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"What happened to the bedding?" Cole asked in a low voice

"They took it" Dolly lifted a shoulder and shot a look from him to the kids and then back to hi questions

She led us down another bright white hall, the lights overhead bleaching out everyone’s skin, rime that much more obvious Pictures taped to the wall fluttered as so e rooy

Rest, I thought I can finally stop

"Hey, Gem," Cole said "Can you come with us for a bit? I want to debrief Cate so she has the full picture"

Liahtened and I al around Cate until I recharged But he and I were in this together And I wanted to knohere the other agents were

"I’ll be there in a second," I told Liaan uncertainly, but followed the others downstairs with only one last look over his shoulder

Cole motioned for me to follow hi, but I held et a better look at the place And I wasunimpressed

Back in Los Angeles, HQ had had a kind of ra a deep hole, poured in soht in hting and plu had been exposed overhead, and we’d never had reliable hot water But the Ranch just looked like it had been forgotten Despite the fact that the agents had been up here for at least a week, the floor was coated with clouds of gray dust and dirt Door handles hung li off walls and the wood on several doors was splitting Light bulbs were either out orrando tiles were cru had fallen to the ground and had just been kicked aside It was like they didn’t care; a wave of anxiety went through me as I took it in This was how you treated a place you had no intention of staying in Owning

"--is bullshit! This is such fking bullshit!" Vida’s voice called me to the room the others had entered I stepped in and shut the door fir cabinets The roole desk, three chairs, and a few framed maps of the United States

This ht, while he was still here It wasn’t nearly as crammed with random junk as his office had been at HQ, but certain touches, including the linizably hieles, Sen contacted the Ranch and told the to Kansas," Cole explained to ainst the front of the desk with Cate She kept her face turned down, her arhts clearly somewhere else Vida paced what little free space there was to move, her hands on her hips

"And they all left," I finished Daents who’d left HQ with Cate to look for transportation for us were, if nothing else, loyal enough to Cate to want to stay and help us

"And took prettythat wasn’t nailed down here with the most of the food," Cole said I was surprised at how cal for us--apparently you really sold that ere going to Kansas We’re going to have to start fro this place up, but it’s doable"

Cate’s head shot up "What do youedge to her voice "You sent theainst the door and get as far froe "I did I influenced theht to Kansas, so that we could break off on our own somewhere outside of the state I should have ents here before we could arrive, though"

"What the hell?" Vida seethed

"I second that," Cate said, leveling Cole with a cold look "Explain exactly what you were hoping to acco to save the lives of all of these kids?" Cole shot back He braced his hands on his knees "You want to knohat your pal Sen was planning? They were going to split the kids up between the cars, take theeles to think they were safe, and then turn them in for the reward money"

If it were possible, Cate went even paler Vida, finally, stopped pacing

"You can’t know that" Cate began

"I saw it in herthe acid I felt inplanned out to the minute They wanted the money to be able to buy weapons and explosives on the black ton, DC--they have no interest whatsoever in helping us free the caht it would," Cole said, "Mostly Don’t get your panties in a twist, Conner No one got hurt It’s a clean break The fact that the other agents left does nothing but prove that our instincts on this were right No one wants to help the kids At least this e’ve got the Ranch and we’ve muddled them on what our plans are If they’re stopped or picked up by President Gray’s friends, they’ll give theht base of operations for us, not the electricity and water, and, now, plenty of space to work"