Lucendez moved back from the shadows and leaned against a pillar, listening to the conversation. Laowai definitely had a fiery tongue when dealing with outsiders such as this Junker, he had no doubt of this.
"One question that lingers in my mind, Mr. Tinkerbell, is the ramifications of allowing a Green Hawk to guard a purely Junker depot." Juan disconnected himself from the pillar and walked around the table. "What if the station gets bombarded, from some young Outcast no doubt, and a Junker family gets killed. Where is the blame laid?"
Lucendez walked down and put his arm around Laowai's chair, revealing his blackened eye socket.
"Perhaps your inner society might not like what you are doing, sponsoring a polarizing figure, a figure that is engaged in a war that has one of it's front lines right outside their window. I do not pretend to be a Junker psychologist. But I have been to Yanagi for an extended period of time. I have worked with other Junkers and..."
Juan paced back to his chair, sat down and took a swig of something in an earthen mug.
"...I have made passionate love to a fiery woman of Junker decent. I know your society may not like this change. My question is, why would you be so bold as to put yourself in this position?"
Lucendez waited for response.
"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."
