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Zansk

Alicia watches the bartender operate the fast-pour draft system. Large screens keep customers entertained. For such a small sports bar, she is impressed with all the activities it provides. Virtual billiards, Foosball tables, and augmented reality darts have the bar filled with patrons and the beverages flowing.

But there is no Caveman to be seen.

She sits at a table and waits with her rum and coke, checking her phone to see what the tracker is telling her. She texts the Caveman again.

[ALICIA5] WHERE R U?

She looks up to see a three-piece Weston Bryce suit moving towards her. The man wearing it stands next to her and says, "Hi. My name is Peter Zansk, a work colleague of Nathan. My condolences to you and your husband."

She can't help but give him an awkward smile. "Thank you. I don't... I don't believe we've met."

"We haven't." Peter Zansk sits down across her, his confidence an integral aspect of his demeanour. Strikingly tall and handsome, his sunken eyes and full lips affords him an unusual look. Had he been less fit, and a tad shyer, Alicia can imagine him being ugly. "Nathan's kinda talked about you. A lot. I was hoping to bump into him here."

"So was I," she says.

"Do you think he'll turn up?"

"You can wait."

Zansk sits there for a moment, growing visibly awkward, or is it impatience, Alicia finds it hard to read him.

He finally says, "He has been acting a little strange."

"Yes, he does get a bit strange. That's Nathan."

"I guess he's not taking this too well."

"No. He's not. We're both not." She thinks it through, "What do you mean by strange?"

Zansk seems uncomfortable, "He does get into conspiracy theories."

Alicia's cop brain activates, "What kind of..."

"Nothing serious," says Zansk. "Just the classics. Chemtrails. Fake moon landings. Flat earth. Hollow Earth.

This shocks her. "He doesn't..."

"Oh yeah, the Expanding Earth hypothesis is his big one."

"What the hell is that?"

Zansk explains, "Oh, it asserts that the movement of continents is due to the volume of Earth increasing."

"Plate-tectonics?"

"No, that's all fake science." He smiles, his fat lips expanding wide.

"That doesn't sound like him."

Zansk shrugs. "That's what makes humanity fascinating. The fact that we don't really know one another as well as we think we do. We don't even know ourselves as well as we think we do."

"Is this work related?" she asks.

Zansk shakes his head. "Not really. Just came for a chat. Figured he might need it."

"What do you do at Sutecno, Peter?"

He flinches, ever so slightly, but Alicia doesn't miss it.

"I'm a contractor. Hyperor Systems. We're doing the intelligent network upgrade for Nathan's company. How about you?"

"I thought Nathan talked a lot about me."

"He's never mentioned what you do. I figured he's embarrassed by it, and by the way you're resisting to tell me, it must be one hell of an occupation."

"It is," Alicia says as she sits back.

With that, he stands up. "I gotta get going. Give your husband my regards. And again, my condolences." Zansk walks away, leaving Alicia's cop brain struggling to find a category to file him under.