JК
A Stroke Of Midnight :: Гамильтон Лорел
Страница: 45 из 293If you want something done, don’t call a politician or a bureaucrat. Call a cop.
I took a deep breath, said a little prayer to the Goddess, and dialed the number the secretary had given me.
He answered on the second ring. “Your Highness,” he said.
He must have had caller I.D. “Not exactly,” I said. “Princess Meredith, actually.”
His first words had been professional, his next held the hint of suspicion. “Princess, to what do I owe this honor.” In fact, he sounded positively hostile.
“You sound angry at me, Major Walters.”
“The newspapers say you don’t trust my men to keep you safe. That human cops aren’t good enough for your guard detail.”
I hadn’t expected him to be so blunt. He was more cop than politician. “I can only say that I never even hinted to the media that I doubted your men.”
“Then why were we barred from the second press conference?”
Hmm, that was a sticky wicket. “You and I both know that it was a spell that made your officer shoot at me, correct?”
“Yeah, our unit psychic found the magical remnants on him.”
“I’m safer here in the sithen, but your officers won’t be. Someone did a spell in a building of metal girders and beams, with technology all over the place. Put that same spell caster inside the sithen, inside faerie, with no damper of metal and technology on them, and your officers would be in even greater danger of being bespelled.”
“What about the human reporters; aren’t they in danger of being bespelled?”
“They aren’t armed,” I said. “They can’t do that much damage.”
“So we just aren’t up to your standards, is that it?” He was angry, and I wasn’t sure why.
The queen’s secretary must have caught enough of the conversation to give me a hint. She flashed the headline of the St. Louis Post Dispatch: POLICE FAIL TO PROTECT THE PRINCESS. Oh.
“Major Walters, I’ve just been shown a newspaper. My apologies for not understanding the effect this situation was having on your life. I was a little too preoccupied with my own being in danger.”
“I don’t need your apologies, Princess. I need my men to be good enough to protect you at public events.”
“How much crap are you getting about what happened? Are they trying to scapegoat you?”
“That’s not your business,” he said, which was almost as good as a yes.
“I think we can help each other, Major.”
“How?”
“You sitting down?”
“Yeah,” and that one word was not happy.
I took a deep breath, said a little prayer to the Goddess, and dialed the number the secretary had given me.
He answered on the second ring. “Your Highness,” he said.
He must have had caller I.D. “Not exactly,” I said. “Princess Meredith, actually.”
His first words had been professional, his next held the hint of suspicion. “Princess, to what do I owe this honor.” In fact, he sounded positively hostile.
“You sound angry at me, Major Walters.”
“The newspapers say you don’t trust my men to keep you safe. That human cops aren’t good enough for your guard detail.”
I hadn’t expected him to be so blunt. He was more cop than politician. “I can only say that I never even hinted to the media that I doubted your men.”
“Then why were we barred from the second press conference?”
Hmm, that was a sticky wicket. “You and I both know that it was a spell that made your officer shoot at me, correct?”
“Yeah, our unit psychic found the magical remnants on him.”
“I’m safer here in the sithen, but your officers won’t be. Someone did a spell in a building of metal girders and beams, with technology all over the place. Put that same spell caster inside the sithen, inside faerie, with no damper of metal and technology on them, and your officers would be in even greater danger of being bespelled.”
“What about the human reporters; aren’t they in danger of being bespelled?”
“They aren’t armed,” I said. “They can’t do that much damage.”
“So we just aren’t up to your standards, is that it?” He was angry, and I wasn’t sure why.
The queen’s secretary must have caught enough of the conversation to give me a hint. She flashed the headline of the St. Louis Post Dispatch: POLICE FAIL TO PROTECT THE PRINCESS. Oh.
“Major Walters, I’ve just been shown a newspaper. My apologies for not understanding the effect this situation was having on your life. I was a little too preoccupied with my own being in danger.”
“I don’t need your apologies, Princess. I need my men to be good enough to protect you at public events.”
“How much crap are you getting about what happened? Are they trying to scapegoat you?”
“That’s not your business,” he said, which was almost as good as a yes.
“I think we can help each other, Major.”
“How?”
“You sitting down?”
“Yeah,” and that one word was not happy.