Thud! (Discworld 34)

"Sergeant Colon says there"s been a robbery at the Royal-" Cheery began, but Vimes waved that away.

"More important than robberies, I mean," he said.

"Er, another two officers have quit since I sent you that note, sir," said Cheery. "Corporal Ringfounder and Constable Schist at Chittling Street. Both say it"s for, er, personal reasons, sir."

"Schist was a good officer," Detritus rumbled, shaking his head.

"Sounds like he decided to be a good troll instead," said Vimes. He was aware of a stirring behind him. He still had an audience. Oh well, time for the speech.

"I know it"s hard for dwarf and troll officers right now," he said to the room at large. "I know that giving one of your own kind a tap with your truncheon because he"s trying to kick you in the fork might feel like you"re siding with the enemy. It"s no fun for humans, either, but it"s worse for you. The badge seems a bit heavy now, right? You see your people looking at you and wondering whose side you"re on, yes? Well, you"re on the side of the people, which is where the law ought to be. All the people, I mean, who"re out there beyond the mob, who"re fearful and puzzled and scared to go out at night. Now, funnily enough, the idiots who"re out there right in front of you getting their self-defence in first are also the people, but since they don"t seem to remember that, well, you"re doing them a favour by cooling them off a bit. Hold on to that, and hold together. You think that you should stay at home to make sure your of mum is okay? What good would you be against a mob? Together, we can stop things going that far. This"ll go its course. I know we"re all being run ragged, but right now I need everyone I can get, and in return there will be jam tomorrow and free beer too. Maybe I"ll even be a little blind when I"m signing the overtime dockets, who knows. Got it? But I want you all, whatever, whoever you are, to know this: I"ve got no patience with idiots who"ll drag

a grudge across five hundred miles and a thousand years. This is Ankh-Morpork. It"s not Koom Valley. You know it"s going to be a bad night tonight. Well, I"ll be on duty. If you are too, then I"ll want to know that I can depend on you to watch my back as I"ll watch yours. If I can"t depend on you, I don"t want to see you near me. Any questions?"

There was an embarrassed silence, as there always is on such occasions. Then a hand went up. It belonged to a dwarf.

"Is it true a troll killed the grag?" he asked. There was a murmuring from the watchmen, and he went on, a little less timorously, "Well, he did ask."

"Captain Carrot is investigating," said Vimes. "At the moment we are still in the dark. But if indeed there has been a murder, then I will see that the murderer is brought to justice, no matter what size they are, what shape they are, who they are or where they may be. You have my guarantee on that. My personal guarantee. Is that acceptable?"

The general change in the atmosphere indicated that it was so. "Good," he said. "Now go out there and be coppers. Go on!"

The room emptied of all except those still labouring over the

knotty problem of where they should put the comma.

"Er, permission t"speak freely, sir?" said Detritus, knuckling

closer.

Vimes stared at him. When I first met you, you were chained to a wall like a watchdog and didn"t speak much beyond a grunt, he thought. Truly, the leopard can change his shorts.

"Yes, of course," he said.

"You ain"t serious, are you? You"re not going runnin" after a coprolite like Chrysoprase, sir?"

"What"s the worst he can do to me?"

"Rip off your head, grind you to mince and make soup from your bones, sir," said Detritus promptly. "An" if you was a troll, he"d have all your teeth knocked out an" make cufflinks out of "em."

"Why"d he choose to do that now? Do you think he"s looking for a war with us? That"s not his way. He"s hardly going to kill me by appointment, is he? He wants to talk to me. It"s got to be to do with the case. He might know something. I don"t dare not go. But I want you along. Scrounge up a squad, will you?"

A squad would be sensible, he admitted to himself. The streets were just too ... nervous at the moment. He compromised with Detritus and a scratch band of whoever was doing nothing at the moment. That was one thing you could say about the Watch, it was representative. If you based your politics on what other people looked like, then you couldn"t claim the Watch was on the side of any shape. That was worth hanging on to.

It seemed quieter outside, not so many people on the streets as usual. That wasn"t a good sign. Ankh-Morpork could feel trouble ahead like spiders could feel tomorrow"s rain.

What was this?

The creature swam through a mind. It had seen thousands of minds since the universe began, but there was something strange about this one.

It looked like a city. Ghostly, wavering buildings appeared through a drizzle of midnight rain. Of course, no two minds were alike ...

The creature was old, although it would be more accurate to say that it had existed for a long time. When, at the start of all things, the primordial clouds of mind had collapsed into gods and demons and souls of all levels, it had been among those who had never drifted close to a major accretion. So it had entered the universe aimlessly, without task or affiliation, a scrap of being blowing free, fitting in wherever it could, a sort of complicated thought looking for the right kind of mind.

Currently -that is to say, for the past ten thousand years or so -it had found work as a superstition.

And now it was in this strange, dark city. There was movement around it. The place was alive. And it rained.

For a moment, just then, it had sensed an open door, a spasm of rage it could use. But just as it leapt to take advantage, something invisible and strong had grabbed it and flung it away.