[b]"Here,"[/b] Brian told them, as he handed out the cards -- his brother's, kept for the typical meeting of friends for geeky card games on the slow days, which happened from time to time, [b]"And act natural." [/b]

It was a bit of a risk, whipping out cards for a game that dealt with the supernatural and all that stuff, but the bald man seemed confident. The local religious groups disapproved of roleplaying games and the like as a gateway to sin, but there was no link at all that anyone could establish. Brian's brother, John, was a known geek, after all. People might give the place a sidelong glance for hosting D&D games and the like, and yet the local idiots tended to let it go.

And that's why Brian dealt out the cards. Everyone else might have been having a heart attack, but it was hiding in plain sight. He even untied his apron and sat right down with the bunch of them, though he wasn't drinking any alcohol or coffee -- one would settle his nerves and make him overly at ease, the other would wind him up. And this whole proceeding required a degree of calm.

[b]"What do you mean 'strange?' I didn't see a thing, I was too busy talking to McAllister there."[/b] His expression was fairly impassive, but he let it show, however faintly, past the mien that he wasn't a big fan of the man. He was a fucking suit, through and through, and Brian didn't necessarily dislike suits, but he disliked the really sociopathic seeming ones.