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Joe looked at Kurt suspiciously “Retones or alar”

Kurt laughed He and Joe had been through a decade of adventures together They’d been in endless scrapes and fights and faced dozens of moments that looed to turn the tide, usually at the last second

Kurt had risked his life many times to pull Joe out of the fire Joe had done the saht to needle each other mercilessly in the downtime

“The way you snore,” Kurt said, “I don’t know if an air horn would do the trick”

Thirty e claim and customs, Kurt and Joe found themselves in an open boat, otherwise known as a water taxi, crossing the narrow straight between Hulhulé and Malé

Kurt was studying the open water Joe had his nose in a crossword puzzle he’d been working on for half the flight

“Five-letter word for African cat?” Joe asked

Kurt hesitated “I wouldn’t go with tiger,” he replied

“Really?” Joe said “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure,” Kurt said “How come you look so tired?”

Joe normally traveled well In fact, Kurt often wondered if he had soenerations of explorers in his family that allowed him to cross a dozen tiht now, there were dark circles under Joe’s eyes, and despite his rangy, athletic physique, Joe looked bushed

“You were in DC when the call came in,” Joe said “Ten inia, with fifteen kids fro cross-country and doing confidence courses all weekend”

In his spare tiras, though he’d missed out on this one

“Trying to keep up with the teenagers, huh?”

“It keeps ,” Joe insisted