Without warning, but not very suddenly, the door to the back rooms swung open; Daniel and the other agent, Lucy, staggered out, feigning tipsiness convincingly.

"Same time next week, handsome." She slurred quietly, pecking him on the cheek as she turned to leave, almost falling over in the process.

"Only if you can hold you liquor better by then, hot stuff." He chuckled, before turning drunkenly to the bar, and sidling up to it.

"Don't you think you've had enough?"

"Ah come on, John. I'm just getting started. Gimme the green one, please?"

The bartender frowned at him for a moment, pausing from polishing a glass that had already been polished more than enough when he started. Reluctantly, he sighed and grabbed his shaker.

"Fine. Last order for you - and this is a pub, not a brothel. Try to avoid screwing that floozy in my conference room any more, y'hear?" He shook his head as he began to add liquor and liqueur to the shaker - a shot of Gunnar's Export Strength gin, a shot of cheap vodka, a dash of citrus bitters, and half a shot of bright green lime syrup - before topping it up with a sour, sugary soda mixture.

"Ah go on, hit it with the good stuff, will you?"

The bartender sighed again, sighing being one of his most regular activities when dealing with drunks, and held the shaker up to a small tap in the wall at the back of the bar. For just a second, he turned the tap on, and a few drops of something thick trickled into the cup - which immediately lit up a far brighter colour of green.

"You keep drinking like this, you'll fall off the edge of Solace before you even wake up, you dumb shit." The bartender huffed as he slammed the lid on the shaker, gave it a nice, hard shake - including a frivolous twirl in the middle - and strained it into a glass of ice.

Bright - borderline fluorescent - green.

"Cheers, Mike." Daniel flashed the barman a wink, before slipping him a note of currency, and raising the glass to the rest of the bar.

"And here's to you, arse holes!" He laughed at the lot of them, before turned back to the rear of the bar, and heading into the back rooms again, gingerly sipping his drink. If all went well, he'd be followed shortly by a team of mercenaries.

First time in his life that had been a good thing.