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Chris watched the ht"

"Anyone else want me or uards grabbed the man she had knocked out before they hurried up the stairs The light from the upper deck vanished as they slammed shut the door "I didn’t think so"

Solow appeared around Werren as she brought a candle in an old-fashioned brass holder over to Chris "We can see in the dark," she said as she handed the light to her "You cannot"

Now Chris could see so themselves with thin blankets "What is this, like, the punishment section?"

"This is where we live," Werren said "The crew calls it the sluts’ quarters"

"Youon the casino ship?" Sam, who obviously knew a lot more about the women, demanded "Down here? All of you?"

"Yes" Werren nodded to a pretty young brunette, who climbed up the stairs and sat on the step nearest to the door "But it does not look like this all the tiuards are here"

A blur of color and light encircled Chris, who found herself standing in the lowed in a bright blue sky, and an orange butterfly fluttered right by her face The woowns even more lovely than those they had removed earlier, reclined on cushioned chaises and armchairs Some picked up books to read; others worked on needlepoint

"Holy Toledo" Chris reached out to touch the curling petals of a tiger lily "What is this?"

"It’s what she does," Sas "She can produce three-di ones I speak fro can you keep it up? An hour? Two?"

"It will last as long as I will it" Werren walked over to a pretty ht Chris’s ar on" She went to one of the other women, who smiled up at her "When do they feed you?"

The woman looked bewildered "We cannot stoestured at the water streainary water" Sauided Chris over to the fountain Once she leaned over and breathed in, she shook her head "Jesus Christ"

Chris, who couldn’t s, can they?"

"Nope, but obviously they believe they do" Saave Werren a hard look "I wonder why"

"Some illusions need not be seen," Werren said quietly as she looked up at Sam "Please, Detective It is a mercy"

Chris looked fro the subtext here at all"

"Don’t drink from the fountain, kiddo," Sam said to Chris as she bent over and dipped the end of one finger in the basin When she drew it back and showed it to Chris, it et and red "You won’t like the taste"

Chris’s throat tightened "Guess I won’t"

"Coazebo shrouded in sweet pea vines As soon as they stepped inside, the walls turned to bare wood and the vines faded froht

Werren closed the door to the wolass stor atop a small table were stacks of envelopes and money bands "Dutch sends ht," she explained

"What the hell have you done?" Saestured at the door "Those women have no idea what they are"

"I told you, it was a ht on board as humans, like your friend" Werren sat down in the only chair in the rooainst her hands "Dutch kept theed, and only then were they brought to me Most of them were out of their minds with terror and pain and confusion The feho understood always atte the truth from them for the last four hundred years" Sam shook her head

"I kept them sane and alive" Werren dropped her hands "Have you ever seen a wo decapitated? I have, many times That is what Dutch does to every woman who tries to flee him Then he forces me to toss their bodies into the sea and clean their blood froht back?" Chris asked "There are, what, at least fifty of you He has uys at the most, and they’re all still huers around the medallion chained to her throat "Dutch controls all of us through the gold He can make us do whatever he wishes" She nodded at Sam "Just as heave him" Sa hiold"