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Show news of the utmost..." "Tell me," broke in the redfaced Ivan, yanking a pipe from his tunic. "How is thy chief, Manager Farquar?" He looked meaningfully toward Phrapp, who, ignoring the group at the table, was gazing around the room with his hooded, soulful eyes. He was still smiling. Vice Manager Brandon looked at Ivan warily. The dispute of the sanctums on HighStreet drifted into his consciousness. Hmmmmm, he thought. I must needs make short shrift of the subject of Manager Farquar. "Farquar is full fine," he said, dismissing this member of the Exalted Board with a wave of his hand, "but I have news of...." "And, marry, enjoys the wight well that suite of sanctums hard by the HighStreet?" persisted Ivan, who had in truth expected to enjoy them himself! Vice Manager Brandon slumped in his seat, opened his mouth once, then closed it. Phrapp's attention came back to the table and his smiled vanished. "The thing that the worthy Brandon has been attempting to tell you," he said in an inexorable tone of voice, "is that the Governor is no longer Secure." He looked mournfully at everyone around the table in turn and picked a toothpick out of a dish in front of him. The three Exalted Managers stared at Phrapp, astonished. Ivan put his goblet down carefully. "What's that?" "The Governor is no longer Secure!" Brandon cried. "It's no longer Secure!" The two women and Ivan leaned forward. "Prithee, tell us about this thing," said Andrus, blowing a bit of veil away from the front of her face. 194 |
