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“You did, anyway,” Erich said “So how did you meet her?”

“We got in over our heads on so to kill us She came in and tried to keep us alive”

“So now you’re friends”

“Friendly acquaintances,” Amos said “I don’t have all that many what you’d call friends”

The lift stopped with a small lurch that it really shouldn’t have had The ops deck was all dark surfaces, the decking a deep chocolate brown, the walls an artificial wood grain, the consoles and couches lined in fake leather Or hell, maybe real leather It wasn’t like he knew the difference to look at Erich lowered hiood hand over his scalp

“You know,” he said “You couldn’t have done this without us Me and your prisoner friend And now the head of the fucking government, which excuse me if that still breaks my head a little”

“Well, I —”

“No, I know you would have done so Just not this You couldn’t have done this exact thing This plan? For it, you needed to have us All of us And the only thing we had in common was you”

Aht on

“Plan’s kind of a strong word for it,” he said “I was just grabbing whatever I could”

“Yeah, the thing is you had things to grab I spent a lot of years in Baltiot allclue what here looks like, you know? Who controls the drugs around here? How do you fake an ID? I ic’s the same anywhere, but…”

Erich stared at the wall like there was so to see there Amos craned his neck to look, just to be sure

“I don’t knoe do froot people counting on h the queen of all churns, and I don’t knohere to take theonna do”

“Yeah, that sucks”

“You do,” Erich said