“I’ve got a meeting at thirteen-thirty,” Bill said as Sal finished his call, finally. “The answer is I’m not in that branch of procurement, I don’t do procurement and I think your system sucks. If you’re looking for me to say good words about it, look elsewhere.”

“Bill. Buddy…” Sal said, shaking his head. “You don’t have to be that way…”

“Yes, I do,” Bill replied. “I’m a damned government employee these days, Sal. I’m going to have to do paperwork on this lunch, I’m going to have to pick up the bill or go Dutch and I’ve got a forty-minute drive back to the docks. All that to be pitched on a system we both know is crap.”

“Okay,” Sal said, holding up his hands. “Seriously. I agree with you. Fazglim and Dulaul don’t know diddly about servers. We both know that. So… Do you know any good Adar that are in the market?”

“Why couldn’t you just come out and say that, Sal?” Bill asked, tonging up another mouthful of noodles. “I don’t, but I know who to ask. Good enough?”

“We really need a good Adar working in our code department,” Sal said. “We’re losing ground to LockLilug. They’ve got Gilanglka heading up their department. We can’t compete with him.”

“Whoever it is is going to want something like a CIO position,” Bill pointed out. “You know that.”

“I was told by very senior people to ask,” Sal said.

“I’ll ask around,” Bill said. “Ring. Command. Bill.”

“Your bill is twenty-nine, forty-seven,” his earring phone replied. “Fifteen percent tip will be four, forty-two.”

“Command: Add tip. Pay bill,” Bill said, standing up. “Command off. See ya, Sal.”

“Good to see you again, Bill,” Sal said, standing up. “I should have gotten at least half.”

“I needed to run,” Weaver replied, shaking his hand. He’d gotten some melaegl sauce on his khakis and he wiped at it with the nannie nap. The napkin, which had active nannites that aggressively sought out and removed stains, should have swept the stain clean but all it did was rub it in. Of course, if they’d been washed too many times…