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"Rogan," Sturan’s voice was nonchalant "I was having the best dreaI was embarrassed for you, actually"

There was a momentary pause "I had no idea you devoted soabout me"

"Not really What do you want, Sturan pretended to consider it "No"

"Why do you have to be so tedious? What do you want for thehed "I have a lot of things you don’t want History shows that when our Houses fight, yours loses"

Rogan smiled The hair on the back of my neck rose

"Try me"

"I intend to," Sturm said "There will be enormous losses in personnel and property, and at the end, I’ll win I have one sian I can direct the destruction, while you just ee Why don’t we skip all that and discuss our options?"

"You have no options," Rogan said, his voice harsh

"Let uess, you have a Boy Scout plan You’ll crack the cypher and then what? Turn it over to Jordan?"

"The thought crossed hed "Come on Even if I humor you, and we suppose that I’ll sit on uess about the caliber of people involved Nothing will happen, Rogan They will bury it, and if Jordan tries to hold on to it, they will bury that uppity bitch with it They’ve been talking about cutting her down to size forwould escape

"Then you have nothing to worry about"

"Exceptonto break the cypher, I will be de Houston"

"And this helps you how?"

"By the time I’m done, there will be no city left Do you knohat happens in the wake of a natural disaster of such proportions? There is no law and order There is no accountability There is only chaos By the ti out who may be responsible for what, nobody will be able to implicate me Weather spells can’t be traced In fact, credible proof may surface that you were responsible for the destruction of the city Of the two of us, you’re the one with the cute nicknames, Huracan"

"I had no idea an said

"Perhaps you hired a store, and used the stor like this happens, people look for a narrative, Rogan And a former hero, who never careat story I’ll even shed a tear for you"

"You do realize that I’ this call?"

"Good Play it back and listen to it until you realize I don’t care I’m not concerned I’ure out the answer, call "

"He hung up, sir," Bug reported

The workstation turned toward us, the top right screen dark

Rogan tossed the cup aside--it floated into the sink--and nodded at Lenora "Did you catch all that?"

"Yes," Lenora Jordan said, her voice cutting "I did"

"He’s playing for tian said

"Do whatever the hell you have to do to stop that tornado fro Houston I can’t evacuate the city in an hour We’ll see you there And Rogan? Sturm is mine I’m the law Nobody is above the law"

Her screen went dark

"Right We have a base to crack," Rogan said "We have an outer ith eight guard towers I’d like to get through that ith the least noise possible That uards"

"That won’t be an issue," Diana said

Everyone looked at her