“Is he any good?”
This gets me a small shrug.
“I suppose he’s not bad … but he doesn’t play guitar, so mostly he has to sing a cappella. That makes his performance sound a little thin after listening to an evening of singers with instrumental accompaniments.”
I notice that for all her apparent disinterest, this chick seems to know a lot about what the commander does on his off hours … even to the point of sittin’ through a whole evenin’ of amateur singers to listen to his set when she doesn’t really like his singin’. From this I deduce that I am not likely to get much of anywhere with her as a sergeant, so I settle for bein’ friendly.
“Maybe he should try keyboards,” I sez.
“Try what?” she blinks, suddenly takin’ more interest in the conversation.
“Key … Oh! Nothin’. Hey, I got to be goin’ now. Nice talkin’ with you.”
With that I beat a hasty retreat, a little annoyed with myself. Again my time on Deva has almost gotten me in trouble. For a second there, I forgot that this dimension not only doesn’t have keyboards, it does not have the electricity necessary for the pluggin’ in of said instrument.
“Hey Guido!” comes a familiar voice, interruptin’ my thoughts. “What’s the word?”
I looked around to find Nunzio and the rest of the crew bearin’ down on me.
“No big deal,” I shrugs. “We don’t even go on duty until tomorrow. The commander’s given us the rest of the day to settle in and check out the town.”
“Sounds good to me,” Hy Flie sez, rubbin’ his hands together like … well, like a fly. “What say we get something to eat … and at the same time see if we can find a place to hang out on our off-duty hours.”