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"Mornin’, sunshine!" Liam called "Sleep okay?"

Zu darted out ahead ofwith an invisible weight as I ca h to ask, "What is this place?"

This ti it was East River The East River, Idown at my shoes "The peninsula It empties into the Chesapeake Bay"

"Thank you Detective Duh" Chubs shook his head "We’re talking about the Slip Kid’s East River"

"Hey" Liam’s voice was sharp "Lay off, buddy We really didn’t know anything about it until ere out of camp, either"

Chubs crossed his arms over his chest and looked away "Whatever"

"What is it?"

I felt Liam turn his attention back to me, which immediately prompted me to turn my attention back to Zu, who rip, I ordered myself, stop it

I wasn’t afraid of theht too hard about how easily I could ruin their lives, or pictured their horrified reactions if they were to figure out what, exactly, I was I just didn’t knohat to say or how to act around them Every movement and word on inning to worry that the feelings of hesitancy and aardness were never going to lift I already felt like the freak of freaks without the added realization that I lacked the basic ability of cohed, scratching the back of his head "We first heard about East River from some kids in our camp Supposedly--and I mean supposedly--it’s a place where any kids on the outside can go and live together The Slip Kid, who runs the show, can get you in touch with your folks without the PSFs finding out about it There’s food, a place to sleep--well, you get the picture The proble it We think it’s somewhere in this area, thanks to a few fairly unhelpful Blues we ran across in Ohio It’s the kind of thing that…"

"If you’re in the know, you’re not supposed to talk about it," I finished "But who’s the Slip Kid?"

Liauess people know, they just don’t say The ruave him that nicknaood four ti to that

"Kind of puts the rest of us to sha really bad about myself until someone told me the rumors about hie"