Meetings!
I opened the window and lit up while Sofie snagged a second wake-me-up. “What the hell’s going on?” I asked her, once I could see the java finally hit her system.
“What’s that line, Shamus? ‘I could tell you, but then you would know?’ Things are going on. Things that aren’t any of your business, so keep that in mind.”
Okay, so it was ‘cryptic warning.’ I shook my head. “Lots of things ain’t my business, Sofie. At least, that’s what I keep getting told. Usually by people who think fists are punctuation marks.”
“Ouch,” Sofie said. “I guess I deserved that. Look, what’s going on is… complicated. You shouldn’t have even heard about it. If you had heard about it, you wouldn’t have cared. Do you get what I’m saying?”
I actually did. The nobles of New California like to play little games with each other. Sometimes the games get a little rough around the edges, although they try to keep actual murders off the table. The rest of the realm puts up with it because the commoners don’t get involved at all, except for reading the inevitable newspaper articles with what the Old Americans called ‘prurient interest.’ “Fine, this is upper crust shenanigans. Been a while since the last one.” I stubbed out my smoke. “I’m missing what you want out of me, though.”