Early March, 2009
The Black Squirrel

Aliya watched him go, nearly jogging to the door. She watched long after he had slipped through the doors and into the cold air. She wondered what caused his abrupt departure and why he had asked her to.... Pray? for him. Odd... yet fascinating. The image of him leaning leisurely against the bar with that vague amused expression stuck with her.

Finally her gaze left the doors and wandered back to her mug of tea. Along the way, it caught sight of his wallet left lying on the bar, forgotten in his hurry to leave. She picked it up quickly with deft fingers and pocketed it before relaxing back into her seat and finishing her drink.

A few minutes later during an unobtrusive visit to the bathrooms carrying her own mug, she opened the wallet and examined its contents. Cash. A bunch of small bills, about $50 if her sense for such things was still keen. The money was out of the wallet in seconds and her hand nearly to her pocket before she stopped...

It was habit, of course. A lifetime of never having quite enough did that to you... even as young as she was. The feel of a little extra cash in your pocket was always a comfort. But...

She could take the money and anything else of interest, drop the wallet into the shadows beneath the bar and go home a few dollars richer. But she had all she needed, finally, and was in no real danger of going without... and the wallet could prove more useful with the money intact.

So she smoothed the bills out and carefully placed them back inside the wallet before perusing the rest of its contents. Quite sparse really, she found only two things of interest. A list written in a language she did not understand which she puzzled over for a few minutes and a business card for the Fruited Plane listing his... sister? wife? as proprieter.

Taking mental note of the business card, she left everything where she found it and repocketed the wallet before wandering back to the bar. As she sipped at her tea, his image remained in the back of her mind. Yes, soon she would find him and return his property intact.... Rael Ashid had intrigued her far more than a few dollars could.