The food line was a mish-mash of worn silk pajamas and military costumes under hotel bath kimonos. Me and Yusuf grabbed some grub and stuck to the fringes, away from the other guys who sat in a circle on the floor. After he was done playing chef, Logan floated to the circle to hold court, wearing a wolf fur, complete with a head, which was out of place even with all the other costumes. The only light came from floor lamps scattered among the mattresses and blankets.

Yusuf’s social batteries were running low, his brown eyes locked on the stray melting chunk of ice in his barely touched drink. Even after making the rounds, we still hadn’t met Joel. I could see Yusuf, fresh from pulling me off Hassan’s operating table, drafting theories in his head. Probably worrying over what kind of human wrecking ball Joel was, and what that meant about himself.

“You need anything?” I whispered to him.

“Hmm?” He furrowed his brow, looking up. “No. Just…”

“Yeah. I get it. This is all a lot.”

“Right.” He frowned at his martini glass. “And I don’t know that I can stomach an enhanced evaluatory—a drink right now. I’ll be right back.”

After I watched his slightly stooped shoulders as he walked back to the bar, I turned to Riz, our official tour guide.

“Where’s Joel?” I asked him.

“He took a couple of the guys and left,” Riz said, flicking his eyes at Logan and lowering his voice. “Every few months he’ll say something about being sick of Logan’s shit and he’ll up and leave. But there’s nowhere else to go to. They said they were gonna move to one of the research stations or something.” He wiped the beef grease off his chin and licked his thumb. “He always comes back.”

Logan, propped up on a pile of mattresses, his arm around a guy in a military uniform with another dressed as a bellhop dozing on his leg, didn’t seem to mind that Joel wasn’t around. The light of the nearest floor lamp cast their shadow as one unified blob on the ceiling.

I didn’t have to poke with the Storyteller voice too much for Riz to start dishing. A year of exile with the same group of guys must’ve made him hungry to talk to someone else.

Joel had known what he was getting into when he started hanging out with Logan. Dating was too casual a description since they’d lived together in L.A. since he’d been cast in the film. They’d never been exclusive, though if Logan could form an emotional bond—the jury was still out on that—it was with Joel. And Logan had been charming, and hilarious, with his passion for work beaming onto those around him like a spotlight.