“It’s a group of guys. They own a bunch of shit bars on this side of town — a nicer one, too, a few blocks downtown. I’ve never been, but one of the shit ones got named after a dead dad, in memoriam, whatever, which is such a fucking insult. Come on, ask me something hard. All these fucking — fucking —”
If she reveals how tedious it is to hear old ghosts talk about old bones and what this place used to be and every sequence of drunken nonsense that gets observers here every night, she’d be letting this game-not-game play her.
“Whatever. Ask me something hard. Ask me something I wouldn’t know if I was some gutsy gumshoe reporter talking to — to clerks with old records at city hall.”
Spirit is leaning forward again, precarious but impossibly eager. This is something she could actually win. And she’ll learn the name of a planet.
❛ Patience, my dear, PATIENCE. What are you in such a rush for? We have all the time in the world. ❜
He lets the smoke waft slowly from the end of his cigar into her face, watches it warp her features and oh good, the barman has finally decided to do something about it, stomping over with a scowl. “Hey pal, you can’t do that shit in here”. Why not have some fun?
Twisting, he looks deep into the man’s eyes and in a steady cadence says, ❛ Of course I can. And you can fetch me another drink — the entire bottle, in fact — and then you will leave us alone until I call you back. ❜
With a glazed expression he does exactly that, and Koschei smiles and SMILES.
❛ What was I saying? Oh of course, the questions. Very well. If you know as much as I say you do, how on Earth did I do that? ❜