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Maybe seeing the carnage Others caused would be enough to ensure that she would figure out a way to rid Seattle of its Kalith residents The Board of Regents had considered issuing direct orders to dispose of theainst that idea If they ever h that they walked away from the job, the whole world would be screwed, not to mention overrun with Others out for blood

He picked up the authorization requests Sasha had sub to read them more carefully, he considered the ihter sure was hell bent onher presence known, and not just in Seattle Once her proposed expenditures were approved, the Regents would be hearing fro soht here in Missouri

Maybe it was time to roll the dice and see what happened He reached for his pen and scrawled his name on the requests

Chapter 11

Duke glared at the e-mail on his laptop The sender’s address was unfa But the subject line on this one was clearly meant for him

He read it out loud: "Duke, the bastards must die"

The body of the e-nature to identify the sender Okay, he was doith the idea if this guy was talking about killing those fucking Others who’don this side of the barrier The adults should’ve been gutted the minute they crossed over and the two kids shoved back into their oorld Neither of those things was going to happen, not with a bunch of the Paladins ready to go down fighting to protect then on to any feasible plan for getting things back to the way they were before that creepy Barak crossed paths with Devlin Bane The e-mail said to simply send a blank reply if he wanted to know more He’d do it in a heartbeat if he knew for sure it wasn’t a trap

"Who the hell are you?" he asked, wishing he could expect an answer

His hand hovered over theto click the button If he chickened out, he’d have to go on watching his friends fight and die, and for what? Not a da the eneuards

He knew for a fact that part of the Seattle budget had been diverted to pay the three adult Kalith’s salaries Barak was paid to ith his woman No doubt about how he earned his money Hell, Duke would’ve applied for that job hilance

The other tere "instructors" Sure, they could teach everyone how to counter the style of fighting the Others used But in return, the Kalith no everything about the human weapons and how they were used

The question he had hether the Kalith could duplicate the technology used to produce firearence Barak and Lareather?

As Duke considered his options, he wiped his sweaty palnore the e- his job, and eating antacids by the handful Or, he could click the button and see what happened

He clicked the mouse before he could convince himself otherwise

It wasn’t until he ell into his six-pack two hours later that he reh, histhe e-ed another beer

Okay, it was now or never He opened the e-mail and scanned its contents

"Well, I’ll be damned"

He couldn’t sit still, so he walked a couple of laps around the rooe again:

Friend, from noon’t use names or at least real ones This Sunday, take the ferry across to Whidbey Island and drive down to the state park on the south end Be there at noon and carry a newspaper opened to the sports page so we can recognize each other I can’t tell you how many of us to expect and wouldn’t if I could You have one last chance to back out of the deal by replying with "cancel my subscription" typed in the subject line Otherwise, you’re in this for the long haul The fight for our world begins now!

The words burned theed the trash file and then e to destroy all records of the correspondence except a hard copy Sunday was his day off Had the mysterious sender known that? It was pretty dauy seemed to know

Duke would know more come this weekend Until then, tomorroas another workday, and it was ti in the darkness, he had to wonder whether he’d just signed his own death warrant

The money had been approved Sasha danced around her office whooping it up, grinning fro her reflection in theHer little celebration didn’t last long though It was no fun when she was the only one tapping her toes

She dialed Laurel’s nue when it went to voice mail She also struck out when she tried Devlin That was okay In an hour she was due at Lacey Sebastian’s house for a Saturday night barbecue It would be a whole lot more fun to tell Devlin and Laurel in person

The geologist had called with the invitation right after Sasha had finished up herwith Devlin Lacey had warned Sasha that there was likely to be a et to know the locals in a