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Albert was a norh he seeanize, to roup through hooded eyes, Sam knew Albert was probably the most powerful person in the room Albert, more than any other person, had kept Perdido Beach fro his head with both hands and not un propped against his chair, a sight that had become all too normal

Edilio was officially townperson in the council, he was in charge of enforcing whatever rules the council created If they ever got around to actually creating any

Hoas the wild card in the group Saed to talk his way onto the council No one doubted that Hoas sht he had an honest or ethical bone in his body Hoas chief toady to Orc, the glowering, drunken-boy-turned-ht side a couple of tiest member was a sweet-faced boy named John Terrafino He was a normal, too--Mary’s little brother He seldom had much to say and mostly listened Everyone assumed he voted however Mary told him to Mary would have been there, but she was siile

Seven council members Astrid as chairperson Five norht," Saht He especially didn’t want a fight with Astrid He loved Astrid He was desperate for Astrid She was the suood he had in his life, he reminded himself

And now she was furious

"We know about Jill," Astrid said

"Zil’s punks Who wouldn’t still be doing stuff like that if we’d shut them down," Dekka muttered

"We’ve voted on that," Astrid said

"Yeah, I know Four to three in favor of letting the sick little creep and his sick little friends terrorize the whole town," Dekka snapped

"Four to three in favor of having so fire with fire," Astrid said

"We can’t just go around arresting people without some kind of system," Albert said

"Yeah, Sao all laser-hands whenever you decide you don’t like so shoulders forward "No, so instead we let little girls be kicked out of their own homes and terrorized"

"Look, once and for all, we can’t have a systee, jury, and executioner," Astrid said She softened it a bit by adding, "Although if there’s one person I would trust, it’s him Sam’s a hero But we need everyone in the FAYZ to knohat’s okay and what’s not We need rules, not just one person deciding who is out of line and who isn’t"

"He was a really good worker," John whispered "Francis He was a really good worker The prees are totally going to miss hiht Actually, early this ave a brief description of what he’d seen and heard at Orsay’s gathering