With his back still to the complex, Neil heard the new arrivals before he saw them. When he turned around, Neil was somewhat surprised - he had expected a couple burly men with uzis; he was half right. There were two men, but they were accompanied by two innocent-enough looking women. Neil's mind told him these were probably just harmless civilians, but he could not produce a good excuse to break his ruse. Just in case, he silently reasoned.
Neil pretended to spot the group for the first time, and breathed a loud sigh of relief. "Hey!" he called to them, and jogged over. Neil stopped roughly ten feet away. "Can you give me and my friend a hand?" For once, he noted, his Boston accent was coming in handy. The less Irish he looked and sounded, the less he gave anyone to suspect he was ECS.
"We were on our way to a party, five, six blocks away? When my friend's car just sorta died," he gestured back toward Billy and the red Mustang, before looking back at the group. His face protrayed a look of seemingly genuine pleading.



)
