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Annie looked pale and drawn, and when she saw Bryn, her eyes filled with tears She ca moment "I was so worried about you," Annie whispered "God, Bryn You okay?"

"Yeah, I’m fine," Bryn said, and patted Annie’s back "Not like we haven’t been through worse, right?"

"That is way too right to be funny any to have to call the fam pretty soon and lie to the stupid like call the cops and filepersons on us"

That was an excellent point, and Bryn was a little startled that she hadn’t thought of it "God, you’re right We had to ditch the cell phones, after all They ht think we’ve been--"

"Abducted," Annie said, and burst into strange, borderline-hysterical laughter "Funny, isn’t it?"

The laughter was infectious, and Bryn felt it bubbling its way up out of her too--not humor, exactly, but a black kind of a to Annie, and Annie held on to her, and they laughed it out until they finally got enough breath to separate

Annie wiped her eyes and said, "I guess we really should eat soht?"

"I hope they have steak," Bryn said "I really hope they have steak"

In fact, they did Evidently, Riley and Pansy had put their heads together, and dinner was mostly available self-serve in pots and pansbut there were steaks, big ones, and a small stack of them were left almost raw When Bryn took a plate, Riley--who looked rested and fresh, too--pointed her toward the meat "Specially made," she said "I think you’ll find it’s what you need It helped me a lot"

"You already ate?"

"Had to," Riley said That was a short answer, but it conveyed a lot, especially when she raised her eyebrows just a bit "Pansy was kind enough to fix so"

That ht "Is Manny awake?"

"Oh, yes," Lia broccoli onto his plate beside a chicken breast "Mr Glickman woke very loudly He is now barricaded in his room and says he will not come out until you and Riley vacate the premises and he has a chance to decontaminate the rooms"

"He’ll come around," Pansy said "It was just the shock He’ll bestays chill If it does, he’ll come out in a few days You’ll see"

"We don’t have days," Patrick said He and Joe already had plates and were seated at the table, and Joe was halfway through what looked like some kind of stew Bryn plated her steak and carried it over to sit next to them "We have a day, maybe, but the people behind the Fountain Group’s research, whoever they are, however they intend to use all this sick technologythey clearly have ood as this place is, it has vulnerabilities--principally, it’s a bunker, which means li us out, and we’ll have a hard tiht: we let theht directly to their doorstep We can’t win this by fighting a defensive war"

"How exactly can we do that, e have no idea where their doorstep ht be?" Annie asked, as she put her food on the table and sat down beside Joe "Other than Pharain, please"

"The FBI will take good care of Pharmadene; trust ot subverted in the first place," Bryn said "But we do know so We knoned the old folks’ ho"

"The Fountain Group," Patrick said "Lia the research Well, he was before we had to break off and run, but I suppose membership in this fortress comes with Wi-Fi access"

"If you ask enerated, and it changes every day I’ll let you knohere to get the new codes"

"Wow," Bryn said "Doesn’t it just make you tired? All thesecurity?"

"Sure," Pansy answered, and spooned up soup "But you end up surrendering things, little by little, when your partner needs et used to it It’s not any different froram was actually under way, only we have Blu-ray and surround sound"