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.’Sarah grabbed the laptop she had been using to pull up research material and attacked it with renewed vigor.Though it was only a minor breakthrough, Cobb felt the need to compliment McNutt.‘Nice job, Marine.Well worth the price of a sandwich.’McNutt smiled and burped.‘Thanks, chief.’42Garcia raced down from the command center as Cobb and McNutt talked and Sarah pounded away on her keyboard.‘Do you mind if I interrupt?’Sarah shouted, ‘Yes!’ as Cobb said, ‘No.’Cobb grinned.‘Did you find something?’Garcia tossed him the used glow stick.‘I found the distributor.’Cobb rolled the plastic cylinder in his hand.‘Let me guess: Libya?’Garcia, unaware of the conversation that had prompted the response, was temporarily confused.He knew that Cobb wasn’t prone to wild shots in the dark, but the comment seemed to be coming out of nowhere.‘Um, no.Not Libya.’Sarah chimed in.‘Tunisia?’McNutt couldn’t resist.‘The Czech Republic?’Garcia didn’t know what was happening, but the expressions on their faces told him that they weren’t joking.‘No and no.It was sold in Greece.’‘Greece?’ Cobb echoed.‘Are they available in other countries?’Garcia shook his head.‘Nope.They’re manufactured in Piraeus, Greece, and the company only sells them domestically.No exports at all for tax reasons.’Sarah cursed under her breath.‘Back to square one.’Annoyed that someone had ruined his moment, McNutt hurled the rest of his sandwich at Garcia.‘Thanks a lot, Fernando.’Garcia tried to catch it, but the sandwich separated in mid-flight, sending chunks of bread, cheese, and mustard-covered meat at him like shrapnel from a fragmentation grenade.All he could really do was try to protect his face.‘What the heck?’ he screamed as he surveyed the damage to his vintage T-shirt.‘That was totally uncalled for.’‘And so was your update!’ McNutt shouted back.Cobb ignored their bickering and tried to make sense of the new development.Everything he had just learned about the nautical timers and the Semtex pointed to a force operating out of Libya.They hadn’t yet determined if the men were affiliated with a larger group or if they were hired mercenaries, but their location was a good lead.A lead that Garcia had just thrown into doubt.Given the magnitude of the setback, Cobb needed more.‘How sure are you that the glow sticks came from Greece?’‘I’m ninety-nine percent positive,’ Garcia replied as he peeled a slice of salami off of his chest.He knew better than to offer anything higher.In his world, nothing was an ironclad certainty.There was always a margin of error.‘But not one hundred?’ Cobb asked.Garcia sensed that Cobb wouldn’t let it rest until he heard exactly how he had reached his conclusion.Unfortunately for Garcia, that meant their conversation was about to go in a very strange direction.‘Have you ever been to a rave?’The typing stopped as Sarah cocked her head to the side.She honestly didn’t know which was more amusing: Garcia’s question or Cobb’s reaction.‘A rave?’ Cobb repeated.The mere thought of it made McNutt laugh.‘Oh sure, Jack’s a regular on the rave scene.Trip-hop, acid house, reggae dub – he’s into all that shit.’Cobb had no idea what McNutt was talking about.It was like he was suddenly speaking in a foreign language.All Cobb knew about raves was what he had seen on television.‘You mean the all-night dance parties where blitzed teenagers act like zombies? No, Hector, I can’t say that I have.’‘I’m not advocating the lifestyle,’ Garcia said defensively.‘I just needed to know if you were familiar with the concept.’‘Yes, I know what they are.Why?’Garcia knew he needed to make his point quickly before Cobb shut down the conversation.Still, he felt a little background information would help his cause.‘Raves’ he explained, ‘started out as a way for kids to blow off steam.The physical exertion of a dance marathon was just innocent stress relief.The problem was that some people didn’t know when to quit.When a few hours of dancing wasn’t enough, they turned to pharmaceutical alternatives to help them mellow out or to keep the party going.Ecstasy, Crystal Meth, Special K, GHB – it was all being passed around like candy
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