were broken roof tiles in evidence nearby, though the agent wouldn't know that they had not come from the roof above. Builders rubble had been dumped on the drive, and the lads had even found a bent supermarket trolley to add to the detritus.

The agent realised they should have kept a closer eye on the place, but there had been so little interest shown with the state of the economy, it had not been visited for some months, concerned he could see this sale slipping away, he thought it best to get inside to where the ravages of time would be less apparent. Igor was pleased to see the guys had used the broken panes to gain entry, and using some dirty water had left some puddles, with stains on the ceilings above to make it look like the roof was unsound, there were also some rusty coloured puddles by some of the radiators, but looking beyond the 'scene painting' Igor was well pleased with the condition of the house.

Dismayed at how the building had gone down hill, there was a glimmer of hope when the potential client with a shrug said he supposed they had better look at the bungalow as they were already here. Apart from graffiti the bungalow had only received minor attention as it was unlikely to have much impact on the price, and Igor could see that everything about it was ideal for his plans.

On the journey back to the office the agent was dejected that the viewing had gone so badly, thinking if the vendor had split the site as advised, he could have sold the individual properties long ago, but now he saw the chances of any sale would continue to diminish over time.

Pulling up to let the agent retreat back to his office Igor left the smallest flicker of hope, asking once again the current price, as if it had slipped his mind, then of course shook his head wishing him luck suggesting it would be hard to get two thirds of that sum with all the work needed on repairs.

With a few well placed phone calls to contacts in the local administration, he had a name and details of the owner, a few more discrete enquiries, aided by some banknotes, and he had enough information to know the man would have to sell soon due to some debts that were accruing interest. As he'd always told the girls, look for every advantage, in this case it was a little slight of hand, together with important knowledge about the vendor.

That morning at school, Anna when swapping books saw the a light blinking on the phone in her backpack, as the ring tone had to be switched off during classes. At lunchtime she found two missed calls, one from the studio and one from her mum, calling home her mum discreetly said there was an appointment set up for Wednesday after school, not knowing who might be able to overhear the conversation at the other end.

That also explained the other call, it was obviously about the additional picture sets for the scheme her sister had thought up, and Anna wanted to take full advantage, banking as many sets as could be arranged. Aside from the money which was very nice, in that it provided many new things for all her family, Anna liked the friendly competition among the girls she had met, and she enjoyed the modelling itself. She thought it was funny being famous half way round the world and at the same time be an ordinary schoolgirl.

During her English lesson that day Svetlana announced that every few weeks she would be giving away several popular children's books to those pupils who had shown the most improvement, she passed round some books, front covers showing characters they were familiar with, but the books were all printed in English, they would be a challenge to read.

Anna considered she would be ineligible to take part, and suspected her studio friends would scoop the prizes, as they had the motivation. She might have gone out to buy them herself if she were not so busy what with school work, modelling, and now helping her dad with ideas for the house he was looking at.

The absentee owner of said house, who now lived several hundred kilometres away, had just received a call from the agent tasked with the sale, passing on the news about the state of disrepair and vandalism. Each question only brought more bad tidings, asking why the house had not been visited for so many months he was informed, this had been the first interest shown in all that time. Then he was told the agent agreed with the property developer who had viewed the house that it's value had now decreased, and if money wasn't spent soon to make repairs with the condition of the roof it could become derelict.

Back on the road between site visits, Igor found he was not far from the commercial area near the river where the regional depot that Yuri ran was located, he decided to call in to see if his new friend had time for a chat and a coffee. His visit was welcomed and they talked as he was shown around, Igor said how his company used various trade outlets to buy paint, but he would see about bringing in some business, so their discussion ran on.

On Tuesday Karl knocked off early, he was going to Marta's to help with some new project and staying on for supper, he was surprised when Anna greeting him at the door, pulled his face down and soundly kissed him, seeing the confused look Anna said it was to thank him for helping Marta on Friday, then coming down from upstairs, Marta kissed him like she really meant it, his afternoon was going very well so far.

The girls had set up 'The House Project' in the study, where Nana Olga & Gramps had stayed, but now the sofa-bed was back to being a sofa, and a sturdy work table was placed end on to one wall so the two laptops sitting there could remain plugged in, and connected to the internet. Both girls explained about their dad's idea, and Marta showed him a big horizontal bar chart she had made to sort the various jobs in the correct order, covered with bits of sticky coloured paper.

The geek inside couldn't help it, he was sure there was some software to do that, chatting away to other geeks online he found what Marta needed, a nice Gant chart easy and interactive, just like the spreadsheets he had taught her about, earning him another kiss. It was surprising how much the girls had learned about building and maintenance listening to their dad or helping him with the odd little private job over the past few years, so with Karl's knowledge the girls redesigned the stuff they had been working on, to make the most of all the computer's bells and whistles.

Igor got home to find his wife and sons in the kitchen with some of their new books spread across the table with an English radio station on in the background, he recognised the station as the BBC, from the UK, Ella was dividing her attention between watching the stove, and helping the boys. After greeting them he went to wash-up and change, then in the study found a hive of activity, three busy bees, two stopped to run over and kiss him, but fortunately he got a more formal, if decidedly nervous "Hello sir", and a handshake from Karl.

At Anna's anxious enquiry as to if he had made an offer for the house yet, he said it was a waiting game to see who blinked first, they didn't have to buy this house, although it was an ideal opportunity. By now the owner was probably aware someone had shown at least a passing interest, and he had learned this man needed to raise some money, so he would sit tight for a while, hopefully the agent would call and they could negotiate from a position of strength. Karl asked Marta in a stage whisper if her dad played chess or poker, which was the cause of laughter, as Ella came in to hustle everyone to come and eat.

During the banter around the meal table Karl said to Marta that her mum was a better cook than his, but not to say a word when she met his parents, Ella who took pride in her skills in the kitchen was encouraged to note the boy was planning to introduce Marta to his family. Greg and Peter were quick to mention their mum made the best cakes in the world, but then they were both pleased with their mum's recent increase in production.

Since their late lunch on Saturday Karl had spoken to Marta several times, and she was always on his mind, walking home from work the day before he bumped into one of his old classmates who lived nearby, not that they were really friends or had anything much in common. When the lad said he had seen him in town on Friday, and asked who the fit looking bird was, Karl had been proud to state he had been taking out his girlfriend Marta, earlier he had related the encounter much to her delight, she seemed to glow from hearing the tale, kissing him with a passion, until Anna started to make coughing noises.

After the meal Anna volunteered to help clear up, and offered to get the boys off to bed later, and although Marta joked about checking Anna's temperature to see if she was OK, she was grateful to her sister taking over kitchen duty that evening. This gave Karl and Marta the opportunity to show Igor all the work they been sorting out on the computer, having been interrupted by the call to eat.

Igor could follow how the database thing cross referenced information, but was at a loss as to how anyone could set one up from scratch, on the other hand he was impressed by the simplicity of spreadsheets, with their little formulas hidden in the boxes. Amount of materials in one box, unit cost in the next, press a button and there's the total, much like he did now manually in crowded messy notepads, but without the scratching out when the numbers changed. Aside from the house project he could see how this could relate to his everyday activities at work in all manor of ways.

Ella looked up from the grocery list she was writing, Marta having asked if she wanted tea as she was making drinks, curious at her daughter's amused expression, only to be told it was regarding the male bonding going on in the other room. Apparently Karl was teaching her dad how he could use a computer to help in his new job. In an effort to demonstrate to her mum how useful computers were, she gave an example of how the list she was working on could be typed in once and saved, just to print out again as needed, but only having to fill in the quantities for the things she wanted that week.

An hour or so later, never having used anything more complicated than a power tool on site, Igor was convinced in his new managerial role, he needed to re-skill and up his game in order to succeed in his new position. Having been shown what his daughters laptop machines were capable of, he asked about how much one would cost loaded with the programmes he had been shown. Karl reasoned he should speak to Dmitri, as he and Boris were always purchasing new kit, and they would be able to advise him on what to get, and where to find the best deal.

Marta had remained lingering in the background, aware that Karl's talking to her father concerning a geek subject, enabled her boyfriend to overcome his usual reticence, hoping that the previous awkwardness between them would diminish as her father got to know Karl and appreciate he was more mature than he had been given credit for.

The next day at work Karl spoke about Igor's needs, and Dmitri said there was no need to buy a new machine, just search though the local small adds, many people were trying to raise money by selling off equipment, then as a training exercise Karl could clear out the dross, and load the programmes needed. Within a few minuets of looking Karl found that there were so many people selling equipment that it was a buyers market, and found several good bargains, noting the numbers for the best ones.

Wondering if, given time to reflect, Igor was still as keen as the night before, Karl made the call, when he put the phone down, he found he had a lunchtime date, unfortunately it was with Marta's dad, he wanted them to go together to see one of the sellers, and he needed Karl's expert opinion. He was dropped back at the office with a fairly recent model laptop, after being treated to a Deli lunch for his troubles.

Later that afternoon he was shocked to be allowed entry into the 'inner sanctum' of the department, as the laptop PC would be a useful training run, as Boris passed on his esoteric knowledge of computer forensics. Following the guru's instructions he was able to see the porn folders and other personal information the prior owner had so carefully deleted before the sale. Deleting didn't remove things for those who knew how and where to look, then he was taught how to eliminate all of the records as if they had never existed by correctly wiping the data, and over-writing. The lessons continued until the machine was de-fagged and optimised, with the security and virus protection beefed-up, and many of the operating system flaws addressed, it was now running far better than it had been when it first came out of the box.

It had be a revelation for young Karl to find that a supposedly clean second hand computer could reveal so many secrets of it's previous owner, who had thought they were all safely removed. He decided any kit he got rid of in the future would be sans hard drive, that would be going under the hammer - quite literally.

Having to get across town to evening classes, he arranged to leave Igor's new toy in reception for him to pick up later, while still a little wary of the large man he was glad they had seemed to connect on some level, and last night as he was leaving Marta had thanked him for making the effort to help her dad. It was great having a girlfriend at last, he just wished they could spend more time together - alone.

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For those of you who are still with me - a comment or two might be helpful, also does anyone want any other hints/spoilers of what lies further along the trail? Not having my own 'on topic' blog, website, or e-mail address, I often visit the forum on this site to join the current subjects under debate.

In the next instalment, the girls invent - new improved arousal in a tin, Anna shoots a set, Igor plays for high stakes, and Marta comes face to face with the harsh realities of life on the streets.