Okay, lord. You seem determined to play games with me. One at a time, I can handle, two is pushing it.
Gene was fast losing patience. He stood up, slammed his hands down on the desk, and leant over, eyeball to eyeball with the source of his annoyance. Two can play at this game he thought grimly.
"WPC Hunt. You are a plonk. Plonks do not do the rough stuff." He broke off "Is that my shirt?" he demanded, momentarily distracted. "My wardrobe, like my Quattro, is off limits" he snarled in a lower tone, dimly aware that their argument was being watched by the entire room. His office door might be closed, but the goldfish bowl he'd been given had no privacy. Her sardonic grin did nothing to lower his blood pressure.
"I'm here to do a job, get over it!" She was under his skin and she knew it, and she wasn't giving an inch. "I'm faster, stronger, better equipped to deal with this and you know it."
"NO!" he leaned forward, trying to emphasize the point.
"YES!" she bellowed back. "I'm the best one for the job and you know it."
The door opened.
"WHAT!" they bellowed in unison.
"I was just wondering when we were going to do this?" DI Alex Drake looked at her watch pointedly. "Preferably before we're all drawing our Pensions." She simpered sweetly.
Oh sweet charity! Lord. Two of them. Can you possibly make one of them less of a nuisance? Because I am going to fail this test, too, lord. I am going to lamp seven bells out of one of them by the end of the day.
Cat walked out of his office, hips swaying, she hitched the black shirt up a little further over her hips, adjusting the belt which emphasized her firm buttocks and drew attention to her long legs; she could feel his narrowed gaze watching her, she swayed her hips a little more. The muttered oath was beneath his breath, but she heard it loud and clear. She smiled.
DS Raymond Carling was loving every second of the floor show. WPC Caroline Hunt was hot stuff. Hotter even than DI Drake at her most provocative.
Despite the DCI's protestations, that WPC Hunt was no relation, Ray, Chris and Shaz had put their heads together and figured out that she must be his daughter. Okay, it was Shaz who figured it, but we all agreed. Cat Hunt, the feline clue in her name, those eyes, her temper. She looked like him and sounded like him. Stood next to each other, as he introduced her to the room, their expressions of cool watchfulness were the same. This was not exactly rocket science (as Shaz had explained to them).
"Right then ladies, gather round. DI Drake is going to tell us all a bedtime story." Gene Hunt had recovered his customary self assurance.
"The objective today is one Charles Groman." DI Alex Drake went through her routine. She'd traced every move. And she was completely in accord with WPC Hunt. Cat was the best and most physically suited to climbing up three stories, getting in a small window and coming round behind the mark. "Ray and Chris will be here," she indicated on the map behind her, "DCI Hunt and I will be here, and WPC Hunt..."she fixed her boss with that look "will be climbing in the back and taking point from behind." Ignoring the sniggers from Carling and Skelton, she met his thunderous gaze with a bland look of her own.
"One change. DC Skelton will be making like a monkey, WPC Hunt will be with DS Carling in the car here." His glare dared her to challenge him. Alex opened her mouth to argue, but something in his unusually icy gaze cut her off. "Fire up the Quattro." He drew on his leather driving gloves and stalked out without a backward glance.
Puzzled as to why she should care so much about what an imaginary construct should think, and slightly stunned as to why she should suddenly feel agreement with him, Alex followed him out.
It didn't go according to plan. Groman had slipped through their fingers again. Drug dealer, sometime arms dealer, he was a truly nasty piece of work, and Hunt's snout had put a major deal going down on Hunt's Manor. Something Gene Hunt was not about to allow.
He rounded on his team. Stabbing a finger at Skelton's chest "I name you Dis." he swung to Carling "and Aster!" Ignoring their outraged looks, he swung round to his DI.
"What the hell was that!"
"A perfectly valid plan!" Alex felt outraged. He'd changed the plan. It was his responsibility but he was handing it off on her.
"If Chris had got into position." Ray sounded sulky.
"Hey, don't blame me, you weren't there." Skelton scowled at his partner and long time friend.
"If you were half the man I am!" Ray rounded on his partner.
"He is half the man you are." Cat's contribution made them all glare at her. "If you'd been a bit quicker on your feet, if he'd made that climb in time, and...not fogetting" she turned to her DCI "if you two" she flicked a glance at her DI "had been there on time in position and you had let me do what I'm good at. Just maybe, we might have made it."
Gene held on to his temper with an effort. He was going to get it from above, and right now he needed the team to pull together. The days of effort, getting the entire thing set up, now it was blown out of the water. Square one. Bollocks.
"Right. It's knocking off time." he snarled, "we're going to go away and come back to this fresh tomorrow."
He'd rarely felt so tired. Jeez, it's not the years, it's the mileage. "Come on you lot."
Not caring if any of them were following, he turned to walk out.
