Ethel Snake stepped out to meet the big man with an easygoing grin on his nondescript face. He didn't seem bothered at all by the men with the guns and took them in with the same casual air as the rest of the gathered group.
 
"Nothing too troubling I promise you that, just looking in on someone really. He's gone and gotten himself all out-of-touch like a fool, probably nothing but so-called 'disappearances' get the higher-ups in a little bit of a state" Ethel sighed in a long, victimized manner and shrugged resignedly in feigned exasperation at the inscrutable whims of those who lived on high "So we got sent down here to see what's keeping him. Goes by the name Pontius Gold, d'you happen to know him?"
 
There was probably no point spinning some elaborate cover story for these fine people, at least not as long as the bunch of oddjobs and fanatics Ethel had been stuck with were around. Better to be direct but friendly before the rest spoiled his chances at asking normally.