Гарт Никс – Superior Saturday (страница 9)

Arthur frowned, but the frown quickly gave way to laughter.

“That sounds like Suzy,” he said. “I bet she did it to get a better grade of tea or something. Or to annoy Dame Primus.”

He picked up a pair of armoured sandals, looked at them for a moment, then dropped them back on the shelf and chose a pair of plain, but glossy black boots instead.

“It’s good to have you back, sir,” said the Troop Sergeant as Arthur strode out of the wardrobe.

“Thank you again, sergeant,” said Arthur. “Let’s get to the operations room. I need to find out exactly what’s going on.”

There were at least twenty guards in the corridor, who formed up around Arthur as soon as he appeared. As they all marched together to the operations room, Arthur asked the guard commander to also send a messenger to find Suzy.

The operations room had grown larger in the few days of House time that had passed since Arthur had been there last. It was still a large domed chamber, but the walls had been pushed back to make it twice the size it had been before. It was now as big as his school gym, and in addition to all the soldiers in the various uniforms of the Regiment, the Horde, the Legion, the Moderately Honourable Artillery Company and the Borderers, there were also numerous Denizens in civilian attire, many of them with their coats off and the sleeves of their white shirts covered with green ink-protectors up to the elbow.

Besides the central map table, which was also much longer and broader than it had been, there were now rows and rows of narrow, student-style desks for the civilians, who were all busy talking on old-fashioned phones or scribbling down messages. Every few seconds one would push his or her chair back and race across the room with a message slip, going either to Marshals Dawn, Noon or Dusk, or to Dame Primus, who loomed over the map table, looking intently at various details, while many Denizens babbled out messages around her, often at the same time.

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