Chapter 131
IN EARLY APRIL, Luca and I met for beers at Bar Fiume.
“We’re a sad pair,” I said as we sat down at a small outdoor table and ordered two Ichnusas. We’d both be leaving the island soon—me as a result of Paul’s orders, and Luca because the money for his research program did indeed look like it was running out.
“It’s all such a mess,” he agreed, then offered me a cigarette.
I declined, though it pained me to do so. I had taken Doc Callaway’s advice seriously and hadn’t smoked since he’d put me on the birth control pills.
“I mean, obviously, CNEN needs money,” said Luca. “It takes money to put gas in the boat. To buy equipment. To pay the salaries of the crew.”
“Just think about all the money you’re spending on postage, sending all those samples to Rome.”
“Exactly,” he said with a small laugh. “And I get why the Regional Council and certainly City Council can’t pay for it.
It’s way too expensive. They don’t have the budgets for big research programs like this.
And even if they did, I think they’d still argue that they shouldn’t have to pay for monitoring a bunch of nuclear submarines they never wanted in the first place. ”
A waitress brought us our beers and a bowl of potato chips.
“What does Bruno think?” I asked him when she’d gone.
“He thinks the Ministry is bluffing. And that they’ll keep funding the project so long as it looks like the regional government is taking baby steps toward one day assuming responsibility for it.”
“That’d be great,” I said. “But if he’s wrong, and the funding goes away, what will you do?”
Luca ashed his cigarette and leaned back in his chair. “Hope something opens up in the central office, I guess.”
“What about Nina?”
He gave me a sly smile. “When did you become so interested in Nina’s career?”
I kicked him under the table. “I’ve always been interested in it.”
“She’s already in Venice,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“She took a job with the oceanography research center there. It was a good opportunity, and I think, after things ended with Teo, she wanted to get off the island.”
“Things ended?” I could feel the blood coursing through my veins.
“You didn’t hear?”
“No,” I said. “When?”
He closed an eye as if counting backward in his head. “Three months ago, maybe? Right around the new year.”
“Huh,” I said, and he just laughed, because he could see right through me.