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JANCO

"What’s your rush?" Maren asked

Janco hustled her along the hallways of the castle The need to hurry pulsed in his veins "So about?"

"Outside Valek’s office That darkness wasoddweird I felt strong ic And his knife was on the floor Didn’t you see it?"

"No I was--"

"Too busy sleeping And that was strange, too"

"Yeah, I guess" Maren re happened to Valek?"

Did he? He considered the clues "Yes"

"But he’s iot that Maren didn’t know about null shields No time to explain it to her "Yeah, well, Owen could have shot hiet Ari We need reinforceht theot the best aiicians, too"

"But can’t that one guy ic? A dart wouldn’t reach him"

Janco skidded to a stop "Oh, hell"

"And I’one by now"

They wouldn’t wait for Janco to figure it out and return What to do? Janco closed his eyes He ejected his chaotic thoughts, suppressed his worry and fear for Valek and concentrated on the logic If Owen killed Valek, the Commander would be upset, but if Valek disappeared But he couldn’t hide a dead body, it would stink after a few days They could s it with an illusion Too risky Maybe they planned to keep him locked up But where? And would they risk the possibility of Valek escaping? Probably not

This was going nowhere He switched his line of thought Where was the one place the Couest suites! Janco opened his eyes

Maren waited with her arnored the insult "Come on" Janco ran and didn’t bother to check if Maren followed or not

Ari jumped to his feet when Janco burst into their apartrabbed his bag of tricks and dashed back "Reema, stay here Ari, coo!"