'I admire your luck, Mr...?'

‘I suppose the theme isn’t ‘three day old sweaty t-shirt’? If it is, I’m overdressed.’ He rises from his barstool and finishes his drink. Mordecai will likely have something prepared for him and drinks available both in the car and on the plane, so he follows Virginia without hesitation.

He’s not ready as he’s drinking off the day’s work in the lobby bar of the hotel he was put into by the government, and they’re not going to be pleased that he was found so easily. They should have expected it, he’ll tell them, the amount of trackers and sensors they’ve sewn into his clothes and put under his skin. Still, he’s always known that Viriginia is good at her job. ‘Do I have time to powder my nose?’

‘She might be elusive, I still aim to woo her,’ he steps away from the wheel, closer to Lilith, sizing her up with as much subtlety as he’s been trained to have, ‘if you’ll point me in her direction.’

His accent probably isn’t the same either, but that’s by the by. He’s the first to lower his gun, safety on and finger away from trigger, ‘I wouldn’t dare try to upset you, not on purpose. Where’s the fun in that?’

‘--And is that alone satisfying?’ He doesn’t want to sound like he’s spurring Mordecai on at all, he shouldn’t, he knows it doesn’t take much at all. There’s flecks of gold leaf around his mouth, a quick swipe with the back of his hand leaves his knuckles glittering, when he briefly smiles the gold leaf is visible between his teeth. 

Red and black swirl in his eyes until the roulette wheel comes to a halt and the ball lands in the gutter, the double zero. It’d hurt less if that wasn’t staring him in the face. He looks up at the nearest person drifting past, not expecting it to be Lilith but not letting his recognition show. ‘I think I prefer to lose my money at cards.’

At this point, they’re old friends. The kind that hold loaded pistols on each other the second they cross paths. ‘Whose pocket do I find you in this time?’

‘What’s on the menu today?’ He has to be fond of the Development department, they more than practically raised him, so he’s in a good mood as he enters the room. The door seals itself shut behind him.

A streak of gold zips through the sky, tiny but not too difficult to spot for Jim’s keen eyes. The evening is balmy and the champagne in his hand is trailing cool condensation to his fingers. He draws his eyes down to the person accompanying him and leading the stroll, ‘--and you expect the second launch to be just as successful? Bigger being better.’