Your Attention Please
Tell them. Tell them what just happened to you.
[The voice of everyone's favorite police officer is sent out in a public broadcast -- There is no response from the one he addresses with the exception of vague, muffled noises, heavy breathing, and the occasional labored gasp. It takes a full minute of this before the first word emerges from the woman's mouth.]
I . . .
[The voice stops again. If she was going to do this, she would do it with pride. Not as a wounded animal. If anyone has the willpower to speak calmly and rationally after having had their limbs removed, it is Susan Sto Helit, granddaughter of Death, twice savior of the Disc, strictest of schoolteachers. There is another thirty seconds of the most intense, shuddering sounds before her breathing calms. She is in control of herself. She can make this call. Anything to get him away.]
Your attention, please.
[Another pause. The next sentence flows out in an admittedly somewhat desperate tone in between gasps.]
If any of you are idiotic enough to be caught with the Russian in your homes when Grady comes in, look forward to the dismemberment of your limbs.
[Several, heavy breaths again before the voice returns. In spite of herself, she is growing faint.]
All four of them, I think. . . . I can't quite tell, actually; there's . . . a large . . . thing in the way . . . of a good view of my legs.
Is that about enough? . . . No?
Oh . . . ?
To be fair . . . he's quite right. Fair warning . . . A bit like . . . telling a slave he would be shot . . . for escaping . . . then leaving the door open . . .
. . . Do try . . . to be careful . . .
[ADDENDUM about 5 minutes later]
726 Anderson.
Someone kill me before I bleed to death slowly.
I'm not asking twice.
[The voice of everyone's favorite police officer is sent out in a public broadcast -- There is no response from the one he addresses with the exception of vague, muffled noises, heavy breathing, and the occasional labored gasp. It takes a full minute of this before the first word emerges from the woman's mouth.]
I . . .
[The voice stops again. If she was going to do this, she would do it with pride. Not as a wounded animal. If anyone has the willpower to speak calmly and rationally after having had their limbs removed, it is Susan Sto Helit, granddaughter of Death, twice savior of the Disc, strictest of schoolteachers. There is another thirty seconds of the most intense, shuddering sounds before her breathing calms. She is in control of herself. She can make this call. Anything to get him away.]
Your attention, please.
[Another pause. The next sentence flows out in an admittedly somewhat desperate tone in between gasps.]
If any of you are idiotic enough to be caught with the Russian in your homes when Grady comes in, look forward to the dismemberment of your limbs.
[Several, heavy breaths again before the voice returns. In spite of herself, she is growing faint.]
All four of them, I think. . . . I can't quite tell, actually; there's . . . a large . . . thing in the way . . . of a good view of my legs.
Is that about enough? . . . No?
Oh . . . ?
To be fair . . . he's quite right. Fair warning . . . A bit like . . . telling a slave he would be shot . . . for escaping . . . then leaving the door open . . .
. . . Do try . . . to be careful . . .
[ADDENDUM about 5 minutes later]
726 Anderson.
Someone kill me before I bleed to death slowly.
I'm not asking twice.