xp_logs | Nathan and Angelo, Saturday in Oman

Nathan and Angelo get a chance to see some of Muscat before their first meeting, and Nathan teaches Angelo something about the art of bargaining. Working vacations are wonderful things.

It was the first night he'd slept soundly since Smichov. As he ordered breakfast, then set about getting ready to face the day, Nathan had to marvel a little at that. Even when Moira had been home, sleeping beside him where she belonged, he hadn't been sleeping well. The damned dreams, all the time... but there hadn't been any last night. Must be the jet-lag.

Emerging into the sunlit main room fully dressed in time to open the door for room service, Nathan smiled at Angelo as he emerged from the suite's other bedroom, yawning and looking a little rumpled. "Hungry?" he asked, then sniffed, intrigued. "The coffee smells interesting."

Angelo had also clearly had a good night's sleep, for the first time in a while - the dark circles under his eyes were at least diminished, and Nathan would probably have known about it if he hadn't, at that proximity.

"Yeah, I am, actually. An' it does - do they put somethin' different in it here?"

Nathan poured himself a cup, taking a sip. "Cardamom," he said after a moment. "It's bitter, but... I like it." He lifted some of the lids off the dishes, revealing an array of fresh bread, goat cheese and olives. "I got the 'traditional' breakfast rather than something American. When in Rome..."

Angelo nodded. "We can get American anywhere. Anyway, this all looks good."

Nathan poured Angelo some coffee and then lifted another lid to reveal dates. "Oooh." He picked one and then sat down. "So we've got the morning free," he said. "Any preferences?"

"...you want me to choose?"

"Hah! Just in general. Sightseeing, shopping... sitting around by the pool? What appeals?" Nathan asked good-humoredly.

"Sightseein'", Angelo said instantly. "An' buyin' stuff to take home for people. We can do sittin' by the pool tomorrow."

"We could go to the souk," Nathan suggested. "I really ought to teach you how to bargain properly, anyway. We keep winding up places where doing that is more of a necessity than an afternoon's pasttime."

"Sounds good!" was the cheerful answer. "They've usually got some really interestin' stuff in those, don't they?"

"'All the treasures of Araby'," Nathan quipped, amused.

--

"Check out the roof," Nathan said, gesturing upwards as they stepped through the arched main entrance of Muttrah souk and into the shade. "Palm fronds. I don't think we've left the Arabian Night just yet." He took a deep breath of air that smelled strongly of spices.

Angelo stared upward, impressed. "I don't think we're gonna leave it 'til we get on the plane home."

Nathan laughed. "I think maybe you're right." It was early enough in the morning that the souk wasn't too busy; the nice woman at the hotel desk had suggested they take advantage of the lack of crowds at this time of the day. "So I have several people I know I'm looking for souvenirs for... how about you?"

"Oh, I think I can think of a good few people, yeah", he said cheerfully, already putting together a list in his head. Bobby, Amanda, Sarah, Mom...

"Rule number one of these places," Nathan said as they strode across the sandy 'floor' of the souk. "You walk around and get a good look at everything before you try and buy anything."

"'Cause there might be somethin' better somewhere else?"

"Exactly. And you don't want to let anyone think that you're desperate for whatever they've got. Gets in the way of making a good bargain." Nathan shook his head. The 'main drag' of the souk was mostly consumer goods and the like. "I think we need to be looking down the side alleys for the really good stuff."

Angelo nodded. "Usually is that way in most cities. The first places you look are for the tourists, so they put the tackier stuff out there."

"Well..." Nathan gestured. "Pick a direction?" The souk was rather like a maze, like most of its kind. "You have a better idea of what might catch your eye than I do at this point in the morning."

Angelo's response was to close his eyes, spin, and point in a random direction. "That way."

A laugh slipped out - but it was a happy laugh, not one directed at Angelo. It was just so good to see him enjoying himself, Nathan thought wistfully. It had been a pretty grim several months, all things considered. "That way it is," he said, gesturing for Angelo to precede him. "Don't look too interested in anything. Diffidence is the key."

"Make them sell it to us, not overcharge us", was the answer with an earnest nod. "Got it."

Angelo seemed drawn to the jewelry, Nathan noticed - not unexpected, given that most of the people he was probably buying for were female. As are the people I have in mind... But Nathan couldn't help pausing at a fabric stall, his attention snared by embroidered silk that reminded him of a new headscarf Sooraya had shown him earlier that week; he'd finally convinced her that she didn't have to spend all of what she earned working in the office on other people.

Angelo, distracted from his own browsing temporarily, peered over his shoulder. "Seen somethin'? Who for?"

"Sooraya, I think." He was breaking his own rules here, but shrugged mentally as the shopkeeper came over, sensing a potential customer. "Maybe I can get the first sale of the day discount... they consider it lucky. What do you think, the blue or the orange?"

"Blue", Angelo said after a moment. "Clarice's made me sit through enough tailorin' sessions I picked up some stuff."

"I like the blue, too." It had little golden flowers on it. Nathan eyed the shopkeeper, smiling slightly. "~So precisely how much are you going to try and extort out of me for a length of this?~" he asked in his flawless Arabic.

The shopkeeper merely smiled and suggested a price. Nathan smiled right back and suggested half that. They proceeded to go back and forth for the next five minutes until the shopkeeper, swearing that Nathan would bankrupt him, started to wrap a length of the silk carefully as Nathan pulled out the money.

Angelo had watched all of this with careful attention, just short of taking notes on the haggling.

Nathan was chuckling quietly as they moved away from the stall, purchase made. "She'll like it, don't you think?"

"Sure she will", Angelo said with a grin. "Not that she'd tell you if she didn't."

"I like buying gifts for people. You may have noticed."

"Just a couple of times."

"So, anything catching your eye yet?" Nathan said as they continued through the back alleys of the souk.

"There's been a few things", he said with a grin. "But I'll come back for them later."

--

The concierge had been only too happy to arrange for one of the smaller conference rooms for their meeting with the new assessment team and the Sultan's representative. "I need to buy a better summerweight suit," Nathan complained as he and Angelo checked the room number with the front desk and then headed that way.

"We're only here for another couple of days", Angelo pointed out. "An' it's winter back home, good luck findin' one."

"I didn't mean right now. Just in general." Then again, how often was he ever having formal meetings in hot climates? "All these little details I never thought about when we set up Elpis," he muttered amusedly, pushing the door of the conference room open. It was palatial, like the rest of the hotel, and the small cluster of people at one end of the table looked up immediately as the door opened.

"Doctor Maguire," Nathan said with a quick smile, extending a hand to the tall, thin, graying man who rose and headed around the table to meet him, smiling broadly. "Good to meet you."

"Likewise, but please call me Will," Maguire said with a chuckle. "I've known your wife too long for formalities." He looked inquisitively at Angelo.

Angelo gave him a public-face smile that somehow didn't actually look practiced, and held out a hand. "Angelo Espinosa. I'm Mr. Morrow's assistant."

"The Sultan's representative isn't here just yet," Maguire said, shaking Angelo's hand and then gesturing the other people in the room forward. All were young, perhaps in their mid-twenties, and the two women were very clearly identical twins, blonde and Scandinavian looking. The young man was Latino, with an air of quiet competence and a ready smile. "This is my team. Emilio is our go-to guy for logistics and has driven us back out of nearly as many tricky situations as he's gotten us into. Nyssa and Taina are my nurses."

"Good to meet you all," Nathan said. "You all come very highly recommended. And we're hoping there won't be that many tricky situations here in Oman..."

"It's got to be better than Chechnya," Emilio said dryly.

Angelo chuckled a little at that, offering Emilio a smile that the other young man returned. "Better than Prague, too. By a long shot."

"Moira had mentioned something about Smichov when she and I talked." Maguire shook his head, going back to his seat as Nathan did the 'shall we all sit down?' gesture. "Miserable situation, that. I don't envy you getting caught in the middle of it."

"Not one of our shining moments. Moira didn't mention whether you've worked in the Middle East before?"

Maguire nodded. "~I speak fluent Arabic,~" he replied in that language, then switched back to English. "As does Taina, and the other two have enough to get by. We were in Egypt for six months before Chechnya."

"What was the situation like there?" Angelo asked, interested.

"Probably a little more difficult than what we'll be facing here. We were doing the same sort of work, but in Cairo, in the poorer areas of the city," Maguire explained. "Entirely different problem than what they may or may not have here."

"Call me pessimistic but I suspect that once you get into the outlying areas you'll find that they do have the problem," Nathan said. "There's a limit to the reach of even a strong centralizing force in a country like this."

"Maybe not as much as in other places, though", Angelo said quietly. "I mean, in countries where the government does agree with it."

Maguire looked back and forth between then, smiling. "Let me guess -the optimist and the pessimist?" One of the blondes gave a soft laugh - her sister just smiled. "We'll see, in any case. I'm glad they're giving us this time for assessment. Raises the likelihood that we'll be able to take a proper approach to whatever we do find."

"There is that," Nathan agreed.