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I knew froot P’d when I was tortured by ato execute my rescue, Swopes was shot and died as a result The doctors were able to resuscitate him, but he’d recently told me that while in the jaws of death, he went to hell That worried me What worried me even more was the fact that, while in the fiery pit of eternal damnation, he had a heart to heart with Reyes’s dad, an experience that had to be traumatic on all kinds of levels

"I’m fine," he said, as he had the last seventeen ti"

I scanned the area "I can see that Anything you want to share?"

"No"

He’d said it with such deterer that," I said instead Wait Who was I kidding? "But you know you can tell ht?"

He eased his head back, closed his eyes, and stretched out his legs in front of hi across the floor He didn’t care "Stop fishing, Charles It’s not going to happen"

"Roger that" I took a sip of beer, then added, "But this stuff looks really interesting I could help with the research"

"I’er that" I picked up a page of scribbled notes and tried to decipher his handwriting "Who is Dr A von Holstein? And is he related, by chance, to a race of cows?"

He bolted upright and snatched the page out of my hand Oh, yeah, that wouldn’t stimulate my curiosity "I said no, Charles, and Ithe paper back in the exact same spot from which I’d freed it, he leveled an exasperated stare on et to say ‘roger that’ unless you’ve been in theer that"

The sigh of annoyance he released was long and ful I won My journey to the dark side really was complete And I owed it all to my bestie Darth Where would I be without him? Without our friendship? I shuddered to think

He polished off his beer, leaned forward to steal mine, then sat back to nurse it at a slower pace "Who sent me there?" he asked, his voice suddenly distant, and I knew exactly what he s until they reseainst the sofa cushions "You saw ht?"

He nodded, eyes closed, beer perched on a thigh while he rubbed the bottle absenters

"And then your dad met you on your way to heaven to tell you that you had been brought back to life That you had to go back"