Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett [145]
‘But there’s still going to be a match tomorrow and I would like to conclude my training programme,’ said Nutt.
‘Ah, there’s another problem. You know Lord Vetinari is allowing the Hippo to be used for the game? Well, some of the teams are doing their training there now. You know, a bit of a kick-about, and so on. It’s all about who will be playing Unseen Academicals.’
‘But that’s the other side of the city,’ said Glenda.
‘Commander Vimes has said the Watch will provide an escort,’ said Ponder. ‘Just for protection, you know?’
‘Whose?’ said Glenda. ‘You can see what’s going on here. People will see Mister Nutt as the problem.’
‘Oh, it’s all fun and games until someone loses a head,’ said a voice behind Glenda. She recognized that voice and it always sounded as if it was trying to put its hand up her jumper.
‘Pepe? What the hell are you doing here?’
‘And how did you get in?’ Ponder demanded. ‘The Watch are all around this place.’
Pepe barely gave him a glance. ‘And who are you, smart boy?’
‘I run this university!’
‘Then I should go away and run it, because you’re not going to be any good around here.’
‘Is this–person–known to you, miss?’ Ponder demanded.
‘Er, yes. He, er, designs clothes.’
‘I am a fashionista,’ said Pepe. ‘I can do things with clothing that you wouldn’t think were possible.’
‘I’d believe that, at least,’ said Trev.
‘And I know a thing or two about riots and mobs.’
An idea struck Glenda and she whispered to the irate Ponder, ‘Very big in dwarf circles, sir. Knows a lot of influential people.’
‘So do I,’ said Ponder. ‘Actually, I am one,’ he wailed. ‘But I had to do the training myself yesterday and I couldn’t remember all of the things Mister Nutt comes up with so I had them running on the spot, which I don’t think is very helpful.’
‘There’s somethin’ goin’ bad,’ said Trev. ‘I know about this city. I’ll go and check a few things out. It’s not as if you really need me.’
‘I do,’ said Juliet.
Trev hesitated, but Nutt had shown him how to do this. He extended a hand and blew her a kiss as he went through the door.
‘Did you see that?’ said Juliet. ‘He blew me.’
Glenda looked at Pepe, whose eyes were turned up so far in his head that she could see the whites–although they were red.
A short while later, when most of the UU squad headed for the Hippo with Glenda and Juliet trailing after them like camp followers, half a dozen watchmen appeared from the various places that they had selected for a quiet smoke and fell in after them, trying to make it look as if they all just happened to be strolling in the same direction.
Trev was right, Glenda thought. It is going bad.
Trev had not gone very far when his street sense told him he was being followed. He jinked in and out of a few alleys and waited at the next corner to confront the follower…The follower who wasn’t there. The alley behind him was empty all the way to the last street. He realized this at the same time as someone pressed what definitely felt like a knife to his neck.
‘Cor, this takes me back and so it does,’ said a voice. ‘I reckon I can still remember every back alley in this place.’
‘I know you, it’s Pepe, isn’t it? You’re a dwarf?’ said Trev, trying not to turn round.
‘Sort of a dwarf,’ said Pepe.
‘But I don’t have no argument with you, do I?’ said Trev.
Something small and shiny appeared on the edge of Trev’s vision. ‘Sample piece of moonsilver,’ said Pepe’s voice. ‘I could do more damage with a broken champagne bottle–and I have, believe you me. I wouldn’t threaten a bloke like you with a knife, not with that little girl doting on you like she is. She seems very happy with you and I’d like to keep her happy.’
‘Somethin’s goin’ down on the street,’ said Trev.
‘What, the whole street? Sounds like fun.’
‘Somethin’s gone wrong, ’asn’t it?’ said Trev.
Only now did Pepe enter his field of view. ‘Not really my problem at all,’ he said. ‘But there’re some kinds of people I just don’t like. I’ve seen too many of ’em, bullies and bastards. If you want to learn athletics very quickly, be born around