An audience at the Office of Elder Buonocore

[Elven]

Pedro de Alvarado, barely awakened, entered the Sephardi villa gates and looked around. It was not the first time he was here, but the sight of the villa's arts and exquisite decor always made him smile - inspired him, even. This way of life, it was all too familiar for his family. And soon, he shall have this life back, one way or another...

De Alvarado yawned, attracting attention of another man in the lobby who was well occupied with neural net surfing.

"Ah, seems you are here for the audience too, hermano?" - the man smirked at the newcomer. The smell of some kind of drugs was in the air. He reached out his hand, "Have never met you in person other than in space. Estebano Bandera".

"Hola, fellow soldato. De Alvarado." - Pedro shook hands with Bandera. - "Is el Presidente here already?"

"Haven't seen him just yet, the office hours are just about to begin. I think we should grab a coffee and something to eat, I have a gut feeling that this will be a long talk" - Estebano turned away from a screen on his smartphone, yawned and pointed to the Consul's office. "You go ahead, I got a few things to deal with here. Grab me an americano. Much gracias".

"Mierda... You are doing quite a lot of ordering down here, cabron. You mind your business, "centurion".

Bandera seemed completely immersed in his smartphone. "What a moron... Another time, another place" was de Alvarado's thinking.

Are those even real tacos?

After ordering a plate full of a different variety of tacos, he went into the empty Consul's office and grabbed a cappuccino for himself and a espresso for el Presidente. He smelled the horribly overroasted coffee and after a moment of consideration, he opened a flask of whiskey from his jacket and poured some into both containers.

"Get up, you damn slughead. It is time".