"Good God, Berg, have these people not heard about austerity?" Isidor Levin commented to his bodyguard as the two men walked into the Great Room of the Grosvenor House Hotel. "We only just stopped rationing meat, but if this lot keeps carrying on like this we'll be right back to eating Woolton pie again!" 

Isaac Berg merely grunted. The younger, bigger man was not exactly a stimulating conversationalist- his cold demeanor and hulking size had earned him the nickname "Iceberg". Then again, Levin did not employ Berg to be scintillating. Berg's continued employment had more to do with his service in the 1st Commonwealth Division in Korea, not to mention the Enfield revolver concealed beneath his roomy dinner jacket.

Iceberg obediently trundled along behind his boss as the older but vigorous man made his way over to the bar. Rather than wave or call out to the besieged servers, Levin instead waited patiently and humbly for the red-vested barman to make his own way to Levin. 

"And what is sir's pleasure?" the barman asked.

"Pimm's No. 1. Easy on the fruit, and add a splash of Gordon's to keep it from being too anemic." Levin looked back over his shoulder at Berg, keeping a watchful eye out over the crowded ballroom. "Berg?"

"Seltzer water, please," the big man said, stolid as ever.

Levin sighed as the barman scurried off. "You're a young lad, Berg. It'd not be wrong for you to enjoy yourself once in a while. Take it from an expert, there'll be plenty of time for fretting and fussing later in life."

Berg merely grunted.

The barman returned with Levin's cocktail and Berg's drink in short order. Levin smiled and slipped a fiver across the bar at the man. "Keep the change. There's something you can do for me, though. Anyone comes about asking after me, be a good chap and let a fellow know straightaway. Can you do that?" The barman enthusiastically nodded assent. "Good man."

It never hurt to know what was going on around you.

With that in mind, Levin took an appreciative sip of his Pimm's and carefully scanned the room, on the lookout for any faces he might know. Rumor was there might be a few other people in attendance here who traded in his peculiar field.