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y, but there was nothing sexual in their leers This was not the ignorant savagery she was used to with the Chulo This was pure anilanced around the strange circular white room with the plain walls and uncomfortably cool temperature At its center was a co the furniture was and wondered whether the outsized chairs, like the low teht there feel small and inadequate She could be anywhere in the world

Francesca had no idea how she had co ht she heard jet engines, but she was injected with drugs again and slipped off into black unconsciousness She had seen no sign of Gamay, and that worried her, too She had felt a pinprick in her arm and awakened quickly as if she had been injected with a stimulant As her eyes fluttered open she saw the twins No one had spoken for several rateful when the door hissed open and the worotesque twins away

Francesca wondered if she had blundered into a freak show or the set of a Fellini movie She knew the reason for the outsized furniture The wo into a big sofa, she smiled pleasantly but without warmth “Are you well, Dr Cabral?”

“What did you do with Gamay?”

“Your NUMA friend? She is comfortably quartered in her room”

“I want to see her”

The woman lazily reached over and tapped her co on her side on a cot Francesca held her breath Then Gamay stirred, tried to rise, only to fall back onto the cot

“She has not been given the drug antidote as you were She will sleep it off and awaken in a few hours”

“I want to see her in person to ht”

“Later perhaps” The ansas unco The woman touched the screen, and it went dark

Francesca looked around “Where exactly is this place?”

“That’s not important”

“Why have you brought us here?”

The wohten you?”

“Do you mean the human mushrooms who just left?”