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"Yes, hello?"

"Dr Bimm It’s--"

"Lara and Sean"

"And the fornicator to be naan, but Lara whipped a soft pillow at hi dust cloud incapacitated him for several seconds

Lara raised her voice to be heard over his wheezing "Dr Bieneration’s Cousteau, had a phone manner identical to her iving you trouble already? What’s it been, thirty hours?"

"Unbelievable," she muttered She described the bat and the fish and the condition both had been left in "So my questions are--"

"Are the Undersea Folk, aka Mere in a deliberately vague, careless, and sloppy way?"

Somewhat taken aback, it took Lara a few seconds to respond Funny how hearingto deal with her, less so "No, I was concerned you--"

"Because we’re not The Undersea Folk have nothing--not one single thing--to fear froe you would find unuess She thought about it, then ed and asked, "Why not?"

"First, our territory is about fifty thousand ti population to match Third, the Folk have two-thirds of the ocean to wander in; the Pack hasCape Cod Which is sinking Into the ocean"

Silence Even Sean had lost his smile

"Fourth, even if Orleans and Barnstable and Yar more territory each year and will eventually have to make nicey-nice--more so than your father already has--with the Folk Or declare hich you’ll lose, so you’ll have to play nice I’m not sure about the va about it, even if Betsy thinks you’re just too, too adorable to take seriously yet

"Fifth, if I had a problem with you, Lara, you’d know it Your family would know it My family would know it There would be no puzzled ruue phone calls to fish, no pun intended You would know, and you and I would work out our problem, or ouldn’t"

"You’re welco you like," Lara said pleasantly, ears pricked forward Thinking: Coht would be terrific as opposed to ruo; she’d likely get a few licks in and then I’d eat her cold, cold heart, problem solved "Really, Dr Bimm Anytime"

Fred chuckled, a short sound full of war the conversation so far "No chance, Lara You like to fight I think you need to; I think you’re almost as bad as the humans that way You’ll always be better at it than et the upper hand, and that would be inconvenient for me"

"We sure don’t want to inconvenience you, Dr Bi you to call me Fred for over a decade Lara, it’s not us--I think I’ve lass in the clearestin the world," Sean added

"Shush, boy As I said, it’s not us--but if you’re in trouble, if people are ainst the power shift already, the kids and I can be there in six hours"

A good trick, from the bottoot off on pretending she didn’t give a shit, while secretly giving a shit Not one of nificant, probably

"I shouldn’t care what you guys are doing on your puny little sand bars, but I do It’s one ofone of your puny little sand bars?"

A I ratitude "We can handle it," she replied, looking at Jack, who’d been listening to the entire thing with an expression made up of astonishment, irritation, and admiration "But if not, you’ll be thethirtieth or fortieth person I’ll call"