Chapter 20

“You’re surrounded by all of these beautiful women and you aren’t boinking any of them,” Reggie said. He was sitting in the captain’s chair looking down on the foredeck of his parents’ yacht. “What’s wrong with this picture?”

Eitan looked Reggie in the eye as he leaned against the bulkhead, “They only want me for my body. None of them appreciate me for my brains.”

“Yeah, dream on, lover boy,” Reggie said, laughing at the joke. “You sure collect them though.”

Eitan wanted to change the topic. He surveyed the marina from their high perch and found little had changed since they arrived. The boat slip was at the end of one of the docks of a chocked-full marina. Reggie’s yacht was similar to twenty or so in the marina, which had pleased Bea. She took the advisement from the FBI agent after the interview, of keeping out of the public eye even more seriously than Eitan and Akemi. As unusual as it sounded, the yacht was just a run of the mill vessel in this little corner.

“What happened to your girl?” Eitan asked, finally coming up with an idea.

“Courtney fell off the wagon and I left,” Reggie said, watching closely as Bea adjusted her bikini top. “Last I heard, she blew through a mountain of coke and abandoned Boston for home. I sure can pick ‘em.”

“Cry me a river,” Eitan said, following Reggie’s eye. “I like it when they jiggle.”

“We could go to a bar tonight,” Reggie said. “There are plenty of nubile young maidens to choose from with Mystic fully booked.”

“You can go,” Eitan said, continuing to stare. “Akemi, Bea, and I are under advisement to stay out of public places for the time being. Besides, Mystic may be a haven from the nano madness, but the town is a one-off. Take a couple of steps beyond the town line and the paranoia smacks you full frontal. None of us can simply go anywhere at a drop of a hat anymore, Reggie; we need to carefully weigh the possibilities.”

“You really think so? You’re sure you’re not just as paranoid as the no-no’s?

Eitan gave him the raised eyebrow, but Reggie refused to rise to the bait. Pursing his lips Eitan finally said, “I’ll prove my point. Would you rather drive over to the Stop & Shop in New London, biggest grocery store in the area, or would you prefer to go to the Big Y here in Mystic? Before you answer, what was the answer you gave last week?”

“Crap,” Reggie said. “Crap, crap, crap. I just want to get laid.”

Eitan offered a compromise that was nearby and in daylight. They took Reggie’s car, speeding down to the fisherman’s wharf to catch the late boats coming in with their catches. The fishermen were happy to sell them seabass. Reggie paid for them to be cleaned and bagged in ice. Having stowed their purchase, the two walked across the street to the pub, grabbing stools at the bar.

Over their first beer, Reggie was doing his best to make eye contact with any female that came into range. To Eitan, everyone surrounding tasted like water, bland and mundane. He stopped trying. Midway through the first glass, Reggie nudged Eitan with his elbow and took off for the other side of the bar. Having no desire to play wingman, Eitan downed his glass and ordered a second one. At least he could enjoy the taste.

As he was drawing with his finger on the moisture that collected on the side of his glass, Eitan felt a presence slide onto the stool next to him. He looked up into a pair of hazel eyes that floated above a nice smile. He sat up, hoisting his glass to her in a quiet salute. He tasted cinnamon and turmeric.

She hoisted her own glass. “Hello, I saw you sitting with an empty chair next to you.”

Eitan joined the game of flirting and coaxing. He was enjoying himself, relaxing in a manner he had not felt in weeks. As he drained his fourth glass, he invited Kavita to join him for dinner on his friend’s boat. She could follow him, or he could drive her.

“Are you sure you’re safe to drive after four beers,” she asked. She was still on her second.

“Alcohol no longer affects my system,” he said. “I can’t get drunk anymore.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he paled. Did she catch what he was inferring? Was she a nano or a no-no? Was he going to have to run?

Her eyes widened at first. Then she deliberately scanned everyone who was near them, including the bartender. Whatever criteria she was using, she was satisfied after two and half scans of the privacy of their near space. “That was stupid,” she said. “You just scared the living daylights out of me.”

“My apologies,” Eitan said, trying to steady his own nerves. “I’ve had plenty of scares in the past weeks too. After talking with you for an hour or so, I forgot and dropped my guard. You make me comfortable after a lot of stress and distrust in these crazy times. I understand if you don’t want to join me for dinner.”

She drank the last of her beer in one swallow. “My girl is flirting with your boy over there,” Kavita said. “Maybe we could make this work. Pay my tab while I assess the libido quotient over there.”

The numbers must have fallen within the necessary range because Kavita took his hand and led him out of the bar. She handed him the keys to her older model Civic, explaining that the fob was dead. As he drove, she clarified that the other car was going directly to the boat because they had the fish. Eitan was driving the two of them to the grocery store because the boat had no tartar sauce and she wanted ice cream for dessert.

Eitan was almost as delighted to have someone else making decisions as having a pretty woman sitting next to him. He called ahead on his cell, giving Akemi a heads up that two more women were joining them for dinner. She barely acknowledged and hung up. “My sister,” he said. “They’re on the boat waiting for us.”

“How big is this boat?” Kavita asked.

“Reggie’s parents call it a yacht,” Eitan said. “I don’t know that much about boats. It’s white and it’s pretty big.”

“My father warned me about boys like you,” Kavita said, tapping his knee with her finger. “You dangle all your expensive toys in front of me. Then you expect me to fall at your feet and open my legs.”

Eitan snorted, hit the turn signal, and made the left turn. “First, please don’t fall on my account. Picking women up is a messy business, pun intended. Two, it’s Reggie’s boat and I’m the kid on scholarship. Third, uh, I don’t know what third is.”

She patted him on his knee as he braked. They continued driving to the store in companionable silence. Having pulled more items into the basket than they expected, Eitan realized he was determined to fulfill any culinary request. When they arrived at the dock, Kavita’s friend, Katelyn, was waiting for them, telling them to hurry up and bring her clothes. She wanted her bikini.

A wind came through the harbor from the Sound, chasing off the humidity with the sunset. They had demolished dinner and cleaned up afterwards, leaving only two bottles of wine that were already open. They were sprawled out on the bow, food drunk and pleased.

Katelyn took in the gathered with a serious face. “Are all of us here nano?”

Bea began searching for anyone else within earshot of the boat. Reggie smacked his head while Kavita slumped backwards, hiding her face. Eitan and Akemi gave each other a rendition of Sten’s inscrutable face.

“Yes,” Akemi said. “Why do you ask?”

“It’s just not as safe anymore,” Katelyn said. “If you use big words or appear too pretty, people become suspicious, at least in my neighborhood. The kids I went to high school with assume that if you go to college, you must have gotten nano. I go to a state school, for god’s sake.”

“They’re just jealous,” Reggie said, sitting up.

“My parents took out a second mortgage to afford nano for me,” Katelyn said. “We’re not rich. We’re not even deviants, we’re Catholics.”

Eitan smiled at the joke. “It’s not envy,” he said. “No-no’s are genuinely terrified that they are going to catch the nano epidemic and die a horrible death.”

“Some of the ones who took that MB series are dead,” Reggie said. “I was scared.” He turned to Katelyn and explained that his parents had received an exclusive offer for the tainted series. She took his hand and squeezed it with sympathy. Reggie gave her an innocent smile, which Eitan knew was anything but.