#anywhere

The man blinks, startled then "You're full of shi..."

Sam frowns, shrinking slightly.

Vali continues "A man in a crew cut, about Five ten... tattoo.. military I'm guessing, on the shoulder... he's going to be laid out worse than any war injury he ever had before, because you gave him bad intell. He's going to die... you've got one chance to change that. Call him.. .now, tell him not to go to the mixer... that you realize you were wrong. Do it... or the guilt will eat you alive because he'll be dead by May."

"How did you know my dad had..."

One of his friends goes "Bob, he's joking... he's just... just an ass..."

But Bob gets out of line, scrambling for his phone.

Sam watches, subdued.

Vali.. lied.

She knows he lied. There was..something true under it, but mostly it was lie, piled on lie.

And Vali orders the room, "TWo beds and a pull out? " A look to Dagmar "Sam, that okay or do you need your own room?"

"Sure, that works."

He nods, orders the room, and Frank comes in.

"Ok, Load dropped, Rig parked and cared for. Everyone fed?"

"Mmm..."

"Got a room on the second floor, I think it looks in the direction of your rig" He says "But not sure."

"And in an hour or two we might get hungry"

"In an hour." She agrees.

"Order it all, now."

He speaks with experience.

"Fine, let's get to the room" Vali sighs "We can order from there ." As they move to the stairs.

Frank lets the others got and pauses at the stairwell's base. "Get three more pies. Cheese, doesn't matter."

"Okay, sure"

Frank lingers outside, lookng......shady.

Vali says to Dagmar "You wondering why I told that guy that ?"

"You lied."

"Right. Gwydion. Yes. I'm not allowed to tell folks their fates.... not so directly. But I can set them on a path that might change things. He thinks he might be saving his dad. But actually, well, you can probably guess"

"Is his dad still gonna die?"

"no. He is. I saw his father grieving. "

"But maybe, maybe, if he takes care of his father... if he takes it seriously for his father's sake... it will save him instead. Sometimes looking beyond one's self is the best way to avoid the dark fork of someone's da'an"

"...oh..."

"Odds are slim." A sigh "But better than they were"

"And we haven't even really started...wow. I'm gonna sleep hard tonight"

She gets her pick of which bed. One near the bathroom, one near the window, or one pull out

Window!

He takes the pull out, cuase Frank is old and will need the bathroom, then again maybe not, guy's got the constitution of a camel