My confidence sank right along with my heart . . . deep into the pit of my stomach.
“For the record,” the captain was saying, “you are Skeeve, sometimes known as ‘the Great Skeeve’ . . . originally from Klah with offices on Deva?”
“That’s right.”
“Now it seems you were somehow involved in a war a while back , . . somewhere around Possiltum?”
There was nothing for me to duck there. “I was at that time employed as Court Magician of Possiltum. Helping to stop an invading army was simply a part of my duties.”
“Really? I also have a report from Jahk that says you were part of a group that stole the Trophy from the Great Game. Was that part of your duties, too?”
“We won that fair and square in a challenge match,” I flared. “The Jahks agreed to it in advance . . . and darn near beat our brains out before we won.”
“. . . Which you did with much the same team as you used to stop the aforementioned invading army,” the captain commented dryly.
“They’re friends of mine,” I protested. “We work together from time to time, and help each other out when one of us gets in a jam.”
“Uh-huh. Would you describe your relationship with the Mob the same way? You know, friends who work together and help each other out of jams from time to time?”
Whoops! There it was. Well, now that the subject was on the table, it was probably best to deal with it openly and honestly.
“That’s different,” I dodged.
“I’ll say it is!” the captain snarled. “In fact, I don’t think different begins to describe it! In all my years on the force I’ve never heard of anything like it!” He scooped up a handful of paper and held it up dramatically.