The look Kat gave Eric made him wince like heâ€™d been slapped. He was going to get a talking to later he was sure of that. How could he tell her he hadnâ€™t meant to make the guy angry? There had been a rule back on the streets, if someone you had a grudge with talked to you cordially you responded the same way. Those were the rules even if there was a grudge between the two of you. The grudge match would happen later when the grudge carrier called the other out. They might be on another planet but that was how heâ€™d done it before when heâ€™d met others from the streets on some ships heâ€™d been on. Of course even then the trick of trying to be nice was played and then backfired when a fist fight broke out over some smart ass remark or simply by the look on the nice personâ€™s face. He didnâ€™t think heâ€™d given Jack a reason to hit him but perhaps a small part of his old life peeked through without him noticing.<br/><br/>Eric didnâ€™t say a word and let Kat do all the talking. He could tell Ryan was doing the same. What a rag tag trio they were, two trouble makers and a workaholic. It would have brought a smile to Ericâ€™s face had they not been in a bad situation at the moment. Standing at near attention he found his eyes roaming the office as he listened to every word spoken. He didnâ€™t want to miss a thing no matter how small it would seem.<br/><br/>It wasnâ€™t until they got into the technical part did he speak up. This was his area of fun. Looking over the charts and technical layouts he pointed out a few flaws in the system and how to remedy them. A small part of him did not want to reveal too much. He wanted to gauge their reactions and even learn how much of this they already knew. There were a lot of things he could point out more on but decided he wanted to play it safe for now. How did he knew they didnâ€™t work for Thomas?<br/>When the meeting was over they were dismissed and shown to a small house down the block from where Ryanâ€™s hideout was. Theyâ€™d been told no one was living there and that they could use it as a headquarters for the time being. Each of them were handed a key and then left alone to do whatever they wanted. It was clear they were not wanted near the main hub. Irritating as it was Eric suspected it had something to do with Mr. Grumpy, aka, Jack. In all honesty he could not remember why they had parted on such bad terms. Turning to Kat and Ryan he shrugged not sure what else he could do apart from say, â€œsorry.â€