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"Josh" Ray Arno shook Keene&039;s hand as he stepped off the private elevator into his penthouse McKendry followed on Keene&039;s heels "Terr I tell you, I could hardly believe it when I heard thethat you&039;d both be here Good to see you both alive"

"Good to be seen," McKendry said

Ray had to work to ed a decade in the past year McKendry, especially, must have shed another ten pounds since Ray had last seen hirih hell and had not quite made it all the way back

Ray offered drinks and showed theiven them the inside tour, he hit a switch that auto picture hich overlooked the panoraround," he said, pointing out the various hotels along the strip Na as almost an owner&039;s pride in Red Rock Canyon and snowcapped Mount Charleston

The visitors took in all the grandeur without much reaction Keene&039;s usual ebullience was conspicuously absent He hadpanoraht voice and the use of the last name instead of "Frik" were not lost on Ray

"He&039;s due any minute"

"Lots of good people are dead because of his little treasure hunt"

"And because of us," McKendry said "We&039;ve been over all this, Josh - "

"I know, I know, but I detest hioddamn device If he&039;d letitbe" He took a deep breath and turned froood little errand boys ent and found it, and we&039;re here to deliver it But at what cost? If it had been up to me I&039;d have tossed it into the Cayo dive for it hi, five miles deep Ray shook his head No one would ever have found it there

"Why didn&039;t you?" he asked

"Because I needed to know that the past year wasn&039;t for nothing And because I proood use, I&039;d see to it that it was I also pro, I&039;d prevent it By any means necessary Otherwise this is the last place I want to be"

"I&039; Keene&039;s pain He&039;d never i in nuure out what&039;s happening Arthur last year Now Sioes on, there won&039;t be anyone left"

"Fine with , right?"

"Not a bit I picked up a new perspective on a lot of things in the past yearwhat&039;s important, what&039;s not And you knohat&039;s last on the list? This idiotic club How&039;d I ever get involved with such a bunch of arrested adolescents?" Keene ?"

"Let , Life&039;s too short to play it safe," said a new voice

They all turned Frikkie stood in the doorway, a shiny titaniuood hand

"Well, well," Keene muttered "If it isn&039;t Mr Teen America himself"

Frik either didn&039;t hear the re you didn&039;t want tomoment in history For all we know,AD may come to mean &039;anno device&039; instead of anno Domini"

Ray saw Keene set his jaw and knehat he was thinking: no one could ance like Fredrick Van Alhts But Keene only dropped into a chair and swiveled it toward the ; he went back to staring silently at the bedizened desert, effectively re himself from the room

"What&039;s with him?" Frik said

"Better you don&039;t ask," McKendry replied He fished in his pocket and pulled out a small object "Here&039;s our part of the deal," he told Ray

He held up the piece as if he were about to toss it across the rooed his mind, and lowered it He stepped closer and pressed it into Ray&039;s hand

Ray understood People had shed their blood for this little piece of strangeness No one should play catch with it He stared a ers around it It was larger than Arthur&039;s Bluer With the little figure-eight piece at one end

Like Arthur&039;s, the strangely textured surface seemed to suck the warmth and moisture fro around

"On her way" Ray jerked the thu on the helipad any minute"And won&039;t you be surprised to see who&039;s with her

"Good Because we can&039;t do anything without Arthur&039;s piece In the meantime"

He set his briefcase on the coffee table Ray noticed for the first time that it was cuffed to his wrist

Frik unlocked the cuff and the catches He lifted the lid to reveal a gray, foa-crate contours were three oddly shaped objects, similar to the piece in Ray&039;s hand, yet distinct - distant relatives, but unquestionably meular cutout

"Voila!" Frik looked around "Nohere&039;s this lab you told h that door back there," Ray said without thinking He&039;d been toying with Arthur&039;s piece on the workbench when the call announcing Keene and McKendry&039;s arrival had co to run a current through it, but not only was it nonconductive, it absorbed whatever he shot into it without altering its own teree

Had he put it away?

"We should wait for Peta," he said quickly

"We will," Frik said He rose and carried the briefcase like a tray toward the rear of the penthouse&039;s great room "We have no choice But aste time once she arrives? We can asseets here we&039;ll si in the final piece"

"I don&039;t know, Frik," Ray said, trailing after him

"I do I&039;ve waited all year for this er than absolutely necessary"

Ray glanced over his shoulder McKendry was close behind, but Keene re to steer this little procession away from the lab - at least until he&039;d checked it out to make sure that Arthur&039;s piece wasn&039;t visible?

He tried to scoot around Frik "At least wait until I straighten up a little"

"Nonsense," Frik said, not even slowing "We&039;ve known each other too long to worry aboutwastebaskets"

He pulled the door open and stepped through, leaving just enough space for Ray to slip past hiroan - You idiot! - when he spotted Arthur&039;s piece lying out there dead center for all the world to see Wouldn&039;t be the end of the world if Frik spotted it, but he&039;d promised Arthur and Peta not to assemble the device until they arrived, and he wanted to keep his word

Pretending to clear a space for the briefcase, he swept a forear the piece to the side Picking it up ht be too obvious, so he brushed a sheaf of notes over it

He turned to see if Frik had spotted it and barely suppressed a sigh of relief The Afrikaner had stopped inside the door and was gazing at the equipment racked on the walls

"What do you with all of this stuff?" he said "Looks like an electronics store"

McKendry sniffed the air "A temperature-controlled, electrostaticfiltered electronics store" He glanced at Ray "La to build a better ht is out you&039;llreally have so to tinker with," Frik said

He removed the wire-frame stand from the briefcase, followed by the three pieces, one by one He handled theile

Ray knew that if these were related to the piece Arthur had given hiile He didn&039;t knohy, but his est of the three pieces into the base of the platforhtly smaller piece into the first, he held out his hand for Keene and McKendry&039;s