Ten years had passed since the band of Elias, Aino, Sampo and Toivo had crossed the Gulf of Botnia from the Finnish no-contact zone into the Swedish coastal countryside where Toivo's separated twin sister 32A had soon followed them.
It was 6 in the morning when Toivo was breaking the ice at the seashore in order to make it easier for the boats who were set to come back later that day, as was his morning routine during winter time, even though nobody ever asked him to do it. He always chose to do this chore before anyone else was awake, so that the community would not find out about his abilities. By just looking at the ice around the shore, he would shatter it into countless pieces. Everyone else at the small community aside from his household thought that the ice just always happens to be so broken by itself. It was a cold morning at the beginning of January, and even if some people were awake, they wouldn't dare to come outside. On some level he wished that he could show off his abilities to the other people to impress them, but he didn't want to take risks in case they'd tell authorities.
As the sun was beginning to rise in the horizon, Toivo felt a snowball hit the back of his head.
"Sorry. I was aiming for your back. I promise." He heard from behind him.
It was the neighbor's girl, Ella, who was the first person that the twins got familiar with when they arrived in this place. Even before they spoke the same language, Ella would try to be friendly with the twins, and being the same age as them, they managed to get along.
"I've gotten worse surprises. Why are you here so early?" Toivo asked Ella.
"I looked out of the window and saw you out here and I came to ask why are you here so early." Ella answered and twirled her curly brown hair.
"I woke up early and wanted some outside air. Even if it's cold."
"You don't even have anything on your head! Does it not feel cold?"
"Heh. You're sounding like Aino now who still seems to see me as a kid."
"Is that a bad thing? I'm just worried for you." Ella said and smiled.
Before Toivo could say anything back, he felt another snowball hit the back of his head.
"Bullseye!" Could be heard from behind.
It was 32A walking to the scene to join the other two.
"Don't treat your brother like that!" Ella said to 32A.
"It's fine. I've done much worse to him." 32A said back and laughed a little.
"She has." Toivo added.
"So why are you out this early?" Ella asked 32A.
"Just making sure that he isn't doing anything stupid." 32A said back.
"Why is everybody so worried about me? I just came here to throw some rocks on the ice for the heck of it." Toivo said, not understanding the jest.
"You might be taken by a sea monster." Ella said jokingly.
"Or pirates!" 32A added.
"You two are children. I swear." Toivo said and was a little annoyed that he was interrupted.
"Maybe. But I'm getting cold so I'll leave you here. I just wanted to check on you. Don't get taken by sea monsters." Ella said and made her way back to her house.
Once Ella was out of sight, 32A grabbed Toivo's collar and got serious.
"You better not have showed her anything!" She said firmly.
"I didn't. I promise. Why would I even do that?" Toivo said back.
"Maybe because I've seen how sad you look when you're alone and I always have to fear that you'll do the stupidest thing possible and reveal your abilities to impress someone."
"What? I enjoy being alone. I don't want the attention of these people as much as they seem to want mine. I've followed the vow so far and I haven't shown my abilities to anyone because I haven't had a reason to. It's a simple deal and I have at least that much self control. You've read me completely wrong because you don't know me." Toivo said and pushed 32A away from him.
32A calmed down and felt sorry. The last four words stung her.
"Yes, I know that it's a simple deal. I'm just really paranoid and scared of getting locked up again and being a test subject." 32A said somberly.
"And you think I'm not? I don't take risks like that. If I've managed to go so far without showing them, I won't start now."
"Okay. I'm sorry that I doubted you. But don't let anyone see you when you're breaking that ice."
"I always make sure that nobody is around. But the sun is rising so I should probably end it here. But first..." Toivo said and smashed a snowball into the ear of 32A and then walked back to the house where they live.
"Bullseye." He whispered and laughed after turning to the house.
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Once Toivo was almost at the front door with 32A following behind, some loud sound could be heard from the forest. Both the twins turned their heads towards the sound and Toivo was ready to apply all of his focus on whatever came out of there. It was the sound of a bus, and after a few seconds, a city bus came from the road leading to the property. Both the twins were startled at the sight of it until they saw who was in it. Looking through the windshield they saw that it was their friend Elias driving the bus and their other friend Sampo hanging on from the open door, with one leg inside the bus and the other one dangling in the air. Near the house Elias hit the breaks suddenly and Sampo went flying forwards, face first into the snow. 32A started laughing and Toivo looked worried.
"So is this what you brought home this time?" 32A asked when Sampo was getting up and smacking the snow off his legs.
"Ahh, it'll take a week for my aging to body to recover from this little bump. But yes, that's right! Elias just wanted to go sell some of that meat that the neighbors sent us to sell, because he's a small thinker. Then I saw the bus depot and I got a grand idea." Sampo explained, sounding happy with himself.
"And that's not all we got." Elias said while pushing a wheelbarrow filled with jerry cans from the bus.
"Is that actual fuel?" Toivo asked.
"Sure is. I sucked all the buses dry and stored them in these cans that nobody will miss. This thing is valuable with a capital V over there on the other side of the gulf. They're gonna have to make us a big offer if they want this." Sampo said.
"Wait. Us?" 32A asked.
"Yes. Us, not our neighbors. I think I'm gonna make that trip there myself this time since this is our merchandise, and we have the right to sell it." Sampo answered.
"Yes. The right to sell it. This is illegal business you're looking to deal in. Us simply having fuel in our possession is a crime in this country. So you better be cautious." Elias said.
"Laws don't stop me. You know that at this point. If you want to be a coward then be one. You won't get a cut of the profits I'll make. I could trade each one of these cans for an entire herd of cattle, and then sell all that meat in the black market. We could have a good thing going on here. I'm not a fan of the UNP or their chosen manufacturers but their monopoly on food production is going to make us roll in dirty money. Well, at least those of us who have the gall on take part in this." Sampo explained and sounded excited.
"So you're going to cross the gulf? And alone?" 32A asked, still fearing that place.
"I could. But everyone who comes with me will get a cut from the profits I'll make." Sampo said back.
"I'll come. What about you, Three?" Toivo asked 32A.
"I really don't want to. Sorry. Be careful." 32A answered.
"Then that sounds like a plan for a trip. But not today. We were up all night scouring those streets and hiding from cops. I need some rest. When I'm ready, I'm borrowing the neighbors' boat and loading it up with the things we have, and we'll bring back a lot of loot to sell here." Sampo said and was ready to head inside the house.
Just as Sampo was about to open the front door, the group's more rational head, Aino came out of the door and saw the bus parked in front of the house.
"Look what the boys brought home!" Sampo said and grinned at Aino.
Aino was simultaneously surprised and not surprised.
"You have to admit. This is a good haul." Toivo said to Aino who was starting to look like she approved.
"And we're going to cross the gulf to go sell some of this merchandise. And you'll get a diamond necklace with the money I'll make." Sampo said and smirked at Aino who did not look like she even wanted one.
"But before that, this winner needs some rest. See you all on the other side. Good morning!" Sampo said as he went inside.
"It was his idea. not mine. Just to make that clear." Elias said to Aino.
Aino then took a piece of paper and wrote: "I know you'd never have the guts for something like that."
Elias was a little insulted by that, thinking of his precaution as a virtue. The twins just chuckled a little and went inside too. Elias went to the neighbors' house to hand them the money they made from selling the meat. The twins and Aino took bottles drinkable breakfasts from the cupboard. That was one of the few food items that their neighbors would provide them, because the good food would be sold on the other side of the gulf. They weren't mad, since as refugees from the no-contact zone they were all paperless and unemployable and they knew that this was the best that they would get. The processed nutrition was their reward for the work that they did selling the neighbors' merchandise at the nearby town, so that the neighbors themselves wouldn't have to risk getting caught.
As the three of them sat down on the living room sofa, Aino turned to 32A who was the only one aside from Aino herself who had bothered to learn sign language.
"I heard Sampo say that he will cross the gulf with Toivo. I don't like that." Aino gestured and 32A then translated it to Toivo.
"Why are you worried? We can handle ourselves there. I can destroy anything that gets in the way." Toivo replied to Aino.
"If the boat gets stuck in the gulf, you're done." Aino said to 32A in her way, who again translated it to Toivo.
"That's never happened to anyone here. We'll take reserve fuel and Three can fix anything that breaks." Toivo said back.
"I'm not coming with you! I already said so." 32A said to him.
"You're really not? Are you also worried? We'll be fine, just like all these other people who always go there." Toivo said to 32A and Aino.
"I just can't go there. Even though I have the best reason out of all of us to go there." 32A replied and thought about a friend who she lost there.
Aino just looked conflicted and then looked like she remembered something and got up from the sofa and went upstairs without explaining.
"What you said out there, did you mean it?" 32A asked Toivo.
"Mean what? What did I say again?" Toivo asked back.
"That I don't know you. Do you believe so?" 32A asked again.
"Are you hung up on that now? What I meant was that nobody knows me like I know myself. Isn't that true for everybody? I don't know you either, or anyone in this house."
"And you said you enjoy being alone."
"I do. I might as well admit that I like being alone a lot more. I don't really like the company of others."
"Oh. So when we were kids and Ella and I would play with you, did you actually enjoy our company?"
"Now that those days are gone, I might as well admit that I didn't. I mostly just pretended like I was having a good time to make you two happy."
"Oh. Good to know. I'm sorry if you ever felt like I bothered you." 32A said and sounded a little heartbroken.
"It's okay. As long as you two were happy."
"At least I was. I've always been happy in this home, even if it always felt like something was missing."
"And so have I. And I can make myself happy too. So if you don't mind, I wanted to spend some time alone outside today." Toivo said and sounded like he was still in a good mood.
"Of course I don't mind. I actually have something I wanted to do too." 32A said.
"Well then I guess I'll do that right now." Toivo said as he got up and went to put on his jacket and beanie.
32A was left sitting there for a few minutes. She couldn't be mad at Toivo for being so straight, because he had always had poor communication skills. Aino came back downstairs and seemed to be in a hurry. She had a page from a newspaper that was a few weeks old with a headline that said: "New tracking devices added to city buses after several hijackings."
"This isn't good. We should probably remove it if we can find it. Go tell Sampo about this. That's his problem." 32A said.
Aino did exactly that and went into the basement where the house's men had to sleep every time one of them made her mad. Each time it had been Sampo who made her mad.
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Toivo was alone surrounded by trees near the house while sitting on a fallen tree, listening to the wind and the faint sounds of other people on the other side of the trees.
"I'm not happy here. I wanted to see the world, but I can't even go too far away from home unless I take Three with me. I can't use my abilities to help others unless I do it in secret. I'll be arrested if the outside world finds out about me. I hate this!" He complained while talking out loud.
To relieve bad feelings, he always went away from others to destroy things, and that's what he came to do. He shook a tree by focusing on it, and then shattered all the falling pinecones into pieces before they landed. He blew holes in the ground and made the snow fly by focusing on certain spots on the ground. He destroyed a snowball that was about to hit him just as he turned his face. He then saw where it flew from. Ella was once again looking to join his company and walking towards him.
"Sorry. I aimed too high again. You got lucky. If that ball hadn't broken, you'd have snow in your mouth now." Ella said and sounded a little embarassed.
Toivo calmed down because he had to.
"Why are you here? How did you find me?" Toivo asked and kept his feelings inside.
"I saw footprints going here and recognized your shoe size." Ella answered.
"Heh. You seem to know me well."
"Of course I do! I've known you for so long that I have to. And I'm also glad that you're wearing something on your head now."
"I took your advice."
"Anyway, what were you doing here? There's holes on the ground and pieces of pinecones around." Ella asked.
"That wasn't me. I'm wondering too what caused this. That's why I'm here." Toivo answered, coming up with a quick lie.
"Ooh. Should we sit down make some theories?" Ella asked playfully.
"Sure. I'd like that." Toivo said back gladly.
They both sat down on the fallen tree. The cold wood didn't feel nice but neither said anything about it. Ella put her backpack down and pulled out a thermos can and offered coffee, but Toivo declined.
"I think it was some kind of an animal." Toivo suggested a theory for a cover up.
"What? Oh right. Theories about what caused this. The reason why we sat down to begin with. Uhh, yeah. But what kind of animal can puncture holes that deep in the ground? A moose?" Ella said, going along with the conversation.
"A moose could have probably made those pinecones explode by stepping on them." Toivo added and chuckled.
"Or maybe somebody's been shooting here. The ground, the trees." Ella suggested.
"We would have heard that. Silly." Toivo said back.
"That's true. What about... You hear that?" Ella was about to say something but then stopped when she heard loud talking coming from the direction of the seashore.
"Sounds like they returned." Toivo said.
"I promised dad that I'd help him unload the cargo. You want to help?" Ella asked.
"Of course. I enjoy doing things with you." Toivo said back and smiled genuinely.
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At the shore, the tugboat was already getting unloaded byt three middle aged men who took part in the business.
"I may not be able to help you after all. I'm not allowed to go this far from the house alone." Toivo said when he noticed that the boat was docked at a distance that would cause the painful pulses for 32A if Toivo went there.
"You're an adult! Why do you even have that rule? And besides, you're not alone. You have me. And the others are here too." Ella said back.
Toivo couldn't argue back because he couldn't say the real reason why he had to stay close to the house. They walked to the docked boat and Toivo felt a little guilty about having to cause pain for 32A but he went along to make Ella happy.
"What did you bring home?" Ella shouted at her father who was carrying a wooden crate out of the boat.
"Same old usual. Wood, meat and furs. And this time even less than last time. Those people there better step up or we might have to start looking for work because at this rate, this won't be profitable anymore." Ella's father said back.
"Well. We'll help with what little you brought anyway." Ella said, just as enthusiastically as ever.
Ella and Toivo stepped in the cargo hull and grabbed a heavy crate together from both sides and carefully carried it out of the hull and stepped into the dock.
"Are you sure they're not bringing rocks from there? I thought that the hauls in winter are always light." Toivo said with great struggle.
"It doesn't mean literally light." Ella said back, also with great struggle.
When they had carried the final crate into the cellar and got back on the ground, Toivo saw a snowball flying towards his face but chose not to stop it because Ella was looking. He got a mouth full of snow and then saw 32A walking angrily towards him.
"How hard is it to stay within range?" 32A asked frustratedly in her and Toivo's native Finnish language, which the Swedish Ella didn't understand, but still understood the tone.
"He can go where he wants. And we're literally your neighbors. We can see your house from here!" Ella shouted back.
"We have a rule and rules are followed." 32A stated firmly in a language that Ella understands.
"How did you even know that he went too far? Are you keeping an eye on him?" Ella asked.
"I just know." Was all that 32A could come up with to cover up the real reason.
"Toivo, she's not your mother. She doesn't own you. Why do you let her treat you like this? Why do you even have this rule?" Ella asked Toivo, who didn't have a good cover up answer.
At this moment Toivo felt like he wanted to jump into a black hole to get out of this situation.
"Yeah. Why do I have this rule? You don't own me. I can go where I want to go, and if you have a problem with that, then that's not my problem." Toivo shouted at 32A, choosing to side with Ella at this moment but feeling bad about it.
"I do have a problem with it and you know exactly why." 32A said back, much more quietly than before.
"And what is that problem?" Ella asked.
32A couldn't answer honestly and couldn't think of a lie, so she just turned back towards the house and felt defeated. Before even stepping inside the house, she felt the first pulse. She went straight into her room and lied down on her bed.
"Am I going to lose a second family member?" She said quietly and looked at the wall of her room.
The wall had several drawings that she had asked Toivo to make throughout the years, mostly in their childhood years. The drawings had the two twins with their lost friend Ilona going on adventures and being in several different places and situations. 32A would always look at these drawings, close her eyes and live them in her head when the real world was not to her liking. She knew that this wasn't a healthy habit, but she didn't really care. For ten years she had been missing her lost friend, and could never forget her.
"I wanted nothing more than a happy family with all of us." She thought to herself.
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After a few hours her moment alone was interrupted when she heard the banging of metal outside. It bothered her and she looked out the window. It was Sampo hitting the side of the bus with an axe. 32A opened the window of her room to shout at him.
"Is it the tracking device?" 32A asked.
"Yep! It... Should... Be... Under... This... Part!" Sampo shouted back while hitting a certain spot with the axe.
"Is there a better, more quiet way to remove it?" 32A asked.
"There would be a quicker way if Toivo was here but I don't know where he went. He could just destroy the part in one second." Sampo answered.
"He went to help the neighbors with unloading the boat. I can go ask him to come here." 32A said.
"I can go get him myself easily!"
"No, I can get him. You can focus on your work." 32A said back, wanting to go apologize while she's at it.
"I don't need to focus on this if I can just get him to do it with one move!"
"Let me just go get him!" 32A said seriously.
"Well if you want to." Sampo said and put the axe down.
32A went downstairs and put her gray jacket on. She made her way towards the neighbors' house since that's where the pulses came from. In the distance she saw Toivo and Ella and they seemed to be already walking towards her. Once they met in the middle, Ella looked like she felt bad.
"I want to apologize for how rude I was to you earlier. You just care about your brother and I was acting like that's a bad thing. We´re still friends, right?" Ella said to 32A once they were close.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever. I came to apologize for getting so mad. Anyway. Sampo needs Toivo's help with a thing so that's what I also came to ask." 32A said back to Ella who felt a little offended about how her apology was dismissed like that.
"Oh. Why can't you do it?" Toivo asked 32A.
"Sampo specifically wanted your help in removing the tracking device from the bus." 32A answered.
"There's a tracking device in it?" Toivo asked and sounded worried.
"There is. So we better remove it or they'll come to get us." 32A answered.
"That wouldn't be good." Ella said, knowing what the authorities do to people from the no-contact zone.
32A then pulled Toivo aside and switched into their native language so that Ella couldn't understand.
"Sampo suggested you should use your ability to destroy the thing, since that would be quick and easy. We can't let our friend see when you do it."
"Okay. I can't really tell her to go away bacause then she'd get mad for not knowing why." Toivo replied.
"Just hit the thing with something at the same time as you use your ability. She'll think you did it naturally." 32A suggested.
"That sounds good." Toivo said.
"Hey! What are you two talking about?" Ella said, not having understood any of what the two just said.
"Just thinking about how we should do it. Let's go have a better look." Toivo said to Ella.
Once they arrived at the bus, they saw Sampo leaning on the wall of the bus.
"There you are! I have a job for you." Sampo said in the native language of him and Toivo and the rest of their household.
"Yeah, I heard. So where's the thing?" Toivo asked Sampo.
Sampo slapped the part of the bus where the tracker supposedly is.
"Why did you bring your friend here? She can't see you use your power." Sampo asked seriously.
"I have a way to do this that looks normal. Watch this." Toivo said and took the axe that was leaning on the bus.
He pressed the axe against the outer core of the bus and then by focusing on it, he started to peel the metal away and making it look like he's doing it with the axe. Sampo and 32A were watching nervously and wondering if it looks believable. The tracking device was now visible and had a small red light on it. Toivo was ready to swing the axe and then focused on the device and destroyed it completely as the axe hit it.
"There you go! Thanks, son." Sampo said to Toivo.
"Why couldn't you do that yourself?" Ella asked curiously, not having understood any of what Sampo and Toivo just talked about.
"Uhh... Because I'm not as strong as Toivo is and I needed his help for this." Sampo explained with the only lie he could come up with, even if it hurt his pride.
"So that's that problem taken care of." Toivo said.
"Yep. Remember that tomorrow we'll make the trip over the gulf. We'll have to start heading there early in the morning because those buyers won't be there all day." Sampo said.
"How early?" Toivo asked back.
"We'll get the boat started at six. Nobody here will be awake at that hour so you can do the ice breaking as we go. Elias should be getting us the permission to use the neighbors' boat and speaking of that, where is he? He went to do the business at their house hours ago when we came from the city." Sampo answered.
"Should we go get him?" 32A asked.
"That would help. Go get him and I'll go continue my sleep. I'm sure he's got it under control." Sampo said and went inside.
"What did he say?" Ella asked Toivo.
"We're going for a little boat trip at six in the morning tomorrow." Toivo answered.
"We spoke for hours and you didn't mention that at any point?" Ella asked.
"It just didn't come up. Me and Sampo are going. He said that everyone who comes along should be paid well. So far it's just me who has agreed." Toivo explained.
"You be careful in there. I've heard your stories from there and I'm worried whenever dad goes there."
"I'm scared for them too if I'm honest. I really want to go there but I can't do it." 32A added.
"I know how to protect us all." Toivo said knowing something that Ella doesn't know.
"I'm sure you can but still." Ella said back.
"But if you want to go at all, we should get that boat, so let's just go see if Elias has gotten anything done." 32A intercepted.
"Well let's go then." Toivo said and turned to the direction of Ella's home.
At this time of the year in this part of the world, the sun went down already in the afternoon, so it was getting dim as the three of them walked to Ella's home.
"If you're so worried, why don't you come with us on the trade trip? Sampo promised a good pay for everyone who helps." Toivo asked Ella.
"Two reasons. I have to help dad with chores all day, and based on your and Three's stories, I'm just scared of that place. What if Skull and Bone get you while you're there?" Ella replied and asked.
"Same reason as me then." 32A said.
"At this point we could tame the entire Deadland. I'm not worried at all." Toivo said.
"Confidence has killed many people before." Ella said.
"So has unawareness." 32A said and smacked a snowball in the back of Toivo's head.
"Why are you treating him like that?" Ella asked 32A.
"You mean the same way as always? He made me mad earlier. He earned that one."
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Ella asked no further questions because they had reached the house. They didn't keep the door locked except at nights, so the three of them could just walk in. First thing they heard was talking coming from the kitchen. They took off their jackets and shoes and went to see what it is. They already recognised the voices of Ella's father and Elias. They entered the kitchen and there Ella's father and Elias were sitting by the table with a vodka bottle and two glasses.
"Oh! Toivo! Three! Thank God you came! Maybe you can convince him to let us use the boat in some other way." Elias said when he saw familiar faces enter.
"What is happening here?" 32A asked.
"Your friend won't get to use my boat unless he beats me in a drinking game and then in poker. He's beaten me in the drinking game a couple times now but can't seem beat me in poker." Ella's father said.
"So this is where you've been all day?" Toivo asked Elias.
"All day? Has it really been that long? We both passed out a couple of times but I thought those were just quick naps." Elias said and was bewildered.
"Dad, can you just let them use the boat for one day? We're not even using it tomorrow." Ella said to her father.
"If I let them just have it, this all would have been pointless." Ella's father said and poured more vodka in his glass.
When he put the bottle down, it shattered into thousands of tiny shards. Both contestants got spooked. 32A looked at Toivo as if to ask if he did it. Toivo just nodded back to confirm that her suspicion was correct.
"Looks like it's a no contest." Toivo said.
"Seems like it. I didn't know I had that much strength in me. We hadn't finished this round of drinking and I refuse to play poker until I've been beaten in drinking. Fine! You can use the boat tomorrow, but I better get my cut from whatever profits you make." Ella's father said.
"Sampo would have given you a cut anyway." Elias said and was ready to collapse.
"You're telling me this now? So all of this was for nothing?"
"You mean a cut a was all that you wanted?" Elias asked back.
"I suppose it's settled then. The keys are in the lobby. Find them from there." Ella's father said and got up and left the kitchen.
Ella was worried for her father so she guided him to the living room sofa because he was about to walk into broom closet. Toivo and 32A didn't even try to hide their laughter.
"Right. Let's all go home." Toivo said after managing to get serious.
Elias just made a sound that sounded approving. Toivo and 32A both took Elias by his arms and got him up. They put their shoes and jackets on and got Elias' jacket as well. Fortunately he already had his shoes on. Toivo found the key for the boat and put it in his pocket. They dragged Elias' feet in the snow and slowly carried him towards home.
"Just leave me here. The snow is soft." Elias said while they were still outside.
"You'd just end up with the same fate as Ella's mother." 32A said back.
"May she rest in piece." Elias said.
The twins carried Elias into the basement where Sampo already was and put him down on his own bunk.
"I should probably go to sleep already too like the other gentlemen, since we have to get up so early." Toivo said.
"Okay. Good night. I'll see you in the morning." 32A said.
"You probably won't. But good night." Toivo said to 32A who then went to her own room upstairs.
She tried to fall asleep looking at the drawings on her wall, because that was the only way she could see good dreams instead nightmares.
"They can't go there by themselves. They might need my help and I won't lose anyone anymore by being scared."
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