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Down in the dark baseun

Orc turned and ran

Sanjit Brattle-Chance had not enjoyed his first week in Per-dido Beach Virtue Brattle-Chance had enjoyed it even less

"It’s like a giant lunatic asylum," Virtue said

"Yeah It is, kind of," Sanjit said They had spent the afternoon inspecting the helicopter Edilio had assigned the back on whether it was totally broken or justtotally broken Both skids--the ski-like things it landed on--were cruone, and the rest of it was starred and cracked

Night had fallen and that was the end of inspecting anything Virtue had wanted to go straight ho out and talk, Choo," Sanjit said "I ht? But noie’s getting well--"

Virtue made a rude noise "If you believe that so-called Healer"

"I believe her coirl named Lana had come and laid her hand on Bowie She’d barely spoken, had replied to polite inquiries with single-syllable answers or grunts Or annoyed silence

But Sanjit had been fascinated He’d thought about little else ever since After all, how could he not be attracted to a girl who could heal with a touch and yet walked around with a irl

He had learned that she lived up here at Clifftop In fact Edilio had carefully and repeatedly warned Sanjit not to irritate her while he was checking out the helicopter

His exact words had been, "For God’s sake, don’t get in Lana’s way"

To which Sanjit had said, "Is she dangerous?"

Edilio had given hie look "Well, she shot me once But it was under the influence of the Darkness Which she had tried to kill all by herself with a truckload of gas And then she healed erous But if it was me, I would definitely not rass and watched the sun go down and the stars appear And Sanjit secretly watched the hotel

"Did you hear about the talking coyotes?" Virtue de, it was Sanjit’s fault

"Yeah Creepy, huh?"

"And the thing they call the Darkness?" Virtue shook his head dolefully He’d always been gloomy The cloud to Sanjit’s sunshine, the pessimist to Sanjit’s optio and Thailand, respectively Frokok

"Yeah I wonder what it is?"

"The gaiaphage That’s the other word they use ‘Gaia,’ as in world ‘Phage,’ as in a woro way out on a li that calls itself a ‘world eater’ is a good thing"