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“And she was unaccounted for after the barrier came down,” Peaks said

He was sitting beside her, so that she had to turn to aze with her own “Taylor was a ossip and troublemaker”

“Taylor was? Past tense?”

Dekka said, “She used to be a girl—a norirl, kind of pretty, really She had the power of teleportation, and someti happened that turned her intointo, I don’t even know Soold Play-Doh creature”

“Who had powers Still has powers Even now, even long after the dome came down That video is just six months old”

“Looks like,” Dekka drawled, refusing to speculate further She’d always assumed the tape was a clever fake

“Any idea why she didn’t take food but did take azines?”

Dekka shrugged “She doesn’t eat Didn’t eat, not after she, you know, becaossip rags would be about right”

To Dekka’s relief, Peaks didn’t press it further: she’d been avoiding thinking about it, preferring to believe it was all some fake Her relief was short-lived

“Now,” Peaks said, “I want to show you soot the only copy” He tapped the keyboard and a ith the logo of the NSA—the National Security Agency—ca, a password And then, a vie

It was an aerial shot and looked like it had been taken from hundreds of feet above “Drone?” Dekka asked Peaks did not answer And then so came into view A person Dekka saw the top of his head, his shoulders, the tips of his toes as he walked Then

“Jesus!” Dekka was on her feet, her chair knocked over, her whole body electric, tingling

“It’s a bit hard toit cool “You can see much better in slow motion” He pointed the mouse and the video advanced more slowly

And there it was

There it was: the ten-foot-long tentacle that snapped like a bullwhip, and snatched up what