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"Bizarre," muttered Becks

"Aweso," said a voice I turned toward the kitchen, where a brown-haired wo, ar jeans and a tank top, and her hair was cropped short, leaving nothing for a zorab hold of She looked irl fro her heels against a cabinet So that looked normal in this place could possibly be what it see with the rest of us He recovered quickly, stepping forward and offering his hand "I’m Mahir Gowda It’s a pleasure to--"

"You’re not here totone "No one comes here to meet me You’re here for the Monkey Well, he’s not sure he wants to talk to you just yet Who sent you?"

"No one sent us We ca a pistol in each hand I hadn’t even seen her draw "Somebody told you who to look for, and somebody told you where to look So who sent you?"

"Alaric Kwong He said the Monkey was the best in the business," said Becks

The brunette blinked Then, to my surprise, she smiled, a little wistfully "Alaric? Really? You’re the people he’s been working with?"

The four of us stared at her for a moment Slowly, I nodded "Yeah He’s part of my crew I’m Shaun Mason, After the End Ti as fast as it came "I’reed The Fox lowered her guns "Do we pass the security check?"

"For theup a bread knife from the counter "Why did Alaric send you?"

We could have tried for diplomacy We could have tried for plausible deniability In the end, that seeht oing to need to run for the border pretty soon, since the CDC is trying to kill us--"

"--we think," Becks interjected

"Right, we think Anyway, they probably released bioengineered deathto get us, so they’re a little pissed right now Thatfor"

"Why?" asked the little redhead, guilelessly

I hesitated I could give the anse’d been giving everyone else--so we could get out, so we could run and escape and live--or I could tell the truth I looked towardthe to obviously ho to see what I would say I took a breath