"You can help me," Erik says smoothly, turning in order to smooth a hand over his polo shirt. "What you did in Milliways, you can tell me how much of that someone else can do. Clearly, it's only for the evening, but I imagine I'll find more luck off the reservation, so to speak. There's a great pool of available people."

Perhaps he is being deliberately cruel, but it's what he's been shown through his life.