Читать книгу The Devil's Work - Linda Ladd - Страница 9

Chapter 2

Novak came awake slowly with a hazy awareness that he was neck deep in trouble. He didn’t open his eyes, couldn’t seem to make his eyelids work. His mind was full of fuzz and noise and wavering in and out of focus. He wasn’t able to command his muscles yet. His thoughts kept jumping around, fleeting and illogical. When he tried to move, it felt like a balloon quickly inflated inside his skull. He felt nauseous and sick. Sharp pangs stabbed him in the back of his head, but he could hear the voices. They were soft and far away. It sounded as if he were underwater. He could feel heat, close to him, and he could hear crackling noises. That had to be fire, he thought, confused, and then became vaguely alarmed.

Fear forced Novak’s eyes open. He was lying on his stomach; his right cheek was pressed flat against the floor. He was outside, in some kind of open structure built a few feet off the ground. There were no walls, and he could see the bonfire. It blazed up like a Viking funeral pyre, shooting up orange and yellow flames, not ten yards away from him. The fire was showering sparks that separated in the heat currents and flitted around like fireflies. He stared at it dully. He had to think straight, because something terrible was going to happen now.

Novak moved his arms and found his wrists were bound in front of him. So were his ankles. Okay, he was in serious trouble, all right. Whoever had him was not going to be buddy-buddy. He shut his eyes, took some deep breaths, and then looked around with more clarity. There were men sitting around the fire. They were indistinct, as if he peered at them through a fog bank inside his head. Now he remembered those thugs taking him into the dark preserve. Then he remembered the lights flashing on and getting hit. He tried to remember more. The low voices were coming from the men at the fire. When he sensed movement behind him, he instinctively rolled away from it and over onto his side. He tried to sit up but stopped on one elbow when he saw a woman. He was pretty sure she was the one who had been attacked on the beach. She held gauze and a brown bottle in her hands.

“We aren’t going to hurt you. We saved you from those Skulls,” she told him, backing away a little. She looked frightened.

Novak found his voice. “Yeah, well, somebody hurt me. Clubbed me in the head, and it wasn’t the Skulls.”

Somehow he pushed up to sitting and faced her. Now that he could see her better, he figured she had to be Alcina Castillo. She had huge, expressive brown eyes, the luminous kind that reflected light. Right now, they mirrored the fire. She was beautiful, extraordinarily so. Her skin was soft and smooth, and her long dark hair was plaited into two braids that hung over her breasts and reached her waist. She looked really young, and she wore a man’s blue dress shirt that swallowed her slim figure. Her jeans were cut off at knee length, and she wore plain white Keds. She sat completely still and watched him.

“I take it that you’re Alcina Castillo.”

She nodded. “And you are Will Novak.”

Her English was surprisingly good, with no detectible Guatemalan accent. She looked like a full-blooded Maya with high cheekbones and brown skin. “I’m Novak. I’ve been looking for you for a week. Guess you found me first.”

“If you had not seen us tonight, he would have drowned me.” She paused there and caught his eyes with her extraordinary long-lashed ones. “If you will let me, I will tend to that cut on your head. It’s deep, and you have lost much blood.” She held up the medicine in her hands. “This is only antibiotic lotion and a bandage.”

When he nodded, she moved around behind him and sat on her heels. He turned slightly to watch her, hoping this wasn’t when she was going to slit his throat. “What did you hit me with?”

“I did not hit you. Jake hit you with a bat. He is sorry.”

Novak scoffed. “Yeah? Well, he’s not as sorry as I am. I think he gave me a concussion.”

“Then you must stay here until you feel better.”

Then he spotted the boy. He was sitting on the edge of the raised floor with his legs dangling off the side. He looked like a smaller male version of Alcina. He met Novak’s gaze without blinking and said nothing.

The fact that neither were offering to cut him loose did not escape Novak’s attention. That could not be a good sign for the future of his health. The kid continued to stare at him, showing zero emotion. His blank expression made an erased chalkboard look animated. His dark eyes also glowed in the firelight. His hair was braided too but wasn’t as long as Alcina’s. He was definitely Maya. He had on a man’s white T-shirt that was also too big, rolled-up jeans, and white Nike tennis shoes.

Sweat was dripping off Novak’s brow and burning when it ran into his eyes. Gnats and mosquitoes were buzzing around his ears and the bleeding head wound. He swatted at them with bound hands. The two Maya watched him, but made no move to untie him. Alcina started dabbing the back of his head with something that stung like fire. He didn’t think they meant him further harm. He wasn’t as sure about all those guys sitting around that campfire. Large timbers had been propped up tepee-style, and the fire had roared high and was snapping and popping. Huge moths fluttered around the light, fighting the sparks. Now that his vision had cleared, he could see about twenty men. Most of them wore black T-shirts, black pants, and black combat boots. They talked together in small groups, but no one looked in his direction.

Novak winced every time the woman touched his head. He could feel dried blood, and it was making the skin on the back of his neck tighten up. He still wore the gym shorts and Nikes he’d run in. He could feel Alcina’s soft breaths fanning his hair. She touched the deep cut again, and the thudding headache spiked to screaming levels. He edged away so she’d stop touching it.

“Okay, that’s enough. That’s hurting more than helping.”

She stopped and stared at him. She couldn’t be very old, early twenties at the most. Her beauty was unusual but undeniable. Firelight danced across her face and carved hollows under her high cheekbones. Her lips were full, but there was a black bruise already darkening her left cheek where she’d been struck. She retained eye contact with Novak without blinking or speaking. After a long contemplation of his face, her mouth curved with a tentative smile. Despite the frenzied fight Novak had seen her put up in the surf, she seemed fragile and in need of protection. Some women used that kind of vulnerable look to get what they wanted. Novak had better remember that, because he already felt like he should protect her.

“How about cutting me loose?”

Neither of them moved to accommodate his request.

“Jake is sorry,” she said again. “He thought you were one of them.”

“So you said. But I’m not, so cut me loose.”

“You are not one of them?”

“Hell no. Look, untie me. Right now.”

“You’re not a prisoner.”

“Sure, I get that. So why do I feel like I am?”

Alcina reached out and tugged a brown leather backpack over to her, dug around inside, and pulled out a bottle of Excedrin. She uncapped it and shook out two tablets. Novak felt better because he could use a painkiller at the moment. Then she reached inside again and pulled out an eight-inch dagger. She pulled it out of a black leather sheath. It looked razor sharp, the polished blade glinting. She smiled at his expression. “I’m not going to stab you. I’m going to cut you free, so don’t move. I am not used to handling knives.”

“Got it.”

“Jake tied you up because he thought you’d be angry and try to hurt us when you woke up. He said that you would be confused about what happened.” Alcina was getting all smiley and friendly now as she crawled forward and quickly and expertly slit the cords on his wrists with one sharp jerk. Okay, it looked to Novak like she knew how to use a knife well enough. She handed him the blade and let him cut his ankles free. Then she backed away from him in a hurry, just in case he decided to stab her, he assumed. Novak stretched his aching muscles and rolled his cramped neck from side to side. He felt his head wound, but that intensified the thudding behind his eyes. He watched the men around the fire for a moment. They were there for a reason, and he wanted to know why. He wanted to know a lot of things, and nobody was telling him squat.

When Alcina handed him a bottle of water and the pills, he tossed them down and drained half the bottle. He was still thirsty and finished it off. He didn’t know where he was or why, but he wanted to know, just in case things went bad, which usually happened when he woke trussed up like a pig.

Some basic instinct told Novak that this tiny woman wasn’t the sweet little madonna that she appeared to be. His wariness wasn’t really justified, judging from her fight with that bully. She had been tough but she had also been desperate. According to Claire, she was their new client, whether he liked the idea or not.

“Please allow me to bandage your head so the bleeding will stop,” she said. Something was very off about this young woman. She seemed way too calm for what had happened to her earlier that night. He nodded, and she crawled close again and pressed folded gauze against his split scalp and then wound more around his forehead.

“Okay, Alcina, I’ll bite. Where am I? Why am I here, and what do you want?”

Novak wondered if she’d tell him the truth. It didn’t matter; he had no idea what the truth was. While he waited for her to answer, he examined the platform on which they sat. If he remembered correctly, he was sitting atop a chickee, which was the palmetto-roofed structure historically built by the Seminole tribe. That’s when some of the scattered pieces bumping around inside his mind started clicking together, and he began to line up what had happened. The men at the fire had to be Seminoles. They were the tribe who had settled southern Florida, and he knew they had reservations down around the Everglades. He had visited one a decade or so ago while on leave in Miami. He’d been impressed by them. They were a handsome people and courteous to their visitors and eager to present their history in an accurate way. He startled when some animal screamed somewhere out in the dark outside the fire. Whatever it was, it was dead now. That’s when he figured out where he was.

“This is the Everglades,” he said, looking at Alcina for verification.

She shook her head. “No, we are on the Miccosukee Reservation. Eldon Osceola and his family run their tourist business here. They helped my brother and me. They helped get you away from those men. They would have killed you.”

“The tribe is helping you?”

“No, not the tribe. Just Eldon and his family. Few even know we are here.”

Okay, that could complicate things if the tribal council objected to getting involved in Alcina’s case, whatever it was. He said as much to Alcina.

“Eldon said he did not want the tribe to be a part of helping us. He said he is doing a personal favor for a good friend. He doesn’t expect trouble out here, so he is doing nothing to endanger tribal members or their land. He says it is protected, and the Skulls would not dare to come here after us.”

“What favor? What friend?”

“She is a doctor who helped us get here from our country. These men will protect us while we’re here.”

Well, that was just fine, but it didn’t come close to answering his question. “Who’s us?”

“Me and my brother, Pedro.” She gestured at the boy, who still looked nonresponsive.

“So why hire Claire and me?”

“Did she not tell you?”

Now she’s acting suspicious of me, Novak thought, thinking that a bit ironic.

“She told me to wait at the condo for you. I don’t know much else, and I won’t until she shows up and fills me in.”

Alcina didn’t trust him any more than he trusted her. That was a good thing. She shouldn’t trust him, not in a million years. She didn’t know Novak from a hole in the ground, or if he was even who he said he was. He watched her exquisite face and could almost see her mind working. She was gauging what she should believe. She was deciding how much she should tell him before Claire vouched for him. She was not stupid, not by a long shot, but she needed to work on hiding her thoughts. She was easy to read. She had not learned to put up a shield. A moment later she arrived at the right decision and decided to believe him.

“Eldon and I have a mutual friend in Guatemala City. She is a doctor, and she sent us here and asked Eldon to protect us.”

“Those guys obviously want you dead. Anybody else after you?”

“The man who sent them took my baby, and he wants to kill both of us. You saw.”

“Who took your baby?”

“They did.”

“You don’t know who they are?”

Tears filled her eyes and gleamed in the flickering light. “No, but Claire Morgan says you will find Rosa for me.”

This conversation was getting Novak nowhere. “Does anybody know who took your baby?”

She shook her head, and fat tears oozed over those long lashes and rolled down her cheeks. Novak tried not to be affected by her obvious grief, because he didn’t know enough yet to feel sorry for her. She might trust him this soon, but that wasn’t mutual. She wiped her cheeks with the backs of her hands.

“They came to our village one night and kicked in our door and just took Rosa.” She held his gaze. “My husband tried to stop them, but they shot him. They just killed him right there beside Rosa’s crib.”

Novak watched her face as she relived the moment. If this tale was true, it was a terrible thing, all right. She looked legit, she sounded legit, and he wanted to believe her. Claire obviously already did, but who wouldn’t be affected by that kind of sob story? “So you’re telling me that these people just rolled up in the dead of night, broke into your house, murdered your husband, and kidnapped your baby. Did they try to take you or hurt you?”

“We ran away after they shot Luis. They looked but couldn’t find us.”

“Who’s us?”

“Pedro and me.”

“Did they take anything else?”

“No, they only took Rosa.”

“How old is the baby?”

“Eight months when they took her. She was screaming. She was so scared. I can’t stand to think about it.”

“Why do they want her?”

“I don’t know.”

“When did this happen?”

“One month and six days ago. So she’s nine months now.”

“Okay, let me get this straight. So this doctor told you to come up here and get with this Eldon Osceola guy, and he’d help you find your kid. And all those guys around that fire are his family?” He gestured at the men. None of them were paying any attention to them.

She nodded. “They are his sons and nephews and cousins. They work this place for the people who come to visit the Everglades.”

Novak looked around. He couldn’t see anything but darkness outside the ring of fire. “What’d you say this place was?”

“They take airboats out into the water, you know, to see the birds and deer and alligators. This place is called the Pa-hay-Okee Safari. That word means grassy waters, Eldon said. Lots of people come here to go on the boats.”

“The Everglades is a couple of hours from Fort Myers. I was out that long?”

“We have been here three hours. You were unconscious all the time. It is safer here for you. They’re looking for you now. We had to bring you along. It was for your own good.”

The fetid odor of standing water came to Novak on the wind. It smelled like that at his house on Bayou Bonne, too. He’d recognize it anywhere. “Do these guys live out here?”

She shook her head. “No, but they work here. There’s a museum here with tribal artifacts and alligator shows and booths to buy crafts. The airboats take the people who come here out to the preserve. Eldon and his family all live in Naples.”

Novak couldn’t get over her English. In Novak’s mind, that didn’t compute. If she was from the kind of jungle village in Guatemala that he’d visited, how the devil had she mastered English so well? Many of the Maya still spoke their ancient language as well as Spanish, but he’d never heard them speak English. She didn’t even have an accent. That bothered him. He glanced out at the men again. A lot of things weren’t adding up for Novak. “He’s got a lot of relatives out there, and they all wear identical black clothing and carry weapons. Looks more like a SWAT team to me.”

“They are very brave. Jake, the one who hit you with his bat? He’s Eldon’s youngest son. There are seven sons and two daughters. They have taken turns keeping us safe until you and Claire Morgan could come and bring back my baby.”

He hoped Claire hadn’t promised a miracle like she usually did. If this case concerned a missing infant, Claire was going to be extra gung-ho because she was pregnant herself and would relate big-time to this young woman’s plight. “Where the hell were those guys when that punk tried to drown you in the ocean? I thought you said they were protecting you.”

“They were out front watching the road. They did not expect them to come through the thicket on foot. We thought we were safe there at Eldon’s condo. We were good and did what Eldon told us to do. We kept inside every day and let no one see us. We saw you and we thought you were Claire’s friend, but we could not be sure. We were afraid you might be one of them.”

“Okay, I want to talk to this Eldon guy. Which one is he?”

“He’s in Miami. He will come back in the morning.”

Novak was tired of wondering. “How come your English is so good? Where’d you learn it?”

She looked down. Not a good sign. “Dr. Eloise lived with us for a year. She taught me English and trained me as a nurse’s aide. She chose me.”

She sounded proud of that. “Is she with Doctors Without Borders?”

“Yes. She taught many of us to speak English better, and she cared for our sick. Our village is far away from the cities. She was good to us and believed me when I told her that Rosa had been taken.”

“Was she there when it happened?”

“No, now she works in Guatemala City. We called her for help.”

“Okay, I get all that. So how did you find Claire?”

“Dr. Eloise worked with Claire’s husband. His name is Nicholas Black. She asked him if his wife could help me find my baby. Then she sent us here to wait for Claire Morgan to come. She told us about you, too. She told us you were very big, but I did not expect you to be as tall as this.”

Novak probably did look large to her. She was tiny, five foot one, if that. Novak frowned, not sure he wanted to take this case, much less hear all the gory details. It did not sound like it would have a good outcome. Finding a baby already missing for over a month and inside a different country would not be easy. “You have no idea who took Rosa?”

“No, but other children have been taken from our village and others, too. The men come at night and steal our children. Then they leave and our babies are never seen again.”

In the ensuing silence, both Castillos stared at him, as if they had said enough and only waited now for him to get up and go get their baby. They looked young and innocent and desperate and sad and almost too stoic, considering what had happened to them Well, that story wasn’t going to get it, not by a long shot. He needed to know more than what she’d told him.

“What about the men who attacked you? How do they fit in with this?”

Alcina shrugged and shifted her gaze to her little brother. She spoke to him in rapid-fire Spanish. Novak was fluent, too, another perk from working missions in Central America. She was telling the kid to join the men at the fire so she could talk to the big man alone. Pedro didn’t argue. He jumped down off the chickee and walked over to the fire. He sat next to a couple of the younger men.

“Is Pedro okay?” Novak asked her. “He didn’t say anything.”

“Pedro’s brave. You saw how he fought the man at the beach.”

“What about you? That guy got you pretty hard in the face.”

Her hand moved up absently to touch the bruise. She gave a little shrug. “It does not hurt now.” She turned her face away as if she didn’t like him looking at her injury. Then she looked back. “How did you know it was us on the beach?”

Their eyes held for a moment. Hers looked as dark as midnight. “I didn’t know. I just saw a man abusing a woman and child who were a lot smaller than him. I don’t like that. I intervene when I see it happen. And you have no idea who they are?”

She shook her head. “Eldon says they are called Skulls. We do not know such men in Guatemala.”

Novak knew for a fact that there were men like that in Guatemala. They just didn’t ride motorcycles. “Consider yourself lucky. There’s nothing good about them.”

“You will find my baby.”

“I’ll try. Do you know how many men are in that gang? I saw five, but there’s got to be more.”

“Eldon says there are many and that they will try to kill anyone who helps us. They have been looking for us.”

“Why do you think the kidnappers wanted Rosa?”

“Dr. Eloise says they bring babies to America and sell them. She said she has heard that there is a devil in Fort Myers, and he sends his demons to snatch our children.”

Alcina seemed calm now, except that she was squeezing her hands together. Novak knew all about human trafficking. That kind of thing ran rampant south of the border, especially in Guatemala and Nicaragua but in other countries as well. The feds usually handled those kinds of crimes, especially ICE and DEA. Illegal infant adoption was one of the worst crimes in Novak’s eyes, but there was also sex trafficking and human slavery. All of it was terrible. Countless unsuspecting American couples who wanted to adopt a child were duped by these criminals, unaware that the children brought to them were not from orphanages but stolen out of villages. The Skulls could be involved, but he doubted if they were the brains of this or any other operation. They were too dumb to run anything. The baby-snatching business had been going on unabated for years.

“What devil in Fort Myers?”

“She only knew he was a lawyer there. Claire Morgan found out his name and thinks he is the one who brings the babies up here.”

She had relaxed some, a lot more than Novak would have been relating the story of his lost child. “How’d Claire figure that out?”

“I do not know.”

Novak wasn’t surprised. Claire could find out things nobody else could. “What’s the lawyer’s name?”

“She calls him Max Kellen. Dr. Eloise said she suspected he was a bad man.”

Novak had never heard of him. “What interest do the Osceolas have in this? They’re getting mixed up with some dangerous people.”

“They feel gratitude to Dr. Eloise. She worked here with them for a long time. She is a good person.”

Novak blew out his breath. This thing could get ugly fast. It already was. Bad news was: he’d already run into a buzz saw and Claire hadn’t even shown up yet. Those thugs were gunning for him and they’d barely gotten started.

“Dr. Eloise says that you and Claire Morgan are good at your jobs. That you will get my baby back. I know you will.”

“Well, I can’t promise you that. Maybe you should go home to Guatemala. I think you’d be safer there. What happened on that beach tonight will happen again, if you stay here.”

“I am Rosa’s mother. I should be here.”

Novak couldn’t deny that. One thing he did know, she and her brother shouldn’t be duking it out with brutal criminals. “Then you need to stay out here, or somewhere safer than that condo. Let these guys protect you on the reservation. They won’t make the same mistake twice.”

“Eldon will protect us at his condo.”

“He lives there?”

“No, he owns those buildings.”

“He owns Ocean’s Edge?”

“Dr. Eloise says he is a good businessman.” She leaned forward. “Is this Claire Morgan strong and brave enough to find Rosa?”

Novak almost smiled but couldn’t dredge one up. “Yeah, she’s pretty much got that tough thing going on. One thing, for sure, she never gives up, never, no matter what, no matter how bad it gets. That ought to make you feel better.”

Alcina smiled a little.

What didn’t make Novak feel better was the fact that Claire was going on six months pregnant now. She did not need to take an active role in this kind of investigation, and her husband was going to have to convince her of that. Claire had a mind of her own, but she wasn’t the kind of woman who’d put her own baby in jeopardy. She would listen to reason this time.

“Do you think she’ll be here soon?” Alcina asked.

“I hope so. Tell me something. Those guys from last night? Do they work with this Kellen man?”

“Eldon says they are bad but we don’t know much.”

That was true. Although Novak had heard of them, he hadn’t run into them before. He knew they’d had a chapter in New Orleans until the DEA busted it up. “This lawyer? You think he sent them in last night to murder you and your brother?”

“Yes, they found us there. We don’t know how. We were very careful not to be seen. You are our guardian angel.”

“I’m no angel, but I’ll help you as much as I can. What else do you know about the lawyer?”

“Eldon says he is a mobster.”

“If these guys are in with the mob, we’re in trouble.”

“All I want is Rosa back.”

“You can’t be a part of this. They’ll kill you next time they get you.”

Her face fell, and along with it, her burst of bravado. “Please help me, please.”

“We can’t do much else until Claire gets here, but that should be soon. Then she and I will look for your baby and deal with whoever’s got her. But you need to keep your head down, either out here or somewhere else where they can’t find you. You and Pedro are witnesses to attempted murder now. So am I. Both of you need to stay in hiding. Are you willing to do that?”

She nodded.

Novak glanced around. “Do Kellen and his men know about this place?”

She shook her head. “Eldon’s boys guard the entrance and make sure they don’t get in. They will call the tribal police if they come around.”

Novak glanced back at the men around the fire. They looked young and green and were probably inexperienced, but they’d managed to take down him and five other guys without much effort. They were pretty good, but they weren’t going to win any war waged against a murderous motorcycle gang backed by the local mob. This woman and her brother would end up dead if the bad guys thought they could endanger their business interests. Now Novak was involved up to his neck, and the Skulls on that beach might be able to identify him. It had been dark most of the time but they knew he was big. That took away Novak’s anonymity somewhat and made it a good bet that they’d grab him the moment he showed up anywhere near Fort Myers. That could put Claire in danger, as well, and Novak was not willing to take that risk.

“I’m going to help you, Alcina. So is Claire. Just keep your head down and stay out of sight.”

And he would, not that it was the smartest thing he’d ever done. Still, Claire would insist they take the case because Claire was Claire and she had a high sense of justice and got off on making criminals pay for their evil deeds. What’s more, she’d be right to take it, of course, just like she usually was. This poor woman had been through enough. It was time to let somebody else fight her battles for her. More to the point, he did not like bullies, and these guys were the worst kind. He looked out into the darkness pressing up against the illumination of the fire, not sure what lay out there. “Are you sure we’re safe out here? That fire could be a beacon bringing them to us.”

“They lock the entrance gate at night. No one is allowed in here without their permission.”

That wouldn’t stop the killers, but being on a Seminole reservation just might. “So we’re close to the Everglades? There are some dangerous animals out here.”

“Yes, they told us. Big alligators and snakes, we have seen them. We have them in our jungles and rivers back home.”

Novak stood up, and his head started hammering. He had a concussion, all right, but not bad enough to kill him. He’d had them before and was still breathing. “Which one of those guys clubbed me?”

“Jake. He is sorry, though.”

“I really need to talk to Eldon.”

“He said he’d talk to you tomorrow. He said to be careful because they will come for you and kill you for helping us. They will take you somewhere and beat you with hammers. Then they will harm your family.”

“I don’t have a family.” Not anymore, he thought.

“I am sorry.”

Yeah, so was he. He’d lost his wife and their young son and daughter on 9/11 when the World Trade Center came crashing to the ground with all of them trapped inside. That was the worst day of his life, and the nightmares he had every single night never let him forget it. He looked into Alcina’s sorrowful face and understood her pain. But he could get her little girl back for her. He would never see his babies again.

“The cut on your head is deep. You can sleep here until Eldon gets back. He wants to talk to you,”

She was right. His headache was not going away. Now that he was on his feet, he felt dizzy again. “Okay, show me where I can lie down.”

Novak stepped down off the chickee and followed the tiny woman around the fire pit. The men they walked past stopped their conversation and watched him. Most of them looked to be in their twenties and thirties, a few older than that. He searched among them for weapons like knives and guns and baseball bats and saw pretty much all of it everywhere. These guys had armed themselves to the hilt; they did not think this place was safe from attack despite what Alcina had been told.

Feeling slightly more secure with their numbers and firepower around, he followed Alcina Castillo down a dark path that led through a field of knee-high grass. He had a feeling he was about to spend a long night, wide awake with a million or so buzzing and biting insects swarming his sleeping bag, if he was lucky enough to get one. Claire had no idea what she had gotten them into. Truth was, if somebody here had kidnapped a little baby from its mother, Claire would hunt them down if it took her the rest of her life. That was just the way she rolled. That was Novak’s favorite thing about her.