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"On time, I see," Kazie said when he opened the door. |
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The old man re-bolted the door, then led Cyrus to the back room. The place smelled like an opium den and was as dark as a cave, with only the light from a candle in the middle of the table to cut the blackness. |
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"Want a beer?" Kazie asked. |
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They sat and stared at each other over the burning comma of the candle's flame. |
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"What can you tell me?" Cyrus asked at last. |
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The old man chuckled. "About you? Or about the loupgarou?" |
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"You never heard that term?" Kazie asked with a disbelieving smirk. The flickering light deformed his face and made his expression sly and somehow sinister. "Man in your position, ignorance can be lethal." |
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"I may have heard it somewhere, but I don't recall." |
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Cyrus stared into the old man's rheumy eye. "Yeah. That one I've heard." |
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Cyrus waited, but Kazie appeared to be in no hurry. |
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"I grew up in the wild part of the Sudan. Back then, my people didn't have much contact with the so-called modern world. We was so poor, we dreamed of making it into the |
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