In their own suite, Mal and Inara were not feeling particularly comfortable as they prepared to take to bed either. The problem, Mal reflected, was that neither of them really had the technical know-how to really investigate the rooms for any kind of security monitoring devices and remove them, at least, not with any assurances that the exercise would be successful. For the entire evening, then, Mal had been forced to stay 'in character', playing the role of Nathaniel Hammond from Ariel, but he was sure that Inara didn't want him to continue acting as her client indefinitely.

All of a sudden, Inara got up from the table, where she had been amusing herself playing some solitaire game that Mal didn't know with Mah-jongg tiles, and turned to face him. "I'm sorry, but there's one thing that I must attend to before we retire for the evening."

Oh. "You need to leave the room for this?"

"I hope not, but if I must negotiate on this point in front of you, please do not interfere with the conversation lightly." She paused until Mal nodded his concurrence, and then laid her fingers upon the room's intercom control. "Is Mister Bentley available?"

There was a pause, and Mal was starting to wonder if Inara wasn't using the thing right, then. "Bentley here, and what is this in reference to?" The voice seemed to come from everywhere around then, not just the spot on the wall.

"Inara Serra wishes to clarify a point of our understanding," Inara replied to the invisible voice.

"Just a moment, if that's alright."

"Certainly." Inara let her fingers fall from the contact patch. Wondering what would happen next; Mal got up from the bed where he'd been sitting and trying to relax, and checked that his fancy rich boy clothes were all straight. With a strange 'zwaaht' sound effect, a haze of color and light filled the whole room for a moment and coalesced into a transparent image of their host standing next to the fireplace.

"I hope that this can be settled quickly over the holo-viewer," he said a bit testily.

"