“Damn,” he grumbled. “I could do without the last day or so.”
“Couldn’t we all?” Ames murmured. “And losing Alan was by far the biggest hit of the lot.”
The office was silent for a moment. Finally Carter spoke.
“I want to thank all of you for standing with me,” he said. “Especially you, Peabody, after I initially doubted you.”
“I understand, sir, and it’s okay,” Peabody said with a shrug. “I know I have trust issues to work out with the management of this new version of the department. And I’m willing to do that. I want to do that.”
“You were right, Nick,” Carter said, nodding at Peabody. “You talked with him, sized him up, and hit the nail on the head. Good job.”
“Thank you, sir,” Ashton said. “I knew that Peabody was a delicate situation, but based on the data I got from the Imperial Guard, I thought he was more than worth taking the time to do right by him.”
“And that was appreciated from the very beginning of our working relationship, Detective Ashton,” Peabody declared. “As I hope I made clear at the time.”
“Good, and yes, you did. How are things going with Emily?” Ashton asked, and Peabody fairly lit up with his smile.
“Great!” the older man declared. “I might actually have a happy ending this way, after all!”
“She’s being looked after, back at our precinct,” Demetrius said, “I promise you that. I set my top protégé on guarding her.”
“Thank you for that, too,” Peabody murmured. “I think she’s the core of that happy ending.”
“And several of us understand that, all too well, Peabody,” Carter said quietly. “I had much the same situation with Maia, truth to tell.” He cocked his head. “Perhaps we should sit down and talk, you and I, over drinks, one of these days.”
“I’d be honored and delighted, sir,” Peabody said. Then he saluted, thought better of it, and cleared his throat. “Um. With the Director’s and division lead’s permissions, I should return to duty, sirs.”
“Heh,” Carter chuckled, dry. “We need to figure out some other response than saluting, that will convey respect without looking too militaristic, I guess.”
“It… would help, sir,” Peabody said, the ghost of a smile on his face. “I’d be happy to sit down with some of the others and perhaps… would a working group be suitable for such matters, do you think?”
Carter raised an eyebrow and glanced at Ashton, who shrugged.
“I think that’s an excellent notion, Peabody,” Carter decided. “I hereby deputize you to do that very thing, on my authority, and report back to Ashton and myself on your progress.”
“Done, sir.” Peabody smiled. Carter stood, came around his desk, and shook Peabody’s hand.
“Thank you again. Dismissed, Peabody.”
“Gone, sir.”
And he left the room, carefully and gently closing the door behind himself.
“All right,” Carter sighed, easing back into his desk chair. “Let’s weed out the liars and the crooks, and maybe, just maybe, we can get started on the new building. I actually have plans and blueprints in hand and everything, but I need division leads to look at them and approve them.”
“Well, I don’t think we can help with that,” Gorski said with a chuckle, “so I expect it’s time we got out of here and back over to ICPD. Cally, are you ready?”
“Almost,” she said, going over and kissing Ashton. “I’ll see you at home tonight, hon.”
“It’s a plan,” he agreed, kissing back. “You want me to pick something up for dinner, or you want to cook?”
“I always want to cook,” she said, and everyone laughed.
“Lee, tell Peabody that we’ll see his lady gets home safely,” Demetrius said.
“Will do,” Carter averred. “Later, guys. And again… thank you.”
And they, too, were gone.
“On that note, I think I’ll head for my own office,” Ashton said. “At least we didn’t give ‘em a chance to start staking out their territory in our offices.”
“Yeah, but I still think I’m gonna disinfect mine,” Carter said with some wry distaste.
“Don’t blame ya there, Lee!” Ashton laughed, and left.
When the door closed behind Ashton, Carter closed his eyes, leaned back, and let out a sigh that was more than half a groan of relief, and that he could have sworn came from his toes. “Thank the good Lord that is over!” he muttered.
Then the alert… with the Imperial header… came in.
“Oh shit,” he murmured.
Moments later, in VR channel 22, Carter stood before the Emperor’s desk. Seconds after that, the Emperor appeared behind it, seated in his chair.
“Your Majesty,” Carter said, as he bowed. Dunham nodded acknowledgement, then waved his hand.
“Please be seated, Director Carter.”
Carter took the indicated seat.
“Director Carter, I wanted to let you know that, when I received your inquiry regarding immunity from the death penalty for the ‘enforcer’ who turned state’s evidence this morning, I decided to watch the interrogation. I was having breakfast with my fiancée in any event, so it did not take away from my other duties.”
“Yes, Sire? Have you changed your mind on the immunity?”
“No, I stand by my word on that,” Dunham said. “The man evidently doesn’t seem to quite grasp that things have changed where the IPD is concerned; I rather wondered if perhaps he has a somewhat mentally skewed view of our world. Or maybe a learning disability of some sort. However, between that, the video recording that was sent me of his and his colleague’s
