Duncan grinned - a little nervously - as Aliyah went on about guns.  He had never been much of a fan.  Oh he could shoot perfectly well - just not a pistol.  With a rifle he had never missed.  Of course, he hadn’t been trying 1000 yard shots in high wind either.  But he had been trained by a USMC gunnery sergeant who Duncan suspected WAS a sniper.  It was just a hunting safety course and some follow up refresher training.

Duncan looked at Gary with a bland look on his face.  “For the record, if I carry a pistol it is going to be small.  I want the answer to any questions about the size of any parts of my anatomy being larger to be yes.”  His ears turned red, but he smiled.  “And fair warning.  Something my friends learn about me.  Never to ask me a question of me unless they want an honest answer.

“Do you know if the bone spur can be removed - safely?  I did some work with a friend doing grad research in biophysics.  I was helping him develop a material that simulates bone for replacement of knee caps and vertebrates.  Part of the system was the development of an artificial gel that acts like a cushion.  The challenge had mostly to do with rejection factors and toxicity.  Ultimately he wanted to be able to cut and remove a vertebrate and replace it with an artificial one.  But I’m sure he is a long way from being ready for that.  It is supposed to be a treatment for people with degenerative bone diseases like osteoporosis.  I ended up with a patent - half of one anyways - for an artificial muscle cell in the bargain.  But that will probably never see use in a human.  Toxicity.”

Aliyah’s touching attempt to comfort him was met with appreciation that bordered on ambivalence.  “It’s alright.  Six years ago I was empathically dead to the world.  But I’ve had a lot of time to recover,  Believe it or not, football proved to be a sort of therapy.  Part of me wanted to just withdraw from the world.  The other part is the one that refuses to give up - ever.  They were going to shut down the football program.  It felt like the school was quitting on the players.  So I gave them a pretty exciting year .. and then an extra year.”

Duncan was a little surprised at Aliyah’s quick answer.  It was a throw caution to the wind response that he hadn’t expected.  But he nodded, “Okay … well, as I said, I have a few more weeks paid up for my room.  That give us time to plan a bit.  First thing that comes to mind is work for you.  You said you love the Omelette House.  So I am gues they have been good to you.  Might want to give them plenty of notice and time to find and train a replacement.  If you want to travel to other countries you’ll need a passport and immunizations.  We’ll need to get international financing and cell service.  If you like I can add a line to my phone and get you a new one.  Don’t worry about costs.  I’ll cover them.  But I think you knew that already.

“If you want, start making a list of places to see and things to do.  If you want to start in the States, that’s fine.  If you want to have your back looked at, I can help there too.  I should consider some reconstructive surgery myself.  But it takes time to heal.”

Duncan wrote down his phone number and even gave his room number at Caesars.  It was a penthouse suite.  Aliyah’s whole apartment could probably fit in one room of his suite.