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“Mind if I go along?” asked Buffy The roo s why field equipment decided to fry Maybe I could be a second opinion”

And e for a follow-up report I nodded, and caught the senator watching the gesture before he, in turn, began to nod “Thank you for volunteering, Miss Meissonier I’”

“I’ll ring back,” Buffy said, and hopped off the counter, trotting out the door after Chuck and the bodyguards

“There she goes,” Shaun ure out why a screa there were actual dead guys to play with”

“Right” He was jealous I foldedhis best He was leaning forith his hands braced against the table, but it was clear even in that well-supported position that he hadn’t had nearly as much sleep as Shaun and I His hair was uncombed, his shirt rinkled, and his collar was open He looked like a man who’d been faced with the unexpected, and now, after a little ti ready to ride out and kick its ass

“Folks, whatever the cause of last night’s catastrophe, the facts are this: We lost four good ht before the first round of prie to the people This sort of thing doesn’t say ‘Vote Ry, it says ‘Vote Rye, and I refuse to let it becooing to try to spin it What’s our galared around the room “Well?”

“Sir, the bloggers—”

“Will be staying for this little chat We try covering it up, they’ll report it a lot less kindly when they et down to business?”

That see for The next forty minutes passed in a blaze of points and counterpoints, with the senator’s advisors arguing the finer aspects of spin while his security heads protested any atten to date as “lax” or “insufficient” Shaun and I sat and listened We were there as observers, not participants, and after the argument had a little tiot ere there at all One cae of the attack, ilance, and move on The other cah an incident of this e from other political quarters Both caht before were ih neither seemed aware of exactly how much traffic those reports had drawn I opted not to infor with it is so than it sounds

One of the senator’s advisors was beginning a rant on the evils of theto the back of the rooia, it’s Buffy Can you patch me to the speakerphone?”

I paused She sounded harried More than that, she sounded openly nervous Not frightened, whichharassed by zoers, but nervous “Sure, Buff Give me a second” I strode back to the table and leaned across two of the arguing aides to grab the speaker phone They squawked protests, but I ignored the it into the transmission jack at the base of the phone

“Miss Mason?” inquired the senator, eyebrows rising

“Sorry, this is i,” said Buffy’s voice, crackling slightly through the speaker “Am I live?”