Rochester Inn

[Knuth--NF]

Noam examined the package, carefully unveiling it just a little bit.

"It looks quite magnificent, Doc. What am I looking at?"

Wait, I'm forgetting something here... Ah, right, right. Was this a distraction? Probably not, a gift like that only raises questions. Well, we have time, don't we?

"And to move on to other matters... when we last talked, you said you were leaving Liberty for good - is this here the last time we're seeing each other, then?"

His stream of speech was derailed by someone else approaching the Doctor - another figure in a lab coat. This lab coat, however, was a class higher - a snow-white, pristine example of lab wear, with not a stain or sign of wear on it - given the chance, that lab coat could even attract the ladies.

I should get me one of those some time.

Noam smiled as he recognised the new party at the table - it was none other than professor Boris Lanakov - the adventurous scientist he met and instantly liked some time ago, as a direct result of his habit of discussing politics over short-range comms every now and then. Boris was walking the line between two sides of the law, but he was always on the side of science, so it wasn't all that strange for them to team up on a few risky projects.

"Ah, Boris! We meet again - always a pleasure. Come, grab a seat."