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((The Mon/Wen/Fri Double -- page 1 of 2))
When he was on his own, Esai was almost always at the pool. Supposedly, it was because he loved swimming so much, but they all knew the real reason.

Not that Raul could blame him. It was a beautiful day outside, and beautiful days attracted beautiful women.

Ridgemark was a far cry from the perpetually cloudy skies of Luzo, to be sure. In his twenty-four years of life, rarely had Raul Blackburn even seen bikini-clad women in person like this.

He liked the view so much that, somehow, his feelings almost looped back around to disliking it. Was this really part of the mission?

Eh, of course it was.

Blending in was a vital part of gathering information. En route to Esai, Raul recognized a few gorgeous faces and had to stop and say hello. Adan didn't seem to mind.

Eventually, however, he and Adan did make their way over to Esai and pulled him away from the pool. Together, the three went to have breakfast in one of the casino's several restaurants. They ate well, as usual. Their funds for this mission had been rather generous. Sentsia told them to spare no expense and do whatever it took to get the job done. She was the one who made it clear to Raul how important this mission and the future ones like it would be toward the goal of reclaiming House Blackburn's lost honor.

Something had changed about that reaper, Raul thought.

But she wasn't the only one.

After all they'd been through, the whole House was in a strange mindset, right now. A feeling of quiet danger permeated everything, a feeling like standing at the precipice of a cliff. They could fall. They could jump. They could flee. They could fly. What would it be?

"So," Esai was saying with a mouthful of blueberry pancakes, "either of you guys managed to bag any hot babes, lately?"

In this instance, a "hot babe" was part of their code. Esai was asking if they'd found any new leads on the artifact that they were searching for.