Page 96 of Exit Strategy

None of if involved me.

I went to a few, to be there for Callie, and she was thankful I was there a few times. Once she found her feet and her courage, I just really wasn’t needed. It was obvious I wasn’t needed. I had no legal experience. There was no pretending I was legal counsel, or an advisor. I wasn’t even a passable bodyguard with the injury I had.

The captain and his own seemed to be masters of relaxing at the end of the day. The hot tub, the in-house bar, basically a mini theatre in their living room, and the pier out to their boats and the bay.

It was nice.

It wasn’t really for me though.

“I know Callie is safe when you all go do the lawyer things,” I said, looking at the captain over a cup of breakfast tea. “Is there a risk if I go out and do something?”

“That depends, I guess,” he said. “What do you have in mind? I know you’ve been getting that stir-crazy look.”

“Aye,” I said. “I was thinking about going and looking at how bad things are at my cabin. Callie said there’s a tree crashed through it.”

“You’re not in much shape to do much about that,” he said.

“I’ve got some cracked ribs, I’m not on my death bed.”

“Still, you should be resting, more than anything.”

“Aye, you’re spot on, but I can’t just bum around and do nothing for six to eight weeks, I’ll go mad.”

“That’s likely true,” he said. “It wouldn’t be wise to be off by yourself, in case something went wrong, and you were injured, or the New Eden people tried to be arses again.”

“I’m not worried about that,” I said. “How did you put it, all the torpedoes aren’t just in the water, they’ve all hit home?”

“Aye, they have, but that doesn’t mean New Eden is done. A ship can still have a lot of fight left in it, even if itison fire and sinking.”

“Then come with me, unless this is the only thing you do,” I said, and gestured to the bank of monitors.

“It’s not the only thing,” he said.

“I recognize some of those icons – those are games, the funny ones.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said, and I could see his face tighten, a guarded expression.

“You know, funny like with wizards and shite,” I said.

“Oh, well yeah,” he admitted. “I do play those, when I sometimes have time.”

“Come on, get out of the chair, or let me off by my lonesome.”

“You drive a reasonable point,” the captain said, rubbing his face. “All this business with the legalese has me sitting on the bench now. We’ve got some of the best on our team, and now the only thing to do is make sure all the payments that need to be made are made.”

“Perfect,” I said. “Wherever Sadie and Kyle are, will they be fine with this?”

“They’re away on business, and they’ll have to be. Is there cell reception up by your cabin?”

“Of course, it’s just on the other side of the bay, not the arsehole of nowhere,” I admitted.

“I’ll let them know the plan, and then we’ll see about this green boot camp of yours.”

“Leg up to it?” I asked.

“Even down one leg, I can still keep up with you, lad.” He gave me a grin.

* * *

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