There'd been advertising and gossip stories about the Madre to some degree before the bombs fell, but precious little of that found its way to Mariposa. And most of what did make it past the news censors on duty made the place out to sound more like some kind of themed resort than a luxury gambling palace crammed full of the Big MT's latest and greatest cast-offs. So all he did was nod in acknowledgment; he'd heard about holographic research along the way, and as for ghost people, he supposed you got a lot of that sort of thing long years after the War.

"People spread out anywhere they can manage, I suppose," he said; he wasn't sure exactly how to respond to that tone just yet. "Were you assigned out there somehow, or was it your own volition?"