“The trouble,” Aahz snarled, “is that your ace bodyguard here just lost us a couple of clients.”
My heart sank. I mentioned earlier that Aahz and I have more money than we know what to do with, but old habits die hard. Aahz is the tightest being I’ve ever met when it comes to money, and, living at the Bazaar at Deva, that’s saying something! If Guido had really lost a potential customer, we’d be hearing about it for a long time.
“Ease up a minute, partner,” I said more to stall for time than anything else. “I just got here, remember? Could you fill me in on a few of the details?” Aahz favored Guido with one more dark stare.
“There’s not all that much to tell,” he said. “I was in the middle of breakfast…”
“He was drinking another meal,” Guido translated scornfully.
“… when mush-for-brains here bellows up that there are some customers waiting downstairs in reception. I called back that I’d be down in a few, then finished my meal.”
“He kept them waiting at least half an hour. You can’t expect customers to….”
“Guido, could you hold the editorial asides for one round? Please?” I interceded before Aahz could go for him. “I’m still trying to get a rough idea of what happened, remember? Okay, Aahz. You were saying?” Aahz took a deep breath, then resumed his account. “Anyway, when I got downstairs, the customers were nowhere to be seen. You’d think your man here would be able to stall them or at least have the sense to call for reinforcements if they started getting twitchy.”
“C’mon, Aahz. Guido is supposed to be a bodyguard, not a receptionist. If some customers got tired of waiting for you to show up and left, I don’t see where you can dodge the blame by shifting it to….”