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"Before you two start et serious for ato need more than just the four of us Does Manny have any contacts he can touch?"

"Don’t you?"

"Yes But I’ed by now Manny’s friends, on the other hand, will be much harder to identify, locate, and hopefully to sideline"

"His friends like to be paid They’re kind of, you know, mercenary"

"We can do that," Lia that this is not a long-terle"

"If it is, we’ll lose," Patrick said "The Fountain Group is a very clear threat; they stepped in when Pharh influence and forward planning to infiltrate the FBI and take control of the research progra, only that they have gone too far to stop, and they clearly don’t have any kind ofus, at least the honest parts of it, for soet to the people who run the Fountain Group, do it fast and surgically, we can break this down in a oal Days, not weeks"

"Good, because I don’t want to haveforever," Joe said Bryn felt a twinge of guilt for that, because it was her fault that his faentially; they were great kids, and Kylie was a lovely woman Joe didn’t deserve to have his life destroyed, but now that they were all ht and win, or lose everything

Patrick caught Bryn’s eye, and held it, as he said, "We’re not giving up Nobody here is giving up It’s not in our natures"

After that, it seemed as if a dark shadow had passed Bryn and Riley finished their steaks; everybody else ate their dinners; Joe and Annie and Pansy traded friendly, snarky banter Liam added in the occasional dry bon lanced up in the corner, and realized that there was a small camera installed there She’d subconsciously been aware of it, she realized--and aware that Manny was al them

She picked up her plate and silverware, walked to the sink, and washed everything before loading it in the dishwasher Let hi doe his ain Pansy often referred to "talking Manny off the ledge," and sometimes she meant it literally--but his ht

She got herself a glass of wine from the common bottle, and touched Patrick on the shoulder as she passed hi to my room," she said "We need to talk Co, and then nodded In all the chaos and fury of their escape fro five-hundred-pound gorilla standing between theht, they had to talk about her new status as what a fleshand, although itselfish, they also had to talk about so Patrick had chosen to hide from her

One way or another, whatever else the conversation broughtthey were going to talk about Jane

• • •

Bryn waited in her roo at the table; she’d found a stack of books on a sh a pretty interesting account of an Amazon explorer when the knock came at the door

Deep breath

She opened it, nodded to Patrick, who nodded back, and shut the door behind hie of the bed, and he didn’t try to sit beside her; one thing about Patrick, he’d never been colorblind to nuances He took the office chair and rolled it close, sat, and put his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward She didn’t think she’d seen hi quite so lu boots suited hiray tee under the checked shirt It rowth look comfortable and appropriate

She had to admit it: she liked him scruffy But she had to put that aside, in a mental closet, and lock the door on it, because this discussion wasn’t going there

At all

"So," he said "You’rethe new, improved model"