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Nine claps his hands and points at Six "I like the way this chick thinks"

"Oh, is it that easy?" Five asks, speaking up for the first ti out the trash"

"I wish it were so simple," I say "But we don’t knohere he is and, even if we could find hiht The last tiainst hiet hi over at Five "Maybe fire up some more crop circles"

"You can’t be serious," Sa in his seat at the mention of Setrákus Ra

"He’s not serious," Five says, glaring in Nine’s direction "He’s ns a yawn "Whatever I really do think we should go fight soht cuts in

"Yeah, it’s ether," I say, keeping my voice measured "We have the eleot an opportunity to prepare and pick our next battle Let’s not rush into anything"

"John’s right," Marina says "There’s still so much we don’t know about ourselves, our powers, our Chests"

"It’d be good to know exactly e’re working with," Eight says "We did so with Nine in the Lecture Hall the other day It was helpful Surprisingly so"

Nine grins "Conored"

"Yeah," Sarah chimes in "I think I speak for all of us hu wouldn’t hurt"

"Learning what our Chests contain would help too," I offer "Maybe we could figure out which ite about"

"An inventory seems to be in order," Malcol your Chest a top priority," I say, looking over at Five

"Absolutely," Five replies, see about as certain as I’ve ever seen hio We can do that whenever you want"

"That ht says "Especially if we could get it done under the Mog radar"

"I still think we should just blow up their freaking radar," Nine grumbles

"Soon, buddy," I reply "For noe need to play it safe Gather our strength Malcoluy? Ada "I’ve hooked up a tracker so we’ll be alerted if his cell phone turns on, but nothing yet I fear the worst"

"Maybe he just ditched his phone," suggests Sa dad

"We got a bit off topic here, didn’t we?" Six puts in "What about Ella’s night quietly, that responds "I’ll tough theoing to punch hiht," I say, grinning "Meeting adjourned"

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

LATER, THE FOUR OF US THAT STILL HAVE OUR Chests gather in the workshop with Malcolm I’m happy to help out--I’m just not sure how h to explain what any of the stuff in my Chest does

Fro marksmanship with Sah he didn’t look too thrilled about the prospect of learning to shoot Nine stares longingly at the door to the Lecture Hall Sighing drah his Chest

"Check this out," Nine says He holds up a small purple stone and then places it on the back of his hand The stone slides into his hand--through it Nine turns his hand over just as the stone pops out in his pal his eyebrows

"Uh, but what is it supposed to do?" Eight asks, looking up froirls?" Nine looks over atnot to roll uys teleport so I’h crowd"

"What does it feel like when it passes through your hand?" Malcolm asks He holds a pen poised over a clipboard

"Uh, kinda weird, I guess My hand goes nu around "You guys want a try?"

"Yes, actually," Malcol happens "Huess it’s Loric only"

Malcol it back into his Chest, Nine shoves the purple stone into his pocket Maybe he’s going to go out and try to impress some ladies later

John holds up a collection of brittle-looking leaves, the bundle held together by soently in his hands, unsure what toto do with Lorien, right?"

"Maybe it’s a reminder froging through his own Chest again "I don’t have any dumb leaves in here"