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I frowned at hietting tired of Eli following, protecting, and taking care of s up, shake hirouchy Maybe it was the caffeine or the lack of sleep, but whatever I sipped the tea, trying to rerouchy I really did need sleep

The e room, which took up most of sub-four’s floor space Eli and I stepped off and the elevator doors closed, the cage going back up

The rooroundwater fro in, and ell lit, well ventilated, and packed full of vas, in every corner and along the bookcases, which themselves were filled with thousands of books and manuscripts, trunks, wooden boxes, heavy cardboard boxes, hat boxes, wig boxes, and various stuff collected by the vah HQ for centuries There were steaes, jewel boxes, suitcases, and photograph albuh to look like a bad episode of Hoarders, and took up most of the subbasement There were tons ofjunk And history Andstuff

I wandered to the right, sipping, through trails between piles of very expensive and valuable junk, now following Eli toward the paintings that were stacked in front of the safe "So did you ever figure out if there’s a system to the junk stored here? Maybe a caretaker?" I asked

"Bethany," Eli said, hu Bethany Bethany, as so, or after he was injured? That Bethany?"

"One and the sahed, stopped in front of the paintings, and stared at the my shoulders I drained the teacup and set it on top of a flat-topped trunk, iht up with s drew me

I knew a lot of people in theht of fashion back in the days of poufy drawers and tights, now dead The Three and their maker, Le Bâtard, a va on the floor of Leo’s special scion roo back, over and over again Next time I’d take her head before Leo could stop s I stood and watched as paintings of Leo and Katie eht have been the height of style for the late seventeen hundreds, the couple shown standing on a steaht sky Leo was looking at Katie with lust in his eyes Katie was laughing She had been in love with Leo for a long time I wondered if he really understood that

There was a painting frooire and Dominique The two blonds stood in front of scarlet draperies, Doarter belt, corset, and little else, Grégoire wearing a black tuxedo and big fluffy tie Cravat Whatever And a top hat His arm was around Dominique and she was bent back, chest outthrust, one knee raised to curl around his legs, staring at him, in love with hioire had no idea Men

Eli slid the painting across the floor, exposing the safe "It’s a Victor Safe and Lock, the company out of Cincinnati, Ohio This one was patented in 1904, which we knew The two front doors are composed of layers of steel, six inches thick, sealed with a co to the usual style, it has five inner doors of drawers, two on top, three smaller ones on bottom, each with its own combination lock and its own combination" He held out a hand and I placed the keys and numbers in his palm Eli went to work

"I need et the outer doors open to reveal the inner doors and drawers My fingertips were tingling from exhaustion

"This ake you up Remember that necklace on Brute?" Eli asked

I slid my eyes from the dark metal of the safe to Eli "I’ as fresh as a daisy Dang him "The data on the ju them up and did a cursory search of a couple of them"

That woke me up "And?"

"They were Reach’s data files Or soot them is that he took theot the our information system Soon we’ll have at least soertips Then it’s just aso we knoe have Which will take time, but it has Alex’s total attention"

"I love your brother," I said

"Cougar"

"A to Alex, as read into the current action on Eli’s headset, the safe was a standard design for this model, with thick outer doors and five inner compartments Leo’s combination numbers worked on only three of the inner doors, however Soht upper and center lower draere unavailable to us The left upper contained velvet and leather bags that looked perfect for holding old coins, none of which felt or sic My life was totally off any kind of solid foundation when a fortune in ges Seven dark blue velvet bags contained rough, uncut geeht red rubies, which va as my thumbnail, which Eli proclaimed were South Sea pearls and worth a fortune I didn’t ask how he knew that Courtesy of Uncle Sas I never would The leather bags held the gold, some of which had been minted into uneven coins stamped with Spanish words and old-fashioned heads that Eli said were likely fro held old earrings and bracelets etched and pressed with sy the archeological value, I guessed the weight of the gold to be around ten pounds; Leo had his own bank We put everything back where we found it and closed that compartment