Sid listened carefully to all they had to say, calmly put out his cigar, waved with his fingers at someone in the shadows, who came with a bag for the stogie and ashtray. This henchman receded back to the shadows again and Lexi wanted to squirm in her chair but was afraid to move.  Sid sat back in his chair and laughed a deep belly laugh that Lexi recognized as his real laugh, laugh for joy, laugh. But why he was laughing totally escaped her. Sid  wound down and slapped his knee.<br/><br/>“Okay, okay, Him,” he stabbed a finger at Neo. “he is the real deal. I saw that. And these guys,” he jerked a thumb at Mr. von Engels and Yukina, are a riot. Anyone who can make up such useful bullshit is my kind of people. Arms dealer, engineer, Great Aunt Fanny’s hairy armpit, those are the best yarns I have ever heard as a cover up story. Lexi, you keep your job and I will give you a thousand more a month. But I’m warning you, never, ever again, take anyone in the back room. I don’t care how much you want him in your panties.”<br/><br/>Lexi narrowed her eyes. Something perverse sat on her shoulder.<br/><br/>“Two thousand.” She dickered.<br/><br/>Sid looked at her in surprise.<br/><br/>“Twelve hundred.”<br/><br/>"Seventeen fifty"<br/><br/>“Make it fifteen and you have a deal.”<br/><br/>Sid put his hand out to her and she shook it. Sitting back, she sighed in relief. Tonight would not be the night she was going to die and she wasn’t going to have to learn to swim underwater either. She did take a moment to be embarrassed that Sid had said she wanted Neo in her panties. Not that she didn’t but that wasn’t her motivation.<br/><br/>Sid then went dead sober.<br/><br/>“I am looking for wise and discreet partners to help me with the curse. You saw the Captain in the back room and you have heard the Sound. The curse is tied to that damnable sound and I believe it is getting closer each time it happens. In that book that Lexi stole,” he paused and frowned at her, “remind me why I retained you again, you little pirate?”  He glared a second longer and then continued, “ in that book is a spell, but I’m not a witch. I don’t understand the implications of doing that spell. Hell, I don’ t even know which spell it is, but I know in there is the key to making that curse powerless. I need someone like you, “ He pointed to Neo, “to help her,” he pointed to Lexi,  “ and you two, with your quick wit and fearless approach,” to make this happen.”<br/><br/>“So what’s in it for them?” Lexi demanded, watching Mr.von Engels dead pan face.<br/><br/>“The same thing that is in it for the rest of us. They get to go on living. The curse says that anyone who has looked on the Captain’s face will die when he brings the land and sea and sky together. I think as do several other historians, that Sound is the beginning of that movement.”