Eyes on the Emperor

Niko noticed that the old granny was still watching him, and he looked at her, raising his eyebrows and tilting his head towards the two women. 'How did I do?' he mouthed at her.

She gave him a thumbs up, her eyes twinkling with delight.

"Good job, young man," she said over her shoulder as she shuffled past him with her daughter, who was no spring chicken herself.

He smirked with satisfaction. He didn't always play these things right, in fact it seemed he almost. never played them right, but it seemed he had had a small win today.

"What's going on, man?" asked Baer. "We were in the middle of getting the guards' timing down. This had better be important."

"Sorry bro," it was an emergency. "Opal was turning on the waterworks. I couldn't be caught up in that or Indy will throw away the key to the doghouse and never let me out."