"A golden mermaid for me," Skori said after Tescadji had flagged down their waitress and ordered a Berengard whiskey.
"You too, Sedriil," he said, and Sedriil made his order for a Nebaru herbal tea.
"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" Tescadji said, rolling the sleeve back over his arm. "So, my fellow colleagues in the cause, how has civilian life been treating you? Top brass tells me that you've started you own little service-for-hire business."
"We have," Skori replied curtly. "Can you tell us why we've come here?"
"Patience, please," Tescadji said with a grin and a gesture towards Sedriil. "Drink first, talk later. Look at your brother, Skori. He's not so uptight about need-to-know matters. But then again, he was never uptight about much of anything, except maybe his next wraith job, now was he?"
"We didn't come here to be insulted, Tescadji," Sedriil retorted. He cast a sour look towards their host.
"And let me assure you that I wasn't trying to be insulting," Tescaji said. "Surely, a man can be curious about the lives of two of the AEF's best operatives, can't he?"
"Former operatives," Sedriil corrected.
"I never quibble over details," Tescadji said arily. "Oh, and here come our drinks!"
The waitress removed the drinks from her tray, and Tescadji passed her a small wad of bank notes that significantly brightened her formerly passive expression. "And now," he said, once the waitress had moved out of earshot, "to business!"
"About time," Skori murmured.
"You can come out now, chief," Tescadji said in a slightly louder voice.
"Chief?" Skori and Sedriil echoed simultaneously. And then, where there was formerly an empty seat beside Tescadji, there was someone.
Jenius, the head of the Android Task Force was nowhere near as tall as Aldrec; he possessed the look of a classic elf. His hair was long and blond, and he had large, hazel, almond-shaped eyes. Though his age was close to three hundred, his slightly elongated face still glowed with youth, but his eyes were dim with vague world-weariness.
"Sir!" Skori and Sedriil sat bolt upright and saluted.
"Hey, hey!" Tescadji reached over the table and grasped their arms, nearly spilling his drink over. "No saluting in public; we're kind of incognito here, if you know what I mean."
"What do you mean, 'incognito'?" Skori said, looking around at the restaurant clientele. "We're out in the open, and the war's long over." He pointed at Jenius. "And besides, sir, you're wearing an ATF uniform."