“You’ve started early,” Shig noted, leaning forward, his elbows on the scarred bar.

“It’s a whiskey kind of day,” Kalico retorted. “One of those times when you have to finally face realities and make decisions. So, I’m here. Making the damn decisions. And now I’ve got a missing man.”

Shig’s placid expression belied his keen eyes as he glanced her way. “Ah. Missing man. Dek or Ozawa?”

“Excuse me?”

At her hostile tone, Shig raised a hand. “At ease, Supervisor. That you are here, and not at Two Falls Gap, tells me that you are close to having found sattva when it comes to our mutual friend Dek. With regard to your possible deserter, I suspect you are shifting between tamas and rajas. But, there, too, you will find a solution.”

“When did you get to know me so well?”

“By watching you get to know yourself.”

“Talina says that when you were a baby you got dropped on your head a lot. The longer I know you, the more I think she was right.”

Shig just gave her that benign, beaming smile as Inga placed a half-glass of wine on the chabacho bar, and asked, “Got an SDR on you, or is this credit?”

“He’s on my tab today,” Kalico told the woman. It was a well-known fact that Shig was one of the poorest if most prominent men on the planet.

Inga gave her a wink, slapped her bar towel over her shoulder, and stalked off.

“Thank you,” Shig told her, lifting his wine to study the rich red color through the backbar lights.

“You’re welcome. Like I said, it’s decision day, and I’m hoping to get on your good side. So, drink up. I want your inhibitions to be befuddled by alcohol so I can get a better deal.”

Shig’s bushy brow lifted. “Befuddled by a half a glass of wine?”

“Shig, the way I figure it, the reason you only drink a half glass is because a full one would put you under the table. Anything that would make you blotto drunk would upset your hard-won moksha, so you compromise on a half-glass . . . that you normally don’t finish anyway. So, bottoms up. Drink that and, in your stupefied state, say yes to my proposal.”

Shig tilted his head, uttered a Buddha-esque chuckle, and took a full swig of the wine. This he swished around in his mouth and swallowed. All of which, Kalico decided was about as radical as Shig got when it came to a drink.

“What do you need?” Shig asked.

“What will you charge me to rent me your A-7? I’m thinking in terms of scientific equipment for compensation. Working microscopes, centrifuges, chromatographs, spectrometers, that sort of thing.”