2/2

Whatever the older Russian did, it made the lady manning the desk show them into a ground-level meeting room. Lisa got a stack of files pressed into her hands, and she cheerfully let them smack onto the table that took up the bulk of the room.

"These are mostly low-level requests from our neck of the woods, but along the type of things this agency is typically responsible for. Take a look, the both of you."

"Any particular reason why?" Tatiana asked after both girls gave the manila files a dubious look each.

"Because there really are only a few ways to get noticed and respected in our line of business." Lisa informed them pointedly, ticking off the options they had off one hand. "Develop a well-connected and incredibly loyal network of contacts that can advertise what you do and who you did it to without them stabbing you in the back, do over the top jobs that will get you noticed and hunted by the civilian authorities and possibly risk breaking Omertà, or take jobs through a guildhall like this and let them deal with advertising and networking. While this may not be a problem you'll need an agency to help you make those contacts, Tatiana, every little bit helps when you finally strike out on your own. Sonya…"

"I'm screwed on that contact thing, I take it?"

"I can substitute for most things, and I'm sure Tatiana will be willing to help." Giving her a surprisingly awkward seeming shrug, the older Mafiya woman took a seat and gestured the other two to find their own. "You might even want to think about getting Cherep to be a point of contact for you, sending things to me for fencing them off instead of trying to find anyone local and not inclined to stab you in the back either during the transaction or after. But… lone thieves don't typically do well, sweetie. Safety in numbers is a phrase that especially includes us. At first, we thought you'd be a very fine petty thief who wouldn't need a supporting network outside of the clan… but you were surprisingly skilled with that lone jewelry heist."

To be honest, Sonya had never intended to be more than any normal petty thief at first. Petty thieves weren't ones an even mildly affluent Mafiya syndicate like the Zolotovs worried about, and there was safety in being only one of many. Had things gotten unsustainably bad or troubling, it had been likely she could've ducked out without too much difficulty so long as she made sure to leave no links behind.

Then she met Cherep and her desire to do something notable with her life won out over her desire to keep her head down and not make waves.

Lisa was right, their society was rather isolated from other pockets of the underworld. Not only due to sheer distance from each other, but because one Mafioso from Italy would stick out like a sore thumb in the USSR and be easy pickings for the vory. That also made information and news hard to come by, and if she really wanted to make a serious go at becoming anything like the 'World's Greatest Thief' she'd either have to act out and draw dangerous levels of attention on herself or do something incredibly stupid like get herself noticed by the police.

An agency for thieves was probably her best bet to make that lofty goal without risking her neck… or Cherep's.

She wondered how well her foster brother would take to the suggestion of being a thief's agent.

…probably not well.

XXXVI (Sunday the 22nd of January, 1961 continued. Thieves' Guild Hall, Mafia Land.)

"Well?" Sonya glanced up to Tatiana's expectant look, who had only poked a few files out of sheer curiosity. "Did you find anything interesting?"

The physically younger blonde looked at the file in her hands again, but given she had spent more than five minutes reading it though it wasn't likely either were put off by her stalling. "Maybe. How does a museum heist sound to you?"

"Oh, not good. Damned hard to fence, those things." Lisa interrupted before the older girl could comment, giving the file in her hands a scornful look. "Museums have ways to track the items in their exhibits, and if they can trace it back to you…"

"It's just for a few specific pieces, not a request to loot it to the bedrock." Spreading out the thoughtfully included pictures in the file, she showed them the goals for the requested heist. "I don't think I'd have to go into the museum at all if it wasn't for this one bit, as I'm pretty sure I could rob a wealthy home or two to find the others."

Most of the other requests had things like stealing from people Sonya already knew were shady and a possible killing or two, both of which were things she wanted to avoid for as long as she could. The one in her hands was less violent in request and less suicidal in intent, so she had bothered to read more than just the so called 'shopping list'.

The main objective someone was apparently willing to spend an obscene amount of money to get was one of the state seals from Russia's earlier years as a nation. Thief she might be, but she didn't understand why as it was almost useless as anything but an expensive and illegal paperweight one would have to hide if one entertained more law-abiding individuals.

Maybe a very patriotic Russian wanted it?

Unfortunately, or fortunately if you wanted to look at it that way, there was no name identifying who was asking nor who would be accepting the contract. Only a series of numbers she would have to give to 'turn in' the job and get paid for it if she did do this.

The seal wasn't the only thing the client wanted, but the rest of it probably wouldn't be so risky to hunt down.

The coin he, she, and/or it wanted was, hilariously enough, one of the old ruble coins she already had from the jewelry store robbery. That wouldn't be too tricky seeing as she had it at home.

Thankfully there was nothing else overly large or unwieldy needing to be stolen, just a couple fragile glass pieces she could probably find in any respectably old and venerated family estate. If there were any old and venerated family estates left in Soviet Russia.

Which would draw the problems of personal home security in a level she wasn't really looking forward to, but probably something she would have to tackle before long anyways.

Tatiana scooped up the scattered files, stacking them together in a very noisy way. "Then I think we may be done here, right?"

"Almost." Lisa interrupted her pointed shuffling of paperwork. "If Sonya is going to start working for the Hall, she needs to be formally contracted for it. It's a bit of an involved process, though I can expedite most of it."

"Formally?" Sonya echoed slowly, a bit bewildered that there would be more of a process to this than just picking up a job.

Would it be anything like the dues the Zolotovs were entitled to for her Mafiya education?

"It includes an employee pass to the island and accommodation when you need it. Hotel rooms and such." The older woman tempted, in an obvious manner. Equally as obviously she didn't think she really needed to, but she was sure their foster mother was pulling Tatiana's fiery red braid a bit. "You'll be in and out a bit if you keep up taking jobs here. It's supposed to help defray costs, so you'll keep coming back and taking contracts."

"But not travel expenses?"

"The island moves too much to guarantee that, but you get a schedule of all the ports that will supply this place for a couple months in advance."

"The island moves?" The preteen safecracker interjected incredulously before the younger pickpocket could ask for more information, looking up from her second look at the files to see if she was tempted enough to sign herself up alongside her own foster sister.

"It is completely man made, and we're currently in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean." She pointed out blandly, either ignoring the disbelief on both girls' face or not caring enough to sound less patronizing. "The only saving grace Mafia Land has, aside cutting-edge mafia developed technology and Omertà keeping this place a mostly guarded secret, is that it's in international waters and stays there. Even if the governments around the world learned about it and then wanted to shut this place down, they can't without putting their own warships at risk or starting another war with a lot of paranoid countries thinking they will go after them next."

Sonya blinked at the older woman as she processed that.

Well… that explained quite a few things, to be honest.

XXXVII (Sunday the 22nd of January, 1961 continued. Thieves' Guild Hall, Mafia Land.)

'Expedite' apparently was Lisa's way to inform both girls that she had once been one of Mafia Land's contracted thieves once upon a time. She got a sign-on bonus for both herself and Sonya, so she decided she really didn't care much beyond that.

At least the Thieves' Guild Hall didn't require dues like her Mafiya clan, they merely got twenty percent of the payment as a referral fee on every job she did for them. The commission fee would drop to fifteen if she kept up with the work enough for a couple years, and it might even end up being merely ten percent if ever requested by the serial number the clients were given to identify the various thieves working for them. Had her foster mother not recommended her the initial starting fee would've been twenty-five, and only drop to as low as fifteen no matter how good she was.

It was very clinical, hands off, and strictly regulated to ensure no one inconveniently disposed of the thief that stole for them before anyone got paid. She could see why such a market was open and used, and why the Thieves' Hall was just across the street from the hitmen version of an independent employment agency.

While not impossible to identify and kill certain thieves after the jobs they did, it was certainly hard enough only the really pissed off or asshole-ish would bother trying. According to her new and rather brutally specific contract, while keeping herself anonymous was her job the guild would avenge any of their thieves that were killed due to their work for them by matching the gross pay from their last job and the job they got killed for then placing a hit on the one that ordered their death or the one that killed them with the resulting amount.

Which could get stupidly expensive very quickly if someone was resorting to an independent outside guild of thieves to get what they wanted, so very few criminal types would risk that. According to Lisa anyways, her contract didn't state that in so many words but had a lot of figures for finding out how expensive it would be to kill her depending on how much she worked.

Additionally, any injuries occurred 'on the job' were her own to deal with but they would pay for any Mafia Land hospital checkups to be done after whichever job was finished and 'turned in'. If she was bleeding out or horribly maimed and needed surgery right away was apparently inconsequential, so long as she delivered whatever she was supposed to steal first and by any deadline set.

Oh… and any drug or human trafficking she might do while employed by the Thieves' Hall was grounds for termination in the more final sense of the word via their fellow contracted employees that did hits more than heists.

Mafia Land apparently had very little tolerance for both happening in its territory or by its people, but you could take any drugs you wanted while employed as there was no drug screening or rules against using controlled substances when working for them. A bit odd, but Sonya could deal with that stipulation by not bothering with any drugs in the first place.

As an official Mafia Land employed thief, she got a serial number and a very bogus looking but apparently legal ID that claimed she worked for what was probably an international shell company in 'Acquisitions'. Which was practically useless right now, being she had only recently been elevated into an age that had double digits would mean no one would believe she was legally employed anywhere no matter what documentation she had on hand.

Lisa's promised pass for the island was worked into that ID card, meaning she could come and go as she pleased but couldn't bring anyone into Mafia Land with her for free. At least she'd put in effort to ensure she kept track of what book she was using it as a bookmark for.

If Sonya decided to keep up with contracted jobs, she would eventually end up doing a lot of traveling. It did sort of appeal, in a way.

She hadn't really seen much of the world in her last life, staying put wasn't really all that attractive now she had and was on her second chance.

Apparently one of the reasons why Arseniy hadn't bothered to get them round-trip tickets for the train they used to get to the port they left the mainland from was that Mafia Land was drifting up from the coast of Africa until they were a reasonable distance from Iceland. It would then swing around to skate down the eastern seaboard of America until they hit the Florida Keys where they'll bounce down to South America, then round the southern tip of that landmass before heading into the Pacific Ocean and hitting up the Far East before starting back to Europe.

Meaning when the little foster family went home they would only really need a fraction of the time it took them to get to Mafia Land in the first place, because the island was more north of where it had been when they arrived. A short trip by boat to England or Norway and an overnight ride on the train would probably see them in the USSR by breakfast, if nothing went wrong.

Well… a lot of traveling probably meant she wouldn't have to join Cherep's eventual circus to keep herself fed or pay her Mafiya dues, all she'd have to do is keep in mind where they were going and line up jobs in the same general region. Not area because that would draw way too much attention to whatever circus her friend joined, but a country away was probably do-able.

There would also be a distinct lack of looking for reliable fences this way too, which had been something she had been worried about ever since her foster brother asked her to go with him.

Sonya would probably end up joining as a temporary worker or last-ditch replacement. If only to have an excuse to cling to so she wouldn't have to have a very awkward and probably depressing conversation with Cherep about exactly how she could afford to follow him around or where she went on occasion.

…and maybe pigs could fly without catapults, but she could hope. The boy wasn't stupid… just a bit too nice, a little dense sometimes, and lacking in school-related bookwork knowledge Lisa was only recently helping him catch up with.

The best part about being employed by a shady organization like the Thieves' Hall from a place as bizarre as Mafia Land was that she would be assigned a storage locker to keep whatever she wanted inside if she did five or more jobs within a year, if she did ten she got a tiny flat assigned to her on the island itself. She would have to keep up with whatever number of jobs each year afterwards to keep whatever bonus she got and wanted to use.

While it didn't sound like a whole lot of effort for rather attractive rewards, that wasn't considering the time she'd have to spend getting from wherever Mafia Land was to where the things that she had to steal were or the time needed to plan and execute a heist then the time getting back without drawing attention to herself to turn in whatever contract.

Five jobs might be sketchy for her first year even if she only spent two or so months on each, ten was obviously a goal to work for.

Although the apartment accommodations would probably be cramped and shared with numerous other international criminals, the storage option was something she was interested in.

It'd be a place to store her books for a couple years until she had a permanent place of her own, held in trust by Cherep or not.

Sonya wasn't at all sold on living on the island even if she was working here, but it was something to think about and an option if she ever needed it.

The bonus Lisa got for referring her was nice, a semi-large lump of cash in a currency of their choice the two opted to split. She had been running a little low, given most of the money she had brought with her had been the proceeds from her jewelry heist almost half a year ago. The blonde had been wondering if she wanted to risk picking mafia pockets or not, and this would at least let her opt out of trying that.

She was somewhat confident she'd probably get away with it, but she was trying not to do stupid things that might end up killing her.

XXXVIII (Sunday the 22nd of January, 1961 continued. Mafia Land.)

On the last full day they would be spending on the island, the girls managed to drag Cherep out to the beach for most of the afternoon.

They kept to the more child friendly bits of the amusement park after spending a few hours in the water and, if you glossed over the fact most of the carnival games weren't rigged to ensure you lost or that the sharpshooting booths were set up on a live-fire range and had actual firearms and live ammunition used to play, it wasn't much different than any other carnival or fairground Rachel had ever seen.

There wasn't much that Sonya could use that distracted her best friend from the fact most of the game booth prizes were generally either lethal or something normal children probably wouldn't want, or that the various game was a lot more expensive than typical in exchange for the realism.

She did get him to smirk when she joined an arm-wrestling competition because the gentleman running the mini-tournament implied he was more than just girly-looking, and their brother cracked up with Tatiana when she won it with only slightly suspicious ease. Thankfully there were mostly fellow mafia brats in that round, and she could escape before any of the older members of the underworld decided to test how far her strength went.

Their older sister proved to be a better shot than either of them, but their dork of a foster brother stuck to playing games of chance instead of skill even if he lost more than he won. The redhead won herself a very nice handgun that probably wouldn't nicely fit in her hand for a few more years yet, while Cherep ended up with a rainbow-colored feather boa he decided to proudly wear even if the girls were laughing at him. The younger sibling won her foster sister an extra clip for her shiny new handgun and managed to find him an equally gaudy set of heels that matched his new accessory perfectly.

They returned to the hotel before sunset, merely because none of them wanted to find out what the Mafia Land nightlife was like and they still had to pack to leave the next day.

Admittedly they wouldn't be leaving until after noon, but both young thieves did want to buy a bit of everything they couldn't get in the USSR before then.

A combination of the morning fright, midday exercise, and a steady diet of sugary foods afterwards made both Tatiana and Cherep turn in for the night early enough that Sonya had a lot of time to spend pouring over the other books she had bought earlier the day before.

Not that it told her much else beyond what she already knew.

It did give her a couple more facets to the 'typical' personalities each Flame type was supposed to have, as well as a whole set of Soft/Inverted personality types via a very transparent 'enemy' introduction in the one aimed for mafia teenagers. Other than restating the biggest attribute each Flame had, the storybooks didn't go into specifics of what else they made the user capable of.

It really did look like she'd need Arseniy's help to find anything else of value on the island, or risk it by asking around herself, or ignore the whole thing and keep on trying to develop something she only had half a clue how to do.

Instead of reading pro-mafia propaganda repeatedly when she didn't have to, she stayed up with Lisa long enough to catch the older man when he came back from his own business and explain the problem to him.

The vor made no promises, which she hadn't wasted time hoping for, but agreed to at least see what he could get on the subject before they left Mafia Land.

She did leave him with her mostly useless set of books on the subject when he asked her to.

As she hadn't decided if she would take them back home with her or not, the more useful information could be written down elsewhere and probably in a better manner than how they were as children's stories, she gave them up easily enough.

Besides, maybe he could pin down her Flame Attribute better than she could. She wasn't entirely sure if she was managing an objective view of her own personality.

That kind of brutal self-honesty was rare, and not something she was sure she had.

XXXIX (Monday the 23rd of January, 1961. Mafia Land.)

Sonya managed to get Cherep to go weapon shopping with her by ambushing him with the idea before he was awake for the day and coherent enough to refuse.

It wasn't a tactic that worked very often, as he was usually one of those disgustingly peppy morning people who were awake when they opened their eyes and usually he was quicker than her most mornings. She tended to get more out of Tatiana by resorting to asking before any caffeine was to be had, even if Lisa only allowed them tea instead of coffee.

Her newish foster sibling was inherently nice enough to keep his word to a friend no matter how crooked, even if their elder sister tended to see anything she agreed to in the early morning as promises made under duress and therefore not something she had to be held to.

That wasn't to say he was entirely happy with the idea, but he still didn't stay behind as he had for their shopping their first day on the island. Instead, her followed in her wake a little too close to be mistaken as a very young bodyguard and kept eyeballing the suspicious splotches of what was probably various bodily fluids spilled the previous night as they made their way to where the arms dealers had set up a block of shops.

As Tatiana had guessed the day before, the main trade in the violence industry was mostly guns, ammunition, and explosives with a side order of poisons, concealed knives, and garrotes.

How some of those poisons didn't count as 'drugs' with some of the claims their hawkers professed was a little beyond the younger thief, unless they all ended in death no matter what other effects tended to pop up while the target was in the process of dying.

"I don't know, Sonya. This doesn't look like it will have what you want."

She scanned the four closest vendors, and their 'display' pieces that she was mostly sure could fire bullets if someone wanted them to. "We're not looking for the cheapest or bulk suppliers, so we might have to go farther than one block in to find anything interesting."

Shrugging, the redhead wandered on ahead of them. Taking a moment here or there for a closer look at whatever was on sale that hour, most of which she would be hard pressed to aim correctly much less actually use.

Shotguns had nasty kicks, right?

Cherep still kept as close as a burr for the most part, almost tripping over Sonya a couple times before the lack of anything more violent than an argument or two happening around them made him relax slightly.

"I distinctly recall you mentioning I could spend all the time we were here in the hotel room and you wouldn't have been bothered."

"Well… yes, but I never said I wouldn't try to drag you out once or twice. Which you never said I couldn't do."

He gave her an unimpressed look, which made no dent whatsoever on her self-satisfied smirk. "The next time we do something like this, I want veto rights."

"So that means there will be a next time? I'm holding you to that."

Blinking in surprise a few times, the young Cloud heaved an aggravated sigh and carefully nudged her in the ribs out of protest. "This isn't as… bad as I thought it would be… but not something I want to do very often."

She rolled her eyes at him. "This is probably the safest mafia playground and black market in the world, simply because there isn't the ever-looming threat of a police raid possibly happening and ratcheting up the tension everyone is under. That means it is, ironically enough, safer than any other illegal market in existence. I would never bring you along to any in the USSR, simply because I would never trust them with you. Safe to say, unless you actually want to come back here sometime in the future, I'm not going to be the one getting you into anything illegal."

He gave her an incredulous look, then shifted those wary purple eyes to take in the closest of the arguments on-going around them. The wrinkled looking and middle-aged hitman looked pretty pissed off already, the vendor he was yelling at looked a moment away from pulling one of the guns he had on display and shooting the bastard.

"I said safer, not safest." She defended herself a bit waspishly, seizing him by the wrist and pulling him farther into the crowd so they didn't lose sight of Tatiana's flame bright hair.

"Right… that make it all better. I'm sure."

Cherep was turning into such a snarky little shit, much better than his spooked kitten face when he didn't know how to deal with her in the beginning. She wasn't sure if she was rubbing off on him or if this was purely just him, but she appreciated it all the same.

It made her want to hit him less, strangely enough.

Their elder sister put a stop to anything else they might have said, hurrying back to them with a wide grin. "Found something you might be interested in. How about a polearm instead of just a stick?"

"You complain about my sticks, but I can whack you from across the room with it." Sonya followed her anyways, because while she might really want to stick with something safe and blunt like a staff she may just need a blade or two if everything went to hell on her in the future.

The older safecracker rolled her eyes at her but showed her the store she had found. It was quite the find she had made, a catch all for melee weaponry instead of yet another ammunition store with a side selection of knives ranging from pocket sized to short swords in length.

The real prize of the store were the clunky gemstone rings locked into a very secure display case, which the young pickpocket only belatedly realized were for Dying Will Flame users after wondering why rings were available in a weapon shop.

They looked rather shoddy at a glance, the stones cracked and cloudy, and since Sonya couldn't recall when Flame rings became a thing to be used even if she vaguely knew they would be she doubted they would help anyone much.

If she recalled correctly, that kind of ring would shatter after a use or two.

They were also hellishly expensive.

Until she knew what Flame type she had and how to use it, it wouldn't be worth the hassle to see if she could get one.

"Sonya?" A nudge from Tatiana drew her attention, as she pointed out a specific weapon displayed on the wall. "What about that one?"

She was pointing at a slim and lightweight war hammer.

Sonya left the store with a Bec de Corbin the proprietor insisted was Flame resistant, though she had her doubts about that. If she managed to shatter it, she would be rather cross given how much the damn thing had cost her.

Her older sister picked up a couple of knives while the shop clerk tried to sell the 'specially designed to be damage resistant' weapon to the blonde, and both girls chipped in to get Cherep a set of brass knuckles when he lingered a moment too long over them.

Even if he spluttered in protest.

XL (Monday the 23rd of January, 1961. A Mafia Land Ferry.)

"That wasn't so bad, right?"

Cherep gave Sonya a very level look over the head of the stuffed bear he was resigned to be carrying around for their whole trip back home. His crooked best friend merely smirked wryly at him, lightly kicking her luggage under the bench they were sitting on.

They would apparently be disembarking from the ferry in France then take a couple of different trains to hit the main rails, for an overnight ride to get them most of the way back into the USSR, and they'd probably hit Moscow sometime after dark tomorrow.

He was looking forward to watching the scenery pass by him because everything even remotely questionable had been packed into a shipping container that would probably reach Moscow before them, so he didn't have to sit there with the wonder if they were going to get arrested by any border inspections or not hanging over his head.

The only sour point was the fact he didn't speak or read French, German, or any language other than Russian or Czech. Cherep could at least deal with that issue in time, Sonya promised to help teach him a couple of languages then he could read the signs like any other tourist in the next year or so.

Mafia Land had been rather baffling in that respect. While he appreciated being able to read some of the signs and managing a conversation if he wanted, there was still the tiny fact it was mafia that boggled his poor head. Until their trip to the amusement park it had almost looked like some beachside vacation spot, with packs of foreign speaking tourists wandering around. Much to his surprise they hadn't even been the youngest children there, which told him that mafia people were almost another subculture entirely.

He hadn't known some people allowed their children lethal weapons or viewed the act of carrying them as some kind of reward or prize, and he probably would've been perfectly happy to have never noticed that. Even his new baby sister had looked bemused, guiding him and Tatiana away with a sour muttering about cows and hand grenades he didn't understand correctly.

At least, he hoped he didn't understand her correctly.

"It was... different." Cherep temporized instead of admitting she had a point, propping his chin on top of the ridiculous stuffed animal she had forced on him. "Not entirely good…"

"…but not that bad either, right?"

"You're not going to drop this, are you?"

"Nope."

Rolling his eyes skyward, he gave an awkward shrug. "Fine then. No, it wasn't that bad."

"I found a book for you and Tatiana, got something long and surprisingly pointed to play with, and might actually have gotten something I'd been wondering about done." Sonya informed him almost haughtily, kicking her feet idly and leaning back against the ship's railing. "I think our stay was great."

"Hooray for you. One question. Is there going to be lunch on this boat?"

"Oh god." Tatiana complained sickly, already green in complexion and hanging onto the railing they were leaning against for dear life. "Cherep, shut the hell up."

"Lisa said we'd be getting lunch in France before we board the train, because of poor Tatiana's delicate stomach. Just think… raw snails served in their shell… frog legs…" The blonde trailed off with a wicked smirk, waiting for the redhead to regain some control over her rebellious stomach. "…raw oysters and sea bugs boiled in their shells…"

Cherep winced in sympathy as their older sister got sick over the side of the ship yet again. "You are a horrible little foster sister."

"I'm the little sister, I'm supposed to be either sweet and loving or conniving and evil. And there's no way in hell I'm ever going to be sweet so evil it is." Defended the girl with a prissy little sniff, giving their horribly ill sister a sideways look. "And hopefully this will teach you not to mess with my damn books."

"This means war, you little hellion." Tatiana hissed back at her, pulling a rather good glare for all that she looked a moment away from losing the battle to keep what little of breakfast she ate where it was supposed to be. "I didn't know the damn thing was there."

"And you leave your shoes all over the place too, so you have no room to complain."

Sighing, and wishing that Lisa hadn't abandoned him with his foster siblings when it became apparent this wouldn't be one of the little things Sonya was totally apathetic about happening, he dropped his face into his hands.

His crooked best friend didn't normally tend to get this vicious, so he was rather curious what had been in that book when he was sure she had already read all the ones she had picked up that first day.

Arseniy had given it to her… so maybe that was the reason she wasn't letting this incident go?

AN#2 : Translations

Vory v Zakone (Singular vor, Plural vory) – Thieves-in-Law, title awarded by one's peers (like a peerage title rather than a military rank).

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