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Reality Fault

Bloody Idols: Chapter Three

Both Rain and Xing are at the provided safe house, as is Abdullah. The wounded were seen to last night, and it's the next morning. Rain wakes up feeling much, much better, while Xing is his usual natty self.

Rain sits quietly by himself with his back to a wall, facing the door, nursing a cup of tea. Most of his upper torso is swathed in bandages, as are the knuckles of both hands. He flexes his fingers experimentally every few minutes.

Xing finishes properly arranging a spare shirt he had in his car as he comes down the stairs into the kitchen. "Good morning, Rain," he says pleasantly enough, though not too cheerfully; some people just aren't morning people.

Rain says, "We'll see."

Xing accepts this answer stoically; he's come to expect Rain to be laconic during a mission. "This is your area of expertise rather than mine," he says. "We'll be... 'talking' to the fellow you caught last night?"

Rain nods, sipping his tea. "That's right. If we can't get anything we can hire one of Xiao Chu's 'consultants' in that area, but... I've already spent a considerable amount of my check on acquiring this place for the night. I'd prefer we got our information personally." He stands up and stretches. "If that means busting my knuckles again, well..."

Xing nods, leaning against the wall. "I'll help how I can, though I don't know what to do I've never had the dubious 'pleasure' of an interrogation, either giving or receiving. Whatever you want me to do, just let me know."

Rain rummages around in his bag, finds another shirt, pulls it on over his bandaged torso. "Let's go then."

The silent guard nods once to Rain when they enter the room in which Abdullah is being held, and quietly withdraws outside the door with his chair. On the bed in the room, neatly bandaged and with an IV in one arm, is Abdullah. His eyes flick once to the door as the two enter, then go back to staring at the ceiling. He looks exhausted and desperately unhappy.

Rain folds his arms and nods. "I see you're still alive." Xing remains standing by the door, leaning against it with his arms folded as he watches and listens.

There is silence from the bed.

Rain is speaking very slowly; his English is not that good to begin with. He speaks exactly like someone that learned out of a textbook. "I think perhaps there's been some kind of misunderstanding between our organizations. We'd like to correct that now, if possible."

The man on the bed flicks his eyes towards Rain again, holding his gaze for a heartbeat... then looks away again. If anything, his expression is even more despairing. A moment later, Rain realizes -- the man is silently weeping...?

Rain hms. "Are you in pain?" From the door, unfortunately, the shadows in the room are a little much for Xing to clearly see the man's face.

The man closes his eyes for a moment, his face tightening with emotion. His voice is choked and harsh, and for a moment what he's saying is not understandable to either of the others -- it must be his native tongue. Then he cuts himself off, and forces out, "Pain -- yes! Yes, my heart is cut -- I have failed! I am a failure... I have betrayed both Allah and my homeland!" With an effort he reaches over with his free hand, trying to drag the IV out of his other arm, "I should die! I deserve to die!"

Xing frowns, and moves to keep the man's hand from pulling out the IV unless Rain stops him. Rain's hand intercepts Abdullah's with no wasted movement; he says simply, "You may not have failed yet. You don't want to go to Allah just yet, if there is a chance for you to complete your mission... do you?"

Abdullah struggles for a moment until it's obvious the other two men are not going to allow him to harm himself. Then he subsides, falling back and panting wearily, his eyes bright and almost feverish. "My mission... how can it succeed? We have not found Mao Kai, nor the key to the correct warehouse."

Bitterly he adds, "The liar wrote in the wrong number on the paperwork -- that warehouse was empty! Filthy thief -- may he be cursed, and all his family!" He adds wearily, "And all my men... they are dead, I know it."

Rain says quietly, "Perhaps. But we are looking for Mao Kai as well. We are curious to know why you were seeking him."

Despite his exhausted state, Abdullah manages to fix Rain with a haughty glare, "I cannot even deny you information -- I do not know where to find the thief, or his light woman. But I will not help you steal the treasures of my homeland! They belong back in Iraq, with our people -- not in the hands of filthy foreigners or murdering deposed tyrants!"

That, however, is about all the steam Abdullah currently has in him -- he winces as he strains something, and goes pale, biting his lip. Rain is perfectly expressionless; he shrugs quietly and turns away. "We will continue this discussion when you are more able." He gestures Xing with him out of the room.

Xing nods to Rain and opens the door, stepping outside and letting the guard back in. The guard silently slips back into the room, closing the door quietly behind him. Rain sighs, shakes his head, and pads silently downstairs. "What a waste of time this is."

Xing says, "So we're back to looking for Djang...."

Rain says, "What treasure is it, I wonder, that would have come into Mao Kai's hands from Iraq." He hmms softly. "Interesting. Stranger still that the Baath Party would choose to hide something here in Hong Kong." He shakes his head ruefully, "It's a good thing the Americans don't know about this."

Rain continues, "The problem facing us now is which warehouse Kai chose to hide something in. He has control over all warehouse space operated by his union; he assigns the storage spaces. Without access to his documents, we may as well be asking random passersby on the street."

Rain thinks, then adds, "I will head back to the docks, I think. I might be able to lie my way into the offices and have a look at the documents. In the meantime, perhaps you should apprise the sifu of our progress."

Xing nods, "While you're in the dock office, I'll call sifu."

Rain says, "First, please, drive me back to Xiao Chu. I won't lie my way into anyplace more secure than an after-hours rave dressed like this..."

Xing looks over Rain briefly. "Not even one of those, actually. No problem." He ends up driving to talk with Sifu, letting Rain bike to retrieve his suit and tie, and meets Rain back at the safehouse.

Xing tells Sifu that they really don't know too much yet -- just they do not yet know what happened to her, but that there may be some confusion between her and a woman who was involved with the Tongs. They're investigating both of them since they seem to have had contact with each other. Oh, and there's something involving Muslims, too. Take care talk with you later sifu Rain sends his regards BYE! *VROOOM!*


Some time later, the two are at the docks once again -- Xing in his car, and Rain on his bike. In the bright, warm daylight, the docks look somehow smaller and less mysteriously threatening. The now-visible cranes are busily at work, loading and unloading shipping from the huge ocean cargo ships, with men swarming around like ants -- at least from the perspective of the road.

The single dock on which the battle occurred last night is a markedly different affair, however. A small police car blocks the gateway in, and there is a lot of tape marking off buildings. A few police are still there, guarding evidence.

Rain hms. Now to get a few answers. He swings the bike around to a parking garage, and circles a few times until he finds a level toward the middle with no onlookers. He quickly changes into something more professional -- a conservative shirt and tie -- and rummages in his bag for his more convincing fake documents.

Xing says quietly to Rain, "A lot of police there, Rain. Might it make things go easier for you if you had a Cantonese face around for support?"

Rain says, "It'll raise fewer suspicions if we go in together..." He digs around in his bag before handing Xing a bit of laminate. "Here, hold onto this." Xing nods, taking and examining the laminated card.

As the two men head for the elevator, a pale but familiar looking young woman in a flowing, wispy, white robe steps out from behind a pillar, holding one hand out to them in a 'stop' gesture. The left side of her face is badly scarred.

Xing blinks and stops, frowning. "Rain..." he murmurs, "please tell me you see her..." Rain's eyes widen, and he stops. He also reaches slowly and smoothly behind his back, flicking one of his knives out of his sleeve. "I see it..."

Fractions of a second later, there's a painfully loud sound echoing through the second level floor of the parking garage -- the harsh chatter of machine gun fire from their left! On their right, a car simply shreds into pieces...

...but, miraculously, the bullets fly by right where they would have been had they kept walking!

Xing cringes and half-moves to dive for cover... hesitates, then does indeed dive for cover. "The hell?!" Rain just vanishes. Reflexively, he rolls over the hood of a car and ducks behind it.

Xing looks up from where he hides behind a container, and thinks he can -- yes, there's a guy poking his head up over the low outer wall, holding a machine gun. Heavy hardware, even for the tongs, he thinks. All right, no more bets. He reaches behind the back of his jacket for his Luger. "Rain!" he hisses, sure the sulsa can hear him. "There's a guy with a machine gun over by that wall over there."

Echoing more loudly than expected through the parking garage is a harshly snarled expletive, from the direction indicated by Xing -- then the sound of running feet. Rain frowns, "Not for long there's not." He pops up from cover just long enough to get a look at the battlefield.

The man heading in the direction of the shredded car doesn't appear to have noticed Rain poking his head up. Rain tchs, "Oh, I've had enough of this." He hops up, pushing off the hood of the car, and launches himself toward the gunner.

Rain hits the pavement with a sharp crack of hard-soled shoes on concrete, rolls with his momentum and springs again, coming up to grab the gun with his left hand and to press his knife against the attacker's throat with the other.

The gunner is caught utterly by surprise, jerking violently against Rain and accidentally spraying another car with yet another short burst of bullets. Rain knows what's happened immediately -- the choking noise his spasming victim is making, and the wet warmth across his knife hand, tell him the whole story.

Rain makes one short, strangled noise in his throat, and then another; the first is surprise. This idiot is Djang! The second is sheer irritation. "What are you doing?! You're bleeding all over my only fucking disguise!" A moment later he snarls, "Xing! Get the car! Safehouse, now!"

Xing straightens at Rain calling the man Djang. Damn it all! "Right!" he calls out, and goes to get the car, bringing it around and doing his best to not only break the speed limit -- but more importantly, not get any police noticing them.

A moment later, Djang Kwang sags limply in Rain's arms. There's a lot of dark arterial blood, mostly sprayed forward.

Rain snarls in frustration, "Damn it all! Xing!" He puts as much pressure as he can on where he thinks the artery is cut. "Don't die on me now, damn it all, this may be the first time in your life you were useful to someone!"

Xing's car screeches to a halt, the engine still running as he jumps out to help get Djang into the car, putting the top up as they start out to keep anyone from looking in curiously.

Xing looks back in the back seat where he put Rain and Djang, and grimaces, then looks back to the road. "He's dead, it looks like. Check his jacket pocket, there's a piece of paper. And now we have to move, someone heard those shots."

Rain groans, realizing his effort really is futile. He tugs his knife free and lets the body fall heavily. "I can't believe I just killed our best lead."

Xing grimaces, "Better to leave it. We don't want his blood in the car. Come on, we have to think what to do next, and a police cell isn't the best place to do it!"

Rain snatches the paper from the body and leaps into the car. "Let's go." Xing gets the car moving at a pace as quickly as possible away from there.

Xing is once again the darling of Kwan Yin... despite a car that's held three bleeding bodies in less than 24 hours, he drives sedately out of the parking garage and onto the road. At the exit to the main docks area he smiles and nods to the policeman there, who simply nods and waves him briskly by -- most of the policeman's attention is focused on his headset, which he's listening to carefully, and occasionally barking something into.

On the piece of paper is proof positive that Djang is -- was -- a wanna-be pro. He's got addresses listed, and checkmarks against them. One is the docks office building for Kai Mao. One is the casino's address. Next is an unknown address, and finally... the address of the Fan family.

Only the first two are checked.

Xing says, "Looks like he knew about the connection between Soo-Niang and Yuu-soo."

Rain says, "That stupid ass."

Xing says, "We should take a look at that address. Can your friends tell us anything about it before we show up on their doorstep there?"

Rain shrugs and dials Information. "Hello, Information? Yes, excuse me please, I'm new in the area and a friend of mine gave me the address of his house but not his number, and I'm hopelessly lost out here, do you think you could give me a number associated with an address please?"

The polite voice on the other end asks for the name of the person which Rain is trying to reach. Rain says, "Ah! Yes, of course, it's Gordon. Gordon Lau Kar Fai." He silently hopes the operator's not a movie buff. He quickly covers for his slip; "Ah, perhaps it's in his girlfriend's name, a miss Soo-Niang?"

The voice on the other end inquires as to what the young lady's surname might be? Rain says, "Fan. Soo-Niang Fan."

The voice is somewhat doubtful sounding... but informs him there is a Miss Y. S. Fan living there, and gives him a phone number. Rain thanks the operator politely and hangs up. He rolls his eyes. "Gordon Lau? What the hell was I thinking?"

Xing says, "Beats me. What did you find out?"

Rain says, "It's really not my day. Believe it or not, it really is Fan's address."

Xing frowns. "Soo-Niang has an apartment? You mean besides her dorm room? Odd. That's definitely not what so-called nice girls do...."

Rain says, "Not Soo-Niang. Y.S. Fan. Yoo-Su."

Xing's car almost, but not quite, jumps the curb. "Yuu-soo, you think?" he asks casually.

Rain says, "Think? Xing, it was in the damn phone book." He flicks the paper over to him. "But it's okay. I'm as confused as you are. C'mon, let's find this address."

Xing says, "Well, this just gets deeper and deeper, doesn't it? Yeah, let's...." he sends the car at a moderately sedate pace, when he's far enough away from the docks, to the address.

The address turns out to be in a not-so-nice part of town. Not sleazy -- more the kind of place a girl on her own might be able to afford. When the two men track down the actual apartment door, it appears to be a tiny place in a tall, cheap building.

Rain rubs his eyes a bit and stretches, having changed out of his (until recently) only decent disguise to spare it further harm. He sighs, "You do the talking this time, Rain. Provided there's anyone to talk to."

As Xing raises his hand to knock on the door, he notices... the door is ajar. He pauses. "I think we're not the first here," he murmurs, pushing the door open with the back of his hand.

The door hesitates, as if something were blocking it -- then suddenly gives, and there's a startling CRASH! of something breaking inside the room. Rain tchs, "In, Xing, in now!" Xing gives a start, and looks around casually to see if anyone noticed, then ducks in right after Xing.

Within the room the two see several things simultaneously. First, the body of a man lies on the floor -- second, a woman in a long, pale dress glances over her shoulder at them as she darts through a door in the far side of the room. The large, messy scar down the right side of her face is very clear -- and then the door slams and locks behind her.

Rain doesn't wait, he runs for the door and drives his foot against the lock plate as hard as he can. The door shudders and splinters. One more blow like that, and Rain will be flying through the door! He tchs, "Damn it, she's getting away. Check that guy back there, Xing, I'm not letting another lead get away!" He wheels back and slams the door again.

Xing frowns, kneeling down by the dead man as Rain takes care of the door. This guy is dead. Really dead, been dead for a while. Xing's starting to think the lady with the scar is not a nice lady. He tilts his head to the side, and reaches to the key and tag he sees, wondering if he picks it up of he'll be able to clean off enough blood from it that police won't try to trace it back to this guy.

He wraps the key in a handkerchief and pockets it, lightly patting his shirt pocket with the peach blossoms tucked neatly and safely within. "You're gonna have to get her, then, Rain. This guy's been dead for a while."

The door practically disintegrates around Rain in a shower of cheap wood dust. He's looking into a room even tinier than the little living room he was just in -- and looking to his right, he sees a doorway. The door is ajar, onto an emergency fire stair... whose heavy fire door is slowly swinging shut. He can hear the patter of feet going down stairs, then a pause for a fraction of a second -- then the slam of a heavy fire door.

Rain tchs, "There's another one in here, Xing! I'm going after her!" He bolts for the open door. He can't let her get away now, after all this...

Xing looks through the wallet and sighs, shaking his head. "Hello, Kai," he murmurs. "Dammit...." He looks around, chewing his lip. This is a cheap apartment. Really cheap. if it really is Yu-soo's apartment... well, she's a professional girl, or supposed to be. An independent professional would have afforded a better apartment, if for just her reputation alone. Ergo... there's still something not right, here. He looks at the key, reading the tag on it. The key is dry of blood; it had fallen in the blood after it had dried.

Things are getting interesting for Rain. As he rushes down the stairs, trying to guess which fire door he heard slam, he makes a selection and darts through it.

He's found the girl -- it's quite definitely her over there in the elevator. He can tell by the little of her face that he can see over the large hand covering her mouth. Her eyes are wide with terror, probably due to the even larger pistol being held to her head by the dark suited man restraining her.

Two other dark suited men are in there as well -- and they're both pointing machine guns at the door Rain is in. That's about all he sees, though, as the elevator doors slide closed. That... and he hears a disgusted, "The Koreans are after it too?! Greed-" before the door seals.

Rain's face twists with frustration, and he looks for a stairwell.

Xing stands, and looks around, sighing. A mirror catches his eye, and he frowns slightly, moving closer and looking at the makeup kit before it, and the picture beside the mirror. He gingerly takes the picture up, studying it. It's Soo-niang. This time she isn't shying away to hide her scar... and the girl with her looks identical.

Rain pours it on now, desperate not to lose one more lead, taking the stairs three, four, five, six at a time, finally just vaulting back and forth over the railing. His ragged black scarf snaps back and forth in the echoing stairwell.

The inscription reads, 'To my brilliant sister who's going to be a movie star! love, Susie.' All the 'i's are dotted with little hearts. Xing grimaces, tucking the picture away. His first thought is, of course, that Mr. Fan was so ashamed of his other daughter Yuu-soo, with the company she was keeping and her goals, that he utterly put her from his mind, disowning Yuu-soo.

Of course the sisters kept in touch with each other, and Soo-Niang adored Yuu-Soo. So when Soo-niang failed to make her daily call, Mr. Fan freaked, thinking his other precious daughter had gone on to follow her sister, and he called in a favor... of course, this is all conjecture, and the presence of Abdullah the Suuni makes this all the more confusing.

Rain bursts out of the doorway, looking frantically for -- there! He spots the men stuffing the girl into the back of a car. He reaches behind him for his pistol, rolls to a kneel, and fires at the tires. "Son of a bitch, your problems with Koreans haven't even started yet!"

Xing looks up, hearing the gunfire and goes quickly to the window, expecting and seeing Rain firing at a car. "Dammit!" he mutters, and bolts down the stairwell right there so Rain sees him coming.

The men react instantly to the sound of gunfire -- the two machine gunners whirl and fire off a prolonged burst at their attacker. The other man shoves the girl hard into the car, sharply yelling something -- and the driver just takes off -- before the passenger door is even closed! It's immediately obvious the car is having trouble -- it weaves crazily in an attempt to get traction despite the two flat back tires.

One of the machine guns jams violently, causing an explosive misfire in the face of the man holding it. He screams, dropping it and throwing his hands up to his damaged face. The other simply keeps a steady spray going to pin down Rain. The man in the car recovers enough to fire off a couple of shots from the very large pistol, but those go wild -- obviously he wasn't really even aiming.

Rain curses as the car peels out, despite the damaged tires; he keeps moving so as not to present a still target; he shouts to Xing, "I'm going for the bike! Get the car!"

Xing lands on the pavement, managing to be close enough to the car to jump in and get it started. Rain is just getting up when the coup screeches to a halt beside him, the enging revving and the top already coming down.

Rain doesn't even break pace, hopping up to slide across the boot lid. "Just go! I'll catch up!" Xing doesn't even bother to nod; the coupe's six cylinders roar to life and it shoots off down the road after the kidnappers.

Rain hops onto his bike, stomps on the starter and twists the accelerator; the Multistrada's engine screams and in a moment is spiraling down the parking structure to join Xing just a few seconds after.

The lead car is trailing sparks and leaving an unpleasant metal-screaming noise behind it. The girl can't be seen, and the driver is yelling into a headset. Next to him, the gun man leans out the passenger side to fire back at the pursuing vehicles.

Xing pulls out his Luger, trying to keep the shootist from getting a good shot at him or his car. He wonders if he can pull up beside them while the gunman is reloading to take him out with a quick shot. Surely his car is faster than that screaming jalopy.

Xing's car is indeed much faster -- and currently far better driven, as well! He catches a glimpse of part of the girl's terrified face peering at him from behind the shooter as he pulls up next to the damaged car -- then she's roughly pushed down again, out of sight. The shooter pauses to aim better, but then at Xing's shot he recoils violently back into the car, clutching a bloody hand. His gun goes bouncing and bumping down the road, lost to him.

Rain is having a bit of difficulty catching up -- due to a car roaring up incredibly fast behind him, obviously trying to ram him! In his rearview mirror he can see someone leaning out the passenger side of this car too -- also with an extremely large firearm in hand.

Xing pauses to give a smirk of satisfaction; he's going to be feeling that for a while. That's two gunmen down -- one more, he thinks, plus the driver. He drops the car back a little to follow closely behind the fleeing sedan, so it doesn't take a sudden turn and lose him.

Behind Rain gunfire erupts, although with wild jerking around and screeching tires, Rain manages to remain unscathed. The car's passengers seem to have other things on their minds, though -- at one point while Rain's leaning hard to one side of the road, the trailing car roars past! Xing can see them coming up fast in his rearview mirror now.

Xing glances in the rearview mirror. "Oh, Hell," he grouses. He'll be damned if he's going to let this car in front of him go, though. Now he has them right where Rain wants them. He hopes. He checks to make sure there's nothing large and immovable in front of the car, before turning and squeezing off a few rounds from the Luger.

Rain holds tight through the sudden hail of bullets, then opens one eye. When he realizes they've passed him, he sits up and bellows, "Asshole! That's a Ducati you're shooting at!"

Xing grimaces and keeps his hands on the wheel. The turns just took a nastier round, and he can't spare the attention on the people behind him just yet. He just hopes they continue to be bad shots as he dogs this car in front of him.

Rain guns his bike a little, pursuing. He's got to put down some of these shooters, just to eliminate some variables...

The second car weaves crazily back and forth on the road, its windshield suddenly starred and shattered from the flying gun dropped by the lead car's gunman. A moment later, clinging half off the road and half on, they barely scrape past Xing's car -- just as the car ahead of Xing screeches to a halt, swerving to block the road!

Xing blinks and steps on the brakes to avoid careening into the other car. As soon as the car stops, he dives out the door to use it as a shield, his gun out, already seeking a target.

The second car also grinds to a halt on the far side of the damaged vehicle, its side doors flying open. From the front comes a hail of gunfire -- and the girl's struggling body is hastily tossed into the back door. The slamming door mutes her screams for help.

Rain winces; his acceleration's got him going too fast to make a proper stop! He fishtails the bike, leaning waaaaaaay over, one knee brushing the asphalt (he can feel the cloth of his pants starting to scrape off) and prays; he extends his other hand, the gun hand, partly for balance but also to address the escaping gunmen. "No you don't!" He squeezes the trigger.

A man falls limply out of the front as Xing shoots, and the door is yanked shut from within. Bullets whine over Xing's head -- some uncomfortably close -- but he remains unscathed. The injured gunman from the first car is clambering out, but shouts and falls out of sight as Rain fires. It looks like the girl also has miraculously remained uninjured -- Rain and Xing can see her frightened face in the back window as the second car peels out, leaving the injured behind.

Xing gives a faint sneer of disdain for the gunmen leaving their wounded behind, then looks for any more gunmen within the vehicle. Rain says, "I'll take care of this one! Shoot the tires, Xing!" Xing glances to Rain, then nods and shoots out the remaining tires on the car.

No one conscious is left in the first car. This time, however, there seems to be a different agenda on the part of the second car. There's no attempt to shoot back behind. Instead, it is speeding as fast as it can past the apartment buildings -- then making a tire-screeching hard turn into a construction area and out of sight. Satisfyingly, there is a small cloud of destroyed rubber visible as it vanishes behind a building.

Rain picks himself up and starts to clamber over the totaled car. "Kill them or leave them -- we've got to stop the rest!"

Xing leaps back into his car and gets it turned around quickly to pursue the other car, pausing only just barely long enough to let Rain jump in if he's going to jump in, otherwise peeling out in pursuit. Rain jumps onto the runner board, "Go, go!" Xing sends the car screaming off after the fleeing sedan and girl.

When the two screech around the building, they notice several things very quickly. First, the damaged car is abandoned with doors still open, gunmen crouched in cover around it. Behind it is the skeleton of a half-finished building, with steel fingers reaching for the pale blue sky.

Xing has enough time to say, "Oh, sh-!" before slamming on the brakes and spinning the car around so that Rain, standing on the runner board, is at least covered by the bulk of the car.

A large cargo elevator is rising with lazy grace up the side of the building. The two see the girl restrained between two much larger men, with several men behind them. A tall man with a compelling aura is standing by the sliding steel door, watching. He smiles slowly, eyes cold, as he watches... then disdainfully turns away. The steel door is pulled noisily shut by another -- and back on the ground, the gunmen open fire.

Both Xing and Rain know that aristocratic, disdainful face, although for different reasons. Miss Yu-soo Fan is in the hands of the White Dagger, the brutally efficient enforcer for the Pei family -- and she does not yet know she no longer has the key!

Rain flips himself into the car, and reaches for his gun. He looks over at Xing. "That looks like our girl," he says, sliding another clip into the handgun, "And that looks like a bad man with her." He pulls the slide back, "And those look like a lot of unimportant bad men over there in between us and them. You know what to do."

"Yeah," Xing says, slipping a fresh clip into his Luger. "But the question is, which girl is it?"

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Last modified: 2003-Oct-05 22:38:33

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