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He led Ari and the girl down an uneven sidewalk Weeds greeen the cracks and glass crunched under his boots The broken s had been boarded over and the houses appeared to have been abandoned and left to squatters

"I don’t think you’ll find this area listed in the guide book," Ari said

"It’s a little-known spot that should rereed Plus it hurt his scar The pain increased, then lessened after he walked past a run-down shack "You’ve got to be kidding ?" Ari asked

"The complete and utter lack of creativity That shack is an illusion"

"Okay, let’s go" Ari yanked his scied toward it

Janco stepped in front of him "Hold on We don’t knohat’s on the other side And itthe sensible one How about that? There was a first ti Janco herded theo fetch Fisk and as many of his er, but scurried away

"Nohat?" Ari asked

"The illusion is hiding another building, so we case the joint See if there are any other entrances These houses are all juht I’ll loop around back and you take the roof"

Janco eyed the sagging rooftops--some peaked, others flat "If you hear a treles"

Ari didn’t bother to reply He slipped around the row of houses withoutThe drainpipe looked sketchy, and the wooden siding bowed outward as if the house had been stuffed full The corner of the buildingas the nails hadn’t rusted through

A skittery feeling brushed his back Janco spun around, searching for the cause The courtyard was empty He scanned the s, but no one watched him However, he couldn’t shake the certainty that so the strangeness, he scaled the two-story structure and reached the roof

Keeping low and testing each step before he put his full weight on it, he headed toward the shack A nuress He wondered if any of the residents would investigate the noises or if they’d think it’d be safer to reuessed they’d stay inside

As he drew closer, the quality of the roofs changed The tiht The outer layer still rese His scar tweaked with pain just as he reached a shts--quite a surprise

Janco tiptoed closer, then laid flat on his stomach to peek inside It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the darker interior He clamped down on a shout Yelena lay on a couch below She appeared to be sleeping, or maybe paralyzed by Curare Janco fervently hoped it was one of those two, and that she wasn’t dead Before he could move, four men arrived They carried a wooden crate with them, and then they lifted Yelena and packed her inside it, as if she were a piece of furniture!

He stared in shock as they wheeled the box from the room

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