CHAPTER 9

MISCHIEVOUS WOMAN


"Havoc, this is One. Passing Falcon", Jason said as soon as the last member of his team safely touched ground. They quickly disengaged from their parachutes and released the specialist and Cerb, walking in line around a hill to get closer to the compound, weapons in hand. There were three armed guards in front of the entrance, two of them smoking, and Havoc confirmed there was no one else around the compound, so Jason appointed Two, Four and Six to hit them. As soon as the guards were a little to the side of the entrance, so no one inside could see them being hit, he gave the command, "Execute, execute". The three of them fell simultaneously. "Havoc, this is One. Passing Wolverine."

They made their way in two lines to the entrance door, ajar, and Jason shot another Tango that had his back to the door. So far, so good. The Team divided into two groups, since the hall divided into two directions, and Jason continued to the right, telling Two to lead the left side. The specialist and Cerb were with his group. They glanced another Tango, and this one was facing them, so he could take a shot before he was shot by Five. No one in his group was harmed by the shot, but now the Tangos were alert, and he heard Two's group shooting someone else on the left. Jason's group made another turn to the right, guided by Cerberus, and made it to another door, being received by two Tangos firing at them, so they stepped back. "Let's flash 'em", and Five and Six threw two stun grenades into their directions, and they immediately assaulted, shooting the Tangos, as soon as the flashes disoriented them. Apparently, that was the entrance to the warehouse, so he couldn't throw a grenade there, it'll blow everything up. "Havoc, this is One. Passing Lynx".

He heard another quick shooting happening to his northwest side, with a few commanding yells, while his group continued to make it to the warehouse door, clearing the room.

Suddenly he saw Two and his group coming from the left. "Havoc, this is Two. Passing Elk", Two said, confirming that the rest of the compound was secure.

The door to the warehouse was closed but unlocked, and Cerb sat down in front of it, confirming there were bombs there, or at least residue, so they entered in pairs, shooting two Tangos that were armed and could take a few shots at the Team, but hurting no one, and they ordered a third one, who was wearing some sort of lab coat, to raise his hands immediately, to confirm he wasn't carrying any weapons. The Tango hesitated, and Jason called, "Six", and Six gave the command in Arabic, so the Tango instantly raised his hands and fell on his knees, and Three quickly restrained him. There were several boxes there and a few bombs on the shelves.

Then they heard a sound of metal on the far side of the warehouse, then a sound of a vehicle driving off, while they continued to clear the warehouse and make their way to that sound.

"One, this is Havoc. There's a truck driving off from the East side of the warehouse, possibly carrying bombs or material with it".

Exactly when he heard Blackburn's alert, he saw a Tango firing at him and his group, and he shot him dead, but two other ones started to open fire against his group, so he backed up for protection, but the second group shot them both. They managed to get to the East side of the warehouse and saw the tire marks on the floor where the truck was parked before leaving. They escaped by a fake wall of the warehouse, which actually was a giant metal gate, not noticeable from the drone's views, probably.

They finished securing the warehouse, then Jason looked at the tire marks and a big empty space near two huge wooden boxes, close to where the truck was parked. "Fuck".

The specialist suited up, took a look and ran some tests, and they confirmed that there were powerful bombs in there, and also confirmed that those two big boxes contained something radioactive, because he found some residues on the wooden boxes. By the size of it, the terrorists escaped with as least two wooden boxes in a small size truck, probably taking a few bombs too. And the drone couldn't find it anywhere after they got into a mountain and cave area, but they probably were heading Northeast. They had eyes on the Russian and Chinese border too, just in case, but the truck could easily drive around for a few hours until they finally passed the border somewhere safer for them.

Ray's group had managed to capture a Tango, who was wounded on his shoulder but would live, and they captured the Tango in lab coat in the warehouse. Jason was pissed, especially when Havoc confirmed that they'd have to go to base with the terrorists for interrogation, because they couldn't find the truck, so he shoved the prisoners in the helo with them. The government decided they wouldn't destroy the warehouse because it was too dangerous, so another specialist team was heading to secure the bombs and material found.

Bravo and the prisoners had barely taken off with the helo, when suddenly Davis called on the comms again. "One, this is Havoc. Please confirm if both the prisoners taken are Syrians". Jason thought it was weird, usually the interrogators did that when they arrived at the base. He looked at Clay, who was the only one who spoke Arabic, and he was confused too, because they weren't suppose to interrogate anyone. And the guy could lie anyways. Davis must have noticed the silence, because she then explained, with a hesitant voice, "One, please confirm if any of the Tangos have a Russian accent". Jason was looking at Clay while she said that, and the rest of the team was confused too, but Clay's expression suddenly turned from 'what' to 'oh, ok', so apparently it was something doable. "Havoc, this is One. Copy. Hold".

Clay asked something to the first Tango, at first friendly, but he didn't say much, then he shook the guy a bit and said something else, a but more aggressively, and the guy answered back with a more elaborate answer. Then Clay turned to the second guy, and Clay didn't even say anything, and the second guy said a lot of words, and Clay thought for a second. Then he looked at Jason, slightly shaking his head, negatively. Since the Tangos probably spoke English, at least a little, Jason watched out for his response and couldn't elaborate. "Havoc, this is One. Negative".

Davis also needed to confirm, just in case. "One, please confirm. Do any of the prisoners have Russian accents?". And Jason repeated, with a monotone and clear voice, "Havoc, this is One. Negative, I repeat, negative".


Almost an hour later, they finally made it to the military base used for interrogation, and Jason got out of the helo anxious to see if they found out something about the truck, so he nodded at the CIA guys who were waiting for the prisoners, delivering them aggressively to them. Davis and Blackburn approached Jason immediately. "Let's have a chat" Blackburn said, making him go to another room, on the furthest side of the base. "Clay, you wait around here too, ok" Blackburn added, turning to Clay, who nodded.

Jason handed his weapon to a military and was carrying his helmet on his hand when he got into the room with Davis and Blackburn. He glanced at Dianna when he saw her on the corner of the room, standing with her arms crossed, with an anxious face.

"Any news about the truck?" Jason immediately asked Davis and Blackburn.

"We're working on it" Davis quickly answered, and Jason was confused. He thought they had news about its location and would discuss how to proceed next. Davis glanced at Blackburn, then at Dianna, and Jason was lost. "What's going on?"

Davis awkwardly came closer to Jason, "We have an idea. Dianna had an idea" she corrected, and Jason glanced at Dianna and back to Davis, waiting impatient for an explanation. But Dianna suddenly touched Davis' forearm and walked closer to Jason. "Which of the guys was the highest in hierarchy there?"

"What" Jason asked, anxious.

"Which of the two terrorists could have more access to the information we need? About the truck" Dianna explained.

Jason was very impatient now, "Well, that's something you could be finding out right now directly from them, huh?" He felt that she wanted him to do her job, while she played dress up.

Blackburn sighed from Jason's aggressiveness, and just stated. "She can't".

Jason raised his voice a bit, "Could anyone care to explain what's going on?" He hated being kept away from information.

"Jason" Dianna called him, with a calm voice, "I'll explain in a minute, just answer me, please. What do you think?"

Jason smiled, sarcastically, with his hands on his hips, and thought for a second. "This is… I don't know. One of them was inside the warehouse, wearing some sort of lab coat. The other was some sort of guard. The guy in a lab coat, I think, but maybe he couldn't exactly know-"

"The guy in a lab coat. Take the guard to Jefferson" Dianna told Blackburn, cutting Jason off, and Blackburn quickly got out of the room.

Jason was about to explode. "Would anyone please tell me what the fuck is going on? Did you find something? Is a bomb going off?"

Davis ignored his aggression and explained. "We need you or one of the guys to be a little… aggressive with the man in a lab coat".

Jason now was indignant, she should know, by now, he'd never torture a prisoner, or agree to that. "The fuck no"

Davis gestured for him to calm down, "Nothing illegal. Just aggressive. And to Dianna too".

"What?" Jason now was fuming, looking at Davis, Dianna, then back to Davis.

Dianna saw he was spinning a bit out of control, so she came closer. "That's not like that. I'll explain. Just hear me out".

Jason looked at her, he was curious but still impatient to understand why they were wasting precious minutes talking nonsense.

Dianna touched Jason's forearm, to try to calm him down, and continued. "These guys will take a long time to talk. About anything. I just know that, and any interrogator knows that. In any other circumstance, that's ok, we'd work our way and figure out how to take the information we need from them, but we're in a hurry here. So I thought that maybe we could make it urgent for him too".

Jason didn't move, glancing between the two women, suspicious. "What would you do?"

She took the hand off his arm, but stood close to him. "It's hard to explain. But in brief words, I'll pretend to be a Russian spy, or whatever, caught by the Americans, and tell the guy in a lab coat that Jefferson is on his side, and he has to tell him everything he knows about where the truck could be heading".

Jason slightly put his face closer to hers, tilting, as if he wasn't hearing it properly.

"What?" he whispered, dangerously, and Dianna sighed; she knew he heard it.

He looked at Davis, and she had an apologetic face, but raised her shoulders, as if she was agreeing with Dianna's idea. "We're looking into the truck, but in the meanwhile, her idea is not bad. She's the expert about interrogations".

Jason felt like the girls have convinced Blackburn and ganged up on him. "Did you tell Jefferson about this 'idea'"?

"We'll tell him when the time comes" Dianna quickly answered, dismissing it casually, as she always did to most stuff.

But Jason had just got back from a very dangerous op, with his brothers, securing huge bombs and radioactive material, and this girl was trying to pull off a theater play, in a military base, against a Syrian terrorist, and he just couldn't take it anymore. Everyone was out of line.

"So you're saying" he walked closer to Dianna, with killer eyes and his hands on his hips, "That me and my Team just came back from a dangerous op securing powerful bombs and radioactive shit in the middle of a bunch of armed Tangos, and instead of doing your fucking job and interrogating the terrorist that probably knows where the truck is, you want to play pretend and get roughed up by some military dude so he maybe, just maybe, believes you? And all of this, without checking with the actually CIA interrogator first? Your superior". He was breathing heavily and looking into her lined eyes, and she kept staring back at him, her expression going from serious to absolutely angry.

Davis felt the tension and saw this was going nowhere, so she intervened, using her Officer's authority.

"Actually, Jason, I'm her superior. And I want to give her idea a try. And Blackburn trusts my decisions, so he's giving it a try too" Jason turned his head to her, knowing perfectly how the girl manipulated Davis into being her friend and agreeing to this absurd. Davis saw his indignant face, and added, "And I'm not asking for your permission. I'm just telling you what will happen. Just because you're the team leader and we need one of you to play a small part. It's my call, not yours. Now I'll talk to Clay about it, because we might need some of his help", she concluded, leaving Jason and Dianna alone in the room, both indignant to one another.

Jason's pride now was hurt, so he didn't back down and came even closer to Dianna, invading her personal space until he could literally look down on her, to make her feel like the inconsequential and manipulating girl that he now was pretty sure that she was.

"Well I hope to God you get some information out of this guy, because if you don't, the consequences will be on your conscience". He turned and started to walk away from her, leaving her standing there, but her lack of response teased him and made him feel even angrier, so he turned again towards her, invading her personal space again, and was now sarcastic. "Or maybe that's a good thing, and you might realize that a spot in Echo Team is more suiting to your taste. They're younger and just a tad more spoiled than the other teams, perhaps they'll embrace your ridiculous revolutionary ideas better than Bravo".

Dianna kept looking into his eyes, and he saw she was about to blow up, and he was waiting for her to turn around and walk out of the room, like a teenager, or to aggressively come closer to him to pretend she was a girl boss. She did neither.

Her face turned from angry to calm in a second, and she remained very close to him, but then leaned on the table right next to them, sitting on its edge, making her seem even smaller to him. She calmly looked at him for a couple of seconds, in silence, then smirked, and Jason immediately felt he was acting a bit too aggressive.

She clapped back, with a calm and low voice. "But I don't think it's your call, is it, Jason? Which Team I'd assist. How I handle my interrogations. How I act, how I think, how I dress". His face twitched, and her smirk disappeared. Her expression was of disdain now. "In fact, you don't know one. Fucking. Thing. About how to interrogate someone. Or how to handle assets. Or how to gather intel. But yet, you seem to think it's your task to be informed about these things. To meddle. To approve."

Jason was fuming now, but he didn't say anything, because he wanted to keep his cool like her and not interrupt, she hadn't finish talking. He'd let the lady talk her shit, then be sorry of it. She stood up, and stood in front of him, not as close as he did before, but close enough for her fur coat to graze on his hands, that were still resting on his hips.

"You're a big guy, huh? Rough guy" she smiled, sarcastically. "Stubborn guy. And you seem to forget that while at 18 you were doing pushups, runs, calling yourself a hero and taking collective showers with your teammates" his face now twitched again "I was all alone in a small room with a guy that was swearing on his mother to kidnap me and fuck me in every possible way. And then do the same to any other female relative I had. And because I was there, enduring all of his shit, this guy is still in prison to this day. And other guys too".

He swallowed, and was about to defend all the sacrifice that he's been through, as valuable too, probably even more valuable than hers, but she quickly knew what he was thinking. But she remained sarcastic.

"Oh, don't worry. You're a hero, Jason Hayes. You've been through hell, injured, shot, probably has PTSD and missed valuable family time, and your mind is all fucked up because of the war. But that doesn't give you the right to decide that you're better than anyone, or that your job is more important than others. If you had a daughter, and she was raped, I bet you wouldn't give a fuck if Syrians were driving a truck filled with bombs on the other side of the planet, right now". She distanced from him a bit, noticing how his face turned to angst, but he needed to hear that.

"You better watch it" Jason could barely speak.

Her voice now was just slightly gentler. But determined. "Horrible to just imagine, huh? Yes. I know, believe me. I'm not under your command, and unlike everybody else here, I'm not gonna kiss your ass and pretend I'm afraid of you. I respect what you do and how you do it, and the least you could do is respect how I do my job. Since I've been doing it for a decade and a half".

She turned her back to him, but she couldn't leave the room, so she just crossed her arms and muttered. "Now if you could, please, get me Clay, I'd be very appreciative of you".


Dianna closed her eyes and sighed relieved, when she heard Jason grabbing his helmet, getting out of the room and aggressively shutting the door behind him. She never thought that he was such a hot headed and stubborn guy, and she was indignant with how he talked to her. She suddenly felt that maybe she was a little heavy-handed with her words, but she wouldn't let herself regret them now, especially because she was still absolutely angry at him and his disrespectful manners. She needed to focus.

As soon as Clay got in, a little stunned about how distraught Jason was when he called him to go into that room and 'talk to that woman', Dianna thought it was best to just tell him part of the plan, so she wouldn't face another long discussion now, she wouldn't have the nerves for it. She started by asking him how to say some sentences in Arabic, just in case, that she could memorize. Fortunately, she already knew, just a bit, of Russian.


Danyal was shitting bricks when he was captured by the Americans.

He was an ambitious young man, graduated top of his class in Chemistry and was a post-grad in Physics, but he came from a middle class background, lived in a rough neighborhood, and now was being very well rewarded by the Syrian terrorists to manipulate, secure and transport bombs and radioactive material throughout Mongolia and other countries, because they kept changing their locations all the time. To avoid exactly this scenario.

Fortunately, some of the guards could quickly get away with a small part of the inventory, but unfortunately for Danyal, the Syrians always demanded that his work was done at night, to avoid drones from the Mongolian government. Obviously that didn't work so well, so now he was there, sitting on the floor of a small cage, in a military base in Mongolia.

But the Syrians knew his family and they always promised they'd have a way to get him out of prison if he kept his mouth shut, so to protect his mother and two sisters, and with hope of somehow to escape prison, he kept his mouth shut when the American soldier dragged him out of the helicopter and handed him to another American, and then this one shoved him in a cage, alone.

He spoke English, actually very well, but he'd never let them know that, so although he was listening to everything attentively, he only spoke in Arabic to the blonde guy, and answered in Arabic too.

When he was quiet in his cage, which was close to the Syrian guard's cage, waiting to obviously be interrogated and focusing on remaining calm, suddenly a military man with black hair and beard got him off his cage, a bit aggressively, and almost dragged him out of there to another cage further away, a bit darker. It was still night time.

Some time passed, and nobody talked to him, still. But he kept focused, with his eyes closed.

Suddenly his cage opened, and the blonde soldier that spoke Arabic invaded his cage and grabbed his arm, aggressively, and started to ask him where the truck was, in English. He pretended to not understand, then he asked again, in Arabic, and saying that he'd be very sorry if he kept quiet. Then he shook him a bit again, and threw him back to that jail.

Danyal was a bit surprise with the aggressiveness of the soldier, especially because he wasn't even being interrogated yet. The guy seemed a bit out of control.

He was shaking a bit and watched, from the bars of his cage, the blonde walking away, and breathed relieved. Not even five minutes later, though, he heard it perfectly when the blonde was coming back, and started a conversation with some military woman and a third bearded soldier, who he recognized as the one who restrained him at the warehouse.

"Haha! Already?" the blonde guy happily talked to the woman, and they both started walking a bit closer to Danyal, so he came as close to the bars as he possibly could, to hear why they were so happy. Maybe the guard talked, but Danyal presumed the guard would know nothing important. Maybe they found the truck.

"Yes, I told you. We have eyes everywhere. I knew they'd have a second vehicle escorting the truck".

The third guy was very happy, and laughed, loudly. "They were fast, man. What about now? Same as always?" He turned to Danyal, and the blonde one looked at Danyal too, and kept staring at him while he said, "Yes. Time to release some tension on that one".

The woman smiled, looking at him too. "Poor fella. Won't last two hours." The three people attentively stared at him.

Danyal couldn't avoid swallowing hard while they talked, because it was evident about what it was. He hoped that the third guy was against it.

"Nah, no way. If I use my skills, he'd be broken in an hour. Wanna bet?" The bearded guy seemed anxious to start.

The woman gesticulated to the men. "Ok, I won't bet anymore with you guys. Just remember, interrogation with CIA goes first. Then, if nothing happens, you'll act ok? Jefferson will be calling him soon".

"Sure, sure" the blonde guy agreed, calmly. Then he started to walk away, "I'll go get the Russian bitch then, they must have arrived with her already".

A couple of minutes have passed, when the woman and the bearded guy turned their heads and watched as another military guy, very tall, came in, almost carrying a very well dressed Russian woman with him. She was looking at him, with hate, but he ignored her attempts to release herself from his embrace. Danyal recognized the tall man as another guy that invaded the warehouse, and he seemed to be the leader during their assault. So, apparently, everyone of that group was aggressive and out of control, and the leader pushed the woman inside the cage, close to Danyal's, and violently closed the door. He seemed very angry and like he hated the Russian woman, which was understandable, given the long list of problems between Americans and Russians.

The blonde soldier came back and stood next to the woman and the bearded guy, and the three of them looked surprised and annoyed at the leader, who ignored them and walked away. The woman and the blonde guy followed him, leaving only the bearded one there. He walked closer to the cages, and looked at the Russian in her cage, Danyal couldn't see her, she was probably sitting in a corner. Then the bearded guy looked at Danyal and smiled, with a psycho look. Danyal felt shivers.

The bearded guy then took his phone and started to talk to someone on a call, then wandered away, apparently he couldn't hear the person very well.

When he was very far, Danyal heard the Russian woman calling him, like when you call a cat.

"Psst. Lab guy" she called, and Danyal looked at her, realizing she called him in Arabic. Even so, she had a Russian accent, and she was trying to pretend she was cleaning her coat while talking to him, so she was facing him. The cages were almost one in front of the other, so he could see her when she was close to the bars.

"Hi" Danyal answered, still in Arabic, but suspicious about why she was calling him. He never saw her before.

"Did you tell them something?" she asked, with wide eyes, in Arabic. She didn't mention the truck or anything, and from what he heard, she was someone who was escorting the truck, but in other times, there were no escorts with the trucks. Except, of course, this time, they were found out by the Americans, so maybe the Russians or Syrians really wanted to take an extra precaution. But he kept quiet, just in case. He wouldn't say anything to her either, and he noticed the bearded guy was still far away.

"They will rescue us" she clearly said, with an accent, in Arabic, even though she was whispering, and Danyal couldn't hide his relief. The Russian smiled at him when she noticed his relief, and she was very beautiful, looking young now. Probably she was from a mob family, or made her fortune with those types of crimes. She seemed intelligent and trustworthy. But he didn't know her.

Suddenly, she stopped smiling. "But first, they'll break us" she said with a shaky voice, in Arabic, and she swallowed, knowing her fate too. "They... torture" she told him, thinking about the right words in Arabic and pointing with her eyes to the military Americans while rubbing her arm a bit.

Danyal swallowed hard. "Are you sure about that?" he finally asked, in Arabic. She looked at him, confused, then checked, and the bearded man was far. "Russian?" she asked, in Arabic, and Danyal shook his head. He didn't know Russian, almost anything. "English?" she tried, now whispering very low. Danyal nodded, looking if the bearded guy came back. The Russian woman smiled, relieved. They could communicate better, now.

"Before they torture you" she started, making Danyal shiver, "they'll interrogate you". She waited, and he nodded, confirming he understood what she said.

She continued, "But we have a friend here" and she opened a wide smile, making Danyal smile too. "It's Jefferson. The interrogator" and she smiled again, naughtily, because the Russians managed to put one of theirs, as a spy, in the heart of the American military group. Danyal almost laughed.

Suddenly, the bearded guy stopped talking and came yelling at Danyal and the Russian, aggressively. "Well I can't wait to break those pretty little teeth of yours, huh. So much smile, what the fuck. Maybe I'll pull them, one by one, first" he smiled dangerously, and then the military woman came back, calling the bearded guy away. Then the military woman stayed there, next to the cages, but soon she also wandered away a bit, to talk to the tall soldier, who reappeared. They were whispering and discussing something far away. The Russian 'pssst' him again, and Danyal tried to disguise and turned his ear to her.

"We need to alert the truck that the Americans are close. I was there to try to alert them to change course. Jefferson is the only one that can, now" she said, with a sad smile.

"Pay attention" she called, and he paid a lot of attention. "He will ask you questions and you have to keep quiet. Ok? Quiet. There are cameras in the room. But then he'll leave, turn them off, and talk to you again. You will know, because he'll ask you about your brother, Umar".

Danyal shook his head, suspicious and confused, he doesn't have a brother named Umar, and she quickly raised her hand, explaining. "I know you don't have a brother named Umar. It's you cue" she gesticulated again, with her strong Russian accent. "It means you are safe and he needs to know what do you know about the truck. Everything. And quickly, before they" then she nodded to the Americans soldiers "come back to get you. And… you know".

Danyal swallow and nodded. But he still felt it was weird that she was sure he wasn't trustworthy if he was tortured. She read his mind.

"Everybody breaks under torture" she said, now in Arabic again, "Even me". She was sad, then she switched to English again, with a lot of Russian accent. "It's a matter of 'when', not 'if'. You'll tell them. So will I. And we need to tell Jefferson, fast. If they call me first, I'll tell him. But if they call you first, you must tell him. Please" she pleaded, almost crying, and he nodded. He now was feeling sorry for both of them, because he realized that they would be tortured anyways after that. "And after that?" he asked, desperate.

She sighed, and smiled again. "If you tell Jefferson, he'll keep you in his room. He'll help you escape then. Please, come back for me after" she again was almost crying, and she had so much Russian accent that Danyal could barely understand her, but he nodded, he would try to come back for her. After he was safe.

The Russian then banged her hand on the cage bar, and her rings made a loud metal noise, so immediately the tall soldier approached their cages and advanced to her cage, yelling at her.

"What is it, huh? Are you thinking this is some fucking hotel that you call the maid to bring you food?" He opened her cage, getting her by the arm and making her stand up. He just looked at her, probably thinking about what to do, while she avoided eye contact, then he walked with her to the cage close to Danyal's, who now was standing up, indignant, but still too afraid to say anything. The tall guy walked with her and squeezed her against the wall right next to Danyal's door cage, and she looked at Danyal, nodding and reassuring him to stay calm. The tall soldier pressed her arm on her back a bit more and she whined a bit, and only then the guy stopped and released her arm. He looked distraught, and she muttered "Fuck you, American boy", turning her face to him. She was brave. He blinked his eyes, then looked at Danyal's and violently opened his cage, calling somebody named "Sonny" to take him to the interrogation room with Jefferson. Danyal glanced at the Russian, hoping this wasn't the last time he saw her.

He was relieved because he was going to see Jefferson and he wasn't going to be tortured, but he was sad because maybe the tall guy would decide to torture the Russian woman even before they interrogated her. He hoped not.

But when he was sat on a chair in the bright interrogation room, and a man came in, saying his name was 'Jefferson', he could almost smile of relief. He didn't, because he knew his mission; cameras on, he'd keep shut; cameras off, he'd say everything. He was just waiting for the moment when the smart Jefferson would mention Umar to him. If he got out of this, and had a son, he'd name him Umar. He promised himself that.

.