As much as Sam loved living there, life in London wasn't perfect.
"I'm from Boston," he said to the beautiful girl sitting next to him. "Where are you from?"
"Go away," she said, turning away from him.
Another week had gone by, and it was Saturday night. Sam, already used to a nighttime schedule, decided to try another bar he hadn't gone to. It was crowded, with plenty of pretty young women inside.
Attempt number two. "How's it going?" he said to the girl sitting on the other side of him.
"I from Siberia," she said.
"No way. What's it like there?"
Pause. "I from Siberia."
"Right. Siberia."
"You Siberia?"
"No, I'm from America."
Another pause. "You Siberia?"
Sam smiled, picked up his drink, and walked over to a girl standing by a window, watching passersby in the rain outside.
"How's it going?"
"My boyfriend could kick your arse."
"Hey, you actually said 'arse.' All the other Londoners I've met just say 'ass' like we do in the states."
"Go away."
"C'mon, call me a 'wanker.' I've lived in London for months and no one's called me a 'wanker' yet."
She walked away from him.
Sam saw a couple get up to leave, so he hurried over to snag their table for himself.
Quietly, with no one seated across from him, Sam watched the activity around him. He watched as a guy walked over to the bar and struck up a conversation with a girl seated only with her two female friends. Within a minute, they were chatting and laughing. She had her pinky finger hooked around his pinky finger.
Sam finished his Guinness in one final, slightly-too-big gulp. Slamming the empty, sudsy glass down hard on the table, he left.
Outside, Sam pulled out a small umbrella from his coat pocket and forced it open. His walk home was not as pleasant this night.
Later, in bed, Sam dreamt that he was falling. He woke up on the floor next to his bed.
* * * *
To anyone else, it would have been a barely-visible white dot surrounded by blackness. Sam knew, however, that it was a comet, one of millions in the Oort cloud. This one had gotten too close to a larger comet and was now on a different trajectory after being affected by the bigger comet's gravity. Where would it go? What would happen to it? Sam couldn't wait to find out.
"Give your eye a rest, already," Friday said. "You've been up there all night."
"Can't help it," Sam said, not pulling away from the telescope's main eyepiece. "Comets are just so cool."
"Don't get too attached. Tomorrow we start plotting a new list of search zones."
Sam pulled his eye away and faced Friday.
"Are you kidding me? Do have any idea how much we could learn from this comet? From gravitational pulls to the overall Oort cloud structure..."
"I'm well aware."
"You could publish a paper on this. Or a book."
"I've already been published. This isn't what we're looking for."
"If not this, then what?"
Friday only answered with a frown.
"Yeah, I get it. You can't tell me. Maybe I'll write a paper on the comet."
"Settle down, now," Friday said. "You work for me, remember. It's my project."
"No, it's our project," Sam said. "How could I not have an investment in this?"
"This isn't about your bloody loyalty. There are confidential things I can't tell you, but I need your eyes."
"Confidential? This isn't the army. I'm not a soldier and you're not a general."
"Your government and the Chinese paid for all this."
"Yeah, for your research. If there really was some big secret they'd turn this over to the military, and not us two guys."
"The money buys buys our silence," Friday said. "Which is why you signed a confidentiality agreement when I hired you. Know your place, young man."
"What about the comet?"
"Someone else is probably following it. Let them write the bloody paper."
"Who? There's only five of these telescopes in existence."
"Six. Some teenager built one from scratch last year at Mirai Academy."
"Don't change the subject. We're on the verge of..."
A loud metal clang interrupted Sam. It came from the eastern end of the room, behind the fire escape emergency door.
"The hell?" Sam said. "Is someone on the roof?"
Friday let out a small laugh and walked to the door. He punched in the security code to shut off the fire alarm, and the door opened.
"Old friend!" Friday said.
Friday stepped aside and let in a tall, thin man, dressed all in black, including black John Lennon sunglasses. He had chalky white hair, barely whiter than his pale skin.
"Sam," Friday said with a smile. "I'd like you to meet my old friend, the Ergosphere."
"Ergosphere?" Sam said. "Like a black hole?"
"Howdy," the Ergosphere said.
"You're American?"
"I'm... kind of from everywhere."
"Have you been standing out there on the roof all night?"
"I like this building," the Ergosphere said. "Did you know the theater downstairs has the largest proscenium in all of London?"
"What's a proscenium?"
"Never mind the details, Sam," Friday said. "The Ergosphere and I have much to discuss. If you don't mind?"
Friday let the Ergosphere into his office. "In fact," Friday said to Sam. "Go ahead and shut everything down and take the rest of the night off. Tomorrow night, too. On me. Go have some fun. Take the Jack the Ripper tour."
"Who is that guy?"
"A friend."
Sam folded his arms. "More secrets?"
"Not secrets. Privacy."
The two of them stared at each other. Friday blinked first. "You can trust me, young man."
"Yeah, OK."
With the two of them in Friday's office, Sam carefully sealed up the telescope and powered down all the computers, just as he did at the end of every night.
He saw the emergency door was still open and felt the cool air coming in from outside. He walked out onto the roof, to find it a flat open area just behind the lit-up giant spinning globe and statues.
Sam wondered if this Ergosphere person had climbed up the side of the building, or perhaps somehow jumped from one of the neighboring buildings. More likely, he thought, someone must have let him up here during the day, and he waited all those hours before knocking. But why?
For a second, Sam thought he heard something he felt a rush of hot air followed by a machine-like sound above him, but he saw only the night sky.
Later that night, Sam slept and dreamt of eating a huge Thanksgivingdinner. He didn't feel hungry for rest of the next day.
# # # #
Next: A brilliant burst of fire.