"Worry not, mon Amiral," he said with a charming smirk, mostly aimed at her but partially to the fresh bread as well. "If my memory doesn't fool me, I believe the last time I saw a Council ship was months ago in the California system, and it didn't get to leave the place in one piece. I prefer to stay away from anything that attracts nuclear warheads."
Salmon. As marine biologist, he knew exactly what part of the fish was served, and as hobby cook, he knew how salmon was prepared. This one was done extraordinarily well, and he wondered whether this was the case because of the presence of the Amiral or not. And then there were the snails. He was not certain whether the gallic people knew that, but to any non-gallic person, snails were certainly not something to be expected on the menu.
For once, Ezrael found himself tempted to ask the maître d'hôtel to explain how the snails were prepared. Probably cooked, then separated from the inedible parts for cleaning. The opening was covered by garlic and butter. It certainly looked less inviting to a stranger, but mirroring the Amiral's, there was no way to avoid it. Realizing what the tiny fork-ish cuttlery was meant for, he took it and poked into the opening to pierce through the snail meat, soaked in butter. The smell was surprisingly well. Buttery, while the meat was soft. The garlic added a certain something to it. Probably not the best meal for a date, except if the girl had a thing for garlic breath. For a moment, he wondered whether the woman on the other side of the table had any kind of kink.
Surely she had.
He tried his best to not give away his thoughts when eating the snail, intending to be mostly focused on Isabelle. "I generally have no intention to get in touch with any unlawful entity in Gallia. Their motivations, as long as they don't affect the wellbeing my my ship and my crew, are not relevant to me." He realized the Burgundy red was a fitting match for the salmon. But then again, he always had a weakness for red wine, especially the fruity sweet ones from Curacao.
"As a Curacaoan, I quickly learned to find a reasonable distance to people that were officially not supposed to be on the planet. OSC mostly hired Bounty Hunters to maintain high security standards, which eventually worked out better than on libertonian planets. As you know, corruption is a big issue in Liberty, and while people don't openly talk about it, LPI is the exact opposite of the BPA in terms of corruption. Because of that, cardamine and slave trade are a very big problem in Liberty, in Bretonia not at all. On Curacao, however, while Rogues and Lane Hackers and even Corsairs have a certain presence in the society, only on the primary islands, they don't dare to act up and cause any trouble there. Bounty Hunters are feared, LPI not so much."
The wine was very nice. "It is possible to deal with these people, but in the end, unlawfuls, regardless of their affiliation, attract trouble. Because of this fact, I don't allow any of them on my ship. I like my boring crew of Zoners, civilians and Core deserters," he sounded and smiled at the lovely amiral.
