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"I don’t like the idea of leaving thoseHe just shifted uneasily and glanced back at the dock to ossip

Sam, Edilio, Dekka, and Mohamed Kadeer were on the top deck of the houseboat everyone called the White Houseboat It wasn’t white, exactly,like the real White House But it here the leaders met, up on the open top deck So White Houseboat it was

It was also Sam’s home, a home he shared with Dekka, Sinder, Jezzie, and Moha member of the Lake Tramonto Council But more important, he was Albert’s liaison at Lake Tramonto

Some said "liaison" Some said "spy" There wasn’t much difference Sam had decided early on not to try to keep secrets fro on In any case he would find out: Albert was the FAYZ’s closest thing to a billionaire, although his wealth was ame pieces, food, and jobs

On the White Houseboat there were two cabins aft, each with a single bunk above a double bed Sinder and Jezzie shared one of those cabins; Mohamed and Dekka shared the other Sam had the relatively roomy bow cabin to himself

"If Caine’s people find out…," Dekka said

"Then we"But on’t ever use the things We’ll just besure Caine doesn’t use them, either"

"Yeah, and Caine will buy that explanation because he’s so trusting," Dekka said mordantly

The et from the Evanston Air National Guard base to the coast Dekka had been able to use the crate as a platforravity by Dekka’s poould scrape along the barrier

The plan was decidedly imperfect It had alh But it had also ht be found

Found and used

The fifth person on the deck was not a part of the council He was a boy called Toto Toto had been found in a desert facility--or part of a facility with the rest beyond the barrier--that had kept hi in the Perdido Beach area

The facility had been set up before the cooverns beginning to occur in theclinically insane He’d been alone--all alone--for seven er his old Styrofoam Spider-Man bust--which Sahost of that former bust Which was decidedly crazy But crazy or not, he had the power to instantly determine truth from lie

Even when it was inconvenient

Now Toto said, "Sa the missiles," Sam said heatedly