"All quiet on the western front?" Paddy
asked, when he materialized in Vic's office.
"Literary references?" Vic smiled slightly.
"If so, how about you pick something a little less war-like. But in answer
to your question, yes, so far. The security system is armed and the doors
locked. Now we just wait and see what they come up with to grab me, if they
do."
"How can they do that with you locked in here
like…Repunzel?"
Vic couldn't help laughing. "What the hell is on
your bookshelves?"
"Given how long I've been around, there isn't
much I haven't read at one time or another."
"How old are you?"
"Technically, no older than I look."
"Which would be around thirty. What about
actually?"
"I died during the Norman invasion of Wexford.
That would be in Eire, in case you didn't know—or Ireland, as most people call it
today."
"I didn't," Vic said. "I thought the Normans conquered England in… ten sixty-six."
"They did, and then at the behest of the king of
Leinster, they invaded Eire in eleven
sixty-nine. It was a bloody war and the death of me in… the human sense."
Paddy's words took on an Irish lilt as he spoke, his look wistful. Then he
smiled. "But enough about me. My question still stands. How can they get
to you with you firmly entrenched in here?"
"I'm not staying in here. I only said that to
ease Evan's mind. I'd say the man who was following us has had enough time to
call his boss. We give it another twenty minutes for them to get their shit
together and stake out the place, and then I'm going to leave."
Paddy nodded. "I'll be able to sense when
they're in the neighborhood, so their surprise won't really be a surprise. Before you ask, part of
keeping you safe is knowing when danger approaches."
"Makes sense to me." Vic chuckled. "A
day ago I'd have thought anyone who claimed to be psychic was crazy but given
that I believe you are what you are, I guess it comes with the territory."
"That it does." Paddy looked thoughtfully
at Vic. "Do you really have no idea who's behind all that's
happened?"
"I'm getting closer to narrowing it down, but I
won't know for certain until I see where I'm taken and who is there when I'm
unceremoniously dumped at his feet, so to speak."
"I thought you said whoever it was would just be
another hireling, although higher up the food chain."
"I'm sure he will be. However by seeing him,
I'll have a better idea about which of my choices he's working for. People tend
to hire people they think they can control—either by threats or by money—to do
their dirty work."
"I disagree. I mean, sometimes yes, but other
times they pick someone who believes in the same things they do. Right?"
"Right, and that would make it even easier to
nail down who the blackmailer is."
"They're after you because…?"
"They want to stop me, obviously. And maybe find
out who hired me in the first place."
"What difference would that make?"
"I suspect because it would tell them who else
knows about what's going on. Obviously the blackmailer would rather Marshall had kept it to
himself."
"They'd have to be stupid to think he hadn't
told someone else."
"Look at it this way. He didn't go to the police
and, from what I understand it took a lot of cajoling by my client for him to
agree to her plan to hire me. My client says other than Marshall and herself,
only her husband knows what I'm doing, because she had to bring him in on things
to make my being around work."
Paddy shook his head. "In this day and age, what
can be so horrible that Marshall
would be unwilling to say 'Screw you. Tell all and I'll deal'?"
"Malfeasance in office, for one thing. Something
in his past that would alienate at least enough voters to sway the election. I
think to force him to step down it must be something that would make a segment
of the voting population turn on him, no matter what. Otherwise, he'd take the
chance he could successfully deny the allegations and prove that he's innocent
of the charges."
"Politics," Paddy muttered.
"It's a dirty game and when you have a good man
running, sometimes it gets even dirtier."
"I wonder…" Paddy looked thoughtful.
"Umm?"
"Nothing, or at least nothing I'm willing to
talk about until I get the chance to speak with a friend."
Vic didn't press the issue, since he had the feeling
it would do no good.
Paddy stiffened suddenly. "Okay, the game is on,
as some Shakespearian character said."
"I think that's 'the game is afoot', but either
way, I gather we have company?"
"We do. They're in the lobby of the building at
the moment."
"Then I should go down and welcome them,"
Vic said. "Or, as before, walk with great surprise right into their
arms."
"I'll be behind you all the way," Paddy
replied, going invisible.
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