TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA

EchoEnergy has broken through the barriers to alternative fuel sources. The impact on world markets could be staggering. But amid the euphoria, Sabrina Galloway, one of EE's top scientists, makes an alarming discovery. Sabotage of the process has unleashed an eco-disaster, and toxic waste is poisoning Florida waters and the Gulf of Mexico.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Youthful congressional

Still spry at ninety-three, Theodora has lived long enough to see her family grow into an insufferable bunch of truculent knuckleheads. Having finally gathered the whole bickering brood together for the holidays at her South Carolina home, the grand matriarch pines wistfully for those extravagant, homey Christmases of her childhood. How she misses the tables groaning with home-cooked goodies, the over-the-top decorations, those long, lovely fireside